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Thursday 13 October 2022

Only superficially bright



Vlod Barchuk has an interesting TCW piece on Rupa Huq, race politics and the increasingly fragile electoral coalition of ethnic minorities.

Rupa Huq, only superficially bright

‘Not my president’, nearly everyone in the United States has shouted in recent years. But Donald Trump was the president and Joe Biden is, no matter how much anyone tries to deny it. And thus, as much as I would like it not to be true, Rupa Huq is my MP.

Ms Huq, the member for Ealing Central and Acton in West London, made an ass of herself at the Labour Party conference, telling a fringe meeting that the Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng was only ‘superficially’ black.

Many minds must have boggled at this blunder when it first surfaced, because it shines such an extremely unflattering light on both race politics and the intellect of our MPs. Hence the title of the piece - "only superficially bright". The superficial aspect seems to be a major problem in public life.

I’ve never met Ms Huq, but Ealing Tories who have report that she is polite while still being a proper loony leftie. She has supported the censorship of peaceful pro-life campaigning within the vicinity of abortion clinics, decrying them as ‘weaponising rosary beads’. She attempted to defend her colleague Naz Shah’s anti-Semitism and said, before issuing a retraction, that a Labour Government could apologise for the creation of Israel.

One of her biggest weaknesses is a delusion that she is an intellectual. However, having a PhD in cultural studies and being a former lecturer in sociology at Kingston University does not make you a Jordan Peterson. For someone supposedly so intelligent she has a remarkable facility for not thinking through her comments. She dissed Kwarteng not only for being superficially black but for being privately educated, apparently not considering that her own private education might make this a topic better left alone.

The whole piece is well worth reading, but I'll also add two comments because the academic ability of our MPs appears to have become increasingly worthless in recent decades.

Robert Edwards
A PhD in 'cultural studies' is of about the same intellectual value as a cycling proficiency test.

J THOMAS 
This is an important point. When was the last time someone with a PhD said something at a political meeting so plainly stupid? What kind of university could award her a doctorate? She has been a senior lecturer. Imagine going to university and being taught by someone like her. The whole fabric of our tertiary education system is obviously being corrupted by the policy of inclusion. A professor used to command respect. It was a "calling", though I realise that Huq is not a professor.

8 comments:

Sackerson said...

A Punch and Judy man is also a Professor: http://www.punchandjudy.org/

Sam Vega said...

What I find interesting about "race politics" is the way it seems to attract only the dimmest of all persuasions and hues. On the right we have Tommy Robinson and assorted thugs; and on the left we have the likes of Lammy, Abbott, and this latest thick bint. It's almost as if the stupidest sub-group in political life gravitate to it.

In a way, that's quite heartening. In America, there are huge fortunes and reputations to be made in race politics. But here in the UK, it seems that voters just don't care as much about skin tone or culture, providing their representatives are competent and decent. Success and fame go to whoever can get the economy performing and public services working well (or would do, if there was anyone up to it...). Race baiters are thankfully poorly rewarded.

Doonhamer said...

Any relation of konnie huq?
Another privilaged, just right (well maybe not "right", if you see what I mean.) for the BBC, leech.

Vatsmith said...

"A PhD in 'cultural studies' is of about the same intellectual value as a cycling proficiency test." True, but a cycling proficiency test also has some practical value.

DiscoveredJoys said...

"One of her biggest weaknesses is a delusion that she is an intellectual."

The Dunning-Kruger syndrome is strong in this one. Or perhaps she is MP for Lake Wobegone. Or may be she is a narcissist who believes all the praise she gets, but none of the criticism?

A K Haart said...

Sackers - ha ha, I'd forgotten that.

Sam - yes it does seem to attract the dimmest and that is quite heartening. Those with the crudest political positions we might say too.

Doonhamer - sisters apparently. As you say, another leech.

Vatsmith - yes, cycling proficiency gives other people a reason to have confidence in your practical ability, while a PhD in 'cultural studies' suggest no practical ability whatever.

DJ - I think many are narcissists - they don't recognise personal criticism at all.

Woodsy42 said...

Thinking back to my undergrad years we had a couple of lecturers who were extremely clever, so clever in fact that I could understand maybe 50% of what they were trying to teach - and I like to think I'm not entirely stupid. Perhaps having lecturers with lower IQ's is an improvement?

A K Haart said...

Woodsy - yet presumably the job of lecturers is to make themselves understood. This is pretty much what my old school physics teacher used to say.