Ever since I first encountered anti-pubco campaigner J. Mark Dodds on the internet, he’s come across to me as a bit of a wrong ‘un. For a start, he’s never shown the slightest sign of possessing a sense of humour. And he gives the impression of having an obsessive hatred of the pubcos which goes far beyond the rational. To him, everything that has gone wrong with the pub industry over the past couple of decades has to be laid at their door. If he’s that concerned about pubs, you have to wonder why he didn’t campaign vigorously against the smoking ban.
In many ways, the pubcos have proved to be highly unsatisfactory and badly-run businesses. But to claim that all those pubs have been turned into supermarkets out of sheer malice rather than because, in general, they were no longer viable, flies in the face of reality. It’s the stance of a blinkered, single-issue zealot.
And I can’t say I was entirely surprised to see this Tweet from him this morning which comes across as blatantly anti-Semitic.
Many people might have phrased that as “hard-right businessmen”, which in itself can be a veiled anti-Semitic trope, but no, he’s come straight out with it. This is nothing to do with one’s view of Trump, but he is identifying some shadowy conspiracy behind him, which of course, as usual, has to involve the Jews. Does he believe that “the Jews” are behind the so-called “Great British Pubco Scandal”, I wonder.
On the face of it, he gives every appearance of being a delusional, obsessive conspiracy theorist. To have him on board really does the pubco campaigners no favours.
Hitler is relevant to all issues, whether it be Labour party anti-semitism, the true purpose of the EU to build the 4th Reich or even the decline of pubs. It's all the plan of the new world order.
ReplyDeleteHitler escaped Berlin in 1945 and died in Argentina in the 1960's. The 4th Reich operate from both a secret moon base and an underground world called Thule accessible through Antarctica. It was Hitler who originated the plan to destroy Britains pubs and his Nazi army of flying saucers what are behind it by banning fags and making lager 50p a can in Tesco. There'll be banning bacon next, you mark my words.
The only way to resist is to drink pongy bitter in grotty pubs for £3+ a pop.
Looking at his blog and various 'articles' he's posted around the web, it strikes me that there are Marxist undertones in everything he's proposing for his views about how pubs should be rescued from the evil capitalists. He's just using pubcos as a horse to Trot out his anti-establishment dogma...
ReplyDeleteAnd he gives the impression of having an obsessive hatred of THAT which goes far beyond the rational. To him, everything that has gone wrong with the pub industry over the past couple of decades has to be laid at their door. If he’s that concerned about pubs, you have to wonder why he didn’t campaign vigorously against THIS.
ReplyDeleteI have never put forward the smoking ban as a monocausal explanation of the decline of the pub trade since 2007. On the other hand, many anti-pubco campaigners, including Mark Dodds, do give the impression of taking that view about pubcos.
DeleteWithout the Beer Orders and their consequences, I think we would probably have somewhat more pubs now than we actually do. But things wouldn't be dramatically different.
As for this latest quote, the weird thing is that it makes no sense. Anti-semitic conspiracists don't label Jews as right-wing, they just see Jews behind everything (capitalism, Communism, they're not fussy). If he'd said "hard-right Zionists", on the other hand, he would have been describing an identifiable group of people (the current Israeli government, his representatives in the US and people who support them). Maybe he got wind of the recent panic over people using 'Zionist' to mean 'Jew' & got completely the wrong end of the stick. Sounds like an idiot either way.
ReplyDeleteI'd say nowadays the "Israel lobby", especially in the US, is generally perceived as being right-wing.
DeleteIncidentally, I imagine many people believe the Koch brothers, who are bêtes noires to many on the Left, to be Jewish because of their surname, but in fact they aren't.
I haven't come across this Dodds before, but if that is a good example of the level of his political discourse, I'm singularly unimpressed.
ReplyDeleteNothing to do with him holding Left-wing views in general, but if people, whether of Left or Right, start blaming things collectively on "Jews" then a line has been crossed.
DeleteFact is anti-semitism is and always has been rife in the Far Left.
ReplyDeleteTrots have been spewing out this nonsense for decades.It's why it was only a matter of time - even if it took a very long time - before it caught up with that other humourless twat Ken Livingstone.
"Trots have been spewing out this nonsense for decades." Doubt too many have as Trotsky was Jewish.
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