When the Stones first rolled onto the stage, fifty years
ago, Britain was in an age of crumbling optimism. We didn’t know how we were going
to survive in our post-war, post-empire world, but we were somehow sure we
would. We used to actually, say, out loud, “It’s a free country” Admittedly it
was often a rude response when asked to stop doing something the grown-ups didn’t
approve of, but it was said with the confidence of certainty; it was a free
country.
On Saturday, while Mick Jagger was busy with a photo call
outside his Glastonbury yurt, Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll were using Armed
Forces Day to drum up support for the English Defence League by attempting to
walk to Woolwich and lay tributes to slaughtered soldier, Lee Rigby. Their walk
was an intentionally provocative act of defiance against islamic aggression but
was nevertheless in the spirit of the freedoms supposedly won by allied forces
in two world wars.
Don’t stop reading at this point, I’m not coming out and
declaring any affiliation or affinity for the EDL, but to ignore what’s
happening in this country is just foolish and a great many people are highly concerned
about it. Posted online was a short video which must have been watched
by thousands. The two walkers were deliberately obstructed, provoked and then
attacked - an action their police escort seemed to tacitly allow to happen - and
then they were detained, arrested and held for the rest of the day.
Watching the video I was struck by the appearance of the aggressors.
They didn’t look like the usual tattooed freaks and Arab-scarved nutters that normally
turn out to taunt an EDL event. If anything they looked much as the UAF and
Hope-Not-Hate fanatics might portray a typical EDL supporter. At first they
even appeared to blend in with the peaceful walk. But if many bloggers are to
be believed, they may have been police stooges, planted to facilitate an
arrest. Whatever the truth of the matter a wholly different set of policing tactics
seems to apply to groups on either side.
Rather than confront and contain the islamist preachers,
police generally appear to be there to protect them, or run from their angry
mobs when tempers get hot. Gob for hire, Anjem ‘Andy’ Choudary is apparently
untouchable even as he openly supports violent jihad and backs groups such as
the provocative IED. Other ironically-named groups such as Unite Against
Fascism, Hope-not-Hate and Tell Mama have openly hostile agendas and a record
of violent confrontation, yet arrests are few and rarely reported openly. Such differential treatment is increasing the
alienation of many working class white Britons, how could it do otherwise?
So what is going on? Is the government deliberately allowing
the fomenting of anti-islamic emotion and promoting nationalism? Every day, parts
of the mainstream media carry stories of invasion by breeding, by benefit fraud
and by openly threatening behaviour and affray, from flag burning, disrupting
white protest groups, shouting pure hatred and vowing to wreak another
holocaust. White no-go areas are not only tolerated, but protected – it seems –
by the authorities. Given that the most typical EDL member is from displaced white
working-class men – former Labour voters – it’s hard not to be cynical of
official policy which seems to be fanning the flames.
Freedom of speech should not be confused with freedom to
do as you please, but words are just words, aren’t they? However, say a word
against the favoured ones – anybody NOT white British, it seems – and you are treading
on the delicate breaking ice floes of our newly frigid and polarised society.
Fifty years ago, Enoch Powell was a relatively-obscure Tory politician known primarily to political junkies. He had spoken out against Britain's continuing attempt to hold onto African colonies, he had been involved in de-institutionalising of the mentally-ill, and in the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
ReplyDeleteBut you see, you make just one speech that questions the Narrative-- one speech that offends the virgin ears of all the good and proper correct-thinking people-- and everything else you've done is set at nought.
What Powell did, a good half-century before his time, was to open Overton's Window, or possibly even shatter the glass in it. And for this he was never forgiven. There are those who, to this day, make like Horatio Nelson and see no ships.
And everyone thought old Nucky was just talking about Black Caribbeans, when in fact, he was much more conversant, given his war experience, with South Asians, and might have known a thing or two about the Islam of that region.