Patrick West

Is there a problem with Islamophobia? The problem is the word ‘Islamophobia’ itself. What does it actually mean, and what does taking the word and its existence at face value entail? Many do assume that Islamophobia is out there in Britain, and that it needs to be addressed. When it was in opposition, the Labour party adopted its definition as drawn up by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims. It states: ‘Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.

There has been much indignation at the roll-call of those ennobled in the New Year Honours. There’s been bewilderment that Gareth Southgate, England’s failed football coach, has been given a knighthood. There’s been anger that Sadiq Khan, who has presided over an escalation of knife crime in the capital, has been similarly honoured. There’s been puzzlement that Emily Thornberry, whose foremost distinction has been sneering at working-class displays of patriotism, has been made a dame. And there’s been gnashing of teeth that Stephen Fry, that ubiquitous and often grating luvvie, has been given the title ‘Sir’. Much of the vehemence directed towards Fry has focused on his longstanding support for Stonewall, and echoing its stance on trans ideology.

Does religion matter in politics today? It certainly does, at least if you pose as someone who is neutral, as the BBC presenters do, or from the centre ground, or if you’re an avowed secularist. On BBC Radio 4 yesterday morning, Conservative MP Danny Kruger was asked how his stance on the Assisted Dying Bill was informed by his Christian beliefs. He said that it was, but hastened to add that many public Christians are in favour of the Bill, while many atheists oppose it. The MP for East Wiltshire has been questioned about the link between his faith and his politics before, and he will be asked again. It seems that those who profess to be neutral distrust any religious connection of this kind.

The obsession with ‘toxic masculinity’ shows no sign of abating. As reported this weekend, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has warned of ‘the misogyny increasingly gripping our schools’. In response to this threat, the government is to issue guidance for teachers to look out for signs in the classroom of ‘incel culture' stemming from the ‘manosphere’. Teachers of pupils aged over 14 are to be told to look for clues that boys were being drawn into aggressive misogyny, behaviour that could lead to violence and sexual abuse. They are to be on guard for rhetoric indicating teenage boys are being radicalised into ‘hating women’. A preferable route would be to stop teaching boys to hate themselves in the first place.

Change. If one word can embody the political philosophy of Keir Starmer, it’s this one. The Prime Minister is ever so fond of it. Starmer deployed it copiously on his way to Number 10, and it's been his repeated mantra ever since. No wonder that when the PM unveiled his big new idea this week, it was called The Plan For Change. He’s obsessed with the word and the concept. The problem is that much of the public aren’t so enamoured of change. Many people don’t like the way British society has changed. They would have preferred if things had remained as they were. Much of the public still want things to stay the same.

Vegans are a people both widely admired and hated. That is the conclusion of a report earlier this week, one that found that shoppers who opt for meat alternatives elicit fear and contempt from others. According to researchers from the University of Vaasa in Finland, who interviewed 3,600 people from four European countries, including the UK, people who choose plant-based options are perceived as ‘worthy of admiration’, yet at the same time their vegan lifestyle also arouses feelings of ‘envy, fear, contempt and anger.’ Before vegans let such news swell their heads – knowing now that they’re seen as both awesome and awful – further research, published in the Times today, should bring them back down to Earth.

The triumph of Donald Trump and the defeat of a Democratic party beholden to identity politics has prompted many to conclude that woke ideology is dead. The problem here is that people have been writing this obituary for some years now, ever since the ideology reached its apex of insanity in the summer of 2020. Still, it has refused to die. Corporations have come to realise that feigning voguish positions on social matters is not good for business However, the hyper-liberal dogma does now display tangible signs of retreat in one area: the business sector. If woke is not quite dead yet, then its opportunist capitalist offshoot, does at least seem moribund. Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, which employs 2.

As the Allison Pearson debacle begins to settle down, the lesson being drawn by many is that the police have no business harassing people for voicing opinions that are legal, no matter how offensive or hypothetically damaging they might be. Many of us have been urging as much for years. But taking stock now, surely most can agree that it’s not the state’s role to monitor speech, morality or the way we conduct ourselves in our private lives. ‘Respect orders’ are befitting of Blair’s moralising crusade that begat Asbos If this is indeed a growing consensus, then the Labour government seems to be veering in the opposition direction. On Friday it announced a new measure to tackle antisocial behaviour, 'respect orders’.

Christmas television adverts are meant to be comforting, homely, and traditional. While some find these offerings, especially John Lewis’s, overly twee and sentimental, most would agree that festive adverts should be kept clear of politics – overt or otherwise. This unspoken consensus, however, appears to have been lost on those behind the new Boots Christmas TV commercial, an advert stamped with hallmarks of the hyper-liberal politics that, all year round, bring so little joy and cheer to the nation.

One of Kemi Badenoch’s much-touted strengths is that she cares about British culture, society and our country's values. She is renowned for her war on woke ideology, speaking out against multiculturalist dogma and identity politics. And in her appraisal of community cohesion and society at large, she shares an outlook with a predecessor as Conservative party leader, Iain Duncan Smith. Iain Duncan Smith was on Radio 4 this morning, speaking about the perils of our liberal laws on gambling, and the relationship they have had with the dramatic increase in gambling addiction ever since Labour relaxed laws on gambling advertising in 2005. His radio appearance comes a day after the Gambling Commission said that the number of young people with a gambling problem has doubled in a year.

We in Britain have become used to the hallmarks of anti-Israeli protests. There are the slogans decrying ‘genocide’. There are chants in sympathy of terrorist organisations. There’s the explicit or insinuated anti-semitism. But one sinister feature making its transition across the Atlantic is the appearance of the face mask. Wearing a mask at a demo is the perfect expression of radical chic Footage widely circulated online this week showed an Israeli supporter in New York being attacked by a pro-Palestine activist, who proceeded to stamp and spit on the Israeli flag while shouting profanities. Nothing new here, you might say. It’s all part of the vitriol we expect these days, even on the first anniversary of that terrible massacre in Israel.

The Labour government’s u-turn on freebies, its disclosure last night that it will no longer accept donations for clothes, is an admission that it has got it wrong. But ‘wrong’ in which sense of the word? Wrong in that they admit that they committed an error, or wrong in that they have behaved immorally? Their language would suggest very much the former. Nearly two-thirds of all voters say Starmer’s decision to accept freebies for his wife was unacceptable Keir Starmer’s allies concede that there was a ‘perception’ issue after the Prime Minister accepted clothing worth and spectacles together worth more than £18,000. This has been accompanied by similar gifts accepted by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister.

Is it possible to change your class? Not just superficially – in moving up and down the hierarchy of social standing – but change it inwardly so that you transform your very sense of self? Conservative leadership contender Kemi Badenoch seems to think so. Speaking on Chopper’s Political Podcast this week, the shadow housing secretary said that although she grew up in a middle-class family, she became working class when she took a job at McDonald’s while studying for her A-levels. Explaining her conversion, she put it baldly: ‘I grew up in a middle-class family, but I became working class when I was 16 working in McDonald’s.’ She elaborates:  Just understanding how many people there were single parents, and they were working there to make ends meet.

To some people, the culture wars don’t matter. They are an irrelevance, an indulgence. A distraction from the material, bread-and-butter concerns of ordinary people, like paying the bills or finding an affordable place to live. This sentiment was echoed by Robert Jenrick, the Conservative leadership contender. As reported in the Times yesterday, Jenrick told a meeting of young activists that he didn’t want his party to ‘go down a rabbit hole of culture wars’, and that the public were more concerned about the cost of living and public services than gender issues. The culture war is not an idle luxury.