Oh Lenny, not everyone wants to go to Glasto with a bunch of Hooray Henrys

WHAT was Sir Lenny Henry hoping to achieve by seemingly suggesting that Glastonbury is some kind of annual racist conspiracy, set to the beat of all-white alt rockers such as Coldplay or U2?

Bands who are quite clearly determined to suppress ethnic minority sections of the population with their hate-filled songs and albums such as Yellow and Achtung Baby — I mean, really?

‘It’s interesting to watch Glastonbury and look at the audience and not see any black people there. I’m always surprised by the lack of black and brown faces at festivals. I think, “Wow, that’s still very much a dominant culture thing,”’ he told the Radio Times this week. I’ll say it again — what? Was the ‘surprised’ Henry suggesting that this celebrated festival of music somehow makes ethnic minorities unwelcome, or negatively racially profiles its audience to ensure a predominantly white crowd?

Surely not — but he must have known his words were freighted with trouble and open to the worst sort of interpretation; he must have realised he was creating a race-based issue where none existed before.

For you could list any number of events — the Chelsea Flower Show, Ascot, the Highland Games, a football match in Manchester or Liverpool, the Eisteddfod in Wales, cheese rolling, hill walking, I could go on — where there will always be a lack of black and brown faces, but there are two reasons for this.

One is that the UK is a still a predominantly white nation. The last big diversity survey suggests around 14 per cent of the UK population comes from a minority ethnic background.

Of course, demographics do change, like in certain areas including London, which has The Data Reform Bill paves the way for a crackdown on the scourge of scam calls, texts and emails. Not before time. When my father was ill, nothing made me more furious than seeing him struggle to answer the phone, then being polite to some scrote trying to rip him off. The same thing still happens with my mother, who is very good at just hanging up. No messin’ with Mrs Moir! every adult in Britain receives an average of seven unwanted calls or messages a month. Now, the maximum fine for hounding people like this is to rise from £500,000 to £17.5 million. That is not enough. The greasy millionaires who profit from these practices should be jailed. around 40 per cent of its population from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background.

Secondly, free will and personal preference play their part, too — attending these events is a matter of cultural choice and not dictated to by oppression.

Anyone is free to buy a ticket to any of these happenings. Glastonbury is always oversubscribed. Like Wimbledon, it sells its tickets on a random ballot basis, leaving few opportunities for these imaginary colonial oppressors to exercise their xenophobic tendencies. Yet both events end up with a similar ethnic mix. How come?

Perhaps the truth is that ethnic minority music lovers are just too smart and cool to spend £300 a head to stand around in a field with a lot of middle-aged Henrys and Henriettas in cowboy hats and Hunter wellingtons; enjoying a teatime spliff which they hide from view when they FaceTime with the kiddies’ nanny.

The only thing more middle class and white than Glastonbury is a ripe slice of Somerset camembert served on an artisanal bloomer in a bleached canvas yurt onsite, washed down with a glass of sauv blanc. Perhaps ethnic minority punters simply exercised their democratic right and chose not to buy tickets.

However, surely there is nothing to be gained from trying to make trouble where there is none, to create divisions when, actually, we are all quite happily rubbing along together, satisfied with our own cultural choices?

On matters such as this, Sir Lenny has become such a woke bore one wonders why he doesn’t cancel himself, given his cringing history as a participant on the Black and White Minstrel Show and those embarrassing impersonations of Trevor McDoughnut.

Instead of complaining about Glastonbury, he should be sending himself to woke jail and throwing away the key.

OH, I get so tired of this narrative about the UK being a racist country and an oppressor of minorities. Yes, Britain still has its problems and its pockets of intolerable Stone Age views and its Tommy Robinsons and its moronic chanting sports fans. But like Sir Lenny Henry himself, we have come a long way. We have evolved. We are far more tolerant and welcoming than a great many countries.

Henry also remarked that it has taken the BBC 50 years to have a black host on Mastermind, which was another cheap shot.

There have only been three hosts in the show’s long history; one was a Scot of Icelandic heritage, one was a working-class Welshman and the other is new boy Clive Myrie, who is doing an excellent job.

Perhaps we should be more concerned that no woman has ever been given the post, but that kind of peevish troublemaking doesn’t get my vote either.

I will always support the best man for the job, even if that man happens to be a man. In the meantime, the only thing notable about Lenny Henry’s ‘surprise’ is that it is not very surprising at all.