If you have not seen the information that Laurence Fox has introduced he is operating for Mayor of London, I’m sorry to be the one to let you know.
And for those who’re lucky sufficient to not even know who Laurence Fox is, I’m even sorrier to have to elucidate.
Some may know Fox from his appearing profession, throughout which he carried out in a quantity of battle movies and TV dramas in the early 2000s, and had a job in ITV detective drama Lewis, which grew to become the channel’s highest rated drama of 2006.
Others may know him as the ex-husband of actress Billie Piper, who he married in 2007 and received divorced from in 2016.
Many have solely come to know him in the final 18 months or so, when he has crawled out of the woodwork with abrasive political opinions, an unfounded sense of entitlement, and a few reasonably vile, misguided feedback about race, gender and extra.
Self-inflicted notoriety
Fox’s unfounded and misinformed commentary on race and racism primarily started round January 2020, when he attracted media consideration for saying that the movie 1917’s depictions of Sikh troopers preventing in World War I have been “false range”, regardless of the undeniable fact that Sikh troopers actually did battle on the Western Front in the First World War.
It then snowballed from there, with Fox claiming he was a sufferer of racism on Question Time when he was known as a “white privileged male” by a member of the viewers – displaying a blatant ignorance for what racism truly is.
He then was topic to widespread criticism in summer time 2020 for his use of the ‘All Lives Matter’ counter-slogan to the Black Lives Matter motion, a counter-slogan which serves to erase the expertise of black folks.
To make clear this final level, Social Inequalities researcher at Cambridge University, Dr Ali Meghji, advised CambridgeshireLive in June 2020: “By saying Black Lives Matter, you aren’t saying that different lives don’t matter. However, you might be bringing consideration to the method that black folks throughout the world are denied sure human rights by advantage of being black.”
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Fox additionally attacked Sainsbury’s for its institution of secure areas for black staff, claiming that they “assist racial segregation and discrimination,” and when the warranted backlash against his feedback left him feeling like he’d been “falsely smeared as a racist”, he known as two authors of tweets arguing against him ‘paedophiles’.
Those authors have been RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’s Crystal, and Simon Blake, deputy chair of the LGBT-rights charity Stonewall. They each so occur to be homosexual males – which I’m positive was no coincidence with Fox’s feedback, seeing as homosexual males have been accused of paedophilia for their sexual orientation for a long time.
They introduced that they’d be suing him for defamation.
With these details of Fox’s exercise over the final yr introduced (to date, just about) with out remark, I believe it is clear to see why his Mayoral candidacy makes little sense in a city as inclusive and various as London.
Fox was criticised after he mentioned he was a sufferer of racism on BBC’s Question Time final yr
(Image: BBC)
‘Freedom of speech’ and being ‘anti-woke’
As Londoners, we pleasure ourselves on being accepting of everybody, regardless of pores and skin color, gender, sexual orientation, faith, background, or another issue that makes us who we’re.
Sure, not everybody in this city of almost 9 million folks thinks like that, however I prefer to assume that, typically, these are values we uphold as a city.
Fox, on the different hand, does not appear to agree with these values.
As a precursor to his Mayoral bid, Fox’s new political social gathering, Reclaim, was authorised by the Electoral Commission final month.
The so-known as ‘anti-woke’ social gathering fights against “excessive political correctness,” and Fox himself has claimed that wokeness is “anti-British” and “nation-hating”: “I stand in direct opposition to it. And I shall be for the relaxation of my days,” he advised the Chopping Politics podcast.
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The definition of ‘woke’, as it’s used right here, is usually accepted to be “alert to injustice in society, particularly racism.”
Despite this, some folks assume that wokeness stands as a direct barrier to their freedom of speech (translation: freedom to spout offensive nonsense with out problem or critique).
It ought to go with out saying that freedom of speech – which we do have in this nation – doesn’t imply freedom to talk with out retribution.
For instance, simply at this time, on International Women’s Day, Fox demonstrated that he has the freedom to tweet a blatantly transphobic response to Sadiq Khan’s acknowledgement that trans ladies are ladies.
Other persons are additionally free to remark upon, criticise and debunk his declare, as that’s freedom of speech.
As half of his marketing campaign for London Mayor, Fox goals to “provide a voice to those that are being dominated into silence”.
You’d be forgiven for pondering that he means providing a voice to the minority teams who’ve been “dominated into silence” for centuries by establishments that exist purely to suppress them, however, based mostly on his observe file – see feedback on trans folks and race which have already been mentioned – it is clear that he does not.
Writing in the Telegraph on Saturday, March 6 about his resolution to run for London Mayor, Fox displays on how, for him, “gentle patriotism is branded as racism.”
“As a small little one I at all times thought that Britain was sensible at every thing,” he writes, earlier than criticising the flattening of statues of slave house owners (Edward Colston in Bristol, for instance), saying that “Sadiq Khan and his nation-hating cronies have their jealous eyes on our statues and establishments.”
Calls for Winston Churchill’s Parliament Square statue to be pulled down have been illustrated by graffiti
(Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)
“Where does his need to strip us of our historical past finish?” he asks – however my counter to that would be: ‘Where does the need to needlessly have a good time racists, slave house owners and misogynists finish?’
Just as a result of somebody did one thing vital with the cash they received from proudly owning slaves, it does not imply that Black folks in 2021 ought to need to stroll previous these statues and be reminded what the British did to their ancestors for centuries.
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It also needs to go with out saying that historical past is not taught by way of statues – you may’t study something from a piece of stone or bronze.
You might, nevertheless, study one thing from a plaque left in a statue’s place explaining what the individual contributed to historical past, and why their statue has been taken away if it is in contradiction to the trendy values we need to uphold in our city. But that is an entire different debate.
What do you assume of Laurence Fox operating for London Mayor? Share your ideas in the feedback right here.
‘I would like the lockdown lifted right away’
Even the very precept upon which Fox is operating his Mayoral marketing campaign is insulting to what Londoners have handled over the previous yr: a very terrible pandemic.
He has laid out proposals to elevate lockdown “right away,” claiming that since the most weak in society have been vaccinated there isn’t a longer any want for Covid restrictions.
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He advised the Telegraph: “With virtually all older and weak folks having received their jab, I would like the lockdown lifted right away.
“The Government has mentioned vaccines are working, hospitalisations and deaths are tumbling, however we’re nonetheless being advised we received’t have the ability to resume regular life till mid-summer time at the earliest.
“Both the predominant events are competing in this dreary race to be the final to set the nation free. Both Tory and Labour have gotten this badly mistaken.
“I would like London – and certainly the relaxation of the nation – to be allowed to get again to work and play instantly – not by late June.”
Obviously, this goes against what main scientists, epidemiologists and docs have been saying all through this pandemic: that easing of restrictions can’t be rushed, or we danger extra sickness, extra deaths, and extra insufferable lockdowns.
We all need our London again, however I for one need it again safely and for good.
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Building a greater London
Regardless of your political orientation, and even simply based mostly on Fox’s marketing campaign-main lockdown feedback alone, it is clear that he is not a great match for this city.
Yes, London’s economic system and lifeblood is being dismantled by lockdowns, however they’re needed. They will proceed to be needed till we’ve got this virus underneath management, and with continued assist for the guidelines and belief positioned in the science behind them, they will not be wanted for an excessive amount of longer.
I need to stay in a city the place everybody can really feel secure, cherished, needed and free, and I do not assume that is the London that Laurence Fox would govern.
The pandemic would strike once more, marginalised voices would be silenced once more, and bigotry, hatred and delusion would prevail.
That’s not the London I would like, so I definitely will not be voting for Fox.
