Statler and I like Question Time. Mr Dimblebum is a great Chairman. We were particular impressed by the strident performance of the Conservative's excellent Cohesion spokesman, Sayeeda Waarsi.
[Full episode here for a few days, it is about 27mins in, you can cut out the beginning]
In a fierce debate with Labour's Alan Johnson she defined Conservative's approach to the hideous failed 'state multiculturalism', which she defines as the state viewing people not as individuals but blocks of people that are communicated with via a group leader.
Unfortunately the approach of Barnet Council and Barnet's Parliamentary candidates Michael Whitney Freer and Matthew Offord is precisely the one that the Labour Party in Government - something they are proud of and apply for awards about. See here and here for just two examples.
Has noone told them what their own Party's policy is, we wonder.....?
Here is most of the debate.
Statler and I strongly support Sayeeda brave stance. We believe she speaks for the majority of residents of Barnet. She will especially cheer the hearts of those in Barnet who's views are ignored by the Council and replaced with 'Tribal Leaders' who effectively silence their own opinions. The Council should treat all it's resident's equally, without fear or favour.Alan Johnson: We deal with anyone who can carry a message and speak on behalf of a group of people... but in terms of community cohesion you have to find people who carry some weight and some respect in the community.Sayeeda Warsi: Do we do that for White people? That's wrong, Alan. Do we actually go out and say, right, we now need to speak to the White people in Britain so we'll find a group that represents White people? We don't, so why do we do it for other religious groups in this country. It is wrong and it has gotta stop.David Dimbleby: So what do you want to stop?Sayeeda Warsi: I want (the Govt) to stop seeing groups of people as a block that have to be talked to through a Leader. They don't, people have individual needs, people have individual views and people need to be engaged with individually on the basis of their needs.Nobody should speak for the Muslim community, why should they, people are individuals. They should speak for themselves.Alan Johnson: (In my constituency in Hull) we talk to the Afro Caribbean community, they have a representative. We talk increasingly to the community of people from the Middle East, usually Iraqi Kurds they have representatives. In any society, in any group, the faith groups here will be talking to other faith groups.....Alan Johnson: But in any community cohesion you must talk to representatives of different groups.Sayeeda Warsi: No, you don'tAlan Johnson: Yes, you doSayeeda Warsi: Let me come back on one thing. It is exactly this form of state multiculturalism that has focussed on the things that divide us rather than those things that divide us and is has got to stop.
We look forward to Conservative policies replacing the current Labour ones in Barnet Council.
Gentlemen
ReplyDeleteThis is perhaps your most important blog for sometime because you have highlighted a national problem. Ever since Margaret Thatcher said “there is no such thing as society” the politically correct brigade have been determined to put each and every one of us into a pigeon hole of their choosing so that we can be patronised and brain washed with all this ideological claptrap.
There is nothing more annoying than listening to an interview on the wireless with “a spokesman” for some organisation or other that nobody in the real world has ever heard of. Taxpayers money is wasted pandering to special interest groups which are entirely unrepresentative of the people they claim to represent.
Many years ago, I lived in the People’s Republic of Brent and applied for a loft insulation grant. The form included a section which required applicants to state their ethnicity. Quite what loft insulation had to do with ethnicity was beyond me, but the question was included, apparently, to ensure that Brent did not discriminate against one particular group in awarding grants. Surely, you would think, not asking anybody which “group” they belonged to was the best way to avoid discrimination?
Baroness Waarsi is to be applauded for reminding us that we are all individuals and are entitled to be treated as such. We must not allow the nanny state to herd us like cattle as part of some socio-economic master plan.
Correction to my last posting…
ReplyDeleteBaroness Waarsi is to be applauded for reminding the government that we are all individuals...