David Lammy, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, is a man of contradictions. Despite having studied at Harvard Law School no less, he managed to balls up some pretty easy questions on Celebrity Mastermind some years ago. When asked who had won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 for her research into radiation, he gave Marie Antoinette as his answer. His response to the question as to who had succeeded Henry VIII was “Henry VII”. Good grief. A knowledgeable 11 year-old would have known these answers, but not our Lammy:
Lammy describes himself as a Christian socialist, but despite his belief in a religion that commands love for one’s neighbour and forgiveness of one’s enemies, he has proven himself adept at hurling the basest of insults at Donald Trump.
In 2017, Lammy called Trump “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser”. When Trump visited the U.K. in 2018, Lammy took the opportunity to go on record in Time magazine to label Trump “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath” and a “tyrant in a toupee”. Lammy also boasted that he would be joining the London protest against Trump’s visit. In 2019, when Trump complained about being badly treated during his time in office because of the many attempts to impeach him, Lammy’s response was this: “Four U.S. Presidents have been assassinated snowflake.” In the light of what went down recently in Butler Township, Lammy’s words are even more odious.
Failing spectacularly on Celebrity Mastermind is personally embarrassing, but survivable. The British public like a good loser who can make them laugh. But if Trump is elected President in November, and it looks likely he will be, Lammy will be faced potentially with the excruciating embarrassment of having to work with a U.S. Government whose leader he has effectively called Adolf Hitler.
At the time that Lammy voiced these slanders, the Labour party was led by Jeremy Corbyn whose loathing of America is as great as his love of Palestinian terrorists. Lammy had tasted power as one of Blair’s junior Ministers, but was once more on the backbenches. He may have thought his denigration of Trump would earn him some street cred with the Dear Leader, and possibly a promotion.
When Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election and with Trump mired in multiple federal, state and local investigations ever since, it looked as if Trump’s political career was buried. But Trump is a fighter and he is back. Unfortunately for Lammy, Trump has a pachydermatous memory for insults thrown at him and does not forgive easily. If Trump takes the White House, Lammy’s words are going to come back to bite him with the viciousness of a hungry alligator from Sarasota.
In response, Lammy has tried to play down the significance of his anti-Trump tirades. When asked by BBC’s Naga Munchetty how he was going to forge a working relationship with Trump, Lammy’s response was to refuse to apologise, saying that many politicians have disparaged Trump, and that Trump has a thick skin. That is not answering the question, as Munchetty made clear to Lammy, who in turn accused her of not liking his answer to her question. Palpably, Lammy has not yet transitioned out of his social justice warrior mentality into the statesmanlike demeanour he must now display if he is to represent Britain’s interests on the global stage. When faced with the U.S. Secretary of State or the Foreign Minister of China or Iran, none of them will give a toss about his woke credentials and neither will they tolerate the bullshitting tactics he used on Munchetty.
But Lammy is right on one thing: he is one among many who have sneered at Trump. What he fails to see is that because of the attempt on Trump’s life, his invectives are more than just painful words. It is plausible that one of the reasons Thomas Crooks tried to murder Trump is the way in which Trump-haters have for some time been calling him a Nazi. Was Crooks aiming to save America from a second Fuhrer? Crooks probably never heard or read Lammy’s idiotic remarks, but Lammy was an enthusiastic participant in that persistent chorus of abuse. The least he can do is publicly apologise, but from what I have seen of Lammy, he does not strike me as one who would.
Peter Harris is the author of two books, The Rage Against the Light: Why Christopher Hitchens Was Wrong (2019) and Do You Believe It? A Guide to a Reasonable Christian Faith (2020). First published on the New Conservative.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Toby & Nick – I simply can’t get podcasts to play on basedmedia.org. I’ve turned off my usual script and cookie blockers. I either play it here or go to YouTube.
Yusufs hate speech law is there to make islamophobia easier to prosecute. Yusuf and his advisers have used this as a Trojan horse to get a law in place which they can then use as a weapon to benefit Muslims. Laughing about this is a bit weird. This is very serious and has long term, major impacts on our speech and politics.