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‘Irony is dead’ following Starmer response to Charlie Kirk shooting

On Wednesday 10 September, a gunman shot  and killed right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. That same day, Keir Starmer hosted Isaac Herzog – the president of Israel – a country which is committing a genocide that the UK has supported both politically and militarily. It surprised many, then, when they read the final point Starmer made in response to Kirk’s death:


Charlie Kirk: “irony is dead”

This same week, Israel bombed a building in Doha, Qatar were they were supposed to be engaging in peace talks. While the UK has officially condemned the attack, it’s also been reported that a UK refuelling aircraft was circling over Doha as the strike took place:


As journalists like Matt Kennard have reported, UK surveillance planes are regularly flying over Gaza for some reason:


Among those who criticised Starmer were Sangita Myska:


Myska has good reason to scoff at the UK establishment talking about ‘free debate’, as Ed Sykes noted for the Canary:

Independent journalists, meanwhile, have risked arrest to hold the powerful to account. Or alternatively, they have risked their jobs or access to the halls of power. But their integrity has been their priority. LBC, for example, appeared to take away Sangita Myska’s job because she was too professional in holding Israel to account for its actions. The outlet soon replaced her with far-right pro-Israel agitator Suella Braverman.

Author Nels Abbey made the point that Starmer was quick to condemn the US shooting but has had little to say about surging far-right violence in the UK:


Another issue the UK has kept mostly quiet on is the high number of journalist casualties in Israel’s genocide:


UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese recently highlighted how Israel’s eradication of journalists compares to other conflicts:


Another common point people made was highlighting that Herzog has seemingly condoned political violence himself, such as when he signed bombs set to be dropped on Gaza:


People also reflected on when Herzog said the following (seemingly condoning ‘collective punishment‘ – a war crime):

It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could’ve risen up; they could have fought against that evil regime

It’s statements like this which encouraged Declassified UK to confront Herzog and the PM:

Of course, Starmer’s meeting with Herzog wouldn’t be an issue if it was used to genuinely condemn the genocide and to explain the steps we would take to stop them continuing it. That clearly wasn’t what happened, though:

Violence cannot be contained

The establishment want us to believe there are two types of political violence:

  • Political violence 😡.
  • Political violence 😀.

The first is to be called out and condemned; the second is to be obscured or celebrated.

It’s a risky game to play, because violence begets violence, and you can’t predict where it erupt next.

Israel subjected the Palestinians to decades of apartheid before October 7th; Charlie Kirk described gun deaths as a price worth paying for the right to bear arms, claimed Black people were better off under segregation, and argued children should watch public executions as an “initiation”.

For both Charlie Kirk and Israel, the cycle of violence came around for them, as it could for any of us.

To stop this happening, we must push for peace and freedom at all times, and we must fight to end these wars which benefit no one but the arms manufacturers.

Starmer’s inability to do this shows why he’s unfit to hold office.

Featured image via Number 10

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.