Toxic fall of respect for our protectors
TWO contrasting sides of Britain have been on display this week.
On Monday at Wimbledon, the crowd gave a heartfelt standing ovation to special guest Dame Sarah Gilbert, the visionary leader of the Oxford Zeneca vaccine team.
It was a touching moment that encapsulated the gratitude of a nation. Yet only the day before, another heroic, dedicated public servant had endured a very different experience.
As he walked through a central London park, the Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty was manhandled by two thugs, who grabbed hold of him as they photographed their harassment.
The appalling incident, which is not the first time that Professor Whitty has been accosted by assailants, led to widespread condemnation.
It is profoundly disturbing that this kind of shameful episode should happen in our country, especially to an honourable figure whose hallmark is his calm, stoical sense of duty.
Such contempt for those who serve the public is becoming all too common, as epitomised in the surge of assaults on police officers, NHS professionals, ambulance crews, firefighters and shop workers.
There is a worrying sense of a breakdown in respect for our protectors as the civic realm becomes increasingly toxic.
At the height of the Second World War in 1941, George Orwell wrote that “the gentleness of English civilisation is its most marked characteristic”.
Eighty years later, how hollow those words sound, given that our society is increasingly plagued by violence and intimidation.
The thuggery inflicted on Professor Whitty is matched by the poisonous mood in the Batley and Spen by-election, one of the nastiest contests of modern times.
The tone was set when a mob of Islamist extremists drove an innocent teacher out of his job at Batley Grammar for supposed blasphemy. Against that backdrop, where neither the political parties nor the authorities were willing to defend him, the by-election campaign has been dominated by sectarianism and fear, with particular abuse targeted at the Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater – sister of the late MP Jo Cox, who was murdered by a far-Right maniac in 2016.
Batley is part of a worrying pattern. Earlier this month, respected BBC correspondent Nick Watt was chased by an angry group of anti-lockdown protesters during a demonstration in Downing Street.
In April Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was aggressively ejected from a Bath pub by a landlord. We live in an increasingly polarised society, where hard core elements appear to think that their vengeful rage is legitimate. Indeed, in this dark climate, the deeper the selfrighteous fury, the more justified the action, no matter how threatening or destructive.
This attitude is fed by the fashionable cult of victimhood that has helped to create an army of self-pitying cry bullies.
Just as damaging is the cancel culture, where anything deemed offensive should be silenced or censored. Open debate, freedom of expression and respect for other voices are disappearing under a wave of divisive infantile hysteria, which in turn is fuelled by social media full of conspiracy theories, simplistic politics and vicious witch-hunts.
Too many of our institutions, instead of standing up for order and civility, collude with extremism, dressing up their cowardice as a form of inclusion.
It can only be hoped that, before we slide further into the gutter, the outrage over the treatment of Professor Whitty might mark a turning point.
The man who has played such a part in pulling us through the Covid crisis deserves far better.