Whose Streets?

In London, unassimilable immigrant minorities have taken over whole streets under the flag of the foreign state that in April 2024 used British intelligence to murder three British veterans who were delivering humanitarian aid, and under the flag of the absolute monarchy that they demand be restored by British military intervention.

The demonstrations against such an intervention are not in support of Ali Khamenei, who is dead. They are being organised and led by the people who have been called the supporters of Saddam Hussein, of Bashar al-Assad, and of Vladimir Putin, despite having spent many, many years as the only opponents of each of them in British politics. Also being waved on the other side is the flag of an Islamo-Marxist organisation that was long headquartered in Saddam’s Iraq, where it fought for him against Iran and participated in atrocities committed by his Revolutionary Guard. During the Iraq War, it was bombed into surrender as part of a deal with Iran to hand over certain al-Qaeda suspects who were of course opponents of the Iranian regime.

If you have supported the previous catastrophic adventures, but you draw the line this time, then that is only because you find Donald Trump personally distasteful. Likewise, Reform UK is pro-war for two reasons, that it cannot say no to Trump, and that Richard Tice lives in Dubai. Some patriotism there. Truly, Reform is the Conservative Party Mark II, craven before the American Empire and its princely states in the Gulf, and largely resident in one or both of them, at least for tax purposes. The same goes for Advance UK and for the Irishman Stephen Yaxley-Lennon who, from his home in Spain, endorsed Advance the day before it took fewer votes than the Monster Raving Loony Party.

Restore Britain is sound enough on this, but its membership extends to foreigners who are nothing less than banned from the United Kingdom, yet it will soon be using a seat in the House of Commons to demand that much of the England football and cricket teams be cut on racial grounds. Still, Rupert Lowe’s opposition to this war is consistent with his desire to protect the safety of girls, 165 or more of whom were killed in Minab when their elementary school was bombed yesterday morning, the beginning of the working week in Iran. Yaxley-Lennon, or Ben Habib, cannot say that. Nor can Robert Jenrick or Matt Goodwin.

But regime change from the air alone? Curtis LeMay’s turn as George Wallace’s Vice Presidential running mate in 1968 was a very rare political intervention by an Air Force Officer, and I can think of only one who has ever headed a military coup, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in Ghana, where he tried three times and succeeded twice. Is that reticence because you cannot change a regime from the air alone? Are we about to see that proved in Iran? Are we already seeing it?