What happens when you find out you’re in a viral video about a monstrous hate figure

It was late last night. I was messaging a friend about exciting plant-based recipes. It was cold, dark and the wind was howling around the turrets of Clarke Gables.

I received a notification on my phone. It was an Instagram message from my daughter. She was in the room next to me but as anyone who has teenage children knows, sometimes communicating via social media is more efficient that attempting an actual conversation.

“Mum! Mum! Look at this! Look at this!”

I didn’t respond immediately. I was still tapping out advice on how to create the optimum Quinoa Tofu Surprise.

Within seconds my daughter burst into my room. She was breathless.

“MUM! MUM! LOOK AT THE LINK I SENT YOU!”

“I will in a minute,” I said.

“DO IT NOW!” she said.

I tapped on the link. It was a film by YouTube sensation Josh Pieters about monstrous racist K*tie H*pkins, the woman who has been celebrated by racists and fascists the world over. She’s now been banned from Twitter for hate speech.

I’m familiar with H*pkins’ work, in the way I’m familiar with tertiary syphilis.

I’m aware it exists but I don’t want to know the details.

Years ago I made the terrible error of responding to one of her many appalling tweets. I called her out on the horror-show inside her mind. I wasn’t abusive.

But what happened? She retweeted me. This unleashed an onslaught of the dregs of human consciousness, the monsters who lurk in the shadows, the creatures – the people who share her views – who marinade in their own sick opinions and hide behind anonymity on social media then think it’s perfectly OK to abuse complete strangers.

With each refresh of my Twitter feed, more abuse. More abuse. More abuse. It lasted a few hours. It can in no way be described as a pleasant experience.

Before that I think I’d been quite naive. I thought that mostly, people were essentially good. Kind.

Many are not.

I do my best to treat everyone with kindness and compassion. I don’t always manage it. And with H*pkins and her disturbing level of delusion, thinking kind thoughts about her is a stretch.

So when I saw the title of this video I Flew Katie Hopkins to Prague to Win a Fake Award I’ll level with you, my arse went.

For a horrible moment, I thought I’d been unwittingly included in a video SUPPORTING this woman.

But no.

Then, my phone started pinging. Friends, colleagues, even exes started contacting me to let me know I was in this video.

“Mum, your phone’s going mental.” My daughter wasn’t wrong.

I clicked on the video and watched it.

It’s one of the most jaw-droppingly elaborate quests to challenge H*pkins and her ilk I’ve ever seen.

Even though I wasn’t asked if I was cool with being included, and I had no idea this video was going to be released, I’m very happy to be part of it. However, I do wish they’d used a picture of me looking even vaguely hot. And my name is not Sally Jubilee. But anyway.

Watch it. Go on. Just watch it now. It’s extraordinary. The speech she makes at the end justifies THE WHOLE THING.

(And a note to all H*pkins supporters – if you try to post an abusive comment on this blog, I’ll block you. That cool? Good).

And hey, while you’re here, if you want to hear my showreels, click here.