Nigel Farage and Spiked-on-Line Join in Campaign against “Secret Plot” George Soros.
Soros and ‘Secret Plots’.
The Telegraph led this story today with a memorable headline,
George Soros, the man who ‘broke the Bank of England’, backing secret plot to thwart Brexit.
The article has already got this reaction from the Jewish Chronicle,
Theresa May’s former aide accused of using antisemitic slur in Brexit article on George Soros.
The use of the phrase “secret plot” to describe the activities funded by Mr Soros has sparked claims of antisemitism, with critics accusing the authors of using a traditional trope of shadowy Jewish political influence.
It also dubbed the 87-year-old “the man who broke the Bank of England”, a reference to the role Mr Soros’ Quantum Fund played in the Black Wednesday run on the pound in 1992.
In recent years Mr Soros has been targeted by negative advertising campaigns by nationalist parties in Eastern Europe, many of which have been described as antisemitic.
Steve Bush in the New Statesman sums up further problems with this article by Nick Timothy, PM Teresa May’s former Joint Chief of Staff,
Why is Nick Timothy’s Telegraph column on anti-Brexit billionaire George Soros so disturbing?
Within its coverage, the paper has seen fit to uncritically repeat a series of anti-Semitic conspiracies about Soros.
Today’s Telegraph column from Nick Timothy carries an account of a meeting between George Soros, the billionaire and funder of various liberal causes, and Conservative donors, and the theme continues on the paper’s frontpage, where “Man who ‘broke the Bank of England’ backing secret plot to thwart Brexit” is the splash.
..
The reason that many find the Telegraph‘s treatment so disturbing is that Soros, who is Jewish, has been at the centre of a series of anti-Semitic conspiracies by the increasingly authoritarian governments in Poland, Hungary and Turkey – and the paper has seen fit to uncritically repeat those accusations in its write-up of the story. That Timothy was the author of that “citizens of nowhere” speech only adds to feeling among many that the original speech was a coded way of talking about “rootless cosmopolitans”; aka the Jewish people.
The controversy is making waves,
Leading Mr Secret Plot to claim,
Mr Timothy rebutted allegations of antisemitism, saying they are “as absurd as they are offensive”.
He tweeted: “Throughout my career I’ve campaigned against antisemitism, helped secure more funding for security at synagogues and Jewish schools, fought to lift the cap on faith schools, and supported Israel.”
There’s no hesitation from Farage from defending the original tall tale:
He’s got form, Farage has,
Arrest George Soros! Nigel Farage ORDERS the EU Parliament
Not much reticence from Spiked on Line either.
Amd their Guru.
Tendance Coatesy 
Ha! Spiked has bitten deeply into the ‘anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism’ chestnut, yet is baulking when real anti-Semitism belches up in the Soros affair. I am no fan of Soros, but I can recognise the classic anti-Semitic clichés in the campaign against him, not least the statement by the Hungarian government, which actually approvingly draws upon one of Hitler’s most notorious statements about Jews.
As an Hungarian, Füredi should know about the last point, as he’d be able to read the official posters without the need for translation.
Dr Paul
February 8, 2018 at 3:17 pm
I wonder what’s happening with “The Future of Europe” in the Castle Garden Bazaar, Budapest between 23-25 January. now postponed to May 2018. http://europajovojev4.eu/en/#koszonto
The original programme (https://thehungaryjournal.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/milo-yiannopoulos-to-speak-in-hungary/)
According to the agenda, the speakers list includes political commentator, publisher, blogger and journalist Milo Yiannopoulos; author, commentator and sociologist Frank Füredi; publisher, publicist and philosopher Götz Kubitschek; philosopher Pascal Bruckner, author of France and Islam; Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto and Sandor Csanyi, Chairman and CEO of OTP Bank Group.
And,
“Let’s start with the lesser-known characters. Götz Kubitschek is a right-wing activist who espouses ethnocentric positions and is one of the most important protagonists of the Neue Rechte. Apparently, he was instrumental in the consolidation of the German branch of the Identitarian movement, commonly viewed as far right. He has been a frequent speaker at PEGIDA rallies in Saxony. He is also close to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Frank Füredi, as his name indicates, is of Hungarian origin. With his parents he arrived in Canada as a refugee after the Hungarian revolution of 1956. He has been living in the United Kingdom since 1969. In the 1970s he became involved in left-wing politics and was the founder and leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Nowadays, however, he shows quite a bit of sympathy for populist ideas. I suspect that he was invited to this conference because only a few months ago he published a new book titled Populism and the European Culture Wars, which “argues that the current outburst of anti-populist anxiety is symptomatic of a loss of faith in democracy and in the ability of the demos to assume the role of responsible citizens.” Even more importantly, the book focuses “on the conflict between the European Union’s Commission and the Government of Hungary” and “explores contrasting attitudes towards national sovereignty, popular sovereignty and the question of tradition and the past as the main drivers of the culture wars in Europe.”
Pascal Bruckner was most likely chosen because of his ideas on Islam and the white race, about which he wrote in La Tyrannie de la pénitence. His general criticism of Islam kindled an international debate about ten years ago when he wrote a polemical article titled “Enlightenment fundamentalism or racism of the anti-racists?” In it he talked about an “enlightened elite who deny the benefits of democratic rights to the rest of humanity.” This is an idea that fits in very nicely with the Fidesz ideologues’ hatred of the liberal elite.”
http://hungarianspectrum.org/2017/12/29/the-orban-governments-international-conference-on-the-future-of-europe-with-milo-yiannopoulos/
Andrew Coates
February 8, 2018 at 5:08 pm
Furedi and Spiked have always been suspect. I would book them in as right libertarians which covers a multitude of sins. Their rise, and there is one, is in my view fulled by the intransigence of the left which is itself obsessed with conspiracy theories and unable to break with Marxism.
Dave Roberts
February 9, 2018 at 6:29 am
From an excellent piece by Spencer Sunshine at Political Research Associates, entitled ‘Steve Bannon’s “Washed Out” Antisemitism’
The challenge becomes: what is the difference between actual criticism of the named subject, and when is this antisemitism? The background of the speaker are one way. For example, looking at Duke’s history, we can see how he used “the Jews” before switching to “the Zionists.” Another analysis is to look at the narrative structures. Any conspiracy theory that names an individual or collective subset of Jews can be considered to be antisemitic. (This approach is a literary technique called synecdoche, where a part is used to stand in for the whole.) Conspiracies about Soros and the Rothschild family are common examples of this. It’s no coincidence that Jewish bankers are frequent targets of conspiracy theories, while other bankers who have more wealth and power very rarely are.
Jim Denham
February 9, 2018 at 11:39 am
Isn’t this a more informative example of Spiked’s position?
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/remainers-have-just-reached-a-new-low/21103#.Wn1-kEx2uUl
Mike Stringer
February 9, 2018 at 12:06 pm
Indeed, he must have written this in the half an hour after the tweet appeared.
“something else joins their Top 5 moments of toxification of British political debate, their dragging down of a simple democratic question into the gutter of lies about racism and inappropriate Holocaust exploitation.”
The Shoah?
All I got is that it’s a lot of plots’, and not just Soros’ ” latest effort by sections of the aggrieved British elites to retain Britain’s relationship with the EU against the demands of the electorate.appears to be the message.
Andrew Coates
February 9, 2018 at 12:37 pm
Andrew Coates
February 9, 2018 at 12:41 pm
[…] Coatesy’s view, here […]
The Telegraph, Nick Timothy and conspiracy theories – Shiraz Socialist (Second Run)
February 9, 2018 at 1:21 pm
I find it interesting that you don’t use another recent Spiked article showing how the EU tramples all over the rights of the working class in Greece;
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-eu-is-the-enemy-of-the-working-classes/21089#.Wn3l1kx2uUk
I see you support the UK’s membership of the EU. So what have you actually done to support the working class in Greece? Why do you support an organisation that acts in such a way?
Mike Stringer
February 9, 2018 at 7:23 pm
How can you support the EU when it is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Africans in the Mediterranean?
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-eu-gangster-of-the-mediterranean/20254#.Wn3tUEx2uUk
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-barbarism-of-borders/16138#.Wn3wGkx2uUk
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-eus-war-on-immigration/15338#.Wn3wVEx2uUk
How many more have to die before you reconsider? 10,000, 20,000? Where do you draw the line?
Mike Stringer
February 9, 2018 at 8:14 pm
Don’t be so silly, Mike: Coatsey can answer for himself, but both he and I have dealt many times with why the (dreadful) treatment meted out to Greece, does not warrant an anti-EU stance. The non-Stalinist Greek left agrees.
Jim Denham
February 9, 2018 at 8:52 pm
Why doesn’t it warrant an anti-EU stance?
Mike Stringer
February 9, 2018 at 9:17 pm
More: Frank Furedi
08 Feb 2018, 7:02pm
Comment: My encounter with George Soros’s bright-eyed missionaries left me deeply disturbed
FRANK FUREDI
PREMIUM: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/frank-furedi/
Andrew Coates
February 10, 2018 at 12:40 pm
It’s rather droll how my former pals, who openly rejected class politics 20 years back, invoke the interests of the working class when it can be used to attack the EU and back their ‘little England’ position.
Dr Paul
February 10, 2018 at 2:22 pm
Or perhaps…
More: George Soros
09 Feb 2018, 7:03pm
Comment: My encounter with Frank Füredi’s swivelled-eyed missionaries left me deeply disturbed
George Soros
Dr Paul
February 10, 2018 at 2:24 pm
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