For decades, voices on the liberal and progressive left have invariably rolled out the terror-inducing accusation of ‘racism’ in order to get their way and silence opponents. It’s thus unsurprising to see, in the wake of Jason Arday’s death, that they’re still resorting to this cynical tactic, and in this case, to absolve themselves of responsibility for having exploited this vulnerable man in the first place.
To call it a ‘witch hunt’ is predictable and unfounded hyperbole
In response to Arday’s death, Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, said the ‘level of harassment he suffered and the racism he was subjected to has been sickening’. The National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said Arday had been subjected to ‘a public and brutal takedown that unleashed a tirade of racism.’ Weyman Bennett, co-convener of Stand Up To Racism, added that Arday’s death ‘was the result of a racist witch hunt.’
While it’s true that the newspapers expended much energy investigating the allegations surrounding Arday, not least the serious accusations of plagiarism, and did dwell on his extraordinary extra-curricular claims, to call it a ‘witch hunt’ is predictable and unfounded hyperbole. It was right for the press to investigate serious academic malpractice at the highest level, and it was wrong for Arday to have himself tried to accuse others of racism in order to silence them, and even involve the police in doing so. And let’s not forget that one of the newspapers involved in this so-called ‘witch hunt’ was the Guardian, which looked into one particular dubious claim, that a pig’s head had been sent to his parents’ home.
What was morally amiss in this sorry episode to begin with was the willingness of (invariably white) left-liberals in academia to exploit Arday in order to burnish their credentials as compassionate and progressive public figures, to use a person as a means to an end, to employ him as a mascot. As a final insult, now that he’s dead, progressive activists are still using him for their own selfish ends, to make themselves appear superior to everyone else.
If the ‘right-wing press’ launched a hunt of any sort, it was directed towards a higher educational system, and to a public sector in general, which is beholden to a DEI ideology which seems to value skin colour over merit. It is an antediluvian obsession with race which the majority of the British public dislike, not any preoccupation with it on their behalf. If there is any fury, it is, as Trevor Phillips recently reminded us, towards a detached and aloof North London elite who have foisted their esoteric philosophies and pet obsessions upon the rest of the country.
If there is any resentment, it’s towards a resilient hyper-liberal philosophy which appears to actively discriminate against white people. It’s no surprise that ethnonationalism is rising so rapidly. In 2023, 19 per cent of respondent to a YouGov poll said Britishness was something you were born with, rather than something you could acquire. By last December, that figure had almost doubled to 36 per cent. It’s progressive politics that are responsible for this or any ‘backlash’.
Perhaps that was partly the intention all along. Because what we have seen over the past few days is a pattern that has been repeating itself for years. This is: leftwing progressives introduce policies which they think will make them look good; the public generally doesn’t like them and reacts with anger and hostility; leftwing progressives respond in turn with haughty condescension, pronouncing that these people are being ‘racist’, ‘far right’ and ‘stoking division’.
That pattern has been played out in regard to mass immigration, the imposition of state-enforced multiculturalism, and now the matter of resettling asylum seekers. Every time it’s the same sequence initiated by the liberal elites: introduce a corrosive and divisive policy, wait for the terrible results and the all-too-predictable populist backlash, then ascend to one high horse to denounce the consequences of your own vain and foolish making.
This self-perpetuating vicious cycle of narcissistic grievance-mongering, mostly related to race and culture, is played out in many arenas today, not least in matters concerned with free speech. People who voice opposition to immigration, multiculturalism or a politicised form of Islam are habitually gagged, censured and shamed by an establishment that introduced destructive policies connected to them in the first place.
Legislation enacted by successive Conservative and Labour governments on immigration and multiculturalism now mean that we live in such a fragmented and fragile society that no-one is allowed to offend anyone else or say what they think. Policies introduced by an elite have created a Britain in which people are increasingly punished for pointing the finger of accusation at those who brought them about to begin with. If there’s any ‘witch hunt’ today, it’s towards them.
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