There aren’t many things that haven’t aged well that have aged as badly as these tributes to Jimmy Savile.

Thanks to the failings of the Crown Prosecution Service (but emphatically not the Director of Public Prosecutions) and a couple of England’s county constabularies, Jimmy Savile was able to pop his Yorkshire clogs safe in the knowledge that he was known as a national treasure, a heroic charity fundraiser and one of the most recognisable celebrities of his age.

The BBC was initially unable to air its Newsnight expose of Jimmy Savile because programmers considered it inappropriate to run it alongside a tribute to Jimmy Savile, hosted by one of the Beeb’s resident mawkish sycophants Nicky Campbell. The job of revealing Savile to have been a despicable sick pervert was left to ITV.  The delay between Savile snuffing it and revelations of his depravity allowed time for some subsequently wince-inducing tributes to be placed on record:

Paul Burnett, radio presenter :  Sir Jimmy’s charity work was a “two way street. He didn’t have a family as such and so when he took on a charity, that became his family. He did a lot of work as a porter in the hospital [oh lord] that he collected money for. He would go there at night and work as a porter [like in a horror movie] and I think he loved the people that he worked with, it wasn’t just for the publicity [you’re not wrong there mate], but he knew the charities were doing well out of it as well. You didn’t really ever get to know ’the man’ because he was a showman, and like so many showmen that’s it, that’s their main thing in life and he did it brilliantly.”

Alan Franey, former Chief Executive of Broadmoor Hospital:  “I spent a lot of time with him and would say I knew him probably as well as anybody else knew him [not quite the a proud boast it once was]. Jimmy would spend time going round the hospital (Broadmoor) talking to staff and talking to patients [if he wasn’t sexually assaulting them], and if he could do any fundraising he would do so.”

David Hamilton, DJ: “We were together at Radio 1 in the ’70s and the station was full of eccentric personalities [or gropey perverts, as we might call them now], but he was certainly the most flamboyant of all. One of the essential things about Jimmy was that he was a man of the people. He knew his audience, he was very much in touch with his audience. I think the public were his family.”

Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary:  “Sir Jimmy Savile was one of broadcasting’s most unique and colourful characters. From Top of the Pops to making children’s dreams come true on Jim’ll Fix It, a generation of people will remember his catchphrases and sense of fun. But his lasting legacy will be the millions he raised for charity, tirelessly giving up his time and energy to help those causes , he was passionate about charity.” [No Hunt, that isn’t his lasting legacy, any more than yours will be not chopping up the NHS and selling it off to vulture capitalists].

Katherine Jenkins, singer: “Sad news Jimmy Savile has passed away. My sis & I always wanted a Jim’ll Fix it badge/medal. Loved that show. Great memories RIP JimmySavile.” [Probably dodged a bullet there Kath]

Lord Sugar, business mogul: “Sad news on the death of Jimmy Savile. Very funny man and did loads of work for charity, RIP.” [Funny how arch-capitalists like Sugar and Hunt are so keen on charity, the ‘cold, grey, loveless thing’. It’s almost like it’s a good way of ensuring they don’t get asked to contribute more by paying a bit more tax]

James Vincent, managing director of Royal Armouries International: “Sir Jimmy was a great friend and a driving force for us and we want to pay tribute to the man. “He was a legend, an extraordinary larger than life character. “We share the grief of his passing and hope his loyal local fans will appreciate this as a fitting place in which to honour his memory and lay any flowers or mementoes.”

A memorial and book of condolence to Sir Jimmy was set up in Savile Hall, opposite the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. The foyer of the hall featured a life-size poster of Sir Jimmy in his trademark Jim’ll Fix It chair, which was bought by the hall off ebay. [Really went for it, didn’t he? I bet the poster came down fairly soon after. I wonder where it is, there’s not much of a market for Savile memorabilia on eBay these days]

Graham Smith, neighbour and colleague: “I lived in the apartment directly below Sir Jimmy for a few years and worked as a documentary cameraman on Jim’ll Fix It,” Mr Smith said. “I got to know him quite well as neighbours as well as professionally. I also worked with Sir Jim on a video for Leeds General Infirmary. I was always impressed with the way he was around the hospital. “He would chat with everyone and spend time with everyone. He was never too busy, he really liked people and he was happy to spend time with them. He added: “Margaret Thatcher [she thought he was wonderful] asked him to look after the wives of the G7 leaders during a conference. He took them to Stoke Mandeville. They were confronted by a man in tracksuit and a jewellery but by the end of the day, they were eating out of his hand.”[I can picture it, however hard I try not to]

Nicky Campbell, radio presenter: ‘Sir Jimmy Savile – a man so unique, a character so extraordinary, a personality so fascinating yet impenetrable. You could not have made him up.’ [You couldn’t. He did though, aided by the adoring, self-censoring establishment media of which you, Nicky Campbell, are part]

Dave Lee Travis, DJ: “He could talk to anybody and genuinely enjoyed seeing the joy on the faces of the children on Jim’ll Fix It.  But he was also a private man. Deep down inside him there was a guy which was very hard to get to. “I’ve known Jimmy Savile for over 50 years, that’s a hell of a long period to know somebody, and I’ve never had an absolutely in-depth straight conversation with him because he’s constantly got a sort of invisible shield up. He likes to keep his distance from everybody, even friends. He’ll joke his way out of something if he doesn’t want to answer you… I think probably enigma is a good word for it.” [Some better words have been used to describe Savile since his death. Ironically DLT was subsequently scooped up by the police’s trawling of the home counties for lecherous 1970s TV and radio stars, otherwise known as Operation Yewtree, and eventually convicted of an offence much less serious than the depraved stuff Savile got up to. Of all the tributes paid to Savile, his is perhaps the most revealing].

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/jimmy-savile-dj-claims-he-was-a-necrophiliac-who-had-sex-with-underage-subnormals-8222948.html

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/13/dave-lee-travis-not-guilty-indecent-assault

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/23/dave-lee-travis-guilty-indecent-assault

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35040376

http://www.operationyewtree.com/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34801011

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/02/bbc-chief-mark-thompson-jimmy-savile-scandal

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-20123713

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185384192180?hash=item2b29c248b4:g:pf8AAOSwTcNiVuMh

You’ve heard of PEPs – Progressive Except Palestine. Meet PETE – Progressive Except The Empire.

The Ukraine conflict has drawn attention to a remarkable blind spot that exists among liberals and left-wingers with regard to the relentless, insatiable expansionism of Corporate America’s empire.

Given the long history of interference by the US State Department in the internal affairs of every other nation on Earth, the horrendous impacts of unfettered, rapacious American-style corporate capitalism on the natural world and the misery and inequality thereby inflicted on billions of people, it might be expected that the first questions progressives ask when a government is removed from office by non-electoral means and/or a war breaks out are: What is the role of the USA in this? What have they been up to this time?

Some people certainly do ask these questions. The war in Ukraine has brought forth some highly informative and knowledgeable commentary – and then Corporate America and its allies have tried to silence it, while simultaneously trying to convey the impression that they value freedoms of speech and opinion.

But a hefty chunk of the progressive side of the political divide simply allows itself to be taken in by war propaganda.

There’s propaganda, of the kind we are subjected to through our TV sets and newspapers every day, and there’s war propaganda, which is a whole different thing, on another level. The biggest difference between the two is that some dissenting opinion on everyday propaganda is allowed and remains accessible within the mainstream media, but in the case of war propaganda dissenting opinion is shut down. Only the most sceptical citizens will go looking for it.

It’s no surprise to see that so many people who are susceptible to everyday propaganda are incapable of recognising that they’re being manipulated by war propaganda.

That’s understandable, but a large number of educated progressives, who consider themselves to be sceptical and far too clever to be duped by Goebbels-type methods of brainwashing and hatemongering, have succumbed. They were quick to point out the absurd, unsubstantiated claims of the Leave campaign during the UK’s referendum on membership of the European Union, but have failed to recognise that they have themselves swallowed an equally massive dose of propaganda about the extent of arch-supervillain Vladimir Putin’s evil and his ‘totally unprovoked’ invasion of Ukraine.

It’s not as if we haven’t been subjected to war propaganda before. It’s not as if we haven’t seen how the recalcitrance of political leaders who decide that they don’t want to play ball with the American Empire is dealt with.

Progressive Except Palestine originated as the American description of Democrats who consistently favour social reforms, redistribution of wealth, environmental protection, universal healthcare and other sensible remedies, but pull themselves up short when it comes to the issue of Israel’s illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

Some of them will burble platitudes about a two-state solution, despite there being hardly anywhere left to put the second state. Others brazenly buy into Israeli nation-building mythology, give credence to knee-jerk accusations of anti-Semitism and refer back to the settler colony’s ‘right to exist’ to deflect attention away from the realities of Palestinian dispossession and suffering.

It turns out that a lot of PEPs are also PETEs – Progressive Except The Empire.

When it comes down to the harsh, raw realities of what the American-led West has done, and still does, to elevate itself into a position of economic supremacy over the rest of the world, and what its media and security services do to make us believe our way of doing things is the best way, far too many liberals and left-wingers turn out to be content with American hegemony.

My first honorary Pete award, which consists of a handwritten certificate and a choice of a plastic bottle of Coca-Cola or Pepsi, goes to the the entire staff of The Guardian newspaper.