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Oh look, racists

 I'm always surprised that people are surprised. Yes, I know, that makes me the idiot.


Unless you've been very sensibly ignoring all broadcast and print media over the last week, you'll doubtless be aware that the Conservative and Unionist Party of Great Britain are having a normal one.

It all started when Suella Braverman, like a garden gnome made of spite, decided to start opining about how "Islamists" are in "in charge of Britain" (Community notes added context that some readers may find useful: they are not). So far, so unsurprising, Braverman's rhetoric has often tended towards the wilfully oppositional, and she's clearly on manoeuvres to be the leadership candidate of choice when the Tories are immolated at the next election. The intensity of the charge, and the spouting of the conspiracy theory that Sharia law is incoming in the UK (where a grand total of 11% of the population identify as Muslim, reality fans) were slightly eyebrow raising, but given that this is the woman who built a career out of demonising migrants despite being the child of, uh, migrants, not particularly shocking.

More of a chin stroker was Worst PM In History Except For Lord North Maybe (TM) Liz Truss rocking up to CPAC over in the US (and spouting one of the less hinged speeches that you would, in the normal run of things, hear all year.

Dear Reader, this is not the normal run of things.

Any road up, big Liz is hawking her book about how everything's brown people's fault (I paraphrase),and presumably has half an eye on a gig on the lucrative US nutjob media circuit, where being somewhat spittle-flecked is very much de rigeur. As such, her frankly hilarious opining that she was stymied by *clears throat*...

"A media conspiracy" (must have been mistaken by all those front pages hailing her arrival, as I recall

"Trans activists" (blimey, they get everywhere, don't they? given that HMG currently estimates the UK trans population as between 200-500k, that's a hell of a lot of influence wielded by less than 1% of the people)

"Agents of the Deep State" (Not even dignifying this with a joke)

...wasn't entirely surprising. 

The highlight of her tour was sharing a a platform with Steve Bannon, a man who constantly looks as though a Xenomorph is about to burst out of his skin and then standing and grinning as he praised professional racist, Tommy Robinson, a man so far beyond the pale that not even Farage will take his calls. This was an eyebrow-raiser, tbf, but more in terms of how far she's fallen as a serious person, as opposed to the sort of thing she'd do.

Then, finally, the Tories pet Man In The Street (if the street in question is an alley stinking of piss) Lee Anderson, did a racism when he accused Sadiq Khan of handing London "to his mates". This, finally, was a step too far for the Tories, and he's been suspended. Again, not a surprise (also because he's probably angling for a transfer to Reform).

So why does everyone (read: the commentariat) react with shock to these outbursts? These people have been showing us who they are for a long time, anyone who's been paying even the slightest bit of attention is well aware. I would argue that the rational response to their fascist tantrums is to roll ones eyes, organise and get rid. You can take being outraged as read.



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