Few things can stir the indignation of a true English heart more than witnessing the esteemed Helen Mirren, now 80, facing vile abuse in the very streets of our capital. This unwarranted outburst comes from a disheveled, anti-Semitic supporter of Jeremy Corbyn.
Have you seen the footage? Did it ignite your anger? I wager many readers of this publication felt a surge of protective instinct for our national treasure.
Had I been present, riding my bicycle as I once did to safeguard London’s streets, I would have pursued that little leftist aggressor with determination—always adhering to the boundaries of the law, of course.
In my pursuit, I would maintain courtesy, yet firmly express that it is such individuals and their toxic views that are steering this country towards chaos.
And what exactly had Dame Helen done to provoke such ire? In an interview years ago, she expressed what should be an uncontroversial opinion: that Israel is a remarkable nation. While she may not agree with every Israeli politician, she believes, given the horrific history of anti-Semitism in the 20th century, that Israel indeed has a right to exist.
For this stance, after a lifetime dedicated to enriching the arts in Britain, she is met with shouts and derogatory labels like “Zionist bitch.” It’s an outrage that cannot stand unchallenged.
What the hell has happened to London? What is happening to our country?
Helen Mirren, 80, was subjected to hate-filled abuse in London while she was out with her husband
We have a hopeless little twinkletoes do-nothing Mayor who has, deliberately or otherwise, created a climate in which anti-Semitic hate-speech can flourish on the streets and in Trafalgar Square, and where sensible people have become so terrified that this week the British Museum pathetically postponed a talk on the Kingdoms Of Ancient Israel And Judah, because they were allegedly worried about the risk of disruption.
This is the British Museum! This is one of the greatest global beacons of academic and intellectual freedom – a place that for centuries has provided the thinkers of the world with a refuge from tyranny. Isn’t George Osborne something to do with the British Museum these days? George is good on Israel: he should get a grip and insist on the immediate reinstatement of that talk. Anyone who loves the museum should go there now and demand to be instructed on the Kingdoms Of Ancient Israel And Judah.
Come on! It sounds fascinating to me and I can’t be the only one to enjoy that kind of thing.
Don’t these people know what makes this country great?
Don’t they see the damage they are doing?
By bonelessly capitulating to a load of woke, Lefty anti-Zionists, they are making it look as though freedom of speech – and debate – are now under serious threat, in Britain, the home of free speech.
That is a disaster for the UK. People are now fleeing not just in fear for their wallets – but in disgust and embarrassment.
I recently had the joy of teaching at Miami University, in a city that is absolutely booming and where the excellent state governor, Ron DeSantis, is emphatically on the side of freedom of all kinds. People are flocking to Miami and it was painful to meet Brit after Brit who had simply had all they could take of life under the Labour regime: the tax, the crime, the incivility – and no end in sight. How do we get out of this spiral?
Starmer isn’t really governing any more. He’s on Death Row. He’s just sitting in his cell, waiting for the knock of the executioner, while his kindly officials mill around him offering cups of tea and going through the heart-rending pretence that he is still important.
The whole of Westminster is waiting for what looks like the impending arrival of Andy Burnham, who is standing in the Makerfield by-election in three weeks, and the whole country is holding its breath – terrified – and wondering what kind of new prime minister we are going to get. It is outrageous that we are seemingly about to be given a new PM, without an election, when Labour still has three years – theoretically – in office; and it is absolutely infamous that neither the media nor the public have been able properly to scrutinise his plans.
Andy Burnham is standing in the Makerfield by-election in three weeks, and the whole country is holding its breath – terrified – and wondering what kind of new prime minister we are going to get, writes Boris Johnson
What does Burnham stand for? Everyone by now has heard the one about the Blairite, the Brownite and the Corbynista who walk into a bar and the barman says: ‘What’ll you have, Andy?’ The only thing we know – from a piece by Burnham in The Times this week – is that he wants more state control, more government and therefore more taxes.
He has totally rejected some reasonable suggestions from Tony Blair that if Labour wants to get back in the game they need to listen to the people, cut welfare, cut regulation and cut energy prices by revising Net Zero. Blair is obviously right. But no, says Andy.
He wants more regulation and more welfare, and more power for the Government. Heaven help us all! We thought Labour had hit rock bottom with Starmer, the human bollard, but he looks increasingly like a model of common sense compared to the mascara’d Mancunian Mayor.
Starmer is in the ridiculous and undignified position of claiming that he wants Burnham to win, while knowing that the only way he can cling on as PM is if Labour loses in Makerfield. Incredible, isn’t it? Starmer’s only faint hope of political survival is a victory for Reform, a party that visibly sends him pale and rigid with Islingtonian loathing.
Will it happen? Well, Reform started with some decent numbers in the polls but their campaign seems to have imploded after the candidate revealed that he was not only against Brexit but thinks people who voted for Brexit are idiots.
Someone needs to tell him that it is only Brexit that gives this country full legal control of our borders (and much else) and it is only Brexit that gives us the slightest chance of adopting the Rwanda scheme and finally ending the tide of small boats.
The Reform candidate also suffers – it’s hard not to laugh – from a haemorrhage of votes on his right to a small, frondiste* super-nationalist party called Restore Britain. What next?
Will Restore itself be outflanked by an even harder-line micro-party, called perhaps Repulse?
Will there be an infinite regress of these Right-wing foreigner-bashing groupuscules*, each outflanking the next and offering ever zanier and crueller policies?
Revolt, Recriminate, Regurgitate?
When is the Right going to get its act together? At this rate the next election could well be a Burnham-led coalition of Labour, Greens, Liberals, SNP – and boasting a rich assortment of tossers like the one that shouted at Helen Mirren.
There is only one hope for sanity – one party that really understands the scale of the economic and social challenges this country now faces, and that has a plan to deal with it, and there is only one leader that seems to have the right mixture of toughness and humour and common sense.
She’s closing the gap. Come on Kemi!
DICTIONARY CORNER
*Frondiste: from French, politician who rebels against party line
*Groupuscules: small group of political activists
