Is the UK being policed on a two-tier basis? This is the question of the day.
It is one to which the government is giving a confused answer yet it is a fundamental and ancient constitutional principle that the government speaks with one voice.
This is known as ‘collective responsibility’. Ministers may not freelance and what one minister says must be the position of the government or else the statement must be corrected or the minister must resign.
Last night, a mob of scores of armed muslim men swarmed the streets of Birmingham.
Jacob Rees-Mogg says Labour must not sympathise with rioters in Birmingham
GB NEWS
Remember for a moment that the government speaks with one voice, Jess Phillips, a minister in the Home Office, which is the department responsible for policing, and a thoroughly good egg, had this to say:
“These people came to this location because it has been spread that racists were coming to attack them. This misinformation was spread entirely to create this content.”
Rioters in MiddlesbroughPASo is this the government’s position on these armed bandits roaming the streets? Do they have no moral responsibility? Do they have no free will? Is Richard Tice somehow responsible for forcing them to run around the streets with weapons?
This two-tier, double standard mentality goes straight back to Sir Keir’s response to the Black Lives Matter riots.
Less than 48 hours after a riot culminated in the pulling down of the statue of Edward Colston which was dumped into Bristol Harbour, the then leader of the opposition took the knee with Angela Rayner.
This was an acceptance that rioting and violence can be justified and that weak, namby pamby policing is all right. It is also an endorsement of the extreme ideology of critical race theory that was the driving force behind the movement.
The Prime Minister urgently needs to confess that he was wrong to take the knee and endorse the BLM riot, and that HMG’s position is that last night’s activities by an armed mob in Birmingham were wrong and inexcusable.
Otherwise, he is calling for two-tier policing. The only way to restore order is to ensure the law is applied equally to all. There is no excuse for rioting in a democratic country that has just had an election.
Labour has a mandate to govern but it cannot pick favourites, it must not sympathise with the left wing rioters of BLM or last night in Birmingham.
If it does, it will lose the trust of other communities and risk unleashing a form of sectarian disorder that a civilised country cannot allow.