My knowledge of Julie Burchill is not extensive. She used to be a music journalist who graduated to having an occasionally interesting column in the Guardian and then did a Morrisey but without the decent songs.

It turns out that she now writes for The Spectator sometimes, a publication which has given her space to excrete over 1100 words about how dreadful all Irish people are. If she were to vent in similar terms about how appalling 90% of Jews are, I doubt she would be with The Spectator, or any other semi-reputable publication, for long.

To be fair, her knowledge of Ireland is about as profound as my knowledge of her, but when has complete ignorance of a subject ever been a barrier for a right winger with a grudge and the promise of getting a few quid?

She does not like Steve Coogan much. He has been on the PR trail for his new film and was reflecting on how, having been born into an Irish family in England, his awareness of imperialism meant that “I’ve always felt that I have slight antipathy towards the British flag I’ve been raised with. It’s not like a contempt for it – it’s just holding the Establishment at arm’s length because of history.”

There is no topic that an English nationalist can’t bring back to World War Two and Burchill does not disappoint. Compounding her ignorance of Irish history with an unawareness of the Soviet Union she raises “the bit of history that saw us stand alone against the Nazi war machine while the Emerald Isle was conveniently ‘neutral’. I am open to correction on this, but I will guess that she was not rescued from the beaches at Dunkirk and that she didn’t pilot a Spitfire.

Hitting her groove she observes “Nazis have certainly been friendlier towards the Irish than the British in the past”. That is open to two interpretations, and I doubt even Burchill knows what she means. It could mean that the Nazis did not colonise Ireland, an undoubted fact. Maybe it means that they were chummy with the Irish ruling class. All those photos of members of the English royal family with Hitler do reveal a certain closeness though.

I will leave it for defenders of the 1940s IRA to speak up for Sean Russell, but it is true that the organisation did seek to get weapons from Germany. The fuller story is told in Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc’s recent book Burn Them Out. Republicans tried to kill the Irish fascist leader and discussed assassinating prominent fascists. We can speculate on whether there is an unread copy on Burchill’s bookshelves.

Stupidity piles upon stupidity. Referring to what I assume most people refer to as The Occupied Six Counties of the North of Ireland, she writes “Let me make it clear that when I talk about ‘Ireland’ in this context, I’m not talking about beautiful, brave Northern Ireland here.” She does not even appear to know that over half the people in the statelet identify as Irish and even many unionists now use passports issued in Dublin.

It is unwise to speculate on the extent of a right-wing columnist’s ignorance, but my hunch is that she doesn’t know Kneecap are from Belfast in “beautiful, brave Northern Ireland”. This does not stop her referring to the famously drunken, loutish, substance abusing trio as “the artistic establishment”.  This rather puts them in the Van Morrison league. But without offering a shred of evidence she asserts “they have always had a thing about the Jews.” She accompanies this with some tripe alleging there is rampant anti-semitism in Ireland. This is demonstrable nonsense. In the six counties your are much more likely to be the victim of a sectarian attack if you are Catholic or Muslim and the attackers share Burchill’s views on pretty much everything.

More than anything else you have to feel a bit sorry for Burchill. Imagine the indignity of making a living in your declining years by looking around trying to find things to rant about. She even has a pop at Shane MacGowan and Kevin Rowland for having the audacity to have been born to Irish parents in England. The only second-generation artist other than Morrisey she does not pick on is John Lydon, probably on account of him being another aging reactionary.

Freeview has loads of channels for the Julie Burchills of the world. Yes, there is GB News but there is also Talking Picture TV which shows Dixon of Dock Green and those old British films with people whose names you don’t know and other ones which broadcast shows from Burchill’s childhood. Maybe one day Bernard Manning will be back on, squeezed between the adverts for cheap funerals and will writing services and Burchill can bathe in the warm glow of good old fashioned English racism. Alternatively, she can move from Brighton to Great Yarmouth where Jim Davidson keeps alive the spirit of the National Front on the pier every summer.