What do Nigel Farage, gender-critical feminism, masculinity, generalised homophobia and GB News have in common? All have been blamed in the past week or so for the pair of terror attacks in Berlin and Paris which left one dead and dozens wounded. Labour MPs (including the cabinet minister Chris Bryant), left-wing commentators and journalists have rushed to point the finger at a variety of bizarre targets.

It must be hard being an Islamist. Imagine, you’ve gone to a great deal of planning and effort to commit an atrocity and make clear to the world that your motivations for doing so are your murderous religio-political creed. Then, just as the malaikah are introducing you to the 72 virgins, you notice that Chris Bryant has posted on social media, attributing your actions to all-purpose, gender non-specific ‘hatred’. You are, then, according to Bryant and co, the same as a Christian who holds to the Church’s historic view of marriage. You are the same as someone who doesn’t believe a woman can have a penis. You are the same as a person who mocked Stella Creasy online for not knowing the difference between a parrot and a parakeet. Were Bryant not one of the most obnoxiously pompous people in Westminster, you would almost respect him for this level of trolling.

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Politicians’ responses to Islamist terror attacks will probably make a fascinating PhD topic in future years. There is a set narrative that follows any of these incidents: the........

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