Toby Young – Medieval Hypocrite

The loathsome Toby Young, clearly not fully occupied with sorting out those minor teething problems at his West London Free School (WLFS), has been prompted by the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre to expound on his thoughts on the so-called Trojan Horse plot – that’s the plot where there is no evidence of a plot – and tell the Mail’s readers all about Scary Muslims.

Tobes' hero, who is not medieval at all, honestly ((c) Steve Bell 2014)

And Tobes has not disappointed: “Don't dismiss this Tory feud - it's protecting a swamp full of medieval Islam fanatics: TOBY YOUNG gives parents a stark warning of the threat facing our children” thundered the headline, as he urged readers not to look at the scrap between his hero Michael “Oiky” Gove and Theresa May, but instead see demons where there weren’t any.

Tobes’ creative fact-bending means telling of “the plot by Islamic extremists to take over state schools in Birmingham”, and further, mentioning without context “in one of the schools under investigation the phrase ‘white prostitute’ was used during an assembly, with children as young as six present”. While the phrase may be incautious, as so often, Tobes fails to do his research beforehand.

As Unity at Ministry of Truth has pointed out, “the Oldknow Academy site is less than half-a-mile from Small Heath Park and the old part of the Coventry Road – which used to be part of the A45 until the construction of the Small Heath Highway – and that this is an area which is well known, locally, for having issues with on-street prostitution and kerb-crawling”. One in your own net, Tobes.

But it is Tobes’ use of phrases like “medieval fanatics” which is most unfortunate – as well as talking of “draining the swamp”, which will do precisely nothing to help the situation – which is prejudicial and damaging. But it’s good to see that we know exactly where he stands: “medieval” means something Very Bad Indeed, something to be condemned, exposed, and challenged.

So I’m sure he will come down equally hard on London’s occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, whose obsessive desire to see water cannon deployed on the streets of the capital is because “You get medieval immediately on these people and you come down much harder, and you don’t allow a mentality to arise of sheer wanton criminality”. Comments, Tobes?

I mean, if “medieval” is bad for one part of the population, it must be universally bad – Tobes wouldn’t be just singling out followers of The Prophet for special treatment, would he? So the fanatical pursuit of weapons by a zealous maverick will surely have him reaching for the appropriate condemnatory response. Or perhaps he’ll just keep schtum, as Bozza opened his school.

High principles, meet low cowardice and rank hypocrisy. No change there, then.