Woke-Bashing of the Week: Rupert Lowe’s war on woke turned up a notch days before the Makerfield byelection
At this rate, the only thing that isn't woke is Rupert Lowe.
In the final days before the Makerfield by-election, Rupert Lowe appeared to have settled on a straightforward electoral strategy, denounce anything remotely objectionable as ‘woke.’
The leader of Restore Britain spent the past week launching attacks against the supposed forces of wokeness, deploying the term so liberally that it increasingly seems to mean little more than “something Rupert Lowe disapproves of.”
Speaking to the Telegraph, which, like the Mail on Sunday, was keen to report how Restore Britain is backed by neo-fascists, “the sorts of people how claim Hitler was “misunderstood,” as the newspaper described, Lowe said: “I’m not going to be put down by some woke creeps telling us we’re racist.”
And when asked about the prospect of Restore dividing the right-wing vote, Lowe retorted:
“To those who warn a divided Right could hand power to Andy Burnham, or a rainbow coalition of the increasingly radical Left,
“Get a life. I’m only interested in doing what I think is right for the country.”
And Lowe’s anti-woke offensive didn’t stop with his political rivals.
He also took aim at Britain’s universities while questioning public spending on research and development.
Speaking during a Public Accounts Committee hearing, Lowe expressed concern about taxpayer money “disappearing into a woke university abstract experiment.”
Ian Chapman, chief executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), hit back, reminding Lowe that the purpose of research funding is to achieve outcomes rather than to police the ideological composition of university departments.
Chapman explained that his role was not to “micromanage” universities, scrutinise individual hiring decisions or monitor staffing arrangements. Instead, he argued, public bodies should establish clear objectives for publicly funded research and hold institutions accountable for delivering results.
Yet, coming for the man who, a year ago, accused Reform UK itself of “going woke,” Lowe’s comments come as no surprise.
“I agree with JK Rowling,” Lowe said in an interview, “that it appears that Reform have gone woke… On a number of issues, they appear to have gone woke. Not just welfare payments but almost every aspect with what Nigel utters now appears to be in conflict with what he said in the past.”
At this rate, the only thing that isn’t woke is Rupert Lowe.
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