The moral cowardice of the ‘compassionate’ class
The virtue-signallers’ silence over the grooming-gangs scandal speaks volumes.

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In recent weeks, we’ve seen what happens when those with an instinct for self-preservation are left in charge. We’ve subsequently read the reaction of certain selfish types possessed with a similar instinct. I am referring to the revelations of the mass rapes that went largely unpunished across England over the past decades, and the equivocal responses to the scandal today.
By certain selfish types, I don’t mean the predictable caricatures beloved of those who are still stuck in 1983: the Tories, the capitalists and the ‘fascists’ who exist only in the minds of the Socialist Workers Party. I mean the types who proclaim to be the very opposite of selfish. Those ostentatiously compassionate, #BeKind ideologues, who for years have approached awkward and unfashionable problems in two ways: either by wishing they didn’t exist or by insulting and berating people who talk about them honestly.
These past 10 years, from the Charlie Hebdo massacre of 2015 to the rape-gangs furore in 2025, should remind us once again to always mistrust those who care deeply and care loudly. Back then, they deflected and made excuses for the terrorists. They mumbled about the supposed ‘Islamophobia’ of the Charlie cartoonists. They’re doing the same equivocating about the grooming gangs today, because they care foremost for themselves and how they look.
It’s a persistent problem and one that reveals itself in cause and effect. It was the fear of being tarnished as racist or Islamophobic that led to the silence from social workers and the police. Decades on, it’s been the same dread that’s led many to react with evasive talk about the ‘noble’ motives of those who covered up these crimes. There was timidity back then of ‘stoking racism’ that might threaten ‘community cohesion’. Today, there’s fear-mongering from those who suggest airing difficult topics will ‘cause riots’. This stance has consequences. The rapes continued in England, and the terrorist attacks continued in Continental Europe.
Still, people dare not speak the truth, for fear they will lose their jobs. This is understandable and legitimate in some cases. Many may not wish to make known their opinions on race or gender ideology in the office for good and prudent reasons. But this is no excuse for those whose very job entails uncovering truths and protecting the innocent – namely, social workers, police and politicians.
Worst of all are those too timid to speak openly about the mostly Pakistani rape gangs, for dread of losing face, of being ostracised or made social pariahs. Their appeal for ‘decency’ in the face of ‘nasty’ and ‘bullying’ words on social media is a giveaway – they care about appearances and keeping up appearances. Hence the silence this month from the otherwise outspoken Gary Lineker, Carol Vorderman and the rest of that gang. The hush from the compassionate class exposes the self-serving cowardice at the rotten heart of this set.
We used to deplore these types of people as ‘do-gooders’ or bien-pensants. But ever since politics lost its rigour and became sentimentalised in the 1990s, we came to accept that ‘compassion’ alone and in itself was inherently good. There re-emerged in tandem the infantile conceit that human beings are essentially good people. This is not only a fundamental error, but also a dangerous one. Those who deny that humans can also be selfish and cunning creatures – beings who need to be conscious of this instinct in order to transcend it – are forever condemned to be slaves to it.
We still haven’t recovered from lockdown
In case you hadn’t noticed, January has been somewhat cold, snowy and frosty on this north-western fringe of Europe. Or, alternatively, if your knowledge of the weather in these parts derives entirely from the television and government statements, this month has been apocalyptically freezing. There have supposedly been ferocious blizzards, gales and Arctic temperatures everywhere that are definitely going to kill you unless you lock yourselves indoors.
We do usually overreact to unseasonal weather at this time of year, but the hysteria has seemed especially acute this time round. It’s eerily reminiscent of the kind of overstated rhetoric we heard during the lockdown years of 2020 and 2021. It’s having a comparable effect on the public, too, instilling fear and neurosis among the suggestible and vulnerable, committing them once more to banishment in their own homes.
The psychological legacy of lockdown is becoming evermore apparent and abundant. We see it in the learning and behavioural problems of the Covid children who entered primary school in September, the rise of young adults who have mental-health problems stemming from enforced isolation, the unwillingness of people to return to office work (or even to work at all), the surge in public-sector absenteeism and the decline in levels of public trust and civic pride. The latter is embodied by the rise in shoplifting and knife crime and epitomised in the number of young adults who do not have genuine mental-health problems, but are happily gaming the system.
Five years ago, the first lockdowns were imposed on a neurotic society – one that was already unduly concerned with safety and fearful of reality itself. Five years henceforth, I predict that the years 2020 and 2021 will be remembered less for a virus and more for the destructive, safety-first response to it.
Who cares what the neighbours think?
Many people say that the rape-gang scandal has brought shame and embarrassment on this country and sullied our standing worldwide. It’s a sentiment summarised by the Telegraph last week, in which its editorial lamented that ‘Britain’s reputation’ and ‘image has taken a dent’. ‘Our country’, it complained, ‘is increasingly seen on the other side of the Atlantic as an archipelago where grooming gangs are left to roam free while police forces focus their efforts on investigating thoughtcrime’.
To which, one answer is: so what? Of course, it’s abhorrent that grooming gangs have gone unpunished and police forces are distracted by trivialities. But the initial concern expressed about our ‘reputation’ is mostly irrelevant. In the case of grooming gangs, what we ourselves do about it matters foremost and utmost, not what others think about it.
A fear of others’ disapproval has long been a cry of the Remoaners and Rejoiners, forever bemoaning Britain’s damaged ‘reputation’ in the global stage since we left the EU. But bowing to peer pressure or herd sentiment has never been a wise way to conduct your life or affairs, either at a personal or national level. Be considerate and civilised to others, yes, but don’t slavishly court the approval of polite society.
Who cares what the neighbours say? From Brexit to grooming gangs, in the final reckoning, it matters not what others think. As we have seen, living in fear of received opinion can have appalling consequences.
Picture by: Getty.
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