Commentaries (some of them cheeky or provocative) on economic topics by Ralph Musgrave. This site is dedicated to Abba Lerner. I disagree with several claims made by Lerner, and made by his intellectual descendants, that is advocates of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). But I regard MMT on balance as being a breath of fresh air for economics.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Outbreak of mass hypocrisy amongst Britain’s elite.
On 5th Jan, the British establishment’s favourite newspaper, The Times ran a story out of the blue about Muslim / Pakistani gangs who were allegedly grooming and raping vulnerable white girls.* The story covered the whole of The Times’s front page plus four pages inside.
The main front page story the next day was on the same subject. Plus there were several related stories during the subsequent week.
And the story, according to The Times was a “revelation”. The first word of the headline was “Revealed”. Plus according to the first paragraph The Times was “exposing” something.
But there is just one problem. This story is old hat. In 2001, Nick Griffin, head of the British National Party drew attention to this grooming problem and was put on trial by the establishment for “inciting racial hatred” or similar. Plus a few years later, on television, Channel 4 ran a programme on the same subject.
You might think that the police would investigate these grooming and rape allegations made by Channel 4. But far from it: Channel 4 found itself on the receiving end of a storm of abuse from the establishment for inciting racial hatred etc etc. Channel 4 was not taken to court, but they did have to pull a further planned programmed on the same subject entitled “Edge of the City”.
Fast forward to 2011. The Times draws attention to the problem (and in some style) and the reaction from the establishment is total silence. Now why would this be? Possibly it is that Rupert Murdoch is too powerful to be challenged. Or possibly, the establishment is admitting that it was wrong all along. Probably a bit of both.
When the pompous and the sanctimonious are in the wrong, they can never bring themselves to admit it. What they do is go GRADULALLY change their views, and hope no one notices. Well, sorry, but we’ve noticed.
* Article title: “Revealed: conspiracy of silence on UK sex gangs”. It’s available here.
Afterthough (same day): The above claim that there was “total silence” in response to The Times “revelation” is not quite right. Jack Straw, who was a senior member of Tony Blair’s government at the time of the above mentioned Nick Griffin trial and the Channel 4 fiasco, actually expressed AGREEMENT with the thrust of The Times articles. The hypocrisy is even more delightful than suggested above. You couldn’t make it up!
Afterthough (30th Jan 2011). For more on this, see video clip by Pat Condell.
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