Quote of the day 3rd June 2026
"I don’t want to hear about Black Lives Matter.
I don’t want to hear about White Lives Matter.
Everyone matters.
Henry Nowak matters."
Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch
Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria
Please note that the post below was published more than ten years ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by th...
Comments
In a truly contemptible display of dishonest selective quotation, Reform UK have put out a graphic which takes one sentence out of context from a much longer and nuanced speech which Kemi Badenoch gave in 2020, and a sentence out of context from the above quote, and juxtaposed them to give the false impression that Kemi was saying black lives matter and white lives don't.
Actually she said that all lives matter. And that everyone should be treated equally before the same law. And that we should not divide people on the basis of their race.
Henry Nowak's father asked that his son's death should not be used to divide people. We do need to address the failures in training which led a a catastrophic failure in the way Henry was treated in his dying moments. But this must be done in a responsible way.
Exploiting an innocent young man's death to score political points by misrepresenting what your opponents are saying is the act of the lowest of the low.