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An innocent at Home

James Forsyth

Wednesday, 18th June 2008

Dominic Grieve, the new shadow home secretary, tells James Forsyth that he won’t ‘resort to soundbites’. But is this a sensible approach for a modern-day politician?

The conversation shifts to discussing Grieve’s appearance at a rally organised by the British Muslim Initiative in November 2006. It is hard to keep every group with British and Muslim in the title straight. But the BMI is definitely at the extreme end of the spectrum. It attacked the Muslim Council of Britain for ending its boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day and boasts of its links to Azzam Tamini — a supporter of suicide bombings who Cameron recently denounced as the UK representative of Hamas. The event was also supported by the Cordoba Foundation, which Cameron has described as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood.

A simple admission that he had attended a meeting sponsored by an organisation he should have had nothing to do with would have helped allay mounting fears that Grieve is soft on Islamism. Grieve’s mistake was an easy one to make considering he had not been invited by the BMI but by another of the groups supporting the event. Yet Grieve went into a convoluted defence of his behaviour, saying ‘I don’t think I regret it’ and that he had heard nothing in the meeting that had made him want to walk out.

Your correspondent was beginning to sense a story: shadow home secretary doesn’t regret attending meeting organised by Islamist group his party has denounced. So I pushed him on what the difference was between Hizb ut Tahir, which the Tories are committed to banning, and the BMI. Grieve replied, ‘It would require a theologian’s mind to make such a distinction.’ I was slightly taken aback by the answer, considering that just a moment ago Grieve had been defending attending a BMI organised and promoted meeting. He then told me that knowing what he knew now, he would decline any invitation from the BMI. I was left wondering why he had not said that when I first asked him about BMI, closing down this whole line of questioning.

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Speccie was my favourite magazine

June 20th, 2008 2:50pm

I see the word has come down from on high that Grieve is to be briefed against. I have met him. He is - as this article reluctantly accepts - bright and articulate. He also seemed deeply principled in that real way Cameron's little Etonian clique find so distasteful. So, tell us James, is this coming from CCO or from d'Ancona? Sadly, you may be right: poltiicans of first-rate ability and intelligence probably are a bit of a liability. You would, however, hope that it might be appreciated by a Spectator jounalist.

Fergus Pickering

June 24th, 2008 7:42am

Well of course James, if you are a journalist then you want the chaps to talk in soundbites? But I think (and I hope) that you are wrong again. You are wrong about Davis - what he did was GOOD. And you are wrong about Grieve - he will do very well. course it doesn't matter if a journalist is wrong. In fact it seems halpful if you want a job on the DT for example. But we'd rather our politicians were right at least some of the time. These guys a right.Trust meon this.

John Strafford

June 25th, 2008 11:23am

Another miserable article attacking Dominic Grieve. Are you going through a mid life crisis James, or is being negative your normal behaviour?>

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