Boris Johnson's comments ridiculing women who wear the veil were a blatant ploy to rile up the extreme-right by throwing them the red meat of Muslims to hate, and the free speech issue to gnash their teeth over.
It's no coincidence whatever that Johnson has decided to whip up the extreme-right like this, having just had a secretive meeting with the alt right "kingmaker" Steve Bannon who was the one who unified the Swastika-waving "Jews will not replace us" crowd and the Donald Trump Presidential campaign.
Picking minority groups to bash rather than talking about policy issues has been a classic extreme-right tactic ever since Hitler and the Nazis, and just look how it's already worked a treat for the hard-right Brextremists:
Look how they successfully pinned the blame for the devastating consequences of their own hard-right austerity agenda onto immigrants and the EU in order to con people into voting for their 'make it up as we go along' Brexit shambles.
Public pressure has eventually convinced the Tory leadership to drop their usual "ignore it until it goes away" stance in favour of a supposedly independent inquiry into Johnson's conduct.
But this inquiry is disastrous for multiple reasons. The main one is that it feeds into the victimhood narratives that the extreme-right rely so heavily upon to spread their divisive bile.
Boris was clearly hoping his comments would generate pushback so that he can pose as the poor innocent victim who is being silenced, so it's played right into his hands.
Another reason such a limited inquiry is a disastrous idea is that it's a lose-lose outcome for Muslims. If Boris is cleared then it sends out a signal to every single bigot in Britain that ridiculing Muslim women and demanding they be denied access to public services is now approved and acceptable behaviour. Boris gets off scot free, Muslims take the hit
If Boris is sanctioned for his comments, then he's sure to be anointed with martyrdom sainthood by the extreme right, with Muslim people bearing the brunt of the criticism for the fact he's been sanctioned. Boris gets a huge popularity boost with the extreme-right mob, Muslims take the hit
What the Tory party really needed to do is call the wide-ranging inquiry into anti-Muslim bigotry in the Tory ranks that the Muslim Council of Britain and several senior Tories have been demanding for months.
Instead they've cobbled together this rigged Boris wins - Muslims lose farce.
If you're under any doubt whatever about whether Boris Johnson's comment were a ploy to garner support from the extreme-right ultranationalist blue-kip demographic, just take a look at what's been going on in the Tommy Robinson hate chamber since Johnson made his remarks.
These are just a tiny sample illustrating the wave of extreme-right Boris adoration and anti-Muslim commentary he's managed to whip up.
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