After reporting restrictions were lifted sufficiently for the world to know that 20 men had been convicted and sentenced for their part in a grooming gang operating in and around the town of Huddersfield, it was inevitable that some of what Robin Day memorably and rightly called “here today and gone tomorrow politicians” would use the trial for their own own ends, especially those who had nothing to do with securing the convictions.
So it was that our already devalued Home Secretary Sajid Javid decided that, having seen the ringleader sent down for life, and several others get a double-figure number of years behind bars, he would claim credit for it, having taken no part in proceedings. “These sick Asian paedophiles are finally facing justice. I want to commend the bravery of the victims. For too long, they were ignored. Not on my watch. There will be no no-go areas”.
Ri-i-i-i-ght. “Sick Asian Paedophiles”. Coupled with “no-go areas”. Stigmatising entire communities and pandering to the far-right, much? Securing the abolition of “no-go areas” would be the easiest of wins for Javid, of course, because they do not exist. Also, the suggestion that “Asian” aligns with “Paedophile” not only plays into the hands of the far-right, but also trivialises abuse by anyone else - in other words, most of it.
Small wonder that Sayeeda Warsi, a member of his own party, and someone who knows the West Yorkshire area rather well, was not backwards in coming forward to pass severely adverse comment. “‘No go areas’ ‘Asian paedophiles’ This should not be the language of a Home Sec . The victims of these appalling crimes deserve better - they need to be protected, believed & supported. This issue is too serious for political posturing. You are better than this Sajid”. Some advised her that he wasn’t. And this may be true.
Worse, as Peter Walker of the Guardian has observed, this feeds a narrative of falsehood and misinformation: “A Hope Not Hate report this week found that 30% of British people wrongly believe there are ‘no go areas’ in the UK ruled by sharia law, where non-Muslims cannot enter. When the home secretary uses the phrase in tweets it’s perhaps no wonder”.
Moreover, Javid would not have used “whites”, “blacks”, and certainly not any other religious or ethnic term. Yet this was the politician who sniped at Jeremy Corbyn “If Corbyn had said ‘Asians’ or ‘Blacks’ instead of ‘Zionists’ he’d be gone by now. The fact he’s still there, tells us all we need to know about what the Labour Party has become”. Well, Javid did indeed say “Asians”, which shows, er, what the Tory Party has become.
Small wonder that Michael Rosen - who may still be trying to get Tory chairman Brandon “Barrow Boy” Lewis to come clean on how much of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism his party has adopted, mused “Could the Sajid Javid who brought ethnicity into his description of a crime be the same Sajid Javid who wrote a tweet where ‘Zionist’ was equivalent to ‘Asian’? (Yes.)” It could also be the Tories turning sharp right.
That Javid is still Home Secretary, in his own words, tells us all we need to know.
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8 comments:
Well if they're NOT asian, what are they?
NO EXCUSES for the scum. Hang the fooking lot of the pederasts - asian, white, black, MP's, judges far-right, far-left etc - I don't fooking care. They are all vermin. HANG THEM = PROBLEM SOLVED.
Unknown: have you ever seen a comment from a politician on a white child abuser where the abuser's ethnicity was even mentioned?
And where are these Muslim no-go areas (I'll tell you: one of them is half a mile from where I live. I'm not a Muslim, but I went down there last week. Twice.)
Also, we don't have capital punishment here: we're not barbaric enough, yet.
"You are better than this Sajid”.
Er, no.
He's not.
He's really , really not.
Unknown 13:08.
Gandhi was once asked what he thought of Western Civilisation.
He replied, "It would be a good idea".
You are a perfect example.
The Asian (Pakistani) "community" stigmatises itself, by allowing these events to go on in full view. You can bleat all you like but Pakistan muslims have been indulging in this kind of activity for 50+ years and sod all has been done. Ask folk in Bradford, Halifax, Dewsbury. Tonight these folk will be roaring around Halifax in their expensive cars at 60 in 20 zones in their own community, like they do every night delivering drugs etc and will you see any police presence, don't be daft, to you never see any police on the streets.
Just be quiet stop calling people out and it will all go away, except in doesn't, just gets worse but we must not stigmatise!
Unknown – You are Tommy Lennon-Robinson-Vermin something and I claim my £5 note. But nice to see the UK’s redneck equivalents are able to string a few words together. Still unable to spell, I notice, but you can’t have blind ignorance and intelligence together, can you.
Anon 17:46 – Did you also call out Londoners for accepting the Krays? I guess that in your neighbourhood no one else does anything wrong – no black or white dealers, no East European pimps?
Where I live it is kids in their suped up Fords and Pugs making noise and leaving skid marks on the tarmac, probably partaking of their weed or other narcotics (usually transported by train in those small wheeled suitcases, did you know? Or did you think that they were all going on holiday...) and acting the hard guy to anyone who dares to glance at them the wrong way. You tell the local plod (when you see them each month) and they tell you that they just don’t have the capacity (especially at night) to follow it up. I was told that the local ‘foreign’ guy selling a couple of 15 year olds by the hour had to be caught in the act before anything would happen – and that wasn’t going to happen because there just wasn’t the manpower due to cutbacks. It is your assumption that it is only the Muslim community that is doing this – no one else – that picks you out.
@ Anonymous 17:46.
You're living in a wilfully deluded cloud cuckoo land.
The public record shows sexual assaults on minors or vulnerable people have been perpetrated by white Christian ministers, priests and politicians across the world. In recent years this even extended into "aid" agencies. In the case of the Catholic church it was widely known and concealed by the German and Polish popes - probably the real reason the German pope "resigned". The Christian Brothers sect was particularly notorious. Then there is the "sex tourism" of white Westerners in Asia.
By comparison, the various Asian British culprits are a miniscule number, but an easy propaganda target for racists.
This kind of disgusting assault is a human condition not limited by the colour of someone's skin, religion, politics or nationality. But I don't expect you to even want to understand that.
A young female relative was abused a few years ago by a white british male who had previous child abuse convictions. He got a few years in prison and is now out again.
People from all backgrounds abuse others.
The victims of such abuse need help and support yet they get forgotton.
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