Sooty with the Grime of Propaganda

Yesterday, a day when war continued in Gaza, Osama bin Laden allegedly declared Jihad on Israel and Harriet Harman announced yet more Orwellian 'equality' plans, what did The Sun newspaper, the most widely read in Britain, choose as its frontpage headline?

An Indian man at Prince Charles' Polo club has the nickname 'Sooty', a name which the Prince and his sons allegedly use to refer to him. Seeing as the man came forward to state emphatically that the Prince did not choose the nickname, nor is he in any way shape or form a racist, I suppose on this occasion we can be lenient and forego the public hanging.

I find this situation increasingly curious. Every violation of politically correct speech codes must be turned into a public witch-hunt, no matter how trivial, how accidental, how deeply regretted, even when all parties involved agree it is a non-issue. I consider myself a polite person, and I would not dream of offending someone deliberately, for no reason, no matter what their colour or creed. It seems to me most normal people are in the same boat, so what is the purpose of 'making an example' of people for the slightest violation of what is now regarded as the 'correct' way to speak and think? Also, who decides what constitutes correct, what's offensive to who and what isn't?

In a country that is suffering from a disturbing increase in violent crime and solves pathetically few of the ones currently committed, I would of thought the great and the good would have better things to worry about than what two middle-aged gentlemen refer to each other as over a bottle of Port.

But this is the most disturbing aspect of the phenomenon; it doesn't matter what Charles said, or that his previous actions show him to be a fine, upstanding gentleman without prejudice; it doesn't matter that Kolin Dhillon, the Indian chap in question, is happy and doesn't think there is a problem. All that matters is that Charles has sinned, and now he must be sorry; he must be made to pay somehow, probably by being denigrated or humiliated.

Increasingly these situations remind me of the culture of denounciations and show trials found during Stalin's reign over the Soviet Union. Truth, logic, facts, intentions, past character are totally unimportant, irrelevant in the face of the bright, incisive light of inquisition of the bad by the good. All that matters is the accusation, and the burden of proof is on the accused; simply by virtue of being suspected of racism, they are bad. They are to be given no quarter, and if you disagree you should shut up, or frankly you might just be an evil racist yourself. The accusation seems to require no evidence, often not even a reason; it's simply there, and up to you the accused to prove you're actually not racist, in some ways an almost impossible task - who knows what anyone really thinks about anything? You would like to think the things they say and the way they act might be a fair guide, but really, who knows?

I imagine there are some who think all this is a bit trivial, but lives have been ruined by accusations such as these; the Council of Europe demands that 'racism', an ill-defined, completely imprecise term that means totally different things to different people, be an actual criminal offence whereby one can be imprisoned or extradited abroad if accused of it, or even potentially (and incredibly ironically, in my opinion) stripped of their civil rights. Interestingly, their definition of racism and xenophobia includes criticising Muslims (or indeed any religious group or practice, no matter how out dated or abhorrent) and being hostile to the EU itself.

This leads me to suspect that these speech codes have nothing to do with protecting vulnerable minorities, or allowing hard working immigrants who accept our values to describe themselves as British, and everything to do with dismantling who we are, particularly in terms of our past. It just so happens that according to the group of misfits who hijacked our government sometime in the 1960s, or even bfore, everything that happened in Britain before their ascent to power was racist, and we needed to let go of the past because if we didn't we might well be being offensive to all our new citizens.
It's just a happy coincidence, of course, that our new rulers happened to despise everything about pre-1960s Britain, and smashing it had been the goal of people who moved in their intellectual circles since Lenin was a small boy. So, what are immigrants to them?

It seems to me, just a convenient excuse. It probably is important of course that Enoch Powell, the only British politician to ever seriously attempt to raise the issue of mass immigration for debate, was hounded out of office despite allegedly enjoying unprecedented public support. I only really raise this to counter the idea that everyone agreed that immigration was a wonderful thing and that benefits outweighed setbacks.
Rightly or wrongly, the majority of the population had severe reservations. I imagine many still do, no matter how reluctant they are to say so, or how buried the idea is under layers of 'goodthink'.

Should they have? For me, the jury is still out. Well managed immigration clearly has some benefits, although probably not as many as its lobbyists would claim. However I do have severe reservations about large groups of people from very different cultures and backgrounds moving to the same area, then expecting to live as if they never left their home country, but with all our benefits (not just finance related; for example Muslims using free speech to call for non-believers to be beheaded) too. That is unacceptable; but what is more unacceptable is white liberals using these people as shills (or is it vice versa?) in order to dismantle the very country and culture good enough to take them in.

I have absolutely no time for out and out racism (although I'm sure any Guardian reader who happens to stumble across this will be clawing out their eyes at the images of me in white robes burning a cross by now), but every time I hear that someone who moved here to enjoy the benefits of our country and the fruits of our labour (no pun intended) finds our flag offensive, or believes police uniforms should 'be more inclusive', or prisons should serve special menus to different faiths, my reaction is resigned anger, but more than that: they should leave.
I know of what I speak; I spent several months living in Germany. OK, the culture isn't vastly different and I got by quite nicely, but that's the point; maybe if I'd found Germans or German or the German flag objectionable, I might have tried France or Holland instead. Why put myself through months of hell and severe, traumatic offence everytime some poor unsuspecting German opened their mouth?
But whatever the left would have us believe, this isn't the full story. Most immigrants don't come here to make trouble over our cultural symbols; indeed many actively want to share in them, and I've met immigrants from places as different as Nigeria and the Philippines who are far more politically conservative and protective of traditional British values than the vast majority of my native-born friends.

This latest furore is simply a reminder of who is in charge, and that no one is above the new order of things. We are invited to pore over the disgusting, out dated world of these privileged white bigots who act like the rules don't apply just as our 'imperialist' ancestors would have studied the rituals of tribes in Papua New Guinea, with a mixture of fascination, contempt, horror, but more importantly self-righteousness. We condemn the bad, and therefore we are good. These people do things differently, dare to think differently, and are therefore written off.
Unfortunately we've lost all perspective and the ability to define what bad really is in the long run. If the left wants to see genuine, obscene levels of racism, maybe it should look a bit more carefully at some of its new friends and allies.