In the UK things are going beyond Alice in Wonderland and becoming more like one of Franz Kafka’s bad dreams. The lines between law and opinion are becoming blurred. It can now be a matter of opinion whether a law is broken or not, that opinion being the legal authorities or the recipient of the alleged lawbreaking.
Darren Grimes is a young broadcaster and journalist from Country Durham. A few months ago he interviewed the historian David Starkey. It was not exactly Starkey’s finest hour.
Asked about the Black Lives Matter movement, he responded that slavery was not genocide because there were still ‘so many damn blacks’.
Quite rightly, Starkey was roundly condemned for what was unquestionably a deeply offensive comment.
But in an Orwellian twist of fate it is Grimes who finds himself in the dock: he is now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred.
The notion that any broadcaster or interviewer should be held responsible for the views of their programme’s subjects is, of course, completely absurd.
Sarah Vine Daily Mail (Sarah Vine is the wife of Michael Gove, the Minister for the Cabinet Office)
This raises all sorts of amazing possibilities. Will the Guardian journalists be prosecuted for interviewing BLM supporters who encourage the defacing of statues and memorials? Will the BBC be prosecuted for allowing a “comedian” to express the view “kill whitey”? Will interviewees deliberately lie in order to give the interviewer problems and close down arguments?
Meanwhile in Newcastle, private security firms are accosting undergraduates in the street and on campus, demanding to know their identity and business.
We now live in a world where police are scared to stop and search suspected gang members for carrying blades in case someone accuses them of being racist; but where being young and daring to leave your halls of residence is practically a criminal offence.
Is it just me, or does it feel like the walls are closing in? But however surreal and insidious all this might feel to you and me, it must be nothing compared with what Darren Grimes is going through.
If Sarah Vine, the wife of a cabinet minister feels this way, then the rest of us (the Hoi Polloi) should feel very, very concerned. Along with the accidental over-enthusiastic implementation of regulations and the application of laws that didn’t exist, things don’t bode well for the future.
Covid casualties
Latest casualty figures from COVID-19 were under-reported by approximately 15,000 cases.
Apparently, it is because the reporting agencies were using an old version of software. This was a version dating back to a 1995 Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. When laboratory results were reported, the spreadsheet had reached its maximum size, meaning that as many as 15,841 cases between September 25th and October 2nd were not uploaded to the UK government’s COVID-19 dashboard.
This version of Microsoft Excel can contain up to 16,384 new columns and 1,048,576 rows. While the exact nature of the issue isn’t known, it’s believed the limits are to blame. The reporting agency just ran out of capacity!! And apparently didn’t know about it.
Boris again
Boris Johnson’s ratings keep tanking. People must be getting sick of me reporting on the performance of the Prime Minister, but he really is hitting new lows. It is becoming apparent that he does not have the ability to understand details and is only comfortable with broad brush approaches. He would find it difficult to keep on top of one brief but is now fighting a battle on four fronts.
He has COVID to deal with and is making a complete hash of it. He has undertaken the reform of the civil service thanks to the plans of Dominic Cummings and is creating animosity and resistance at the very time when he needs the support of Whitehall. He has Brexit to complete (or not!) very shortly, but thankfully this is in the hands of a very competent negotiator. Finally, his own Conservative party are developing factions and growing resistance to being taken for granted and bullied by Cummings. They can see support slipping in the provinces, especially the north.
Living in the UK really is becoming weirder as the days go by.
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