Ray Honeyford - Britain's first victim of PC hatred.

Ray Honeyford was the headmaster of a Bradford school in the early 1980s in which 90% of his pupils were of Asian origin. He came into conflict with an unholy yet predictable alliance between religious primitivists and hard left activists. Honeyford condemned the all powerful 'race relations lobby' within the local education authority, and the 'multicultural zealots' intent on closing down debate whenever the behaviour of ethnic minorities became problematical.

Honeyford was particularly scathing about what he termed 'Asian parents' regular habit of sending their children back to the Indian sub continent during term time to the obvious detriment of their education. He was also concerned that Asian parents were removing their daughters from drama, dance and sporting activities in contravention of his school's commitment to sexual equality, and he flagged up the problems faced by pupils whose first language was not English.

Matters came to a head at a local meeting of parents to discuss the educational disruption caused when children were removed from school during term time. An atmosphere of intimidation was orchestrated by some Asian 'community leaders' outraged that their cultural practices were being questioned by the school. As a result the education authority caved into the Asians' demands, and the practice of removing children during term time was allowed to continue, despite its possible illegality.

As a result of the publicity generated by this meeting local hard line leftist activists began a campaign to denigrate Honeyford for his alleged 'racial prejudice' and 'ignorant and counter productive' educational strategy 'that must give cause for concern'. Asian parents and political activists formed an action group that organised large-scale protests outside his school. Eventually, about half the pupils ceased to attend lessons, Honeyford received death threats and had to be given police protection. After several months of abuse and intimidation Ray Honeyford took early retirement and never worked as a teacher again.

In a magazine article from this period Honeyford didn't pull his punches against the malign forces confronting him. He identified the tactics that have since continued to grow whereby 'propaganda generated by multi racial zealots is now augmented by a growing bureaucracy of race in local authorities... (that) makes freedom of speech difficult to maintain.' Moreover, he rightly accused 'the race lobby' of 'managing to induce and maintain feelings of guilt in the well disposed majority, that decent people are not only afraid of voicing certain thoughts, they are uncertain even of their right to think those thoughts'.

Honeyford went on to condemn the opportunist and self righteous agenda of those teachers who 'have eagerly embraced the career enhancing possibilities of the new multi-racial orthodoxy in schools. Such people never proceed through rational argument, but rather by the tactic of impugning others' good will.' He correctly identified their agenda as 'far from helping to produce harmony, it is, in reality, operating to produce a sense of fragmentation and discord.' He denounced the reflex use of the term 'racism’ claiming that it 'functions not as a word with which to create insight, but as a slogan designed to suppress constructive thought.'

As a result of the vicious agenda of those ranged against him to subvert his authority, and to undermine and disrupt the running of his school, Ray Honeyford became Britain's first casualty of politically correct zealotry and hatred.