Back in 1988, around 1000 people gathered in Bradford to burn a copy of Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses because they were offended by its contents which they considered to be blasphemy. As someone who doesn’t ‘do’ God, it all seemed a bit silly to me but while I am generally against the idea of burning books, especially those from the fiction section, I suppose people should be allowed to say and do whatever they like, so long as it doesn’t affect my life. Now, the former actor, crap singer and all round right wing populist knob Laurence Fox has decided to further inflame matters by setting fire to a line of Pride flags in his back garden. Does it really matter?
I have a stock answer to anyone who is offended by certain things. If you don’t like abortion, then don’t have one. If you don’t agree with assisted suicide, then don’t agree to it. If you don’t approve of a work of fiction about a supernatural being, who probably doesn’t exist, then surely the obvious solution is not to read it? And if you disapprove of LGBT folk, then don’t sleep with them.
I can only assume that Fox, who I am told used to appear on a TV series called Lewis, does have a problem with LGBT folk, otherwise why would film himself setting fire to some flags? It could be, as is often the case with homophobes, that he has some underlying insecurities about his own sexuality or, with his ‘career’ as a far right polemicist flagging so badly he has been reduced to appearing on GB News, having taken the view that any publicity is good publicity?
Unfortunately, Fox has some history with the LGBT community. In 2022, he tweeted an image of a swastika from the LGBT Progress pride Flag adding: “You can openly call the Union Jack a symbol of facism (sic) and totalitarianism on Twatter. You cannot criticise the holy flags.” I am not entirely sure what he means about the Union Flag, as I call it, because while some knuckle-draggers have tried to adopt it for their own nefarious means, I’ve never, once, associated it with fascism and totalitarianism. I’ve never heard of Pride flags being regarded as ‘holy’, either, but if that’s what they are – and they must be because Fox implies they are – then he has shown his criticism, a year later, by setting fire to them, rather in the way that a bunch of wingnuts in Bradford did to Rushdie’s book 35 years ago.
There are plenty of people in sections of the media who make a decent living from real or confected anger, punching down at easy targets, as readers of the Daily Mail and viewers of GB News will doubtless testify and clearly there is a ready-made audience for this kind of thing. For all the hate and bitterness, I have faith that the vast majority of us are better than that and I cite the peace vigil in Nottingham following the horrendous murders that took place last week as an example. If you weren’t moved by the vigil and the courage shown by the family and friends of the victims, perhaps the purveyors of hate could be just the people you need in your life?
Be kind, live and let live, call it what you will, but there surely has to be a better way? And as long as people live their own lives within the law, in ways that do not affect you and me, then where’s the problem?
