The words of politicians weigh heavily and making racist and hateful remarks increases insecurity.

This was explained by the former head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist unit, Neil Basu, who was in charge of it from 2015 to this year.

He was notably responsible for the security of the royal family and therefore aware of the threats weighing on Meghan Markle coming from far-right groups.



The Duchess of Sussex has indeed been the target of “sickening and very real” threats, confirms Neil Basu.

“I have spoken for many years about the far-right terrorist threat.

I was often misquoted by some who claimed that I saw her as the biggest threat.

I never said far-right terrorism was the biggest threat.

On the other hand, it is the one that increases the fastest.

When I started in counterterrorism in 2015, far-right terrorism was 6% of our work.

When I left six months ago, it was over 20%,” he told Channel 4 cameras.

The weight of words

“If you had read the writings she received (…) if they were addressed to you, you would feel permanently in danger”, he explained, referring to “the rhetoric that we find on social networks ".

Faced with these death threats against Meghan Markle, "investigations have been carried out and people have been convicted".

Neil Basu left his post this year, after serious disagreements with the Conservative government.

The former head of counter-terrorism compared the current speeches of politicians, in particular that of Interior Minister Suella Braverman who spoke during a meeting of her "dream" of seeing "charters full of migrants" return to Rwanda, to that of Enoch Powell in 1968. This former conservative deputy had held an anti-immigration speech, already professing the racist theory of the great replacement in this platform nicknamed, across the Channel, the Rivers of blood.

"It's unimaginable to read and hear a succession of high-profile politicians speak in language that reminds my father of 1968. It's chilling," said Neil Basu, who recalled, that after the hate speech of the right-wing politician, his parents, a mixed couple, were stoned in the street and that he himself was attacked.

“I am aware of social and racial justice issues.

And if that's the definition of woke, then I'll wear it proudly on the lapel of my jacket every day of the week.

And by the way, every police officer better believe that too.

We are here to serve everyone, without fear or favour, no matter how they look or if they are people we love,” he concluded.

People

Meghan Markle claims 'women of influence' begged her not to stop her activism

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