Din and Confusion

The maximum possible number of Stars from the Second World War was six, but by my reckoning it would have been impossible to have served in all the necessary theatres.

The 1939-1945 Star, the Africa Star with 8th Army Clasp, the Italy Star, the France and Germany Star, the War Medal 1939–1945, and my father never talked about having killed anyone, although he obviously had, much less did he brag about a precise total.

Mine was the last generation to have known that one in any numbers, even remembering them still working when we were children, and you can take it from us that they just did not talk like that. Contrary to the stereotype, they were profoundly reticent about the War.

But then, how can Prince Harry possibly know that he killed 25 Taliban, rather than 24 or 26, when he did it from a helicopter? How can he be sure that they were Taliban at all? And with a record like that, how come he was so upset when his brother, an RAF Search and Rescue pilot, broke his necklace?

Called To Order

After three days, the United States House of Representatives still finds itself unable to elect a Speaker, but that is nothing. From November 1268 to September 1271, the election of a successor to Pope Clement IV lasted three years, during which two of the 19 Cardinals died. More than a year before the eventual election of Blessed Gregory X, the Cardinals had been locked in, their rations had been reduced to bread and water, and the roof of their palace had been taken off.

But the Incarnation of the Divine Logos made no promise to George Washington. And the world is watching, in the way that at least much of it was watching Britain's Year of Three Prime Ministers. "Anglosphere" smugness is misplaced. The parallels with the last days of other once-great civilisations and polities are too obvious to miss. And that is before mentioning either of the Markles. What have both British and Hollywood royalty become? What they really always have been, but now, unforgivably, in public.

None of the main political parties can even see the problem, since they themselves are no small part of it, but in what is itself perhaps a sign of it, although one that we could turn to our advantage, we are heading for a hung Parliament. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.

Argument For A Week, Laughter For A Month, And A Good Jest Forever

Prince Harry should never have left the Army. He seems to have been moderately good at that. But "a humiliating episode with an older woman who liked macho horses and who treated me like a young stallion"? Is he really so uneducated that he cannot see that that reads as a suggestion that he lost his virginity to a lady who ordinarily preferred her relationships stable? "She spanked my ass," indeed. 

Still, like Henry VIII before him and Prince Hal before that, Prince Harry will always be an amateur compared to their ancestor and namesake, Henry I. William the Conqueror’s youngest son probably became King of England by having one his own brothers murdered, certainly became Duke of Normandy by defeating another brother in battle, had at least 29 children by at least eight (and possibly 19) different women, and literally ate himself to death on the night of 1st and 2nd December 1135, aged 67.

Spare Us All

This is just what royalty does. We choose to have a monarchy, but in practice without the powers that it used to have, so we choose to have a Royal Family the members of which behaved like this, rather than murdering each other as their ancestors did. The proper nastiness is now for those who were trying to secure the office of Prime Minister, in which almost the whole of the Royal Prerogative has come to be vested for all practical purposes.

In the cause of economic equality and international peace, which is the only way of defending family and community life from the “woke capitalism” that is the only kind of either, we ought not to be seeking to abolish the Royal Prerogative, but to exercise it. The whole of it, no matter to which committee or self-perpetuating oligarchy any part of it might have been surrendered. All of it must be taken back, and in most cases that would be perfectly simple to do.

Previous Governments have handed over jaw-dropping amounts of power to the Deep State, having of course been installed for the purpose. These people clearly never wanted to run the country. Again, that was why they were put in by the people who did. For example, while each generation presumably produces an obvious Astronomer Royal, why hand over the power to appoint Regius Professors, or certain Oxbridge Heads of House, or the Poet Laureate? Never mind the judiciary? Or 26 members of Parliament? And how entitled is the Liberal Establishment in the Church of England, to assume the right to appoint those 26 legislators over the rest of us?

But those powers have never been legislated away. Almost nothing in Britain ever is quite abolished or repealed. It falls into prolonged desuetude, but it is still there. Jeremy Corbyn would have made full use of the Royal Prerogative; there are no republicans in possession of the powers of a Medieval monarch. Disgracing Eton and Oxford, Boris Johnson also showed tendencies in that direction. So the Deep State had to get rid of the pair of them. It has done so, even before either of them could turn his attention to reversing the statutory surrender of control over monetary policy.

Meanwhile, if you feel that you ought to “perform an historic or ceremonial role at the King’s Coronation”, then there is a handy little form for you to download. “All claims must be submitted in writing to the Coronation Claims Office by 5.30pm on Friday 3 February 2023.”

It Doesn't Add Up

They always claim not to like "one size fits all" education, despite themselves being products of the system that took people from every part of Britain, of all countries, and turned them out with the same accent, an accent that only they had.

Today, one of their number has proposed the jolly muster of making everyone study Mathematics until the age of 18. What, at Winchester, too? In any case, who would teach it? But at least Rishi Sunak's wheeze has reminded everyone that compulsory education now went up to the 18 that had always been assumed in his own social milieu. It is amazing how many do not seem to realise that. 

As with Proportional Representation or a republic, the arguments made on both sides of the debate over votes at 16 are rubbish, so there is no case for change, although we could live with that change if it came, again as with Proportional Representation or a republic.

Still, proponents might at least admit that by advocating a voting age two years below the school leaving age, they were literally advocating votes for children. Not that it will ever happen. Like Proportional Representation or a republic, it is too divisive within either main party. Yes, either. Ask around.

Prepare Against Them Whatever You Are Able

Like the rest of us, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps quakes at the mere mention of the name of Suella Braverman. She might try to explain why it was not already a proscribed terrorist organisation? And why, if it were to become one, then the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran was not? Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper or David Lammy is hardly going to ask those questions, but we are heading for a hung Parliament.

To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.

In Bold Below

The BBC admits that it was a scam:

Panorama, BBC One, 10 July 2019

The programme contained an interview with Izzy Lenga who had experienced antisemitism after she became a student activist. Viewers heard her discuss her experiences:

I’m Izzy Lenga, I joined the Labour Party in 2015… The antisemitic abuse I received was what I was subjected to every single day… Telling me Hitler was right, telling me Hitler did not go far enough… 

In Labour Party meetings… we’ve seen people engage in Holocaust denial… and that’s terrifying for Jewish members… It absolutely breaks my heart to say but I do not think the Labour Party is a safe space for Jewish people any more.

If the programme were to be re-broadcast, we would include some additional comments (in bold below) from Ms Lenga’s original interview to give viewers further context around her experiences:

I’m Izzy Lenga, I joined the Labour Party in 2015… When I was a student… being quite a high profile Jewish woman student, I was subjected to quite a lot of like nasty vitriol and abuse… The antisemitic abuse I received… was what I was subjected to every single day… Predictably a lot of it came from the far right… neo-Nazi abuse… telling me Hitler was right, telling me Hitler did not go far enough and even more… What absolutely baffled me, was at the same time, I was receiving… very similar and almost often the exact same tropes and anti-Semitic abuse… from the far left.

In Labour Party meetings… we’ve seen people engage in Holocaust denial… and that’s terrifying for Jewish members… It absolutely breaks my heart to say but I do not think the Labour Party is a safe space for Jewish people any more.

Over to the BBC to say when, exactly, it did indeed intend to re-broadcast that programme, even at two o’clock in the morning on BBC Four. That once-fêted Panorama has been sent to live with The Black and White Minstrel Show. As for John Ware, when, exactly, is any broadcaster going to use him again? He has his ill-gotten damages to keep him in his old age, although he would have lost in front of a jury, and the judge had struck out his mark’s defence at an earlier hearing. But by any other measure, Ware is ruined, as he richly deserves to be. And there are still two years to go until the next General Election.