The corporation's cack-handed Proms plan has unwittingly paved the way for a more rational conversation about British history and values.
Source - Daily Telegraph 27/08/20
It has been a torrid few months for Britain’s silent majority.
For those of us who believe in the rule of law, in our great tradition of free speech, and in the very existence of our nation, the events following the terrible death in Minneapolis of George Floyd in May have left us without voice.
We have either been silenced or, in some cases, “cancelled”, the term now used to describe a person who has been thrust out of a social or professional circle for expressing an opinion. It is the modern version of sending someone to Coventry.
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This week’s row over the Last Night of the Proms, in which the BBC has – absurdly – insisted that the words of Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory cannot be sung on 12 September is just the latest chapter in this summer of discontent.
Perhaps by making this ghastly mistake, however, the BBC has unwittingly opened up the possibility of everybody having a more rational conversation about British history, culture and values. Indeed, I wonder whether this crazy decision marks the moment at which the majority say: “Enough is enough.
Why, after all, should a small minority of the population who hold an extremist view dominate our national debate? Since when did a properly functioning society prosper by implementing topsy-turvy policies? And why should the rest of us be dictated to just because some people don’t like something?
Millions of us watched in horror a few months ago as Churchill’s statue was defaced in Parliament Square and the Cenotaph was desecrated. We were also subjected to those dreadful pictures of a mob tearing down a public statue of Edward Colston in Bristol and depositing it into a dock. Yet some of those who have stood up to criticise these reckless, anti-democratic factions have lost their jobs and in some cases been labelled ‘racist’.
My own comments on some of these outrages may well be a reason that I am no longer an LBC presenter, though I choose not to denigrate a former employer.
When I appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain in June to explain that the Black Lives Matter movement is not about racial equality but instead has a Marxist agenda to overthrow the established order and to defund the police, I was called a liar. The programme’s increasingly ‘woke’ presenter, Piers Morgan, seemed very happy with this situation. I find it surprising that a man of his intelligence cannot or will not acknowledge these facts.
I know that the forces of conservatism have been in retreat for years, without anybody giving a voice to their opinion. Yet in the country at large - that place known as Middle England - people are increasingly perplexed. Why will nobody stand up and say that Britain abolished slavery more than 200 years ago, and that the Royal Navy spent 50 years driving out this appalling trade? Why will no one say that far from being a racist country, Britain is an fair-minded nation that has managed its relationship with its former colonies in a manner that is unrivalled in history and has led to the Commonwealth of Nations? These questions have troubled many people since the spring.
It does feel as though a lot has changed in recent days. Perhaps a tipping point has been reached.
Thanks to the increasingly unloved BBC choosing to take its lead from a politically correct Proms conductor from Finland, Dalia Stasevska, it has essentially told the licence payers who fund it to be ashamed of who we are, to hate our culture, and to rewrite our history.
Yet to this public opinion has overwhelmingly said: “No.” Thousands have signed petitions calling for the Last Night of the Proms to be reinstated. A proper debate has been stirred. And, at last, the Prime Minister seems to have sided with the people, speaking some common sense words about the episode and lambasting the BBC for its handling of the affair. He was quite right to do so. Why should we apologise for who we are?
I was very surprised when ITV’s This Morning programme invited me on yesterday to have a debate with an activist from the Black Lives Matter movement - somebody who, incidentally, is also a prominent Remainer (isn’t it funny how Remainers always seem to support every negative view of British history?)
For once, I found myself in this mainstream media setting being treated not as the villain, but as the voice of the majority. The presenter, Eamonn Holmes, who compered the debate, even pointed out that 90 per cent of his viewers thought that Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory should not be axed.
For his efforts, Mr Holmes is now also being condemned as “racist” in some quarters. This doesn’t really matter, though, because it is obvious that most people are with him on this issue. The worm has turned. When even our left-of-centre broadcasters are waking up to the opinions of their own viewers, it does feel as though some lost ground is being made up.
Let’s be honest about it. Britain is the most tolerant country in the world. We believe in democracy, law, and decency. No longer should any of us be silent in the face of this attempted Marxist-sponsored cultural revolution. The stand has now been taken, albeit thanks to the BBC’s cack-handedness.
To quote an old favourite comedy programme, 'Allo 'Allo! : “Listen very carefully, I will say this only once…thank you BBC.”
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