Leftie gets taste of his own medicine
THE case of Sir Roger Scruton, a guileless academic driven from public life by the twisting of his words and the howling of the electronic mob, is a warning to us all of a fast-approaching future.
The Left will win in the end because it recognises no limit on how wicked it can be to get its way. It will also win because the ‘Conservative’ Party is a rabble of cowards, which is so afraid of the Left it runs away from a fight before it has even been attacked.
Interestingly, two of the worst poltroons in the Scruton case were Tory MPs who certainly don’t keep quiet about their military careers – Tom Tugendhat and Johnny Mercer. I’ve seen much braver pacifists. But the proper Right, you see, still has morals. It cannot do what the Leftist journalist George Eaton and the New Statesman magazine did to Sir Roger Scruton. Take Mr Eaton’s glee after Sir Roger had been disowned by the Tory Government.
He posted a portrait of himself swigging champagne, accompanied by the words: ‘The feeling when you get Right-wing racist and homophobe Roger Scruton sacked.’
He has since grovelled a bit about this, but I don’t doubt that it is a better picture of his true feelings and nature than the pretendcivilised withdrawal and apology he later made.
Now, if I were him, here’s what I could write about George Eaton: ‘Left-wing journalist George Eaton believes homosexuality is “not normal”, it emerged last night. Eaton claimed in a friendly conversation with a notorious Right-winger that it is “a statement of fact” to say that gays are abnormal. The homophobic remarks of the New Statesman’s political editor will call into question his continued employment at the respected progressive weekly.’
What is my basis for this bag of slime, for words which I would never actually write for real?
During his apparent entrapment of Sir Roger (in which he pretended to be friendly towards a man over whose sacking he would later exult), Mr Eaton said as follows: ‘On homosexuality you’ve been criticised by some for saying, for instance, homosexuality’s not normal. But that seems to be a statement of fact…’
I have here used the same methods as those used by Mr Eaton, but against him. Except that, before writing this, I made great efforts to contact him and to put the charge to him. (I will publish my full email exchange with him on my blog.) And except that I actually don’t believe he meant what he appears to mean.
Nor do I believe he should be sacked, or chased by a mob, or have people celebrate his humiliation by swilling champagne. And that, disgustingly, is why his side will win and mine will lose. Because I and my allies are not like him.