British politicians almost fell over each other six years ago in their rush to condemn the murder of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a white police officer.
The then-prime minister Boris Johnson said it was “appalling” and “inexcusable”, highlighting the injustices experienced by ethnic minorities.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it shone a light on racial discrimination and hatred.
And for good measure, his deputy at the time Angela Rayner took the knee in solidarity with those opposing racism.
Parliament observed a minute's silence.
David Lammy went even further, arguing Johnson had a “moral obligation” to tell Donald Trump to respect the right to peaceful protest when thousands turned out to show their anger at Floyd's death.
I thought I would remind our politicians about this after No10 aimed a broadside at US Vice-President JD Vance for being similarly outraged over the terrible murder of Henry Nowak.
“We have seen people trying to interfere in our democracy,” said a Downing Street spokesman. "And seeking to stir up division on our streets.”
United States Vice-President JD Vance and then-foreign secretary David Lammy fishing together in Britain last summer
| REUTERSA touch hypocritical, don’t you think?
There were no qualms about interfering in US democracy back in 2020, so perhaps JD was just getting his own back.
What No10 should have done was ignore diplomatic niceties and call JD out explicitly for the crass, insensitive ignoramus that he is.
Don’t whine about him poking his nose into our business: give him a proper bucketful for the vacuous froth coming out of his mouth.
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Henry Nowak was stabbed nine times by Vickrum Digwa who claimed to officers that the student had racially abused him
| FACEBOOKLet’s remind ourselves how gross and nonsensical that was: “(Henry) should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.”
I’m not sure what he means by the “politics of self-hatred” and I doubt if he even does.
But we can get the general gist: migrants are to blame for everything, no matter that killer Vickrum Digwa was born in Britain, as was his father.
US War Secretary Pete Hegseth managed to be equally crass and inappropriate at D-Day commemorations with some similar sentiments about migrant invasions.
Wrong occasion, Pete old son, and wrong audience in which to embarrass yourself.
It took courage for 83,000 British and Canadians to cross to Normandy 82 years ago.
And it took courage for half-a-dozen veterans to do so again, given they are now over 100.
After listening to Hegseth they must have wondered why they bothered.
But back to JD: is he suggesting Britain’s half-a-million Sikhs should be sent packing?
Queen Victoria welcomed them 170 years ago; Sikhs were welcomed again in the 1950s and 60s to help us with post-war rebuilding.
Vance is himself the product of Irish and Scots migrants who built the United States.
Send their descendants home and America would have no one left.
There should be a serious debate about migration.
But not on the backs of a grieving family or old soldiers who took what may be their last opportunity to honour fallen friends.
At least Lammy didn’t pussyfoot around.
He picked up the phone to his pal JD to tell him he was wrong.
Which was the right thing to do.
And Starmer eventually got around yesterday to doing it, too.
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