by Brendan O’Neill, spiked
The elites want to crush the working-class fury over this vile murder – don’t let them.
Are you raging over the death of Henry Nowak? Has the horror of that boy’s slaying, the lynching-like savagery of it, incensed you? Did you feel molten fury as you watched the bodycam footage of those lowlife officers dragging Henry across the harsh gravel? Were you consumed by wrath seeing this dying boy be libelled as a racist by his killer? If so, then according to the chattering classes you are tantamount to a fascist. It is you and your febrile emotions that pose the truest threat to the nation, even more so than knife-wielding scum like Vickrum Digwa.
What has happened in Britain over the past 48 hours has been extraordinary. Even as a seasoned critic of the hubris of our rulers, I’ve been shocked by the speed with which they’ve turned this atrocity into yet another soapbox from which to harangue the little people over what we think, what we say, even what we feel. More ink is now being spilled on the ‘problematic’ emotions of the masses than on the cruel killing of young Henry. We live under a regime so morally remote, so far up the fundament of its own self-righteousness, that it frets more over the justified rage of ordinary people than the unjustified destruction of a lad’s life.
It was comments made by Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, that tore off the smug set’s veil of concern for Henry to reveal the classist sneer beneath. He called for ‘pure, cold rage’ in response to Henry’s awful, lonely death. Cue rage – ironically – across the faux-liberal establishment. The bourgeois press fizzes with angst over Farage’s words. There are ‘fears’ that the ‘populist right’ will ‘whip up racist resentment’, says the Guardian. Farage’s words will ‘inflame tensions’, blubs the Independent. Every centrist twat’s favourite pod – The News Agents – accuses him of blowing a ‘careful dog whistle’, slyly goading the mob to ‘go and do your thing’.
The commentary drips with the haughtiest dread. You can smell the panic of the establishment at the prospect that the lower orders might pour on to the streets to express an unsanctioned emotion. The ‘dog whistle’ comment captures it beautifully. They view the masses as human hounds dumbly awaiting the coded orders of their demagogic masters. The emotional wasteland that is Keir Starmer, who seems incapable of either rage or joy, called Farage’s remarks ‘unforgivable’. Now is ‘a time for serious work, not rage’, he robotically spluttered.