Kemi Badenoch regretted that her anti-wokery speech might be about to upset some people. The venue was the Institute for Government, a think-tank that receives millions in charity dosh from the Blairite Lord Sainsbury. Civil servants worship the Institute for Government. Lefties love it.
Now, from behind enemy lines, Kemi was launching an attack on something such souls held dear: the public sector equality duty, a bureaucratic device which over the years has led to thousands of jobs and finger-wagging interventions.
And she was doing so – smelling salts, Petunia – from their beloved institute. This was worse than someone streaking at Ascot, or blowing a raspberry in the Sistine chapel.
Mrs Badenoch cheerfully set about the ‘madness’ of a system which has made police officers so daunted by racism accusations that they stopped investigating suspects.
Undeserving prisoners were compensated for their human rights. Gypsies got away with behaviour that would see anyone else nabbed.
Officialdom replaced common sense with box-ticking. Activists had effectively removed the blindfold from the statue of Lady Justice.
‘I want to take identity politics out of the public sector,’ said Mrs Badenoch with a lick of her lips.
Beside her, on stage, sat Hannah White, the institute’s chief executive. As Mrs Badenoch’s attack sank in, and accelerated, Ms White (what a surname the poor woman has had to endure) looked as if she’d eaten a bad prawn.
Mrs Badenoch cheerfully set about the ‘madness’ of a system which has made police officers so daunted by racism accusations that they stopped investigating suspects
‘I hate bureaucracy,’ yodelled Kemi. ‘We will repeal the public sector equality duty in its entirety.’
Ms White’s cheeks flushed. Tightness fell on her lips. Mrs Badenoch finished her speech and said she was now going to take questions from the press. Ms White snippily corrected this, saying she was in fact first going to sit down and take questions from her, thangyew.
You did not have to be Desmond Morris to discern a certain froideur between these two memsahibs. Ms White proceeded to put sceptical, you might even say huffy, questions about the Tories’ proposed repeal.
Kemi ripped back with gusto, pushing forward her head like a tortoise on the forage. Blimey. Mrs Badenoch realised she had been perhaps a little fierce with her hostess and explained that long experience as an equalities minister had left her with strong feelings. Several of the television journalists had a go at her. They fretted about egalitarianism.
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Mrs Badenoch politely fired back at them and she did so, furthermore, in faultless equalities lingo. It is as specialist a tongue as ancient Greek.
She added that stopping black boys and searching them for knives was fine by her because it saved black lives. She wasn’t going to ‘run away’ from controversy and ‘allow other people’s kids to be killed just so I can have a quiet life’.
Begob, you should have seen the face on Hannah White. The event finished before midday but I dare say she had the stopper out of the nearest brandy decanter the very moment K. Badenoch had been seen off the premises.
One point Mrs B made was that she was not criticising frontline police.
The political correctness problem started higher up the ranks, she said, among senior officers. This is no doubt true. But some politicians are also to blame.
Hilary Benn, Ulster Secretary, took a Commons urgent question about Monday night’s knife attack in Belfast. Mr Benn was statesmanlike in the usual sense of that word. That is, he spoke gravely. He appealed for calm. But he also refused to give information about the identity and immigration status of the alleged attacker. He must have known these things but, obstinately, he insisted they could not yet be disclosed.
Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist, N Antrim) asked when the authorities would ‘stop the importation of an alien culture that thinks it’s appropriate to try and behead someone’. Mr Benn stiffened. His ideological obstinacy was tangible. He replied: ‘I am sorry he used the word “alien culture”. What exactly is he referring to?’
Unionist MPs, in exasperation and disbelief: ‘Beheading!’
