Posted on May 2, 2011

The Ever Increasing Madness of Political Correctness

Living in a Madhouse, April 28, 2011

In the past two days there have been a series of stories which demonstrate both the grip on British society established by the ideology which is political correctness and the power of such totalitarian creeds to drive its disciples to ever more absurd behaviour–totalitarian because the politically correct hold that theirs is the only permissible view to hold and because the creed intrudes into every aspect of life because of the central role played in it by discrimination, there being nothing which cannot be potentially described in terms of unequal treatment.

The stories range from the sinister to the risible. The most sinister was the case of a part-time musician Simon Ledger who was arrested by the police after he played Carl Douglas’s 1974 number one hit Kung Fu Fighter as a Chinese man happened to walk by his performance on the seafront at Sandown in the Isle of White. (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8475965/Pub-singers-racism-arrest-over-Kung-Fu-Fighting-performance.html). The Chinese man made a complaint to the police of racial harassment (the simple playing of the song was the basis of the alleged racial harassment as it “stereotyped ” the Chinese man) and they immediately treated this as a matter of great urgency. Ledger was arrested, had his photo, DNA and fingerprints taken before being bailed. The next day he was questioned by and gave a statement to the police, a process which took 90 minutes. The police decided no offence had been committed, but Ledger had suffered the upset of being accused of a crime treated as the most toxic by the British elite and his photo, DNA and fingerprints remain on the police national database in perpetuity. The logic of the arrest on such absurd grounds is that no musician performing in public can be certain they will not be arrested through unwittingly playing a tune or song which someone will consider racially demeaning.

The second story involved a black headmistress Shirley Patterson. Patterson headed a school in Southwark, South London. Hers is a truly bizarre complaint. A school-governor David Moyle put a poster advertising a parent-teacher evening which used a photograph of plastic human figures consisting of Charles Darwin in the centre surrounded other white figures waving objects such as staves and pitchforks at Darwin. Patterson “called the police to allege harassment, saying she believed the figure was meant to depict her surrounded by a mob of white parents. Governor David Moyle said his poster advertising a parents’ meeting was a joke about pushy parents demanding higher standards–and police decided no crime had been committed.” (https://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23944678-we-were-right-to-suspend-school-governor-in-race-row-over-poster.do). This was not the end of the matter because Southwark council set up their own investigation and suspended Moyle.

Down in Pitcombe in Somerset the police were on the trail of another dangerous criminal. His crime? Someone had put up picture which made Conservative councillor Mike Beech look like Hitler. In pursuit of this dangerous felon the police conducted door-to-door searches on the twenty odd houses in the hamlet. (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8475561/Police-hunt-joker-who-drew-Hitler-moustache.html).

Down in the House of Commons alleged male chauvinism stirred. During Prime Minister’s Questions PM David Cameron advised Angela Eagle, a shadow Treasury minister, to “Calm down dear” as Ms Eagle, who is a feminist made in the Andrea Dworkin mould, rowdily barracked Cameron from the opposition front bench. Cue for the Labour Party to engage in an orgy of PC posturing and the media to make it the lead story in news bulletins for a day. (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/8476624/Calm-down-dear-David-Camerons-sexist-taunt-to-Labour-MP.html).

The final story carried absurdity the furthest. The Journal of Animal Ethics railed against such enormities as the use of pet to describe , well, pets and wildlife to describe er wildlife. The editor of the journal Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, a theologian and director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, wants everyone to refer to pets as companion animals, owners as carers and wildlife as ‘free-living’, ‘free-ranging’ or ‘free-roaming’. Not content with this, the Journal urges the ending of phrases such as ‘”sly as a fox, “eat like a pig” or “drunk as a skunk”‘ because they are ‘ all unfair to animals’. (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8479391/Calling-animals-pets-is-insulting-academics-claim).

That is just a couple of days’ of this particular form of ideological madness. A situation has been created in Britain today akin to that of Stalin’s Russia. It is no longer possible to remain safe by subscribing to the tenets of the ruling ideology because the ideology keeps changing its shape and increasing its range. Even the most dedicated and enthusiastic follower of political correctness can find themselves in the coils of heresy simply because they have either not known that a new ideological rule has been introduced or because they have not anticipated a circumstance in which a hitherto unknown identified breach of the creed is unearthed.

The effect political correctness on individual lives can be profound. Jobs can be lost on a whim and criminal investigations started at the drop of a hat,. The police have been turned into political commissars in the service of political correctness. The idea that a man can be arrested simply for performing a song and have his photo, fingerprints and DNA put permanently on a police database is positively sinister.

There is also another sinister aspect to this type of crime. The police do not routinely investigate crimes–try getting them to investigate a burglary. In the case of incitement to racial hatred cases they operate a double standard: if the complainant is from an ethnic minority they investigate; if the complainant is white they refuse not only to investigate but to record the complaint. I have direct experience of this involving the Metropolitan police. Let me illustrate their unwillingness to act with correspondence between Sir John Stevens (then Metropolitan Police Commissioner), Gerald Howarth MP and myself after I made a complaint of racial incitement by the then BBC Director-General Greg Dyke after he referred to the BBC as “hideously white.” It shows clearly how determined the police are not to investigate complaints of racial incitement when it involves someone considered to be part of the politically correct elite and the complaint is made by someone white concerning abuse of that racial group. The complete correspondence in date order appears below.


18 January 2001
Asst Dept. Comm. John Grieve
Racial and Violent Crimes Squad
Metropolitan Police
New Scotland Yard
10 The Broadway
London SWlH 6BG
cc All national newspapers
Gerald Howorth MP

Dear Mr Grieve,

I ask you to take investigate the statement by the BBC Director General, Greg Dyke, that the BBC is “hideously white” for inciting racial hatred.

The statement is unambiguously racist because Mr Dyke is making a statement about a recognised racial group and the use of the word “hideously” is highly inflammatory. The extremely unpleasant nature of it can be seen by substituting black or Asian for white: “hideously black”, “hideously Asian”. Its effect can only be to incite racial hatred against whites.

The severity of the offence is greatly magnified by Mr Dyke’s position as the head of our state funded broadcaster. I enclose a cutting from the Sunday Telegraph dated 7/1/2001, to formally substantiate the statement Mr Dyke made.

I am sure that the severity of the offence and Mr Dyke’s position will lead a fervent anti-racist such as yourself to take immediate and exemplary action.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Henderson

——————————————–

John G D Grieve CBE QPM BA (Hons) M.Phil
Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Director, Racial & Violent Crime Task Force
Room 936 New Scotland Yard
Broadway LONDON
SWIH 0BG
Telephone: 0171-230-4186
Facsimile: 0171-230-2152
E-Mail: athena.met police@gtnet.gov, uk
Date: 31 January 2001

Dear Mr Henderson

I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 18th January, 2001 concerning remarks made by Mr Greg Dyke, the Director General of the BBC.

When the Racial and Violent Crime Task Force was established in 1998 it was given clear terms of reference, which included that it would only be tasked at the direct request of an Assistant Commissioner from within this Service. In acknowledgement of the concerns expressed about race crime and to endorse divisions as the focal point of police-public interference we established Community Safety Units in every London Borough.

I have not seen or heard the comments you refer to but if you feel that they may constitute a criminal offence you can report the matter to your local police for possible investigation.

Yours sincerely

Detective Inspector Howard Gosling
Staff Officer to John G D Grieve Deputy Assistant Commissioner

——————————————–

12 February 2001
Mr John Stevens
Metropolitan Police Commissioner
New Scotland Yard
10 The Broadway
London SWlH 6BG
cc All national newspapers
Gerald Howorth MP

Dear Mr Stevens,

I enclose a copy of a letter I sent to John Grieve making a formal complaint against the BBC Director-General, Greg Dyke, for his remarks about the BBC being “hideously white”.

A DI Gosling has replied on behalf of Mr Grieve. A copy of his letter is enclosed. It is the type of letter which brings the public service into contempt.

DI Gosling makes himself ridiculous when he says “I have not seen or heard the comments you refer to…” Not only would he have had to be living in a cave for the past few months not to have met them through the general media coverage, I sent a newspaper cutting giving the story and offending words with my original letter of complaint to John Grieve.

DI Gosling is begging the question when he says that an Asst Commissioner must “task” Grieve’s group before action can be taken. The proper procedure when a complaint is made to John Grieve is for it to be submitted to an Asst Commissioner. If it was rejected as inappropriate for action by the RVCTF, it should have been submitted to my nearest police station in accordance with standard police practice. However, this is manifestly a complaint which is suitable for John Grieve, because it involves a public figure with great practical influence and the words used were highly inflammatory.

I ask you to take up the complaint and instruct John Grieve to investigate it forthwith.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Henderson

——————————————–

6 March 2001
Mr John Stevens
Metropolitan Police Commissioner
New Scotland Yard
10 The Broadway
London SWlH 6BG
cc All national newspapers
Gerald Howorth MP

Dear Mr Stevens,

I wrote to you on 12 February concerning an absurd reply I had received from the Racial and Violent Crimes Squad following a complaint I had made about Greg Dyke, the Director General of the BBC (copy enclosed). I have had no answer from you. My original letter was sent, as is this, by recorded delivery, so please do not waste your time and mine claiming it was not received.

If you refuse to address this complaint honestly, it will be unambiguous proof that your police force is not interested in applying the law equally. Dyke’s comments were unambiguously racist and his position in charge of the only state broadcaster amplified them greatly.

I suggest you reply by return of post.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Henderson

——————————————–

10-March 2001
Mr John Stevens
Metropolitan Police Commissioner
New Scotland Yard
10 The Broadway
London SWlH 6BG
cc All national newspapers
Gerald Howorth MP

Dear Mr Stevens,

I have Mr Grieve’s letter of 2 March in response to my letter to you of 12 February. A bald refusal to act will not do.

Anne Robinson, a presenter, makes some obviously tongue-in-cheek remarks about the Welsh on a comedy programme: result–the matter is referred to the police who take it seriously and begin preparing a file for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Greg Dyke, the Director-General of the state broadcasting service, the BBC, states that his senior management team is “hideously white”. Mr Dyke is (1) the most powerful man in British broadcasting and (2) the remark is unambiguously racist in the crudest fashion and feeds the resentments of the minorities in Britain. Yet you refuse to act. Why?

I repeat what I said in my letter of 6 March, every time you refuse to apply the law even-handedly, a nail is knocked in the coffin of your credibility and that of your force.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Henderson

——————————————–

GERALD HOWARTH MP
HOUSE OF COMMONS
LONDON SW1A 0AA Direct line: 020 7219 5650
Fax: 020 7219 1198
19th March 2001

Dear Mr Grieve,

Mr Robert Henderson of 156 Levita House, Chalton Street, London NWl 1HR, wrote to the commissioner about Mr Greg Dyke’s remarks about theBBC being ‘hideously white’. I do think the police owe us all an explanation as to why those remarks -quite clearly racial–warrant no reaction from yourselves whilst the remarks of Ann Robinson about the Welsh do.

What is the difference?

Yours sincerely,

Gerald Howorth
John G. D. Grieve Esq CBE, QPM,
Deputy Asst Commissioner
Director, Racial and Violent Crime Task Force
Room 936, New Scotland Yard
Broadway, SWIH OBG

——————————————–

2 April 2001
Sir John Stevens
Metropolitan Police Commissioner
New Scotland Yard
10 The Broadway
London SWlH 6BG
cc All national newspapers
Gerald Howorth MP

Dear Sir John,

My apologies for missing your ‘K’ in previous letters. I have had no reply to my letter (sent by recorded delivery) of 10 March. A copy is attached. Are you refusing to give your reasons for failing to act against Greg Dyke for his “hideously white” comment?

I would also like answers to these questions:

– How many of the 100 odd people arrested for “hate crimes” by the Metropolitan Police on 20th March were a) black and b) Asian?

– How much of the Met’s total budget for the financial year ending 5/4/2001 (or any other accounting period you use) has been spent on “anti-racist” measures including training?

– How much of the Met’s total budget for the financial year ending 5/4/2001 (or any other accounting period you use) has been spent investigating crimes formally classified as racist by the Met?

Yours sincerely,

Robert Henderson

——————————————–

GERALD HOWARTH MP
HOUSE OF COMMONS LONDON SW1A 0AA
Direct line: 020 7219 5650
Fax: 020 7219 1198
8th May 2001

Dear Mr Grieve,

Thank you for your letter of 26th April about the case raised by Mr Robert Henderson of 156 Levita House, Chalton Street, London NWl 1 HR, about the remarks attributed to the Director General of the BBC.

You will not be surprised to know that I am well aware of the demands on police time and resources and support the priority of tackling serious crime. However, I simply put it to you: what would have happened had I referred to the music profession as being “hideously black”. Can you not imagine that you would have been faced with calls for me to be prosecuted and Mr Hague called upon to expel me from the Conservative Party?

It is that inequality of treatment which I find so offensive.

Yours sincerely

Gerald Howorth MP

John G. D. Grieve Esq CBE, QPM,
Deputy Asst Commissioner
Director, Racial and Violent Crime Task Force
Room 936, New Scotland Yard
Broadway, SW1H OBG