Bartholomew's Notes

From the Guardian:

The UK’s leading Jewish organisation and a group of MPs have called on GB News and the media regulator Ofcom to tackle the broadcaster’s indulgence of conspiracy theories, warning that some recent segments and guests risked spreading ideas linked to antisemitism.

In particular, the article focuses on a recent monologue by Neil Oliver:

Oliver, who delivers trademark monologues to camera, used the show last Saturday to discuss what he called a “silent war” by generations of politicians to take “total control of the people” and impose a “one-world government”.

The striking phrase “silent war” appears to echo the title Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, “supposedly a secret manual for world government found by chance in 1986” that includes a section on the Rothschild banking family. On Twitter, the connection was made by GB News critic Matthew Sweet (1), although some of Oliver’s supporters also drew the same inference.

Further:

On the same show, one of Oliver’s guests was a man called William Keyte, introduced as a “constitutional expert”, who is a supporter of a fringe campaign group called the New Chartist Movement.

“Supporter” can mean a lot of things, and in this case it means active and high-profile involvement: several of Keyte’s presentations are posted on the New Chartist Movement website, with headlines thar refer to him informally as “Will”. One video shows a talk he gave to the fringe-right Democrats and Veterans Party in 2018, at an event I discussed here.

Keyte’s talk with Oliver was concerned only with “the supposed primacy of common law over parliament”. However:

the New Chartist Movement website contains articles written by other members and contributors that contain antisemitic-linked ideas… [These] include one arguing that the “corporate and banking Deep State, completely supported by the Zionist state of Israel” plans to take control of UK politics… Another argues that the “House of Rothschild” has a pivotal role in world affairs.

Oliver’s supporters complain that it is unfair to link him with these wider claims: on Twitter, he has RTed a number of supportive messages along these lines, including from Israelis. However, he hasn’t directly addressed where he stands in relation to the discourses that he has effectively signposted. If he didn’t mean to evoke Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, why not say so? If he thinks the document has some value but he doesn’t believe its Rothschild conspiracy content, why doesn’t he clarify this, and explain his reasoning for nevertheless drawing on it? Does he think that the New Chartist Movement website has no bearing on Keyte’s credibility?

This is not “guilt by association”: when activists make a public show of political and personal affinity it’s reasonable to press them on how far the mutual endorsement goes, even though they may prefer ambiguity.

Those expressing their support for Oliver include Laurence Fox, who objects to Matthew noting the apparent Silent Weapons link (“Seriously close to defamation, you quintuple jabbed man sheep”); Calvin Robinson, who calls his GB New colleague “The Prophet” and suggests that the Guardian article was written at the behest of Bill Gates (2); and from the USA Emerald Robinson (“the communist frauds at @guardian are trying to get him fired”) (3).

Matthew was already in the sights of GB News supporters, having urged broadcasting regulator Ofcom to act regarding its presenter Mark Steyn. Steyn has now quit the channel, to the fury of fans. Those complaining include Godrey Bloom, who was at the same 2018 event as Keyte (“Do you feel your vilification of a fellow journalist is somehow morally superior?”) and a Loose Women regular named Carol McGiffin (“You are sick. Get help”). Former Crimewatch host Sue Cook chipped in with an “angry face” emjoi.

Last August, GB News decided to delete an interview between Oliver and Peter Sweden rather than offer a defence.

UPDATE: In a follow-up thread, Matthew notes a new podcast in which Keyte “celebrates his appearance on @GBNews, admiring Oliver’s facility for relaying his ideas”. He quotes Keyre as saying Oliver is “a great guy, very much on his journey” and “reading a lot of things that I had written and thinking”. As well as the New Chartist Movement, Keyte is also involved with a group called the Hardwick Alliance for Real Ecoology, and according to Matthew “Keyte claims that he and his friends at the Hardwick Alliance have been meeting and chatting with Neil Oliver for weeks”.

This is significant, as the Hardwick Alliance’s Twitter account has various references to “Zionist bankers”, “Fake Jews” and the Rothschilds, and David Icke is billed as involved. Matthew also notes that the group’s website explicitly uses the phrase “silent weapons for quiet wars”. It’s possible that Oliver was unaware that this was also the title of a conspiracy document, but what he may or may not know is of less urgency than the fact that the group is using him and GB News to spread their message and amplify their leaders.

Notes

1. Matthew initially misquoted the title as “Secret Weapons for Silent Wars” before correcting himself.

2. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports the paper’s Global Development section, and items that receive funding are clearly marked as such. Conspiricists, however, believe that the influence goes further, and that the Guardian‘s coverage in general can therefore be disregarded. George Monbiot responded to the false allegation that he writes to order last August.

One person replying to Calvin Robinson drew a distinction between “Conservative/Orthodox Jews whom are pro-Israel, pro-America, pro-Trump” and “secular Jews”, writing that “Secular Jews own the American Marxist Movement that has damaged America”. This analysis got a “Like” from Robinson, although he has since removed it. Former MEP Lance Forman, who is Jewish, meanwhile made some weak criticism that this was “a very broad generalisation for which there will be many exceptions”.

3. Robinson was removed from Newsmax in 2021 after claiming that Covid vaccinations contain “a bioluminescent marker called LUCIFERASE so that you can be tracked”, which she then linked to the Book of Revelation. Oliver has responded to her support with an expression of mutual solidarity.

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