Monday 26 October 2015

Where Are We, Exactly?

Peter Hitchens writes:

How comical that the Government plans to spend £20billion on a new superpower nuclear missile fleet when it has already sold this country to the Chinese police state.

Who will be frightened by this unusable, overblown Cold War weapon?

Not China, for sure. They already know we are led by gutless worms who won’t defend our independence or our way of life.

Last week, in return for some dubious and overstated investments, we handed over the heart of our capital to Peking’s security goons, some of whom allegedly intimidated and photographed British protesters.

They also marshalled a disturbing rentacrowd of Chinese students. These citizens of the People’s Republic wisely obeyed their vigilant embassy’s orders, and held up pro-Peking banners (quite possibly made in prison camps) flown in by the Chinese embassy.

They blocked protesters from view and drowned them out with arrogant drumbeats and blaring loudspeakers – a blatant breach of the regulations of the Royal Parks, where this was going on.

The police did nothing at all. They were busy elsewhere.

While Parliament, Premier and Palace prostrated themselves before this despot, a brave few objected to his presence.

An alarming but little-shown piece of TV film shows what happened to one of them. He stood alone, close to the path of the Chinese leader’s procession.

In each hand he held up a small placard, making a nonsense of excuses that he might have been hiding a weapon or a bomb. One said: ‘End autocracy.’ The other read: ‘Democracy now.’

The man’s name is Shao Jiang. He witnessed the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Peking’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 so he knows in detail what modern China is really like, as most of us don’t.

Suddenly he was barged by a police officer in a crash helmet, quickly joined by two colleagues, who pushed him backwards at the double, as he feebly protested.

I have watched the film at least 50 times and can see no justification for the level of force used. But I can explain it. It looks as if the police were ordered at all costs to ensure that China’s leader did not see or hear any protests.

Here at just after 4 minutes 20 seconds (no whingeing, please, about the exact time), is film of what happened to Shao Jiang.

Two Tibetan women, who did no more than try to wave the flag of their stolen country [well...], were also arrested.

All three were held overnight, on suspicion of offences which expert lawyers think are quite absurd, and which look to me as if they were devised to keep them off the streets until the Chinese leader had gone home.

They must wait until Christmas to find out if they will be prosecuted. Worse still, their homes were raided and searched, and some personal possessions removed, just as they would have been in Peking.

This, for holding up a couple of placards and a flag? Where are we, exactly?

It looks to me as if David Cameron and President Xi did indeed discuss freedom, law and civil rights in their private meetings.

And that China’s despot persuaded Mr Cameron that the Chinese way of dealing with opposition was better than ours.

If I weren’t so ashamed of my sold and submissive country, once so free and so proud of being free, I’d burst out laughing.

And:

We have lots of coal, but won’t use it because fanatics claim it hurts the planet. We demolish expensively built and efficient coal-fired power stations.

Meanwhile, we destroy our steel industry by forcing it to pay huge green taxes also meant to discourage the use of wicked coal.

The result of this? More steel is made in China, which is building coal-fired power stations even faster than we are blowing them up.

Oh, and having destroyed our own superb nuclear industry by dogmatically privatising it, we’re paying foreign state enterprises to build nuclear power stations, which will make electricity at prices nobody can afford.

And I’m supposed to believe our Government is competent.

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