One major omission from Rishi Sunak's extremism speech is a much bigger problem

 

One major omission from Rishi Sunak's extremism speech is a much bigger problem

 

ANALYSIS: Rishi Sunak made a powerful speech on extremism in the UK but there was something very important missing from his analysis of the problem.

 

By DAVID MADDOX, Political Editor

06:33, Sat, Mar 2, 2024 | UPDATED: 06:37, Sat, Mar 2, 2024

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1872904/rishi-sunak-extremism-speech-far-left-comment

 

Rishi Sunak was right to call out extremism on Britain's streets, some may feel he should have done it before, but his powerful words hopefully mean a new robust approach to tackling a problem consuming the country.

 

Where the Prime Minister was wrong was that his essential analysis had a major hole in it.

 

Three times he referred to "Islamist extremism" and twice to "the far right" but at no point did he mention the "far left".

 

You could argue that the concerns over Islamist extremism currently with the way the pro-Palestine protests have morphed into anti-Israel, often antisemitic parades is the main driver here.

 

Regarding the far right, while there are undoubted problems with figures like Tommy Robinson and some of the football hooligan groups, they are not currently dominating British streets. Sometimes it feels that "far right" is used as a convenient counterbalance to allow politicians to address Islamist extremism to sound fair and not target one group.

 

Problems with the Far Left

Let us start with the shocking Rochdale result last night. The winner George Galloway, a former Labour MP, has been described by Sunak as "an antisemite" and glorified terrorists such as Hezbollah. Galloway is from the far left of politics.

 

Then who was it who turned the Labour Party into a vehicle for antisemitism to the extent that the current leader Sir Keir Starmer felt the need to apologise? The answer is Jeremy Corbyn from, you guessed it, the far left of politics.

 

Tellingly it was Corbyn's friend and ally John McDonnell who attacked the Prime Minister's speech on extremism last night in a social media post as did many others on the left which is why "Tory gaslighting" was trending.

 

While Islamists have been rightly blamed for much of the awful behaviour on the pro-Palestine "hate marches" (as Suella Braverman described them), the reality is that they have involved the far left of British politics as much or even more than Muslims. Many of those carrying the worst banners such as ones comparing Israel to the Nazis were white non-Muslim leftwingers.

 

The Palestine issue and its accompanying hatred of Israel and, by extension, Jews has been a trope for the Left since the 1980s with or without Islamist involvement.

 

Touching on other issues - who was it who tore up cities with the now discredited Marxist Black Lives Matter protests? It was the far left tearing down statues and rioting in our city centres.

 

Who was it who have blocked roads or vandalised buildings and priceless works of art? It was far left activists in groups like Just Stop Oil.

 

Who was it who attacked the Prime Minister's own home? The answer is far left activists from Greenpeace.

 

Which groups have links with evil dictatorships such as Iran? The left as well as Islamists.

 

The list could go on but you get the point...

 

There is a reason why a leading Israeli politician expressed horror at the idea of Labour winning the next UK general election. The truth is that what we are facing on our streets is an unholy alliance of the far left and Islamist extremism which, in the Prime Minister's words, are "feeding off one another".

 

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When he spoke of the "poison of extremism" by groups "who are hostile to our society and values" he perhaps should have considered where this was mostly coming from.

 

He said: "They want us to doubt ourselves, to doubt each other, to doubt our country's history and achievements They want us to accept moral equivalence between Britain and some of the most despicable regimes in the world.

 

"They want us to believe that our country and the west more generally is solely responsible for the world's ills and that we along with our allies are the world's problems. In short they want to destroy our confidence and hope."

 

While these sentiments appear to a certain degree in far right and Islamist thinking the reality is that Sunak was describing the philosophy of the far left.

 

It is the left that has led the way in attacking Britain and American democracy, it is the left that wants to turn British history into a study of barbarism and cruelty whether that is in schools, universities or in institutions such as the National Trust.

 

As Sunak himself said: "When these groups say our country is on the wrong side of history, we should reject it and reject is again."

 

The Prime Minister should have acknowledged that the groups saying this sort of thing are largely from the far left.

 

One of the reasons Israel is targeted where China, for example, is not for its treatment of Muslims, is that Israel is an ally of America and is a functioning western democracy.

 

When Sunak said that university campuses need to tackle extremism, the problem there has not been the far right or Islamists but the far left bullying others, cancelling speakers and forcing academics out of their jobs.

 

At the heart of their doctrine is something which makes them bedfellows with Islamist extremism. It is identity politics based around the idea that groups are victims who cannot beat the system whether they are LGBT, black, Muslim or female (as long as you do not challenge trans identity).

 

This may be why Sunak said: "When these groups tell our children that they cannot or will not succeed because of who they are. When they tell children the system is rigged against them or that Britain is a racist country, this is not only a lie but a cynical attempt to crus young dreams and turn impressionistic minds against their own society."

 

And he added: "It is not the colour of your skin or the God you believe in that determine your success, but your own hard work and endeavour."

 

All this is of course right. The trouble is that he failed to call out the far left for being responsible for these lies.

 

We saw again last week from Labour and Sir Keir Starmer in PMQs that moderate Conservatives or people of the centre-right like Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, Suella Braverman and even Liz Truss have been portrayed as far-right extremists beyond the pale who should be cancelled.

 

Labour and the left more widely have weaponised the concept of extremism to try to ban conservatism and fairly moderate views like patriotism or protection of borders. They try to make all these too toxic to be accepted in reasonable discussions and to a large extent they are succeeding as we see in the rise of woke corporatism in major businesses and institutions.

 

But all the time the Conservatives and centre-right fail to call out the far left for what it is. It has become the major source of division and toxicity in Britain and the West.

 

This has allowed the far left to embed itself unchallenged in our corporations, media, major political parties such as Labour, institutions, education establishments and much more spreading "a poison of extremism". No wonder the police stand by and let them get on with their antisemitic protests and disruption.

 

Until Sunak and others are willing to call out the reality of the far left, preferring to focus on the problems of Islamism and the far right, then we will never be able to address the problems of extremism in Britain.