Radio 4’s Bizarre Obsession

Earlier this week Radio 4 engaged in some frankly bizarre speculative deliberations to mark that most august of events, Barack Obama’s 65th day in office. Well, naturally, this was seen as cause for some celebration by the Radio 4 ‘commentariat’, so we were treated to the Today Programme devoting Wednesday’s edition to pondering how long it would be before the UK would have its own Obama in the form of a “black Prime Minister”. To this end, they drafted in a US academic who, much to Sarah Montague’s disappointment, opined that there would not be a black Prime Minister in all likelihood for at least another twenty years.

Instead of recognising that the absence of a dusky-hued PM is down to the fact that the majority of the UK population is still, despite the efforts of the incumbent Government, still of indigenous stock (a term that the BBC pretends not to comprehend), Montague et al had to wring their hands and look for explanations elsewhere. Their preferred explanations unsurprisingly consisted of the same tired old set of misapprehensions founded upon a belief in the twin bogeys of “institutional racism” and the innate “racism” of the indigenous inhabitants of the United Kingdom. Having thus outlined their delusional worldview as if it were the real state of affairs, the discussion then led to predictably emotive pleading for special programmes to cultivate the requisite ‘talent’ in “black communities” and to fast-track black parliamentary candidates using positive discrimination.

There are a number of good reasons why we haven’t had a black PM and why we’re unlikely to have one. The proportion of dark-skinned UK passport holders remains a minority nationally; furthermore, they are encouraged by the Government and the media to channel their political efforts into communalist and sectarian modes of action and expression, thereby reinforcing existing tendencies to produce correspondingly narrowly focused ‘community’ political leaders. By definition, ethnic-minority communalist and sectarian activists are unfit for public office, because they pursue their own narrow agendas (which they perceive to be legitimate) to the detriment of the wider interests of society. Contrary to the opinion of Radio 4’s guest academic, I am not of the opinion that Keith Vaz is a man of integrity who is fit for high office.

Multiculturalism encourages anti-nationalism and a culture of grievance amongst immigrant, particularly ‘black’, populations. Such a mindset cannot produce policies and actions conducive to the national good. If we are talking about “black” in the narrow sense of people of Afro-Caribbean or African stock, the population of the former is small, and a significant proportion of this minority is governed by an anti-intellectual culture which does not encourage academic achievement. Unsurprisingly therefore, the number of potentially gifted politicians is exceedingly low, a matter compounded by the fact that the state is generally viewed with hostility by this group. As for those of black African descent, their presence in this country really is of very recent provenance, so it would be ludicrous to expect that they would have become involved in national political life. Furthermore, their primary allegiances will in the majority of cases remain overseas.

The assumption of the Radio 4 presenters was that having a black PM would be a good thing in itself. Why? Call me foolish if you will, but I think that political leaders should be chosen upon the basis of intelligence, ability and a congruence between their policies, beliefs and values and my own, not because they are held to represent an allegedly oppressed minority. Like the Marxists of old who held that there was some innate nobility in the proletariat which embodied universal human values derived from its “oppression”, the multiculturalists of today hold that ethnic minorities are intrinsically morally superior to the indigenous population, as the former are designated ‘victims’ of discrimination and oppression. Whereas the Marxists singled out the bourgeoisie for elimination, the multiculturalists have chosen the indigenous population. I for one, look forward to the day when we have not a black Prime Minister, but a Prime Minister who looks after and actively promotes the interests of the indigenous peoples of the United Kingdom.