David Vance SubstackRead More
Have you been following the twists and turns of the quite remarkable story concerning the highly reputable Daily Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson? It looks like the mother of all f*ckups by Essex Police, the Guardian and a few other assorted clowns who are now in deep doo-doo. Permit me to take you through this mess.
Let’s start by summarising what actually happened!
Allison Pearson was naturally startled when, on Remembrance Sunday morning, two police presented themselves at her door to tell her that she was under investigation for allegedly stirring up racial hatred in connection with a social media post on X and invited her for a voluntary interview. She was not allowed to know which post, exactly, was being investigated nor who was her accuser.
In fact, she was reminded that her “accuser” was actually “the victim” – such is Essex Police in action.
Allison came out publicly strongly defending herself and it initially it looked like one of these absolutely Orwellian “non hate crime incidents” situations with people taking sides depending on their enthusiasm or otherwise for rampant authoritarianism.
But then events took an incredible twist.
The Guardian newspaper ran the story and referenced but did not show the alleged “hate tweet” that sparked the incident.
But the Guardian believes it has found the post at the centre of the row. It is an alleged retweet by Pearson of a photograph posted several months ago amid heightened tensions over the policing of Gaza protests. It shows a group of people of colour posing with a flag on a British street, flanked by three police officers. The photograph angered Pearson, who allegedly wrote a tweet condemning the Metropolitan police: “How dare they. “Invited to pose for a photo with lovely peaceful British Friends of Israel on Saturday police refused. Look at this lot smiling with the Jew haters.”
Here is the alleged tweet concerned. It perfectly matches that which The Guardian claimed.
Can you see the problem? Yes, this is a tweet by “a” Allison Pearson but NOT by “the” Allison Pearson! Check out the account handle which is mrspearson2024_ whereas the actual Allison’s handle is AllisonPearson. Whoops, mega mistake.
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