Another St George's Day Masacre!

Fittingly, it was St George's Day (2024) that saw the Prefect Prime Minister- demonstrably not the Perfect PM- ushering in the UK's new 'defence' spending, (to be) hiked to 2.5% GDB by 2030- six years hence. Wreathed in Union Jack requisite to the post, Sunak battled to insert the tiniest ounce of sincerity, proclaiming that the globe is now at its "most dangerous... since the end of the Cold War." "Fully funded, with no increase in borrowing or debt," well, not the nature of any 'debt' with which Sunak's tax-efficient family are ever likely to have to concern themselves.

Ben Wallace, on the BBC, was performatively beside himself with glee. Cost in mind, will be "fully funded," was put to the former Defence Secretary. But, true to his ilk, Wallace barely broke stride, musing that 'the pledge' might require yet further public spending cuts. The UK is not, as of this moment, upon a war footing, both Sunak and Wallace were keen to outline. Conversation followed predictable lines, flowing fair seamlessly into the EU's NATO commitments. At no point did a US accent venture forth, at no time did the overseer's fatherly head loom above the parapet, nor did it need to.

The sense of security, of which both Tories spoke, becomes vanishingly distant. The mighty US's slipstream, ever deepening, produces quite the shadow to match these days. It would not be unrealistic to recognise Sunak's referenced threat, though better observed reasoning might contest the route taken. Starmer searched in vain for his absent soul- ever the fruitless task- manufacturing a most God-awful Saint's Day charade. The Guardian Newspaper published a more considered article upon St George's Day and the nation's worth, by the former Head of the Labour Party. Related yet more ear-catching, the BBC has recently commissioned a BBC Radio 4 series, 'When It Hits the Fan.' The series is quite the ear opener! Also broadcast on St George's Day, it featured a half-hour conversation with Matthew Freud that seriously- barely short of citing specific instances- put both news outlets to shame. Freud may well have openly traced the source of decline back to dear ol' Uncle Rupert but his damning of current UK journalism was deservingly thorough and widespread, on this occasion biting also at the hand.

Back on the subject of defence spending, neither Sunak nor his minion was pressed to elaborate upon quite how much more dangerous the globe has become in consequence of the nation's funding of Saudi Arabia's bombing of Yemen, nor it's continued funding of the Gazan Genocide. Nor was either man asked to comment specifically upon the UK's lapdog partisan conflagration in the Red Sea and Yemen- no reflection required! Nor was the UK's complicit starving of Palestinians, via cuts to UNWRA funding, broached. Nor its continuation of the arming of Israel and the IDF. Along with the biggest bully, the UK is now fully immersed in the Genocide! Arming the perpetrators. Shackling those who seek to curtail the suffering. Pretending to balance evidence of mounting war crimes against the latest Israeli apologist! Obfuscation around the genocide! Little wonder that certain UK politicians are so very wary of the ICJ?

In order, the three news items that followed, hot on the heels, may have raised many eyebrows, many shackles! Each could be linked, more closely than through monies alone.

Next came the flag-waving pronouncement that the first Rwanda flights were booked and warming upon the tarmac. So, when those betrayed souls who have been granted asylum here find themselves still to be marched up the boarding steps, will we UK citizens be permitted to question quite how the UK's commitments towards the Refugee Convention will be defending those asylum-seekers; those who have been granted protection within the 'safe' country sought? Presumably, UK militia will, in future, be expected to work at the behest of a government that is in breach of international law, more than it will be required to defend the human rights of citizens within the UK? Curious. Must our safety, henceforth, to be so very dependent upon our neighbour's jeopardy?

Then came the continuation of the Post Office saga, injustices meted out to the Postmaster-generals! High Management lining up to worm their ways from the spotlight of culpability, demonstrably also not defending the rights of the citizenry!

Next upon a conveyor-belt of values the UK's militia may be tasked with defending came the UK's waterways and all that they stand for! Could it be that, unbeknownst to us, water companies have been charged with laying down an encircling slick, through which all those (not) illegal asylum-seekers may find themselves having to swim, or wade? Further addition to the pledged 2.5%! 'To discharge or not to discharge?' that has become the question.

One may be forgiven for, perhaps, wondering quite what the UK's militias will actually be charged with defending? And along who's borders? It doesn't seem to be us or, in any manner, upon our behalf. Are those bells, I hear?

St George, of course, was far more Middle Eastern than ever he was British. We could speculate as to who might, with a modern day twist, be represented by the dragon... and who might be aiding and abetting this dragon.

Which Hoop Next, Please?

When Israel, yet, yet and yet again, targeted aid workers- it could as readily have been medics, teachers, children, pregnant mothers, journalists, innocent civilians of many hues- the BBC was almost beside itself with... (?) Completing the sentence proves quite a challenge. 'Topographagnosia' might almost fit the bill, yet topographagnosia implies that there might be a suitable route from this quagmire. Perhaps 'inadequacy,' again, almost works? But, in truth, nothing quite does.

The BBC is but one amongst many to have backed itself into a corner. The flag behind which it has elected to operate has been torn asunder and the corporation lies now butt naked before the nation, and the wider globe! The Conservatives are exactly where one would expect, no change there! The Guardian, formerly a paper of 'certain' values, has thoroughly defecated the nest! The Labour Party has, many believe, shamed itself and betrayed its membership and its values, to an even greater degree. Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, former Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, would almost be able to continue on as before, almost. It is merely his given inability to commit to something- to anything- that rather now finds (most of) the Parliamentary Labour Party in its very own category, 'without label.' Other MSM outlets range somewhere betwixt the BBC's 'inadequacy,' and that of the nation's more reactionary sites. That being, without platform to comment.

Topographagnosia is the inability to recognise salient environmental stimuli. One can observe that it does not quite fit the Corporation, rather it (almost) fits the current face of the BBC, as of Wednesday 3rd April, two days after the Israeli targeting of three separate World Central Kitchen vehicles. The 'current face' being that which the BBC wishes to hide behind, if the nation continues to permit it so to do.

Reeves, of Starmer's Labour, has said the Tory Government should publish any legal advice it has received regarding the selling of (yet more) military arms to (the rogue nation of) Israel. Sir Alan Duncan has 'strongly condemned Israel's killing of seven (more) aid workers. Channel Four's Krishnan Guru-Murthy has made easily one of the better shows, amongst a shamefully poor media reaction, when he almost lost his cool in conversation with Israel's (for the present) David Mencer- the list of Israeli monsters who are prepared to sell what once may have resembled a soul seems almost endless. Mencer, for those who have not yet recognised the face, was formerly head of Labour (UK) Friends of Israel. He has gone straight from Labour (UK) to a position of more blatant Israeli lobbying but, to point this out, would likely be labelled as anti-Semitic, even though it is fact. Feinberg, White House National Security Spokesman, has ventured so very far as to describe the targeted attack upon WCK as a "possible mistake." Wow! Even forensic Starmer, himself, has not gone quite so far as to re-state, 'I do think that Israel has that right.'

In the same time frame Israel has also targeted the Iranian Embassy in Syria. The rogue nation's imagined license to lay siege to a widening range of targets grows more assumed by the day. How far the globe now finds itself from having to re-imagine an attack upon any Western site seems ever more slender! Three of the latest Gazan casualties are British; is the globe any longer so very far from Israel presuming license now to eliminate anyone with whom it disagrees, anywhere! Except, maybe, the mighty US of A. Perhaps, we are fast approaching the state of play whereupon we could (almost) guarantee that an Israeli 'act' upon 'British' soil would find a couple of apologists within UK government? Perhaps?

But, back to the BBC. 3rd April saw the Corporation tying itself into ugly knots, with an insultingly misleading, contention, 'how could Israel have made such a mistake?' The indignant Krishnan Guru-Murthy proved unprepared to countenance such blatant naivety. Truth is, it's all rather too late! The rogue state has too often been given license and cover for its Genocidal acts! Pedalling back from here now seems almost impossible. Whatever route the UK (and other enabling states) elects for the move it's bound to present as ugly!

As of 9th April the BBC seemed to be going with the line, 'how could such a mistake have been allowed to happen?' The 'news' item that I caught preceded a very lengthy and almost uninterrupted monologue by yet another IDF spokesperson. Enabling. Of one detail we can be sure: the action was not a mistake!

As even self-proclaimed Israeli apologists have recently been heard to utter, 'It now seems likely/possible that three British aid workers have just been killed with UK produced/armed missiles.'

* Added on 11th: Upon an obliquely related issue, the UK is also failing to meet its global climate obligations, as of COP 28 (30 November to 12 December 2023). So, with a clear mind as where the political UK stands with regards to integrity, honesty, humanity and all that is half-decent, I have written to Lord Cameron to make a suggestion that his government doubles up on its military flights to Palestine/Israel by packing both arms and aid onto the same aircraft. I hope he recognises irony when he encounters it- he doesn't seem to recognise Genocide!