We have to admit that the facts of the Southport murder case are shocking. Axel Rudakubana, a misfit with obvious psychological issues, killed three girls at a Taylor Swift themed dance class. The girls were all around 9-years-old.
What is also shocking is that such facts we have took months to emerge. The Prime Minister has justified the suppression of information about the killer on the grounds that this would jeopardise the trial.
Absurdly, he maintained that the families of the victims were being “protected” by the unwillingness of the authorities to release any information about Axel Rudakubana.
The boy - he was only 17 when he committed this truly wicked act - was described as a choirboy from Wales. People knew that wasn’t the whole story. Yet anyone who questioned the origin or motivation of the killer was denounced as a member of the “far right”.
It was obvious, even at the time, that the British public was not being presented the full picture. Authorities adopted an attitude similar to that which turned a blind eye to the grooming gangs who raped young girls for years.
It was the attitude that officials know best and the public need to be kept in darkness to preserve “community relations”. This reminds me of a faintly Victorian paternalism. “Don’t tell the children!”. Treating members of the public like children is never a good idea.
When it comes to acts of terror or hatred involving the deaths of innocent 9-year old-girls, the public has a right to know the truth. Clearly, the government recognises this, since the Home Secretary has hastily announced a public inquiry into this appalling case.
We can only hope that this inquiry actually uncovers some key information. The fear, however, is that the inquiry will be a mealy-mouthed affair, a whitewash in effect.
In my view, Starmer’s patronising excuse that the trial would be jeopardised doesn’t hold water. ITV’s Paul Brand suggested that there was a window, before formal charges were made against Rudakubana, when the known facts could have been set out and published.
Axel Rudakubana faces sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court
GB News
If that's the case, then there may have been a deliberate decision to suppress that knowledge. Those details are distressing. Rudakubana was referred to Prevent, the de-radicalisation programme, on three occasions. Nothing was done.
The killer was also found with an Al Qaeda jihadist manual and ricin, a lethal toxin, in his possession.
Imagine a white male teenager with white supremacist literature in his home and ricin. Consider if that white youth then proceeded to kill three 9 year old girls of ethnic origin. This would be a cut and dried case.
Everyone would suspect that the hypothetical white boy had committed heinous acts influenced by a vicious ideology. There would be little discussion about the motivation.
Yet in the case of Rudakubana, people are openly questioning whether he was a terrorist inspired by a hateful ideology. Some in authority are saying he might just be a psychopath driven to commit an act of hideous violence by a pathological bloodlust.
This defies all common sense. Double speak and perverse thinking dominate. It feels like an Orwellian nightmare, except this is real life, not a work of fiction.
Contrast the confusion and obfuscation of our authorities with Trump’s inaugural speech earlier this week. He called for a common-sense revolution.
He pledged to halt illegal immigration. He committed himself to end the woke culture which has sapped America’s identity and its sense of purpose.
In this context, when you compare Britain and the United States, is it any wonder that many over here are yearning for a British Trump to sweep the madness away? I do not believe Trumpism is the answer, but I fully understand why many people feel that it is.
