Quote of the day 26th October 2018
"There has been more controversy over the home secretary’s response to the Huddersfield crimes than there was over the crimes themselves.
Following the verdict, Sajid Javid tweeted,
‘These sick Asian paedophiles are finally facing justice’.
Cue media meltdown. How dare he mention the men’s ethnic background?
As the Guardian reported, Javid has been ‘lambasted’ and ‘rebuked’ by ‘MPs and human-rights campaigners’. There was more fury in the denunciations of Javid for referring to the men’s heritage than there was in any of the commentary on the men themselves.
What a pass we have come to when a politician’s anger about paedophilic behaviour disturbs the chattering classes more than the paedophilic behaviour itself."
(Brendan O'Neill in an article in Spiked called "Who will speak for the Huddersfield girls?")
What really worries me is that because so many mainstream commentators and people involved in politics are so terrified of being accused of racism, or so keen to score political points by making the kind of attack which was made against Sajid Javid, that they behave in the way Brendan O'Neill describes, we are in danger of creating an opportunity for the likes of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (who calls himself Tommy Robinson) to claim that they are the only people standing up for the victims of grooming gangs.
That claim would not be true.
However, unless it is not just true but self-evidently obvious that the authorities will come down very hard indeed on all paedophiles and grooming gangs, whatever the race of the culprits, many people are likely to believe it and the consequences for social cohesion and race relations will be damaging.
Following the verdict, Sajid Javid tweeted,
‘These sick Asian paedophiles are finally facing justice’.
Cue media meltdown. How dare he mention the men’s ethnic background?
As the Guardian reported, Javid has been ‘lambasted’ and ‘rebuked’ by ‘MPs and human-rights campaigners’. There was more fury in the denunciations of Javid for referring to the men’s heritage than there was in any of the commentary on the men themselves.
What a pass we have come to when a politician’s anger about paedophilic behaviour disturbs the chattering classes more than the paedophilic behaviour itself."
(Brendan O'Neill in an article in Spiked called "Who will speak for the Huddersfield girls?")
What really worries me is that because so many mainstream commentators and people involved in politics are so terrified of being accused of racism, or so keen to score political points by making the kind of attack which was made against Sajid Javid, that they behave in the way Brendan O'Neill describes, we are in danger of creating an opportunity for the likes of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (who calls himself Tommy Robinson) to claim that they are the only people standing up for the victims of grooming gangs.
That claim would not be true.
However, unless it is not just true but self-evidently obvious that the authorities will come down very hard indeed on all paedophiles and grooming gangs, whatever the race of the culprits, many people are likely to believe it and the consequences for social cohesion and race relations will be damaging.
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