@GavinBarwell Do you think a Batley schoolteacher and his family should be fearful of Islam? Because it seems we have a cowardly political class who are unwilling, or again fearful of coming to his defence.
Lockdown punished the youngest in our society, and for that we should all be ashamed.
Not only directly costing hundreds of billions, but locking in financial ruin for decades to come.
'Scarring' multiple generations and destroying future prospects.
Absolutely horrific.
If this fabled far right threat existed, the police would have to guard every mosque around the clock. Asian taxi companies would need police guards. Asylum centres and hotels would mysteriously catch fire. Muslims wouldn't even dare joining a pro-Gaza demonstration. Muslim MPs would need armed guards. Muslim women wouldn't dare wear a burka in public.
We'd have seen an attempt to sink one of the border force boats by now. Vigilante boats would be out in the Channel sinking dinghies. There would be a far right party that didn't lose every deposit in by-elections. Supermarkets would face mob action and intimidation if they stocked Halal meats. Asian shop owners would have to erect reinforced glass in their shops. Muslims would live in fear.
This is not happening in any meaningful sense. The biggest "far right" story at the moment is the conviction of Sam Melia for selling stickers with quasi-racist slogans on them. Meanwhile, the list of Muslim terror suspects is in the thousands. Synagogues in London are under surveilance. Anti-ram barriers are being installed in every town. Jews aren't safe because of Muslim men. Women aren't safe because of Muslim men. Gays aren't safe because of Muslim men. MPs aren't safe because of Muslim men and their far left allies. Shops are mobbed for selling Israeli products. Jewish university staff are no longer safe on campus. Starbucks staff now need emergency evacuation training. Primary schools need additional security because of male Muslim "asylum seekers".
So why all the fuss about the phantom menace of the far right? Well it's quite simple. If these issues are not addresses, then there will be an active far right eventually. It's only a matter of time. And it will have enormous public sympathy. This future could be avoided, but we'd need to see robust policies and real leadership that puts Islamism back in its box. The fear of the far right comes from the knowledge among our politicians that they won't lift a finger. They don't want to pick a fight or face the fake media backlash. They're just going to sit on their hands. Consequently, they'll put all their efforts into stifling dissent.
This is why they're pushing for their definition of islamophobia. Instead of dealing with the problems they'll simply censor public debate. Only it's not going to work. Censorship only santitises debate in the public realm, but the more aggressive it is, the more extremists you create. You can silence debate but you can't quell the anger.
All this misdirection about the far right is because the political class is scared they can no longer keep a lid on it. They're not completely stupid. They can see what's rising on the continent. The populist waves are getting bigger each time, and it's becoming harder to ignore. The populist right in Britain has no cohesion or leadership, but if ever it does get its act together, it poses a serious threat to their incumbency.
This is not a threat they can afford to ignore, so gradually, Labour and the Tories will close ranks. They've already decided who the enemy is. The white British working class. "Far right" is just their shorthand. What we're seeing right now is a class war. In many respects it is a continuation of the Brexit divisions - but it's going to get darker and nastier. They'll pick us off one by one to deter us from organising. They'll shut down Twitter accounts and websites and throw the book at us when we speak out of turn. They'll keep raising the spectre of the far right and bleat about Islamophobia, even as their own MPs are hounded by Islamist mobs.
It won't work though. Their defensive wall of rhetoric is crumbling. You can only expand the definition of "far right" so far. Eventually, if everyone is far right then nobody is. They won't go without a fight to the death, but they are losing, and they know it.
@JonAshworth After witnessing what happened in the Commons on Wednesday,weakness and extremists should be the last words coming out of you. Kow towing to the mob.
@JMCDelingpole The very first question I was asked on self presenting at hospital with, what turned out to be heart attack just before Christmas, “are you fully vaccinated”. I’m not, but found it a bit bizarre that would be the first question?