Since when were the lunatics in charge of the asylum? Since when were the extremists given so much airtime? Since when were those with a conservative world-view the radical moderates? Since now, or at least since the last few days.
I understand the mainstream media’s thirst for controversy – I get that. But when does this relentless quest for controversy become transformed into fanning the flames of extremism and further dividing society?
That is what giving platforms to those who want to tear down Nelson’s Column is – an irresponsible promotion of extremism. This is what you do when you give a platform to those who declare all white people are racist, even to challenge them. And it is left for the new ‘radical moderates’ like us to say, ‘Shut up – you do not even deserve a response, but here is one while I have you’.
In one day alone on Good Morning Britain, at least two of the guests within the space of an hour were men pretending to be women. One was a transgender model, Munroe Bergdorf, who was fired by L’Oreal after calling all white people racists. The other was Caitlyn Jenner, formerly the Olympic champion athlete Bruce Jenner.
What they said is really secondary to the reality that men pretending to be women are given so much space and time on prime-time breakfast TV.
It seems we are to ignore the misogyny behind the idea that a man can just wake up one day and say, ‘Actually, I am a woman’. Then, to heap insult upon insult, some magazine will give this man a Best Woman award. They have scoured the Earth and not one single bog-standard, born-female, female will do. No, instead the men are so good at everything they are even better than women at being women. Now that really is misogyny.
I have been female all my life but I still don’t cut the mustard with the man who has been a woman for five minutes. (Note: to my mind the best-known transgender people are men pretending to be women, including Caitlyn Jenner, , Munroe Bergdorf and Laverne Cox, not women pretending to be men. A real example of male privilege for once.)
This is not reform: this is revolution. Pretending that men can be women and vice versa is akin to burning the whole place down.
It does not stop there, for the iconoclasts are coming thick and fast. When the Guardian floated the idea that Nelson’s Column should be torn down, the broadcasters all rubbed their hands with glee: Channel 4 (who invited me to rebut), Sky (also to rebut), ITV (invite I could not take up) and BBC.
My point is that we know this will never happen and that there would be riots in the streets, yet the proposal to wreck a part of the British historical landscape is given a ‘fair’ hearing. How many people in Britain are on board with this extremist view? Just 17 per cent, according to Good Morning Britain. The rest of us are the ordinary, reasonable, dare I say it moderates, who see this for the vandalism that it is. You don’t have to be a conservative to oppose it, but it sure does help.
And on and on it goes, the media feeding these extremists who come armed with the wrecking ball. How much does this contribute to actual progress, not the Leftie destructive kind? How much do we think this kind of discussion really teases through the issues behind a reform? There is no sophistication to these ideas – it is just barbarism through and through.
I’m open to reform. I’m not always the one standing in the middle of the road yelling ‘Stop!’ to the onslaught of ‘progress’, but I will stand there and fight the Leftist extremists and their poisonous, divisive, race-baiting ideology.
Britain faces huge challenges: billions in unfunded pensions, an unsustainable NHS, unprecedented family breakdown and a welfare system unable to cope with it, globalisation, automation, not to mention Brexit.
Yet here we are watching these muppets, these toddlers with zero ideas on how to move forward. The easiest thing in the world is to say, ‘Let’s tear the whole place down’. Occasionally my kids tried to do this and I put them in their playpen. That’s where the media should put these toddlers: in their playpen with their doddies and comfort blankets.
The truth is, it is much harder to build something up and conserve it than smash things down. Conserving is the new radical; we are the new moderates.
It is incredibly challenging actually to research the welfare system and propose a reform as James Bartholomew has done.
It takes time and deep thinking to look at the NHS and make suggestions for improvement like Kristian Niemietz.
That’s just two. But you’ll be waiting a long time before you see either on the box. Perhaps they are not sexy enough; maybe they are not controversial enough; who knows? But I do know we are not going to get very far like this.
