Apparently it was far right activists who attacked Owen Jones. Based upon the evidence that, well, stands to reason, dunnit?
And that, sadly, is all the evidence we do have about who did attack him. Just the logical chain that certain pinheads have threatened him, he has been attacked, therefore the far right pinheads must have attacked him.
We should hope for a slightly better evidence base than this:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] The six of them left the pub at about 02:00 BST on Saturday. As they were saying goodbye to each other, a group of “three or four” men made a “direct beeline” for Mr Jones. Mr Jones claimed it was a “premeditated” move by “far right” activists. “[They] marched over, kicked me in the back, threw me on the floor… and then kicked me in the head,” he said. [/perfectpullquote]It’s not unknown for other people in society to use violence. Outside a London pub at 3 am, you know. And it’s not as if there’s never been a little bit of a slap used to settle internecine quarrels among the left.
Hey, Jones might even be right. That still doesn’t excuse this though:
I send my solidarity to Owen Jones and his friends who were attacked last night.
Owen believes it was politically motivated, and we know the far right is on the march in our country.
An attack on a journalist is an attack on free speech and our fundamental values.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) 17 August 2019
An attack on anyone is a crime. There is no special protection, nor should there be, for journalists. Viner’s just as bad:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Guardian editor Katherine Viner has condemned the attack. She said on Saturday evening: “At the Guardian we deplore the outrageous attack on Owen Jones that took place late last night. “Violent assaults on journalists or activists have no place in a democratic society.” [/perfectpullquote]Violent assaults on anyone, by anyone, are the problem. Journalists and activists have and should have no special rights nor protections.
Even Viner herself believes this. The English Defence League are activists. We don’t see Viner and the like insisting they should never be attacked, do we?
This being something rather more basic than democracy. That we’re all equal before the law is the cornerstone of civil liberty. That there’s been an incident of GBH – maybe ABH, that sorta thing – outside a pub at 3 am is the problem. Who, by whom, why, aren’t the issue at all. That it’s a journalist, or activist, attacked by political enemies – maybe – doesn’t make any difference at all. Or rather, shouldn’t.
Never been puff bashing either which is also a possibility.
Reads more like Common Assault than ABH (IANAL).
Tut, tut. If your rule was followed, Antifa couldn’t bash up the wicked rightists.
Sadly you have this all wrong, Mr. Jones is special; he is a homosexual left wing pundit, he therefore is worth so much more than you or I, obviously.
The man who said it was fine to punch a fascist is complaining he’s been punched? Hmm, strurging with sympathy here – he basically said you can assault somebody whose politics you disagree with wasn’t he?
So we have this group of six people leaving the pub together and they are attacked by a group of three people (“three or four” means “three, but I want it to sound like more without being shown up as a liar too quickly”). There are possibilities: e.g. that the three are Norse beserkers who have time-travelled a millennium, that they were stoned, that they are Arnie’s previously-unacknowledged grandsons so they can each take on two guys at once … There is another possibility that it was a put-up job. If a far-right thug (big enough to push through a… Read more »