Kemi Badenoch’s cancel culture

It was an odd hill for Kemi Badenoch to die on. Joshua Bonehill-Paine has served two jail sentences for antisemitism, harassed a Jewish MP, founded a neo-Nazi party, and has also been convicted for assaulting a police officer and the burglary of a police station. Nonetheless, Bonehill-Paine was selected by the Conservatives last week to contest a council election in Somerset. Badenoch backed him. After intense backlash, Bonehill-Paine pulled out of the race, but announced that he would instead take up a new role advising Badenoch on combating extremism.

Combine this with her moratorium on candidates who don’t pledge to scrap net zero, and Badenoch’s party looks increasingly narrow and brittle. “The Conservative party, which used to pride itself on being a broad church, has become rather addicted to cancel culture,” writes Alan Rusbridger.

Badenoch has also controversially committed to withdrawing the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). But as our legal columnist David Allen Green writes, a new Supreme Court decision suggests the courts may be “proofing the law against any repeal of human rights legislation.” In a rare criminal appeal, “Animal Rebellion” activists, who blocked a private access road at a Midlands dairy works, were acquitted based on common law and statutory construction.

Speaking of judicial matters, I am hardly alone in having devoured Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book London Falling, which tells the true story of the mysterious death of a teenage faux riche fabulist. Many readers have since criticised the Metropolitan Police for their questionable approach to the investigation. On today’s episode of Media Confidential, Radden Keefe speaks to Alan and Lionel about investigative non-fiction, navigating ethical and legal obstacles, and how he gained the trust of his sources—including two grieving parents. Samuel Stephen also profiled Radden Keefe for our July issue—his piece is well worth revisiting. And in case you missed last week’s Media Confidential, Alan and Lionel’s interview with Mehdi Hasan is now available on our YouTube channel.

Radden Keefe is a masterful investigator of money, power and corruption. Perhaps his next book, then, should focus on Fifa. As David Goldblatt explains, the football federation has long been mired in corruption allegations and political controversy. The latest flare up—a plan to hive off its tournament-organising work to a new company and sell off 20 per cent of that to an American venture capital company run by Jared Kushner’s brother—has led to calls for president Gianni Infantino’s resignation. But a new leader won’t fix things, Goldblatt argues—only structural change will.

Finally, a quick correction: on Friday, I wrote that “our oceans have absorbed 90 per cent of the heat generated by anthropogenic climate change. That’s equivalent to pouring 7.6bn mugs of tea into the ocean.” It’s actually 7.6bn mugs of tea per second (source here). Regardless, just stop pouring your tea into the ocean, people. It’s hot enough already. Send your thoughts on today’s stories to ben.clark@prospectmagazine.co.uk.