Tree of Knowledge

The recent discussion of the state of the left-wing blogosphere in the UK has led me to have a closer look at the product that these blogs are producing (while I’ve been a long time reader of Guido and Dale, the left blogs seem to have passed me by until now).

Which led me to this post on LiberalConspiracy about the recent sacking of Aussie conservative hack James McGrath as chief political advisor to London Mayor Boris Johnson for (hiss) racism. If this is indicative of the quality of the broader UK left blogosphere it’s no wonder no one is reading them.

Here’s The Guardian’s account of the ‘racism’ that resulted in McGrath’s sacking:

Howe had written that the election of Johnson might trigger a mass exodus of older African-Caribbean migrants back to the West Indies.

Wadsworth (a UK blogger interviewing McGrath) wrote on his blog that McGrath responded: “Well, let them go if they don’t like it here.”

Wadsworth also took offence at the following exchange:

McGrath had said to Wadsworth: “I know where you are on the radar, sunshine,” having suffered a series of extremely partisan questions.

Wadsworth described McGrath’s comments as ‘breathtaking’ and Johnson promptly sacked him.

Note that both Johnson and David Cameron have publicly stated that they didn’t believe that McGrath was racist or that the statements he made were racist. Note that he DIDN’T say something like ‘let them go home‘ that could have implied in some kind of discourse analysis, deconstructed world that he harboured a latent belief that Afro-Caribbean migrants didn’t belong in London and that their home was elsewhere. In fact, he never suggested that he wanted people to leave London. All he did was reply to a proposition that was put to him suggesting that people wanted to leave London because Boris Johnson was Mayor. Was his response arrogant? Yes. Dismissive? Yes. But racist? Come on.

I don’t often go out of my way to defend Conservative hacks, but this is ridiculous. For the benefit of UK readers, speaking as someone from the Australian Left; when an Australian conservative is being racist, you know about it. And as for the sunshine comment, I use that every day as a description for a dopey person who thinks they know more than they actually do.

Which is a round-about way of bringing me to LiberalConspiracy’s take on the affair, which was to describe McGrath’s sacking as the ‘morally right decision’. Why? Because:

Telling minority groups to go somewhere else if they don’t like it here has long been part of the racist meme perpetuated by the BNP that says that these people might be born and bred in the UK, but they’ll never be truly British.

As part of that narrative, anytime someone of a minority background questions their country’s policies - they are told to move to another country if they don’t like it. So for example, Melanie Phillips can complain that the country is in moral decay and no one raises an eyebrow but if a British Muslim says it then they’re told to head to the Middle East. You don’t belong here anyway - is the subtext.

Whether James McGrath, Boris Johnson, David Cameron, Iain Dale or Tim Montgomerie like it or not - just using the phrase “move to another country if you don’t like it here” has deep associations with BNP language and terminology. For that reason, the phrase and its variations should never be part of acceptable discourse.

So in essence, for replying to a proposition made by a person of Afro-Caribbean descent that is a ‘variation’ on a ‘racist meme perpetuated by the BNP’, McGrath is himself racist.

Faux-scandals like this undermine society’s moral authority to address genuine instances of racism. If the majority of the public thinks that racial issues are some kind of political kabuki game in which everyone is play acting according to the rules of political correctness, the moral foundation of the fight against racism is obscured. Those who would cry wolf over racism for political gain trivialise a serious moral issue.

In the broader scheme of things, it is opportunists like the writer of this article at LiberalConspiracy who do greater damage to the cause of racial equality than someone like James McGrath.

This kind of craziness is not limited to the UK of course; Irfan Yusuf has echoed these arguments in Australia.

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