It's the thirties all over again

Sam ARMSTRONG

Indeed, Melanie, I remember during my years at University of London, that the Student Union banned the sale of right-wing newspapers from the refectory and published a list of members of the Young Conservatives Soc.

The strangest moment, was when a tie-dye clad feminist professor called me in to her office, as I had declined to tell her what my landlord's name and address was. I visited her in her office and told her that his name was a Mr. Marks. Without hesitation, she spelled out his name automatically as 'Mr. Marx'. You see, these people are obsessed with Marxism. Nothing gets them more excited than the thought of enforced redistribution. Except when it's them.

We can only hope that as they age, these 'students' will do a Peter Hitchens, and travel across from left to right.

Sam ARMSTRONG

Then again, why worry? Unless we start producing ten kids per family like next year, they will win over anyway due to demography.

Time to move. Not just Jews, but everyone who values freedom.

Jason Hoffman

Ms. Phillips,
I could nt agree more with your belief that it's the '30s "all over again."We seem at times to be stuck in early September 1938 in the days before Munich.People are scared to death and confused.They really don't where the truth stands.
But the truth will begin to win out;even as it did in early days of October 1938,literally days after Chamberlain's betrayal of the Czechs,when people started to realize that most of Britain's elites had deceived them and that Hitler was in fact unappeaseable.
It may be an event that arouses us,or it may be a person,or both,but eventually people will see the blatant nonsense that they've been fed for what it is.It's just a shame that things will probably get a lot worse before they get better.
Enjoy your column.
Thanks,
jkh

YA

Everything is correct Mrs. Phillips, - and not a secret.

The source of all these ills is foreign funding from terror sponsors (AKA "Islamic charities"). These funds, notorious oil money, are used for speeding up jihadi immigration, bribing MSM, infiltrating/transforming Government institutions, and for creating covert terror infrstructure and militias, - as these sponsors wish.

Not a freaking secret, and the time for these epiphanies is over. It's time to discuss how to resist and protect free society. Simply speaking, where to get rifles and ammo when it comes. In Israel people are prepared, they know what to do, just google "tzav 8". Or, should we all go to local mosque for instructions?

John Richardson

Ms/Miss/Mrs Philips.

Personally I have always enjoyed your writing. Being old fashioned and right wing, obviously I find I agree with many of your opinions and share many of your values. By the way I think you support of truth and rationality in the middle east is courageous.
Therefore, I remain confused by, what seems your one dimensional appreciation of the 'terrorist menace'.
When writing yesterday about Welfare dependency in the UK you did write...

"So I was left with the
uncomfortable question of whether the work ethic is only created by fear of the awful consequences of not working."

This is truly sweet, though I imagine you would not appreciate the sentiment.
You apply the same 'harsh' critical analysis to the 'terrorist menace' I'm afraid.
With predictable results.
Here is the bad news M.P.
You will find 'a startling number' of UK citizens do not believe the official story about 911.
As far as I can tell,this number is growing.
You will find hardly anyone thinks fighting in Afghanistan will make the London Tube safer.
Happily, many who would love to see Blair in jail do not hate Israel at all.
I have been droning on for ages that we are in 'our own 1930s'.
'Public derangement' does seem to be a part of the contemporary scene.
You wrote the other day that the 'EU' was the 'meta issue' that overrides all others.
No.
Surly any broad, security based, international analysis of anything, that excludes
The New World Order
is incomplete.

I would love to read your thoughts on the NWO one day.
Please don't say you hadn't noticed it......

Oh, and the Muslims ain't gonna kill us all. Some of there suicide volunteers fail to even kill themselves.

Not Even Likely

I can't agree more regarding the astounding irrationality, history re-writing, and toxic and automatic hatred of the US and Israel. These things don't happen in a vacuum, they are the cause of whirlwinds of hatred and violence. My expectation is that this will cause the Americans to become isolationist - why pay billions to defend others when we can use the money on ourselves, to become a fortress? Which would also be a return to the 30s.

George J

Membership of the Facebook group NO TO THE PLANNED ISLAM4UK MARCH THROUGH WOOTTON BASSETT has risen to over 650,000 in less than a week and it's been instructive to read the comments, which have been coming in sometimes at up to 500 a minute.

The number of people who've posted remarks along the lines of "I know it's racist, but I'm British..." is indicative of the demoralisation and discombobulation of non-Muslim Brits you speak of. They've been cowed into apologising for their instinctive sense of identity as a preamble to saying anything even mildly critical of minorities. Years of political correctness have instilled a sense of guilt and fear of the consequence of offending someone else's cultural or religious sensibilities. Indeed, the admins have regularly posted warnings that the police are monitoring the site, and yesterday the group was closed down for several hours by UAF activists who complained to Facebook's management about the group being a front for the BNP.

The vast majority of members are ordinary people who are simply outraged at the plans of Islamic supremacist Anjem Choudary to parade his stormtroopers on the streets of Wootton Bassett.

The Islamicists are winning because the ability to fight back is being politically oppressed by an establishment that puts appeasement of Islam above all other interests.

Margaret Muller-Johansson

Oh those leftist! I hate them like I hate Fanatics, Fascists and Nazis

Yuck

Edward McLaughlin

Spot-on as ever.

I'm afraid though, that by the time they get to Uni', our students have already been exposed to 12 or so years of priming to fall-in with all this.

Everyone who works in schools - with very few exceptions, usually in the private sector - knows that to espouse the political and military efforts of the West, even in the staffroom, will put them under a very hostile light. To attempt to do so in the classroom would be career suicide.

Pupils are fed a constant drip which flushes them of any pride in their own culture (unless it's not indigenous) so that they know with no proof needed, that they are somehow tainted. Popular culture backs all of this up, courtesy of the leftist media.

These poor people then, when they see what goes on at UCL or any number of other establishments, they know that it is all too big for them and it is what the authorities condone. Their survival instinct tells them to merge into the background.

We have handed our youth a hell in which they are outnumbered in their own land.

Ray

"It also demoralises (in every sense), demotivates and discombobulates non-Muslim Brits so that they are quite unable to grasp that they are under attack from religious fanaticism".

Exactly, Mel: we are under attack from religious fanaticism, NOT from ordinary Muslims. However, the deeper we allow ourselves to be sucked into quasi-imperial wars in Muslim lands, the more we almost compel those ordinary Muslims - distraught at the brutalising effect such conflicts occasion upon their countries - to take sides.

We so-called 'paleo-Conservatives' harbour no illusions that Al Qaeda is our mortal enemy. We merely assert that needlessly storming around the Middle East creating even more enemies still is hardly a sound strategy.

david elder

I think the level of this madness really hit me when watching that 'classic' episode of Spooks - the one where the US was taking over Saudi Arabia, justifying this by faking a terrorist attack on Britain using Israelis disguised as Islamists. The evil Israelis had to be disposed of so they were put somewhere quiet - Guantanamo Bay ... What! This is one of the most overexposed section of the planet. Watching this demented drivel, it hit me how far the rot has gone.

JOHN ROOSEVELT

..but remember:

Psalms 129: "They will be humiliated and will fall backwards, all enemies of Zion."

What a perspicacious Psalm!

Roger K

I don't agree for once Melanie.

This is not the 1930s over again. Right up until the 60s/70s British People knew who they were, where they lived and what they stood for. Even if political colourings changed and it was an inequitable, class ridden society with opportunists at the extremes we knew who we were. I can remembering demonstrating as a Socialist student in the 60s but still feeling very proud of my country, what the people themselves were and even many of the institutions like the British Army. Even if we had diffrences I loved my country. All that is now lost.
There is no strength of enduring British character to pull it through, which it did through the crisis of war and would have done even if we had lost to produce a resistance.
The key is identity, who are you what made you, what's your history and what do you stand for beyond political partys?
The very soul of the Nation is almost sucked dry by the parasitic hordes of international socialists with no individual identity, fanatical Islamists with no alliegance other than Islam and emigrees of even of second and third generations who have never had the chance to see what Britain really is and have trouble bonding because Britain is in the process of erasing itself and therefore they feel stronger ties with their original homelands.
I am now a classical liberal democrat but I know that now is the time to stand and fight for what I believe. Free speech and the right to expression of opinion yes, but action must be taken against those who would silence these fundementals.
Give me somethind worth living for and I'll give you something worth dieing for.

Augustus

The left are not only consumed by a hatred of America and the West, they also firmly believe that to acquiesce and avoid conflict at all cost represents 'peace'. But it was not always thus. For most of human history peace meant being able to plant your crops or herd your sheep without being set upon by marauders and murdered, with you last thought the knowledge that your wife and children were about to be carried off into slavery. It meant building a prosperous community in which people could follow their livelihoods withour molestation. It meant being able to travel the roads without being beaten and robbed by brigands. It was greatly prized, and it was very rare.

In England the Magna Carta was signed by King John and his Barons to bring order and stability to the relations between the different feudal entities. The Barons gained recognition of their rights, the king gained security from rebellion, and the kingdom became more orderly. It is of note that the word 'peace' appears eight times in the text of Magna Carta. Obviously the signatories considered peace to be indispensable for the advancement of their seperate interests. Through all the centuries that followed, through all the rebellions, insurrections, feuds and civil war. Through the general mayhem and violence, the King's Peace was the gold standard for affairs of the kingdom. Though honoured more in breach than in observance, it remained the ideal for the civic polity. And as the English diaspora spread throughout the world, the concept of peace was refined, extended, and more fully realized. The development of a legal system to which all had recourse, the establishment of local officers and then police forces, the creation of responsible and accountable local government - all these tended to enlarge the condition of peace.

Peace is not just when war is over and the armies have gone home. Peace is the condition of being secure in one's property and person. Of being able to perform one's routine activities
without fear. We seem to have forgotten how rare and precious real peace is. The typical condition of mankind a couple of centuries ago was to live in brutality and fear. Men had to be armed and eternally vigilant to attain peace, and women and serfs could not hope for it without the protection of rough men ready to do violence on their behalf. But today, in the luxury of our current circumstances, the whole concept of peace has morphed into the concept of avoiding conflict at any cost. When bullies emerge to confront us, we are not to take up our cudgels against them. You must remain supine before your persecutor, allow his boot to remain firmly on your neck, and then you will have peace. You must rely on reason, on discourse to dissuade the assassin from his task. Understand his point of view, look at historical reasons for his behaviour, acknowledge your own culpability in creating the conditions that produced his outrage. You deserve all that you're getting, you must know that. Give him everything he wants, and then what follows will be 'peace'.

ahem

It's been the 1930s for the last two or three years. We're in a holding pattern, waiting for everything to blow up.

And it shall.

D. Bernstein

Melanie- As a american jew who has spent a lot of time in the UK since the 1970's , I saw the dirty war fought against the catholic citizens of your own country, murderung thousands of innocents, and the fascist racism whipped up by the "feral beasts".The current round of genocidal hate against the jews is because the English always need to hate-sad, but very true

In the Wilderness in America

Melanie,

You have scored again on the greatest dangers facing Britain: apathy (the paleo-cons) and blind hatred (the loony left).

In America, we suffer from the same blind hatred (loony left) and a powerlessness (conservatives and independents)that are disastrous for any kind of backbone to confront the evil that is Islamic terrorism.

In both countries, add the political correctness that corrodes the ability to do anything, and you have a similar image of the west in the 1930s, rife with appeasement and stagnation, although in the 1930s, they had the trauma of the first World War as a legitimate excuse without the political correctness but with the same delusions about the enemy.

What excuse does Britain and America have in 2010 for not being staunch defenders of freedom and democracy? Does it even matter when we need to attack those who would behead us in a nanosecond. The predators are on the prowl, and we had better wake up to their infamy.

Carl

D. Bernstein - you saw no such thing, quit the hysterics.

tiki

The world is full of 'usefull idiots, and the Islamists, marxists, ultra rightists,
politicians, biased newspapers and every one else with an 'agenda, know
exactly how to play play them. THEY learned the lessons from history...the 'stupid masses, didn't.

pip

Some of the blame should be laid firmly at the so called UCL Lecturers and Professors (and not forgetting the Vice Chancellors who allow extremism to propogate under their own noses).

I have been keeping a watch on their Lunch Hour Lectures
Lunch Hour Lectures, this particular one I find somewhat worrying:
13:15 - 13:55 28 January 2010

LUNCH HOUR LECTURE: See no evil: the (im)morality of denying genocide
(Speaker information
Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia, UCL Political Science)
http://events.ucl.ac.uk/event/event:k3p-g32w60nu-491bt5/

Has anyone read some of Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia's writings and views? If not, you should do, it is shocking that someone like this person is allowed loose within our Unis and Colleges, spreading his veiled hatred and distrust.

I see people such as him on the same par as an extremist Imam. Anti-Semitic, Anti-British...I had better not go on.

Pip

If anyone does a search on the speaker at UCL: Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia, when searching add the words zionism/israel/hamas etc into the search!

Janet P

The German people were rightly condemned for their complicity in Hitler's success because most of them failed to act against him - presumably because most of them agreed with his aims. What will be said of these 'moderate' Muslims from whom we hear so little today? Why is their silence also not seen as complicity?

LES SHUELL

D Bernstein

What the hell are you talking about ?I am a British jew who spent his childhood in the U.S and I cxan assure you ---- you have nothing to crow about I remember the discrimination shown to blacks in the siwties; People who live in glass houses ............

Simon

"no politician will commit properly to the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq (not to mention Iran)". Could Ms Philips tell me when exactly Britan's war with Iran is supposed to have begun. I was rather under the impression that Britain and Iran were at peace.

Isaac Bickerstaff

I wonder how many people have made a serious study of the 1930s before saying there is an analogy. Is the analogy intended to say more than that those we identify as our enemies are as bad as the Nazis; that we must eliminate them (with unfortunate "collateral damage") before they eliminate us: that, because they are as bad as the Nazis, we do not need to consider any more deeply whether their elimination (with unfortunate "collateral damage") is justified by the threat they pose? It's the 1930s again! appears, on the evidence here, to have the effect of drowning out reasoned discussion.

Greg D

JOHN ROOSEVELT, your zeal is charming. I'm glad that you 'grasp that [you] are under attack from religious fanaticism' so firmly.

Janet P - ‘The German people were rightly condemned for their complicity in Hitler's success because most of them failed to act against him - presumably because most of them agreed with his aims.’

What dim-witted drivel. The Nazis had 1/3 of the vote in 1933.

Remember that the Reichstag fire happened six days before the parliamentary election and that it was blamed on the Communists? Remember, too, that this fire was used as the basis for the Nazis to issue a decree that allowed them to imprison just about anybody who opposed them? Remember, too, that after Hindenburg’s death Germany effectively became a totalitarian Nazi dictatorship?

Here is the official Reich government account:

‘The burning of the Reichstag was intended to be the signal for a bloody uprising and civil war. Large-scale pillaging in Berlin was planned.... It has been determined that ... throughout Germany acts of terrorism were to begin against prominent individuals, against private property, against the lives and safety of the peaceful population, and general civil war was to be unleashed....’

Do you remember, also, Janet P, which ethnic group was considered by the general population to be most likely to turn to ‘Bolshevik terrorism’ in those days?

Talk about rewriting history.

Fools.

Kennybhoy

D. Bernstein,

Please Google the names below.

Mohammed Taheri-Azar
Naveed Afzal Haq
Hesham Mohamed Hadayet
John Allen Muhammad
Lee Boyd Malvo aka Malik Malvo
Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash
Mohammed Ali Alayed
Hasan Akbar
Nidal Malik Hasan
Michael Julius Ford
Abu Kamal
Rashid Baz

Neil Craig

Im think I have to agree with the quoted remark & also your fellow columnist Peter Hitchens, certainly no wishy washy leftie, that "al Quaeda" doesn't really exist as an organisation but is a convenient name to put on any sort of Islamic atrocity. Governments like us to have a defined enemy they can scare us with but there is considerable reason to believe that bin Laden has been dead for 9 years & "his" organisation scatered. This does not mean that terrorism has ceased to be a problem (it was a problem long before he was around) but that it is an ongoing medium level security problem rather than a winnable "war".

Janet P

Greg P. Thank you for your educated and gentlemanly reply. You're good at cut and paste too, I see. However, you fail to address my question. May I remind you that the Nazis were certainly in full swing by 1939?

John Richardson

D. Bernstein.
Hysterical and untrue.

---------------------------------

Janet P.

First, many Muslims have on occasion expressed their public disapproval.
Second, where are the English marches in protest ? Surly that is more important ?
Are the English not behaving like cattle in this respect ?
Why should Muslims risk violence against themselves to protect an indigenous people too idle to switch off the television ?
I would not.
Janet P.
(Yet another question I'm afraid)
What have you actually DONE to protect liberty, freedom of speech, Christian culture blah blah blah...
Please correct me, as I assume the answer would be 'absolutely nothing whatsoever'.

---------------------------------

George J.
Sadly the huge figure you cite does not fill me with confidence or hope.
650,000 ?
I wonder if 1 in 500 of those would take action.
So passive, feminized and 'busy'.
are they. You advise us they write "I know it's racist but....."
Frankly, I don't care if such pathetic entities lose their freedom.
Who does ?
Do they ?

"The Islamists are winning because the ability to fight back is being politically repressed by an establishment..."

...you continue.

Yes, however also 'winning' are.....

-criminals
-drug takers especially heroin
-'militant' homosexuals
-the BBC. £5 billion budget.
-the political class.
-'abortion rights activists, you recall secret abortions are performed on schoolgirls ?
-anti English
'asylum/immigration' activists
-idiotic dishonest 'Green' activists (do you sort through your own rubbish like a tramp?)
-lifetime Welfare parasites
-billionaire bankers who have hijacked the British State and live in luxury
That's enough for now....

I do not accept the terrorist menace exists as reported by the MSM.
Though even if I were so naive, they would not be top of the above list.
Who is really repressing you ?
Is it really 'the Muslims' ?
Are they really part of 'an international conspiracy'.
Grow up.

NWO.

EDDIE

I hope that melanie will agree that the most powerful organisation that bends peoples minds is the BBC which seems to have a most specific anti Bush / America/israel agenda and uses Hams stringers to give them news of gaza and then regurgitates this information as facts

Charles

Well it's not the 1930s at UCL, well not so far as the OTC is concerned that is. According to the ULOTC website, post WW1 membership peaked in 1938 at the time of Munich. Don't suppose there was much talk about banning the OTC at the Freshers Fayre in those days.

Wonder if the latter had any effect on membership applications though? May even have given them somewhat of a fillip. Having said that, I was talking to my son's retiring school UCAS admissions tutor and he just said "you don't want to go there (or words to that effect) ... too many foreigners"!

Janet P

John Richardson:
"First, many Muslims have on occasion expressed their public disapproval."
Where? When? Who?
"Second, where are the English marches in protest ?"
Precisely! "Surly (sic) that is more important ?"
No, actually it's not.
"Are the English not behaving like cattle in this respect ?"
Yes. But why should they HAVE to defend themselves against an alien population residing in their country and hell-bent on turning it into an Islamic state?
Why should Muslims risk violence against themselves to protect an indigenous people too idle to switch off the television ?"
Ah! So you agree that Islam is violent. That's a step in the right direction anyway. However, if the moderates do not distance themselves from the fanatics then there's no difference between them.

"Janet P.
(Yet another question I'm afraid)"
Please don't be afraid.
"What have you actually DONE to protect liberty, freedom of speech, Christian culture.
Please correct me, as I assume the answer would be 'absolutely nothing whatsoever'.
Correct! I left England in 1991. Does this mean I have no right to comment on what can see is happening to the country of my birth? You and yours are the ones who will have to deal with it as I'm sure you'll do with aplomb.

liz

In a generally cheerless world, one ray of sunshine. Egypt has chucked that Galloway idiot out of the country. Yes, Egypt... and he's been declared 'persona non grata' there. It fair lifts the spirits, it does.

YA

..thirties, - what thirties?

I repeat my question.
In the case of all-out jihadi revolt, - mass riots, pogroms, ambushes on highways, car bombs, sniper attacks, mortar fire, drive-by shooting, hostage takings - when all this starts, - where do I get rifle and ammo and instructions?

Greg D

Oh, Planet J - thanks for getting my name right.

Alex Bensky

There are certain dismaying parallels between the late thirties and today, Melanie. But there is one important difference: The Czechoslovaks made the sad but understandable decision not to fight when the rest of the world abandoned them. The Israelis will fight.

Weary

Janet P.

You don't live in England yet you presume to dictate to current residents about the appropriate way to live their lives? How interesting... I wonder if you, as an immigrant, believe that life-long residents of you current country of residence have a right to dictate to you how to live your life or the action you should take to condemn British behavior that they view as inappropriate... are you marching in the streets against Katie Price?

Regardless, I suggest that you do some basic research before you go throwing around accusations of complicity. Your questions of
"where? when? who?" are answered by a simple google search-For example the Muslim Association of Britain and the World Muslim Congress both condemn the 07/07 attacks.

30 seconds, and Google, and suddenly you find yourself a great deal more informed.

Will Robinson

When I studied at the University of Manchester a few years ago I went to a talk entitled "Who Was the Prophet Mohammed?", given by the Islamic Society. Thirty seconds into the talk (which had been preceded by a ten minute chant prayer in Arabic) it was clear that the lecture was to be on nothing of the sort. It was a broadside against Western culture with offensive asides- such as stats on how many Americans converted to Islam after 9/11. I left (two and a half hours later) feeling angry and ashamed that my university had funded such rubbish. When I spoke of the matter to friends I was accused of "closed-mindedness". Disgusting.

John Thomas

Yes, it's like the 1930s, but not the 1940s (then, everyone stood together against a known, common enemy, an enemy without, and enemy they had been rightly convinced (mainly by W. Churchill) that had to be fully defeated and destroyed - no compromise - if freedom/ cvilisation was to survive. Let's hope something happens in the near future (before it's too late to change everyone's minds) the problem is, of course - with all appeasement - it will have to be something very terrible, and the result worse than if we started proper resistance now.

Andy Gill

I do sense that more and more ordinary people are slowly waking up to the threat which fundamentalist Islam poses to the West.

Unfortunately, the only way they can express it is by voting for the vile BNP.

If only some of our mainstream politicians had the guts to speak out like Mel. I'm sure they would attract massive support.

John Thomas

Yes, it's like the 1930s, but not the 1940s (then, everyone stood together against a known, common enemy, an enemy without, and enemy they had been rightly convinced (mainly by W. Churchill) that had to be fully defeated and destroyed - no compromise - if freedom/ cvilisation was to survive. Let's hope something happens in the near future (before it's too late to change everyone's minds) the problem is, of course - with all appeasement - it will have to be something very terrible, and the result worse than if we started proper resistance now.

Menachem Chazan

Time for change of perspective.
Most Journalists, Media Commentators and Political Personalities are intimidated by Fundamentalist Muslim Despots. They tend to portray the ongoing Terror Campaigns as instigated by People hating People and/or a clash of Classical Religions.
The Media, in fear of Terrorist backlash, hesitate to lay the blame, for World Terrorism, on the Arab Despots, of the Middle East, who not only provide all the Terror indoctrination in most of the the Madrases and Mosques but also the financing for the training and arming of most World Terrorists.
The Arab Despots of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria, supported by Fundamentalist Religious Leaders, are willing to sacrifice the last Iraqi "Paradise Seeking Suicide Bomber" and the last "Palestinian Freedom Fighter" to ensure the perpetuation of their own regimes.
These Despots are totally dedicated to the subjugation, exploitation and disfranchising of their own citizens and abhor the messages of freedoms emanating from the emerging Middle East Democracies.
Poor Israel, the spearhead of Democracy in the Middle East, has suffered the brunt of their hatred since its inception.
Only the overthrow of these benighted Despots will rid the world of the hatred that they are spewing on the world.
'Tis time to change the world’s perspective.
People don't hate People. Autocratic greedy leaders exploit their gullible and highly intimidated subjects and instill in them hatred towards the “Fearful Infidel”. This is, in fact, a war of Despots versus Democracy.
It is obvious that the Despots downtrodden and intimidated citizens are incapable of sparking their homemade revolutions. In the not too distant future, the Iraqis will build monuments to commemorate the sacrifices made in their behalf by the valiant Allied Liberation Forces.
Praised be Bush, who will go down in History as an Inspired World Leader, who proclaimed Democracy as the true basis for Civilized Creative and Constructive Political Existence.

Edward Richardson

I was living in NYC during 9/11 and working for a software company based directly across the street from the WTC on Cortlandt St. I watched the towers in flames that morning from across the river at our NJ facility as I vainly tried to make cell phone calls to family and attempted to assess the situation from CNN's thoroughly crashed website.

Not even one month afterwards, I and some others at the NJ office, including a project manager from Britain named John who was married to an American, went out for pizza in Edison. As we ordered our attention was fixed on an overhead tv as a news report showed images from Tora Bora of our (admittedly tiny) invasion force of a few spec ops units. The Brit John sneered at how this was "just American imperialism" and I shot back "Did you not notice that thousands of people were just murdered within eyeshot of where we work?"

Ground Zero was still smoldering and our two men from our techincal group, who were allowed to return to our HQ to obtain our magnetic tape backup, related to us that the smell of burning flesh was almost unbearable and that rats were everywhere in the streets. My wife's uncle, who worked a block away for Deutsche Bank, continued to have nightmares a year later over his beholding a wheel from one of the planes with a human head next to it as he evacuated his building. A co-worker lost his pregnant wife in the towers and we never saw him again.

Yet to this individual, attacking Bin Laden in Tora Bora was "American imperialism." Sadly, he would be the first of two Brits I worked with who expressed the same offensive, misguided nonsense.

Frank Adam

This is the moment to scoop out of the record all the names of those who have been chairs of Islamic and Palestine student societies since 2000 and shop them to US Homeland security. Then there might be less glee at what happened to Almog and Livni.

solemnman

#weary
The moderate mask on the public face of Islam, in the west, always condemns the killing of innocents .To understand their supposed condemnation of attacks against the innocent -one has to know what they mean by innocent and whom they include in that category and it aint Americans ,Britains, jews or any non muslim of any age or sex.

Dave M

I'm afraid my view is a pessimistic one so far as the U.S. and U.K. are concerned. In simple terms, political correctness and the victim ideology seems to have weakened many countries maybe more so than communism ever did in the East. In fact, it's strange that after so many years fearing and fighting communism, the far worse ideology of political correctness has come to cripple both America and (more so) the U.K.
Did anyone notice all the uproard in Labour Party ranks over China's decision to execute a drug smuggler recently (who had some claim to British citizenship, if I understand correctly)? Personally I don't agree with the death penalty but it seems amazing the Government seems to have put more effort into trying to free this individual than supplying safety equipment to troops overseas in Afghanistan. They would more than likely have been only too glad to house this individual in the U.K. where he could sell huis story to some tabloid for a significant sum. Notwithstanding, China made no exception and dismissed the entire notion the said drug smuggler was a victim, deserving of special treatment. China is far from perfect but it seems the country is only too well aware of how political correctness in Europe and elsewhere is leading us towards social decline, huge street crime, illegal drug pushing and people smuggling.
As for militant Islam, China is also well aware how serious this situation is in the U.K. and also the impact of security costs on the U.S. economy. China's attitude is one of zero tolerance and one law for all.

RJ Horricks

It is deeply upsetting the British people no longer feel united.
It is as much a failing on the state level as it is the individual. With so many new energies and cultures rooting themselves in the soil of our land - would it not be wise for a light of guidance from above to lead these new saplings of the British land in the right direction?

YA

Menachem are you translating from German? - so many capital letters. Unusual wording, but in essence everything is true.

Even a recipe is known, what to do first - one needs to block Middle Eastern financing in the West, period. And bring oil prices down, even if that means capturing oil fields by force. West is stronger. Camels won't object, and by the opinion of brainless robe-clad terrorists, one can neglect.

Peter Rhodes

The problem is our education system.When I was at school in the 50ies early 60ies we had pride in the Imperial History we were taught and how we advanced, and in WW2, saved the world. Now they are taught only shame at our past if taught at all. Hardly surprising that evil finds it so easy to take hold in the UK .

Carl

I don't think that Al-Qaeda exists. There are terrorists who happen to be Muslims, but to conflate this into an organised global terror organisation is just simplistic.

WalTer

Yes, it's 1930's, but more like 1931 in Germany than 1938 in Britain. The country is divided, communists in their various shades and flavours, aided and abetted by an alien and hostile ethnic group (or is it the other way around?), are gaining strength. The economy is in tatters, national spirit in the pits, the past ridiculed, the future gloomy, morality and ethical behaviour absent from public life, society drunk, stoned and demoralized. The parallel with the Weimar Republic is unmistakable, take away the massive inflation - at least for now. So yeah, it's early 1930's, time for a change, and we are just waiting for the right person to start sweeping the garbage.

John Richardson

Janet P.

In response to my above post you ask 'Where? When? Who?'
I intended to offer as an example an article by the editor of 'The Spectator', that appeared in the N. of T.W. some time ago.
This was about a little reported anti-terrorism (Muslim) march in the UK. However, a search through it's archives was unsuccessful. A shame for me as I thought using Fraser might seem clever.....
So, why not Google 'Muslims against terrorism and extremism'? You will be rewarded with millions of results.
Check them out if you wish.

You say that it is not more important for free people to protect their own freedoms, but do not explain why.
You ask why should Brits 'HAVE to defend themselves....'?
That's how it is.
Most of human history includes self defence from enemies external & internal. Often it is supposed that those who cannot be bothered to defend themselves probably do not deserve peace or freedom. I could expand, but not without laborious historical examples. This is not a complex idea.

" Ah! So you agree that Islam is violent."
You exclaim.
If you love your (old/ex) country you will surely (thank you for the spelling!) be able to do butter....er...better than this.
Any honest appraisal of the history of Islam must conclude it is peaceful only on it's own terms. Also, what I write above does not actually imply that the M.s in this country are violent. Instead I suggest that they know, in our dessicated Godless State, that any destructive extremist will always be nurtured and protected by.....
....by the State.
Hence my little list of other socially lethal 'winners'. You chose not to address this.
Personally I regard Islam as a cult, not a faith at all.
Partly why so many want to flee Muslim countries....anyway.

I would suggest it is telling that I was able to magically guess that your 'commitment to the cause' of British cultural and political freedom is er... aspirational.
Obviously, I never suggested in any way that you should not be 'involved'. Bravely contributing from afar. However, you might be surprised how often I get similar answers to that particular question, "What have you actually done yourself?"
Who knows, perhaps one day a Nation, and a People, will re-emerge from the shadow of Party Politics ?
Until then we can always keep moaning and wait for someone else to take positive action.

--------------------------------

'solemnman'

This is a substantive point, however I personally always try to avoid assuming a unitary 'Muslim opinion' or outlook.
If 'they' really were of one mind, you'd think they'd get it together to sort out there ****, one way or another.
They've had about 1400 years after all.

YA

Carl:

"I don't think that American Army exists. There are Americans who happened to be military, but to conflate this into an organised 'Army'? - is just simplistic."

..I hope Carl, you're one of the most sophisticated minds among your fellow Sharia retailers. But.. still there is need for quality improvement.

Greg D

WalTer, you're spot on. And the good doctor already seems to be dreaming of her Sportspalast moment.

Herbert Thornton

After pondering Melanie's succinct statement that 'it's the 1930s all over again', I've come round to believing that she understates it.

In the 1930s the rot of Naziism was concentrated in Germany.

Now a similar rot has not only grown deep roots throughout western Europe, but is, in Britain, tolerated to the point that Britain has achieved the unhappy staus of an exporter of terrorism, carried out in the name of an ideology that like Naziism, is dedicated to the extinguishment of freedom and democracy, and to the extermination of all Jews.

We all know the source of the rot, yet the only British political party that aims to prevent it is demonised, and its leader is reviled - just as Churchill was.

Mulciber

Yep, beautiful isn't it.
1. Couple to that the belief that the Freemasons are manipulating the whole world through subliminal thought control and child sacrifice to demon-gods (yes there really are people who believe that)
2. Dan Brown - nuff said
3. Mass of british media waging a constant propoganda war against Israel
4. Fear of the potential tyrannical use that many EU laws could be put to in the wrong hands
5. Widespread belief that the CIA murdered Kennedy, Luther-King and Micheal Jackson and are covering up the secret that the Freemason/Jewish Demongods are secret masters of an enslaved humanity
6. Probably many other insane delusions I haven't heard allegedly intelligent people spouting as yet.

Have thought several times that all it takes is charisma and a bit of creative storytelling to transform britain into a totalitarian state: although all the paranoia's and once-defunct propaganda's are no doubt conglomerating somewhere in cyberspace to breed some really nasty new ideology just ready and waiting.

Am I alone in fearing for the safety of myself and everyone around me?

john robert

Melanie, Britain is lost - you should give up on it and it's cowardly people/leaders and get out NOW,

Sole Bay

We can't defend our own homes against criminals, what chance a brittle,fragmented and compressed society against a ravening ideology?
What is the left/liberal view of the UK in 2050 - what will it be like, what will it feel like? It's been a while since I've heard anyone of any hue say it's all going to be alright with any conviction. The foaming Tiber seems to be becoming mainstream, even if it is still unspeakable. Our children now will be in their 40s and 50s. Will they experience peace in their own land all their lives? In another place I remember seeing an old lady being pushed in a wheelbarrow across a bullet swept street by her son; I can see him now, tight lipped and bent over as if in a strong wind. I never thought I'd be in that wheelbarrow but life has a habit of showing then mocking.
I think we will need the opening lines of Psalm 130, not 129.

gary

It's the era of Voodoo and Prudery.

Believe the unbelievable and unprovable. Don't speak or even think outside the bounds of political correct thoughts.

Fergus Pickering

Might I suggest that you, any of you, all of you, read about Philip Larkin's scholdays. he and a boy called Colin Gunner used to enjoy baiting the teachers by espousing the Fascist cause in Spain. Every day they would make remarks about how 'our lot' were knocking spots off 'your lot' - as indeed they were. In other words teachers = lefties was just as true then as it is now. Mind you, some things do change. I remember our English teacher, an excellent man of Socialist sympathies, enquiring after a heavyweight fight (I think between Ali and Coper but it may not have been) whether we did not naturally support the white man in these encounters. he was a stirrer of course. We didn't. In fact we cheered Ali on as he dispatched his 'bum of the month', Cooper or London or whoever. He was just so GOOD.

just Louise

Melanie is quite right - the Appeasers and the lily-livered are taking this country on the road to perdition.
Dr George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, citing the fact that he fears for his grandchildren, has uttered a clarion call against the replacement of this country's Judeo-Christian values by an obnoxious illiberal totalitarian one driven by a strange mix of ultra-left fanatics and their Islamic counterparts. He's joined Frank Field, Two Dinners Soames, and other MPs in calling for severe cutbacks in immigration.
As Damian Thompson argued in yesterday's "Telegraph", it's high time that secularists and practising Christians, irrespective of colour, make common cause in demanding an end to mass immigration, which threatens to islamify this country and this continent. The Arch-Druid, Rowan Williams, with his outrageous remarks about the "inevitability" of some aspects of sharia law becoming enshrined in the British legal system, has upset many Christians from lands which know Islamic law firsthand, and it's not without significance that one of them, the ex-Bishop of Rochester, resigned his see in protest at the Arch-Druid's absurdities.
The demographic mischief wrought by mass immigration has to be acknowledged and confronted, and no amount of "Racist" name-calling must deflect Call Me Dave and other politicians from the task. Are they up to the challenge? That's the question.
And the other is: so long as we remain within the EU, how can this be achieved?

Augustus

Abdulmutallab, like all other would-be suicide bombers, was a human missile, designed and programmed by a jihadist war machine. Ironically, all the responses uttered by US officials only deepen the conviction within the jihad war rooms that the West is trailing behind in understanding the enormity of the threat. There is a time for discussion, and most sane and rational people can come to some kind of understanding. But by any historical measure, those that fly planes loaded with innocent civilians into skyscrapers, blow up embassies and schools, chop off heads, burn and desecrate human beings, purposely hide behind women and children, and openly proclaim intentions to wipe out other nations, just to name a few examples, must be beyond any semblance of sanity. The time grows perilously closer when a nuclear device will be detonated
in one of America's major cities. It's not a question of if, but when? Millions of Americans will die unless the Islamic terrorist threat is stopped. Whatever it takes!

phil

Will Robinson
January 8th, 2010 2:38pm -I agree it is sickening ,but try the coffee house wall this week and you will see the other side of what I at least see as disgusting behaviour .We seem to be descending into an abyss of intolerance ,from Muslim extremists but also from our own far right ,and in the middle, are we who try to speak with care and compassion in what feels like a forlorn hope of a better world. After a week putting my point of view and receiving abuse and insults because I disagreed with a call for the Pakistanis ,Yemenis and Somalis (sic) to be told to " bugger off" and even worse(not that I support any of them who cause us trouble or refuse to integrate ) ,I am beginning to wonder where are nation is heading -extreme left or right I despise them all ,try reading the Spanish civil war and you will see where these people are taking us .Sorry to write such a miserable post but standing up for decency can feel very lonely sometimes .

Derek

Time to stockpile food, teach your kids to how to use a gun, and trust no-one. Irony, but only just...

hadrian

You hit the nail on the head, as ever. The great unwashed public are so steeped in religious agnosticism, cynicism and plain unbelief that their comprehension of the enemy they face is virtually nil. The core driving force- Islamic Jihad- is simply not grasped; whilst that movement's tactical excuse-blame 'nasty Israeli Jews' is gullibly swallowed. The problem is as ever- know your enemy, or risk perishing. Our culture is coming under increasing siege- but, of course, that conviction means one is a dysfunctional phobic in our purblind society, led by a purblibd and specious elite. Ditch, here we come!

daniel maris

We've had a lot of nonsense peddled in the media by the likes of Adam Curtis (The Power of Nightmares). Even the right wing have got in on the act.
No wonder people spout this nonsense about Al Queda not existing.

How many people in the UK know that Al Queda formally declared war on the USA and its allies back in 1997 - long before 9-11? Very few I would hazard - fewer than 2% I'd guess. Why? Because the BBC, ITV and Sky and the national newspapers hardly ever refer to the fact. As far as Al Queda are concerned they were and are at war with us and will remain so until a temporary truce is put in place (not exceeding 10 years, as required by Shariah law) or until they are victorious.

Noah Aaron Bashi

I am fed up of hearing too much about extremists they did this and did that, I really think it is time the people in Great Britain say to the muslim exterimists
"Enough is f....Enough"

Afternoon Snooze

Yawn. Marxists banning the military from recruiting in Student Unions is hardly new or indeed news - though it might come as a surprise to an American. Nor should the opinions of a crowd protesting outside the US Embassy be taken as a reliable barometer of the British public's views.

I suggest sipping a nice cup of cocoa and putting your feet up in front of the fire before you do yourself a mischief.

BritZek

I think Melanie states it wrongly when she often decribes the elite/political class as 'blind to the problem' or suchlike. They know - more than us. We are wrong to look to mainstream politicians to solve this as they need muslim votes. Indeed if you take democracy abstractly - which none of us really in our heart of hearts do - why not? Any votes is equal in its power to send you to the Brussels goodlife. They would court the votes of Darleks rumbling down Whitehall shouting 'exterminate!' as long as the Darleks were not white.

It is a de facto alliance of various pro-western forces in civil society which have to put the brakes on islamist advance driving things rather in the way that the islamists have been forcing a retreat of the political class. Remember we are free and the elite are not our daddies to look after us. They really don't give a ...... only caring about a possible job in Brussels.

The muslim presence and influence in UK is oddly underepresented today which is interesting in itself. Given the size of the population they ought to appear much more often in popular culture and in positions of power for instance. What does this mean? I mean the reality of the population change is still not showing as yet in the corridors of power and culture/ media.

We need to think like a reverse Gramscian. Christians and gays are de facto on the same side. What they say to each other officially is immaterial. Both represent different aspects of OUR shared western world.

But back to Dr Who.... Most wide-awakes will grimace at the multi culti content of the show but think again..... That alliance of 'new brits' who is it who could never fit into that team?......

Jon Hunter

Disarm 'Israel', bring about peace.

Simple.

Jason

Great scott! I've just found myself nodding in agreement with the sentiments of an article I've clicked on from Google News, and to my shock I discover it's written by Melanie Phillips. I don't have many prejudices left to enjoy.

Student

I study at UCL. I'm a moderate conservative. I'm white. I take part in student politics.

It's not all terrible stuff going on in Universities. I actually think it is helpful for a majority of students to have a stomping ground for testing there thoughts and ideas.

All of our activities are monitored and moderated, and there are certainly mechanisms for problems, if they arise, to be reported and dealt with. I just don't understand all of the hysteria this has generated.

London is a diverse city. UCL reflects that. That's why I decided to study there!

Occasionally things propagate a little to one side (as referred to with regards to the Banning of the OTC etc.) but with a system of checks and balances things resolve themselves.

An American

You won't find this kind of ignorant rabble in the US. Well...maybe a few left leaning nuts on the East and West coast. No wonder the UK is so far down the road to Marxism.

Obama has been a real wakeup for Americans...watch the US take a sharp right turn in the next elections.

Skeptic

Polarisation is the main worry, based on selected facts and fallacies. As you say, the 30's again. But whom will we eventually be fighting against, and who will join us?

DaveP

George J
Political Correctness is not merely a method to not hurt anyone's feelings but a method to give the individual, a system, which allows only PC phrases or thoughts to be spoken. All other spoken thoughts (so far anyway) become crimes.

Political Correctness is therefore an attempt to silence or destroy freedom of expression.

The extent of this bullying policy enforced by the state, is evident in apologetic statements of "I know it's racist, but I'm British...".

Political Correctness must now be denounced and resisted, as it is an insidious method for shutting down free speech.

Kennybhoy

An American wrote:

"You won't find this kind of ignorant rabble in the US."

You are having a laugh are you not? Visited many college campuses recently? Been to any Democratic Party events? Oh and please Google the names below.

Mohammed Taheri-Azar
Naveed Afzal Haq
Hesham Mohamed Hadayet
John Allen Muhammad
Lee Boyd Malvo aka Malik Malvo
Maher Mofeid "Mike" Hawash
Mohammed Ali Alayed
Hasan Akbar
Nidal Malik Hasan
Michael Julius Ford
Abu Kamal
Rashid Baz

John Smith

Melanie,

Yes, indeed it's the 30's again, and we even have the non-aggression pact of the left and the islamo-fascists. Or the alliance even.

Some hardliners on the left are not deranged at all. All the leading lefties have been very creative during the last 20 or so years, at first in finding new forms of telling us why we can't stop or at least lower the rate of immigration, and now why we can't see muslims as a group, especially not a group to be concerned about. Twenty years ago you might think that all the left did was to have another approach to making our common society better for all of us, but then there were not very many visible problems.

Today, the left echoes the same phrases as always, perhaps a bit reshuffled, but they do not at all admit that we even have a problem in Europe. Their viewpoint and their solutions are not affected at all by what is happening in the outside world. They don't even seem surprised at how the world is developing. It is as if all is going according to plan, as if the rising tension and violence was indeed intended from the beginning. Indeed the left and the islamic radicals work in symbiosis with each other - as you know they have done for a very long time, since the late 60's when the islamic radicals were also communist/arab nationalist radicals.

The left have been attacking our self-esteem with increasing ferocity all the passed decade. Was all that talk about "deconstructing the norm" a preparation, a very conscious and cunning way of softening up our self-esteem and will to defend our values? Was the alliance actually welded tighter by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union at the same time as the rest of the world rejoiced at the peace?

Is islam the left's final solution to the bourgeois question?

Drakken

I see a lot of doom and gloom here, but don't fret my good British friends, here in America we have the 2 nd Amendment and know how to use it. Hence it will be America that will be the Arsenal of Democracy once again, and guess what? That is right, we the American People will arm and train your population to defend yourselves once again. You folks over there can take that to the Bank.

martin

As usual, Melanie is correct in her analysis.
I believe that things are worse than the 1930s.
For a start, the fascists are brazenly in Britain &
rather than being home grown Mosleyites, they
are immigrants who know exactly what they want.
They are the equivalent of German Nazis, living openly here in 1940 & calling for British Belsons
& Treblinkas.
The government, meanwhile, promoting Adolph Hitler study centres (Islamic "faith schools" etc)

A. Headhunter

You're quite right - it is the 30s all over again in terms of appeasement, but we eventually engaged in total war and won. (Thanks to Uncle Sam.) In the war against "religious" ( a scam - it is purely political) fanaticism - which is a fight to the death - we have not yet reached Dunkirk. This will be a very long war indeed - longer than the cold war - which we won - again, thanks to Uncle Sam.

John.

We should be asking ourselves why there is such lamentable ignorance, prejudice and failure, (on the part of students above all) to do any kind of investigation to acquaint themselves with the most basic facts about the threat from Muslim fundamentalism, on the part of the British public. Could it not be because both secondary state education and university education have been in the hands of socialist and crypto-marxist teachers more or less since 1945? After 14 or so years of brainwashing at school children are so convinced of the truth of the socialist version of reality that they are not even tempted to do any investigation to see whether it is correct or not. The only solution that I can think of is to start putting teachers with a more impartial political outlook into state schoola. Easier said than done. Perhaps giving state funding to new private schools with no strings attached would be a solution? Until education free of all bias becomes possible, young people will continue to pour out of our schools fully convinced that supporting our greatest enemies is the right thing and the only thing to do.

John.

One of the effects of letting the loony left be in charge of education has been the banishment of several essential subjects from the curriculum - history, geography (to a large extent), British literature in any kind of depth, (no Shakespeare for e.g.), scripture, the classical languages, history and culture, English grammar, spelling and punctuation, and mental arithmetic. As a result the young haven't got the basic requirements with to cope with a meaningful adult life. Without history and geography they have no idea of where they come from nor who they are as British citizens. Without having learnt to read, write, spell, punctuate or do basic mathematics in their heads, they are totally unprepared to deal with a sophisticated culture. Without any knowledge of the Bible and Bible stories or Classical history , languages and mythology they cannot understand their own literary and artistic heritage nor have they any firmly established basis for moral behaviour. Deprived of identity and any understanding of their heritage, unable to write or converse articulately unacquainted with the nobler and more cultivated aspects of our culture, abandoned in an amoral and immoral society they are jelly in the hands 0of whoever may wish to manipulate them.

Original Tony

Has anyone ever considered that terrorism is a chosen platform to be used as an excuse to bring control over a population?

If people are scared they will want protection. This protection will come in the form of big brother cameras everywhere, of ID cards, of biometric chips in passorts, of DNA record-keeping etc etc. All sound familiar?

Terrorism is a tool that a far stronger power is using to bring control over the western nations. The data everyone will have to supply for their carbon foot-print will be used against us too.

It's about control over you and me! Watch, next will be to remove cash from society.

Bob Baty

"Wretched" UCL has a liberal tradition that it still fosters and was the first university in the UK to admit Jews and have a Hebrew department.

RecordStraight

Can I point out to 'Pip' above, that the lunch hour lecture at UCL by Dr. Meckled-Garcia was on the **Immorality** of denying Genocide, as it says in the title, and in the description.

The lecture can be watched online, for free, at
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl/streamed/spring2010

Where it will be evident that the target of attack is those who seek to deny and diminish known Genocides, beginning with the Holocaust.

Please do not defame UCL Public Lectures without actually looking at their content.

UCL is an institution with a long history of fighting anti-semitism, intolerance, and discrimination. It was in fact built on that premise.