Month: January 2021

Black and White People Will Never Get On

~ Anon

In the September 1992 issue of Q Magazine, Morrissey was asked by Adrian Deevoy:

Do you think people are innately racist?

And he replied:

Yes. I don’t want to sound horrible or pessimistic but I don’t really think, for instance, black people and white people will ever really get on or like each other. I don’t really think they ever will. The French will never like the English. The English will never like the French. That tunnel will collapse.

This turned into a racism scandal, and is still cited in evidence against him.

But why would he be optimistic, even in a hyperbolic answer that ends in a joke, in 1992 when LA had experienced intense race riots in the wake of the acquittal of four police officers who were caught on camera beating up a black man for a traffic violation…

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/524744989/when-la-erupted-in-anger-a-look-back-at-the-rodney-king-riots?t=1612108445205

Catholics and Protestants were still fighting in Northern Ireland – 85 people would be murdered that year…

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/1992-in-the-north-85-people-killed-in-the-troubles-1.3340596

And the former Yugoslavia had disintegrated into a vicious, and genocidal, civil war?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17632399

There was nothing in 1992 to indicate that groups would one day get on with each other.

In March 1993, in the NME, Steve Sutherland, discussed Morrissey with David Bowie and Brett Anderson.

NME: OK, so we all agree that Brett has the right to be ambivalent about his sexuality in his songs and we agree with David that a person has the right to be ambivalent with his or her own personal sexuality, but doesn’t that also apply across the board? For instance, David, you’ve covered Morrissey’s ‘I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday‘ on your new album. I don’t know if you’re aware that he’s been ostracized recently for his ambivalent use of the Union Jack at his concerts. It has been decided that Morrissey does not have the right to be ambivalent about race and that he should make a statement regarding whether he is or is not a racist. Are we not beating him with the same stick?

Brett: “No. The difference is, the way I speak about things is in a positive way and I think the way he’s speaking about certain issues of racism is an intentionally negative way. Therefore, I think we need to know the reasons behind it.”

Bowie: “I have to be careful here because I’m not quite sure what he said. But what I believe he said is that blacks and whites will never get on. I think that’s the general tone of it. So I guess the adult approach is to say. OK, let’s take his question and figure out for ourselves our own answer to that. Will they get on? Won’t they get on? And why? He is just posing a question so there is an argument that it’s perfectly OK for him to just pose that question. “He’s not giving us facts either way or giving us his feelings on the matter. Surely it would only be really negative if he were to say blacks and whites will never get on because it’s obvious that one is superior to the other.”

NME: I think his silence is more sinister than that. I’m suspicious of his motives. He’s never, to my knowledge, committed one altruistic act in his life so I don’t know why he should start now.

Brett: “He’s said other things in the past about how reggae is vile and hang the DJ and other things with all these connotations but, the thing is, he might actually be one of the most generous people that’s ever lived. I don’t know if it’s true but, by making himself a target, he might actually be trying to mend some gaps and build some bridges. I mean, he must know that he’s making himself a target because he’s not stupid and, by having criticism directed towards him, he might actually be doing some good. It might just be possible that he’s thinking that.”

NME: Oh come on! He’s just luxuriating in playing the misunderstood, the martyr, and damn the consequences.

Bowie: “I mist say I found him charming the couple of times I met him. When he heard my version of ‘I Know It’s Gonna Happen’ (which, according to Brett, is “very 50s, very Johnny Ray”), it brought a tear to his eye and he said, ‘Oooh, it’s so-o-o grand!’ ”

NME: I’ve been suspicious of him from the start. All those bedsit anthems about wallowing in misery didn’t seem to be helping anybody achieve anything. He was just making himself an icon on the back of other people’s inadequacies and I don’t find that in any way admirable.

Bowie: “Tell that to Samuel Beckett. Or John Osbourne.”

So Steve and Brett decided Morrissey had no right to speak because he was negative, sinister and ambivalent – although Morrissey has never been ambivalent about racism, he’s made it clear he thinks it’s wrong, he’s ambivalent about human nature, and is from an Irish Catholic community that experienced colonial oppression and discrimination, while Ireland was still in the midst of a paramilitary civil war.

https://www.runnymedetrust.org/bgIrishCommunity.html

Also damaging/demeaning stereotypes can still be reinforced by ‘positive’ things – the charitable and cheerful ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’, reduced the entire continent of Africa into a starving desert that only needed the West to bung it some cash.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/11/band-aid-30-bob-geldoffebolaafrica.html

And they were talking to David Bowie – an artist who went through a fascist phase, and an underage sex scandal – without ever becoming a pariah.

The MU’s response to David Bowie’s “Nazi” salute

David Bowie ‘had sex with two teenagers who were under age of consent’

Animal Welfare Party

~ Anon

It’s Moz’s curse that everything he does that’s approved of disappears down a memory hole & everything that’s disapproved of is like The 10 Commandments.

In 2016 he was asked to stand for The Animal Welfare Party. Nothing came of it but he released a statement saying his focus would be animal rights & banning the abattoir.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/07/morrissey-considers-running-for-london-mayor-animal-welfare-party-boris-johnson

“Animal welfare groups cannot persist simply in order to continue to persist. There must be a governmental voice against the hellish and archaic social injustice allotted to animals in the United Kingdom simply because those animals do not speak English, otherwise millions of very caring citizens are greatly concerned about issues that no one is able to do anything about.

What animal protectionists need to say is very well worth saying and well worth hearing. But we cannot just sit around waiting for establishment enlightenment. The sanctimonious disaster of animal agriculture cannot be allowed to go on forever, because its widespread impact is hellish. Animals in dairy farms and abattoirs are very eager not to die, yet their bodies are torn apart while still alive as they are strapped beneath a blade. No outcome can justify this, and we cannot be happy with a society that allows it to happen, because such a society without compassion goes nowhere.

The abattoir is the modern continuation of the Nazi concentration camp, and if you are a part of the milk-drinking population, then you condone systems of torture. There is no such thing as humane slaughter, and if you believe that there is, then why not experience it for yourself? If animal serial killer Jamie Oliver feels so passionate about including ‘kid meat’ (young goat) into the human diet, would he consider putting forth one of his own kids (children) for general consumption? If not, why not? What makes such people have absolutely no forgiveness towards animals? What hate drives them? The meat industry, after all, shows no compassion towards the planet, towards climate change, towards animals, towards human health. It is diabolically contrived and is the world’s No 1 problem. It is also the No 1 issue stifled from any political debate, which, if anything, highlights its importance.

The slaughterhouse effectively means that none of us are safe. Just investigate the appalling effects of meat production on our climate, environment, fields, forests, lakes, streams, seas, air and space. Your eyes will pop. No bigger global disaster could possibly be devised. Social justice for animals is not much to demand, because we are only asking humans to think rationally and with heart, even if being unable to hunt foxes and shoot birds would leave the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family with nothing else to do.”

Despite that, Billy Bragg, managed to Google the Animal Welfare Party without discovering that Morrissey had supported them.

https://www.morrissey-solo.com/threads/billy-bragg-long-statement-re-morrissey-on-facebook-7-july-2019.144525/

And without Morrissey’s detractors his brief interest in For Britain would have been equally obscure.

Side Note: hatred of Morrissey always includes comparing him to the worst people – seiral killers, dictators, child molestors and declaring that his solo music is taboo because of repellant views that exist almost entirely in their fevered imaginations.

Billy Bragg on Morrissey: He’s become the Oswald Mosley of pop. Bragg says that the singer is “betraying” Smiths fans with his controversial views (Sam Moore, NME, 30 May 2019)

So, Morrissey is not a dog on a chain. But then what, exactly, is he? Is this the new Morrissey? Music to match the uncompromising, ugly attitude he now wears in public with pride? Large swathes of fans have been put off in recent years by the continued, relentless, troubling outbursts and – more worryingly – some of his deeply held views. Whether fans can dissociate the man from the music has become the most pressing matter surrounding his work – for disavowed followers, it will now forever be shackled to Morrissey’s most repellent opinions. (Jake Cudsi, the Independent, 20 March 2020)

While everyone else can be redeemed.

Marine Le Pen

~ Anon

In 2017 Moz persuaded his bandmate Mando Lopez to post a Facebook comment for him on the French Leadership debate between Marine Le Pen & Emmanuel Macron.

He was immediately called a racist & tried again:

& got denounced as a racist again:

It’s moot whether Marine or Macron ‘won’ – but it’s true that news outlets, esp ones not covered by any kind of regulatory obligation to provide balance use loaded language to signal whether something is acceptable or not.

CNN can be openly partisan in favour of corporate liberalism, but vicious wars are being waged over perceived bias in the BBC. When a debate is extremely polarised it’s difficult to find a balance that will please either side.

https://www.theweek.co.uk/100501/is-the-bbc-biased

So why was Morrissey bothered by commentary about a politician he couldn’t & wouldn’t vote for (Marine’s pro-hunting apart from anything else)?

Probably because he was thinking of his political mission to ban abattoirs.

Animal rights activists are routinely dismissed in the press as either violent extremists or irrelevant loons & he’s up against the world’s meat industry.

Rob: Have people evolved in any way during your lifetime?
Morrissey: Meaning the human race, generally? Well, because of food enlightenment, yes – it’s clear to everyone how the dairy industry is a bigger threat to the planet that the nuclear arms race. People are sick of animal slaughter. My final aim is to abolish the abattoir, and although I haven’t ever once voted in a general election, my vote awaits any party intelligent enough to ban the slaughterhouse. Only at that point would the world begin to grow up.” (Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 8 December, 2017)

Elian Peltier, New York Times, 25 May 2018

Since taking over The National Front in 2011, Marine Le Pen has rebranded them as The National Rally & has shifted most of their policies to the left, hoping to become a more respectable nationalist party along the lines of the Scottish Nationalist Party whose fascist links are almost completely forgotten.

During the debate her most controversial statement was a baseless jibe about Macron having an offshore bank account. And the French hard left saw both candidates as equally undesirable.

https://www.politico.eu/article/jean-luc-melenchon-president-france-election-army-of-abstainers-macron-le-pen/

https://www.france24.com/en/20170414-france-politics-presidential-race-unsubmissive-awkward-translations-melenchon-macron-fillon

With very little to go on the press & therefore the public fell back on labels; Le Pen was far right & aggressive (she doesn’t come across as aggressive when compared to Anglophone politicians), Macron was a rational centrist…

New York Times, 4 May 2017
BBC Website, 3 May 2017

As Morrissey is a militant animal liberationist with an extreme abolitionist stance – this was a very bad sign.

Obama

~ Anon

In August 2015 Morrissey was interviewed by Alternative Nation & Larry King.

As well as talking about his depression and animals, he was concerned about police brutality against Black people & wondered why Obama wasn’t doing more to help.

“Obama has mystified me because he doesn’t appear to support black people when they need it most… Ferguson being an obvious example. If Michael Brown had instead been one of Obama’s daughters, I don’t think Obama would be insisting that the nation support the so-called security forces! How can they be called security forces if they make the people feel insecure? Obama seems to be white inside. There is an obvious racial division in America and it’s exploding and Obama doesn’t ever support the innocent black people who are murdered by white police officers who are never held accountable. You would expect him to be more understanding of what it means to be black. But so far, he hasn’t been.​ There’s no point in continually saying that we must support the police when it is obvious to the entire world that the police in America are out of control.”

This being Morrissey, the press ignored the bit about innocent black people being murdered & went for the bit about Obama being white inside.

The Daily Beast emailed to clarify.

And they decided he was dropping truth bombs:

Spin & other music outlets copy n pasted.

https://www.spin.com/2015/08/morrissey-daily-beast-interview-obama/?amp=1

“I can’t see [Obama] doing anything at all for the black community… “
“…except warning them that they must respect the security forces. This is ludicrous because the so-called security forces are the Ku Klux Klan to most black Americans. It seems evident to me that black males are being deliberately murdered throughout America as a closing message to Obama, telling him that his presidency has meant nothing and that the division of color is now bigger than ever. Obama doesn’t see this, but if a white cop shot one of his daughters I don’t imagine he’d be willing to accept the exoneration of that white cop.”

“I am wryly amused by all of these tough cop reality programs on American TV…”
“…because it’s always white cops arresting the black or Hispanic poor, yet you don’t ever see the cops frisking a crooked lawyer or chasing a middle-class accountant who’s robbed millions from clients. It’s always the extreme poor who are targeted by the cops because the poor have no influential friends and therefore can’t retaliate, and the cops know that they can play about with poor people.”

“[Obama] doesn’t look overly African black.”
“He’s as close to soft whiteness as someone who isn’t white could get, and I often wonder if he would have been elected if he had a stronger, more African-black face? It’s a point.”

Hillary Clinton “has no competition” in the Democratic race.
“I think she shows an earnest composure, whereas all of the Republican candidates are dangerously reactionary and occasionally insane. I don’t think Clinton has even begun to dig into the race yet, and when she does she will gain massive support. The world does not want to look at Donald Trump’s face for the years to come.”

“British politics will never again trust a woman because of [Margaret] Thatcher.”
“And, in actual fact, it hasn’t.”

Salon interpreted this as taking another swipe at Obama’s race…

The Guardian insinuated Moz was irate about Obama’s skin colour…
& despite eternally being able to cite:

Panic
Bengali In Platforms
Asian Rut
The National Front Disco
This Is Not Your Country
& Irish Blood, English Heart

as evidence of Moz’s chronic racism – no one could remember America Is Not The World:

In America
The land of the Free, they said
And of Opportunity
In a just and a truthful way
But where the President
Is never black, female or gay
And until that day
You’ve got nothing to say to me
To help me believe
In America

Brexit

~ Anon

Morrissey was sympathetic to Brexit for left leaning reasons.

In the same way that he’s in favour of Catalonian Independence:

“British singer and songwriter Steven Patrick Morrissey has used images of the police violence during the Catalan independence referendum on 1st October last year during his world tour to illustrate his song Who will protect us from the police. This isn’t the first time that the singer has referred to Catalonia. Three days after the referendum, during a concert presenting his new album, he said: “Free Catalonia from Spain. Free the bull from Spain. Free everybody from Spain.”” (March, 2018)

https://www.elnacional.cat/en/news/morrissey-images-catalan-referendum-attacks_245703_102.html

Scottish Independence:

“Morrissey, known for his penchant for making controversial statements, has become the latest personality to wade in on the Scottish independence debate. The World Peace is None of Your Business singer has placed himself firmly in the “yes” camp, according to an interview with Ireland’s Hot Press magazine. “They must cut ties with the United King-dumb,” he said. “I love Scotland, and I love the Scottish spirit and they do not need Westminster in the least.”” (August 2014)

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/scottish-independence-morrissey-urges-scots-leave-united-king-dumb-9659984.html

& The Arab Spring:

“I think it’s important not to assume that the government represent the wishes of the people. This is actually very rarely the case, hence the Arab Spring. It’s not the case in England, and it’s not the case in Israel. All presidents and prime ministers love war and conflict, because they see it as an easy way to garner patriotic support. Thatcher was never happier than when she was killing Argentinians, and Bush was delighted to bomb just about anyone. War is great business for governments, and the people usually have no say. I had an offer to play in Damascus, but do you turn it down because of the Assad regime? As we now know, Assad’s control over Syria has been Hitleresque, and the people have no basic human rights.” (August, 2014)

https://www.hotpress.com/music/a-piece-of-his-mind-morrissey-interview-12107062

He’s deeply opposed to governments & the class system:

“From my own experience England cannot be democratic because it has a self-elected superstructure that has decided that they are to be known as ‘the royal family’. Forty-five per cent of the UK want the monarchy, 55% do not. The Queen is the richest woman in the world, yet still takes £200 million every year from the working British people. Her presence alone symbolises repression, and her work – whatever it is – fails to mean anything… There must be because people are absolutely fed-up with the idea of a Prime Minister whom no one ever likes. British politics has never quite been so unconvincing, with Prime Minister’s Question Time looking like a scene from Brideshead Revisited.” (August, 2014, link above)

He didn’t vote for Brexit:

“I’m non-political. I always have been. I’ve never voted in my life.” (November, 2017)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/morrissey-brexit-will-never-happen-westminster-doesnt-want/

& has never supported UKIP:

sam:
Can we just sort out your political position because I’m sick of reading about how you’ve had a ‘controversial outburst’ when I know that you aren’t seen anywhere and you don’t ever speak to anyone. I’ve known you for 35 years and I’ve never heard you outburst. Are you actually a supporter of UKIP? 

M:
No. Never. 

He’s also never supported Nigel Farage – although being Morrissey he managed to get serious flack by also saying Farage would make a good PM, which from Moz is like saying he’d be a good serial killer:

sam:
Of Nigel Farage? 

M:
No, no, no … but it’s obvious that he would make a good Prime Minister … if any of us can actually remember what a good Prime Minister is. 

By ‘good’ he means memorable:

[Margaret Thatcher’s] policies I thought were the work of the Devil. I thought she was purely, intentionally evil. But you can’t deny that she was a phenomenon, and you couldn’t help but overdiscuss her… John Major is in nobody’s mind a Prime Minister; he seems to have no human presence at all. [ Gossip from Steven Daly ] Well, that’s the first interesting thing I’ve heard about him. Now he deserves to be Prime Minister. (Morrissey, Spin, April 1991)

His objections to the EU are his objections to all governments:

sam:
But you are a Brexiteer? 

M:
I didn’t vote in the referendum although I can see how there is absolutely nothing attractive about the EU. My view has always been that the result of the referendum must be carried through. If the vote had been remain there would be absolutely no question that we would remain. In the interest of true democracy, you cannot argue against the wish of the people. Without the people, nobody in high office gets paid. (June, 2019)

https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/234417-the-interview

And it’s linked to his serious distrust of legacy media (unsurprising considering how bad his own coverage is):

“What has happened is that news media can no longer attach any nobility to old-style politics because although politicians do not and cannot change, the people the world over have changed. What could be more grotesquely stupid than the Clinton-Trump coverage? As for Brexit, the result was magnificent, but it is not accepted by the BBC or Sky News because they object to a public that cannot be hypnotised by BBC or Sky nonsense. These news teams are exactly the same as Fox and CNN in that they all depend on public stupidity to create their own myth of reality. Watch them at your peril!” (October, 2016)

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/morrissey-brexit-magnificent-britain-leave-european-union-a7379361.html

Some journalists know they’ve simplified his position to give it an outrage news angle – the others cut and paste.

Side Note : Lexit.

It’s been astounding to witness so many left-wingers, in meltdown over Brexit, resort to parroting liberal economics. Thus we hear that factor mobility isn’t about labour arbitrage, that public services aren’t under pressure, that we must prioritise foreign direct investment and trade. It’s little wonder Labour became so detached from its base. Such claims do not match the lived experience of ordinary people in regions of the country devastated by deindustrialisation and disinvestment. (Joe Guinan, The New Statesman, July 2017)

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2017/07/lexit-eu-neoliberal-project-so-lets-do-something-different-when-we-leave-it

My view of the EU has always been not that I am hostile to foreigners but I am in favour of democracy. I think they are building an empire and want us to be part of that empire, and I don’t want that. (Tony Benn, Labour Party MP)

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-26575258

the EU emerged through the rescaling of governance to inter-elite networks insulated – by design – from popular control, which lock in anti-democratic and conservative policies. Restoring popular control has to involve leaving the EU and revitalising national democracy in a progressive, internationalist direction. (Ros Taylor, LSE Blog, June 10th 2016) https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2016/06/10/the-eu-locked-in-neoliberalism-and-locked-out-its-people-brexit-is-the-alternative/

Progressives should be appalled by European Union’s ruination of Greece. It’s time to reclaim the Eurosceptic cause…
“Everything good about the EU is in retreat; everything bad is on the rampage,” writes George Monbiot, explaining his about-turn. “All my life I’ve been pro-Europe,” says Caitlin Moran, “but seeing how Germany is treating Greece, I am finding it increasingly distasteful.” Nick Cohen believes  the EU is being portrayed “with some truth, as a cruel, fanatical and stupid institution”. “How can the left support what is being done?” asks Suzanne Moore. “The European ‘Union’. Not in my name.” There are senior Labour figures in Westminster and Holyrood privately moving to an “out” position too. (Owen Jones, the Guardian, 14th July 2015) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/14/left-reject-eu-greece-eurosceptic

Love Music Hate Racism

~ Anon

After Moz decided For Britain was the best hope for Vegan Feminism & his reputation was eviscerated by journalists/Twitter, Love Music Hate Racism, put out a statement that’s so bigoted & inaccurate that they should probably try overcoming themselves.

Morrissey: Racism and bigotry masquerading as animal welfare

Everything about it is dubious – so I’ll put the loaded words & objections in notes:

Gutter. Sewer.

Outburst.

Moz doesn’t single out Muslims, Jews, & Black & Asian politicians – he’s against all animal slaughter, but worries about religious & traditional exemptions – he mentions Spain, supermarkets, Nicola Sturgeon, Nigel Farage, Henry Bolton, The Queen, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Dick Gregory, & David Cameron.

He wants all abattoirs banned.

Yeah – he’s getting his facts from marginal sources but that’s mainly because the people who should be helping him fact check are too busy calling him a racist.

Just because you think you can hear an echo doesn’t mean there is one – smearing & guilt by association are forms of prejudice.

Moz has been slagging off London & diction at least since the 80s, if not from birth – Johnny Marr, Cilla Black, David Beckham – have all failed his standards. It’s camp.

Other people being racist towards Diane doesn’t make her above criticism. But again, it’s camp.

Hitler put the word socialism in his party name – so blame him.

Anne Marie Waters was in The Labour Party for 10 years getting called a racist for trying to highlight sexism in Sharia Law. Yes, she’s cracked up – but if the left wasn’t so blind to sexism & homophobia she would probably still be on our side.

Hitler lovers.

Yes, it is accidental. A pull-quote can mislead without being a misquote.

Vile views.

He’s right not to trust the media – look at the state of this statement.

He has never backed down in the face of outrage – it burns itself out because it’s fuelled by nothing but hot air.

He’s been emboldened again – at any moment he may commit genocide by singing Golden Lights.

His views aka Veganism (which is a protected belief) have no place in music or society & they condemn them. Not keeping up with legislation & being unable to separate Morrissey’s views from people they’ve associated with him isn’t a good sign in an anti-racism charity.

He’s more dangerous & extremist than Clapton??????? In what universe is whinging about Sharia Law & Islamic State (when you’re a queer vegan) more dangerous than telling foreigners in your audience to get out of England because it’s a white country???

Shut up bigots like Morrissey & his racist friends – labeling, harassment.

Clapton’s less dangerous words:

Moz’s more dangerous words:

“No, I haven’t ever voted. I don’t have sufficient faith in the circus of politics … and … you can see why! It is a moral disaster on every level. Even Tesco wouldn’t employ Diane Abbott.” 

“UKIP is dead, and Nigel Farage aided their downfall by supporting Henry Bolton. Theresa May was always a Prime Minister uninvited. She is incapable of leadership. She cannot say her own name unless it’s written down on a cue card in front of her. I recall her speech on Eid al-Adhar, and how she referred to it as a ”joyous celebration” … as millions of animals had their throats slit to mark the occasion. I wondered what kind of compassion she could possibly have. The answer is none. However, the Conservatives conserve nothing in modern Britain. In fact, they are the prime destructors of British heritage. Labour are no different from the Conservatives in that they do not object to FGM, halal slaughter, child marriage, and so on. There is no moral clarity with these people, and you shouldn’t vote in a certain way simply because you always have. Do you have the nerve to vote differently? If you have any concern for animal welfare, for example, you cannot possibly vote for either Conservatives or Labour, because both parties support halal slaughter, which, as we all know, is evil. Furthermore, halal slaughter requires certification that can only be given by supporters of ISIS, and yet in England we have halal meat served in hospitals and schools! UK law is pointless!” 

JOHN: But halal is done in the name of religion. 

MORRISSEY: Most murder is! But animals rights must come before  religion. Religion must cease to be the ONLY word. I am not interested in what people did ten thousand years ago. I am concerned about what is happening today. 

JOHN: Kosher is also very cruel. 

MORRISSEY: Very. It, too, must be banned. I am not saying that stunned slaughter is acceptable, because it couldn’t ever be. If you use the term ‘humane slaughter’ then you might as well talk in terms of ‘humane rape’. People sound very stupid when they mention ‘humane slaughter’. 

JOHN: A lot of people can’t afford a vegan diet. 

MORRISSEY: I think the point is that we cease to put ourselves first. It is not about what we frivolously want. Every animal even during slaughter fights and kicks until its very last breath. It has one instinct and that is to survive. I stopped watching television because of animal death commercials. I couldn’t allow that into my living space for one more day. I feel liberated without it. They won’t show cigarette commercials but it’s OK to show butchered lambs? And  to laugh about it? 

“There is a new party called For Britain. They have the best approach to animal welfare, whereas no other party even bothers to mention animal welfare. The EU will not protect animals from halal or kosher practice. For Britain seem to say what many British people are currently thinking, which is why the BBC or Channel 4 News will not acknowledge them, because, well, For Britain would change British politics forever … and we can’t have that! If you love animals, you really cannot vote Labour or Conservative. Give animals a break. They’ve done enough for you. Let them live. “

“animals have no voice. If animals spoke English then no one would eat them. You see, racism is at its most abhorrent in relation to eating animals. If you eat animals, isn’t it a display of hatred for a certain species? And what gives you the right to eat another species or race? Would you eat people from Sri Lanka?” 

“From every angle the torture of the bull is staged. The bullfighter is a spectacular failure who cannot actually fight the bull without a mass of weapons and a host of helpers, whereas the bull stands alone. No one can possibly believe that this is sport. They say ’oh, but it is tradition’, well, yes, but murder has a long tradition in Spain, should we celebrate that, also? A Murder Festival?” 

JOHN: London has become a murder capital recently. 

MORRISSEY: London is debased. The Mayor of London tells us about ”Neighborhood policin ” – what is ‘policin’? He tells us London is an ”amazin ” city. What is ‘amazin’? This is the Mayor of London! And he cannot talk properly! I saw an interview where he was discussing mental health, and he repeatedly said ”men’el ” … he could not say the words ‘mental health’. The Mayor of London! Civilisation is over! 

JOHN: But why do you think so many people are being killed in London? 

MORRISSEY: London is second only to Bangladesh for acid attacks. All of the attacks are non-white, and so they cannot be truthfully addressed by the British government or the Met Police or the BBC because of political correctness. What this means is that the perpetrator is considered to be as much of a victim as the actual victim. We live in the Age of Atrocity. 

https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/there-is-a-light-that-must-be-switched-on

“British mainstream media is now so politically correct that basic truth is actually impossible, and although it is obsessed with promoting social diversity they will not accept diverse opinion. Most British newspapers can only offer secrecy. When news is offered as opinion, it can only therefore be biased. Last year I completed a questionnaire for The Daily Mail in which one of their questions was ‘Whom do you most dislike?’. I replied ‘Theresa May, because of her support for killing foxes and badgers.’ The questionnaire appeared in print, but the Theresa May reply was missing because it obviously didn’t fit with the Mail’s political position as Theresa May’s personal notice-board.”

“When the print media are lost for a reply, they simply change the subject by naming their opponent as ‘racist’, which is the perfect ploy because most people are naturally appalled to be called racist, and they step back in silence, and the debate collapses unresolved… I am neither Loony Left nor Far Right. I am a humanitarian. I have not ever once voted in a British election because I have not ever discovered a party that represents my views. My main social concern is the abolition of the abattoir, the continued existence of which in modern times is beyond sane belief.“

https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/why-the-independent-hates-independence

Moz could do himself a favour by using boring phrases, never joking whenever he mentions something associated with race or religion & not getting his ‘facts’ from internet websites, but nothing he’s said is hate-filled.

And I can’t find a similar statement about anyone else, not even after Wiley’s 48 hour Twitter rant against Jewish people in August 2020.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/02/rita-ora-and-labrinth-join-musics-protest-after-wileys-antisemitic-rant

Bringing communities together through music

He Said Hitler Was Left-Wing!

~ Anon

In a Morrissey Central interview with ‘John Riggers’ published in April 2018 there was the following exchange.

JOHN: Your last album was dedicated to Dick Gregory, yet a question of racism has always chased you through the press. 

MORRISSEY: People accuse, yes, but they can’t penetrate or illuminate. The sole point of all of those NME slurs was to turn my audience against me. I recall one NME piece many years ago which addressed its readers with ”we just can’t turn you off him, can we ?”. That said it all. And as far as racism goes, the modern Loony Left seem to forget that Hitler was Left wing! But of course, we are all called racist now, and the word is actually meaningless. It’s just a way of changing the subject. When someone calls you racist, what they are saying is ”hmm, you actually have a point, and I don’t know how to answer it, so perhaps if I distract you by calling you a bigot we’ll both forget how enlightened your comment was.” 

https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/there-is-a-light-that-must-be-switched-on

His remark that Hitler was left-wing was widely condemned by people who believed that they couldn’t misrepresent words on his own website that they’d taken out of context and made the worst interpretation of.

https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/04/morrissey-hitler-was-left-wing/

It really wasn’t such an unfounded thing to say.

The Observer reviewed ‘Liberal Fascism’ by Jonah Goldberg in 2009 and was persuaded that there was a case for fascism being on the left.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/feb/08/goldberg-liberal-fascism-review

In 1998 The Independent said, “It is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that Hitler and his associates believed they were socialists, and that others, including democratic socialists, thought so too. The title of National Socialism was not hypocritical.” 

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hitler-and-socialist-dream-1186455.html

And as it was prompted by his dedication to Dick Gregory, an American civil/animal rights activist & comedian, who said “Animals and humans suffer and die alike. Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel, and brutal taking of life. We don’t have to be a part of it”, it was unlikely to be some twisted way of justifying racism.

https://www.peta.org/blog/dick-gregory-animals-humans-suffer-die-alike/

But Dorian Lynskey decides this interview proves Morrissey has repugnant views:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/observations/2018/04/morrissey-so-much-answer

And accuses him of having an obsession with Islam, when he’s barely mentioned Islam & was only calling the left ‘loony’ because he didn’t understand why the left had become so censorious and had made some topics, like Halal slaughter techniques, taboo.

It’s fair to say Morrissey has tunnel vision about animal rights & is so ardently opposed to authority that he has a terrible taste in marginal politicians – but everything else is just wanting him to be normal.

He’s still a sensitive, humane champion of the marginalised and vulnerable. Far more sensitive and humane than the journalists who pretend that his muddled remarks make him a racist rape apologist.

You’re just never going to get a sane, coherent, workable political manifesto out of him.

California Son

~ Anon

Pingate (wearing the badge of UK fringe party For Britain) happened as Moz was releasing California Son – a selection of left-wing protest songs from his childhood – plus genderqueer covers of Jobriath, Melanie & 5th Dimension.

He had always loved these artists. And had always believed that anyone with a message that disturbed the establishment would be excluded.

(From his autobiography, published in Penguin Modern Classics, 2013)

In 1971, I had watched helplessly as Buffy Sainte-Marie made her debut on Top of the Pops singing her own composition, Soldier Blue; a mannish white working shirt, and what were surely blue jeans, dogged determination in her brownish face, and the truth of it all in her eyes. “Oh, soldier blue, soldier blue, can’t you see that there’s another way to love her?” The ‘her’ is the land, and ‘the other way’ is minus bombs and military artillery. Or so I assumed. Serious artists rarely make the stages of Top of the Pops because the show is essentially light entertainment, yet this song of great depth has risen to number 7, and, light or not, the BBC are duty bound as a public service to air any song elected by the public. In the market-driven mush of British pop, there no continual place for Buffy Sainte-Marie with her carrion calls of loss and injustice. But there she is, and her am I, and the secret of song unravels. I discover Moratorium on the flipside of Soldier Blue, and this song has a fighting vocal over a lengthy stream of words that include the line “Fuck the war – bring our brothers home”, and I weigh my new love against the Willesden weediness of Greyhound, whose singer’s voice is ready to crack and fold at any second.

But by the time the album had been released he’d become keen on a gay Irish feminist vegan called Anne Marie Waters, who set up a party called For Britain, and who was claiming that she was being falsely accused of racism by the ‘loony left’ because she was speaking about the impact of religion (she’d previously been in the National Secular Society and the Labour Party) on women’s rights, gay rights, and animal welfare.

This chimed with his experience of being smeared as a racist at Finsbury Park in 1992 because the NME thought he had a gay fetish for racist skinheads and had incited a homophobic attack against himself to satisfy it, his experience of that scandal being used to condemn him as a ‘rogue Tory’ and a racist for very mild remarks about immigration changing London as it gentrified in 2007, which in no way called for immigration to be limited, stopped or reversed, and with his experience of being called a racist for mentioning halal slaughter when he rails against all animal slaughter all the time.

He didn’t think she was far right. And he didn’t think he was supporting a far right party. He thought Theresa May was antagonising Islamic State with draconian policies and that Anne Marie would stop the terrorism by bringing people together and would help animals, children and women by making sure there could be no religious veto applied to animal welfare laws, gay rights or women’s rights (something she was pushing heavily on social media).

https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/i-ve-been-dreaming-of-a-time-when-the-english-are-sick-to-death-of-labour-and-tories

I despise racism.  I despise fascism.  I would do anything for my Muslim friends, and I know they would do anything for me. In view of this, there is only one British political party that can safeguard our security.  That party is For Britain. Please give them a chance. Listen to them. Do not be influenced by the tyrannies of the MSM who will tell you that For Britain are racist or fascist – please believe me, they are the very opposite!!! Please do not close your mind. Labour is hopelessly naive. Theresa May’s policies have turned Britain into a international target. The BBC has closed down. The Loony Left is concerned only with victim culture. For Britain will keep British society together. Violence is not the way forward. There are many problems in modern Britain that have become too large for Theresa May to deal with – mostly because she created them in the first place. The press appear to deal only in fashionable outrage; inflammatory and unjust comments against any new party that threatens the same old bloody pointless two-party system. Please give For Britain a chance. They will bring an end to the modern Westminster mania for self-destruction. For Britain is the bulldog breed that will never surrender. Both Labour and Conservatives have already sold you down the river into righteous oblivion. This is my last political strike. No wish to upset anyone!  But the time has come to fight, and Labour and the Conservatives have their backs to the sea. Are you capable of change? Thank you, and peace for all of us (Morrissey, Central, 20 April 2018)

In a kind of hideous vicious circle – decades of press smears that he was a far right racist had led him to believe that Anne Marie Waters wasn’t a far right racist, and his support for For Britain was taken as the final ‘proof’ that he was a far right racist all along.

The album was crushed.

The Guardian (24th May, 2019) could only hear slimey trolling – in what is, a very sweet & sincere album (there is no decade of contentious proclamations, there’s three decades of a few journalists sifting through his interviews & on-stage patter to find half a sentence to condemn him for, usually connected to his belief in animal rights or dislike of Monarchy or confusion about morality growing up in a world where he was a born sinner for not being straight).

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/24/morrissey-california-son-review-clumsy-covers-troll-like-spirit

Merseyrail removed the poster. Indie record stores banned his records. DJs stopped playing him. The press tried to harass his collaborators into denouncing him. And the moral panic got into full swing.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/merseyrail-orders-removal-morrissey-posters-16321633

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/morrissey-smiths-record-shop-banned-16313914

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/01/morrissey-collaborators-respond-to-his-politics

Cannibalism

~ Anon

On April 17th 2009 Morrissey played Coachella and left the stage because he didn’t like the smell of meat cooking. He said – ‘I can smell burning flesh, and I hope to God it’s human.’

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8008602.stm

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/apr/20/morrissey-coachella-meat-fumes

Morrissey condemns meat eaters at Coachella Festival

in January 2014 he compared eating meat to rape, genocide and eating children.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/03/morrissey-eating-meat-paedophilia-smiths

and in February 2015 he said he rejected a venue in Iceland for its ‘flesh-eating bloodlust’

Owner of ‘cannibalistic’ Icelandic venue says Morrissey never asked them to go meat-free

Animal Rights Terrorist

~ Anon

At his gig in New Theatre, Oxford, May 25th 2006, Morrissey said, ‘well, if you agree with vivisection you go and be vivisected upon… Terrorism’. He’d also made comments on his now defunct fansite True to You, that were interpreted as pro-violence by the right-wing press, and silly 80s posturing in the left-wing press.

With people in the world such as Jamie Oliver and Clarissa Dickson Wright there isn’t much hope for animals. I support the efforts of the Animal Rights Militia in England and I understand why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence – it is because they deal in violence themselves and it’s the only language they understand – the same principals that apply to war. You reach a point where you cannot reason with people. This is why the Animal Rights Militia and the Hunt Saboteurs exist. They are usually very intelligent people who are forced to act because the law is shameful or amoral. In England, animals are hunted to the point of extinction, and then a great effort is made to save and reintroduce animals, and once they are re-established, they are then hunted back to the point of extinction. Everybody needs to hate something, it seems.(Morrissey, True to You, 4 January 2006)

The Mancunian student icon of the 80s wears his vegetarianism as flamboyantly as his gladioli, and he’s known to be a passionate advocate of animal rights. Now he’s got Oxford’s new animal research lab in his sights. At a concert in the city last week, he condemned the lab and warned its workers: “We’ll get you”. Animal testers – long the bogeymen of the idealistic left – have enjoyed something of a resurgence recently with the formation of the Pro-Test campaign group in favour of animal testing. The group even counts a number of students among its members – something that would have been unheard of in Morrissey’s heyday, when it was impossible to walk through any student town without signing up (again) to a gorily-illustrated anti-vivisection petition. Morrissey’s got previous on this one. In an interview with the True to You fanzine earlier this year, he said he understood “why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence – it is because they deal in violence themselves and it’s the only language they understand”. I’m not quite sure how easily that sits with the view Morrissey expressed elsewhere in the True to You interview that “the proof of your political thinking is usually in your conduct. I find myself opposing barbarism, that’s all”. Viva hate, as the great man put it. (Shelia Pulham, the Guardian, 30 May 2006) https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2006/may/30/post158?CMP=gu_com

Earlier this year, the artist who now lives in Rome, was criticised for comments attributed to him on fan website True To You, in which he appeared to back what he called “animal rights militia”, saying violence was the only language fur farmers and laboratory scientists understood. This prompted the Conservative’s Home Affairs spokesman David Davis to call for Morrissey to be investigated by the police. Referring to the media’s reporting of his outspoken views, he told the Oxford audience: “Because I have no identity, I rely on the press to tell me!” Morrissey also sparked controversy in June 2004 when he broke the news of Ronald Reagan’s death to fans at a concert in Manchester, saying he wished it had been President George W Bush who had died. (Oxford Mail, 2 June 2006) https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/780004.morrissey-calls-city-shame-england/