Jean-Luc Barbanneau

Lapsed Frenchman, naturalised British. Now has adopted Scotland as home, partly as a result of Brexit. Longing for fairer, greener, more progressive politics.

[Helsbels @Helenus_]

Gob-smacking & excellent thread from TWO YEARS AGO spelling out Cottrell's criminality & Farage's fakery and extremely dodgy connections.
The average right-wing voter has been ignorant of all this until recently because the right-wing billionaire-owned media ignored it.

[Byline TV @BylineTV]

Farewell Boris Johnson.

A parting message to our PM from @Otto_English 🔥

[Jean-Luc Barbanneau @jlbarb49]

@TheBookshopMan The Portobello Bookshop and Tills and Co also in Portobello, both great.

[Jean-Luc Barbanneau @jlbarb49]

@UndisScot Cove harbour.

[Jean-Luc Barbanneau @jlbarb49]

@UndisScot Melrose Abbey

[Nitin Sawhney @thenitinsawhney]

I begin my day by quoting the unsolicited opinion of this persistent anonymous troll, who seems to genuinely believe that my description of his apparent idol, Farage, as a “toxic vessel of hate” (an opinion that gained 8,400 likes so far), is an indication of my “mental illness”.

Normally, I simply block these deluded folk but this one has caught my attention for several reasons and for what he represents (namely, the currently media-inflated importance of a party that literally platforms Hitler fans and demonstrably unvetted racists as candidates) :

1. He has expressed a clear entitlement to a justification with evidence on this forum of why I believe Farage is racist.

2. He has repeatedly presented straw man arguments, like the ones below where he has assumed I see anyone I disagree with as a “racist fascist” (I obviously don’t), that I am somehow anti-white (I’m obviously not) and that I’m “drunk on religious hatred” (I’m an atheist or agnostic at best), that he then uses to determine I am “mentally unwell”.

3. He has a mindset that I come across over and over again on this platform. He attempts to use my non-engagement with his malice or my intense loathing of racists as evidence of my cowardice, poor mental health or, most ironically, my “bigotry”.

4. He seems to believe what he is saying.

Now admittedly, given that I grew up being repeatedly taunted and physically attacked by racists (sorry to repeat this), I am prone to outbursts of frustration and anger when these idiots (sorry again) crawl out of the woodwork. For those who say “get over it”, I would if the modern perpetrators of my childhood experiences weren’t constantly platformed and empowered by MMS.

Those who follow my opinions here will know I don’t hold back in expressing my views on racism.

So yes, I will concede I can sometimes appear disproportionately concerned by people I would normally just laugh at in real life.

However… The Reform party is polling uncomfortably well right now and ignoring that fact no longer seems a viable option.

So, here are my closing thoughts on Farage and Reform.

In an interview with @mrjamesob many years ago which you can see here https://t.co/bJzJjEtzgH , Farage clearly expresses his discomfort at select people speaking certain “foreign languages” in public. He also makes a point of distinguishing between people of Romanian heritage and German heritage as worthy of his neighbourhood. That, in the wider context of the car crash interview, was an unapologetic admission of his racism and was literally called out as such in the interview.

Farage and Reform are dangerous to this country because, with their bonhomie banter and insidious attempts to dehumanise and demonise immigrants, they are normalising a mentality that led to the holocaust last century and to the ongoing genocide of children in Gaza.

Theirs is the politics of superiority and entitlement by virtue of race and heritage. It disgusts me on every level.

People like the one quoted below are the tip of an iceberg that threatens to sink this country forever unless we avoid it now.

Enjoy your day.

[John Wellwood @JohnWellwood]

Well done last night @StephenFlynnSNP on door steps in East Lothian today people said due to your performance they will @voteSNP thank you.

[Nick Petrie @NicholasPetri13]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Alex Taylor @AlexTaylorNews]

EVERY. SINGLE. WORD 👇

@StephenFlynnSNP

[Roy Greenslade @GreensladeR]

My history of Irish landlordism's decline, The Peer, the Priests and the Press, makes the best-selling shelves at Donegal Town's @FourMastersBook People keep asking for it, said the manager. Signed eight copies on the spot yesterday

[@elisled2 #FBPE #HopeDiesLast @elisled2]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Could this lady stand for election please - concise, logical, excoriating defence of the reasons why we need a new Brexit vote.
It's called democracy.
(Her daughter's listening carefully😀)

[Carrie H @CarrieHef]

This needs reposted over and over! Love this woman!! #ScotlandStandsWithNicola

[Cian McCarthy @arealmofwonder]

Best Christmas Ad of 2023 ☺️
(Watch, watch, watch!!)

[Larry & Paul @larryandpaul]

👇🏻 #FridayFeeling: A message to the @Conservatives on behalf of the British people.

#ThankYouTories 🙏🏻

[Jean-Luc Barbanneau @jlbarb49]

As part of the Pentlands Book Festival, I will be talking about about my recently published memoirTo This Northern Shore, pieces of a life from South to North, on Weds 8 Nov at 7.30pm at the Currie Rugby Club in Balerno.
Pentlands Book Festival 2023

[Peter Kay (🦋@theonlypeterkay.bsky.social) @theonlypeterkay]

Proof that empathy can triumph: “We are currently living our own miracle on this Island, because we are living in peace, and for all those in Israel and Palestine tonight, it mightn’t seem like it but there’s always hope and we hope your miracle comes soon”https://t.co/aISxEqesYF

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

The most impressive politician in the United Kingdom in the last week of horror and crisis in the Middle East has been, without exception, @HumzaYousaf.

While @RishiSunak, @Keir_Starmer and especially the shameful @SuellaBraverman have all been grandstanding for political self-interest, and almost competing to egg on the Israeli right to commit genocidal havoc in Gaza, @HumzaYousaf, whose own mother-in-law is bravely, despairingly, running a clinic in Gaza, and personally having to decide how to save her patients ordered to evacuate the North of the city before Israel flattens it, Humza has been busy comforting and reassuring the Scottish Jewish community, as well as the Scottish Palestinian Muslims and Christians, and assuring them them all that they will be safe and welcome and protected in Scotland.

I am not a Scottish nationalist, and never voted SNP. But I can't think of a time I've been prouder to be Scottish. Thank you Humza and hats off and your bravery, poise, calm, compassion and humanity.