Just missed my tube stop reading tweets from people thinking that I'm a secret far right racist (and one who's happy to be used in Britain First campaigning material). It is so ridiculous that I haven't wanted to dignify it by saying any more than my original clarification.
1/5
1/5
But here is what happened. Over two years ago, I was walking in Kennington when two people who I didn't know jumped out of a van and said "can we have a selfie?" That is a not very remarkable event. So I said yes and smiled with them as I ordinarily would.
2/5
2/5
An hour later, I'm at the local flower show (*this is not made up, my partner was the judge) and I got a call from my editor "we have a W1A situation". And it was explained to me who was in the photo and how it was used.
3/5
3/5
So I clarified in a tweet (or thought I had clarified) that I had merely posed for an innocent selfie. But for avoidance of doubt, I did not know who they were. (This was pre Brexit, pre--Trump).
4/5
4/5
But to be clear: the photo isn't a fake; it's the attempt to read my politics into it that's wrong. Overall, I think if I was a happy clappy far right racist, I'd avoid posing for photos with racists. Or campaigning publicly with them, as it would breach my BBC contract.
5/5
5/5
