HENRY NOWAK

Today, the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch wrote an article for the Daily Mail entitled: ‘Why are they not kneeling now for poor Henry Nowak?’ This follows the recent publication of footage of the police arresting a clearly injured and dying Henry Nowak – a teenager who had been stabbed multiple times by the Sikh, Vickrum Digwa, who had claimed to be the victim of racism from Henry Nowak. The police took Digwa at his word and acted accordingly. Digwa’s family were also at the scene, and they had chased and then detained Henry Nowak for some time before Digwa’s brother called the police to allege that Henry Nowak was a racist.

At the trial, where Digwa was convicted, the judge dismissed the allegations of racism as an invention. At the scene, the dying teenager’s repeated complaints that he had been stabbed and that he could not breath were openly disbelieved and ignored by the police until after the teenager had died. There is widespread public outrage.

Those making excuses for the police have focused on the officers at the scene not following the correct procedures. Of importance, and what is being ignored, is the so-called The Macpherson principle from the Macpherson Report of 1999, which means that ‘all complaints about incidents of racism should be recorded and investigated as such, when they are perceived by the complainant or someone else as acts of racism’. In addition, there is also the deluge of DEI indoctrination that the police are eagerly adopting.

Three parts of Kemi Badenoch’s article stand out:

1. ‘[when equalities minister in government] I had meetings with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, with the Metropolitan Police, with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, with the College of Policing. I told them repeatedly that “anti-racism” was not a cause they needed to champion: the real problems were a lack of integration and faith in our institutions. Some agreed, but were too scared to say so publicly. The pressure from “community leaders”, rabid activists, well-meaning busybodies and ignorant do-gooders was too strong for all of them to ignore … And this will keep happening unless politicians and other business leaders, public institutions and the rest of society stop being such cowards.’

With respect, it was the Tories who were in government and it was the Tories who were to blame. It is not for business leaders to fight an ideological battle over the politically-correct interpretation of race theories – that is what the Tories are supposed to be doing, and they failed to do so. Kemi Badenoch admitted that she, as equalities minister, was ineffectual. Those she was lecturing took no notice of her.

2. ‘I have said that we are going to root out all identity politics from state institutions – from removing diversity requirements from defence procurement to scrapping preferential sentencing for minorities. But it can’t end there. No other political party has a plan for integration and assimilation … Yes, a lot needs to be fixed. But [it] was completely wrong to say that the “rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities”.

This is simply the language of the Black Lives Matter movement in reverse – inflaming tensions, emphasising difference. It is toxic tribal politics that divides our country.’

The Tories should have done all this when they were in government. Instead, they promoted political correctness and all the race poison instead of rejecting and defunding it. Kemi Badenoch equates criticism of actions of the government and the state as being akin to the BLM’s stated hostility to White people. English people are being treated as second class citizens in England and to stand up for ourselves is necessary, regardless of how loudly some might accuse the English of tribal politics, or that being English is divisive (other name-calling has been rampant from certain quarters recently).

3. ‘I do not want a country fractured into hostile ethnic groups. If you come to Britain, you cannot and must not bring the racial and cultural grievances of your home nations here, turning our country, our home, into the very place you were running away from. Changing this disturbing status quo requires bravery from politicians. It won’t be easy: we will have to sweep out a lot of the historic, incoherent nonsense that has been brought in under the guise of anti-racism. Notions of “white privilege” and forcing “decolonisation” narratives down the throats of children is not how we build a cohesive society.

We also need to stop the idea that racism is something that happens only to ethnic minorities, perpetrated by white people. This seems to have been the belief of officers in the terrible case of Henry Nowak. Public bodies must understand that anyone can be a victim of racism. They should also acknowledge that an accusation of “racism” alone is not evidence and certainly isn’t a bigger crime than violence or murder.

These are the principles that the Conservative Party believes in: universalism, equality under the law, not treating people differently based on skin colour, and making sure that we always build faith and trust in our institutions – rather than trying to destroy them.’

Or else what? It is no good just criticising those Third World immigrants who enter the UK, one way or another, and then show hostility if not violence towards the host nation. There has to be an or else. Or else those immigrants get thrown out. Yes, we do need to ‘sweep out’ a lot of anti-racism dogma, but Kemi Badenoch gives no indication as to how that is to be done. She advances no policies, just sentiments.

One is reminded of Parkinson’s Law: the amount of work to do will increase to occupy the numbers of people employed. The more race officers there are, the more racism they will uncover.

The UK was accused of being a multi-racist society back in 2000. Anti-black racism, anti-Asian racism, antisemitism, anti-Irish racism. Racism based on skin colour and racism based on culture. More recently new racisms have been pushed to the fore. Unintentional racism, intentional racism, institutional racism, systematic racism, and structural racism. The idea that only White people can be racist stems from the assertion that racism stems from the slave trade, and so only Black people can be victims of racism and White people are the racists.

It is flawed logic to argue against anti-racism zealotry to no effect and then bemoan ‘this will keep happening unless politicians and other business leaders, public institutions and the rest of society stop being such cowards’. The institutions of society have been captured by the politically correct and peddle a cultural Marxist line. Evidently, Kemi Badenoch does not appreciate this.

The West as a whole is locked in an ideological war, and the Tories have proved repeatedly that they have no stomach for a fight. In setting out ‘the principles that the Conservative Party believes in’, Kemi Badenoch did not mention patriotism. Instead, she advanced ‘universalism’. That speaks volumes.