Posted in: Comics | Tagged: laurence fox, viz

Laurence Fox Becomes A Viz Comic Book Character

Published Wed, 12 Jan 2022 07:04:09 -0600

Laurence Fox is an English actor and political activist, who was based known as an actor for the supporting role of DS James Hathaway in the British TV drama series Lewis from 2006 to 2015. He is part of an acting dynasty, the grandson of the actors Robin and Angela Fox, son of Richard Fox, brother to Jack and Lydia Fox, to cousin Emilia Fox. He is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His brother-in-law is Richard Ayoade, married to his sister Lydia, and Laurence was married to Billie Piper, and has two sons with her. This week it was announced he was engaged to a political supporter of his. Because Laurence Fox has been politically active in a rather prominent fashion. So much so that he has now become a Viz Comic character, in the new February 2022 issue of British satirical comic book magazine Viz #311. A parody of the Roald Dahl character The Fantastic Mister Fox. With some rather strong opinions.

Laurence Fox Becomes A Viz Cartoon Character — Laurence Fox in Viz Comic #311

In 2019, Fox told The Times that he had been "totally radicalised" by watching YouTube videos about "woke culture" and "political correctness". Fox frequently criticised the British government's response to the pandemic, encouraging people to disobey social distancing rules and other public health restrictions and in March 2021 took part in an anti-lockdown protest. Appearing as a panellist on the BBC's political debate programme Question Time in January 2020, Fox said that Meghan Markle was not a victim of racism and described an audience member who had called him a "white privileged male" as racist. In January 2020, Fox stated that the depiction of a Sikh soldier in the film 1917 was "forced diversity", in spite of Sikh soldiers having fought on the Western Front in World War I. In September 2020, Fox attracted funding for a new political party, provisionally called Reclaim, and dubbed "UKIP for culture". In October 2020, Fox announced he would be boycotting Sainsbury's because they "support racial segregation and discrimination" in reference to the store establishing safe spaces for black employees, and asked others to do the same. Feeling "falsely smeared as a racist", he replied to a number of tweets reacting to that announcement by calling their authors paedophiles. Three of those are now suing Fox for defamation.

In March 2021, Fox announced he would stand in the London mayoral elections, in order to "fight against extreme political correctness" and pledging to "end the Met's obsession with diversity and inclusivity". His candidacy was endorsed by Reform UK, who stood aside for him in the election, and Nigel Farage. The major source of Fox's campaign funds was Brexit backer Jeremy Hosking, who, in the first quarter of 2021, gave the Reclaim Party more than a million in cash and services. Fox finished in sixth place with 47,634 votes (1.9%) in the mayoral election. He lost his £10,000 election deposit.