More than meets the eye
Jul. 15th, 2025 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loganberrybunnyPublic
165/365: Stanley Baldwin statue, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
I fear that today's revelations about 7,000 Afghans being relocated to Britain, but this being covered up for three years by successive governments, make it even more likely that Reform will win the next election. Superinjunctions are enormously unpopular (deservedly so) and immigration has become a major wedge issue in Westminster politics. Both the Tories and Labour will suffer politically for this, all the more so as parts of the (original, non-super) injunction remain in force. There's also the underlying data security issue, in that (it's been at least suggested) personal data of these Afghans was kept in a simple Excel file. That's absurdly bad practice for something as sensitive as this. As I've seen elsewhere, maybe this was a reason Ben Wallace (then Defence Secretary) refused to stand for Tory leader after Boris Johnson's exit. He'd probably have won -- but maybe he didn't want to be PM when this came out.
Embarrassingly, much of the media is not leading on that but on John Torode's "sacking" (actually contract non-renewal) from Masterchef. The BBC says it relates to "an extremely offensive racist term" being used in the workplace -- not specified, but I'm sure we're all thinking of the same word here. Torode says he can't remember the event. Myself? If he did use that word then it's clearly unacceptable -- but I still confess to being pretty uncomfortable with one stupid remark, eight years ago, which other people around for apparently didn't see as malicious, having these consequences. It's not "cancel culture" exactly, but I'm not sure anyone will have gone eight years without saying something out of line, even if not this kind of out of line. I do have to wonder if this is all there is to the Torode story. But we may see.
Then we have the 12-year-old girl prevented from giving a speech on a school's culture day when she wore a Geri Halliwell-style Union Flag dress (in a more school-and-age appropriate design). The school's apology and statement, reported in the Guardian article linked to, is boilerplate waffle and so it's hard to tell what actually happened. If the girl was prevented from talking about British culture purely because it was British then that wasn't fair. I don't think it's analagous to the old "But where's Straight Pride Day?" whines, not really. Now, if there were other factors -- some of which may not be reportable due to privacy, safeguarding etc -- then there may be more to it. The father's Facebook post, also in the article, can be read in various ways. But I'm absolutely certain Reform will make hay with it.
Anyway, talking of British culture, have that rare thing these days -- a relatively new statue of a British politician! Stanley Baldwin, three times Prime Minister, was born in Bewdley in 1867. Various local groups including the Civic Society had wanted a statue in the town centre for decades, but it was only finally unveiled a few years ago. As far as I can tell, it hasn't caused any controversy at all.
165/365: Stanley Baldwin statue, Bewdley
Click for a larger, sharper image
I fear that today's revelations about 7,000 Afghans being relocated to Britain, but this being covered up for three years by successive governments, make it even more likely that Reform will win the next election. Superinjunctions are enormously unpopular (deservedly so) and immigration has become a major wedge issue in Westminster politics. Both the Tories and Labour will suffer politically for this, all the more so as parts of the (original, non-super) injunction remain in force. There's also the underlying data security issue, in that (it's been at least suggested) personal data of these Afghans was kept in a simple Excel file. That's absurdly bad practice for something as sensitive as this. As I've seen elsewhere, maybe this was a reason Ben Wallace (then Defence Secretary) refused to stand for Tory leader after Boris Johnson's exit. He'd probably have won -- but maybe he didn't want to be PM when this came out.
Embarrassingly, much of the media is not leading on that but on John Torode's "sacking" (actually contract non-renewal) from Masterchef. The BBC says it relates to "an extremely offensive racist term" being used in the workplace -- not specified, but I'm sure we're all thinking of the same word here. Torode says he can't remember the event. Myself? If he did use that word then it's clearly unacceptable -- but I still confess to being pretty uncomfortable with one stupid remark, eight years ago, which other people around for apparently didn't see as malicious, having these consequences. It's not "cancel culture" exactly, but I'm not sure anyone will have gone eight years without saying something out of line, even if not this kind of out of line. I do have to wonder if this is all there is to the Torode story. But we may see.
Then we have the 12-year-old girl prevented from giving a speech on a school's culture day when she wore a Geri Halliwell-style Union Flag dress (in a more school-and-age appropriate design). The school's apology and statement, reported in the Guardian article linked to, is boilerplate waffle and so it's hard to tell what actually happened. If the girl was prevented from talking about British culture purely because it was British then that wasn't fair. I don't think it's analagous to the old "But where's Straight Pride Day?" whines, not really. Now, if there were other factors -- some of which may not be reportable due to privacy, safeguarding etc -- then there may be more to it. The father's Facebook post, also in the article, can be read in various ways. But I'm absolutely certain Reform will make hay with it.
Anyway, talking of British culture, have that rare thing these days -- a relatively new statue of a British politician! Stanley Baldwin, three times Prime Minister, was born in Bewdley in 1867. Various local groups including the Civic Society had wanted a statue in the town centre for decades, but it was only finally unveiled a few years ago. As far as I can tell, it hasn't caused any controversy at all.
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