NOTE: Since this article was published Mr Borowski of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities has clarified via a public statement that neither he or his organisation orignated the complaint against Count Dankula but the case was instead pushed for by Police Scotland. However Mr Borowski did regrettably become involved in this case by, instead of keeping himself and his organisation well away from a controversial trial, agreeing to give evidence for the prosecution, a course of action that has attracted much criticism.
News is just in that the internet comedian and shitposter Count Dankula has been convicted of sending a grossly offensive communication under the Communications Act. Count Dankula has been remanded on bail pending sentencing on the 23rd April for creating a You Tube video in which he taught his girlfriend’s Pug dog to give a Nazi salute. It is likely that Count Dankula will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment as pre-sentence reports have been requested by the judge. This means that Count Dankula has another month added to an ordeal that has lasted over two years. Count Dankula was convicted despite the obvious humorous intent of the video, which was made to annoy and wind up his girlfriend and despite support from Jewish comedian David Baddiel, the court convicted Count Dankula for what was plainly a joke.
Even though I do not find the joke itself entirely to my taste personally, I find this case and this conviction even more offensive than the original joke video. This conviction is a gross attack on freedom of speech. We are now in the invidious position in Britain where even jokes have become criminalised.
Speaking as a person of the Jewish faith, I have to say that I have nothing but contempt for the actions of Ephraim Borowski, the original complainant in this case. Whilst like him, I found the original Dankula video in somewhat bad taste, neither his or my sense of offence should be used to take away Count Dankula’s right to speak freely. Mr Borowski, an individual who appears very close to the SNP Establishment in Scotland, should have known the implications of such a complaint. He should have thought about how it could be used by those with an agenda to further restrict free speech in Scotland, where there have already been many attacks and setbacks. Whilst I appreciate the background of the Shoah that drove Mr Borowski’s complaint, I also feel that by making this complaint and putting Count Dankula through his current ordeal, he has brought the British Jewish community in general into disrepute. He has made us look censorious and thin-skinned at best and at worst like collaborators with those on the Left and among the Islamic community, who wish to remove the rights to speak and act and above all joke freely that were fought hard for by generations of Britons, including my Jewish relatives. I promise that if I ever run across this bastard at any Jewish communal event, rest assured that I will not refrain from telling him what I tell you today. After all, Jews are famous for telling the best Jewish jokes, as well as being the lone small voice that speaks up for the powerless.
The state should not be in the business of policing humour, it really should not. But, with the Count Dankula conviction, it’s plain to see that the state has indeed got in the comedy censorship business and this is going to bode ill for all of us. Disgustingly we have to start to realise that we now live in a country where jokes are criminalised whilst Muslim rapists can walk free for decades. We have a topsy turvy set of legal priorities and it’s time that this was sorted out and our freedom and security restored.
So – when is that utter prat Prince Harry appearing in court for dressing-up in Nazi uniform then ?
More to the point – when will Owen Jones’s and his little mates be in court for threatening behaviour after their little escapade for their demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in London, during which muslim war-cries about killing jews were shouted ?
Or the organisers of marches who ban Jews from taking part ? or the “academics” who eagerly ban Jewish speakers from their universities ?
In fact – given that the world-view of our institutions is anything BUT universal – don’t we need a new name for these arid Left-wing indoctrination centres ?
Oops – should have read either “Owen Jones’s little mates” or “Owen Jones and his little mates”….
The video was originally uploaded in April 2015. I do not know when the complaint was raised, but 2015 fell into a period when many Jews were reportedly thinking of leaving Scotland due to rising antisemitism. At the time of reporting, Mr Borowski would have been unable to foresee the degree of nuttiness we have recently witnessed in barring Martin Sellner, Brittany Pettibone and Lauren Southern from the UK.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/jewish-leader-tells-nazi-dog-11148574
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/antisemitism-prompts-scottish-jews-to-consider-leaving-the-country-1.66804
Here is a presentation of the “project findings” of a study on “What’s changed about Being Jewish in Scotland”, to which Ephraim Borowski as Director of Scottish Council of Jewish Communities contributed (see the introduction).
Follow-up from The Scottish Sun: Ephraim Borowski, director of Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, “has been flooded with abusive messages since the conviction of Mark Meechan”. He has since stated, “We wish to make it clear that the video was not reported to the police by us; it was prosecuted by the Procurator Fiscal, not by us. The decision to prosecute was taken by Crown Office, not by us, after consideration of information supplied to them by the police, and we have not made any attempt to ‘send the guy to prison’.” Mr Borowski was called to give evidence in court “both in a personal capacity as the child of holocaust survivors, and based on his long experience of working for the community”.
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/2401862/jewish-leader-abuse-evidence-nazi-pug-comedian-mark-meechan/