Westminster's Suicidal Empathy: The Latest Example. What Alaa Abd el-Fattah tells us about the dire state of Britain
What the case
Matt Goodwin’s newsletter goes to 91,200 subscribers from 183 countries. Paid subscribers access all posts, the archive, events, comments, and help us grow. You can also join us on YouTube, Insta, TikTok, X and Facebook
Here are two things that happened in the United Kingdom in the last week.
First, a schoolteacher was referred to the anti-terrorism “prevent” programme because he happened to show his politics students a video of Donald Trump.
Second, the prime minister of the country celebrated the “return” to Britain of an Egyptian activist who celebrated the murder of Jews, Whites, and “colonialists”.
That’s right.
If you ever wanted a symbol of the two-tier country that we now live in then you really do not need to look much further than the events of the last few days.
Today’s controversy over Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s arrival in the United Kingdom is a stark reminder of just how utterly detached Westminster has become from the concerns of ordinary people — and how deeply misplaced our leaders’ priorities are.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a British-Egyptian activist who spent much of the past decade in Egyptian prisons, was allowed into the UK after his travel ban was lifted.
But what is especially extraordinary is the political reaction.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, alongside countless other Labour politicians and celebrities, publicly welcomed him back, lauding it as a triumph of humanitarianism.
Pause for a second and think about that.
This is a man whose own social media posts — resurfaced after his arrival —include a long list of statements endorsing violence.
Historical posts in which he appears to praise the killing of “Zionists”, advocates violence against White people and the police, expresses total contempt for Western societies, and voices open support for terrorism.
Are we seriously being asked to believe that Number 10 Downing Street or the British state did not review what this activist had said, in his own words?
British Jewish organisations, still reeling from antisemitic murders in Manchester and Australia, as well as the decision of Birmingham to essentially exclude Jews, have understandably condemned the Labour government for welcoming him back.
And yet Keir Starmer’s response has been to double down on his “delight” at Abd El-Fattah’s return, preferring a politics of uncritical empathy over basic judgment.
What is going on here?
This should not be seen as an isolated case. It is symptomatic of a much deeper problem that has taken hold of British politics: what the Canadian psychologist Gad Saad calls “suicidal empathy”.
Our leaders now routinely …
