Search black boys, protect white folk: Kemi vies to out-right the far right | John Crace

Down Kemi’s rabbit hole, there’s too much equalities legislation. The solution? Get rid. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP View image in fullscreen Down Kemi’s rabbit hole, there’s too much equalities legislation. The solution? Get rid. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP Search black boys, protect white folk: Kemi vies to out-right the far right John Crace When politicians talk ‘common sense’ it’s time to worry; when the Tory leader does, it’s time to be doubly vigilant Y ou know how it is. You’re a middle class, straight white man in his 60s in A&E. Possibly the most disadvantaged person in the entire country. You complain of chest pains. In the adjoining triage queue there is a black woman with what looks like a broken toe. You know what happens next. The black woman is seen within minutes. You have a cardiac arrest on the waiting room floor. Said no one ever. There may be times when there simply aren’t enough staff in the A&E department. There may also be times when a doctor under pressure fails to make the right diagnosis. But no one for a minute believes they are being deliberately kept waiting any longer than necessary. The founding principle of the NHS is predicated on patients being treated according to the severity of their condition. Just not in Kemi world. The Tory leader sees danger in every decision. Not that NHS staff will deliberately try to kill off elderly, white males. Just that they’ve been through so many unconscious bias training sessions that they have transferred their unconscious bias to a different group of people. It’s the quantity theory of bias. There’s a certain amount to go round and if you shift it from one person it merely reattaches itself to another. The only way to eliminate unconscious bias is to decide it no longer exists. Replace it with “common sense”. Job done. When politicians start talking about “common sense” solutions, it’s usually time to start worrying. When Kemi Badenoch starts doing it, you need to be doubly vigilant. She has form for this kind of thing. One moment sounding almost reasonable, the next contradicting herself while going off on one. Generally speaking, making policy on the basis of a few cases where mistakes were undeniably made is a recipe for disaster. Yet for Kemi it seems to be the only way of making policy. And her party loves her for it. Though her polls remain dismal, more and more Tory MPs worship at her feet. It remains one of life’s more eternal mysteries. Kemi was in a small room at the Institute for Government in Westminster for her latest keynote speech. The latest in an ongoing series. This one was to meet equalities legislation head on. Top line? There was way too much of it. She didn’t want to sound complacent … but she couldn’t help sounding complacent. You couldn’t argue with her assertion that everyone should be treated equally. But you could raise a few eyebrows that we had already done far too much to make life more tolerable for minorities and we had now reached a point where to b