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The world really is going crazy
Katie Hopkins almost coming across as a thoughtful journalist.
If she hadn't provided answers to her own questions she would have nailed it.
Would love to have seen these three questions asked on Question Time last night
And no I'm not a fan of hers.
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@MiketheSnow rachailist
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@MiketheSnow Interesting. The first question though is easily answered. Floyd was killed by a policeman, someone who is supposed to uphold the law. The others she mentioned were killed by criminals. That is quite a distinction.
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Thoughtful (unusual for the paper) article by Fraser Nelson in today's Telegraph on the political tribalism around inequality.
We're asking the wrong questions about racial inequality in the UK - Gesture politics is far easier than examining what really explains the huge disparities between different groups
When America was in flames last week, there was uproar in Westminster over a fairly innocent remark made in Parliament by Kemi Badenoch. Britain, she said, is one of the best places in the world to be black. Her fast-growing army of critics took this as a blithe dismissal of racism – and this points to a battle to come. There are two very different ways of seeing the equalities agenda, now clashing against each other. This is worth looking at more closely, because it’s a new form of politics that will likely be with us for some time.
Boris Johnson’s first Cabinet had more black and minority ethnic (BAME) politicians around the table than all other cabinets in history put together. But what unites his ministers is a hatred of the idea of being labelled “BAME”.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was listening to her car radio when she first heard herself described in this way by David Cameron. She was so furious that she almost veered into a ditch. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, is baffled by the idea that his Indian heritage is in any way a disadvantage. Ms Badenoch, newly appointed Equalities minister, regards identity politics as reductive and divisive.
The Tory view, in general, would be that Martin Luther King had it right when he defined equality as judging people by the “content of their character”, not the colour of their skin. Labour, now, is more drawn to the Black Lives Matter agenda, where skin colour matters a great deal – especially for those MPs who see the world in terms of oppressors and the oppressed.
Earlier this week, a group of Labour MPs “took the knee”, a gesture associated with the Black Lives Matter campaign, in a photo OP outside the Commons. It’s pretty unlikely that any Tories would be pictured doing the same.
It’s an incendiary topic, with plenty to discuss. If you’re white in this country, you certainly are far more likely to earn more and live longer. But dig deeper, and things become more complicated.
Britons with a Bangladeshi background typically earn 20 per cent less than whites. But those with Indian heritage are likely to earn 12 per cent more. For black Britons, it’s 9 per cent less; for Chinese, 30 per cent more. It’s hard to put these differences down to systemic discrimination based on skin colour.
This is why Tories tend to reject a “white vs BAME” narrative as being an American import that fundamentally misunderstands Britain. Ms Patel has told her Home Office civil servants that she finds the BAME acronym “patronising and insulting”, as well as being blunt and not useful for judging policy issues. Even “black” lumps together those with African and Caribbean backgrounds, which can be simplistic in a country where the former group are (for example) twice as likely to get into university than the latter.
Admissions to university – a useful proxy for future life chances – also offer a fascinating insight. The average 18-year-old English applicant has a 35 per cent chance of going – but it’s 50 per cent for those categorised as Asian and an almighty 68 per cent for Chinese.
Black students, as a whole, do better than the national average. The ethnic group least likely to go, with a 30 per cent entry rate, are whites. You tend not to hear that figure, because so much of England’s public debate about higher education tends to be driven by an obsession about who gets into Oxbridge.
Deploring racism is important, but not difficult. It is far harder to look into the huge disparities between the ethnic groups and ask what explains them. More dangerous still is to ask whether culture or family structure might play a role.
The hot potato that no politician wants to handle is the shocking underachievement of poor white boys: they do worse academically than any other group. Ladders of opportunity work for those eager to climb. But what about those who have come to believe that it’s not worth trying? The problem of the “hard-to-reach” poor white boys is one of the toughest questions of equality – and race – in Britain today.
It’s often the least fashionable causes that most need the political attention. One that the right amount of political pressure might help to fix.
The MPs who “took the knee” outside the Commons ought to have gone straight back inside and campaigned for all schools to reopen, because nothing would be of greater help to young black Brits today. Black mothers are more likely to be single parents, with too many forced to choose between their job or running a homeschool. It’s the classroom where pupils from poorer backgrounds can find space to study, friends and teachers to inspire them.
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@Rembrandt said in British Politics:
Not just 'far-right' anymore. Its 'extreme far right' now..ffs What's next when this term is over-used describing 60 year old women trying to make a stand for British history. 'Ultra mega far right'?
If ever there was a useless monument which needs taking down, it's Sadiq Khan.
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@Catogrande said in British Politics:
@MiketheSnow Interesting. The first question though is easily answered. Floyd was killed by a policeman, someone who is supposed to uphold the law. The others she mentioned were killed by criminals. That is quite a distinction.
That's a bit too simple mate. The policeman was also a criminal. We're all worldly enough to know about bad apples. Arsonist fireman aren't first and foremost firemen.
The first 2 points are valid.
Why do we ignore the most common homicide cohort? Black on black conflict is a dominant feature of murders and violent attacks in both USA and the UK. Add one white perpetrator and all reason vanishes. What does it matter, they're all Fucken murderers.
And yes, what do they want? What's their vision of non systemic racism look like? Where, exactly, is the racism? Laws? Rights?
Never any measurable outcomes or details with any of the current left's plans for the world.
Always an infantile " let's tear it all down and change will happen for the good".Sick of it. ( not you Cato), just the continual energy sapping frustration that all common knowledge and sense is being defiled so unashamedly ( proudly even!) by these selfish fluffybunnies and we're all supposed to act and respond with submission like their absolute nonsense is worth considering.
UK and USA in for a violent 2020?
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@Victor-Meldrew very good article. My main takeaway there is that these social issues are extraordinarily complex. Probably more complex than most people can wrap their heads around, so many who want to have an opinion seek out simple causes with simple solutions. Racism is one of those - that's a nice simple binary between being racist and not racist, and it's a simple concept to blame differences between racial groups solely on that.
In reality there is a multitude of issues at play with no one simple answer, which is why we haven't been able to properly address them.
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@No-Quarter said in British Politics:
@Victor-Meldrew very good article. My main takeaway there is that these social issues are extraordinarily complex. Probably more complex than most people can wrap their heads around, so many who want to have an opinion seek out simple causes with simple solutions. Racism is one of those - that's a nice simple binary between being racist and not racist, and it's a simple concept to blame differences between racial groups solely on that.
In reality there is a multitude of issues at play with no one simple answer, which is why we haven't been able to properly address them.
The biggest issue, for me, is the huge waste of talent and wealth creation caused by inequality in all its forms. Divisions of colour, race, whatever have little to do with it.
My guess is the "liberal elite", being wealthy, are opposed to real change to open up opportunity as they and their kids will face more competition and will be impacted. Gesture politics like tearing down statues makes them feel good in their expensive homes in catchment areas with the best, publicly-funded schools and their safe, very affluent neighbourhood.
Though she's a hypocrite for sending her kids to private schools, at least Diane Abbott was honest as to why she did it.
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Thomas Sowell offered another reason for people focussing on the wrong things
"The reason so many people misunderstand so many issues is not that these issues are so complex, but that people do not want a factual or analytical explanation that leaves them emotionally unsatisfied. They want villains to hate and heroes to cheer—and they don't want explanations that fail to give them that."
A lot of truth in that I'd say.
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@Victor-Meldrew yep, because West Indian woman will do anything for their children right? Straight out racism.
I didn't think my views on Sadiq Kunt could go any lower, but they have. I cannot believe his post today talking about the far right violence. Is he completely unaware that all of last weeks' shit was caused by the far left? Of course he's not. He just thinks as it's from one side, it's more tolerable than the other. As famous Brexiteer Julia Hartley-Brewer said ....
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@Bones said in British Politics:
@MajorRage that's classic. Londoners have no time for the hatred from the imaginary hijackers....but all the time in the world for those devastating London eh.
Almost as ironic as the racist abuse heaped on black and asian Tory MPs like Priti Patel, James Cleverley & Kemi Baddenock by Black Lives Matter supporters on Twitter....
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There was a big opportunity for politicians and leaders who (rightly) praise diversity to speak out about also respecting the culture of the indigenous people of the UK as well and bring some sanity into the debate.
They have been found wanting.
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We are reaching peak lunacy
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The cavalry has arrived.
https://streamable.com/9vtv0qKind of wish the police would defund themselves for the day but my worry is they'll be under instructions to arrest anyone pro-Britain.
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