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Spectator
41 minutes ago
- Politics
- Spectator
James O'Brien has disgraced himself
For a man who wrote a book called How To Be Right, James O'Brien sure gets a lot wrong. Consider the message from one of his listeners that he read out on his LBC radio show yesterday. It said Jewish kids in the UK are taught to loathe Arabs and see them as 'cockroaches to be crushed'. This is not only untrue, it is grossly libellous and possibly dangerous. Will Mr Right fess up and apologise? What possessed O'Brien to so solemnly read on air a blatant falsehood about Britain's Jews? The message came from someone called 'Chris' from Oxford. From the get-go his comment was creepy and should have got alarm bells clanging at LBC. 'Warped views' about Arabs 'are not just an Israeli problem', it said. No, this 'warped' supremacism infects the hearts and minds of people outside Israel too. Guess who? Yes, Jews here in Britain. Chris continued: 'My wife was brought up Jewish and at Shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town she was taught that one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives, and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.' That 'young children' – say it, 'Chris': young Jews – are being indoctrinated with 'such hatred and dehumanisation' is profoundly concerning, the message said. And O'Brien read it out, every word, not once stopping to wonder: is this true? It isn't true, of course. None of it. As Jews across the internet have pointed out, there's no such thing as 'Shabbat school'. Some Christians might take religious lessons on their holy day, but Jews do not. A 'Shabbat school' is the invention of – to be generous – a confused mind. As to the claim that Jewish kids are taught that one Jewish life is the equal of thousands of those 'cockroach' Arab lives – that is a disgusting lie. Jewish friends of mine are furious. They feel genuinely unsettled that on a popular radio show loved by middle-class liberals, such a vile calumny could be made against their community. 'We were taught the opposite – that every life is precious', a Jewish friend texted me last night. And he's from Hertfordshire, that apparent den of sneaky Jewish brainwashing on the awfulness of Arabs. The problem here is less 'Chris' – sadly there are many people out there who spout drivel – than it is James O'Brien and LBC itself. That O'Brien took as good coin this calamitous untruth about our Jewish compatriots should induce some serious soul-searching on his part. He has this morning apologised and the clip appears to have been taken down by LBC. O'Brien said on his show today that he is 'genuinely sorry' for taking the 'unsubstantiated claims' in the message 'at face value'. Would he so breezily have read out a message branding our black citizens as 'criminals' or calling all British Muslims nutters who are taught to hate the world? Worse, LBC posted a clip of O'Brien reading Chris's message on X, where it was no doubt lapped up by the anti-Jewish bigots who are sadly legion on social media. So not one person at LBC queried Chris's claims? O'Brien himself, his producers, the audio guys, the person who made the clip, the person who posted it – not one of them appeared to stop to ask: 'Wait, is it true that Jewish kids are being brainwashed to be racist scum?' That is a catastrophic institutional failure. LBC needs to investigate how it happened. To me, the sick myth that Britain's Jewish children are being pumped with Arabphobia has a whiff of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Where that gross old forgery claimed to reveal a Jewish plot for world domination, now fact-free messages read out on radio shows tell of a Jewish plot to 'warp' children with racial hatred. It's 2025 and people are still spreading libels about the Jews being an unusually malicious people, only now we're told they want to crush Arabs like 'cockroaches' rather than kill Christians for their blood. It would be deeply immoral to broadcast a message like that at any time. To do it during one of the worst outbursts of anti-Semitism of modern times is unforgivable. Is LBC not worried about whipping up racial hatred against Jewish schools and their teachers and pupils? Things were so bad post-7 October that Jewish schoolkids in London were told they could remove their blazers on their way to school to avoid becoming a target for anti-Semites. That LBC has now stoked the lie that Jewish schools are indeed suspect places is shameful beyond words. Leave Jewish kids alone, please. For years O'Brien posed as a warrior against 'post-truth', and yet here he is helping to spread outright untruths. He was lauded as the conscience of liberal Britain, yet here he promotes wholly regressive claims about one of our most beleaguered communities. He raged against the 'hatred' in Brexit Britain, yet now he is possibly emboldening the hatred of certain toerags on the internet who've long suspected that the Jews are up to no good. O'Brien is living proof that 'liberal Britain' has lost its moral bearings, and possibly its marbles too.
The National
3 hours ago
- Politics
- The National
Calls for LBC's James O'Brien to be 'taken off air'
The listener's comments came after O'Brien had criticised the mainstream UK media for focusing on Bob Vylan and Kneecap's comments at the Glastonbury Festival instead of reporting on Israel's war on Gaza. In a short clip shared to social media by LBC, O'Brien reads out the listener's message where he comments that he is doing so as he is 'fascinated by objectivity'. READ MORE: Doing the right thing for Gaza would gain the SNP more support O'Brien read the short statement from the listener Chris which said: 'I do think it's worth saying that these warped views are not just an Israeli problem. 'My wife was brought up Jewish and at Shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town she was taught that one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives, and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed. 'Whilst young children are being taught such hatred and dehumanisation, undoubtedly on both sides' He added: 'As Chris points out – then they will always be able to justify death and cruelty, and it does indeed start young. 'There is a danger perhaps that we only ever hear one side of the dehumanisation and propaganda processes.' Following the post on social media where O'Brien reads out the listener's message, a Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesperson described the comments as 'a modern blood libel on national radio', Meanwhile, the Board of Deputies of British Jews have called for him to be removed by LBC. In a statement, Andrew Gilbert, vice president of the board, said that reading out the message was 'demonising' the British Jewish community during a time antisemitism is at 'terrifyingly high levels' in the UK. He wrote: 'We are urgently seeking a meeting with senior executives following the completely unacceptable and highly offensive comments made by James O'Brien on his LBC show today. 'Broadcasting such a transparent falsehood and demonising the British Jewish community, at a time when antisemitism in this country is at terrifyingly high levels, must have clear consequences. 'LBC should apologise, and take Mr O'Brien off the air.'
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why is James O'Brien recycling an anti-Semitic lie?
What kind of person would unquestioningly believe that British Jewish children are taught that 'one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed'? Step forward James O'Brien, LBC's prince of the bien pensant. Today, the radio presenter received a message from a listener calling himself 'Chris' who made these overtly anti-Semitic claims. O'Brien apparently duly repeated them on air without so much as a how's your father, prefaced by the baffling statement: 'I'm fascinated by objectivity, which is why I'm going to read out this from Chris'. The listener's message began by pointing out that 'warped views are not just an Israeli problem'. What? So it's OK now to smear an entire nation as holding 'warped views'? The fact that this alone did not set off alarm bells in O'Brien's mind was worrying enough. Make such a claim about any other people and the author of How To Be Right would surely be the very first to cry racist. But that was only the prelude. 'Chris' went on to extend this 'Israeli problem' to include Jews in this country as well as their cousins in Tel Aviv. 'My wife was brought up Jewish and at shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town…' his message continued. Let's press pause again there. For one thing, it just sounded phony. 'My wife was brought up Jewish'? Yeah, right. But the mention of a 'shabbat school' was hilarious. There is, of course, no such thing. Jews do not go to school on the sabbath. These red flags also fluttered too high above O'Brien's head for him to notice. He continued to read out the message to his 1.5 million listeners. Thus, middle Britain was treated, in O'Brien's honeyed tones, to Chris's claim that at 'shabbat school', his 'wife' had been introduced to the aforementioned bigotry towards Arabs. The fact that O'Brien at no point realised the nature of what he was reading is downright disturbing. Let's make this absolutely clear. Of the 15 million Jews in the world, you'll be hard pressed to find any who holds such repugnant views of anybody, including Arabs. Attend any pro-Israel rally and you'll never hear anything like it. Especially not in Britain. It is true that a handful of extremists, especially in Israel, sometimes chant disgraceful things about their enemies. Jews have their thugs and nutters just like any other people. But these are in the vanishingly small minority, like the BNP in Britain. To suggest that this amounts to an institutional indoctrination, akin to the brainwashing in Gaza, is quite obviously an anti-Semitic lie. Obvious, at least, to anybody with common sense. In concluding his shameful monologue, O'Brien intoned: 'Whilst young children are being taught such hatred and dehumanisation, undoubtedly on both sides, as Chris points out, then they will always be able to justify death and cruelty.' He added: 'There is a danger, perhaps, that we only ever hear one side of the dehumanisation and propaganda.' No, there isn't. Not everything has two sides, James. There is such a thing as right and wrong. Obviously Israel, being a real-life country in the real world, isn't perfect; obviously it has its own extremists and criminals, like every other state on Earth. But to compare the Middle East's only democracy to Gaza, where every strata of society is poisoned with the toxic ideology of the death cult, is frankly abhorrent – let alone suggesting that British Jews are engaged in the same thing. Think of the scenes on October 7, when the half-naked corpses of Jewish women were paraded through Gaza while mobs spat at them, jeered and beat them with sticks. Could you imagine such a thing happening in Tel Aviv? Could you imagine Israelis cheering as children and the elderly were taken hostage? Of course not. But I wonder whether O'Brien can. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. In 2014 and 2015, the author of How They Broke Britain gave vast amounts of airtime to the bogus claims of the VIP sex ring based on testimony by Carl Beech, who was later imprisoned both for sex offences and for perverting the course of justice. He later expressed regret. But in August last year, he caused outrage by praising a video on social media that blamed 'Zionist backers' for the Southport riots. He later claimed not to have watched the clip in full and condemned it. A certain pattern is emerging here. As inexplicable as it might be, O'Brien has a huge listenership and more than a million followers on social media. LBC has removed the 'warped views' clip from the internet. For untold numbers of people, however, the damage has already been done.
Boston Globe
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
What is dirty soda and where can you try it?
Zhuzhed-up sodas are nothing new. As a college student, I had the deep pleasure of living above a drugstore with an old-school soda fountain, where I ordered Green Rivers, cherry phosphates, and vanilla Cokes while listening to farmers in from the fields jaw over 5 cent cups of Butter-Nut coffee. Places like this are a dying breed. Swig and its ilk are the modern version, so of course dirty sodas have gone viral. Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up It happened because, at the tail end of the year 2021, singer Olivia Rodrigo posted a photo of herself — black hat, black leather jacket, black nails, in the black night — holding a white cup splashed with a cherry red Swig logo. TikTok exploded. There are now countless reels of people explaining dirty soda, taste-testing dirty soda, and hacking their own dirty soda at home. Advertisement But it was inevitable. With the 2024 debut of Hulu's 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,' a reality show for people so obsessed with drama they want to spend their free time watching someone else's, dirty sodas got an even bigger moment. In Advertisement Dirty sodas at Far Out Ice Cream in Brookline. From left: the Creamsicle (orange soda with condensed milk, vanilla, and cream topping), Shark Attack (lemon-lime soda with strawberry drizzle, blue raspberry, and cream), and Kookaberry Cola (cola with strawberry-raspberry-blueberry drizzle plus cream). Devra First In these parts, dirty sodas are hard to come by. They are slowly trickling our way. At But the truest dirty soda experience in these parts can be found in Clinton, where last year Lauren Nanof and her husband, Chris, opened 'I grew up in Clinton, I went to schools in Clinton, and I always had this idea of a little soda shop in our town, a place people could gather,' Nanof says. She was thinking of milkshakes and floats and the like. Then came dirty soda. She and Chris tried making their own. They loved it. She researched and realized there was nothing like it around. There's a Dairy Queen in town, and ice cream stand standouts like Rota Spring Farm and Kimball Farm in the area. Dirty soda was a niche, albeit a risk: Did enough people know what it was? Advertisement First they opened the candy shop. In designing The Fountain, Nanof made the most of her skills from her previous business, specializing in cabinet finishing and interior painting. The result is a candy-colored charmer, with striped walls, ice cream paraphernalia, neon signs, and a Barbie-pink payphone small children stare at with confusion. The soda and ice cream side of the business opened in October, coinciding nicely with 'Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' streaming fervor. There is also a mobile soda cart Nanof and crew bring to events. 'I knew it was going to be good to introduce people to dirty soda, but I never realized what a community aspect it would bring,' Nanof says. 'It's so many people's favorite place to come. We're on a bus stop, so we get flooded after school with people coming in to sit. Grandparents or parents bring kids. It's so nice to see people sit down and share a drink together.' The Fountain hosts all kinds of events, from music and movie Mondays with themed menus to community fund-raisers. When they post a drink on social media, everyone comes in and orders it. Advertisement Customers flock to The Fountain for dirty sodas, ice cream treats, and a social experience. David L Ryan/ Globe Staff I can see why. Dirty sodas aren't a gimmick. They are genuinely delightful. On a recent visit, I order a flight of four small sodas for $12.50, a merciful option for the indecisive and dirty soda curious alike. Some of the offerings are too sweet for my taste (fie on you, Cooler Than a Colada), but I would happily drink concoctions like The Founder (Dr. Pepper with vanilla syrup and coconut creamer) and the Creamy Cola Crush (Coke with sweet cream, raspberry puree, and fresh lime juice) any day. Maybe it's because I'm a whiskey/amaro person, but the brown soda options seem to work better than those with a Sprite/Fresca/Mountain Dew base. There are more than 40 dirty sodas on The Fountain's menu, not to mention all the floats, shakes, soft-serve, stackers (ice cream and toppings layered in a cup), and outliers like The Fountain looks as if it's always been here on High Street in Clinton. David L Ryan/ Globe Staff 'Our downtown, at one point previously to me being alive, was bustling,' says Nanof, who is also president of the chamber of commerce. Now Clinton is being Advertisement And so a soda trend born from Utah's Mormon culture 15 years ago helps contribute to the revitalization of an old Massachusetts mill town today. Talk about the butterfly effect. Or, as we call it now, the Internet. If it means delicious drinks for everyone everywhere, I'll take it. The Fountain, 138 High St., Clinton, 978-878-1615, . Dirty sodas $3.25-$4.50. Devra First can be reached at
North Wales Live
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- North Wales Live
North Wales TV chef aims to be big Down Under after recipes go viral
A larger than life Cofi chef is aiming to be big Down Under after his recipes went viral. BAFTA Cymru winner and fire-chef Chris 'Flamebaster' Roberts' BBC Wales series, Chris Cooks Cymru, which was shown earlier this year, has been sold to broadcasters in Australia and Georgia. In the meantime, Chris, from Caernarfon, has gone viral on social media, with his recipes for Welsh Rarebit and Conwy mussels getting more 5.5 million hits. The six-part series sees Chris travel across the country, tasting what each region has to offer and cooking up tasty meals in different locations using a variety of cookery methods but specialising in the use of fiery charcoal. Chris said: "It's amazing the reaction we've had to the series in which I've travelled to places in Wales I've never visited before and finding out about local traditions and foods and meeting some fantastic people. 'It's really next level stuff and the series being sold to SBS in Australia and the Georgian channel is the icing on the cake." Made by Caernarfon-based production company Cwmni Da a second series of Chris Cooks Cymru has already been commissioned. Planning is underway for the filming over the summer with the series due to be aired on BBC Wales early next year. "I've been blown away by the response from people watching the series. The engagement from the viewing public has been awesome. 'I'm really chuffed that the series has gone down so well with viewers. It's cool to see my cooking getting such a great reaction." News of the series being shown across the UK and farther afield comes at a busy time for Chris. "I'm preparing for the second series which we'll film in the summer after a trip to Japan for a series that will be shown on S4C in the run-up to Christmas," he said. Japan, added Chris, has been one of his "bucket-list" destinations for a long time. "I've never been there before but I've been wanting to visit for as long as I can remember. The food there is fantastic and they're well known for their fish cookery but they're just as well-known for their cooking with fire and the Wagyu beef is out of this world. "I'm looking forward to visiting, finding out more about their country and their traditions, eating sushi and yakitori and other regional speciality dishes. It's going to be an epic trip." According to Chris, the trip will be done in two stages with one block of filming taking place in May and a second block in the autumn. "We're trying to cover the country for as long as possible. It's said that Japan has 72 seasons in a year so there's a lot to see and a lot of food to eat," he said. Cwmni Da producer Aneurin Thomas, who has worked with Chris for several years, said: "We started off quite simply making short films for the Hansh strand on S4C, featuring everything from cooking stunning steaks over fire to showcasing incredible local seafood. 'Hansh is a platform for young people in Wales to express themselves, and even back then, Chris' energy and talent were unmistakable. 'Since then, we've travelled together filming in Wales, New York, Scandinavia and Spain. It's a real pleasure working with him - he's not only a brilliant chef, but a great friend. 'What you see on screen is exactly what you get: a down to earth guy with a genuine passion for food and people." Chris said: "I just love what I'm doing but it's more than just me. I'm celebrating the butchers, fishmongers, growers, producers, and farmers of Wales — they're my superheroes! I want to shine a light on the incredible work they do behind our phenomenal produce." And on top of all this activity Chris found out that one of his other S4C shows, Siwrna Scandi Chris (Chris's Scandi Journey), has been shortlisted for an award in the Factual Entertainment category at the Celtic Media Festival which will be held in Newquay, Cornwall in early June. In the series Chris embarked on an epic foodie adventure through Scandinavia as well as an emotional reunion with his Scandinavian relatives in Norway. "Sadly I won't be able to attend the festival but it's a great event. We've been nominated many times and had the huge honour of winning at last year's festival in Cardiff," said Chris. The first Chris Cooks Cymru series can be streamed on BBC iPlayer until the autumn of 2025. Siwrna Scandi Chris and Chris' programmes about his visit to Spain last year can be streamed on S4C/Clic. Here is a recipe for Welsh Rarebit – 'Chris Cooks Cymru' Caerffili Style (good for 4 fully loaded rarebit slabs) Ingredients: 2 tbsp plain flour 100g butter 1 can of Welsh stout (or Guinness) Big fat slices of farmhouse white loaf A long splash of Worcestershire sauce A pinch of sea salt Welsh mustard (amount depends on how fiery you like it!) 500g Gorwydd Caerphilly cheese 'Rarebit' is one of our national dishes and I'm really proud of it! It's quite a simple dish, but it's really worth getting the basics right!! Many think it's merely cheese on toast, but Welsh Rarebit is soooo much more! It's a gorgeous gooey oozy mix of cheese, mustard and Welsh stout - one of my ultimate comfort foods. Melt the butter in a pan on medium heat - it's essential you cook out the flour for a couple of minutes 'til it smells toasty - if you don't cook out the flour it'll be grainy and there is nothing on earth more tragic than a grainy rarebit… For a fiery Welsh kick, in with a good dollop of Welsh mustard (it's similar to English mustard - just better ha ha!) make it rain Worcestershire sauce on it and slowly add half a can of your stout (the other half is for the chef to drink as the mixture combines together) then in with the crumbly Caerphilly cheese. Gorwydd Caerphilly is my fave. Melt the cheese with love and care. Keep stirring until everything melts into a glorious, luscious, silky smooth mix. Leave to cool to room temp before adding it on the toast, or keep in the fridge 'til later. (Pro tip: Always make extra - it'll keep for a week or so and is ready to rock whenever the rarebit craving strikes!) I always fully load my rarebit to the max on a toasted thick slab of white bread. Think single bed covered by a super king duvet - it's all about that rarebit hug! Pop it under a hot grill or pizza oven - and take it to the limit, until it's bubble-dancing golden and covered in charred leopard spots.
