I wouldn’t call it that.
There is no evidence that the government is following Hester’s words, in fact, the total opposite.
In the initial period of this story the government failed to condemn Frank Hester’s words. They’ve now, far too late, mentioned that his comments were racist.
There are 10 million (& growing, allegedly) reasons for their reticence. @John_Scully is right…
So why didn’t The Guardian print the story in 2019 when he wasn’t a donor but had already won several governments contracts, his comments were racist and surely worthy of being brought to the public’s attention at that time?
This is all about political games in an election year.
It is part of teenagers’ DNA to rebel, and that is a fine thing because in its best way it leads to evolutionary progress.
The issue of whether or not our society should accept, or permit, hijab is merely the tip of an iceberg we can see.
Beneath is an enormous interconnected set of archaic controls and coercions that effectively prevents female emancipation and maintains male dominance. Religion is the tool being used to maintain men’s total dominance of the society. The Prophet’s intention to protect women has been turned into a way to imprison them by men to assert their dominance over baby makers.
Hijab makes the robing of women a public symbol of men’s dominance. So women and girls are trapped. Either they must follow the dictat of a male dominant religion that effectively controls their lives, while they are being told by others that a personal religious choice and modest dress is wrong. Everyone is telling them what to do! No wonder they are angry.
The problem for France lies in maintaining one entirely different and conflicting culture within another.
It is not only in religion, but not all religions, Sikhism, Jains, Quakers and other Christian beliefs etc.
Misogyny is rife in western society, look at the Met and the number of rape cases that are in a huge backlog in the English legal system.
Because they didn’t have the story in 2019 Tim…
“Frank Hester is the Conservative party’s biggest donor, a man who has given the UK’s governing party at least £10m in less than a year – and quite possibly a lot more. On Monday we published a shocking story by Rowena Mason, Matthew Weaver and Henry Dyer, which came after months of work.”
Quote from an email from Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, to subscribers yesterday.
She goes on to say…
" This is just the latest in a string of recent Guardian stories from around the world about who funds our political parties and politicians, particularly those on the right. In the United States we’ve reported extensively on the donors spending millions to push the re-election of Donald Trump and to back extreme anti-abortion candidates in places like Alabama. In Australia, a recent analysis by our data team revealed that $57m of donations – a quarter of the major parties’ funding – came from unknown sources."
You should sign up Tim
That explains everything. Hester only came under the spotlight once he became a Tory donor last year, his comments were revolting in 2019 but no one gave a s**t because he was politically irrelevant.
No one gave a shit because no one was aware of it. Simple!
Exactly. And once it became public knowledge, the public - quite rightly - called them out as racist and misogynist. Unlike Sunak, who yet again took too long to respond for fear of upsetting those within the Tory party who agree with Hester, and only reacted when he was forced to do so by Badenoch.
@Gareth etc - just answer this yes or no without any waffle.
Would The Guardian or any other media organisation have investigated Hester if he hadn’t been a massive Tory donor?
How should I know? I work in cybersecurity, I don’t work for the Guardian
Do you work in aérospatiale?
Maybe don’t answer that!
No, a chemical manufacturing company.
Haha, it’s alright… I’ve no longer got my security clearance so I can share details
@tim17 If in a public position then irrespective of his politics then I would say extreme!y likely.
What public position does Hester hold?
The Guardian’s investigation is into political funding, so probably not. It’s a pity the Tory party didn’t do a bit of due diligence themselves before grabbing the cash. You lie down with dogs…
They don’t give a **** where the money comes from as long as it keeps pouring in.
It’s a bit funny to see Gove saying the Government won’t be embracing or funding anybody it deems extremist when we’ve just discovered his party is being funded by an extremist.
@tim17 I didn’t say he holds a public position as such but as he is apparently the tory’s major donor and a major IT supplier to the NHS he is worthy of public scrutiny.