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Artillery Row

Defund the tone police

The tutting and muttering of Tory wets should be ignored

I have never, until now, been called to Bidwellian dragging of a single particular article. But I am drawn to the drag because, frankly, the offending article (pun intended) is absolutely appalling, and quite possibly one of the worst things I’ve ever read. In this case, it is Iain Dale’s latest column in The I.  “Robert Jenrick is speaking like Tommy Robinson,” Dale writes; “he needs to simmer down”. 

This follows criticism of the Shadow Justice Secretary from Samuel Kasumu, a former Conservative adviser on race issues. Kasumu took to BBC Politics to warn that Jenrick “crosses a line” and that he “needs to tone it down”. Tellingly, amid all this tone policing he provided absolutely no examples of what “words” might “lead to violence”. The threat is perhaps meant to seem so dramatic that its existence does not have to be justified.

Responding to this criticism, Kemi Badenoch backed her erstwhile leadership rival to the hilt, arguing that; “The habit of dismissing anyone with a different viewpoint as ‘divisive’ has to end. We must be free to have tough conversations, no matter how uncomfortable they may be to hear.”

Dale, to his credit, actually bothers to identify a Jenrick quote he disagrees with: “The scandal started with the onset of mass migration. Importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women, brought us here.”

Yet Dale doesn’t explain why, or indeed if at all, this statement is wrong. He dismisses it out of hand, on the grounds that it “was deliberately designed to back up the outrageous comments of Musk.” The role immigration and ethnic motivations have played in the gross saga are incontrovertible; so while there’s nothing factually wrong about this, it happens to align with the perspective of someone Dale disdains.

Dale also takes issue with Jenrick arguing that the grooming gangs scandal is “the final nail in the coffin for liberals who still cling to the argument that Britain is an integration success story.” He counters:

… it is nothing of the sort. Compared to every other European country, integration has indeed been a success in the UK. Of course there are still challenges and areas where integration has not worked

The mass, systematised, targeted rape of vulnerable women along ethnic lines is not proof that integration has failed in Britain — it is no more than a “challenge”. This is a staggering statement. If Britain is an integration success story, what does a failure look like?

Dale goes on to state that “to pretend that our issues with assimilating immigrants in this country are worse than anywhere else is pure fiction – wicked fiction.” This argument amounts to little more than, “Things are bad here but by the Grace of God they are worse elsewhere”. This is, in itself, a wicked fiction — there are almost no developed countries that have seen anything on this scale

But Musk is not the only person Mr Dale seeks to associate Jenrick with. “Talk of ‘alien cultures’ and ‘medieval attitudes’ are phrases which Tommy Robinson, Marine Le Pen or the AfD in Germany might utter,” he says, “Just as we would condemn them, we must also condemn Jenrick.”

Again Dale focuses on personalities and not on principles. If a culture that enabled the mass, systematised, targeted rape of vulnerable women along ethnic lines is not alien, and the attitudes that allowed the mass, systematised, targeted rape of vulnerable women along ethnic lines are not medieval, then what are they? As I argued in The Telegraph recently, is this culture familiar? Are these attitudes modern?

To cap off what can only be described as a stunning piece (and not in a good way), Dale concludes: “Jenrick is unrepentant, though. On the Today programme on Tuesday he didn’t pull back at all. Indeed, he doubled down. Musk will be delighted.”

Again, Dale seeks to crowbar in Elon Musk. There is an almost frantic energy to this piece. It completely fails to identify why Jenrick should be repentant, other than that Musk and others might be talking about it. This argument amounts to little more than an overwritten sneer, and an uncomprehending one at that; it is natural that Musk and others should be talking about Britain’s rape gangs. They perpetrated crimes of monstrous inhumanity, kept quiet by public officials. They mark the thorough debasement of a supposedly civilized nation.

I wish Dale had had the clarity of thought to read Badenoch’s statement in support of Jenrick — which he includes in the article, verbatim — and wonder if it might apply to him. 

“The habit of dismissing anyone with a different viewpoint as ‘divisive’ has to end,” she said. “We need moral courage, not silencing of debate through personal attacks… The Conservative Party is under new leadership and that means confronting difficult truths.”

Dale should have bothered to actually consider this. What Kemi is saying, very carefully and very clearly, is that the Conservatives are not the party they once were. Things are changing, and for the better. We do not put “community relations” above the truth, or “toning it down” over justice, because that is how we ended up here. Dale’s entire column is an attempt at “silencing of debate through personal attacks”. Kemi is talking about this very act in particular; thank God, after years of the party caving to gain the approval of liberals who hated us anyway, it will no longer wash.

But perhaps the most egregious thing about Dale’s dross is that at no point does this article talk about the issue at hand: the mass, systematised, targeted rape of vulnerable women along ethnic lines. In fact, given that he uses a gruesome sexual reference in saying that “Jenrick thought that he could metaphorically find the Conservative Party’s G spot”, it is seems questionable as to whether he actually knows the nature of the debate he is commenting on. 

If we are going to confront the truth … we are going to need precious few Dales, and a lot more Jenricks

Frankly, I am glad that Kemi has been so strong in her support. She is right this time — we must have moral courage, and we must debate difficult truths. The first is that rape gangs are just the tip of the iceberg; as recently discovered by the Centre for Migration Control, “foreign nationals more than 3x as likely to be arrested for sexual offences as British citizens”. 

If we are going to confront the truth — that we have willingly imported a wave of sexual violence against British women — we are going to need precious few Dales, and a lot more Jenricks. Had we but a thousand such men in England today.

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