On Saturday evening, the shadow justice minister penned a tweet that is the most extreme statement issued by a Tory politician in recent years. In it, he begins with the ritualistic attack on multiculturalism but quickly departs from political politesse with this:
The scandal started with the onset of mass migration. Importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women, brought us here. And after 30 years of this disastrous experiment, we now have entrenched sectarian voting blocs that make it electoral suicide for some MPs to confront this. This scandal shows why we must end it.20 years ago this was the sort of stuff Nick Griffin and the BNP would have been attacked for by the Conservative front bench. Farage has never gone as far as this, nor did Suella Braverman in her most extreme moments. You might say this is a direct challenge to the authority of Kemi Badenoch, but a day later he's still in post and there's nary a ripple of concern among Tory social media and chatterers on Conservative Home. The Tory leader herself is somewhat compromised seeing as she's jumped on the grooming gang inquiry calls, and has already used the "not all cultures are valid" line. Sacking Jenrick - and he should be sacked and stripped of the whip for this - would leave her in an awkward position.
This tawdry episode says everything about the position the Tories are in. With Reform soaking up the media attention and eating into Tory support, they've got nothing left. The MPs determined they wanted right wing leader to see Reform off and consolidate the shaky foundations of the party, and a right wing turn they indeed got. The problem for the Tories is Jenrick's an obvious opportunist who believes nothing apart from his self-advancement, and there's no sewer he won't wallow in if reeking of effluent gets him the top job. Doubly unconvincing is Badenoch whose leadership is proving spectacularly unspectacular. There are the gaffes that aren't gaffes, because she thinks about everything very seriously. And because she and the people around her are clueless, she's hitched the Tory wagon to the Trump train with all the negative consequences that means for her and the Tory party. Keir Starmer must be thanking his lucky stars to face an opposition marked by a rivalry between such a gruesome twosome.
This lurch to the far right might catch Musk's eye, especially as Badenoch and Jenrick were somewhat equivocal over the summer riots. But with the Commons resuming on Monday, the more centre right elements of the parliamentary party are going to be chuntering in their dismay. For instance, on Laura Kuenssberg former Boris Johnson advisor Samuel Kasumu accused Jenrick of inciting racial hatred. He is unlikely to be alone. It's true that Badenoch is seemingly unaware about how precarious her position is, but with this direction of travel it's probably not going to be long before she gets a rude reminder.
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5 comments:
Badenoch could sack Jenrick, or alternatively...
https://x.com/KemiBadenoch/status/1875924621754499331
Starmer may be lucky that he faces a far right that is currently split between two parties, until they cohere at least. The rest of us are very unlucky to be in a situation where it's very rapidly being cemented that the only possible alternative to quite racist neoliberal managed decline is fascism.
The UK is vastly different to what it was twenty years ago, historically unprecedented levels of mass immigration and resulting demographic changes are the ground reality. So an observation that once would have been the preserve of Nick Griffin is now an impolite and perhaps unpalatable statement of the bleedingly obvious. And that's the biggest problem with Jenrick's tweet, it is fundamentally true, and everyone knows it, especially those it's aimed at. Medievalism is a feature not a bug of some immigrant cultures, one they're finding hard to let go, even if getting away from its consequences was a major reason for migrating in the first place. Arguing against this is to deny some of the openly professed beliefs of these people, things they consider the word of God. You can still, just about, argue that a sectarian rotten borough like Tower Hamlets is an outlier, but the trend is against you, twenty years ago white British people were still the majority in London, now they are merely the largest group, and soon they will be a minority. And that is repeating in other cities and regions. Politicians clearly do pander to the resulting sectarianism, some like George Galloway are explicit about it, others perhaps like Jess Phillips try to be a bit more sensitive to those who react violently to criticism.
@Kamo
If politicians pander to those who react violently to criticism is that why fash such as yourself expect everyone to go along with whatever rubbish they spout?
What with the riots your lot carried out this summer and your guy killing Jo Cox?
Or is that not medievalism but ~traditional British values~?
I know we're supposed to be in a post-truth world, where 'fascists' don't actually have to be aligned with the historical political philosophy of fascism (whilst some groups whose political agendas do show strong and clear alignment with historical fascism are exempted from being called 'fascist' because it's impolite to notice), but it has become rather meaningless when the only qualification to call somebody a fascist or a Nazi is that you don't like what they say.
1) I don't advocate political or religious violence of any kind. I'm not going to threaten to kill you if you mock my religion, or satirise my idols, drop my favourite book on the floor, or say hurty things about my political beliefs. If my views and beliefs cannot be challenged without me reacting violently then I am weak and stupid and I lack confidence in them being tested.
2) Spouting complete rubbish is easy to deal with, the problem is when everyone knows it's not complete rubbish, even if it's presented in an unsophisticated or facile way.
3) Something being upsetting, unpleasant, offensive or unpalatable doesn't make it untrue.
4) The far-right, and I mean actual far-right, not some crusty Reform pub bore, get far more traction from useful idiots trying to deny what is obvious. Conspiracies like the 'Great Replacement Theory' are silly, but ignoring genuine degeneracy and corruption out of cultural sensitivity or to pander to sectarian political concerns only reinforces the idea there is something in such nonsense. We're at the point where shouting 'racist' or 'fascist' at anyone who notices unpalatable things about immigration doesn't work any longer, the empirical evidence is just too strong.
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