We have it on no less an authority than Ireland’s police commissioner, Drew Harris, OBE, QPM, that objecting to the stabbing of your nation’s children is “far right“.
Which may be why Conor McGregor, the mixed martial arts champ, is in a whole heap of trouble for intemperately tweeting in response to the schoolgirl stabbathon that “Ireland is at war” – and then retweeting a suggestion by Paul Golding of Britain First that the boxer lead a “freedom march” through Dublin. Mr McGregor was open to the idea – “If they do not act soon with their plan of action to ensure Ireland’s safety, I will” – so, naturally, Commissioner Harris’s constabulary is now investigating him for “hate speech”.
Which seems to be a higher priority to Dublin officialdom than stabbed schoolgirls. (The Sunday Times reports that the Algerian stabber was ordered deported twenty years ago, but the Irish state decided to let him hang around while he honed his blade skills: he was in court on a knife charge five months ago.)
Nevertheless, in such a world, you’d be amazed how far the “far right” can go:
Dutch election shows far right rising and reshaping Europe
One can only hope so. But no matter how close they get the far right remain farther still and farther. Here’s me – not last week, but a decade-and-a-half ago rounding up the media on another Dutch election night:
Local election watch from EuroNews:
Attention is also on Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party…
From The Financial Times:
Early results from Dutch local elections on Wednesday night indicated that the far-right anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders was on course to make big gains…
From The Guardian:
Big Gains for Far-Right Leader Geert Wilders…
Putting to one side the stupidity of the Dutch establishment in attempting to criminalize legitimate political opposition, one is struck by the media boilerplate: Wilders is the ‘extreme’ ‘far-right’ ‘fringe’, but the parties he beats are the ‘mainstream’?
That there is a lot of what’s wrong with the European political discourse. Maybe he only seems so ‘extreme’ and ‘far’ because you’re the one out on the fringe.
And so it goes as the years roll by. Also me from a decade-and-a-half back:
In the western half of Continental Europe, politics evolved to the point where almost any issue worth talking about was ruled beyond the bounds of polite society. In good times, it doesn’t matter so much. But in bad times, if the political culture forbids respectable politicians from raising certain issues, then the electorate will turn to unrespectable ones.
Continue reading Steyn: media boilerplate: Wilders is the ‘extreme’ ‘far-right’ ‘fringe’, but the parties he beats are the ‘mainstream’?
