James O’Brien exposes hypocrisy of Reform accusing Zack Polanski of inciting murder over Instagram post
He pointed out that Reform has treated Lucy Connolly like ‘a folk hero’, despite her having incited racial hatred and violence
LBC’s James O’Brien has exposed the hypocrisy of Reform UK accusing Zack Polanski of inciting murder by sharing a social media post despite the party championing Lucy Connolly.
The Green Party leader reposted a photo which he said was the fifth image in a series of 20, and featured a man wearing a T-shirt which said: “We’re only making plans for Nigel” and featured an image of a guillotine.
The words “We’re only making plans for Nigel” are the same as the lyrics of a 1979 song by band XTC.
Polanski admitted he had shared the post and immediately deleted it when he realised.
But Reform has now reported Polanski to the police for sharing the image, and Nigel Farage has said he should be arrested, while Zia Yusuf has accused him of inciting murder.
O’Brien pointed out that Reform has expressed outrage at Polanski accidentally sharing an image which he then deleted and accused him of inciting murder.
Meanwhile, they have treated Connolly, who was jailed for inciting racial hatred after calling for her followers to set fire to asylum hotels, as a “folk hero”.
The LBC presenter said: “If you are guilty of inciting racial hatred or indeed violence by tweeting ‘mass deportation now set fire to all f****** hotels full of all the b***** for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them’ you’re a heroine.”
“You’re a folk hero. You’re a political prisoner,” O’Brien added.
O’Brien then said: “If you, by Zack Polanski’s account, accidentally post a picture of a man in a t-shirt with an XTC lyric on it about making plans for Nigel and a picture of a guillotine, then you are inciting murder and should be arrested.”
He added that “For the avoidance of doubt politicians should never use imagery or language that is violent.”
He also said in reference to Reform inviting Connolly to speak at the party’s conference last year: “No politician should ever countenance treating a convicted criminal or a criminal convicted of incitement to racial hatred like a folk hero, let alone an entire party conference for a political party.”
O’Brien added: “There are some things that everybody has to agree on and this should be one of them.”
“Unfortunately if you’ve got somebody who routinely talks about picking up rifles or knifing civil servants, claiming that a t-shirt is profoundly offensive and Lucy Connolly is some sort of folk hero, you’ve got hypocrisy on a scale that is almost impossible to process,” he concluded.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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