BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN

Since appearing live for an hour on a BBC Radio 4 programme where I was asked to defend the British Countryside against preposterous accusations of being systemically racist,  I (and the magazine) received around seventy communications – from members of the public and regular readers.

You can listen to that Radio 4 show, Antisocial, hosted by Adam Fleming, here.

Out of the seventy-odd replies received, just two were critical; one hostile (from a regular, ‘anonymous’ troll who has a habit of forgetting to hide his IP address) and one relatively polite.

The polite critic wrote (key points summarised):

‘I was deeply saddened to hear your apparent distain for ordinary country people as you came up with tired stereotypes and worn out clichés and seemed to have a genuine prejudice against rural folk. I was surprised that the BBC had asked someone on who seemed so out of touch with rural life and how country people think yet felt claim to represent our communities, our wonderful but threatened countryside and traditional way of life. Please do treat us and our land with respect, we are not just stereotyped ignorant peasants acting as a backdrop for country squires or a particular agenda. We are bigger and broader than that. I do wish you well and sincerely hope all of us who love the rural life, our amazing landscape, wildlife and all that goes with it can work together for the future of all of this now and for future generations.’

I replied to this critic and we had a polite exchange, agreeing to disagree about certain aspects of rural life. I like to chat with critics – when they are reasonable and decent folk.

One lippy troll called Louise Devlin gave a running commentary using her troll account on Twitter during the programme. She works for LUSH cosmetics, who hate me and CSM almost as much as they hate hunters and Israel:

Then again, stopped clock and all that, even Louise can be right about her LUSH boss now and again:

The positive responses to the programme ranged from kind pats on the back from mates to rants against the BBC to criticism of my opponent Beth Collier – none particularly helpful in addressing the argument. But one response, from a fellow called Graham, stood out and it is worth republishing as it hits many nails on the head:

‘Dear Dominic, I listened to the episode of AntiSocial on Radio 4 last week and thought that I’d drop you this line on how I felt about it. You came across as informed, even-handed and fair. You were outnumbered by two (or even three) to one and of course you had to do the job of justifying the white, British countryside. I was pleased to hear you mention Critical Theory (CT). This rarely ever gets mentioned by name on the BBC but is the source of much of its self-imposed angst re race, BLM, gender, sexuality, punching up/down, power differentials, decolonialism, the Middle East… and so on. Without CT, much BBC news on TV and radio (along with many of the staff) could simply be dispensed with. The presenter, Adam Fleming, did two things at the end that showed the intrinsic bias built into the programme. First, he asked you what you thought about what the two other speakers had said – not what they had thought about your comments. In other words, you were the one expected to have learned from the discussion, not them. Second, when you were polite about the first speaker’s contribution, he actually asked you if you were being sarcastic in your comments and then didn’t apologise when you stated that no, you were sincere ! Still, Mr Fleming got the programme made that he wanted – that’s what mattered. Keep up the good work in all that you do.’

I wasn’t going to bring up these points but Graham, in later emails, suggested that I do and agreed his email could be republished.

I knew when I was passed this hospital pass to appear on the BBC that I’d be subject to its dissembling ways. That’s how the BBC works – in its multicultural, diversity-first, Guardian-supporting, London bubble. Nonetheless, after speaking with people close to me who work there, I was told that Adam Fleming is a very professional and fair presenter, so I should go ahead and do my best defending the British Countryside.

Graham is right: ‘You were the one expected to have learned from the discussion, not them.’

That’s how Critical Theory (CT), which I mentioned several times during the programme, works – whites, and especially white men (sometimes my surname is unhelpful in that respect) are the prime target of CT which is all about an inbuilt white male prejudice, so I, as a white man, am guilty of racism, colonialism, supremacy and various other sins before I have even opened my mouth.

Individual examples, which I referred to during the show, are anathema to CT as CT is a generalist theory against which individual cases and individualist behaviours can be as powerful as kryptonite. Beth Collier also described individual case studies as being ‘unhelpful’ during the show. CT’s divisiveness is like folding a piece of paper; it’s endless to a point after which the paper is destroyed in the folding process.

Graham and I spotted the same CT slant when Mr Fleming asked me the question about ‘what I thought about what the two other speakers had said.’  Also, when, early on in the programme I was asked if I was being ‘at all defensive’.  

At the time I was tempted to reply, ‘if I told you, Mr Fleming, that you are a typical BBC pervert, when you are clearly not – i.e. the British Countryside is patently not systemically racist – you’d be on the defensive too.’ (Fortunately, I’d pinned a piece of paper to the screen in front of me saying ‘KEEP YOUR COOL, WIGHTMAN’, so avoided any such needless skirmishes).

In fairness to Mr Fleming, the question at the end of the programme asking me if I was being sarcastic in my comments was in reference to an article that I wrote that did the rounds across a few publishers called ‘The White Hell of Britain’s Racist, Colonial Countryside’ which was written in a sarcastic tone, of course.

All in all, I feel glad to have participated in the show. Adam Fleming was as professional and reasonable as my contacts said he’d be and Beth Collier was calm and put her points across succinctly too. Both Beth and I were on the end of hospital passes – I’d hate having to be a proponent of clunky CT against someone who has seen through its divisive, destructive raison d’être. Yes the show had a slant but it was better to have had the show than to have not.

Thanks to all of you who provided feedback.

The British Countryside is not systemically racist and, as I enjoyed mentioning during the programme, ‘we are past peak CT, which happened three years after peak Corbyn.’ Put that in your pipe and smoke it, lefties, as you fall for voting in a Red Tory as PM this autumn.

Dominic Wightman is Editor of Country Squire Magazine.