'Condemn the abusers!': James O'Brien reacts to Reform MP's 'bizarre' post

[00:00:00]Who do you think Sarah Poachin, the woman who hates seeing black, brown and black faces on her television?

[00:00:06]Who do you think she blames for um potential upticks in domestic violence when sporting events are on the television? So, there are measurable upticks in domestic violence when big sporting events are on the television.

[00:00:20]And it's important to um to remember that they are um almost always uh existing cases of abuse worsening during sporting tournaments. So these are wife beaters, scumbags, domestic abusers or indeed far riers because 20% of the people that that that got arrested at the last one subsequently turned out to have been arrested for domestic abuse. Um who do you think she blames? So if God forbid some some poor woman was to be battered by her partner during the World Cup, who do you think Sarah Poachin would blame for that? That the person doing the battering or or somebody else? Have a listen to this and tell me that I'm not going mad. England won the football last night and thank goodness they did because on the occasions that England lose their football matches, the incidences of domestic violence go through the roof.

[00:01:17]So, boys keep winning.

[00:01:20]>> Wow. So, it's the footballer's fault if uh if your stepdad beats up your mom next time England lose it. It's the footballer's fault if someone does that.

[00:01:34]What was the name of that guy who got elected to parliament on Nigel Faraj's ticket at the last general election?

[00:01:40]Turned out he was a he was someone that beats up women. James McMurdock was it?

[00:01:44]That's the fell. Um it's the footballers f. Did England lose that night when James McMurdock battered his girlfriend um and then went on to be elected to parliament as part of Nigel Farad's party? Was there a sporting event that night? Because if there was, I think we've misjudged the guy, haven't we?

[00:01:59]It's not his fault he battered his ex.

[00:02:01]It was it was the the the football team that lost that night.

[00:02:04]that were the reason why sometimes you look at these people and you think I mean are they evil or are they stupid or are they both and I think in her case it's very hard to resist the conclusion that it's a big fat both right so she doesn't like seeing brown and black oh you don't think so if a person of color batters somebody all right let's say a woman let's say a white woman if a person of color batters a white woman, then it's about immigration for these people. Somehow, every person of color in the country is on the hook for what happened to that woman, just as every person of color in the country was on the hook for the scumbag that murdered Henry Novak. You remember, it's fresh in your memory.

[00:02:51]They tried to make it about immigration despite the fact they tried to make it about racism. Nigel Farer started lying about anti-white racism. Henry Novak's family pleaded with the public not to tell lies or to make it racist or to use it for grounds for division or to riot.

[00:03:04]And Nigel Farage encouraged people to completely ignore them. He called for pure cold rage. So a white person dies at the hands of a brown person in a crime that had absolutely nothing to do with ethnicity or race. And this lot starts screaming about ethnicity and race. But in the event of a white woman being battered by a white man, um, it's all the fault of a football team that is, one of my colleagues suggested this morning, uh, it's because the England football team, it has so many black players in it. If it was a, if it was a lily white football team, she wouldn't be suggesting that it's the football team's fault when someone gets battered by their own partner. Now, that's bonkers, right? There's no earthly way that her brain is that warped.

[00:03:47]But what other explanation would you come up with for for how somebody could be so obviously is it stupid or sinister?

[00:03:55]It's it's as if because it's not just that you sat there and you've had a thought like sort of accidentally soiling yourself and then regretting it and thinking, "God, I hope nobody's noticed." It's as if you've accidentally soiled yourself and then decided to get someone to film it and post it on social media.

[00:04:11]The logic is so warped. And so here is a story about domestic violence rising in households where domestic violence already takes place when England lose.

[00:04:23]Goes up by about 38%. It goes up by 26% when they win or draw. By the way, presumably because alcohol has been taken and tempers are high and scumbags batter their partners. So even if they win, it goes up by 26%. She's too thick to either do the research on that or understand what the figures truly mean.

[00:04:43]But it's not the thickness of the position that I marvel at this morning.

[00:04:46]It's the decision to film it and then post it publicly. Here is me being gross and stupid.

[00:04:56]Oh, I'll tell you what. Grab that phone, will you, Keith, and film me doing it, and then we can stick it on social media. Listen to it again. All right.

[00:05:03]and tell me whether this is one of even by the standards of this shower, this is one of the most disgusting things any serving politician has said in recent memory.

[00:05:11]>> England won the football last night and thank goodness they did because on the occasions that England lose their football matches, the incidences of domestic violence go through the roof.

[00:05:22]So, boys keep winning.

[00:05:24]>> So, when when when a person of color commits a crime, it's it's all down to immigration and all people of color are responsible for it. But when a domestic abuser commits a crime, presumably um she's imagining it happening to uh people that she cares about, which means it must be white people because she we know how she feels about black and brown people. She can't stand seeing them on the television, let alone worrying about their um circumstances or plight, then it's all the fault of the football team, which happens to have a lot of black football players in it. How bizarre. Um, and of course the point if you minded to defend her or or or to pretend to believe that what she has said isn't as disgusting as it sounds. The point is that the incidences and the University of Lancaster did a um a study on this.

[00:06:09]Lancaster did a study on this not long ago. The risk of domestic abuse in homes where it already happens increases by 26% when when England win or draw.

[00:06:20]So I mean it's it's 38% when they lose, 26% when they win or draw. So even when they win, the domestic abuse goes up. So what you should be doing as a member of parliament is condemning abusers and offering perhaps words of support or um advice to victims of it. How to get out of those kind of scenarios. But she's not even doing that. She's saying, "Let's hope they win. Carry on winning, lads, because then the chance of that woman over there getting battered only goes up by 26% instead of 38%. I'm Sarah Poachin. I'm so thick I can't count.

[00:06:55]>> When I first saw it, I I was slack jawed. I was just like, sorry, what?

[00:07:02]What is it you're trying to say here?

[00:07:03]And I had my bigger problem, bigger than the problem of vaguely blaming the England players for domestic violence in certain circumstances. Um, was the tone of the whole thing. Come on, boys. Make sure those abusers don't go around abusing. It was just so odd. such an odd approach to such a terrible, terrible topic. And and we do know, we've known for years that big sporting events during which lots of men and women, but let's focus on abusers, um get drunk um or do drugs and celebrate and get very high on life. Um whether you've won or lost the game or whatever sporting event it is, it's often football. It's not only football. We know that it increases in both sets of circumstances and e probably more when they lose on that. I I don't doubt she's right. But I just the whole context of it was almost making a a twe fun sport come on lads remark about a fabulous thing like the World Cup and using it as a as a tool on about domestic violence. it just nothing about it hung together well at all. And also what it what it also does is it takes away from the central and vital message uh that an abuser is the person at fault. Because women who've been domestically abused, coerced, physically abused, mentally abused, emotionally abused, they will often report, we talk about a lot on the program, and women often tell me that they spent years altering their behavior, hoping that they could avoid him becoming angry, hoping they could, you know, keep the kids quiet or make the right meal or not go and visit your parents or not see any of your friends or twist and turn yourself into a million different shapes so that he does not hurt you one way or another. And in a way, that's what that's what Sarah Potchin was saying about this. It was like if only the England team can win, then those abusers won't have a reason to abuse. And I don't think for a second she thinks that there is ever a reason to abuse. I I genuinely don't. But that's what that's what the message it sort of conveyed. It conveyed an idea that that abusers are driven to abuse by something by as in it's not them. It's not a fault within them, a difficulty, a a shortcoming, a deficit in them, which is what it is, by the way, that makes men abuse. Um, that it is somehow some external force that is responsible. And that's that is something that victims of domestic abuse constantly try and get away from. And and sometimes in the depths of their abuse when people have thankfully haven't experienced it, but when people tell me about it and I have see it seen it in friends and you know I've seen it in in other situations where you can see them trying to twist things into a different shape in order to avoid abuse when in fact you won't avoid it. Um And I'm told when England win, domestic violence increases by 38% and when they lose or draw it increases by into the mid20s I think. Um so less than but still it's it's not about the game. It's it's about the abuser. And I also think it's remember when I covered the 2012 Olympics, I learned that um sex trafficking and trafficking of people uh in increases dramatically in the city where an Olympics is being held.

[00:10:55]And it's again it it's a bit like using that as a means to say, well, I think maybe we shouldn't have the Olympics because it's about abusers. It's abusers latching on to things. it's not the thing itself. And Refuge, the the charity for for people who are being abused, uh, says it's deeply concerned by what it called a highly inappropriate social media post from Sarah Pochin, uh, suggesting England should win more men's football matches to reduce domestic abuse. It's only not it's not only misleading, they said, but could allow perpetrators to evade accountability. Let's be clear, football is never an excuse for domestic abuse. perpetrators can't continue to be shielded by the myth that football directly causes abuse.

[00:11:41]Couldn't have said it better. Just bizarre. Absolutely bizarre.