The Lessons of Batley Grammar - Andrew Doyle
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Summary
In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the beheading of school teacher Samuel Paty, what does it say about our society that a man is intimidated and threatened with murder simply for doing his job? While his employers, his union and the police fail to adequately defend him?
Transcript
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Sometimes children are not to be trusted. In Stalin's Russia, they were known to inform on
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their parents, a betrayal that would sometimes result in death by firing squad. During the
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Chinese Cultural Revolution, innocent mothers and fathers were executed after their children
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had overheard them criticising Chairman Mao. In the 1980s, Nicolai Ceausescu blackmailed
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thousands of Romanian children to spy on their families and teachers. And in March 2021,
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at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire, school pupils attempted to film their teacher
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on their phones in order to see him denounced. It had been a religious studies lesson on blasphemy
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and cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad had been shown. Given that these same images had been
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the catalyst for the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices in January 2015 and the beheading of
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school teacher Samuel Paty in October 2020, they could not have been more relevant to the subject
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of the lesson. But this wasn't enough to save the teacher. Some of the pupils were offended and so
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his fate was sealed. One is reluctant to blame the children in such instances. Like the 13-year-old
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Bryony Tallis in Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, they generally aren't capable of grasping the implications
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of turning Informa on an innocent man. After the complaints, the teacher at Batley Grammar was suspended
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and his name was published by a group called Muslim Action Forum, along with false accusations that he had
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incited hatred against the Islamic community. Protesters gathered outside of the school demanding
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that he be fired. After anonymous death threats were issued, the teacher retreated from public
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life. Three years later, he's still in hiding. What does it say about our society that a man is
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intimidated and threatened with murder simply for doing his job, while his employers, his union and
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the police fail to adequately defend him? Why were those sending the death threats not tracked down and
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arrested? Why were there no counter-demonstrations against the religious zealots who gathered outside
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of the school? Why did the headmaster not issue a statement to the effect that this is a free society
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and that if you're offended by a cartoon, that is very much your problem? And recently, a report by
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Dame Sarah Kahn has been published by the UK government which delves into the problem of cancel culture
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and censorship by the mob. The Batley Grammar School incident is specifically mentioned as an example of how
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not to react in these circumstances. Kahn spoke to the teacher as part of the consultation for her report
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and has revealed that the ordeal left him feeling suicidal and that he had been thrown under the bus
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by school authorities. Rather than accept the criticism, the Batley Multi-Academy Trust has responded
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by claiming that they have fulfilled their responsibility and that the report contains inaccuracies.
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They have not specified what these inaccuracies might be. No great surprise there. It's very difficult to be
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specific when one is trying to promote an imaginary narrative. Kahn's report makes for a grim reading.
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According to her survey, 85% of the public are aware of the existence of freedom restricting
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harassment in the United Kingdom. 76% have self-censored in order to avoid such treatment at the hands of
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angry mobs, either online or in the real world. Those of us who have been paying attention will already
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know that we are living in a climate of conformity and that cancel culture is very real. In spite of the
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continual denials from commentators whose opinions happen to fall within the ever-narrowing Overton
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window, Kahn has recommended that the government tackle the growing problem of self-censorship
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and cancel culture through the establishment of an independent impartial office for social cohesion
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and democratic resilience. It all sounds terribly official and one wonders whether it might not be best
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simply to urge those in authority, whether they be in the police, the schools or the trade unions,
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to regrow their spines and stand up for the principle of free speech. We might also ask them
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to consider treating Muslims in precisely the same way as everybody else, rather than patronising them
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by assuming that they require a parallel system. Is it not a soft form of bigotry to regard a particular
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contingent among our citizenry to be uniquely combustible and prone to violence? I've written
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previously about how our failure to take a firm collective stand at the time of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie
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effectively empowered the most reactionary members of the Islamic community. This has been to the
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detriment of all of our freedoms, including the demographic that has been singled out for special
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treatment. A further recommendation in Kahn's report is that schools should be ring-fenced with a buffer
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zone of 150 metres. This would prevent protests from occurring, with the possible exception of pickets
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relating to industrial action by school staff. And although I admire this effort to tackle the problem,
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I'm not convinced that further restrictions against protests are the answer. So often in history we've
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seen the behaviour of unreconstructed mobs used as justification for authoritarian impositions.
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But once such legislation is passed, there can be no guarantees that it won't be exploited in the
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future for purposes well beyond its original scope. One obvious example of this is the Battle of Cable
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Street on 4th of October 1936, the moment when demonstrators intercepted Oswald Mosley's Black
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Shirts at their march in the East End of London. It was the Labour Party that campaigned most
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deciduously for public order legislation to stop further uprisings by the far right. But these very
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same laws have since been used mostly to crack down on left-wing activism, most notably the arrests of
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striking minors during the Thatcher years. That said, I do understand that there is a compelling
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argument when it comes to the protection of children and that they should not be exposed to dangerous
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protests. One recalls the terrible scenes on the streets around the Holy Cross Catholic primary school
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in Belfast in 2001, when loyalists picketed the school. Riot police were deployed to protect the children
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from mobs who shouted sectarian abuse and threw bricks, fireworks and even urine-filled balloons. On one
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particular day, a pipe bomb was hurled at the police, causing panic among the children when it exploded.
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Of course, such behaviour ought to be outlawed. But assault and harassment are already criminal.
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The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental aspect of living in a free society. And while I
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do not agree with the cause that the groups who gathered outside Batley Grammar were espousing,
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they were not breaking the law. There were no calls for violence or threats, just weak and
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unconvincing appeals to the safety of the Muslim community. It should go without saying that the only
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person who had experienced any authentic physical danger from the showing of the cartoon was the
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teacher himself. The protests outside the school in Batley weren't the problem. It was the lily-livered
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response from the authorities. In failing to side with the teacher, they were reneging on the liberal
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values that underpin our way of life. But I do not take the view that the only way to combat illiberalism
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is through further illiberalism. And restrictions on peaceful protest will surely only make matters
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worse. The Batley Grammar debacle ought to serve as a reminder that we must be steadfast when it
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comes to the application of the law and the equal treatment of all citizens. No mob should get to
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decide where the limits of freedom of speech are to be drawn. Capitulation might seem like a tempting
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short-term solution. But as we have seen, the long-term consequences are invariably dire.
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If you enjoyed this video, please do check out my substack, where all of these articles appear
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weeks in advance. There's plenty of other material there too, so do check it out.
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Your full Great Outdoors Comedy Festival lineup is here on September 11th through 13th at Arendale Park.
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Three nights, five shows, huge laughs. September 11th through 13th. Buy tickets now at Great Outdoors