2. "Dogpiling" is an absolute favourite word of theirs. They don't really know what it means. It doesn't matter. It's *expected* to use that the second even one person says "um, I disagree with you, British person."

3. imo this is the most masterful bit in the entire statement. She's killing two birds with one stone, addressing the fact that literally nobody can buy one in the middle of the whinge. And she's managed to be vague enough that it can land with several audiences: some bores will be like "yes, it's Putin's fault" while other bores will go "yes, it's Brexit's fault". Gives the bores space to bang their own drums (and quietly link the drama to Putin)

4. A conspiracy theory, naming websites that the British media class have probably heard of but have no idea what they do. A creepy, scary bogeyman. Bonus points for having tried to prime thinking about Putin in the paragraph above, just to add to the "manufactured" attack line.

5. Claiming to have been doxxed and received death threats is a mandatory element of the "evil abusive social media" line. Doesn't matter that she is literally famous for doing Raspberry Pi's comms. That's doxxing, apparently. Doesn't matter if none of it is true. It's what they want to hear and Liz is supplying it. Worth noting this is highly, highly irresponsible to lie like this and link critics to illegal and violent activities, but they all do that.

6. This bit is a greatest hits of cop apologia. It is basically a word salad, but it consistently lands among bootlickers, even if it makes zero sense.

7. More cop apologia (including finally elucidating one or two small good things this spy cop is supposed to have done), but then some more clever bits. She appeals to Britishness, with "American police are bad, not like our good British bobbies", then goes straight onto a bogeyman: culture wars. Culture wars are Bad. She knows this. That's why she used those specific words.

See point 2 here - "concern trolling" is another one of those phrases where they don't really know what it means, they just like to use it. And it's expected to use it.

See point 5. The death threats excuse. No evidence it hasn't. This time, with bonus irresponsibility. While she's careful not to say James made death threats, she's very content to literally include a named individual who made mild criticism of the brand right next to a statement about "death threats". This is, I think, deliberate, to punish the guy for daring to make mild criticism and talk to the media (her turf!). And also wildly, wildly irresponsible.

8. Obviously this is just entirely risible, but it's important to frame your critics as not just evil trolls, but also bigots. This is an absolute classic in the playbook. Misogyny, antisemitism, racism... these are usually the ones in play. Anti-policemanism is, well, it's new and fair play to Liz for inventing a new bigotry.

I think, in giving this interview, Upton will be adopted and embraced by the worst of the British Polite Sensibles. I give it a year before she starts on weird conspiracy theories about Jeremy Corbyn and gets a bit TERFy.

@stavvers The ‘hurt feelings to full right wing package’ pipeline is remarkably short and all you need to join it is an overactive sense of entitlement.

@christineburns Has anyone done any scholarship on it yet, because it is definitely A Thing which has been seen over and over