Reaping what you sow

David Lammy is in the ‘news’ again, although show me a day when this gratuitous attention seeker isn’t. He was banging his ‘Review of Racial Bias and BAME representation in the Criminal Justice System’ drum again, but when is he not? Talk about the effect of confirmation bias. Had the report not included the prejudiced term ‘bias’ it might carry some credibility, but this is a classic example of the cart leading the horse. Like so many such important sounding studies it begins with a premise then sets out to prove it; black kids are more likely to end up in prison, but there aren’t enough black judges.

Naturally society is to blame, or rather, the built-in, instinctive, unthinking, institutional racism of our hideously white society. And because he swallows the revisionist theory of racism - only those with power can be racist - black people have no power, ergo only white people can be racist. Notwithstanding the power he and numerous other ‘persons of colour’ have, by dint of office, he wishes to tip the balance to empower more BAME people and thus, what, let them be racist in their turn? This hardly seems the philosophy of a great mind. This has all the intellectual rigour of Tony Blair’s fallacial ‘let’s send every kid to university’ argument.

If the law is to apply equally, then diversity is the very last thing you want to impose; conformity is the key. Imposing quotas in all areas of the criminal justice system is, like all such measures, doomed only to failure, charges of positive discrimination, both in employment and in sentencing and furthering the divides which exist in our admittedly unequal society. But inequality is an abiding trait of most animal societies and certainly of humanity; perhaps Mr Lammy could point to some successful experiments where the imposition of equality has been successful? Mao’s Cultural Revolution perhaps, or something beginning with Lenin and ending with Stalin?

Or, he may wish to avail himself of the ‘criminal justice’ experience of a number of African countries which have reverted to post-colonial home rule. There is no reason whatsoever why a BAME aspirant should not be capable of rising through the justice system, but by merit. Indeed their applications – all applications, by the best in their field - should be welcomed and encouraged. And I truly hope that their skin colour would play no part in their success. But already the bias is in their favour. The Bar Council would bend over backwards to promote more women and ethnic minorities to silk but they can only work with what they get.

Constance Briscoe. A fine example

Perhaps, instead of trying to convert British society to better accommodate people of other origins and cultural norms, effort may better be expended on integrating other ethnicities into the British way of doing things. You know; fair play, tolerance and impartiality, not preferential treatment, playing the victim and whipping out the race card at every turn. Exploiting difference is what we evil white people do, isn’t it, David old boy? You haven’t really thought it through, have you? 

Unsocial Engineering

So, on the drive home last night I heard a discussion on Radio 4’s PM programme about Sky imposing quotas on its utilisation of black and minority ethnic writers, producers, talent, etc. Twenty percent is its target and this move is roundly applauded, naturally, by the likes of Lenny Henry and Idris Elba. This sits right alongside the BBC’s own very public plans to ‘improve’ diversity across the board and only recently Simon Fanshawe was insisting that diversity should trump competence at every turn. Do you see what’s wrong yet?

Whether it is David Cameron insisting that it is mainstream Britain who should welcome and ‘integrate with’ (translation: bow down before) islam, or Jack Straw affirming that ‘the English’ are not worth saving, or Ed Miliband desperate to pack his shadow benches with worthy women, it is all symptomatic of the ‘progressive’ agenda. Progressive means absolutely rejecting what has worked in the past in favour of anything new and lovely-sounding, regardless of how unproven it is. But just because your adorable, dirt-cheap, Lithuanian nanny accessory is an absolute godsend, dahlink, it doesn’t automatically follow that every English household needs immediate access to the Eastern European labour pool.

The solution to untrained British youth is not to displace them by exploiting the work-ready poor of former Soviet countries, no matter how eager they are to come here. And diversity, just like immigration and all-women shortlists is not, of itself, an unremittingly good thing. That these things were not obvious to politicians should come as no surprise; after all, politicians were sufficiently taken in by these overly simplistic, fantasy-based scenarios to brand as racists, sexists, misogynists, islamophobes and general, all-round bigots all those who dared to challenge the new orthodoxy.

Yet those of us who have to live with the consequences know that indiscriminately setting targets is not the same thing as hitting them; and often achieves the square root of fuck-all. A sales target that has no earthly prospect of being met is just poor management. Two decades of GCSE targets led to laughable grade inflation and dumbing-down. Lowering the bar will only ever bring the illusion of equality, while widening the gap between those who can and those who have just been told they can. And every instance of forcing change by setting quotas is like a regional sales manager inventing sales figures to boost his standing; sooner or later the business folds and everybody loses out.

Human nature is not a constant and is certainly not uniformly good. For every naïve believer in the eternal inner beauty of everybody (if we could only just, like, love each other, maan) there are a million examples of venality, cruelty, corruption and downright barbarism that are immediately obvious and real to all of us outside the progressive ‘bubble’. Because they choose not to see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening. The western ‘business model’ is failing and taking us all down with it.

Sky announce cast for all-new Anne Frank drama

Yet, despite all the revolts against such ‘progress’, despite all the failed attempts to shape human nature in an ideological jelly mould, still the uncivil engineers foist unrealistic, unattainable uniformity on a fluid human medium which just won’t set the way you want it. There will be differences and injustice and inequality forever and the longer we try and ‘correct’ it the more we will deter genuine progress. Apply this reality to the absurdity of holding meaningful negotiations with savages who genuinely wish us dead and you will realise why, in the end, we can only ever delay and never fully prevent all-out war in the Middle East. No matter how highly we value the entirely fictitious ‘peace dividend, cutting defence spending is yet another disastrous application of the flawed idea that targets and quotas are always good.