I spent Saturday night travelling through West London to Sloane Square to watch the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain . On the way we passed families returning to Slough draped in English flags.
We didn’t want to cross central London to the City, we knew there was still two protests, the one on behalf of England and the other protesting against them. We went home after our concert, with other jolly Great British people joining us.
This was the prom of Brian May and Roger Taylor, 20th century patriotism touted as the Final Night’s upgrade!
We all went back on tubes and trains – we went back to lower Slough – Eton (in practice and in spirit).
There was jolliness about the prommers, making their way from the Albert Hall, promoting a different vision of England and other home countries. It is the preserve of a vision of nationality that has nothing in common with that of Tommy Robinson, supported by Elon Musk. Maybe 1,500 prommers, 1,000 of us jolly geriatrics in Cadogan and a couple of miles to Trafalgar Square the last remains of Tommy Robinson’s rally.
What do the ever so nice prommers and ukulele fans do about the militant patriots? It’s not their kind of patriotism, England is not a notion or a flag we want (still want an EU flag for the most part).
And yet it is the reality of London. I have these thoughts about Reform. It sticks in my throat to say it but while we may not agree with it, we cannot ignore it.
The Cadogan and Royal Albert Hall are vey jolly , but they are irrelevant to the 150,000 with Tommy and Elon. Reform is unfamiliar to LGPS and to the institutions of pension. But there are more people who support Reform than support anyone else and if pensions are for the people who get paid them, how can their views be ignored?
Now on the river
As I write, I see wooden boats returning from St Katherine’s dock up river. These boats were for the most part 50 years or more old , some parading the flags they might have flown to Dunkirk. Their festival was last weekend, they sit upstream of us in Eton
They represent a memory of Britain which is owned by a few wealthy people. They own a different England flag which flies on every boat. Not the thin nylon flags bought by the Tommy Robinson crew but made from thick material that might last another 50 years.
The Tommy Robinson patriots were not part of the Katherine’s Dock event
I’d like to say I can see an easy way out of this patriotic diversity but I can’t.
Hello Henry,
What kind of patriotism do you subscribe to…?
Well…perhaps you are looking at it? On the one hand all those people had a legal right to be in central London to demonstrate their views. Apparently there were others not far away demonstrating against them and they suffered violence as a consequence.
Last century in two World Wars, with a great loss of life and injury, Britain and their Allies all fought for themselves and their right to have a free society. I am the first generation of Britain who has never been called to Arms and I am very grateful about it. Winston Churchill is on record as saying that whilst he might not agree with his neighbour’s views, he would fight for his priveledge to state them. You cannot say better than that. Yes, we’ve have to adapt that view to prevent political extremists etc and rightly so. Personally I believe that BREXIT was balanced on racism since it is becoming more evident here all the time e.g. the flags ‘culture’.
What (dare I say it) example is being given by the various Governments. While our own is seeking to obtain improvements in quality of life etc they are bedeviled
by the national media eager to stir up normal issues to crisis pitch to distract them. Presumably the media are thrilled that it is all being fully welcomed by a small (extreme) right-wing party who are being given far more national publicity than they are entitled to. Especially since the majority of British newspapers are also right-wing and mostly little more than rich men’s megaphones.
Elon Musk (the World’s richest man) urged the demonstrators, attending the Tommy Robinson gathering, by video link. He poured millions of dollars into the US President’s election (along with other multimillionaire IT manufacturers); is he doing that to Robinson and other extremists here too? Yet Robinson, like Trump, is a convicted lawbreaker. What is the USA now getting for all that donated money? If you are not sure, just have a look in the New York Times. One of the President’s leading supporters was recently murdered: it’s the fault of the left-wingers (Democrats); the budget isn’t working, it’s the fault of Joe Biden; riots in the cities: no criticism. A civilian boat in international waters is attacked: they were terrorists. Other untruths abound. The ICT roam the streets and banish people who have a right to be in the USA. The National Guard are being put into cities that are allegedly out of control, when the local Authorities deny it. Sackings hint of racism. All done in the name of Patriotism and it is being eagerly welcomed by those people here who share such views .
Does the US administrative situation not smack of Europe in the 1930s? Yet we are giving the President a State Visit this week.
Russia and China who both run Police States successfully must be rubbing their hands in glee that democracy is, yet again, showing not to be efficient and weak. Possibly that’s with their financial help to those parties here seeking to overturn it.
Will we be surprised if the situation here degrades? Doubtful.
Perhaps we are just getting old…?
Kind regards,
Tim Simpson
Not said by Churchill, Tim, but neither by someone in France as early as Voltaire either?
quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/01/defend-say/
« Je désapprouve ce que vous dites, mais je défendrai jusqu’à la mort votre droit de le dire. »
Churchill, however, wrote/spoke of Greece in 1941 thus:
“They declared they would fight for their native soil even if neither of their neighbours made common cause with them and even if we left them to their fate.”
Sorry to be pedantic.
Personally I don’t think I would have been prepared to fight for such people, even if they may be our neighbours.
Like one of Tom McPhail’s quotes from Adam Smith, I dislike attempts to “kill” (Henry’s word) argument and debate with elegant prose, which is never the last word on such matters.
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