My Big Fat (censored) Wedding

In recent years it has become usual in the UK for details that might identify the ethnic, cultural and religious background of an offender to be left out of news reports where possible. This is especially true of the initial reports, the headlines that grab the most attention. The reason given is to help damp down any animosity toward the community in question and avoid giving ammunition to racists.

Over the course of the Panda-demic in the UK we have had a number of large weddings that went ahead despite the various restrictions. I’ve seen reports of weddings broken up with 100 to 400 guests in London’s Old Kent Road, the West Midlands, Luton and my hometown of Southall, West London. Fines of up to £10,000 have been handed out.

Now, although there are plenty of English families that do like to splash out on a big wedding it is not as much a part of the culture as it is in some communities. The locations of the weddings I’ve mentioned all suggest that at least some of the cases involve minority communities that make 21^st century UK so “vibrant and diverse”. I have heard through the grapevine that one was a Traveller wedding. Certainly, the one in Southall is highly likely to have been Indian or Pakistani, as the town is less than 5% ethnically English. Likewise, Tommy Robinson’s hometown of Luton is well known as a big Moslem area. In Traveller/Romany, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Moslem cultures large weddings are much more usual than they are with us boring old English.

Full disclosure. My assumption about the Southall wedding was wrong. In the last week police bodycam footage has been added to the report. It seems to be an out of area English family that hired the nightclub in question. This detail was not in the original BBC report. Nevertheless, my point stands.

Whatever we may assume from the locations, in every case I’ve mentioned the reports have been careful to make no mention of any details that would identify the ethnicity, faith or culture of the families involved. Fair enough. Even to a sceptic like myself organising such a large gathering in these times seems foolhardy and selfish, as well as being illegal. Drawing attention to any particular group doing this might well cause resentment and give aid to genuine racists. On the whole I would prefer that the public be treated as adults and be given the full details, but I do understand the reasoning that has been applied in these cases.

Do I hear the pitter patter of tiny jackboots?

Then came the wedding in Stamford Hill, North London last Thursday. As soon as I heard the location, I knew it would be a Hasidic Jewish wedding. Stamford Hill is home to not Just the UK’s but Europe’s biggest Hasidic community, some 15,000 folk, and big weddings are very much part of the Hasidic tradition. What did surprise me, as the BBC report rolled on, was how the ethnic/religious identity of the group in question was not ignored or glossed over, far from it, no effort was spared to make sure the viewer knew it was a Jewish wedding.

The reporter stood in front of the Orthodox school that owned the hall, making sure the Hebrew sign was clearly in shot. Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the UK was quoted, condemning the wedding. The Jewish Chronicle was also quoted. Compare and contrast.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54564448

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-54352947

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55764673

Given the ingrained leftist culture of the BBC, and the distinct problems with anti-Semitism the British left has had in recent years this strikes me as less than innocent. After the deeply bland reports on earlier transgressions this wealth of detail is jarring and seems, to me at least, sinister. I just don’t see, given the reasons offered for reticence about ethnic and religious details in the past, how this sudden deluge of detail can be anything other than an invitation to “blame the Jews”. They did everything short of playing Hava Nagila at the end of the report.

Of all the creepy, dystopian developments since the CCP virus hit I think this has struck me as the most sinister.