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https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/11/the-cult-of-adolescence-is-out-of-control/

How long before Kemi Badenoch has a cardboard placard hung round her neck, Cultural Revolution style, to let the world know she still hasn’t watched Adolescence?

It’s getting to that stage. First Nick Ferrari of LBC accused her of a ‘dereliction of duty’ for failing to watch the Netflix drama. Then professional tit James O’Brien said it is ‘unthinkable’ that she has ‘swerved this programme’. And now the BBC is grilling her. ‘Have you watched Adolescence yet?’, its presenters barked in McCarthyite tones this week. No, said the sinner. Quick! Shave her head, drag her to the square, parade the Adolescence avoider before the eyes of the apoplectic!

It is getting ridiculous. There’s a trade war, there are real wars and there are real crimes – rape gangs, anyone? – and yet the Beeb thinks the most pressing thing to ask the leader of the opposition about is a TV show. Her inquisition took place on BBC Breakfast. ‘Have you watched Adolescence yet?’, asked host Charlie Stayt. Yet. His truculent utterance of that word left no doubt: anyone who wants to keep sweet with the elites will have to submit eventually and imbibe this holy drama.

All this talk of ‘public conversation’ is driving me mad. Munchetty told Badenoch she must watch Adolescence if she wants to ‘know what people are talking about’. I’ll tell you what people are talking about, Naga: ‘grooming gangs’. Those gangs of mostly Pakistani Muslim men who exploited and raped white working-class girls in towns around the country for decades. Once again, the government has let down the victims of those sick crimes, this time by saying it might not proceed with the inquiries it promised. And you want us to talk about a crime someone made up?

That those BBC hosts interrogated Badenoch about Adolescence the day after the government said it wouldn’t be holding inquiries into ‘grooming gangs’ is mind-blowing. Nothing better captures the aristocratic aloofness of the BBC, its unworldly disregard for our concerns, than the fact that it badgered Badenoch about a fictional crime on the day the rest of us were talking about the real crimes inflicted on working-class girls under the noses of mercilessly blithe officials. If a fictional assault on a fictional girl troubles you more than the horrors those real girls endured, you are lost. Your neo-religion has rendered you heartless.