Thursday 23 March 2017

Impressionistic view of The Day After

These are just personal impressions.They’re offered in the true spirit of ‘views my own’ .

When all you hear from our MPs is: “we won’t let the terrorists win. We’ll carry on our daily business as usual” you might not expect torrents of cliches belched out in churchy, reverential tones by MPs of all shapes and sizes to totally occupy parliamentary business for a whole morning. Get on with parliamentary business then, why don’t you?

Theresa May set an (almost) appropriate tone, which was quite enough. Hearing MP after MP reciting a speech that is virtually identical to the previous speeches of right honourable friend after right honourable friend, one loses hope. Even those that desperately tried (and failed) to add an original thought to the recipe managed to trip themselves up.

When Jeremy Corbyn tried to commiserate with the injured French schoolchildren he couldn’t pronounce Concarneau. Then he announced that we wouldn’t be ‘cowered’, as if he was studiously avoiding the word ‘cowed’ with its unfortunate cattle resonances. (Not that he actually was doing anything quite so clever. He just thought ‘cowered’ was the right word.)

Everyone insisted they wouldn’t be divided and that terrorists wouldn’t make us change our ways of life. Keep calm and carry on and don’t mention the war.

Theresa May spoke about the shared values of free people, but she made it sound like ‘three people”, which made me wonder whether I was dreaming or whether it had actually turned into a full-blown farce.

Michael Fallon said something about the pointlessness or fruitlessness  of murdering “completely innocent people”, apparently forgetting that one of ISIS’s pet objectives is putting the kibosh on tourism. Remember Tunisia?

I wondered if Andrew Mitchell felt any pangs. Surely he might think it puts the whole policemen-gates-bike pantomime into perspective.

Laura K was reprimanded by a former security services expert on the Daily Politics for making prematurely disparaging remarks about the police. Her scoop about NICs must have gone to her head. 

The last thing I want to hear is Harriet Harman yakking on about Islamophobia.




There’s a virtue-signal graphic doing the rounds, which I wholeheartedly approve of - but with reservations about  No 4. where the image from Tel Aviv ‘lit up in solidarity’ is concerned.





 I found it quite moving. Particularly because here in the UK we obviously aren’t ready to reciprocate that sentiment.

8 comments:

  1. He was apparently a known career criminal. Yet he was free on the streets, able to do whatever he pleased. That's a massive system failure even before you get to the Islam bit. Plus MI5 apparently have thousands of them under surveillance at any given time, so what the hell is going on? This is mathetmatically unsustainable. Lock them all up or send them all away - or accept that a certain amount of people will killed every now and again so the politicians and pundits can feel good about their 'British Values'.

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  2. Ah, what would one do without Mehdi?

    Here he is, joining in the chorus of shock and disgust...

    https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/844944382549725184

    Or, not, as is his wont.

    What do we reckon? Guest slot on Marr or SML?

    Lol.

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  3. David there are an awaful ot of these wretched people about. In a report by the HoC Intelligence and security committee a year or two ago it was stated that ther were between 7 & 8,000 people who are of interest to the security services in the U.K. I have a friend who is ex Flying Squad and Special Branch (now anti-terrorist unit) He was coming up to my area to carry out surveillance on some what he described as very naughty boys.(Criminals rather than terrorists) There were four of them and to do this he needed his full team and he had hoped I would put some up. I asked how many he had and he replied 64. When I queried this he said we are not dealing with errant husbands if we get spotted the whole operation is off, you do need that many. Multiply 7,000 by and you get 448,000 that is how many people you would need to track all these toerags. Then add in the fact they are of Asian ethnic origin. I know that is a little simplistic but it gives you some idea of difficulties the security people have.

    Good post Sue we need to just carry on. James Cleverley had a very personal involvement and was worth listening too but there was a lot of virtue signalling and last night listening to the radio to M.P.s saying they were terrified or it was terrifying, most of them would soon change their tune if faced with a real and immediate threat. Having said that thank God I am not put to the test because I would probbaly be found wanting.

    Chris The Leatherman

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    Replies
    1. This murderer was a known career criminal, even before we get to the Islam element. Career criminal out on the street doing what they please has been a system-wide failure for years and years. Plus the widespread extremism problem within the prison system. A failure of politicians and damage done by 'advocates'.

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    2. I agree that there are major problems in the prison system, not just with radicalisation but with drugs and violence and all kinds other issues. In fact it’s a sore that’s been allowed to fester for decades. But I can’t help feeling that even if the resources at the disposal of the security services were increased tenfold attacks like this would still happen.

      I’m not for one second saying that these are not important matters, but by focussing on the security aspect, as the BBC has almost entirely since the attack is that is has become a kind of smokescreen, whilst the “not about Islam” dogma prevails.
      I don’t know how we deal with Islam in a liberal democracy, but I do know that pretending that there isn’t a problem is not the solution.

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    3. Throwing more money at it isn't necessarily the solution, either. I agree with your point about the BBC using the security issue as a distraction, but I'm really talking about the day-to-day failings of the justice system that allows career criminals like this to roam the streets and get into trouble over and over again. This is a systemic failure, including the police, magistrates, the legal system itself, and the politicians and 'human rights' lawyers and activists who have created the environment in which the murderer apparently thrived.

      That's before we get to discussing the intelligence services needing to monitor thousands of potential jihadi johnnies (© Andrew Neil). This problem goes way beyond just criminal Mohammedans. This is just one more negative result.

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  4. The overiding impression that I got from the BBC was that we had become complacent, we were walking about looking at our mobile phones unaware of the danger in our midst, (and what our politicians have done to us?).

    Meanwhile, in the BBC-bubble, life goes on as normal. As Mark Easton says:

    “The boys at Westminster School, tucked behind the abbey, just across from parliament, don’t have fire drills these days, they have lock-down drills. And today everything they prepared for was put into practice. For years Londoners have been warned the question was not if another attack would come but when. Anyone who regularly travels in the capital has read the signs and heard the advice about suspicious activity and unattended packages. The possibility of being caught up in random violence crosses peoples’ minds regularly, it’s part of living in a big city. But when it comes, it still knocks you. I was on public transport as details of today’s incident flashed on peoples’ ‘phones. I could see commuters adjusting to the news, brows furrowed, sometimes a quick text, presumably to say they were safe, and then, onto their day as planned. This evening, outside the police cordon, theatres and cinemas, the bars and restraunts of central London are open as normal. There are extra police officers on patrol, some with guns, to give reassurance, but even they are are a regularly familiar site in the nation’s capital. London had been expecting this. It is horrific. It is desperately sad, but beyond the police tape life remains calm and carries on.”

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  5. The government have a strategy called 'Prevent' to stop radicalisation in schools and mosques etc. Lo and behold on Wednesday morning I heard someone on Today saying it was good programme and was working quite well. I was amazed because the only time I have heard about Prevent on the BBC was because it was being criticised for one reason or another, mainly I think because it reduces some civil liberties. I put prevent agenda into Google and after 4 government website references the next reference is the BBC: Analysis The prevent strategy and its' problems.

    Chris The Leatherman

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