Sayeeda Warsi, the Conscience of Britain

I would not be writing this were it not for the utterly unwarranted criticism of Sayeeda Warsi by the Daily Mail and the Spectator.

Britain has a long history of ministers resigning when their conscience would not let them continue with a selfish facade of public service when the government they served was beholden to others and not to the best interest of the country. One name: Robin Cook. Today, that mantle is worn by Baroness Warsi. She may not be male or white, she is still made of the same cloth as Mr. Cook.

If Sayeeda Warsi was, hypothetically, brought on board by the Tories because of her gender and religious affiliation, it would be a symptom of the Tories’ cynical attitude towards non-Etonian non-white non-male people — and not a reflection on the competent, capable and well-promoted Baroness Warsi. (take that, Douglas Murray). If anyone presumably demeaned the title of Baroness, it was not the Baroness herself, but David Cameron.

Baroness Warsi has a better handle on the pulse of the British street than Messrs. Cameron, Murray or Clegg would ever have. When she called out Islamophobia as having ‘passed the dinner-table test’, I was suffering unwarranted professional harassment for being Muslim. I could feel it, and I could feel that she knew it. No other British politician has had the awareness, or the decency, to come out for liberal and professional Muslims whose votes they covet.

If Douglas Murray wants a compliant ‘babu sahib’ who would toe Blair’s American line and Cameron’s Zionist line, he can suggest that Cameron get Majid Nawaz elected from a safe seat or promote Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon. You cannot get a genuine person that will not stand for principle. Why not give Cameron the little credit that he deserves, that he hired a politically savvy and principled woman — a Briton and a Yorkshire-woman inside out?

Isn’t it apparent that a boot-licking incompetent sycophant would never resign over principle? And if you think that Cameron’s fence-sitting on Gaza was not enough of a reason, you should probably do the aliyah.

Baroness Warsi represented Muslims, Christians, Jews and others. She will be remembered for her extremely profound and folksy statements on significant issues facing Britain today. She didn’t have an axe to grind. Anyone saying so now, ex post facto, has one. And it reeks of racism, misogyny and the narcissism of Britain’s privileged classes.