The war on woke, the oppression of progression

Candy says, ‘I’ve come to hate my body

And all that it requires in this world’

Last week I bought up the issue of priorities that; by priorities, I mean what a government with a mandate from the electorate chooses to do.

Starting with C-19, in a broadcast on 3^rd March 2020, Johnson told us: ‘We should all basically just go about our normal daily lives.’ It has since been reported that, in private, he suggested ignoring the virus.

Officials say that Johnson was ideologically allergic to anything that made a nanny of the state and was unwilling to go public with dire warnings that would undermine his optimistic, libertarian persona. His priority was being seen as optimistic.

Then there is the £37bn scandal that is the test-and-trace system that had no measurable impact. We were promised that it would prevent the need for another lockdown, a promise that has been broken twice.

This system has never yet met its target to turn around all face-to-face tests within 24 hours, and many of its contact tracers spent last year sitting idle while we were all locked-down due to the systems failure.

£37bn into context is more than the annual sum spent on primary and pre-primary education, 3x the cost of the vaccination programme, and more than £1,000 for each working-age adult in the UK.

Nonetheless, the governments priority was a ‘world beating’ system. Put another way it is Brexit based egotism.

Other errors in prioritisation, include, a lack of PPE, cronyism, discharging infected patients into care homes, continual U-turns, and the insistence on easing restrictions for Christmas when infection data signals were flashing red. Reports suggest that this last mis-placed priority may have cost 27,000 extra deaths.

this last mis-placed priority may have cost 27,000 extra deaths

A now we have the public enquiry that isn’t a priority either. In January, Johnson told us that the time was still not right for an enquiry, and that close examination of the record would be an unsuitable use of ‘vast state resources’. More accurately, it isn’t a priority to uncover unflattering truths about failure!

Turning from deaths to money, we have a chancellor who likes to remind Tory colleagues that their party’s reputation for fiscal discipline has been their most critical electoral weapon against Labour.

Whilst he isn’t wrong, the Tories continue to sell themselves to the electorate as careful custodians of the public purse, whereas Labour are reckless spenders, the truth is quite different, £37bn different.

Now we turn to supposed culture wars, the war on woke.

Woke is a term that refers to a perceived awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice. The war on woke is often referred to as the ‘culture war’, its nothing of the sort, those that oppose it aren’t cultured, they are narrow-minded, regressive bigots that are frightened of change.

It is the oppression of progression. It allows racism, homophobia, and all manner of racial, gender, and sexual intolerance.

Woman, even if they are white, continue to suffer in what is still a misogynistic society. The Sarah Everard vigil at Clapham Common was not just about her, she was, unfortunately, a victim of a criminal justice system that doesn’t cater for women.

There have been calls for Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police’s first female commissioner, to resign. Indeed, she is responsible for the behaviour of her constantly heavy-handed officers, however it is politicians who impose the laws governing protest in a pandemic, and she had kept the Home Office updated.

Whilst the vigil was cancelled people were always going to gather, as they did for the Black Lives Matter (‘BLM’) protests last summer.

Ultimately, this is another area where the government has to prioritise. Unfortunately, it would appear that the only impact of the BLM demonstrations is that they have led to The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (‘the Bill’), put before parliament. This retrograde legislation promises tougher sentences for toppling statues and scribbling graffiti on the Cenotaph and a crackdown on noisy or disruptive protests.

10-yrs in prison for defacing a war memorial, whilst a rapist can get away with half that

Under these proposals, offender face 10-yrs in prison for defacing a war memorial, whilst a rapist can get away with half that. Another clear example of where the governments priorities lay.

Whilst the bill was an opportunity for the government to address long overdue need for change, in reality it is introducing divisive legislation that limits rights such as protest on our streets and access to our countryside.

Nowhere in its 296-pages is the word ‘woman’ mentioned. The fundamental misalignment between the desecration of statues with that of rape, speaks volumes for this governments misaligned priorities.

What are the police doing about rape? It would appear nothing; only 1.4% of all rape complaints reach prosecution stage. This week the appeal court rejected a judicial review application brought by women’s groups wanting answers as to why rape prosecutions have been falling over the past five years. The judge dismissed suspicions that the Crown Prosecution Service might have quietly changed its policies.

There is further misalignment with shorter sentences for domestic homicides, suggesting that killing someone at home, mainly men killing women, is a lesser crime than killing someone in the street.

The new bill extends the powers of the 1986 Public Order Act to include additional reasons for banning protests, such as should the police believe ‘the noise’ it makes is disrupting the ‘activities of an organisation’ or has a ‘relevant impact on persons in the vicinity’. There is even a specific section on ‘imposing conditions on one-person protests’.

This effectively kills the right to protest

This effectively kills the right to protest, as, by nature, protests provoke serious annoyance or serious unease among the powerful. If they don’t, why bother?

Worryingly, the bill also allows the home secretary to define the meaning of ‘serious disruption’ by ‘regulation’, which gives the incumbent the right to change the reasons for curtailing protest as they see fit without parliamentary approval.

This continues a trend highlighted before in this column, where the government continues to bypass parliament pushing, avoiding transparency or scrutiny. How long before we become a police state with a dictator at the helm?

Ironically, the likely dictator, Johnson, is a freedom-loving libertarian, who, as ITV’s political editor, Robert Preston, suggested, earlier this year ‘If Boris Johnson has a political philosophy, it is that he will not restrict our liberties unless there is an overwhelming reason to do so.’

So great is his attachment to liberty, that he failed repeatedly to take decisive action against the pandemic, delaying lockdowns, leading to one of the world’s worst death tolls.

However, the bill put forward by his government is anti-libertarian, criminalising protests that cause ‘serious annoyance’ or ‘serious unease’, a policy more reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s Russia than of a self-professed democracy.

The issue is Johnson’s definition of freedom

The issue is Johnson’s definition of freedom; it is for people like him, privileged, white, establishment men, and for freeing big business from red tape such as regulations to protect workers’ rights, consumer protections, or environmental standard.

Freedom didn’t apply to the women at the vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham, or for minorities subjected to centuries-old bigotries, and they are definitely not for migrants and refugees.

‘Freedom for this government is for the powerful and the privileged, not for dissidents or oppressed minorities. Freedom is for those who accept the status quo and don’t deviate from accepted norms.’ For Johnson and his followers this is the means to oppress progress.

In addition to being a libertarian, Johnson is also a feminist, at least according to his press secretary, Allegra Stratton, who added that, ‘as he perhaps rearranges his top team, he will be mindful of making sure that that cabinet looks like the British public.’ A truly frightening prospect!

This, remember, is the man who female London Assembly members (‘AMs) said called them ‘dear’. Treating women, as one formally complained, ‘in a disrespectful, patronising way at meetings and in a manner that you do not display when dealing with male AMs’.

This is the man who was said, ‘‘Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3.’ ⁽¹⁾

not even a inflation adjusted pay cut for NHS can deter the electorate

Ultimately all of this is irrelevant, as the poll show, not even a inflation adjusted pay cut for NHS can deter the electorate, with polls putting the Conservatives 13 points ahead of Labour.

Whilst nationalism may currently dominate politics in Scotland, and Wales still seems responsive to Labour’s ideals, England is vastly different. Whilst the big cities remain Labour strongholds, the rest of the country is in thrall to Tories themes of law and order, patriotism, optimism and opportunity, added to a Brexit that has continued to make the Conservatives appear the natural party of government:

They have won more English votes than Labour in every general election since 2005,
In 2019, its vote share in England was 47.2%.
UK-wide statistics show that Labour was backed by 30.6% of low-income voters, but 45.4% supported the Tories.

Source: The Guardian, 14^th March 2021

Unlike Labour the Tories have the luxury of not needing to define themselves.

All they need to satisfy the regressive voters that support them is stoke the culture war fire, denigrating anything deemed ‘woke’, and continuing their defence of statues, street names and ‘heritage’.

The Tories have succeeded is showing that the ‘left’ and townies like myself are, in their words, ‘the establishment’; snobbish, judgmental, and dismissive of much of the electorate as bigoted and stupid.

In turn, Johnson’s Tories thinks the best of them, which, as an example, is why racism is such as issue in this country.

The Tories prove the adage that perception is reality. They have allowed the majority to believe that they have people’s best interest at heart, this has become the electorates reality.

The Tories prove the adage that perception is reality

The real situation is that only Johnson’s sort, privileged, white, establishment men are his true priority. The rest are only his priority once every 5-years when he needs their votes.

Lastly, we turn to the Sussexes, but only as they highlight the generational divide that shows Britain’s generations occupy completely different political and moral universes.

The under 25, support the Sussex’s and believe they have been treated unfairly, whereas the over 65’s are the complete opposite.

Whereas US culture wars are cause specific, e.g., abortion, gay rights, etc, in Britain it ‘primarily takes the form of a generational clash that divides not just the nation, but progressive politics, too. What we are now seeing is that ‘profoundly contrasting social attitudes have fused with economic realities to, overall, create a generational chasm.’

Younger people are more likely to be people of colour many of which will have experienced racism, whilst their white peers have grown-up in a multi-cultural society and have no issues with it.

Patriotism and support for the monarchy has long been part of our belief in what it is to love your country. Whilst older people still subscribe to this many younger Britons suffering economic insecurity and stagnating living standards, question the expectation of taking pride in our country.

Electorally, this divide is a recent phenomenon that works for the Tories, as studies such as Keir Milburn’s Generation Left highlight.

In the 2019 general election, Labour enjoyed a 43-point lead among voters aged between 18 and 24, but the Tories won in a rout, due in no small part to a 47-point lead among pensioners, whereas,
When Margaret Thatcher won her 1983 landslide election, she had a decisive nine-point lead among younger Britons.

What is happening is that generations, class, and wealth have all come together to form one big issue:

The over-65s, pensioners, own C.50% of homeowners’ housing wealth, whereas younger people are forced into the private rented sector.
Over-65s have the luxury of the triple-lock pension guarantee, while many young people are saddled with university debt, insecure work, a much reduced social security system, and shrinking public services.

The generation divide also impacts progressive social values:

‘Whilst 81% of baby boomers report being exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, that falls to 54% among Generation Z (18- to 24-year-olds).

While younger people – particularly younger women – support trans rights, that’s not so for their grandparents’ generation. The only age group in which a majority of people supported the direct action to remove slaver Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol last year were the under-25s.’

Source: The Guardian, 10^th March 2021

The UK press predominantly reflects the views of conservative older voters, any concessions to the moral outlooks or social demands of younger Britons, however minor, outrages and terrifies the insecure old order.

The establishment of new media outlets, such as GB News, whose chairman has complained that ‘the direction of news debate in Britain is increasingly woke’, will only intensify an already simmering resentment within the younger generation.

This leads us back to priorities; the Tories priority is to remain in power, at any costs. This represents a serious challenge for progressive politics. Older, white, affluent Britons will continue to vote Tory, and the party will continue to rig the electoral system further in it’s own favour. The ‘floating’ voters who decides most elections, are innately conservative in their values, furthering the war on woke will play well with their narrow-minded, regressive tendencies.

There is only one way to end this article.

‘Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard

But I say…

Oh Bondage! Up yours!

1, 2, 3, 4!’

Notes:

https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/boris-johnsons-sensible-quotes/

For the more enlightened reader following is a play list of songs for woman. Or, in the case of song 5, a trans woman

An angrier piece from Philip this week as he has ‘blended priorities and the culture war / war on woke together’; this government’s priorities are something that have been examined in this column before, and it is difficult not to concur with Philip that remaining in power comes very high up the list and that legislation such as the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill are being used to shore up the ramparts.

However ironic it may seem given the above, we are learning more about Boris’ antipathy towards the removal of civil liberties by imposing lockdown, and his seemingly heart-felt belief that it should have bally-well been enough to see off this virus by jutting the old jaw and putting on a thoroughly determined British face.

If it was good enough for Princess Diana to go around fraternising with those with HIV to allay the public’s fears, then it’s good enough for Big Butch Bonking Boris to shake the mitts of some of Engerland’s finest; except he ended up on a ventilator.

And if Philip’s angry, we should all be angry; the £37bn that Dido Harding has spaffed on a world-beating Where’s Wally app is at once a national embarrassment and a disgrace.

Now is apparently not the time for an enquiry, but if Labour still can’t land a blow after a year of incredible incompetence, untruths and some banana-republic scale corruption, what has Boris to fear?

As Philip quite rightly points to the ludicrous fact that it is possible to get 10-yrs in prison for defacing a war memorial, whilst a rapist can get away with half that, the fact that the vigil for Sarah Everard brought out such raw emotions should be of great concern.

Whether BLM or groups calling for justice for women the sheer scale of anger and frustration speaks of a country that is a tinderbox; decades of frustration and anger, fomented by lockdown and exacerbated by inequality and this feels like a danger zone.

So, what would any government do to show that it is empathetic and determined to mend some fences; outlaw protests of course.

Cressida Dick may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and her officers certainly made a bit of a Horlicks of events on Clapham Common, but would you rather have Priti Patel strutting around? If you can be sent to Papua New Guinea for having the temerity to claim asylum, just think where you could end up being processed for sporting a ‘calm down rozzers’ t-shirt.

Wrapping with reference to Harry and Meghan introduces the recurring theme of inequality and perhaps indicates where a future flashpoint may occur; as those in the hospitality sector nervously wait to see if they have a job to go back to, it is reported that those that have WFH for the last year are preparing to boost foreign economies by £50bn as soon as travel restrictions are relaxed.

P&O cruise? Of course sir, madam – as long as you’ve had two jabs; oi, not you son.

Those that fear the erosion of civil liberties and the gradual creation of a police state must surely take comfort from No10’s flat denial that Dominic Cummings is to return as special adviser to the Office of Imperial Regalia and that there are no plans to levy instant fines to those joining a Zoom call with an insufficient number of Union Jacks and pictures of Brenda clearly visible.

For fun only, Philip maintains his solidarity with the fairer sex with two strong tracks – The Velvet Underground and ‘Candy Says’ and X-Ray Spex with ‘Oh Bondage up Yours’; he also has a themed playlist for your delectation. Enjoy.

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

Click on the link to see all Brexit Bulletins:

Brexit » Commentary » Latest

Beginning to See the Light: The war on woke, the oppression of progression