Oh, they talk a good fight, but when it comes to actually tackling their enemy when he gains a foothold, they are nowhere to be seen...
Lunchtime and it's all bustle in Doncaster city centre. Schoolchildren and shoppers coming and going, talking about all sorts of things. Some stop to discuss the mayor, Peter Davies. Whadda guy.Oh, dear. I don’t think Hugh found Doncaster a very welcoming place for Guardian intellectuals…
The "un-PC supermayor" they are calling him, five months into his new tenure, leading the charge for the English Democrats ("England's fastest-growing political party!" according to their website). A breath of fresh air, say the rightwing bloggers – and quite a few others in Doncaster's airy Frenchgate shopping centre.
But there is another view of the mayor. Talk to members here of the black community, the gay community, Muslims, Travellers – indeed, anyone who doesn't look just a bit like Peter Davies – and you might sense that the air in the town has become a tad fetid.Why, it’s positively 1930s Austria! Though perhaps with better food…
Yes, he's great copy for the local newspaper, with threats to the funding of the local gay pride march (which he later learned the council didn't significantly fund anyway), plans to axe translation services for minorities who don't speak English (possibly illegal), promises to expunge diversity from the town hall lexicon, and suggestions that he might bleach Black History Month. He says he will cut funding to the Ethnic Minority Welfare Service (it closed in 2006). You've got to laugh when he tells the Daily Mail we have much to learn from the Taliban about family values. It's all good stuff, just so long as you are not in the firing line.But you see, Hugh, no-one – least of all the Mayor – is suggesting that we begin the pogroms tomorrow in Frenchgate Shopping Centre, bring your own flaming torches.
He’s simply suggesting turning off the flow of public money to special interest groups. What’s wrong with that?
Certainly, it’s resonating with the public:
I chat with a thoughtful, white middle-aged man and a sunny blonde woman enjoying a fag break, and both tell me that they voted for Davies. The man says give him time; the woman says she agrees with him on political correctness and immigration. Shame, she says, about his divisive style.Note the ‘fag break’ thrown in there. I guess the right wing aren’t the only ones who can be accused of dog-whistle politics, eh Hugh?
So, who isn’t in favour of the mayor’s approach? Give you three guesses…
But it is about more than style. "We felt we were breaking down barriers here," one gay resident tells me. "Things seem to be going the other way."What specific barriers need to be ‘broken down’, then?
We aren’t told, just left with the impression that unless we keep ponying up the money, dreadful things will occur.
Others are looking for succour from the fighting forces of progressivism:
And where is the wider condemnation of this political and philosophical assault on diversity, a local black activist asks, exasperated? Where are the MPs? Where are the statutory agencies? Where is the cavalry? Where indeed!Looks like they have other fish to fry, Hugh. Shame…
The Righteous don't like it when challenged in their cosy little multyculty diverse brave new world do they?
ReplyDeleteA few more mayors like this guy Peter Davies would make life more interesting and possibly cheaper as i cannot for the life of me see why I should be paying for other peoples lifestyle choices, pressure groups or race awareness.
Davies has a hard job on his hands but - what the heck? We've gotta start somewhere, sometime, somehow!
ReplyDelete"The Righteous don't like it when challenged in their cosy little multyculty diverse brave new world do they?"
ReplyDeleteIndeed. And they seem utterly incapable of fighting back, too. Which is good to know.
"Davies has a hard job on his hands but - what the heck? We've gotta start somewhere, sometime, somehow!"
I can only wish him well. He'll need it.
"And where is the wider condemnation of this political and philosophical assault on diversity"
ReplyDeleteAbsolute and unvarying adherence to the collectivist creed is NOT diverse.
Do these people ever listen to themselves?
And where is the wider condemnation of this political and philosophical assault on diversity?
ReplyDeleteThe liberal left are obsessed with the idea that the black community, the gay community, Muslims and Travellers, are all cut from the same cloth. Just because they are minorities.
In reality they probably all hate each other
The liberal left are obsessed with the idea that the black community, the gay community, Muslims and Travellers, are all cut from the same cloth.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that there are probably more Black evangelists than black socialists, yet we never hear of any black person unless they are suitably right on. Just as the non PC whites are excluded from the diversity train, so too are any minorities who fail to be on message.
They seem to be struggling a bit with the Muslim minority - even the ones who pass through the PC filter seem to put their foot in the mouth too often.