Bertie Coda

Here's my Substack on @misaharriman: 'The 'Harriman effect', conspiracy theories, and the Holocaust' simplysaid.substack.com/p/the-harriman… There are so many examples of what I think we should now call the ‘Hariman effect’ that it seems almost random to single out the chair of the South Bank Centre, Misan Harriman, for particular censure. The likes of Harriman – so-called progressives who have that sense of moral superiority with which we are all so familiar - cannot comprehend the notion that they might actually be the problem. And they matter, because they now dominate so many areas of the public sector – as, for example, with Harriman’s post at the South Bank Centre. Or rather I thought that Harriman was no worse than any of the others only until yesterday, when he came out with his most repellent remark yet (at least that I have come across). But before we get to that, I’ve written elsewhere about Harriman, in relation to a video he made about the fight for a free Iran. I made the point that he is the very embodiment of the cognitive dissonance underlying progressive attitudes to Iran. In the video, Harriman tells us that he has had “so many messages from my friends from Iran”. But, he says, there is a problem with these messages which are “really quite alarming”. Why so? “[M]any of the folks that are DMing me videos and talking points to post have incredibly pro-Zionist leanings from their own social media pages.” For Harriman, that’s the damning issue with those who want to see a free Iran. Too many don’t hate Israel. So far, so familiar. Of course the chair of the South Bank Centre thinks he knows what’s better for Iranians than Iranians do themselves. Par for the course. As I wrote: “That is Western progressivism in a nutshell. Even the idea of freedom from a murderous theocratic tyranny is subservient to who is or is not politically acceptable in the West, and the idea that in the end it’s about the Jews (oops, the Zionists). I’d like to think that one day these people will wake up and realise that there is nothing progressive about supporting a theocratic tyranny. But they – and, I am afraid, the West more generally – are too far gone as they take advantage of Western freedom to spit on the astonishing courage of Iranians desperate for their own.” Harriman was at it again last week, when he became another so-called progressive to share the latest conspiracy theory with regard to the Golders Green stabbings: “Wait, so there was a third victim on the same day who was Muslim?! And our press isn’t reporting it? Even the Met Police didn’t mention the Muslim victim in its X post?” This canard has been spread so widely that it has become accepted as fact by some that there has been no mention of the first stabbing victim, a Muslim. This is simply nonsense, as a ten second Google search will show; it’s been widely reported. But the real issue for conspiracists like Harriman is something more sinister: the supposed privileging of anti-Jewish racism over ‘Islamophobia’. How telling, they posit, that the media and politicians are up in arms over the stabbing of two Jews, but not over the Muslim victim. The Met don’t even mention it! This was the line of the Green Party co-deputy leader, Rachel Millward, who reposted a message on X which claimed the Muslim victim had been erased from news stories to “suit a weaponised, desperate narrative”. Oh yes, it’s that weaponisation of antisemitism thing again. Just like the old Corbynite times. But it’s ironic that those who push this line are themselves the ones pushing a weaponised, desperate narrative – seeking to minimise the antisemitic element in the attack by creating a non-existent “Islamophobic” aspect to the coverage on which to focus. The Muslim victim was reportedly a friend of the alleged assailant, who is said to have been attacked because he tried to stop the alleged attacker from going to Golders Green. Whatever the specifics of the attack, there was clearly no element of race hate about it. It was appalling, as is any assault, especially one with a knife, but it was not an act of race hate. That was – let me put it no stronger than this - not the case with the Golders Green attacks. But here’s why the conspiracy being peddled by the likes of Harriman matters: it exposes where we are heading with the adoption of the concept of Islamophobia. The idea that focus on apparent race hate directed against Jews is, of itself, Islamophobic when a Muslim has also been attacked, even when that attack was in a separate incident and even when that incident has nothing to do with race, is telling. And worrying. But it’s Harriman’s analysis of the local elections that takes us up another level (I suppose it should really be down, given the descent into the gutter). This is something else altogether. I’ll quote him in full: “I have some thoughts on the election results, and the first thing that really comes to mind for me is the conversation Kurt Vonnegut had with Susan Sontag when he asked Susan Sontag on her thoughts on the Holocaust, and she said that when thinking about the Holocaust, she said ten per cent of people in any population are cruel no matter what, and ten per cent is merciful no matter what. And the other, this is important, the other remaining eighty per cent could be moved in either direction. “It’s such a profound way to look at us. And in the context of yesterday’s election results, it’s something that I think is really topical. The surge of Reform is real. No one should deny it.” Yes, he really went there. I wrote above about cognitive dissonance; this is more a form of moral inversion. Worse, it’s a form of amorality, in that Harriman appears unable to understand the difference between voting for a party with which he disagrees and the industrialised mass murder of an entire race. Since being called out on it by Heidi Bachram, Harriman has attacked her for what he calls a “slanderous, bad-faith smear. It has now also come to my attention how many times you have posted about me over the last two years, all in plain sight. This is deeply, deeply disturbing behaviour akin to harassment and stalking. Please leave me alone.” The sheer entitled arrogance – the idea that when he makes public statements they should be left alone, free from scrutiny - is breathtaking. I tip my hat to Bachram for not leaving Harriman alone, and make my own promise to him: so long as he continues to post such foul comparisons and push such appalling conspiracy theories, I certainly won’t leave him alone. I will bring his views – and his role as chair of the South Bank Centre – to the attention of as many people as I can.

Nadia Sawalha might've been put on the performative ITV naughty step for a couple of weeks but that's just a golden opportunity to record lots more cryptic 'I-know-what-jew-did-last-summer' type word salad, loose women style. #parody

"The Holocaust was not just Auschwitz. It was a pan-European phenomenon." Historian Sir Simon Schama talks to #R4Today on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Britain fought fascism once. Now we must defeat the new anti-Jewish extremists of the ‘Britifada’. Read the full op-ed by CAA’s Chief Executive, @GideonFalter, in The Sunday @Telegraph. We are rallying today outside Downing Street at 13:00. We must take a first step towards de-radicalising our nation. We hope that you will join us. telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/1…

Chair of the @southbankcentre Misan Harriman has some thoughts on the surge of Reform at the elections this week. He compares it to the Holocaust. This is truly DISGUSTING.