'Common Sense Group' of Tory MPs seems to have overlooked some basic stuff

IN the latest news from the Tory frontlines, the war on woke has descended into farce.

Of course, the Tories’ war on their own vague idea of the “left” was never going to go particularly well.

Now, those dangerous woke lefties aren’t content with threatening the Union, they’re coming for the very streets themselves.

In an “exclusive” which The Telegraph faithfully reported today, we are told that “nearly 200 streets are under threat” across the UK.

Despite the rhetoric, it’s not the streets that are supposedly under threat, but their names.

READ MORE: Boris Johnson draws up five-step plan to 'save the Union' from collapse

The Telegraph highlights the case of Birmingham, where the Labour council there was accused of being “woke” and “virtue signalling” after it named six streets absolutely unpalatable things such as Diversity Grove and Equality Road.

These streets were brand new though, so they never had a name which could have been under threat in the first place.

The article goes on: “Some existing roads are already being renamed by local councils because of a nervousness about Britain's imperial past.”

What these streets were previously called, or where they may be, the Telegraph writer does not tell us. 

What we do learn from the piece is that two Tory ministers, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick, have backed plans to name new roads after recipients of the Victoria Cross (VC) and George Cross (GC).

The VC, awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy", is the highest award of the British honours system.

The GC, awarded "for acts of the greatest heroism or for most conspicuous courage in circumstance of extreme danger", is the second most prestigious.

Robert Jenrick will apparently be writing to councils urging them to consider the plan

A group of Tory backbenchers, perhaps misleading called the Common Sense Group, is calling for recipients of these awards to be honoured with streets named after them, and statues in their local parks and birthplaces.

John Hayes, the MP from South Holland and The Deepings, the safest Tory seat in the UK, chairs the group. He said they have “launched a campaign to honour every recipient of the VC and GC through the erection of a statue, immortalising them in their place of birth”.

What the Common Sense Group seem to have overlooked is that this would mean men get more than 99% of all these accolades, just as men have received more than 99% of those crosses. For a Government reportedly planning on highlighting how “forward-thinking” the UK is in order to save the Union, this might seem a crucial detail.

The Telegraph tells us: “In total, 1358 individuals have been awarded the Victoria Cross for valour ‘in the presence of the enemy’, whilst 408 men and women have received the George Cross."

Firstly, 1355 “individuals” have received the VC, and they were all men. (The award has been given 1358 times, but three men received it twice).

READ MORE: Boris Johnson's anti-'woke' crusade shows he doesn't understand Yes movement

Secondly, the GC has been awarded to 395 men and 11 women, for a total of 406. The George Cross has also been given to the officers of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and their families, and was famously given to the entire country of Malta (which then put it on its flag).

Furthermore, the VC has been given to some people from the British history of empire that the international community may not appreciate statues of. 

In fact, the most ever awarded in a single day went to British soldiers fighting in India during that nation's First War of Independence. Might immortalising those soldiers in statue form not make India, the fifth largest economy in the world, a little rightly annoyed?

So much for global Britain looking forward, bring on insular England looking longingly to its imperial past.