I don’t know Tim Simpson personally, only through my blog. He is someone who shares his views on the state of our nation and I am pleased he has written a lengthy and thoughtful comment. I am writing from opposite Windsor which is bedecked with Star Spangled Banners. I will be with a dying friend today and in Scotland this week. But the events of the weekend will stay with me and the thoughts of Tim Simpson trouble me. I thank him for doing so.
Tim Simpson says: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…?
Not said by Churchill, but not 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.
Hello Byron,
I willingly stand corrected and I’m unable to read French
However perhaps I should quote the United Nations in 1948 when such things were seen as particularly important:
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, provides, in Article 19, that:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
As our Universites are currently asserting the above, because extremists there are frequently trying to ‘dis’ speakers with opposing views to their own, that all invited speakers have the right to be heard. My view is that if you let everyone discuss their views publicly, then at least you know who they are and what they represent and the Authorities can then deal with any problem arising openly.
As to fighting for the cause, we have lost a fair number of troops recently e.g. Iraq and Afghanistan who willingly gave their lives for other nations in the hope that they would enjoy that right.
Kind regards,
Tim Simpson
You are a swot Byron and you keep us all honest!
I thought Musk was only the second richest in the world, apparently this matters…
The wealthiest men in history include Mansa Musa, the 14th-century king of the Mali empire, whose wealth in gold was considered incomprehensible; before him, Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor who effectively owned much of that empire’s wealth; and later on, John D. Rockefeller, an American industrialist who amassed a fortune through oil, making him one of the wealthiest in modern history. Other notable figures include Akbar I, the powerful Mughal Emperor of India, and contemporary contenders like Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos and others.
Mansa Musa’s gold fortune wasn’t, however, a single, fixed amount that then “disappeared”; rather, it was a vast, palace-controlled wealth largely spent during his reign on his extravagant Hajj (pilgrimage), the massive construction of mosques, schools, and infrastructure in the Mali empire, and said to be for the general prosperity of his people.
His excessive distribution of gold during his travels even allegedly caused a dramatic, though temporary, devaluation of gold in the economies he visited, including Cairo and parts of Europe.
Matthew 19:23-24 comes to mind: “… Only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven … It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”