The ever increasing madness of political correctness

In the past two days there have been a series of stories which demonstrate both the grip on British society established by the  ideology which is political correctness and the  power of such totalitarian creeds  to drive its disciples to ever more absurd behaviour – totalitarian because the politically correct hold that theirs is the only permissible view to hold and because the creed intrudes into every aspect of life because of the central role played  in it by discrimination, there being nothing which cannot be potentially described in terms of unequal treatment .

The stories range from the sinister to the risible.  The most sinister was the case of a part-time musician Simon Ledger who was arrested by the police after he played   Carl Douglas’s 1974 number one hit Kung Fu Fighter as a Chinese man happened to walk by his performance on the seafront at Sandown in the Isle of White.  (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8475965/Pub-singers-racism-arrest-over-Kung-Fu-Fighting-performance.html). The Chinese man made a complaint to the police of racial harassment  (the simple playing of the song was the basis  of the alleged racial harassment as it “stereotyped “ the Chinese man)  and they immediately treated this as a matter of great urgency. Ledger was arrested, had his photo, DNA and fingerprints taken  before being bailed.  The next day he was questioned by and  gave a statement to the police, a process   which took 90 minutes . The police decided no  offence had been committed,  but  Ledger had suffered the upset of being accused of a crime treated as the most  toxic by the British elite and his photo, DNA and fingerprints remain on the police national database in perpetuity.  The logic of the arrest on such absurd grounds is that no musician performing in public can be certain they will not be arrested through unwittingly playing a tune  or song which someone will consider racially demeaning.

The second story involved a black headmistress Shirley Patterson.  Patterson headed a school in Southwark, South London. Hers is a truly bizarre complaint.  A school-governor  David Moyle put a poster advertising a parent-teacher evening which used a photograph of plastic human figures  consisting of Charles Darwin in the centre surrounded other white figures waving objects such as staves and pitchforks at Darwin. Patterson “called the  police to allege harassment, saying she believed the figure was meant to depict her surrounded by a mob of white parents. Governor David Moyle said his poster advertising a parents’ meeting was a joke about pushy parents demanding higher standards – and police decided no crime had been committed.”   (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23944678-we-were-right-to-suspend-school-governor-in-race-row-over-poster.do ) . This was not the end of the matter because Southwark council set up their own investigation and suspended Moyle.

Down in Pitcombe in Somerset the police were on the trail of another dangerous criminal. His crime?  Someone had put up  picture which made Conservative councillor Mike Beech look like Hitler.  In pursuit of this dangerous felon the police conducted door-to-door searches on the twenty odd houses in the hamlet. ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8475561/Police-hunt-joker-who-drew-Hitler-moustache.html).

Down in the House of Commons alleged male chauvinism stirred. During Prime Minister’s Questions PM David Cameron advised  Angela Eagle, a shadow Treasury minister, to “Calm down dear”  as Ms Eagle, who is a feminist made in the Andrea Dworkin mould,  rowdily barracked Cameron from the opposition front bench.  Cue for the Labour Party to engage in an orgy of PC posturing and the media to make it the lead story in news bulletins for a day. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/8476624/Calm-down-dear-David-Camerons-sexist-taunt-to-Labour-MP.html ).

The final story carried absurdity the furthest.  The Journal of Animal Ethics railed against such enormities as the use of pet to describe , well, pets and wildlife to describe er wildlife.  The editor of  the journal Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, wants everyone to refer to pets as companion animals,  owners as carers  and wildlife as ‘free-living’, ‘free-ranging’ or ‘free-roaming’. Not content with this, the Journal urges the ending of phrases such as  ‘“sly as a fox, “eat like a pig” or “drunk as a skunk”’ because they are ‘ all unfair to animals’. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8479391/Calling-animals-pets-is-insulting-academics-claim).

That is just a couple of days’ of this particular form of ideological madness.  A situation has been created in Britain today akin to that of Stalin’s Russia. It is no longer possible  to remain safe by subscribing to the tenets of the ruling ideology  because the ideology keeps changing its shape and increasing its range. Even the most dedicated and enthusiastic follower of political correctness can find themselves in the coils of heresy simply because they have either not known that a new ideological  rule has been introduced or because they have not anticipated a circumstance in which a hitherto unknown identified breach of the creed is unearthed.

The effect political correctness on individual lives can be profound.  Jobs can be lost on a whim and criminal investigations started at the drop of a hat,. The police have been turned into political commissars in the service of political correctness. The idea that a man can be arrested simply for performing a song  and  have his photo, fingerprints and DNA put permanently on a police database is positively sinister.

There is also another sinister aspect to this type of crime.  The police do not routinely investigate crimes – try getting them to investigate a burglary. In the case of incitement to racial hatred cases they operate a double standard: if the complainant is from an ethnic minority they investigate; if the complainant is white they refuse not only to investigate but to record the complaint.  I have direct experience of this involving the Metropolitan police. Let me illustrate their unwillingness to act with correspondence  between Sir John Stevens (then Metropolitan Police Commissioner), Gerald Howarth MP and myself after I made a complaint of racial incitement by the then BBC Director-General Greg Dyke after he referred to the BBC as “hideously white.”  It shows clearly how determined the police are not to investigate complaints of racial incitement when it involves someone considered to be part of the politically correct elite and the complaint is made by someone white concerning abuse of that racial group.  Here is the complete correspondence in date order:

                                                18 January 2001

Asst Dept. Comm. John Grieve

Racial and Violent Crimes Squad

 Metropolitan Police

 New Scotland Yard

 10 The Broadway

  London SWlH 6BG

                                            cc All national newspapers

                                               Gerald Howorth MP

 Dear Mr Grieve,

I  ask  you to take investigate  the statement  by  the   BBC   Director  General,  Greg Dyke,  that the  BBC  is  “hideously   white” for inciting racial hatred.

The  statement  is unambiguously racist because  Mr  Dyke  is  making  a statement about a  recognised racial group and   the    use  of  the word “hideously”  is highly  inflammatory.   The         extremely unpleasant nature of it can be seen by substituting    black  or  Asian  for white:  “hideously  black”,  “hideously    Asian”.  Its  effect  can only be  to  incite  racial  hatred   against whites.

 The  severity  of  the offence is greatly  magnified  by   Mr    Dyke’s position as the head of our  state funded broadcaster.   I enclose a cutting from the Sunday Telegraph dated 7/1/2001,  to formally substantiate the statement Mr Dyke made.

I  am  sure that the severity of the offence  and  Mr  Dyke’s  position will lead a fervent anti-racist such as yourself  to  take immediate and exemplary action.

Yours sincerely,

 Robert Henderson

——————————————————————

John G D Grieve CBE QPM BA (Hons) M.Phil

Deputy Assistant Commissioner

Director, Racial & Violent Crime Task Force

Room 936 New Scotland Yard

Broadway LONDON

 SWIH 0BG

          Telephone: 0171-230-4186

          Facsimile: 0171-230-2152

          E-Mail: athena.met police@gtnet.gov, uk

Date: 31 January 2001

 Dear Mr Henderson

 I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 18th January, 2001  concerning remarks made by Mr Greg Dyke, the Director General   of the  BBC.

 When the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force was  established   in 1998 it was given clear terms of reference, which included  that  it   would only be tasked at the direct request  of  an   Assistant   Commissioner   from  within  this   Service.   In   acknowledgement  of the concerns  expressed about race  crime   and to endorse divisions as the focal point of  police-public   interference we established Community Safety  Units in  every  London Borough.

I have not seen or heard the comments you refer to but if you  feel  that  they may constitute a criminal  offence  you  can  report  the   matter  to  your  local  police  for   possible   investigation.

Yours sincerely

Detective Inspector Howard Gosling

Staff   Officer   to  John  G  D  Grieve   Deputy   Assistant    Commissioner  

——————————————————————

                                                  12 February 2001

Mr John Stevens

Metropolitan Police Commissioner

New Scotland Yard

10 The Broadway

London SWlH 6BG

                                            cc All national newspapers

                                               Gerald Howorth MP

 Dear Mr Stevens,

I  enclose a copy of a letter I sent to John Grieve making  a   formal complaint against the BBC Director-General, Greg Dyke,   for his remarks about the BBC being “hideously white”.  

A  DI Gosling has replied on behalf of Mr Grieve.  A copy  of   his letter is enclosed. It is the type of letter which brings   the  public service into contempt. 

 DI Gosling makes himself ridiculous when he says “I have  not   seen or heard the comments you refer to…” Not only would he  have  had to be living in a cave for the past few months  not   to have met them through the general media coverage,  I  sent    a newspaper cutting giving the story and offending words with   my original letter of complaint to John Grieve.

 DI Gosling is begging the question when he says that an  Asst   Commissioner must “task”  Grieve’s group before action can be   taken.  The proper procedure when a complaint is made to John   Grieve is for it to be submitted to an Asst Commissioner.  If   it was rejected as inappropriate for action by the RVCTF,  it   should  have been submitted to my nearest police  station  in  accordance with standard police practice.  However,  this  is  manifestly  a  complaint which is suitable for  John  Grieve,   because  it  involves a public figure  with  great  practical influence and the words used were highly inflammatory.

 I  ask you to take up the complaint and instruct John  Grieve    to investigate it forthwith. 

 Yours sincerely,

 Robert Henderson

——————————————————————

                                                   6 March 2001

Mr John Stevens

Metropolitan Police Commissioner

New Scotland Yard

10 The Broadway

London SWlH 6BG

                                            cc All national newspapers

                                               Gerald Howorth MP

Dear Mr Stevens,

I  wrote to you on 12 February concerning an absurd  reply  I  had  received  from  the  Racial  and  Violent  Crimes  Squad    following  a  complaint  I  had made  about  Greg  Dyke,  the   Director  General of the BBC (copy enclosed).  I have had  no   answer from you.  My original letter was sent, as is this, by  recorded delivery,  so please do not waste your time and mine  claiming it was not received.  

 If you refuse to address this complaint honestly,  it will be   unambiguous   proof that your police force is not  interested  in   applying   the  law  equally.   Dyke’s   comments   were  unambiguously  racist and his position in charge of the  only state broadcaster amplified them greatly. 

I suggest you reply by return of post.

 Yours sincerely,

Robert Henderson

——————————————————————

                                                     10-March 2001

 Mr John Stevens

Metropolitan Police Commissioner

 New Scotland Yard

 10 The Broadway

  London SWlH 6BG

                                           cc All national newspapers

                                               Gerald Howorth MP

Dear Mr Stevens,

I have Mr Grieve’s letter of 2 March in response to my letter   to you of 12 February. A bald refusal to act will not do.    

Anne   Robinson,   a   presenter,    makes   some   obviously    tongue-in-cheek   remarks  about  the  Welsh  on   a   comedy    programme:  result – the matter is referred to the police who  take  it seriously and begin preparing a file for  the  Crown  Prosecution Service.

Greg  Dyke,  the Director-General of the  state  broadcasting   service,  the BBC,  states that his senior management team is   “hideously  white”.  Mr Dyke is (1) the most powerful man  in  British broadcasting  and (2) the  remark  is  unambiguously    racist  in the crudest fashion and feeds the  resentments  of    the minorities in Britain. Yet you  refuse to act. Why?

 I repeat what I said in my letter of 6 March,  every time  you    refuse  to apply the law even-handedly,  a nail is knocked  in  the coffin of your credibility and that of your force.

 Yours sincerely,

Robert Henderson

——————————————————————

GERALD HOWARTH MP

HOUSE OF COMMONS

LONDON SW1A 0AA Direct line: 020 7219 5650

                        Fax: 020 7219 1198

19th March 2001

Dear Mr Grieve,

Mr Robert Henderson of 156 Levita House,  Chalton Street,  London NWl 1HR,  wrote to the commissioner about Mr Greg Dyke’s remarks  about  theBBC  being  ‘hideously  white’.  I do think the police owe  us  all  an explanation as to why those remarks -quite clearly racial  – warrant no reaction  from yourselves whilst the remarks of Ann Robinson about  the Welsh do.

What is the difference?

Yours sincerely,

Gerald Howorth

John G. D. Grieve Esq CBE, QPM,

Deputy Asst Commissioner

Director, Racial and Violent Crime Task Force

Room 936, New Scotland Yard

Broadway, SWIH OBG

——————————————————————

                                                                  2 April  2001

Sir John Stevens

Metropolitan Police Commissioner

New Scotland Yard

10 The Broadway

London SWlH 6BG

                                           cc All national newspapers

                                               Gerald Howorth MP

 Dear Sir John,

 My apologies for missing your ‘K’ in previous letters. I have   had  no reply to my letter (sent by recorded delivery) of  10   March.  A  copy is attached.  Are you refusing to  give  your   reasons  for  failing  to  act  against  Greg  Dyke  for  his   “hideously white” comment?

I would also like answers to these questions:

 –  How many of the 100 odd people arrested for “hate  crimes”    by  the Metropolitan Police on 20th  March were a) black  and   b) Asian?

–  How much of the Met’s total budget for the financial  year  ending 5/4/2001 (or any other accounting period you use)  has  been spent on “anti-racist” measures including training?

–  How much of the Met’s total budget for the financial  year  ending 5/4/2001 (or any other accounting period you use)  has  been spent investigating crimes formally classified as racist  by the Met?

 Yours sincerely,

 Robert Henderson

——————————————————————

GERALD HOWARTH MP

HOUSE OF COMMONS LONDON SW1A 0AA

Direct line: 020 7219 5650

        Fax:    020 7219 1198

8th May 2001

Dear Mr Grieve,

Thank  you  for your letter of 26th April about the case raised  by  Mr Robert Henderson of 156 Levita House, Chalton Street, London  NWl 1 HR, about the remarks attributed to the Director General of the BBC.

You  will not be surprised to know that I am well aware of the  demands on  police  time and resources and support the  priority  of   tackling serious  crime.  However,  I  simply put it to  you:  what  would  have happened  had I referred to the music profession as  being   “hideously black”.  Can you not imagine that you would have been faced with  calls for me to be prosecuted and Mr Hague called upon to  expel me from  the Conservative Party?

It is that inequality of treatment which I find so offensive.

Yours sincerely

Gerald Howorth MP

John G. D. Grieve Esq CBE, QPM,

Deputy Asst Commissioner

Director, Racial and Violent Crime Task Force

Room 936, New Scotland Yard

Broadway, SW1H OBG