JO BRAND - BATTERY ACID AND ALLEGED HUMOUR.

When Boris Johnson made jokey remarks about Muslim women in burkas looking like letter boxes, he was vilified, particularly by the supposedly caring left wing. The police launched an investigation to determine whether or not Johnson's comments amounted to some sort of 'hate crime', although the investigation came to nothing.

Jo Brand, a supposed comedienne although her humour seems to be largely based on left wing, feminist, puerile and smutty attacks on anyone with whom she disagrees (which means anyone with vaguely right wing views), has made a suggestion that rather than throwing milkshakes at "certain unpleasant characters (who) are being thrown to the fore and they're very easy to hate" protesters should throw battery acid instead. If this isn't an incitement to the committal of a serious crime, I don't know what is. Brand laughed it off as being a joke and saying that she wouldn't do such a thing, but the damage was surely done. Clearly, the "certain unpleasant characters" referred to included the likes of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, people whom Brand despises. Farage had, of course, had a milkshake thrown over him during the European parliament election campaign and on the day before Brand's 'joke' was recorded.

However, the response from the BBC, on one of whose programmes this appalling thing was said, as well as from the programme's presenter, Victoria Coren Mitchell, has been muted, to say the least. They have joined with other left wing 'comedians' to try to sweep Brand's remarks under the carpet, claiming that they represented free speech and were simply testing the boundaries of humour; clearly their ideas of boundaries are somewhat different to mine.

Now, Brand has eventually admitted that her remarks were "crass and ill-judged" although she has rejected suggestions that they were a mistake. Given the timing of the recording, the day after the milkshake was thrown at Nigel Farage, that the BBC chose not to edit the remark during the 3 weeks up to the date of broadcast drives me to the belief that those in charge of such matters were quite happy with, and even in agreement with, Brand's vicious suggestion. One wonders just what the BBC, and others, would have said had the remark been made by say, Farage, about left wing comedians. 

The matter has, apparently, been referred to the police and we can only hope that the outcome is, at the very least, a severe warning to both Brand and the BBC as to their future conduct.