Alternative to king's message was delivered by friend of king

This was a perfect example of pluralism

Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message is supposed to offer a different perspective to the drivel from that bloke called Charles with the magic staff and the crown of stolen diamonds. This year’s alternative Christmas message certainly offered that by reflecting the establishment’s positions with every point that was made.

In a heartwarming video that was put together by a politically-neutral production company with close ties to an IDF feeder group, national treasure Stephen Fry delivered a powerful speech with cliches like “tweed” and “spittle” and “Shakespeare” to elevate himself above the riffraff in a way only he and Boris Johnson can.

As a gay Jew, Stephen suggested homosexuality is now widely accepted in the UK, but that Jewishness does not have the same acceptance, throwing his fellow gay people under a bus at a time when homophobic incidents have increased by 112% in six years.

Stephen focused almost his entire speech on one type of hate crime, leading conspiracy theorists to suggest his concern might have been something other than hate crimes. Personally, I think this conspiracy theory is absurd.

Stephen is an expert on sensitivity who openly mocks the idea of “safe spaces” and “trigger words”, despite suffering from mental health issues because he is no snowflake. He spoke at an event in February where he reportedly made misogynistic and Islamophobic jokes and linked Islam to terrorism. This leads me to suspect he graduated from the the same anti-bigotry school as David “black face” Baddiel.

In 2016, Stephen explained it’s wrong for people who were sexually abused by their uncle to feel sorry for themselves and they should “grow up” because self-pity is the “ugliest emotion in humanity”.

The highly successful actor and presenter who is friends with the king (whose speech he did the alternative for) insists he is among the most discriminated against people in the country and this is not fair. But if Stephen's speech made one thing clear, I would hope it’s that the worst bigots are the people who oppose genocide.

Stephen rightly explained that whatever your views on Israel’s invasion, it’s totally wrong to be anti-Semitic. No arguments there. He then explained anti-Semitism is the only form of racism that’s accepted in the UK… apart from the massive wave of Russophobia we’ve seen over the last two years.

Don’t worry though, we’re told that type of racism is fine because Russia invaded Ukraine. Wait, I’m confused…

Let’s go over this again: Stephen rightly stated anti-Semitism is intolerable on any grounds, as nearly everyone in the UK would agree. But he sensibly avoided saying the same about anti-Palestinianism at a time waving a Palestinian flag can be considered a criminal offence.

There wasn't even the pretence the two racisms are equal.

Instead of saying: “Whatever is happening at home, there can be no excuse for supporting genocide in Gaza”, Stephen expertly reversed this to: “Whatever is happening in Gaza, there can be no excuse for breaking windows in the UK”. Both things could be seen as violence, but breaking windows is obviously the bigger concern, so that’s where we should place our emphasis.

When future generations look back, they will say: “Thank God Stephen Fry focused on broken windows in the alternative Christmas message as fifty percent of buildings in Gaza were damaged or destroyed and ten thousand children were killed with our military support. He really stood up for the oppressed” x

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