The cynical campaign to remove Misan Harriman as chair of London’s Southbank Centre continues apace, with both Reform’s Robert Jenrick and, sadly, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust now using a distortion of his words in a bid to oust him.
Last week, The New World reported on how the Daily Telegraph, normally a sworn enemy of cancel culture, had attacked Harriman for sharing a view on social media that the Golders Green attack was Islamophobic as well as anti-semitic, since a third victim on the same day was Muslim – which was objectively true.
Harriman had shared a message on X by Ayoub Khan, independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, and added the comment: “Wait, so there was a third victim on the same day who was Muslim?! And our press isn’t reporting it? Even the Met Police didn’t mention the Muslim victim in its X post?”
That was enough for the Telegraph to run a report by Craig Simpson, its arts correspondent, attacking Harriman under the headline “Arts Council-funded venue chief shares Golders Green ‘conspiracy’”. Simpson roped in Labour MP David Taylor – a man so low-profile his entire Wikipedia entry runs to 92 words – to say that “the Southbank Centre should consider removing Mr Harriman from the board”.
What the Telegraph had failed to mention in its lengthy report, however, is Harriman’s first response to the Golders Green attack. He co-posted on Instagram, unambiguously: “Our thoughts are with all those affected by the appalling stabbings in Golders Green. Antisemitism has no place in our society and we send our solidarity to the Jewish community. We must unite to stop all racist attacks.”
Now Harriman is facing further calls for his sacking after Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, shared a clip on X of a video of him speaking about Reform’s performance in last week’s elections and accused him of comparing it to the Holocaust.
“This is shocking,” she wrote. “Whatever one’s political view, how on earth could yesterday’s election results ever be comparable to the Holocaust – the mechanised state sponsored murder of six million Jews by Nazis and their collaborators?”
The video, however, originally posted by campaigner Heidi Bachram, was only a selected 57-second excerpt of a wider five-minute 40-second one by Harriman with little context. It was also a direct quote attributed to writer Susan Sontag regarding human behaviour, that “10% of any population is inherently cruel, 10% is inherently merciful, and the remaining 80% can be swayed in either direction”.
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Not that that would have any sway on Jenrick, never knowingly not outraged, who used it to demand Harriman’s removal from the Southbank. He posted: “Comparing the millions who voted Reform on Thursday to the Nazis is disgusting. This crass moron should be nowhere near a taxpayer funded organisation.” The comments have been reported gleefully once more in the Telegraph, again by Simpson, under the headline ‘Southbank Centre chief ‘compares Reform victory to Holocaust’’.
Harriman himself has responded on Instagram: “Wow, [Bachram] clipped 57 seconds of the 5m40 sec video I did this morning about building community, and now THIS…
“She then blocks me and allows people to be triggered by her misrepresentation of what I said. Putting myself and my family at risk. I shall be contacting the relevant authorities. This is crazy.”
Harriman, a Nigerian-born British photographer and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, became chair of the Centre – which includes the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery – in 2021.
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