Remembrance Sunday is now 'a crazy religious ritual dominated by poppy fascism', says David Starkey

Starkey is an amusing commentator.  He says things that tend to offend both the Left and the Right.  But because he is queer, both sides tend to let him off without criticism.

Today's blast is vintage Starkey. He actually says below a lot of things that many conservatives would like to hear said more often.  He is very good on political correctness and Greta Thunberg.

As far as his criticism of armistice day customs is concerned, perhaps he is right that some people act out of mere formality rather than anything heartfelt.  But he, as an historian, must know what horrors armistice day ended and no feeling person could remain unaffected by that knowledge. Very many of us lost family members in that and other wars

And members or former members of the armed forces are particularly aware of the horrors of war. Many returned men from both world wars never spoke of their wartime experiences out of aversion even to think of what they underwent.

My time in the armed forces was maximally undistinguished (though I did reach the rank of Sergeant) but no time in the armed forces leaves you unaffected and it is with a whole heart that I mark armistice day very year.  I don't ever do much but I did this year wear a poppy badge before and during the day and did make a small donation to an ex-diggers' organization. "Digger" is an honorific word for a soldier in Australia.

Note that Starkey (on the Right below) IS wearing a poppy badge.

 

Remembrance Sunday has become a "crazy religious ritual" which wrongly turns soldiers into either "victims or heroes", television historian David Starkey has said.

Speaking to Chopper's Election Podcast, Mr Starkey attacked what he described as "poppy fascism" which requires people to demonstrate that they are remembering Britain's war dead.

He said that acts of remembrance had "become a crazy religious ritual. It's become abstracted from reality. There is what we call poppy fascism, we're both suffering from it. The absolute requirement to do it".

He said: "It's also associated again with something else: we’re turning soldiers into either victims or heroes, and the two sort of uneasily shift around each other. They’re neither.

"Say if you have mass war and conscription, today's soldiers are volunteers. They are doing it usually because they like it, and they get tremendously excited about it. And many of them just enjoy killing and that’s very useful."

Mr Starkey, a constitutional expert, also took aim at today's politicians saying that many were not good enough to run the country and said MPs should no longer be paid to stop them getting "above their station" and defying the Government over Brexit.

He attacked the Left for using offence at inadvertent racist comments to shut down online debate like "the Grand Inquisitor" and said adults were "fools" for taking seriously the environmental warnings from the Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg.

Mr Starkey said it was "frankly mad" that politicians like former Environment secretary Michael Gove prostrated themselves before Miss Thunberg when she warned about threats to the environment.

He said: "The Middle Ages is filled with child saints and intelligent adult people like Michael Gove, prostrating themselves before them ... God speaks through the mouths of babes and sucklings ... and it is frankly mad."

Adults were "fools for treating her seriously. But you see, it also goes along with the sentimentality, it goes along with Diana-fication, it goes along with putting little teddy bears on war memorials. But again, you see, this is also mediaeval: offering up gifts at the shrine."

Mr Starkey said he despaired of modern politicians and pointed to "the 'on the whole' very poor quality of people standing for parliament. "It means that our executive, the Cabinet is generally speaking, spectacularly weak at administrative and intellectual skills - look [at] both front benches frankly.

"The Labour frontbench is indescribable. I mean, the idea of [Liberal Democrat leader] Jo Swinson as Prime Minister for Heaven's sake, you could imagine her running a rather preachy primary school."

Mr Starkey attacked Remain-supporting MPs for obstructing the work of the Government in the last Parliament, saying that they "stand on a party manifesto and they are not elected as individuals".

He said: "You cannot have an MP parading 'I am a free thinking representative and have democracy'. I'm sorry. It doesn't work like that... "They are the rules of Parliament itself, that give the Government with a clear parliamentary majority control over the parliamentary agenda.

"They've got above their station, and I blame paying MPs. I absolutely blame paying MPs, because this gives them the notion they've got a job. MPs don’t have a job.

"The backbench MP is the stooge. Traditionally you were in the Bar, you were employed in business, you were a trade union activist or whatever. And you turned up and you voted as your party tells them to." Mr Starkey warned Tory leader Boris Johnson against trying to modernise his party. He said: "The whole preposterous notion of Tory modernisation was to make the Tory party the party of preference for readers of The Guardian.

"This is an idea so stupid that I'm afraid you have to use a very strong word and say it is ----ing stupid. And it doesn't work, and also it's unhistorical."

Mr Starkey said it was  "by no means clear that Brexit will happen. So I'm afraid history may well record this as, a triumphant beginning, an abortion, an accident. We don't know, until it's done".

Mr Starkey was scornful of Theresa May, the former prime minister, describing her as being "like a dose of ice cold water poured over enthusiasm, she is a kind of permanent vacuum - an utter emptiness".

Mr Starkey also criticised the Left for using "racism" as "the absolute test of moral failure". He said: "Racism now becomes the equivalent of original sin, and also the way that the Left pursues language. It behaves, you know, like a Grand Inquisitor.  "

"If you use minutely the wrong word you are burned alive on Twitter. And that is a form of religious passion."

SOURCE 






Jeremy Corbyn sparked fury today after complaining that a leftist South American leader who quit after winning a disputed election had been ousted by a 'military coup'.

The Fascist Left is clearly where Corbyn belongs.  Too bad what the people think

The Labour leader joined the presidents of Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico in backing Bolivian leader Evo Morales despite him calling time on his 14-year reign.

Mr Morales said yesterday he would resign after the military called on him to step down and allies deserted him following weeks of protests over accusations of election rigging.

His decision prompted Mr Corbyn to tweet: 'To see @evoespueblo who, along with a powerful movement, has brought so much social progress forced from office by the military is appalling. 'I condemn this coup against the Bolivian people and stand with them for democracy, social justice and independence.'

His comments were criticised by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who branded them 'unbelievable. 'The Organisation of American States refused to certify the Bolivian election because of systemic flaws,' Mr Raab said.

'The people are protesting and striking on an unprecedented scale. But Jeremy Corbyn puts Marxist solidarity ahead of democracy.'

In a televised address Mr Morales he said he would submit his resignation letter to help restore stability, though he aimed barbs at what he called a 'civic coup.'

'I am resigning, sending my letter of resignation to the Legislative Assembly,' Morales said, adding that it was his 'obligation as indigenous president and president of all Bolivians to seek peace.'

The departure of Morales, a leftist icon and the last survivor of Latin America's 'pink tide' of two decades ago, is likely to send shockwaves across the region at a time when left-leaning leaders have returned to power in Mexico and Argentina.

Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez served as a sometime mentor to Morales, told allies to mobilize in support of Morales.

'We have to take care of our brother Evo Morales,' Maduro said in a recording broadcast on Venezuelan state television. 'We must declare a vigil in solidarity to protect him.'

But Morales' resignation could unnerve the Venezuelan leader, who has clung to power this year despite an opposition campaign to convince the armed forces to rebel.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, another longtime Morales ally, tweeted his 'solidarity' and said: 'The world must be mobilized for the life and freedom of Evo.'

Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican foreign minister, said today that the Bolivian military's call for Morales to resign had violated 'the constitutional order' in Bolivia.

The Mexican foreign minister indicated that Morales, who resigned Sunday, would be welcome to seek asylum in Mexico.

'What happened yesterday is a step back for the whole continent,' Ebrard said. 'We're very worried.'

Some of Morales' leftist allies in Latin America decried the turn of events as a 'coup,' including Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Argentine President-elect Alberto Fernandez.

Bolivia under Morales had one of the region's strongest economic growth rates and its poverty rate was cut in half, though his determination to cling to power and seek a fourth term alienated many allies, even among indigenous communities.

Pressure had been ramping up on Morales since he was declared the winner of an October 20 election.

General Williams Kaliman, the head of Bolivia's armed forces, earlier on Sunday said the military had asked Morales to step down to help restore peace and stability after weeks of protests over the vote.

Kaliman added that the military was calling on the Bolivian people to refrain from violence and disorder.

SOURCE 






Woman who was raped by Somali migrant tells of her anguish that he is STILL in the UK a year after his deportation was blocked by ignorant do-gooders

The victim of rapist Yaqub Ahmed last night spoke of her anger and pain that he has still not been kicked out of Britain more than a year after plane passengers blocked his removal.

Ahmed's botched deportation in 2018 revived horrific memories of her rape 12 years ago when she was just a teenager, and led to a collapse in her mental health.

Her anguish has continued as Ahmed has launched a fresh legal challenge to avoid being deported to Somalia. 'This can't be allowed to go on,' she told The Mail on Sunday.

'I am struggling to move on. I was in such a good place last year. I was working, I was studying. And then this [the failed deportation] happened and my life has not been the same again. All I want to do is just get on with my life and not constantly worry about this. The time I've spent sat up at night crying my eyes out – it's exhausting and draining.'

The 28-year-old mother is worried that treatment for her mental health problems 'is not going to be effective until all of this comes to a close'.

She was only 16 when, after enjoying a night out in London's Leicester Square, she was lured to a flat in North London and raped.

Ahmed and two other men were convicted of planning and carrying out the rape and were each jailed for nine years. A fourth man was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to rape.

Voicing her disgust at Ahmed's pleas of innocence at last week's bail hearing, she said: 'Does he not understand they have got DNA evidence? How could they get DNA evidence if he didn't do it? He can't sit there in the face of everything and say that it didn't happen. I find it ridiculous that he still is not able to admit it.'

She believes his court outburst provides an insight into his true character. 'He is out of control still. Imagine what he was like behind closed doors,' she said. 'This is a tantrum because he knows he is close to getting deported and things aren't going his way. He is clutching at straws.'

SOURCE 






Bill Gates joins fight for vaccinations after witnessing horror measles inflicts on young and writes article arguing anti-vaxx scare is harming our children

The billionaire Microsoft founder says people have forgotten the death and devastation wreaked by diseases such as measles, polio and pneumonia.

Writing in today's Mail, he describes the heart-wrenching experience of watching a child become severely ill as their body is ravaged by measles.

He refers to the 'tragic irony' that vaccination rates have soared in developing countries while plummeting in wealthy nations.

'I can't imagine seeing us win that fight in one part of the world, only to see us start losing it in another,' he adds.

The Mail launched its Give Children Their Jabs campaign last month after a Government report revealed uptake had fallen for all ten routine childhood vaccinations.

Health officials are particularly worried about MMR vaccination rates, which have slipped to their lowest level for seven years.

Mr Gates said: 'Like others involved in the Mail's campaign, I am concerned about the decline in Britain's immunisation rates.'

The 64-year-old has spent years championing the importance of vaccinations through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is devoted to improving health in developing countries.

Mr Gates, the second-richest person in the world with a net worth of around £83billion, has donated billions of pounds to Gavi – an organisation which buys vaccines for children in poor countries.

He is the latest influential health leader to back the Daily Mail's campaign to vaccinate every child.

Others include Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Simon Stevens, head of NHS England.

The Mail is calling on the Government to launch a mass awareness drive to reassure parents that jabs are both safe and essential. We also want the NHS to introduce reminders via text message to alert busy families of upcoming vaccinations.

Figures from NHS Digital show that only 86 per cent of five-year-olds received both doses of the MMR jab in 2018/19.

This is well below the World Health Organisation's target of 95 per cent coverage that is needed to preserve herd immunity.

Six children are admitted to hospital with pneumonia every hour amid soaring rates of the vaccine-preventable disease, NHS figures show.

Emergency admissions have risen more than 50 per cent over the past decade, with 56,000 children taken to hospital with the condition last year.

NHS Digital data shows uptake rates for the pneumonia vaccine have plummeted. Last year 92.8 per cent of children received jabs, down from 94.4 per cent in 2012/13.

Analysis from Save the Children and Unicef revealed that 27 children in England were killed by the disease last year.

SOURCE 

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

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