Katharine Birbalsingh is channelling Alinsky’s rules for radicals here.
Britain’s strictest headteacher today claimed Labour MP Jess Phillips is ‘racist and bullying’ for firing up a ‘vicious mob attack’ on her in an extraordinary Twitter storm sparked by the death of Tina Turner.
Katharine Birbalsingh, founder of the Michaela Community free school in London, posted a sensational four-page open letter to Sir Keir Starmer, making a series of claims about his Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding.
The row between the pair erupted in May following the death of pop icon Turner, which prompted Ms Birbalsingh, who described the star as ‘an iconic black voice of the 1980s’, to post a gif, made up of ‘different clips from her life’, with the caption ‘good times’.
However, she faced a backlash as the post appeared in users’ feeds with an image of her with Ike Turner, her abusive ex-husband.
Ms Phillips shared the tweet, which has since been deleted, and wrote: ‘Hold the line! Stay with me! Domestic abuse is never ok and we will defeat those who prop up the status quo. I repeat Hold the line! Stay with me! We will win.’
FFS! Any reflection on Turner’s life and works will inevitably include her time with Ike. Noting that – even inadvertently – does not mean an endorsement of domestic violence. You’d have to be completely deranged to make that link. But this is the far left we are talking about. Reason is lost on them. All they know is the mob and Phillips is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, so using their weapons against them is a sound tactic here. And, to be fair, they are the racists.
As someone noted in the comments below the line it’s a pretty poor show when a front bench MP indulges in such petty behaviour, but, then, Labour…
All that said, while I admire Birbalsingh’s pushback, I don’t expect a positive outcome. Starmer has less backbone than a jellyfish, so expecting him to take Phillips to task is asking the impossible.
“Starmer has less backbone than a jellyfish, so expecting him to take Phillips to task is asking the impossible.”
She’s a canny lady, and I doubt that’s what she expects from this.
I think she has already achieved her aim with the letter and subsequent publicity. Failure to act by Starmer will merely cement people’s opinion of him, so win/win.
It’s frightening to think this harridan will be in power in the next few years as the Tories keep shooting themselves in the foot over and over again.