It Could be Worse (Maybe) for the UK

There is much comment on social media, and in the newspapers, about the disastrous start of the Labour government in the UK. Surely, they say, Keir Starmer’s government cannot last – he will have to resign.

Unhappily, Keir Starmer will not resign, and over the next 4 ½ years or so his government will hasten the UK towards catastrophe. The UK will be weaker, poorer, sicker, more dangerous, more divided, and wounded on pretty much any metric that you care to choose.

But it could be worse. It was worse in 1066 when, owing to the treachery of King Harold’s brother Tostig[1], the country was invaded by that thug, William of Normandy. That invasion plunged the country into, not 4 years but some 400 years of decline and misery.

Newspeak from the Next PM

It was thoroughly depressing to hear from Keir Starmer following the D-Day celebrations this week. He said:

Before the event I went down just to look at the beaches where those young men and women ran up on D-Day and I found that very humbling to just think of the bravery: they were under fire as they came ashore

For heaven sake! Does he not know that there were no women running up the beach on D-Day under fire?[1] Presumably, he reckons that “young men and women” sounds better than “young men”, and is perfectly happy to trash what could have been a respectful occasion with his politically correct woke nonsense.

But it is worse than that. Anxious, presumably, not to be out woked by Starmer, the Prime Minister for the time being, Rishi Sunak, issued a tweet saying:

The 80th anniversary of D-Day has been a profound moment to honour the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our values, our freedom and our democracy.

In those weaselly words, Sunak implied without saying as much that women were in the front line on that day. Of course women (including my mother, who drove an ambulance in London during that war) made a very significant contribution during the Second World War in numerous support roles. But they did not take part in the D-Day landings.

But it gets worse still. The Telegraph included a piece with the headline:

D-Day 80: We Were There, review: the memories of the Normandy heroes still deserve to be heard

Now in their nineties and older, the men and women who landed on the beaches on D-Day gave moving testimony in BBC Two’s documentary

One might think that Keir Starmer is not very well informed, but The Torygraph! Happily, Max Hastings is not dead, but if he were, he would, one might think, be turning in his grave at this appallingly slack journalism.[2]

Does it matter that the politicians and the newspapers are prepared to say things which are manifestly untrue as a matter of well documented fact in support of some neo-religious dogma? Well, yes it does, actually.

And