Killed On His Way To Church On Christmas Eve, The Latest Victim Of Smug 'Liberals'

Alan Greaves, 68, from Sheffield, who died after being brutally attacked on his way to midnight mass on Christmas Eve

By Peter Hitchens

Those of us who know what is going on in this country are often derided by smug, wealthy Londoners.

They accuse us of ‘moral panic’ and of exaggerating the breakdown of our society.

I ask these complacent people to consider the terrible death of Alan Greaves, attacked on Christmas Eve itself. He was on his way to play the organ at Midnight Mass. Instead he met evil on a suburban road, as it is now all too easy to do.

Our safety on the dark streets does not depend on police patrols, which is a good thing as they have virtually been abolished. It depends on an invisible web of goodness and restraint, conscience and courage – all things encouraged by the Christian belief that Mr Greaves did so much to support, and which we celebrate and recall at this time of year.

Yet these protections could not be relied upon. A gentle, kindly man  could not walk safely from his home to his church. His wife’s casual goodbye to him turned out to be a final farewell. 

The horrible, diabolical injuries he suffered suggest that his assailant’s mind is in some way unhinged, quite possibly by the drugs which we have effectively legalised in our pursuit of pleasure at all costs.

Yet no general conclusions will be drawn from this by those who take all the decisions in our society. Those who pontificated grandiosely about a school massacre in America will see no lesson in this, because it does not suit their views. 

The loss of Mr Greaves, a 68-year-old grandfather, has left a great dark gap in the lives of many people who loved, liked or respected him. 

But it is the manner of his death that ought to wake a feeling of alarm – and shame – in the minds of those who have subjected this country to a vast, 50-year liberal experiment.

Organist: Mr Greaves was on his way to St Saviour's CoE Church in High Green to play the organ when he was attacked

We were going to be so enlightened and progressive that we would no longer have to be good.

Authority, punishment, morality, self-discipline, patience, thrift, religion were all deemed to be outdated and unnecessary, not to mention repressive, backward and unfit for this wondrous new century.

It was, of course, a terrible mistake, though none of those responsible will admit it, so it goes on and on. And now we live in a country where an organist can meet a violent end on his way to a Christmas service, and the police can explain such an incident as ‘a robbery gone wrong’.

Who thought of this idiotic, insulting phrase? Do our modern non-judgmental police think there is ever a robbery that goes right?  The trouble is that they probably do.