Thick-as-mince progressives who collude with extremists will put civil society at risk

FOR my views to align with Suella Braverman's, it would require an evolution on the magnitude of the Fish-Tetrapod Transition, but incredibly, I think she might be on to something when she hints at the threats to civil society.

- George Chesterton

She was wrong about London's "hate marches" (there was plenty of hate, but they passed off peacefully enough). She was wrong about Rwanda (wrong in principle, wrong by law). But however she came to it, there is a sliver of truth in the idea that our social fabric is starting to fray.

Braverman herself played a small part in this. By being so inflammatory about the pro-Palestine movement she facilitated the far-Right thugs who turned out to defend the honour of our beloved dead by smashing through a police barricade. Braverman didn't conjure these men out of thin air: until Remembrance Sunday, they'd been merrily killing time on Peaky Blinders cosplay weekends.

The same is true of the protesters they were there to confront. The pro-Palestine marches included supporters of terrorism and apologists for terrorism, along with many others who were neither. But the toxic elements - Islamists, antisemites have always been there alongside the thick-as-mince progressives. The war in Israel and Gaza merely drew the poison out into the open.

The appearance of the far Right gave opportunists on the far Left a moment to deflect the public's gaze from their own horrible opinions. Everyone, even jihadists, can get behind hating racist white men. It turns out extremism is bad. Who knew?