A matter of quiet urgency

As a youngster I used to hear, quite regularly, “It’s free country”. Usually, this was in response to somebody taking offence at somebody having a bit of fun. Quite often it was employed to excuse behaviour which may have been questionable. But, within easy memory of the world war against Germany’s oppression and waiting uneasily for nuclear death in the cold war, the idea of Britain – Great Britain – not being a free country would have been unthinkable. “I may not agree with what you say, etc...”

But today, that important principle is regarded as lightly as a motorway speed limit; it’s not a rule, it’s a suggestion. There are curious forces at large in the land; and while the new puritans are shutting down Formula One grid girls and darts walk-on girls, others have their prohibition sights set on bigger trophies. As well as the free speech stance, Voltaire gave us many other insights and maxims, one of which concerns being aware of whom you are not allowed to criticise.

Thus Morrisons and other supermarkets commit halalicide by quietly introducing more products which conform to islamic ideals; meeting the demands of a small part of their customer base without consulting the majority. Thus Manchester Art Gallery removes Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs in order to provoke a discussion about what can and can’t be seen. And QC Max Hill, insisting that the term ‘islamist terrorism’ must not be used in case we mistakenly describe acts of terror carried out by muslims, in the name of allah, while shouting allah hu-akbar and administering uniquely islamic-styled terrors as somehow connected to islam.

All this might even earn a shred of respect were the principles of shutting down debate applied across the spectrum. But no; while ‘the patriarchy’ (that’s you and me, fellas) is denied a voice, Harriet Harman’s ‘sisters’ are given a megaphone. While ‘old people’, who have actually built the world, are ridiculed and told their values are evil, student activists, who have yet to contribute a philosophical bean, are trying to ban speakers, ban words, tear down statues and hide in special safe spaces where they must hear no alternative opinion.

And then, of course, there is the sentencing of DarrenOsborne and the undignified glee with which the media have seized upon this ‘proof’ that a sinister rise of the far right is happening under our noses. Put aside the fact that between Thomas Mair (Jo Cox’s killer) and Darren Osborne, 35 people were killed and a further 349 injured in planned terror attacks in the name of islam. No, the real threat – phew – is nothing to do with islam and guess who is responsible? Yep, bloody white supremacists and their fascist chums. Who would have thought, eh?

Well actually, nobody would have thought that , except for those who have a vested interest in promoting the idea of a ’far-right’ threat to peace. The intensity with which these factions deflect attention from those whose crimes they implicitly defend would be sinister if it weren’t simply stupid. Darren Osborne deserves his minimum 43 years, who could argue otherwise? But who thinks for one second that had the ‘islamist terrorists’ – for, make no mistake, that is their own driving ideology – been captured, rather than killed they would have been given comparable sentences?

There are non so blind...

As long as the majority opinions of white European peoples is sidelined in favour of accommodating the depravities and excesses of islamic terrorism; as long as they shut down the criticism of uncontrolled mass immigration and refusal to integrate; as long as governments refuse to address these concerns they are stoking up anger and disenfranchisement. Far from tackling the imagined ‘rise of the right’ they are causing it.