I have been keeping tabs on ex-GB News presenter and newly elected Reform Councillor Darren Grimes for some time now.
It’s very clear that he is astoundingly ignorant when it comes to pretty much all the issues of the day, sometimes disturbingly so. Not for nothing do his older critics on X frequently refer to him as a 'stupid boy', in homage to Pike from Dad's Army. This epithet is well-deserved.
Several examples:
Asylum Seeking - Grimes shows no awareness of the complexity of this issue and makes it sound as if it is easy to smash the gangs. It isn’t. Low hanging fruit are arrestable but the trafficking bosses are very well-insulated from being apprehended and evade justice even when they are captured. There’s a whole chapter on this in Sally Hayden's meticulously researched, award-winning book on the subject. A young investigative journalist of the highest calibre, Hayden has also spent lots of time in the company of individual asylum seekers without being sexually harassed or finding herself on the receiving end of other expressions of the purported 'alien'/'medieval cultures' from which many refugees originate.
Plus, Hayden highlights the fact that not all are Muslim (as Grimes implies), and those that self-identify as such tend to be fleeing from militias/jihadists/radical Islamists. There is also a tendency on Grimes' part to essentialise/dehumanise them. One can agree that there is a need to 'stop the boats' without doing this. Anyone who reads Hayden will learn that the back stories to many of those seeking asylum are genuinely horrific, as is the journey itself.
Islam - Like other far-right political commentators on X, Grimes misleadingly portrays Islam as a monolithic entity, conflates it with Islamism (a classic error), and makes it seem as if every last Muslim is like an alien from Star Trek’s evil ‘mirror’ universe, one where mass murder, despotism and conquest are the norm. Quite what Zia Yusuf makes of this is anybody's guess.
Economics - It’s Reform‘s plan to raise the tax threshold to 20K. As the poor tend to spend any spare income, growth can result. But historically, across-the-board tax cuts never have, from the time of Reagan onwards. This is because 'Trickle-Down' economics does not happen. There are various reasons for this so I will cite just one: larger companies these days are far more in thrall to their shareholders than previously. So additional profits tend to be passed on to them in the form of dividends and are not re-invested in the long term future of the company. Should this not happen, investors will simply move on to a company that can offer a higher level of reward.
An additional Grimes factor here is that he is also a professed admirer of Truss, another ideologue who advocates 'Trickle-Down'.
'Two-Tier' sentencing - Grimes constantly harps on about this. So here are two in-depth correctives to his assertions:
Much has been written, tweeted and amplified about the English and Welsh criminal justice system’s response to the recent incidents of public disorder, very little of which is accurate. Below is a …
thesecretbarrister.com
The past few weeks have seen significant political and media attention lavished on the Sentencing Council of England and Wales, a small independent non-departmental public body which has hitherto a…
thesecretbarrister.com
Plus, as a staunch defender of ‘are culcha’, Grimes clearly needs to study the venerable Victorian philosopher John Stuart Mill, taking note of his famous ‘Harm Principle’ and the similarities between social media posts and placards inciting others to commit violence.
Climate Change - Grimes thinks he knows more than the IPCC, the US National Academy of Sciences (with over 200 Nobel Prize winners), the US Meteorological Society, the US Geophysical Union, the Royal Society of the UK, & the national & regional scientific academies of many other countries. It's not a good look.
Gaza - Reading Grimes' tweets on this issue, one could be forgiven for imagining that this conflict started on October 7th 2023. Never once has he referred to the past Hamas-like atrocities (ones that included rape and the murder of babies) that were either orchestrated or directly perpetrated by the IDF at places like Qibya, Qana, and Sabra & Shatila. He may also be in for a shock when he learns that - Netanyahu aside - Israel has had four PMs who have committed or been implicated in acts of terror, namely, Begin (Irgun), Shamir (Lehi/Stern Gang), Sharon (Qibya, Sabra & Shatila), & Bennett (Qana).
Overall then, if Grimes serves as an example of the calibre of Reform politicians, there is certainly cause for concern about the ascendancy of this far-right party, as well as their supporters.
I think it was Erich Fromm who highlighted the fact that entire societies can descend into collective madness. In the case of many residents of the Annfield Plain ward in County Durham, this certainly seems to be the case.