Laurence Fox arrested over remarks on Ulez cameras as GB News sacks him

[muriel_volestrangler]

Police have arrested the rightwing commentator Laurence Fox at his home after comments appearing to encouraging people to vandalise Ulez cameras.

On Wednesday morning Fox’s Reclaim party posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, which showed him sitting on the sofa in his living room, as several people dressed in police uniforms and wearing protective plastic gloves milled around him.

In the video Fox says: “Look how many coppers there are in my house, look at them coming to steal everything, take everything out of my house. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the country that we live in.” He then gives the camera a thumbs up.
...
“He was arrested in Stockwell and has been taken to a south London police station, where he remains in custody.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/04/laurence-fox-arrested-over-comments-urging-people-to-vandalise-ulez-cameras

Link to tweet

"Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson were both suspended last week pending internal investigations that have now concluded. As of today, GB News has ended its employment relationship with Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson. The internal investigation into Dan Wootton continues."

Couldn't happen to a nastier misogynistic fascist.

[niyad]

1. I liked him in "Lewis", had no idea he is such a creep.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. It all seemed to start a few years ago when he appeared on "Question Time"

which is a BBC programme for the audience to put current affairs questions (mainly political) to a panel of about 5 people - mostly politicians, but with one or two well-known people from other areas who are interested in talking about politics. He was on, and was very "anti-woke" and the associated viewpoints. And then he quickly joined up with that sort of political party - to the right of the Tories (I guess he'd claim to be "libertarian", but really MAGA-style stuff). He failed spectacularly to get anywhere in a bid for London Mayor. And then got a job on the new GB News channel, where a lot of the presenters are right wing politicians.

He really blew up a couple of weeks ago, after a discussion on the BBC about whether there is a need for a "Minister for Men", or "Minister for Mental Health", or both (there is already a Minister for Women and Equalities, though sadly the current one is a right-wing nut job (notice Fox is a supporter of hers). The discussion was fine; but Fox then decided the way to comment on it on GB News was to say, at length, how ugly he thought one of the women is. That was too much even for GB News, who suspended him, and Dan Wootton, on whose show he said it (Wootton has his own scandal - while employed on Murdoch's Sun, he sent fellow (male) workers pseudonymous offers to pay them money for sexually explicit photos of themselves).

(if you do want to see the BBC discussion, and it won't play in the USA, you can see a commentary with bits embedded here - I haven't watched it all, but it's a "men's rights" point of view, but from what I've seen, sticks to proper arguments)

[T_i_B]

3. There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to Laurence Fox

One is that he's just a massive arsehole (see his Twitter feed for ample evidence of this)

The other is that he's actually quite unwell and in need of an intervention in order to protect him and his family from himself.

I don't know where he thinks he's going to go with all this far right grifting but it's obvious to almost all (except maybe himself) that he's heading in the wrong direction.