Why are some trying to turn life into one big hate-crime?

After voting for Brexit earlier this year did you come over all homophobic? I mean after you did all the obvious stuff like beat up a few ethnic minorities and burn a Torah. A piece in the Guardian at the weekend explains that ‘Homophobic attacks in UK rose 147 per cent in three months after Brexit vote.’ It claims that this shows how ‘toxicity fostered by the EU referendum debate spread beyond race and religion, new figures suggest’. None of which makes any sense. Who would decide, after voting Brexit, to attack the gays? I suppose it is possible that some people thought Ian McKellen spoke for all of us (as he himself appeared to think) when he said before the vote that ‘Brexit makes no sense if you’re gay’ and that all gays must therefore vote Remain. But it seems a push.

More likely is that these figures are another part of that growth industry of pressure groups now intent on proving that Britain is the world’s most vile and intolerant country. Not content with claiming that we are a nation of racists and ‘Islamophobes’ they have also decided that we are homophobes, probably misogynists and doubtless kick people with guide dogs too.

What we are, in fact, witnessing is a self-reinforcing cartel. Consider the following. The figures on which the Guardian have based their ‘story’ are from an LGBT anti-violence charity called ‘Galop’. According to them, hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people increased 147 per cent during July, August and September compared to the same period last year. Rather than everyone being so high from the referendum that they went around beating up gays, what is most likely is that the official encouragement to report hate-crimes means that more and more hate-crimes are being reported.