Opinion

Tom Kelly: Don't be fooled by Jacob Rees-Mogg's posh accent - he is a dangerous political influence

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

DUP MP Ian Paisley greets Jacob Rees-Mogg at the Tullyglass Hotel in Ballymena. Picture by Declan Roughan
DUP MP Ian Paisley greets Jacob Rees-Mogg at the Tullyglass Hotel in Ballymena. Picture by Declan Roughan DUP MP Ian Paisley greets Jacob Rees-Mogg at the Tullyglass Hotel in Ballymena. Picture by Declan Roughan

By all accounts Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg is an extremely pleasant person to meet.

He is polite and mannerly. He is typical of those born with a silver spoon in their mouths though in his case he had a nanny to hold the spoon.

‘Nanny’ has proven to be an asset in politics as Rees-Mogg once took her canvassing and on another occasion auctioned tea with her for a Tory fundraiser.

Beyond the Lord Snooty appearance and Bertie Wooster characteristics, Rees-Mogg is a dangerous influence on British politics. His posh accent may soften the tone of his language but this man is as divisive as any right wing firebrand.

His decision to accept an invitation to attend a DUP fundraiser organised by an MP mired in controversy and censured by parliament, is wholly consistent with the attitude of this hardline politician.

Rees-Mogg’s attendance at such a DUP event suggests a contempt for his fellow Conservatives in Northern Ireland who are fielding candidates against the DUP in the forthcoming local government elections in May.

They too must fundraise for their elections and this constant stream of Tory Brexit fanatical and fantasist MPs coming to Northern Ireland to fill the coffers of the DUP has to be stomach churning for local Conservative activists.

Notably Labour suspended one of its one peers, Lord Haskins, for his donation to a Lib Dem candidate who was a close friend and more recently Labour also sought to oust Lord Sainsbury for donating to the Lib Dems in 2016. This was despite both Haskins and Sainsbury being huge donors and fundraisers for the Labour Party.

The central Tory party doesn’t seem too heavily burdened with such concerns. After all, they were heavily criticised for restoring the whip to two MPs accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour without any due process, just so they could vote in the leadership confidence ballot. The MPs denied the allegations.

More surprising was the enthusiastic welcome the normally Puritan North Antrim DUP gave to Rees-Mogg, who by his own admission is an arch Catholic; loving nothing more than the bells, smells and guitar free calmness of the Extraordinary Rite, better known as the Tridentine Mass.

If Rees-Mogg was any more traditional in Catholic terms he’d be an altar rail.

Rees-Mogg readily admitted in interviews that he submits to the authority of his Church and the Papacy.

This allows cyber cynics to comment that the DUP appeared to be ‘embracing Babylonian Roman Catholicism’.

As one of the most high profile practising Catholic MPs at Westminster whilst being hailed by a party which has never had a single Catholic public representative in its entire history is even beyond the Brexit farce.

Perhaps Rees-Mogg had a chance to discuss such matters with some of those in his Ballymena audience who publicly denounced the recent Papal visit to Ireland, or those who went further and ostracised and demonised fellow Protestants for attending funeral masses of Catholic friends and neighbours. It’s doubtful that Rees-Mogg raised any of these issues. Why would he?

Brexit has made for some strange bedfellows but bizarrely Rees-Mogg and the DUP are not just suited to one another - they deserve one another. There’s nothing patriotic about either: the DUP and Rees-Mogg are politically self-serving.

And soon Northern Ireland manufacturers, food producers, farmers and hauliers, will see just how self serving this coalition of chaos will be.

Matthew Norman of the Independent has described Rees-Mogg as an ‘attention craving mega narcissist’. Watching Rees-Mogg in TV interviews, at his gloating and patronising best, the description almost seems understated.

As the good Christians who attended the DUP dinner tucked into their £25 per head meal to listen to the man who once said the surge in the use of food banks was ‘rather uplifting’- were they aware that food banks in Britain have risen to over 2,000 in number since 2008? What an indictment of a first world country when its least well off depend on charity and not the state.

If the champions for a hardline Brexit get their way they will create a low wage economy across the UK, hammering the poor at the expense of the millionaire Brexiteers, who will enjoy luxury holidays and first class travel.

It’s a well trodden path on the backs of working people.