The new Britain: Thinkers not required

If you’ve ever read any of Sir Roger Scruton’s voluminous work, you’ll have realised that he is not a person given to taking things lightly. The English philosopher has written over 50 books, ranging from art and music to politics, culture and religion. He’s also written novels and opera. Scruton is a thoughtful and fearsomely intelligent person. If he says something in public, he has certainly thought deeply about it.

But deep thinkers are in no great demand in modern Britain. There is only room today in British public life for apparatchiks who dutifully parrot right-on nostrums about diversity and progressivism.

Conservative academic Sir Roger Scruton has been sacked as head of a government housing body following comments about Islam, China and George Soros.

The philosopher was appointed as the unpaid chair of the Building Beautiful architecture Commission in November.

Given that aesthetics and culture are Sir Roger’s particular areas of expertise, the chairmanship of such a commission is a natural fit. These days, however, expertise takes a very distant back seat to an unthinking willingness to conform to mealy-mouthed platitudes.

He has now been dismissed after claiming Islamophobia was “a propaganda word” and “each Chinese person is a kind of replica of the next one”.

Downing Street said the comments were “deeply offensive”.

Sir Roger’s appointment to head the new body was criticised at the time by Labour, who said his past comments on race and sexuality made him unsuitable to hold the post.

The hypocrisy and deceit in just those three lines is stunning. First off, for Labour, of anyone, to pontificate about race is laughable. This is a party wracked by anti-Semitism, with a terrorist-sympathising ideologue at its head. Its top echelons have repeatedly been embroiled in scandals over race.

The BBC’s cherry-picking of Sir Roger’s words is even worse. Gosh, each Chinese person is a kind of replica of the next one does sound racist, dunnit? Until you learn what Scruton actually said:

In a wide-ranging interview, he also said the Communist regime in China was “creating robots out of their own people” which he said was a “frightening thing”.

So, not racist at all: just a criticism of the Chinese communists. And one which even non-Mainland Chinese make.

He’s also completely correct about Islamophobia. The same argument has been made by everyone from Christopher Hitchens and former head of Britain’s Equalities and Human Rights Commission Trevor Phillips. The very person who originally helped popularise that deeply stupid term now admits that he got almost everything wrong about Islam in Britain.

The author has now left his position “with immediate effect” after an interview with the New Statesman in which he questioned the definition of Islamophobia and speculated on the influence of Jewish financier, philanthropist and liberal political activist George Soros in his native Hungary.

Sir Roger was in fact trying to point out that anti-Semitism has become an issue in Hungary. He was also criticising Soros’ role in politics. Yet, where appropriate, Scruton has also defended Soros: in 2016, he petitioned the Orban government not to close down Soros’ university.

bbc.com

In fact, if someone criticises a banker and your first thought is Jewish conspiracy it may be time to consider the anti-Semitic beam in your own eyes.

Meanwhile:

Just recently we have learned that a number of advisors appointed by the UK government to advise on Islamophobia have had links to hardline Islamic extremists. Sadly it comes as no surprise that these advisors are still in their roles.

tr.news