Rishi Sunak must be a few bricks short of a Red Wall if he thought appointing Lee Anderson as Deputy Tory Chairman would be a good way to appeal to northern voters.
True, Mr Anderson is an MP who speaks his mind. But that only works out if what comes out of his mouth makes sense. To back the death penalty on the twisted logic that execution is 100% successful in stopping reoffending reveals an MP’s mind that has turned to mush.
If there is an astute political brain tucked away behind that big mouth, Mr Anderson shows no evidence he’s got one. Because no one aspiring to high political office would be seen dead rubbing shoulders with neo-Nazi supporting white supremacist members of the Skegby Scooter Club.
To other politicians, racists are the dregs of the Earth. To Mr Anderson, they are the “salt of the Earth”. He slags off nurses, thinks a nutritious meal can be made for 30p, forgets who the prime minister is and wants to force nuisance neighbours into hard labour as early morning potato pickers.
This is the Mr Potato Head the PM has chosen to lead the Tories into an election. Which should be a surefire way to turn Labour’s lost Red Wall red again.
Lesson in hate
With the likes of Lee Anderson to look up to, it’s little wonder so many kids are racist and unruly.
Today, we reveal how 7,403 were suspended from school last year for racism, violence and foul slurs against other pupils. And that figure is going up 50% year on year.
Experts blame the lockdowns, which meant children got used to spending too much time online where they were exposed to racist and homophobic content.
That may identify the cause but it does not help with a cure – and we are told schools are struggling to find one. This only means it is the teachers who must go back to school.
There should be refresher courses in how to teach those core British values of respect for others, celebration of differences and how acts of kindness feel more rewarding than hatred. Only then will the citizenship curriculum of today turn out citizens of tomorrow of which we can be proud.
Number’s up
It seemed like a good idea at the time – give offenders free phones during the pandemic so they could keep in touch while out of prison on probation or licence.
But you will not be surprised that one in three went “missing”, costing taxpayers £100,000.
On the plus-side, lags dreaming of get-rich-quick schemes could have had a field day on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
No sweat when they came to the ‘phone a friend’ bit, having sold a friend their phone.
