Laurence Fox Question Time spat brilliantly exposed the futility of Britain’s identity politics

I don’t know about you but I cracked up laughing the moment Laurence Fox threw his head up in the air, turned his eyes to the heavens, muttered “Oh God”, and then turned his head down again with despair, just missing the BBC Question Time desk.

The Lewis actor was responding to a challenge from a member of the audience who claimed that because he was a “white, privileged male”, he could not by implication understand racism. Looking back, I’m amazed Fox didn’t walk off the set.

His head in the air moment came after a women in the audience,  Rachel Boyle, claimed that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has been subject to racism by the British press.  Dressed in smart black suit with carefully made-up bright red lips, Ms Boyle, a lecturer in Primary Education at Edge Hill University on Merseyside who specialises in racism and ethnicity, delivered her attack with deadly precision: “Let’s be really clear about what this is, let’s call it by its name – it’s racism. She’s a black woman and she has been torn to pieces.”

Fox replied that this was not true, that Britain is one of the most tolerant and lovely countries in Europe. He said: “It’s so easy to throw the charge of racism and it’s really starting to get boring now.”

But Boyle was having none of it, arguing with him that he could not understand racism because he is a “white, privileged male.”

That’s when Fox flipped, accusing her of racism: “I can’t help what I am, I was born like this, it was an immutable characteristic, so to call me a white privileged male is to be racist.”

That’s when the audience also turned, roaring in agreement with him. They understood that like every other outsider who has joined the Royal Firm, from Diana to Fergie to Kate, Meghan has indeed been criticised for things she has done and said. Sometimes that criticism has been cruel. By the same token, the welcome shown to her coming into the family – and at her wedding – has been unbelievably warm and admirable. But none of it – either the criticism nor the adulation – has been because of her colour. That’s a really bad excuse for people who cannot take criticism. For we are all people of colour.

But the reason I laughed so much was not because Fox was being particularly funny, but because his head throwing  so beautifully punctured the piety and ridiculousness of the debate prompted by Ms Boyle and her identity politics.

If you want to see what I mean, watch this clip.

Crying would have been the better response to this otherwise pathetic spat, but laughter was more cathartic in what was fast degenerating into a tragedy.

Away from the media hype of this latest Foxit, there is a far more serious debate to be had about the manner in which the so-called woke brigade and the left have weaponised race as a tool to criticise those with which they disagree.

It’s time people grew up and understood that racism is a modern day concept, one which has its roots perhaps in some rather mad and bad scientific minds of the mid 19th century. Since then, genetics and science has shown us that the differences between peoples are accidents of history, and are all to do with how our ancestors dealt with sun exposure. Nothing more.

That’s why Fox made me laugh again today when, in response to the Twitter mob who said he should educate himself, replied: “I’d genuinely rather eat a lightbulb”.