The highly talented and popular actor Alan Cumming has returned his OBE, due to recent conversations he’s had about Britain's colonial past, and our links to slavery.
So what's he been doing for the other 13 and a half years in which he hung on to that title? Alan doesn’t know whether he’s Cumming or going.
It's hard to imagine this well read and insightful performer wasn't aware of the British empire prior to these recent conversations, whose crimes are not limited of course to England.
PA
Millions accrued by Scottish slave owners, helped bankroll the construction of great cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow. Now this actor has a conscience and a big heart, and is understandably horrified by our links to slavery, which is one of the most evil aspects of history. Fair enough. But how does it help the world, for him to hand back this gong? Refusal in the first place would have been more powerful. To accept it, sit on it for over a decade and then hand it back, is too little too late. And I believe it's just another example of virtue signalling from a member of the elite. Making yourself look good, without actually changing the world.
These gestures are everywhere now. People have Ukraine flags on their Twitter bios – what the hell does that achieve? Many peoples’ Facebook and Instagram feeds, preach the message of be kind, as they pour vitriol on anyone they disagree with.
The cervix free leader of the opposition Keir Starmer faced a mixture of admiration and opprobrium from the public when he fell to his knee in the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd in the United States.
Many applauded his actions as a rejection of the evil of racism. Whilst others mocked the opportunism of it, and its emptiness as a gesture.
It's much easier to indulge in these gestures than actually change the world. Will you hear a squeak from these people about the modern-day slavery that's a bigger trade than ever? Like the thousands of tragic children and teenagers, standing knee height in mud for 12 hours a day, mining for lithium in the Congo, to power the electric cars of which our virtue signalling elite are so keen?
For politicians, media figures, leading academics, it seems that a gesture is all it takes. Corporations do the same with meaningless slogans – how absurd for one particular oil giant to have a rainbow flag of inclusivity in its petrol stations, or green messaging, as it flogs the world polluting fossil fuels.
Millionaire footballers, taking the knee in Qatar, a hotbed of prejudice and human inequality.
And local authorities are at it too – with the bizarre decision to rename the famous Blackboy Lane in Haringey in London, which as the Mail’s Robert Hardman points out today, cost over £100,000 and was a decision made by the council, without any clear evidence the locals had an objection to it. Hardman claims in his article that 81 per cent of residents on Black Boy Lane in fact rejected the idea of a name change, when the council finally got round to asking for their opinions, with no objections from members of the black community.
Now I don’t know if those figures are true. And the council are clearly concerned about people being offended by this name, which could upset locals and ferment racist sentiment. That’s why they’ve done it; they are not bad people. But I do think they are misguided.
It’s now called La Rose Lane, but the sign still says “formerly Black Boy Lane.” You couldn’t make it up.
La Rose Lane in north London, which was renamed from Black Boy Lane
Lucas Cumiskey
Will this expensive name change tackle the scourge of racism? You tell me.
The twisted genius of wokeism, or extreme political correctness, is its appropriation of the concept of niceness. If you are woke, you are nice, so it goes. Even though the woke, be kind brigade are some of the most vicious bullies out there – illiberal, cruel, and of course, the architects of cancel culture.
We have replaced real action for change with gesture politics. You send a tweet, or you pose for a photo, or you send back a royal gong and its job done. In my view, the only thing virtue signallers really signal, is their shallowness, their vanity and their eye watering hypocrisy.
Do us all a favour and have a day off.