West Ham Online

There. Resident WHO political commentators and gurus can knock yourselves out in here and conduct your endless bickering. All other threads will be locked.

Anyone got a clue?

Sorry.

I’d like to talk about the one thing and you’re babbling nonsense about something else.

Did they they train you how to do this at the Socialist Worker political discourse course?

Matt Goodwin@GoodwinMJ
1h
Today, a number of prominent journalists criticised my suggestion that the UK media class has failed to sufficiently cover the rape gangs scandal, which will go down as one of the biggest scandals in our history

So, I decided to take a closer look at the data. Trust me, you'll want to read until the end

First, the boring bit. How did I do it? I used something called Lexis, a database researchers use to search content across UK newspapers

Every good researcher out there knows how to use it so they can duplicate my work and check

One of my critics today said my use of "grooming gangs" in my initial numbers was misleading because much of the coverage in UK newspapers uses "grooming gang" not "gangS".

OK then, let's use that And let's just look at articles that are specifically about this scandal and don't just mention it in passing. What did I find? Let's look at the years 2011-2025 because before that, even though the rape gangs scandal goes back decades, there was NOTHING in UK media. Nothing. They didn't touch it AT ALL --despite widespread rumours pushed by groups like the BNP and EDL 2011 is a crucial year because it's when renegade and HERO Andrew Norfolk, at The Times, started to write the first early pieces, despite abuse & harassment

First, let's look at ALL UK newspapers In 2011-2025 there were 4,659 articles specifically focused on the "grooming gang" phenomenon Wow Sounds a lot right? Remember the number. "Grooming gang" = 4,659

But now let's compare that with how much coverage the media class gave to other scandals and terms
"white privilege" = 6,146
"anti-Muslim" = 17,152
"post office" and "horizon" =20,274
"extreme right" = 21,252
"Islamophobia" = 23,461
"Greta Thunberg" = 22,717
"expenses scandal" =25,585
"Stephen Lawrence" = 29,808
"anti-racism" = 34,484
"Windrush" = 35,515
"George Floyd" = 38,824
"Black Lives Matter" = 59,338
"Grenfell" = 71,422
"Britain" and "racism" = 75,693
”Net Zero" = 141,367
"far right" = 231,540
"racism" = 382,069 I could go on.

I think the numbers speak for themselves. Relative to other scandals and amid a strong liberal bias in parts of the media class, the mass rape of young, working-class white girls & women just wasn't a priority

Yes, there were newspapers that broke the story and pushed it, like the Times in 2011 But even there, the 440 articles built around "grooming gang" between 2011-2025 is dwarfed by, say, the 2,868 on "Islamophobia", the 3,202 on Stephen Lawrence, the 2,603 on George Floyd, or the 5,524 on BLM

My point is not to bash individual newspapers but to say that relative to other race-related stories and debates, the rape gangs scandal --ARGUABLY THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN OUR HISTORY-- has received very little coverage from the media class

I'd give you the numbers for liberal progressive papers like The Guardian/Observer but frankly they're absurd

Oh ok then Between 2011 and 2025 the Guardian had 113 articles on the grooming gang phenomenon compared to 3,325 for "Islamophobia" What about the BBC? We can look at BBC News 24 and BBC Radio 4

There were 357 specific mentions of the "grooming gang" scandal in BBC News/Radio 4 transcripts Meanwhile, there were 7,537 for "George Floyd", 3,219 for "Stephen Lawrence", 7,416 for "Black Lives Matter", and 2,259 for "Islamophobia" You get the picture. I won't keep going But what I will say is this. These girls were never a priority in Media Land Relative to other scandals they were at first ignored and then downplayed

Too many of the middle-class, Oxbridge-educated, socially liberal if not radically woke progressive elites who control the parameters of what they think is our national "debate" routinely steer clear of scandals and issues that violate tightly-controlled taboos around immigration, multiculturalism, "diversity" in all its forms, and which are backed up with alarmist narratives about the "far right" and "Islamophobia" to warn others off from asking difficult questions or challenging the elite consensus in Westminster and London This HAS to change

As I wrote in my Substack this morning, @elonmusk has done Britain a favour by forcing us to reckon with a truly NATIONAL scandal that has for too long been ignored and pushed to the side by political, media, and cultural elites in wider society

This past week, we have been pushed into a new era in which millions of people up and down this country are either learning about the rape gangs crisis for the first time or hearing shocking new details they did not know before and can scarcely believe

And millions of people are now asking some enormous questions. How did our country let this happen to our children? Why was it overlooked? Why did so many people stay silent? Is it still happening today? What can we do to stop it? Who is pursuing the truth in media? Who is naming and shaming? And why does the UK media class fall over itself when a single American man dies in Minneapolis while seemingly not giving a shit about the thousands of CHILDREN who have been abused, raped and harassed here in Britain?

The people have tuned into this scandal, in other words. They have taken notice and they are watching. The only question now is whether the media class has bothered to notice and will actually get on top of this scandal and push it to front of the agenda or continue to ask ridiculous questions like it did for much of today, deflecting from its glaring failures to instead obsess about Elon Musk. Find the truth and tell us the truth. That's your job.

No i wont accept it. Were they not intent on clamping down on what people can say they would have left the campus bill alone. Their very first act of government was to overturn it. Tells you all you need to know. Same as these 'non crime hate incidents'. If they had any integrity, the home secretary would order the police to abolish them. And yes,I include the previous administration in that.

Just accept it - you are wrong to claim the Online Safety Act is intended as a repression of the freedom of speech.

I suppose that Labour overturning the bill that allowed freedom of speech on campus isn't about control either?

Looks like the free speech union are going to be very busy.

No.

The Online Safety Act does not attempt to control what people say.

 

The online safety act is just another tool to control what people can publicly say. 

Seems like Musk is someone's new Putin.

Jaan Kenbrovin" wrote: ↑05 Jan 2025, 22:22 Keir Starmer is to address Musk’s grooming gang comments tomorrow. Unless it’s to agree to a full open inquiry into this horrific scandal, he’s only going to tighten his own noose.

It’s also the day the 3m+ petition calling for another general election is to be debated. 

I hope they pressure him to fall on his sword for the sake of the party or call an election to prove his horrendous reign has the support of the people.

 

The fact that a government minister has rejected calls for a public enquiry into events in Oldham would suggest that the plight of the victims is if little importance to this government.

Channel 4 are running a program about “the fake grooming gang” this week. It’s about the young girl in Barrow who falsely accused people of grooming her.

Absolute timing from C4.

Keir Starmer is to address Musk’s grooming gang comments tomorrow. Unless it’s to agree to a full open inquiry into this horrific scandal, he’s only going to tighten his own noose.

It’s also the day the 3m+ petition calling for another general election is to be debated. 

I hope they pressure him to fall on his sword for the sake of the party or call an election to prove his horrendous reign has the support of the people.

We’ll see about how important those working class people really are to the Labour government part of the establishment pretty soon.

Seems a bit harsh having to deal with someone who has done nothing wrong. It's a sign of their cowardice that they are so afraid of him.

RE your other point. Do you really think the establishment hold any feelings of guilt towards the victims of the rape gangs?
Of course they don't, these were working class kids from working class communities, they are of no importance to the establishment.

 

I think the English establishment is strong enough to deal with its guilt on the grooming and deal with Yaxley-Lennon at its leisure.

Musk is a very dangerous man.

Yaxley Lennon called out the gangs years ago but no one listened, instead he got called a racist thug and was turned into a bogeyman. Turns out he was dead right and if half of the people who denigrate him actually listened to him rather than pre judge, they'd find that his views align with those of  about 75% of the population. He has big big issues with radical Islam but that doesn't make him a racist.
As for Farage, he seemscto have done an about turn and is becoming part of what he fought against for a long time, I think his throwing of YL under the bus may come back to bite him on the arse.

I think even Farage has not been by able to accept Musk promoting Yaxley-Lennon on the back of the grooming affair. 

Musk is a dangerous man.

What do you mean by 'our' This may rattle you a tad but there are some people who have views that are completely opposite to yours. That doesn't make you wrong but it doesn't make you right either. I for instance can't agree with you on Trump,I'll reserve judgement on him til he's been I office for a while and if I'm proved wrong I'll gladly say so.

I think our main concern is with Musk and his leering lapdog Trump whatever grievance we may have with our own establishment. 

The ' English establishment' will look after it's own, anyone else can go and whistle. As rotten as it is, it'll be this way indefinitely. 

WELL YOU’VE CERTAINLY CHANGED YOUR TUNE.

seen the huge elephants in the room have you, and this time it’s not down to the copious amounts of vodka swilling round your bloodstream?

Seems Musk has opted ditch Farage and support Yaxley-Lennon as he plays the grooming scandal frenzy like a fiddle.

So I very much hope the English establishment doesn’t sleep through this wake-up call and really starts taking care of the vulnerable in places like Oldham and Rotherham. Also that those who enabled those grooming gangs in the full social and economic sense are brought swiftly and firmly to justice.

Massive Attack" wrote: ↑05 Jan 2025, 20:14

 

That Brendan O'Neill is a good comentator on there.

  

Very soon it’ll be set into law that you cannot criticise Islam, unless you want to be arrested for islamaphobia.

Massive.

Yep, been a fan of his (and spiked) for a few years now. His last book, 'after the pogrom' is a cracking read, really digs into the insane reaction in the west to the events on and after 7th Octobe 23.