Kneecap

[JamesWales]

More gigs cancelled.

Should they play Glastonbury?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8x8n5kn80qo

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Kneecap

More gigs cancelled.

Should they play Glastonbury?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8x8n5kn80qo

They should be replaced by Elbow.

By the way, did you know that the words 'patella' (knee cap) and 'paella' are cognate. Clue: it's about being dish-shaped, the latter being prepared in a pan of that shape.

[Wales-Bales]

Re: Kneecap

I reserve the spare capacity inside my brain for useful information

[ninian opinian]

Re: Kneecap

I thought the right wing were all for free speech???

[jeepster]

Re: Kneecap

I thought the right wing were all for free speech???

Yes they are,when it suits them.

[JamesWales]

Re: Kneecap

Yes they are,when it suits them.

Quite act to deploy a bit of political sectarianism I guess, but condemnation come from across the spectrum.

Difficult one really, there has been some decent discussions on it. I don't think their fairly weak apology helped them much really.

[chrisp_1927]

Re: Kneecap

Encouraging people to kill others would surely be most people's idea of crossing the threshold into criminal territory.

' I want all Tories dead' - offensive but I'd imagine legal.


'kill your local mp' - incitement, a direct call to action and therefore criminal?

Will be interesting to see what the decision of the police is

[+ the native hipster]

Re: Kneecap

I thought the right wing were all for free speech???

i thought the far left were all for locking up people who called for violence???????

[Heathblue]

Re: Kneecap

Isn't some bird who went on a twitter rant after the brutal murder of 3 children doing porridge for this type of hate speech ?

[JamesWales]

Re: Kneecap

Counter terrorism police investigating.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyqe3v5jjdo

They could be in big trouble here. Shouting about "Kill your MP" and the "only good Tory is a dead Tory" to a large audience who are lapping it up, just a few months after one was killed in their constituency is potentially a very serious offence.

Same if they shouted "Up Hamas and Up Hezbollah", for which there are videos, apparently.

The woman who was jailed for calling for hotels to be set alight was jailed for 31 months.

I'm partial to a bit of angry rap. I love RATM and saw Idles last summer. Also enjoy Irish folk music including Irish rebel music, but I do think they have crossed a line and they seem thoroughly unlikeable (being a tosser is not a crime of course). It will be interesting to see what happens in light of the wider "two-tier justice" arguments.

🤷

[jon1959]

Re: Kneecap

A sensible tour around the controversy.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/01/kneecap-band-furore-hypocrisy-cancel-culture-free-speech

[Tuerto]

Re: Kneecap

Quite act to deploy a bit of political sectarianism I guess, but condemnation come from across the spectrum.

Difficult one really, there has been some decent discussions on it. I don't think their fairly weak apology helped them much really.

Weak, because they don't mean it (concerning Israel) and i agree with them. We'll hear more about this over the next few days than we will about Israel starving Palestinian children to death. Oh well.......

[jon1959]

Re: Kneecap

Weak, because they don't mean it (concerning Israel) and i agree with them. We'll hear more about this over the next few days than we will about Israel starving Palestinian children to death. Oh well.......

News deflection lesson one!

Some of the stuff they have said onstage - in the heat of a gig - is crass and wrong. The ‘kill your MP’ line was bound to be taken literally by some.

Some is clearly 100% right and they should be applauded for taking a stand and using their platform to demand justice for the victims of genocide.

But the most important lesson from this episode is that Sharon Osbourne is the real victim.

[JamesWales]

Re: Kneecap

Yeah but the issue isn't about the controversial (but acceptable) things they may say is it? Same with the people jailed last summer. No doubt they believed in some nice ideals too and loved their mams and things.

The fact you opposed Israel doesn't mean you can talk about killing MPs and support proscribed groups, does it?

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Kneecap

Yeah but the issue isn't about the controversial (but acceptable) things they may say is it? Same with the people jailed last summer. No doubt they believed in some nice ideals too and loved their mams and things.

The fact you opposed Israel doesn't mean you can talk about killing MPs and support proscribed groups, does it?

It’s funny, a group talks about murder and people are up in arms on phone ins and social media and a country actually continues to murder innocent children and adults and the same people sit on their hands. What Hamas did on 7 October 2023 deserved a measured response from Israel, but, nineteen months later, it’s long since exceeded that. Similarly, Kneecap (who I had not heard of before last weekend) should have apologised for what they said and have done - that should be an end to the matter and they should now play at Glastonbury.
I listened to five minutes of Radio 5’s phone in on Kneecap yesterday and there was someone who said that he couldn’t get his head around how there had not been a phone in on the atrocities being committed by Israel in Gaza since the ceasefire was broken by them on 18 March. Nicky Campbell was forced to admit this was right - that is a disgrace, individuals like that awful woman wrongly sent to prison for two and a half years and a band saying similar type things to what the Sex Pistols were saying nearly fifty years ago are debated till the cows come home, yet a country that kills thousands of innocents (and were killing thousands before 7/10/23) is almost given a free pass.
There are all sorts of reasons why Israel is treated with kid gloves and I’ve always thought that in the west, one of them is that they’re thought of as being “one of us” - they’re civilised in a way that “the Arabs” aren’t. Well, Israel, especially under this Government, long since gave up any such claims and I’m afraid I can’t get too worked up about what some band wanting to be controversial are saying while Israel is allowed to get away with what it’s done to Gaza.