📰 I Won’t Apologise — and That’s Exactly Why They’re Panicking

In today’s Britain, satire is bigotry and DEI is gospel. Forgive me for not kneeling at the altar.

How dare I not apologise?

How dare I not bow, scrape, and self-flagellate on bended knee before the liberal clergy of Durham’s media class?

Well… I won’t. And that’s exactly why they’re losing their minds.

Since being elected Deputy Leader of Reform UK’s leading group on Durham County Council — after a landslide that saw us obliterate Labour’s rotten old guard — I’ve been on the receiving end of a full-throttle, foam-flecked smear campaign. The latest hit job, pumped out by The Northern Echo and gleefully signal-boosted by Labour hacks and Lib Dem leftovers, is almost laughable.

Apparently, the crime this time is that I post too freely on social media. I speak too openly. I take the mick out of identity politics. I post memes. God forbid I have a sense of humour and a working-class accent.

They dug up a clearly satirical clip — AI-generated, obviously — showing me in a rainbow hijab and a wheelchair joking about being “immune from hate speech laws.” If you think that’s offensive, you should see what passes for educational content under this government.

Take Adolescence, the Netflix “drama” now being shown in British schools, supposedly to teach about misogyny. But what it really teaches is that white teenage lads are crazed incel terrorists waiting to pounce. It’s not based on fact. It’s not a documentary. It’s a taxpayer-funded guilt trip designed to demonise working-class white boys — lads like the ones I represent in Stanley. Funny how real-life crimes of misogyny that don’t fit this narrative never get the Netflix treatment, isn’t it?

This is the logical endpoint of DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — the new secular religion of our institutions. It’s not about equality anymore. It’s about ideology. It’s about reprogramming people — starting with our kids — to believe that whiteness, masculinity, and Britishness are inherently suspect.

And I won’t apologise for saying that out loud.

Just this week, Policy Exchange revealed that some schools are teaching that black people built Stonehenge. Not joking. This isn’t history — it’s hallucination. DEI has become a licence to rewrite the past, distort the present, and poison the future.

And what do they do when someone points out this madness? When someone dares to challenge it?
They call you a bigot.

But I know my community. I represent Annfield Plain and Tanfield, a proud patch of the North East where kids grow up knowing life isn’t easy, but also knowing the value of graft, fairness and honesty. And they’re being told now — because they’re white — that they’re inherently privileged. That they should go to the back of the queue. That they’re part of the problem.

That isn’t progress. It’s prejudice with a rainbow badge slapped on top.

Let’s be honest: this moral panic over my social media posts isn’t really about the posts. It’s about the fact that Reform UK is in power. It’s about the fact that I won’t play by the rules of the Blob. I won’t nod along to the script. I won’t pretend this ideology is helping anyone.

They want me to crawl. I’ll walk taller.
They want me to apologise. I’ll double down.
They want me gone. I’ve only just got started.

They can send their press releases. They can dig through my posts. They can demand I “behave like an adult” — translation: shut up and know your place. But I was elected to speak plainly and represent the people of County Durham, not to appease Guardian columnists or Twitter crybabies.

The public is not bothered about Darren Grimes memes. They’re worried about council tax. About housing. About services. About crime. About their country.

And that’s what Reform UK is here to fix.

Unapologetically.