If you happen to be Fiona Mactaggart, Britain's Minister for Race Equality, the answer's a simple one -- You get up in front of the press and talk complete drivel.
Fiona was asked to share her 'thoughts' on the Sikh mobs who rampaged through Birmingham's Repertory theatre last Saturday. The rioters injured five police officers and forced the play they objected to, Behzti, to close. They have also threatened the life of its author, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, who police have advised go into hiding. A serious matter? Not according to Fiona:
"'I don't think we will have seen the end of this play because of the protest. One of the things about protesters is that very often they create unintended consequences and I suspect that the message of the playwright will get a wider audience following this and the play might even get a new audience in another theatre.'"
… Or maybe not. The unfortunate Bhatti is, apparently, so disturbed by an increase in the ferocity of the threats being made against her that she's asked the play not be staged at a second venue.
Never one to be put off by matters of fact, however, the Minister continued to hoist spadefulls of earth out of the hole she was digging for her credibility:
"'In my experience, very often the consequence of that [violent protests] is that the ideas of the play gain a wider audience than they would have had, had there not been such protests.
'That people feel this passionately about theatres is a good sign for our cultural life. It is a sign of a lively flourishing cultural life.'"
And what incidents, exactly, furnish this deeply stupid woman with the notion that death threats are good for English culture? The 'Satanic Verses', maybe? Was that, in Fiona's mind, an example of a 'lively, flourishing cultural life'? The mind boggles, it really does.
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