What I told the BBC

And what the reaction tells us about how the game has changed

Matt Goodwin Aug 9

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One of the most remarkable things this week has been watching the intense anger and hostility that has not only erupted on Britain’s streets but has been directed toward anybody who has dared trace the unrest to the failures of the liberal progressive orthodoxy that now dominates this country, to issues such as mass immigration, our broken borders, and a failing model of multiculturalism.

Just look at some of the reactions.

One after another, self-described “liberals”, “progressives”, and “left-wingers” have lined-up to declare that these alternative viewpoints must be shut down.

Seen through their eyes, the rioting and protests have little to do with how Britain is actually being transformed and much more to do with alternative television channels, Substackers, writers, and thinkers who call out these failing policies.

Paul Mason, remarkably, took to Twitter/X to call for the entire shutdown of GB News, arguing that Britain needs to move to what he calls a “militant democracy” in which, clearly, the very first victim will be free speech and free expression.

Times journalist Oliver Kamm, who spent much of last year berating me on Twitter/X for suggesting in my book that Britain is now in the hands of an intolerant new elite that seeks to shut down dissenting views, called for the very same thing, demanding that Ofcom revoke its broadcasting licence for GB News.

And then came Jessica Simor KC who, astonishingly, demanded that Prime Minister Keir Starmer pass a short bill closing Twitter/X completely down in the UK!

I don’t know what’s more alarming. Simor’s views or the fact that in 2016 she was the UK’s nominee for Judge at the European Court of Human Rights and is Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.

And then this hostility, abuse, and illiberalism was hurled at me, after I dared to write several pieces suggesting that if we really are serious about addressing the root cause of the rioting and protests then we need to change the elite consensus in this country.

We need to stop implying that millions of British people are “far-right thugs”.

We need to fix our broken borders and make people feel safe in their own country.

We need to end the disastrous policy of mass immigration and a broken model of multiculturalism that prioritises group difference over commonality.

And we need to oppose Keir Starmer’s and Labour’s plan to put it on steroids.

Personally, I think these are entirely reasonable suggestions that are anchored in the evidence, like the fact more than two-thirds of British people directly trace this unrest to “immigration policy in recent years”.

But by saying these things out loud, by directly challenging the elite consensus, I too found myself coming under attack.

Remarkably, self-described “conservative” Tim Montgomerie called for me to be completely removed from public life!

While Professor Rob Ford, at the University of Manchester, who used to be perfectly reasonable until he followed many others on the left down the rabbit-hole of a deeply intolerant radical ‘woke’ progressivism, followed suit, agreeing with Montgomerie that my voice should be shut down for the good of the country.

Are these people for real? Are they really unable to tolerate dissenting views? Are we living in Britain, the birthplace of individual liberty, or the Soviet Union?

Apparently, folks, my voice is now so influential and impactful, our Substack is now so influential and impactful, that we need to be removed from the public square!

And then came my appearance on Radio 4’s Moral Maze, which you can listen to above, which generated a similarly strong and hostile reaction, to say the least.

I do want to thank the Moral Maze production team for inviting me on because I think it says a lot about the importance they place on having different views.

But the reaction to what I was saying, from self-described “libertarian communist” Ash Sarkar and Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies, Mona Siddiqui, both of whom support immigration and multiculturalism, was similarly revealing.

Ash Sarkar began with an attempted “gotcha!” question at the very beginning, asking if I thought she was English.

She asked because she wanted to know why I had drawn attention to the fact that the alleged murderer of the three little girls in Southport was the son of migrants.

I said I thought she was, though I should have clarified, which I later did. I think Ash is British and English in terms of nationality but is not English in terms of ethnicity, much like I could not be Indian, for example, by ethnicity.

And I do think this matters in terms of what’s happening in the country.

Because for many ordinary people, a series of recent shocking events, including the murders and stabbings in Southport, have become symbols of what they feel is a much bigger problem in the country that nobody in the elite wants to discuss.

The British and English are, understandably, worried about how mass immigration is now rapidly transforming their country, how the majority group is in decline, and how things like our broken borders and Labour’s extreme policies are accelerating this.

These fears about majority decline and demographic change are not only held by the majority but are shared by people from minority groups, too, who often feel just as attached to the majority group’s traditions, culture, values, and ways of life, and feel just as anxious, bewildered, and worried when this is in decline or under threat.

Many people in Britain, in other words, worry about the “loss of the familiar”, which is not the same as disliking or hating the perceived outsider —something people on the left have long struggled to accept and recognise.

This is why, like me, while most people reject the violence of recent days they also think the peaceful protestors have a point —because they too worry about the perceived loss of traditions, symbols, rituals, values, laws, and ways of life that make “us” an “us”, that have defined our national community for a very long period of time.

In recent years, this sense of loss also been greatly exacerbated not only by rates of mass immigration that are unprecedented in our history and the collapse of our national borders but also by a visibly failing model of multiculturalism that allows people from minorities to preserve and promote their distinctive identity, culture, behaviours, and ways of life, while berating or suppressing people from the majority group when they try to do the same.

Today, the elite class either tells the majority it can only celebrate its distinctive identity, culture, and ways of life if it reshapes these things around a celebration of universal liberal themes like “diversity”, “tolerance”, or “multiculturalism”, or it tries to convince the majority to dislike or repudiate its identity altogether, proclaiming that its history, culture, and values are a source of shame and embarrassment.

To tell a national community that the only thing holding them together is their celebration of diversity, multiculturalism, and immigration is fine, on the surface. But it cannot be the basis of an entire identity because if the only thing that defines you is that you welcome others then it is like saying you have no identity of your own, and many people in Britain and England simply reject this elite view of who we are.

This leaves many people in the majority group, who feel deeply anxious about these wider trends, with nowhere to go. No wonder so many have turned to riots and protests to try and express, however incoherently, their profound sense of loss and desire to reassert an identity that’s now considered deeply problematic in elite circles.

And to make matters worse, as I tried to point out on the show, this broken model of multiculturalism has also had other disastrous effects, such as giving a free pass to hideous and odious behaviours in minority communities that have directly violated the sense of shared community, respect, and trust that is essential to any functioning multiethnic community, inflamed this sense of loss, and stoked fears about the future.

The reason the rioting and protests have been so intense in northern towns like Rotherham, as I pointed out, is because these are areas that saw the worst case of organised “grooming”, or the industrial-scale rape and sexual exploitation of young, working-class white girls by predominantly Muslim gangs.

In towns like this, it is estimated that some 1,400 girls were raped, sexually assaulted and abused, with anti-White racism clearly a motivating factor for Muslim criminals. It is neither “racist” nor “Islamophobic” for people to look at this, within the context of majority group decline, and fear for the future. It is entirely rational. And I will never stop saying so, no matter how uncomfortable it makes Radio 4 listeners.

So, as I said in my concluding remarks, we need to talk about all of this. We need to look past the irrational intolerance, hatred, abuse, and shrieking among people on the so-called “liberal” left and in the elite class who can apparently no longer tolerate alternative views, and keep pushing for a serious, realistic conversation about all this.

Put it this way, if this conversation were already happening in the mainstream then there would be no need for television channels like GB News, people would not need to rely on Elon Musk and Twitter/X for news about issues that are downplayed or ignored by the legacy media, and they would not need to read Substacks like this, which has consistently been willing to challenge the broken elite consensus.

The reason the elite class is so hostile to these alternative voices is because they can now sense they are losing control of the narrative and the conversation. We are simply no longer in a world where this conversation and what is considered “true” can be controlled by the same groups of people –who come from the same backgrounds, have the same values, the same political loyalties, and want the same outcomes.

That era, when the elite class dominate what used to be the most important and influential institutions, is over. It is done. And as my friend Konstantin Kisin noted on social media this week, it is simply never coming back. We are in an entirely new era in which millions of people are flocking to new and alternative voices and, crucially, insulating them from attacks in both a professional and financial sense.

Put it this way, were people like me still in, and dependent on, the legacy institutions then we would be harassed, bullied, intimidated, cancelled, shut down and silenced by people who feel entitled to control the conversation and the institutions. But now they can no longer control these things, they can no longer control people like me, and they really hate it. This is why their default response is “shut them down”.

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Because for the first time in history, through new television channels, Substack, Twitter/X, YouTube, podcasts, and more, we now have a counter-cultural class, a “counter-elite” if you like, that is not only fully independent of the legacy institutions and the elite class but fully insulated and protected by their supporters. With your support, people like me, platforms like this, can have just as much reach, influence, and power in the national conversation, if not more, as the established elite class.

This is why, when I get the chance, I keep going in the national debate. I do not give an inch. And I refuse to be bullied, harassed and pushed out of the public square. Because I am especially conscious of the fact that I am now one of only a few voices in this country that genuinely reflects and represents the views of millions of people who are downplayed, ignored, or insulted in the national conversation. I feel an enormous sense of obligation and responsibility to them. And I always will.

So keep hating, keep shrieking, keep calling for the public square to be shut down.

Because I am going nowhere.

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Matt Goodwin’s Substack goes to more than 42,000 subscribers across 160 countries, and thousands of paid supporters who make our work possible. Like our stuff? Then help us by becoming a paid supporter and access everything —the full archive, exclusive posts, polling, leave comments, join the debate, get discounts, advance notice about events, and the knowledge you’re supporting independent writers who are not afraid to push back against the grain. You can also join our community on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter/X.

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