Tory Dog Whistling - Enough Is Enough

All too often, when you need to show how debased politics has become, the opposition rides to your rescue. Today’s Mail on Sunday has demonstrated this superbly, carrying a screed of no observable fact from Robert Jenrick, a former minister whose resignation was a great relief to all those who wished it had happened rather earlier. And the subject is Scary Muslims™.

Robert Jenrick. Claims to be a former minister

This brings not so much a dog whistle as a foghorn, devoid of facts but heavy on nudge-nudgery and forthright bigotry. So let’s start at the very beginning, as it’s a very good place to start. “It’s crystal clear to the British public we have a serious issue with Islamist extremism [no citation] … Just this week we saw the strength of the alliance between the hard-Left and Islamists on full display, with George Galloway’s brand of sectarian politics proving a decisive vote-winner in Rochdale”. Democracy is bad when you don’t like the result.

But do go on. “As Immigration Minister I grappled with the link between uncontrolled mass migration and extremism”. Which is not an easy task, as there is no “uncontrolled mass migration”, and no link between this fictitious concept and extremism. And then we’re on to the Small Boats™.

“A not-insignificant number crossing in small boats turn out to be national security threats that require surveillance from our security services [no citation]. While most arrivals don’t pose a direct threat, they are from countries that are statistically more likely to possess values and beliefs … at stark odds to our own”. Guilt by association. And no citation. Again.

“Despite the rise in far-Right activity, the threat still overwhelmingly comes from Islamists”. And once more it’s a No Citation. He’s worried about MPs’ safety. Er, who killed Jo Cox? And who plotted to kill Rosie Cooper? It was the home grown far right. And who hosted a hate preacher in the Commons?

That would have been Bob Blackman. As in, one of Jenrick’s fellow Tory MPs, who hosted the Islamophobic and indeed anti-Christian Tapan Ghosh, who explicitly endorsed Geert Wilders, and held a meeting with Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson. Ghosh talks about the Muslim “reproduction rate”. He endorses fringe wackos such as Breitbart.

Jenrick does not allow this to trouble him as he continues “Islamists make up 75 per cent of the security services’ caseload, but a culture of political correctness has meant roughly a quarter of referrals are for those espousing Islamist views”. WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE. Let’s misuse the language! And, guess what? You got it - No Citation.

And he’s not finished, sadly: “Our intelligence services are stretched and so rightly apply a high threshold before engaging. That means plenty of less dangerous - but still hateful - extremists don’t qualify”. What kind of offences is he talking about? Walking on the cracks in the pavement? Looking at officers in a funny way? Wearing a loud shirt in a built-up area?

Then he goes there. “We must immediately end the two-tiered policing that has consistently let extremists off the hook”. There is no such thing as “two-tiered policing”. And there’s more. “Would the police have intervened to prevent ‘from the river to the sea’ being emblazoned on the Palace of Westminster if it was a racist far-right slogan? I strongly suspect so”.

Why doesn’t he mention that the current Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, used the phrase? Or is that more of Jenrick’s “two-tiered standards”? So what’s his solution? “To forge a more cohesive and united society we must end the disastrous experiment with mass migration. That task is virtually impossible when more than a million people arrive in the country every year”. Two things here. One, there is no “experiment”.

And Two, the increase in non-EU migration is a direct consequence of leaving the EU. Which Jenrick’s party botched. Moreover, if the immigration numbers were to be significantly reduced, the economy would suffer. Because there would be fewer people in productive employment and paying taxes.

The extremism of which he speaks would be reduced if he, plus 30p Lee, Liz Truss and Suella Braverman, were to stop encouraging it. That is all.

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