‘Putin has long been the master of the muscly political stunt.’ (Alexey Nikolsky Sputnik/AFP/Getty)
While the Home Secretary defers judgment to the results of yet another enquiry, the Right’s political narrative, convincingly supported by the released footage, is that the racialised obsessions of progressivism have claimed another innocent life: falsely accused of racism, the victim was treated as the suspect, and died for it. For all the shocked protestations made against Reform by those culpable for this state of affairs, this is not an argument limited to Farage. The Conservative Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, condemned in Parliament “the dangerous ideology of so-called anti-racism”, which “enshrined” in the Police’s own strategic guidance differential treatment of suspects according to their race. As Philp states, in what is an expression of mainstream conservative opinion rather than dangerous rabble-rousing, “extreme activists have hijacked the policymaking process, and this is where it has led”.