62 Comments

Please will you repost this article -- needed urgently to counter repetition of the same old stereotypes of Asian grooming gangs -- ignoring the preponderance of white exploiters, misogynist law, and social care & policing failures -- now again dominating the news.

Expand full comment

They're not Asian.

They're Pakistani Muslims, they were imported, and the police purposely avoided arresting them for fear of being called racist. These men view white girls as sex slaves, deserving of rape, which is why they target them, and that is Islamic.

That is the bottom line.

Crying about "inflaming tensions" and "avoiding divisions" is what has allowed this rape to go on for so long.

Look at all the word games and word salad these people have to play to convince themselves they're the good ones because they're not racist.

It's pathetic. This is the reason it went on for so long.

If the options are to stop rape or be racist, then it's time to be racist.

Nobody gives a fuck about that word anymore, and nobody should.

These interlopers and foreigners need to be deported, because they were imported, and they will be.

You can cry all you want about racism or tension or whatever the fuck you think makes you a good person.

You aren't. And the upcoming generation won't have it. Those days are gone, and you're the reason for it--I speak to the author.

Now go pat yourself on the back for being not racist, you rape enabler.

Expand full comment

You make a lot of claims, but where are your facts? If the Pakistani rape gangs are just a stereotype not backed up by the facts then please present the facts that support your claim. We should see that the ethnicity/race of the perpetrators and victims are on average similar to the percentages that we see in the general or local population.

Expand full comment

The rape gangs are Pakistani Muslims.

Everybody knows it.

She's trying to cover her tracks for being a coward and a rape apologist by crying about how at least she's not racist.

It's time to get racist. Nobody cares about being called racist anymore, and nobody should.

Expand full comment

Hi Jo, you are obviously authoritative on the abuse of girls by street gangs. Would you agree that it is unusual for these gangs to cross ethnic boundaries in their abuse, and that perhaps it is understandable that if that has been happening on a large scale it will have repercussions in those communities?

Expand full comment

Coming back to this piece of yours after a resurgence of the asian grooming gangs issue, in particular after the latest substack from Julie Bindel.

I'd like to ask the same question to you: if police's shortcomings aren't due "simply" to fear of being branded racist, how would you explain them in a better way?

Even after witnessing mad wokery at play in different contexts, and even if I was always skeptical of policing in general, it would still seem strange to me to put the blame simply in an attitude of leftism-gone-mad, but I wouldn't bet "just" on sexism and mysoginy either. More so, if, as I read somewhere, in some circumstances some on the force were actively colluding with gangs. I'd suspect money is involved, and gangs operate not "just" on pimping but as a broader organization, mafia-like. This would also explain why many in the local communities wouldn't speak out, and would actually be defensive against journalists and volunteers inquiries, because of fear of vendettas.

Am I onto something? If so, could you point out some reading along this direction?

Thanks

Expand full comment

Like most readers, you see that she's full of shit.

They're not Asian. These are not Japanese atheists or Korean Baptists.

They are Pakistani Muslims, everybody knows it, they were imported, the police covered it up for being petrified of being called racist, and the author plays into that, proving why the problem went on for so long.

These girls were sacrificed on the altar of not being called racist.

It's evil. Racism is a better option than this, and everybody sees it.

There's no reading that needs to be done. You know the truth, and most people do.

What needs to happen is mass deportations. The problem was imported, now it can be deported.

Expand full comment

It's also extremely if not more important that these despible gangs operated in Labour strongholds and infiltrated the council as Labour members - hence it has been in Labour's interest (for votes) not to investigate and avoid a national enquiry.

Expand full comment

"Just to remind readers - the recent riots were started by disinformation about the identity of the boy in Southport who attacked a girls dance party, knifing many and killing three small girls. The disinformation was that he was Muslim, a migrant, on an MI5 watch list. Many of the populist extremist accounts spread this disinformation."

The murders were carried out on 29th July 2024. This article was written on 9th August 2024. Then on 30th October 2024 - almost 3 months after the tragic event, the police tell us they found a toxin and an al Qaeda training manual at the home of the perpetrator. On the balance of probability, do we think it took them 3 months to find the evidence or that they waited as long as possible to release it (whilst meanwhile offering up other information to obscure identity and motivation)? And will you now acknowledge that the link to Islam cannot be referred to as disinformation? In fact to do so would be to spread disinformation.

https://news.sky.com/story/southport-stabbings-suspect-faces-separate-terror-charge-after-ricin-and-al-qaeda-manual-found-at-home-13243980

Expand full comment

The link to Islam or the link to Al-Qaeda? One is a religion preaching against murder and the other is a training manual for militants who will kill anyone (mostly Muslims) for their geopolitical interests. I didn’t find info saying the murderer converted to Islam; I did find info that he’s on the autism spectrum, is shy, had become withdrawn etc.

Expand full comment

Unfortunately and tragically, Islam was spread by the sword, which is relevant, as are its teachings regarding women and non-believers. Please read the Quran if you don't believe me and the Hadith - plenty of Islamic websites to confirm what I'm saying. A high percentage of Muslims (a third to a half) say they would prefer to live under Sharia so please check out what this means - Pakistan law is Sharia ... watch 'Candid with Lubna' if you want to know the truth of this culture. Not all Muslims, no. Islam is not a race. Mohammed is said to be fair in the Quran.

The Southport murderer had an Al Qaeda manual which is Islamicist obvs but it is true that his father was apparently a child soldier as part of the Christian Tutsi's ....

Expand full comment

Islam preaching against murder? In Yasmine Mohammed‘s book Unveiled she says that at least five times a day over 1 billion people are droning on, calling for the death of all non-Muslims. She goes on to say that this brainwashing undoubtedly infects many minds, and even if only one percent of the over billion people indoctrinated act on the demands, that is still 16 million people. And the truth is that the number is a lot higher than one percent.

Expand full comment

The following is obvious to anyone that has eyes to see and ears to hear. When rumours were spreading that the perpetrator was a Muslim, the implication was that he was motivated by al Qaeda-style Islamism, as were many similar attacks in recent decades. People were making that very basic connection. The police immediately denied the link, and then the political and media apparatus of this state formed a united front to dismiss such concerns and characterise them as obvious lies and misinformation. So when it comes to light that there is evidence that this individual was motivated by al Qaeda-style Islamism, the question to ask is why it took the police 3-months to communicate the link. The al Qaeda manual and toxin were found in his home which would presumably have been searched within a maximum of 24 hours after the event. Lets say he did a really good job of hiding this material so the police search lasted multiple days. That still does not explain why we had to wait 3-months for the information to be released. All the while the political and media establishment downplayed any link to Islamism. So information was being withheld at the same time as people were being told that links to Islamist terrorism were disinformation. Your comment ignores this point entirely. Instead your response is to essentially downplay the whole furore as a storm in tea cup as long as we can establish that Islamists or those inspired by al Qaeda are not real Muslims. We can have that debate. But the issue is the manipulation of the narrative by the establishment due to the lack of willing to have all of the information in the open - precisely because they're not confident in their ability to control the situation or perception through a debate. Its utterly cynical to hide the information, accuse others of disinformation and then pretend that the facts are inconsequential when they eventually come out.

Expand full comment

I would like to know what you think of Marguerite Stern. Interviewed by Julie Bindel three years ago here: https://thecritic.co.uk/the-radical-feminist-campaigner-who-has-nothing-left-to-lose

Lately in the news for this: www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/260273/radical-feminist-who-desecrated-notre-dame-cathedral-apologizes-to-catholics

As mentioned at https://europeanconservative.com/articles/essay/from-feminists-to-conservatives-an-unexpected-transition she is “willing to talk about the ravages of uncontrolled immigration and militant Islam as a threat to Western women”.

Her record shows that she could be criticised – as KJK is – as a self-publicist.

Does her stance on Islam – that it’s worse than Catholicism – make her a racist?

Personally, I think not. Stern is one of the foremost French campaigners against trans ideology today, rather like KJK in the UK.

What do you think?

Expand full comment

Why are you asking her?

She thinks allowing rape is better than being called a racist.

Expand full comment

Kellie Jay Keen is actually brilliant in publicising the GC cause (unlike many academics) and so what if you don’t agree with everything she says?! Her events are great. It’s disingenuous to say that Muslim ideology is no worse than other religions. We live in a democracy, flawed though it is. How many Islamic states can say that? Women are second class citizens in Islam, advocates of women’s rights shouldn’t deny that. We have free speech, we need to use it!

Expand full comment

Thank you for your work on this and for this piece. I read something by a victim of one of these grooming lines - while the groomers were of Asian origin, the rapists included plenty of white men. That bit always seems to be forgotten.

I tend to see the blindness re white grooming gangs and white male abuse as akin to property crimes. Their language is filled with possession terminology: “our women” “our girls”. They’re “ours” to profit from and abuse, not yours.

Expand full comment

White men weren't imported, they didn't target victims based on race, and they weren't covered up by the police for fear of being called racist, which Jo has beautifully demonstrated right here with her cowardice.

You people are vile. Displaying your fake virtue, thinking you're good people for covering up for third world Pakki rapists, acting like you have moral high ground.

You have none. The torture of those girls is on your heads, and I hope you pay for it one day.

You're all immoral.

And hopefully you'll get shipped to Pakistan with those Pakki rapists.

This is what creates racists. And it's needed. Racism is better than this.

Have some shame.

Expand full comment

These are male abusers and groomers of Children. That’s what they all have in common. All religions to a greater or lesser extent treat women and children especially girls as less than men or actively subjugate them. It’s Men for the most that groom and abuse children. Men

Expand full comment

I am not a cultural relativist. I am also atheist. I agree that all the world's majority religions are used to justify sex based inequalities.

Expand full comment

Some are clearly worse than others.

Expand full comment

You are a cultural relativist, Jo.

You make excuses for Pakistani Muslim rapists because you think that makes you superior to racists who tell the truth about race.

You have no moral high ground, you are a coward, you have sacrificed those white girls on the altar of your cowardice, and you think it makes you a good person.

You're not.

If the choice is being like you or being a racist, we're going to pick being a racist.

The word means nothing now, it has no power, and nobody cares.

That's where life has passed you by.

Have shame that you rationalize the rape of girls so you can make excuses for Pakki rapists. You are part of the problem, and thanks for proving why this went on for so long.

The next generation won't stand for it because they don't care about being called racist, and nobody should.

If racism prevents this, then it's morally preferable to your pathetic word salads to excuse these Pakki rape squads.

Have shame at your lack of integrity.

Expand full comment

Thank you for this. Very enlightening.

Expand full comment

Yes, it's enlightening to see how those Pakkis got away with raping white girls for so long.

It's because of cowards and phonies like Jo.

Expand full comment

Not just, but Jo def doesn't help get a proper national enquiry.

Expand full comment

Thanks for this and for all your efforts in the past. Clarity of thought is so important at the moment with the ratcheting up of tensions happening from so many angles. I signed the GC letter on the far-right and have been ejected from a small GC group for announcing it, albeit with a few harsh words about KJK. Her fans don't take kindly to any criticism of her.

I'm not about to deny her considerable achievements, but I can't escape the notion that she's more about herself than her purported 'cause'. She's great on rhetoric, but clarity and nuance are not her strong suit, deliberately so, I suspect. It's not like she's stupid. I listened to her response to the letter and found it a jumble. She broad-brushes what she calls 'the left' as elitist and takes cover in associating herself with, variously, Brexiteers, farmers and truckers, as though the people who took to the streets to riot in England were all in common cause with those groups. There were good arguments for Brexit, the truckers were Canadian and concerned about covid, and the farmers were mostly EU concerned about sub-standard grain from Ukraine which they couldn't sell if they'd produced it themselves. I'm afraid her jumble is just daft, and not a little cowardly. She implicitly includes herself and 'wimmin' in that dreamt-up coalition of farmers, truckers, Brexiteers and the morons who were rioting in England. This is just shadow-boxing. It's exhausting and not a single blow is landed where it ought.

To me, in part, this whole noxious stew stands in testimony to the degradation of language that has been wrought by critical social justice. Personally, I'm all for diversity, equality and inclusion according to the original and proper meanings of those terms. I can't quite believe that I should be expected to be abashed to say I'm anti-racist, because some Johnny-come-lately thinks that to say so means I've fallen afoul of CRT gobbledegook. I could see clearly from the start that CRT was much more apt to engender racism than to solve it, and some of the people espousing objections to it have been led by American critics, notably James Lindsay, who like a lot of Americans doesn't seem to know the meaning of 'the left'. I reject and resent being lumped with Ibram X Kendi, Diangelo et al as though they have a baldy clue about what leftism has always meant to me, and I resent the loss of its meaning to thuggish populists who couldn't think their way out of a wet paper bag.

I'm not familiar enough to comment beyond saying that your contextualising of Rotherham etc as a systemic failure across the board rings true. I've had some experience of the criminal justice system around sex crime and from that experience know full well it doesn't work, even for a 'privileged' white male such as myself. The bar is set very high to be considered a 'credible' witness. The process is brutal. In Northern Ireland, victims of CSA are precluded from seeking redress if they have a criminal conviction. I fall in that camp, and it seems obvious that people who carry that stuff around with them would be prone to getting involved in crime, particularly drug-related crime, as many end up addicts. Seeing victims of very broad systemic failures exploited in the way Keen has done, extremely cheaply, is infuriating.

There are so many strings being pulled at the moment. I knew we were in for trouble when 'post-truth' and 'alternative facts' became things. It seems that now you can level any amount of actual facts at people and they remain unmoved. I'll be forever grateful to my parents for encouraging me into higher education, which was the only route out of the grind of Northern Ireland by the 80s and 90s, when it seemed no end to the conflict was in sight. It's regrettable indeed that with so much information readily available, people don't have the tools to sort wheat from chaff. It's deeply regrettable too that academia is so in thrall to half-baked American readings of mid-wit French philosophers. Academia -- people's way out -- has been poisoned. Must we start over again?

To give Keen her due, I think we've missed a beat, been complacent, maybe even smug. I think we ('the left') were sold a pup by Tony Blair and we're now reaping what he sowed. It took a long time for me to admit as much because he fixed Northern Ireland as if by abracadabra, breaking the back of injustice that had gone on for so long out of sheer political laziness and the apparent lust for a fight rather than fair dealing. Perhaps coming from this background is what gives me this perspective: when the state doesn't seem to be on your side and keeps you wrong-footed as if by policy, careful, precise thinking as far as possible becomes extremely important if the enemy is to be identified and combatted. In all of this history that has been transpiring for 20 years now, I'm sorry to say I accuse that amorphous glob called America for this mess. We are all inside that whale. The sooner we see it the better.

Expand full comment

Really interesting. I don't know if I blame US beyond saying that when US sneezes UK catches a cold.

Re KJK response to that letter - I found her mockery of me nothing other than school ground tactics. She knows nothing of my history and nothing about the actual work I have done.

Yes, LWS has empowered many, but trying to stoke divisions between 'the elite' and 'the people's is the very definition of populism and populism is not something to be lauded.

Populism lands us in some very challenging places and sits in opposition to democracy. Just have to think of populist governments now - Duarte, Putin, Erdogan. They sell a vision of 'we the people' where in fact they dismantle the mechanisms by which the peoples' voices can be heard and where law applies to all.

Thanks for the comment. It is thought provoking.

Expand full comment

Good to read the history. But you have to remember that we as women understand the 2 tiered policing happening right now. KJK was almost killed because of it in NZ. Her ‘Let women Speak’ events have been events marred by violence because the police won’t do their F’ing jobs and start charging these trans activists with harassment and assault. We see the 2 tiered policing in all its forms openly and on display in UK, Australia and Canada. We understand the lies and cries of ‘far right’ to anyone not drinking down the narrative and being good little sheep, and that includes those saying that immigration in the numbers and speed it’s happening is not working. The UK government have brought this on themselves, their disregard for the working class and their concerns has backfired. The genie cannot be put back in the bottle. There will always be racists who take advantage of situations. This is way more than racism. This is class war and pushing a multicultural ideology on the populace that hasn’t worked.

Expand full comment

Thank you Jo for your detailed account of your research on child sexual abuse of careleavers by predatory gangs, and on the changes since 1993 in law, attitudes (to some extent) and terminology -- but not matched by the diminishing capacity of social and other services to care for vulnerable children "in care".

All of which it's so important for more of us to know: to offset the prevailing rightwing media-generated myth of "Asian grooming gangs" that underpins so much British racism. With uncontrolled immigration and Tory disinformation about "illegal immigrants" -- rather than asylum seekers -- to keep it simmering. And racist misinformation on the peroetrator of the Southport murders to make it explode into rioting.

It's salutary to learn more of the real story, to combat racist media myths that still inform even leftwing minds about "soft policing" of ethnic minorities (re Rochdale and,Rotherham)-- but in total contradiction to all we've read about racist policing based on "sus law", and systemic racism within police forces.

And it's hardly a surprise that while "two tier policing" is a slur and even an inversion of any facts in terms of racism, any real two tier policing is based on historical and persisting misogyny.

And it's based on a perversion, surely, of the law that treats female victims of male sexual violence only as witnesses to a crime -- which at least explains the apparently perverse routine actions of the police in seeking to undermine, rather than support, the evidence of rape victims.

No wonder that half of rapes are never even reported: not even because of the pitifully low prosecution rate of two percent, but because women do not trust the police to believe them, or to do anything about it. And expect to be blamed, not treated as victims.

Expand full comment

Now it's time to get more racist.

Funny how I don't hear a word about how disgustingly antiwhite those Pakkis are.

You guys are fine with racism, and even child rape, if it's the kind you like.

Expand full comment

Such a useful and well-informed piece, Jo: thank you for a very important contribution. I have to say I regard KJK as very much part of the current far-right offensive, which in important respects is different from the UK racism of earlier decades. David Rosenberg has written an excellent piece about this in today's Morning Star. Put simply, we're in the post 9/11 era, one where the 'war on terror' has greatly amplified Islamophobia while giving it a degree of 'respectability' in Establishment circles and the mainstream media. Hatred of Muslims is now the cutting edge of racism, whether in the UK, the USA, or in France, where I live. This stoking up has gained even greater purchase in the context of global protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The current riots (or continuing threat thereof) in the UK are being fuelled by Islamophobia: hence the focus on mosques, and the foul slogans characteristic of far right gatherings. That KJK is willing to endorse the 'narrative' put about by Yaxley-Lennon and his thugs is further evidence of her politics and priorities. As for Islam: I have a lot of admiration for its rich history, cultural impact and variety of forms. For me, the sight of feisty Muslim girls in their thousands marching for Palestine through the streets of London and other cities is an inspiration -- and an indication of more equitable times ahead. I'd far rather work with these young women than invest a moment of my time on social media 'influencers' (although the latter need to be challenged -- and you've done so brilliantly!).

Expand full comment

PS I've not fallen out with KJK. There is nothing personal here. Let Women Speak has meant a lot of a lot of women. But the politics that KJK is espousing at the moment and some of her comments are just plain wrong (see above) and, in my mind, divisive in themselves. I've been too long in the game to see the hard work of feminists (and leftist and even Labour) be so misrepresented.

Expand full comment

What hard work of feminists?

You idiots can't even speak honestly about Pakki rape squads.

If the truth is divisive, it's time to get divided. And Pakistanis should be deported.

What is wrong with you people? I've never seen such idiots so committed to literally covering up for child rape because they're petrified of being called RACIST.

Nobody cares anymore. You're a failure.

Expand full comment

I too am glad you haven’t fallen out with Kellie-Jay. When I was reported for “hate crime” (I put half-a-dozen GC stickers on notices in an NHS hospital referring to women as “person with a cervix”), I was harangued, while feeling very ill, by the extremely hostile Head of Security, immediately prior to a radiotherapy session. I wasn’t even dressed properly and the male security guard was videotaping the whole thing. She was adamant I had committed a hate crime and had called the police.

My story goes on a bit but without Kellie-Jay I would have had, like the girls in those awful grooming gangs, no one to tell, no one to care.

Expand full comment

KJK was well out of order in dragging the grooming gang saga into a smouldering powder keg. But given her ballsy activities supporting women’s rights against the trans activists I can forgive her. It’s a shame two of the GC movement’s gladiators should fall out. That’ll put a smile on the face of the trans activists who constantly want to tar the GC movement with the far right brush and thus undermine them.

The Prof shining a light on the fate of girls from poor and chaotic backgrounds being almost a prey species available to predators of every colour and class is horrific. That we have ignored it for so long is evidence we are a damaged society with a large underclass in many of our cities. Maybe no mystery about frustrations breaking into rioting.

The street version of the grooming scandal has had its shortcomings fully exposed by the Prof but I suspect as an example of a state’s reluctance to act decisively when minorities are involved it will continue to resonate. No one doubts the how the state would have responded had a gang of white Scotsmen been serially abusing young Pakistani girls.

Expand full comment

I don’t forgive anyone using violence against women and girls as a cover for racism. It’s a prop for bigotry.

Expand full comment

Islam is not a religion - from what I've learned about Pakistan, it is more 'colourist' than the UK, 'white meat' is prized especially with the excuse that the unbeliever wearing Western clothes is 'asking for it'.

The foregoing is not racist on my part - Islam is not a race but a religion/ideology and responsible for oppressing women in Pakistan where a rapist has to have 4 witnesses and if her case fails, she is under risk of being labelled 'adulteror' ie 'asking for it'. Can you not see that such a patriarchal, misogynist state might affect immigrant men coming to this country and their view of vulnerable (mostly) white girls not being taken care of?

'

Expand full comment

Actually there were instances and the response was no different. There is not doubt that the administration of justice is not blind. No doubt. But where girls and women are concerned, where male sexual violence is concerned, we have (literally) centuries of the failure of women and girls to achieve justice.

Expand full comment

LOL

You care about male sexual violence.

Except when Pakkis do it because then you can get called racist, so then it's time to sacrifice white girls.

Nobody should take you seriously.

Expand full comment

I agree, the focus should be firmly on MVAWG, no matter what their background, creed or skin colour. Out of interest, have things improved for these girls since May's commission, or is it still an ignored problem? Have things got better for care leavers?

Wahadism and radical Islam has a lot to answer for. I have no problem in pointing out or campaigning against repressive mysiogynist regimes, like Iran's Government or the Taliban, without feeling the urge to attack individual Muslims on the street.

Expand full comment

No argument from me and good to hear you haven’t fallen out with KJK. She is needed. Overturning centuries of injustice and fighting off trans activists’ new assault on what rights women have is going take some ‘ ungentlemanly warfare’.

Expand full comment

Thank you, I really feel I know something now I needed to know. As an immigrant from Denmark (9 years in Scotland now) many things here in UK look rather opaque to me - there's so much history I don't know. Now I know a little more.

The fate of those girls can break your heart. Thank you for your work.

Regarding racism - Denmark has that as well. Danes are rather laid back in comparison to British people - that goes for things like transactivism and racism as well as resistance to both. But I've been thinking for many years that the left in Denmark (my political "home" since I was young) was complicit in the rise of racism. When we shut down each and any attempt to talk about concerns about being able to absorb a lot of refugees, about how you can feel provoked by expressions of cultures and beliefs that are foreign to you, like different ways of navigating in public spaces etc - where do people go? I personally feel a bit unease talking to a woman in burka, but mentioning it could immediately get me called out for rightwing racism. And I think that was in part the reason for the rise in racism and right-wing nationalism. People in social housing areas should be able to talk about concerns for the local Christmas tree - if they're not, we end up with anger about "Muslims rejecting Christmas and Danish values and wanting to replace them with their own" at the same time as "Muslims taking place in line for buying Christmas roasts - haven't they got their own holydays", "Can I be safe with a Muslim doctor or a Muslim bus driver during Ramadan - don't they know they live in a Christian country now?" Anything bad done by an immigrant could be called "typical for those bastards". And as I said, I think the left is complicit. Shortsightedness, bigotry and anger flourish, not only (a lot of socioeconomic factors are involved as well) but also because it isn't acceptable to talk about the cultural challenges in a decent manner. When "No debate - you're a racist" is the answer, people vote for the parties with "immigrants out" on the program. In Denmark, that resulted in the "Burka law", prohibiting women to wear it, resulting in many of them feeling they had to stay at home (making a law about what women are allowed to wear declaring that they shouldn't be told by their husbands or imams what to wear is ... Well, I'll stop here). And there has been a mentally burdened man making demonstrations around the country with quran burnings, protected by the police, who spend thousands of hours of overtime of it, because he had had death threats and had to be protected. That's as far as it gets in a laid back country, but it has affected a lot of people negatively, nevertheless. And has laid the ground for many young people to feel that they can never be accepted, and thereby leading to much bigger tensions in the future ...

Sorry for my rant. My point is that with "No debate" (and the feeling of righteousness in those who declare it) we lose opportunities to work towards a better future. My heart bleeds, but I have to say it: the left is the culprit in this. What is the use of working for better socioeconomic conditions for people under pressure in need of them, if at the same time you tell them you don't want them to speak about some of their worries, and that they're some kind of second class citizens for wanting it?

We need to start the "Better future" now. Talk

.

Expand full comment

Not a "rant" but an honest personal account of the further problems created by not being allowed to speak about the problems of immigration and integration in Denmark. Self-deception of the "if we don't talk about it, it doesn't exist -- so don't talk about it or will stir up trouble" variety?

There is the same unease in Britain: with not much in between outspoken racist antipathy to uncontrolled immigration, inflamed by misinformation and disinformation which fuelled the riots, and attempts at justifying more immigration on economic grounds of supplying needed skills and labour: while simultaneously not processing asylum claims and preventing asylum seekers from working, and housing them at public cost (which also fuels racism).

It's virtually impossible to express concern about uncontrolled immigration eg in terms of a chronic housing shortage (which also fuels racism), or the UK as one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet, needing land for rewilding -- not for ever more houses, not for an ever growing population -- without being branded a racist.

Expand full comment

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

Expand full comment

I have great respect for everything you've done and do but I think people need to stop using misinformation as a slur, it's a weaponised term and we know press and agencies like police are reluctant to identify racial groups involved, showing the 'misinformation' from the other side.

Does the BBC enlighten us by referring to their birth in Cardiff or does it hide an important fact, why does the media withhold information about the background of child murderers.

Also, the left is deaf on concerns about immigration. Amidst all those social problems pervading all levels of society does it make sense to admit large numbers of new people, many from war torn dysfunction. Also while the majority of abusers are likely white do we know the rates- isn't it possible some recent immigrants struggling with integration and economic problems are more likely to be part of these criminal milieu thus justifying the heuristic people might have to some degree. Though I would guess customers/child abusers would tend to represent fairly equal across most characteristics.

Good points raised about the simplifications and risks of populist thinking though.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Aug 14
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

I can see what you're saying but there is a legitimate public interest to be considered against this. I don't know on the various standards that are in play. But it seems like in Europe, the identity of immigrant attackers has routinely be hidden in some cases yet I think that's genuinely of public interest to know.

Expand full comment