Reporting News and opinions
There is a peculiar habit that appears with remarkable frequency in American and British political commentary. Whenever an issue is said to concern black communities, a familiar chorus emerges from television studios, newspaper columns and social media platforms.
There is an old British habit that refuses to die. When the public finances look awkward, someone reaches for the national costume box, pulls out the Union Jack, and declares that the only patriotic course is to ask the people with the least to tighten their belts a little more. The word of the hour is always “austerity.” The justification is always necessity. The result is almost always the same.
It wants to celebrate Britain as the greatest country in the world while simultaneously proposing policies that would make large parts of Britain less British.
There is an old British political habit which deserves rather more scrutiny than it usually receives: when governments want the public to accept an uncomfortable policy, they wrap it in the Union Jack and call it national security.
Rudy Giuliani has once again emerged from whatever landscaping parking lot or podcast dungeon he currently frequents to deliver a sermon on moral purity. In a television rant that felt like an archaeological dig through early-2000s cable news grievances, the former mayor declared that New York City’s mayor should skip the official September 11 memorial ceremonies. The mayor’s disqualifying offense? He happens to be Muslim.
