Great British Railway Journeys among shows flagged by counter terror scheme 'for encouraging far-right sympathies' | The Sun

SOME of the UK's most beloved TV shows have been flagged by counter terror programme Prevent.

Hit shows like Yes Minister and The Thick Of It and even Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys were bizarrely described as "encouraging far-right sympathies".

Meanwhile, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare were placed on a list of "key texts" for white supremacists.

A report by the programme's Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) said that extremists posted "reading lists" on online chat boards.

The document shared a list of these "important texts" under pictures of Nigel Farage and 1930s British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley.

Works from BBC's 1990s political thriller House of Cards toclassic film The Dambusters to John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy made the rankings.

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House of Cards screenwriter Andrew Davies said that he had thought the list was "a joke" and emphasised that his show was a satire of the Right.

Historian and broadcaster Andrew Roberts told the Daily Mail: "This is truly extraordinary. This is the reading list of anyone who wants a civilised, liberal, cultured education.

"It includes some of the greatest works in the Western canon and in some cases – such as Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent – powerful critiques of terrorism. Burke, Huxley, Orwell and Tolkien were all anti-totalitarian writers."

Meanwhile, noted author and Sun columnist Douglas Murray was shocked to discover that one of his own books had been flagged.

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He wrote in The Spectator: "A number of books are singled out, the possession or reading of which could point to severe wrongthink and therefore potential radicalisation… It seems that RICU is so far off-track that it believes that books identifying the problem that it was itself set up to tackle are in fact a part of the problem."

He called the report "pathetic" and called for "sackings by the score" over its unusual findings.

The list comes after a damning review into Prevent by William Shawcross.

Mr Shawcross found that the scheme applied a "double standard" to Islamist terror threats compared to far-right issues.

His report said that Prevent had highlighted material that "fall well short of the extremism threshold altogether".

It added that the programme had prioritised right-wing terrorism over its Islamist counterpart.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman slammed the scheme for having "defined right-wing extremism too broadly" in a way that included the "respectable Right and the centre-Right".

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "The Home Secretary made clear that Prevent will now ensure it focuses on the key threat of Islamist terrorism, as well as remaining vigilant on emerging threats.

"We’ve accepted all 34 recommendations [from the Shawcross report] and are committed to protecting our country from the threat posed by terrorism."

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