A little freak writes...
No boxing matches against big old swedehead Sun writers
Previously: Something Amis
Martin Amis was an interesting arsehole. Boring arseholes now won't shut up about him.
I met Harry Cole a long time ago. He was just a reporter at Guido Fawkes back then; the Muttley to perpetually thirsty, drink-driving enthusiast Paul Staines (who was absolutely bodied on Newsnight last night).
Now Cole is the ex-Mail, ex-boyfriend of Carrie Johnson turned Sun political editor who pops up on Talk TV, Politics Live, and other places, looking like a Samuel Johnson cosplayer; a man with the ruddy complexion of a 19th-century drunkard who also happens to be a Grub Street scribbler employed by some antipodean upstart.
Yesterday, Cole published one of his classic non-story Sun exclusives, which hinged on something that a right-wing politician said could happen if Sadiq Khan was “sacked” as London Mayor. I mocked it on Twitter and said I could defeat Harry Cole in ritual combat but probably wouldn’t. Cole replied — in a quote tweet he no doubt thought would bring fellow headbangers to his banner:
Funny you didn’t say that to my face when I walked past you skulking outside the Red Lion this evening. Little freak.I was with some colleagues from Politics Joe and an aide to Jeremy Corbyn. I’d been on Parliament Square reporting on the TUC demo. If I was skulking, I was doing a bad job standing in bright sunlight chatting to people. I did see Harry Cole there but had no desire to go and talk to him as I actually value my time.
It is very telling that the banter lad world of The Sun cannot take a joke at its expense and that Cole is so quick to move to a “come outside and say that to me” escalation. Harry Cole left without saying anything to me and waited until he was far from the Red Lion to come the big man.
Let’s have a chat next time, Harry. We can talk about standards in reporting, and why your predecessor as political editor — Tom Newton Dunn — used The Sun front page to push a neo-nazi conspiracy theory. I’ll even buy you a drink. It’s clear you really enjoy them.
British journalism should be a little better than YouTubers calling each other out for charity boxing matches, but it obviously isn’t.
Thanks for reading.
Always struck when I see him pop up in the usual places at that degree of arch-insouciance that belies the lacuna where the talent is supposed to reside.
You’d have thought such a five-head would have ample room, but then, how much shit-for-brains is too much or never enough?
Also, he looks rather unsuited for sustained violence without a St. John’s Ambulance. Would have to be a sucker-punch or a flying head-butt to get him in the game.
Harry Cole calling someone else a freak 😆