While @thesundaytimes can report on the very fringe middle-class professional banker seeking to relegitimise racism for a better spoken far right, its perhaps best not to tweet it out like its some celebrity fashion shoot. ht @StevePeers https://twitter.com/thesundaytimes/status/998141535177895936 …
Sorry if I missed anything will read through later. Two points to be aware of though are that public opinion isn’t a monolith and often changes rapidly, and that if that generational trend does in fact exist here, it’s the exception in the developed world. France, Italy, etc
-
-
I'm struck by how v.little you seem to know about your own country. My tweet said you'd find this distinctly difficult in Britain for 2 reasons: depth of intergenerational shift in attitudes here differs *and* weakness of "European" as identity in UK, a narrow (liberal) segment
-
I really question the idea of intergenerational shift as being real or relevant here. This is like all those young remain voters who couldn’t be bothered to show up - if you claim a group of people think something, they will often repeat the claim back to you
-
This seems to me puzzling: If UK GI claims to "explicitly denounce racism and racist language" (Sunday Times), why is it so important for you to challenge my claim of a "UK intergenerational shift against racism"? The evidence for the claim is strong but why is it a problem?
-
Because racism tends to get worse in increasingly multicultural societies, rather than better. It is one of several negative side effects. I would also argue that while parts of RoB were ill-advised, Enoch Powell was not racist, and neither was the speech
-
You can find my view of Powell in 'Many Rivers Crossed' when you get round to it. But I am surprised to hear you find parts of it "ill advised" since your own argument sounds very similar indeed. Where do you think the speech did go too far and why?
-
I think the line about whip hands, even if it was an 'anecdote', was inflammatory, and hasn't played out in reality, though some would say affirmative action style policies are similar. He underestimated the rate of demographic change however. Reading the article now, thanks.
-
Tour criticism of "whip hand" seems primarily that it was a tactical mis-step on tone. But Enoch said it for a substantive reason: the 1968 anti-discrimination bill was the occasion of his speech. Where are you on that? With 50 years hindsight, repeal the act or keep it?
-
I don’t know much about the ‘68 act, but while it’s content may be unobjectionable but you have to admit a lot of what followed is ridiculous - all minority / women shortlists, the idea that all inequalities of outcome are due to conspiracy theories etc
- 3 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.