Banning Kanye West is pointless - the summer Wireless Nazifest is greedy organisers fault
Kanye West gonna Kanye West the way only Kanye West can. Blame the greedy promoter who made this fiasco possible.
Roll up, roll up, get your tickets for this summer’s most outrageous show: the Finsbury Park Reichsparteitag, sorry, Wireless Festival. Fear not ladies and gentlemen, despite major donors pulling out and the headliner being banned from the country, tickets are on sale for the one, and mercifully, only Kanye “I am a Nazi” West.
The three day event in July is in jeopardy after minsters blocked his visa. Given the erratic state of his mental health, who knew what to expect anyway. He could roll on stage in a Panzer tank wearing SS uniform and a pointy Ku Klux Klan hat under a banner saying “no blacks, no Jews, no dogs, no Irish” and still receive rapturous applause from his adoring fans.
Not since Michael Jackson has a performer so clearly mentally unwell been indulged on such a scale.
The decision to book one of the most controversial acts feels all the more extraordinary coming a fortnight after four ambulances were set on fire in an antisemitic attack just down the road in Golders Green. It has prompted calls for him to be barred from entering Britain altogether.
Kanye’s battle with bipolar disorder is well documented, and he has become as notorious for his antisemitic and inflammatory behaviour as for his music. Only last year he commemorated the 80th anniversary of VE Day with the release of a single titled Heil Hitler and a line of swastika T-shirts.
Yet none of that appears to have troubled the organisers of Wireless.
The rapper issued an apology in January explaining he has annual manic episodes he cannot control: “When you’re manic, you don’t think you’re sick. You think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you’re seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you’re losing your grip entirely.”
Bipolar is a serious condition that demands a degree of understanding beyond ordinary compassion. It is certainly beyond the grasp of impressionable racist thugs. With his immense wealth, Kanye could afford the best care available if he wanted it. Instead he appears to surround himself with ‘yes men’ unwilling to challenge him.
Even now, in a period of relative stability, his determination to keep touring despite the distress and offence it will inevitably cause shows he is a raging egotist with a fragile grip on reality at the best of times.
Still, for all his troubles, banning Kanye from the UK is a kneejerk response to a problem created by the promoters. He should never have been given a platform when antisemitic abuse is at a high.
Calculatedly provocative, reckless and shameless Wireless has put profit first without any consideration about inflaming an already volatile situation.
Trump’s Iran rants sound like a DRUNK TEEN. AKA NOT GOOD!!! (Very bad)
Donald Trump’s unhinged threats to Iran have become so normalised that now I barely bat an eyelid that the leader of the free world posts public statements that read as though they were written by a drunk teenager trolling an ex.
Can you imagine Roosevelt sending Hitler a telegram like that?
“We are watching very closely!! Not good, Adolf, not good, very nasty stuff. The United States is strong, very strong. Biggest economy (by far), tremendous factories, brave warriors, the best!!!! You have 48 HOURS to stop invading f**kin’ countries or you are going to have a big problem, maybe the biggest problem you’ve ever seen. JUST WATCH! You will be eating sauerkraut in HELL!”
Leave it out you bunch of Patsies
Hapless thieves broke into Dame Joanna Lumley’s car but couldn’t get it started and were caught red-handed by the Absolutely Fabulous star herself.
According to a report, she was woken in the early hours by the sound of the alarm going off. When she stepped outside her south London home, she found a group of masked men on motorbikes attempting to steal the vehicle.
Undaunted, she promptly told them exactly where to go and they did as they were told. Sweetie darlings, don’t mess with Dame Jo.
Gone to the dogs
Romans build Hadrian's Wall to defend Britain against barbarians, but the battle has been lost it seems. Lazy dog owners have been stuffing bags of poo into the cracks of the 1,900 year-old Unesco World Heritage site, leaving wardens to clear up after them. Your dog, your mess, your problem.
