Kemi Badenoch doesn't have time to watch television, she told, Nick Ferrari this morning, but she does know one thing about Adolescence:
"The story which it is based on has been fundamentally changed, and so creating policy on a work of fiction rather than reality is the real issue."
She's referring to a story that has been spread widely by right-wingers on social media, which maintains that the Netflix series Adolescence is based on a real case where a black boy stabbed a white girl.
The race of the boy was changed, the story runs, because of wokeness - or perhaps a global conspiracy involving George Soros, Bill Gates and Gary Lineker.
But this story, like many you find on social media, isn't true.
Here's Jack Thorne, who wrote the screenplay for Adolescence, in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago:
At first, we didn’t know why Jamie, the perpetrator of the attack, did it. We knew he wasn’t a product of abuse or parental trauma. But we couldn’t figure out a motive. Then someone I work with, Mariella Johnson, said: "I think you should look into 'incel' culture."
So the series wasn't written to expose incel culture: it was used as a plot device to develop an intriguing situation.
This is the reason I've been a little worried by the impact that Adolescence has had. Do we know it presented a true picture? Or is there an element of moral panic about a new means young people have found of enjoying themselves?
In fact, this seems to be what Badenoch was trying to get over. But, as ever, her tone was petulant and unpleasant - as though she resented anyone questioning her at all. And she topped her comments with a big fat cherry of a baseless conspiracy theory.
So while I'm not sure whether we should worry so much about the way social media affects teenage boys, I'm certain we should worry about the way it has affected Kemi Badenoch.
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