My father and I chat every day about urgent matters such as the GCSE's of my uber smug daughter Olaf and less critical matters such as how the world is going to pot. Being keen on history my father is a big supporter of General Lee statues noting that - unlike say George Washington - Lee opposed and hated slavery. He also opposed the secession of the South and agreed only to join its army as he wished to stand shoulder to shoulder with his fellow Virginians.
He was noted as a civilised and decent warrior by all who fought with or against him. Yet today a minority (30%) have become a mob and urged on by a baying and historically ignorant liberal media, the cry is to make Lee a non person and to smear anyone who opposes this or who offers up facts on the life and career of the great man. The same sort of folks, as I noted HERE, are now - on this side of the pond - after Lord Nelson. History is rewritten, great achievements are ignored and less relevant matters brought to the fore by those working in the Ministry of Truth. Or, as we know it today, the liberal, fake news, media.
The matter of the industrial scale rape of white working class teenagers in Britain by predatory gangs has, again, been in the news this week. The undisputed fact, not opinion but fact, is that the vast majorrity of men in the rape gangs were of Pakistani origins and almost all were Muslims. That is a fact. In stating this fact I am explicitly not saying that most Muslims are rapists or nonces becuase that is patently not the case. Only a very small number are. That again is a fact. But the composition of these rape gangs from places including Rotherham, Bradford, Peterborough, Newcastle, Oxford, etc etc etc is beyond doubt, it has been established in a series of court cases. And surely that is an issue that must be addressed. Not to address it betrays the most vulnerable in our society. How, in God's name, can it be acceptable?
The BBC and other liberal media outlets have, on a serial basis, endeavoured to blur this issue or, as we used to call it lie and mislead, by talking of Asian rape gangs. My son Joshua is half Asian as his mother's family are Christians from what I still term Madras. There is no suggestion that Southern Indian Christians have been involved in these rape gangs in any noticeable way yet they are smeared along with many other folks from throughout the sub-continent by media outlets that cannot accept the truth and who thus resport to Newspeak via deliberate verbal inexactitude.
A couple of weeks ago, the Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, penned a piece for the Sun stating the facts about who was doing the raping and who was being raped and suggesting that something needed to be done. Explicitly she stated that nearly all Muslims are not rapists but that there was an issue that needed to be confronted. What she said was correct. For that thought crime she was "resigned" as a Labour front bencher. Foolishly another female Labour spokesperson who happened to be a Muslim said that this was appalling and that there should have been no resigning. For that thought crime she was deselected as a Labour candidate.
Leading the witch-hunt within Labour was an MP, Naz Shah, with a track record of making the most appallingly anti-semitic remarks, the sort of comments of which Julius Streicher would have been proud. Yet she is deemed to be fair, balanced and mainstream and those who flag up a real issue are shunned.
Meanwhile the Metropolitian Police and the Home Office have announced a major crackdown on on-line hate crime. I remind you that the definition of a hate crime is one where the object of words or sentences is because of their race, sex, sexuality or religion offended. And it is the object who gets to define whether they are offended. As I have noted before, my wife refused to call our son Joshua by my preferred name Patrick. Her view was that she associated that name with drunk Irishman. I am of Irish descent and feel deeply hurt by this comment and could have a very strong case for reporting the Mrs to the Fuzz for hate crimes. Sillier cases have been taken seriously.
Now I ask you, dear readers and residents of Airstrip One: who is most likely to get reported for hate crime in this brave new word:
a) a Labour MP fulminating against the Jews
b) a Labour MP suggesting that the Muslim community needs to addressb the issue of rape gangs
c) my father and I defending General Lee
I suggest that candidate a) is safe as houses while candidates b) & c) may well join countless others who challenge the great liberal othodoxies of our time in having a spot of bother with the law.
My father re-reads his Orwell and wishes that those in power would see his works as a warning not a blue print. I reflect on how, here in Greece, we may have many problems but at least speech is still, relatively free.
This article first appeared in my weekly Tomograph newsletter - to make sure that you get a copy emailed to you each Saturday register in the little blue box at the side of this article