Every movement, every political party has its arseholes and when it comes to the patriot/nationalist movement Joshua ‘Bonehead’ Bonehill, who has just been convicted of racially aggravated harassment against the MP Luciana Berger, is a prime example of one of these arseholes. Not only is he an embarrassing arsehole, he’s also a liar who has not just used his right to free speech to promulgate a political view, but has crossed the line by fomenting his small band of deluded jackboot-lickers into potential acts of violence.
Although I’m a bit of a free speech fundamentalist, I feel that Bonehead has abused that right by organising demonstrations which were not aimed at violent, troublesome or seditious groups or individuals, but at peaceful and integrated ones such as Jews. His personal conduct and his choice of those with whom he associates also put him beyond the pale for me and for many decent patriots and nationalists. He’s also put innocent people in danger by putting out fake stories about pub landlords, fake stories about an Ebola-infected immigrant running loose, fake stories about Tesco selling Ebola-infected produce and has allegedly smeared innocent people as being ‘paedophiles’. Bonehead’s lies were not misquotes or mishearings or even selective quotations, they were downright dishonest and dangerously so. Bonehead has crossed the line on occasion that divides free speech from incitement to kill and although I despise the ‘hate speech’ and ‘hate crime’ offences that have done so much to restrict the freedom of Britons, incitement to murder should continue to be punishable. On top of that, he’s sent Swastikas to a woman he spent two nights with and then set about bombarding her with messages asking her to be ‘his Eva’. Bonehead is a fascist in the Moselyite mould, of that there can be no doubt, if he was operating in the 1940’s he would probably be interned under Section 18b as someone who has sympathy for the enemy.
Bonehead has not merely engaged in acts of criticism or satire or expressed antipathy to various groups, something that should come under the category of free speech, he has promoted genuine violent Nazism. Bonehead hasn’t just said ‘I dislike Judaism’, which is an opinion I dislike but one that in free societies a person should be allowed to express. Bonehead is much worse than that. He has worked with and encouraged violent neo-Nazis, which for me is a line that should not be crossed. Nazism, like Communism and Islam is a cult of death and therefore I oppose it. I marched against neo-Nazis when I was a teenager and a young man and, although I no longer consider myself a ‘man of the Left’, I stand against them today as well.
It’s correct that people have the right to express their opinion, even if some find it offensive or hurtful, but when that crosses the line into credible encouragement of violence, which Bonehead did with his use of Shoah imagery, then it’s right that he should face a significant level of opprobrium, if not legal sanction then at the very least social sanction. He should be shunned by all decent nationalists and patriots and thankfully that seems to be the case. I have a wide variety of patriot/nationalist thinkers on my social media time lines and I can honestly say I see very very few of them reposting Bonehead’s rantings or Daily Bale guff on there. This shows me that Bonehead’s views are about as acceptable to these patriots and nationalists as bestiality or paedophilia would be, which to my mind shows up the patriot and nationalist communities in a very good light. Furthermore, there is a legal term called ‘the man on the Clapham Omnibus’ which is a description of a fictional reasonable person and I reckon if you asked this man the question: ‘Is Bonehead a Nazi? then they would probably emphatically reply ‘Yes’.
Bonehead, with his repertoire of outrageous lies, falsehoods, and credible incitement to violence is a danger not only to those whom he targets, but also because his guff gives ammunition to the Left. The Left can hold up Bonehead and say ‘look what these nationalists are up to now’. Bonehead is a stick that they will use to beat the rest of us with, that is also a reason why decent patriots and nationalists should be seriously angry at this scumbag and should avoid him like they would avoid a freshly laid dog turd on the pavement. One should never ever give your enemy a weapon that they can use against you. Once when I was working behind the bar in a particularly rough student pub, I was told by the senior barmaid to make sure that you never leave empty glasses on the bar. She said the reason for this was ‘you never leave a potential weapon on the bar top that a punter could hit you with’. Bonehead is the equivalent of an empty pint glass that the left will pick up and grind in our faces.
Now we need to look at the question as to whether it was right to prosecute Bonehead. I’m uneasy about prosecuting people for their political views, even those whose views are as disgraceful as Bonehead’s, because such prosecutions restrict the citizen’s right to speak freely. Despite the existence of the pond-scum that is Bonehead, I still believe that the best antidote to ‘hate speech’ is free speech. The prosecutions and subsequent convictions are not going to change Bonehead’s views, not one little bit and there is the possibility that prosecuting him for Racial and Religious Harassment may even be counter-productive. It could make Bonehead a bit of a martyr in the eyes of his very small band of jackboot-licking followers, who are probably at this very moment sitting in their basements wanking off over pictures of Adolf. Bonehead is a massive self-publicist with an ego the size of Jupiter, for him the dock of a courtroom is merely another stage where he can posture and preen to yet another audience. It’s right that where he has incited murder, as with the incident with the false story about the pub landlord, then the law should step in, but as for everything else, maybe the best punishment for Bonehead is to ignore him or as I do, mock him? I’ve no wish for Bonehead or those like him to be driven underground by the law, I want him and those like him, in the open where I can take the piss out of him and call him a C**t.
Bonehead is the sort of anti-freedom, anti-British, anti-democracy pro-fascist arsehole who the 43 Group were kicking the shit out of following World War II. He is also the representative of an ideology against which a generation of British men and women of all faiths and races fought at great cost, and defeated, in that terrible conflict.
Bonehead isn’t a patriot or a nationalist, he’s the enemy of patriotism and nationalism and should quite rightly be treated as such. Bonehead is an annoying stalker, liar, self-publicist, Jew-hater and pampered former public schoolboy, who if he wasn’t tossing off over his copy of Mein Kampf, would be boorishly chucking bread rolls around in a restaurant and annoying the rest of the diners. He is, to borrow and amend a phrase once aimed at George Galloway, a ‘ ridiculous pound shop street corner Roderick Spode’ and nothing more than that. I really don’t care what happens to Bonehead in the future and I’ve little doubt that many of my decent patriot and nationalist friends will feel the same way about him.
Links
The wiki page on Joshua ‘Bonehead’ Bonehill
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Bonehill-Paine
‘Roderick Spode’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roderick_Spode
Wiki on 43 Group
