Boosted profile?

Twitterer James Melville

Since March 2020 many people have lost faith in corporate news networks and sought information in the supposedly freer platforms of social media, where censorship is all pervasive although sometimes subtle. Big tech giants boost the circulation of favoured profiles, to which numerous bot accounts also give the impression of popular approval. The British Army's 77^th Brigade has admitted to steering on-line discourse, attacking opponents and defending proponents of state narratives.

One social media account that has risen to prominence is that of communications consultant James Melville. A report of September 2022 by analyst group Thinking Slow entitled 'Who is James Melville and why it matters?' found that his tweets received twice the audience of the combined accounts of journalists James Delingpole, Allison Pearson, Vanessa Beeley, Toby Young and Professor Norman Fenton. This occurred despite the unoriginality of much of Melville's output which often consists of rehashed internet tropes and the repetition of stock phrases.

Melville initially advocated policies such as remaining in the EU, lockdown, mask-wearing, and covid vaccines before changing his mind when the issues were of less immediate consequence. This is a rite of passage which many have undertaken, but most did not make their mistakes in a position of such influence or find that their changes of heart were rewarded by social media algorithms or with television appearances. As well as being interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland, and by Russell Brand and George Galloway, Melville has become a regular guest on Talk TV and GB News. Such attention is not generally afforded to those who presented accurate advance warnings about the dire effect of lockdowns and covid vaccines.

On twitter Dr Ben Irvine reports his suspicions that Melville was part of an information assault on the British public by presenting a series of Melville's pro-lockdown postings that preceded the UK government's abandonment of previous pandemic plans. Irvine writes that, “In March 2020, the brave hero James Melville mentioned Britain's (apparently) low number of hospital beds SEVENTEEN times.”

“In fact, it was SEVENTEEN times in TEN days at the start of March. He stopped the hospital beds propaganda the day before the government started U-turning on herd immunity. Then his panic-mongering went up a gear.”

On 16^th April 2020, Melville wrote an article for Al Jazeera headlined “Non-apologies for coronavirus deaths are not good enough” arguing that the British government should “start levelling with the British people – about why the government locked down too late, has provided insufficient PPE to medical staff and failed to commit to a mass testing programme.”

Melville followed this with an article of 21^st May 2020 for the Byline Times about Sweden entitled The Other ‘Herd Immunity’ Country Vying for the Highest Coronavirus Per Capita Death Rate in the World in which he 'considers the catastrophic failures of the Scandinavian country compared to its neighbours.'

Two years later it was clear to Melville that,

“Sweden had the lowest overall cumulative excess deaths in countries analysed by the OECD during the pandemic era from March 2020 to June 2022,” (27th November, 2022), and that

“Sweden held their nerve by avoiding lockdowns” 14th February, 2023.

On the subject of the vaccine, Melville regarded its roll-out as part of the 'best news week of the year,' and as a means of returning to normal. He wrote of news of the first covid injection being administered, “One small jab for normal, one giant jab for regaining normality.” Sharing a BBC article announcing that “Pfizer/BioNTech jab judged safe for use,” he dismissed safety fears as follows,

“This one goes out to anyone who is screaming “Thalidomide” when discussing the approval of the Covid vaccine. Health and safety approvals in medicine have massively improved over the last 60 years. And by the way, Thalidomide wasn't a vaccine.” 2^nd December 2020.

He later opposed vaccine mandates and passports but not the vaccines.

Melville's understanding of the severity of the lockdowns and the gravity of the situation for many people, seems limited. On 9^th June 2022, along with journalist Isabel Oakeshott, he provoked an angry backlash when he secured an unlikely interview with former Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. As Health Secretary, Hancock had played a leading role in the greatest infringement of British civil liberties in peace time, and was suspected of the euthanasia of thousands in state healthcare through the unnecessary administration of midazolam and morphine. Hancock was also suspected of an active role in what we might call the 'injectocide' of many more through the covid vaccination programme. After two years of tyranny and censorship, rather than question Hancock on these subjects, Melville and Oakeshott elected to ask Hancock his opinions on cryptocurrency.

Responding to criticism of the podcast Melville justified this as 'playing the long game,' suggesting there would be a follow-up interview in which Hancock would be asked hard questions. Melville's encounter with Hancock was the third episode of his podcast that ran for eight episodes between 26th May 2022 and 11th August 2022 before apparently being abandoned. The follow up interview with Hancock never came. Six months later Melville celebrated Oakeshott releasing government Whatsapp messages presented to her by Hancock.

Melville's stock phrases include criticising the media for 'not biting the hand that feeds them,' yet he regarded Oakeshott's disclosures in the Daily Telegraph as a coup. These so-called 'Lockdown Files,' provoked a flurry of media coverage and not much more.

Melville regularly bemoans the fact that “we have exactly the worst politicians at exactly the worst time.” Despite repeatedly describing himself as, “politically homeless,” and the two major parties as “two cheeks of the same backside,” Thinking Slow observes that Melville then encourages people to engage with the political system that has failed them.

Characterising himself as a freedom fighter, Melville speaks on the subject in the following tweets which include another favoured phrase about 'a la carte menus.'

“We owe it to our children to fight for the freedom that we had and pass on a few more to them.” 27^th January 2022

“I will fight until my last breath to stop creeping authoritarianism.” 11^th August 2022

“Real freedom fighters fight for freedom not just because it affects them.” 23^rd December 2022

“You either support individual medical choice or you don't. You can't just pick and choose bodily autonomy from an a la carte menu.”

26^th June 2022, and 23^rd December 2022, with similar wording on 15^th June 2022, and 24^th December 2022.

“Freedom fighting isn't about choosing freedom from an a la carte menu.” 7th February 2023, with similar wording on 20^th January 2023, 28^th January 2023, 20^th February 2023, and 21^st November 2022.

In light of the above the following more recent comments seem inconsistent.

“If I was forced to wear a fucking hazmat suit to get to a loved one in in hospital, I fucking would.” March 31^st, 2023.

“With family ideological purity stops and the taking care of our own begins- whatever it fucking well takes to get there.” 31^st March 2023.

“Real freedom fucking comes from doing absolutely whatever it takes to take care of our own, stripping away ideological purity and giving everything for the ones we love to give them a semblance of personal freedom. Anyone who doesn't understand this doesn't understand freedom.” 31^st March 2023.

It appears that Melville was responding to criticism for wearing a mask when visiting an elderly relative in hospital at a time when there was no mask mandate (although admittedly hospital employees sometimes still request that visitors wear one).

The contradictions in the tweets above are self-evident but suffice it to say that Melville has not been forced to wear a hazmat suit or anything else. Instead of fighting ‘creeping authoritarianism,’ he elected to wear the team strip of tyranny across his face rather than experience any discomfiture that may have come with asserting his bodily autonomy. He then advocated this course of action to his audience -that they accept the surrender of their bodily autonomy to the state. The preservation of this freedom has been a foundational cause of the freedom movement of the 2020s.

Instead of making pronouncements on the nature of freedom, or of freedom fighting, one might expect a freedom fighter to assert their freedom and to fight for it.

Melville's references above to 'ideological purity' are another recurring theme. In rejecting such 'puritanism' he makes the point that those converts who were previously hoodwinked by state propaganda must be welcomed by those who consistently advocated truth and freedom. This argument has merit but Melville conflates this message with the shutting down of criticism of those suspected of an active role in disseminating that propaganda. An example of this was his defence of Julia Hartley-Brewer when she was caricatured by cartoonist Bob Moran. Melville propagated the idea that Hartley-Brewer was being criticised for not being 'against the jab or lockdowns at the start,' when in fact she was being criticised for her ongoing and unfounded promotion of the injections. The silencing of criticism and the welcoming of all who change tack, regardless of their previous roles, would mean that guilty parties are granted absolution and nobody is held accountable.

Thinking Slow notes that Melville is a communications consultant with whom you cannot communicate through his website and that the UK government’s ‘companies house’ webpage records that his company has been dormant for a decade. Having been a much amplified voice on social media since lockdown, on May 25^th 2023 Melville announced his intention to step back from his audience of 435,000 people on twitter. He continues to tweet regularly.