Britain’s unofficial blasphemy law
by Paul Embery:
Our spineless elites are increasingly afraid of standing up to religious fundamentalists.
If you stand for public office, you should first make sure that you have a backbone. For it is almost certain that while serving as an elected representative you will at some point come up against vested interests and influential – sometimes menacing – forces intent on having their way when their cause doesn’t merit it. It is often at moments such as these that the true worth of a politician can be gauged.
That we have over recent years witnessed a decline in the number of MPs possessing a real moral fibre – those demonstrating a willingness to say what they truly believe and regardless of the political consequences – is surely undeniable. As I wrote on UnHerd some time ago, it seems that, for many among our current crop of parliamentarians, personal emoting has taken the place of political courage, with an inclination to shy away from – rather than confront head on – awkward or divisive debates.
One need only examine, by way of example, the regular spectacle of MPs getting into the most awful tangles when asked to define the word ‘woman’ or answer the question ‘Can a woman have a penis?’ Most know the truthful answers, of course, but they just aren’t willing to state it out of fear of inviting a backlash.
Which brings me to a post on X/Twitter a few days ago by Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary. Streeting represents a constituency – Ilford North – with a sizeable Muslim population and has been in the line of fire in recent weeks over his refusal to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The tensions culminated in a large protest outside Streeting’s constituency office.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
