We now have perfectly normal peace-loving people being accused of taking part in ‘hate marches’.
You have to stop and think the depths we will go to ensure we don’t look completely stupid in front of the world.
As a nation, SOME of our foreign policy decisions throughout history have been particularly bad. In fact, bad isn’t the right word…more like dreadful. Then again that does not describe it. Maybe they need to invent a word for the horrible decisions we take, then regret and apologise for later.
But once we have made the decisions, I must say, we as a nation really know how to stick by them even if that means trying to defend the indefensible.
These past few weeks the government and large parts of the media have lurched from one excuse to the next. I mean, it is not that hard to just condemn the actions of all people killing innocent people on ALL sides.
Moreover, we have a whole generation of politicians revelling in the killing of people because we know no other way.
Watching them trying to defend children being blown to bits whilst at the same time attempting to take the moral high ground has been excruciating. There appears to be an art to condemning only one side and not the other.
In no other situation would we ever say it is okay to flatten an apartment block and kill everyone inside it because ‘there was one terrorist inside’.
We have also now decided women, kids and old folk marching on the street are taking part in ‘hate marches’.
Recently, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, decided it was a good time as any to paint a whole peace movement as supporting hate. She repeated the claims in the hope of re-branding peaceful marches and predictably enough the familiar commentators and newspapers picked up on this.
Yet, the facts are pretty clear. Despite more than 100,000 people turning up at these marches only have a handful who have actually caused any trouble. I would say that is a pretty good record, wouldn’t you?
You get more arrests at a local footy game or a typical Friday night.
I didn’t see the same attention being placed on the EDL and Nazi marches romping romped through my hometown over the years. Or those who turned up outside asylum seeker hotels attempting to intimidate families.
We are now living in a warped version of some futuristic series where the major news sites are reporting the complete opposite of what actually happened.
The internet though has made it almost impossible to avoid asking tough questions.
Some weeks back a handful of people from a crowd 100,000 strong shouted ‘Jihad’ and we had a meltdown over it. We even had government ministers wanting to discuss this as if it was some sort of national crisis.
It is bordering on the ridiculous.
This week, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, told us that protests calling for a ceasefire so innocent people can be saved should not be held on Armistice Day. A day where we commemorate a time of peace.
Any disruption to Armistice Day would be an ‘affront to the British public and the values we stand for’, we were told.
The only thing that is an affront to British values is our attempts of muffle the voices of those calling for peace.
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