EXPECTING THE WORST

 

With the Coronation a matter of days away, we should now be in a cheerfully relaxed frame of mind, stocking up on bubbly, canapés and tasty picnic fare, rehearsing patriotic songs, preparing rousing orations for every generation and keenly anticipating this rare and convivial event, perhaps even composing an ode or a celebratory sonnet. Instead, I have dire forebodings that May will bring us violence and civil conflict at worst and at best a torrent of cynicism and disparagement from deluded politicians, media and overseas enemies of our great country. Prepare for an ugly onslaught!

                       King Charles and the errant Prince Harry

The most immediate threat to the peace of the Coronation comes from Prince Harry (aka The Ginger Whinger), who has kept up a chorus of moans about his family victimhood since disappearing in 2020 to California and deluxe exile. King Charles, typically benignly (but perhaps unwisely) has half-forgiven the prodigal and invited him to come. Harry is bubbling over with malevolence and could easily stage a stunt, say, a noisy walk-out when Camilla is crowned, just to spoil the occasion. I hope the London crowds give him a resounding raspberry and he takes a one-way ticket back to America pronto. What a plonker!

But there will be plenty other crackpots in London on the great day. Anti-monarchical sentiment is strong on the disaffected Left although many mainstream Labour voters are happily loyal. London is ethnically very diverse and support for royalty is a minority stance in several communities. Bomb-making, terrorism and suicide attacks can easily emanate from these elements. In the past, we could depend on the Metropolitan Police and MI5 to keep tabs on resident and arriving troublemakers, but confidence in the abilities of the Met is at a low level at present. Naturally we feel uneasy.

We can be sure that street-agitation will be prominent. Starry-eyed groups like Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop oil and the Liberal Democrats will tie themselves to, glue themselves against or drape themselves over some public monument in their desperate search for relevance and publicity. The sweet sound of rejoicing choral music will be drowned out by the ravings of Diane Abbott and the burbling grand-standing of Ed Davey.

Diane Abbott 

 

                                                                Sir Ed Davey

Others will ignore the Coronation. The SNP is fundamentally republican and is in the midst of an internal civil war, with nose-diving support. Nicola Sturgeon’s bequest to her nation is a party of failure as far as independence is concerned, chaotic finances exuding a stink of corruption, secrecy over its processes and governance and an ugly leading group comprising Humza Yousaf, Stephen Flynn and Ian Blackford bickering among themselves. They shame my native Scotland, eheu.

No doubt the Coronation will elicit patronising comment from the US. It is true that Charles and Camilla are crowned carrying heavy baggage from their pasts, as you might expect with a couple in their mid-70s. But remember that the UK monarchy is mainly ceremonial and has minimal political clout. Contrast that with the Head of State in the USA, the President, who combines the heaviest political duties with substantial ceremonial ones. The US presidential election in 2024 promises to be a dreary re-run of 2020 with an 81-year-old Joe Biden challenged by 77-year-old Donald Trump. Biden is manifestly unfit for office thanks to age and his distracted brain while Donald Trump had a disastrous term and disgraced himself with idiotic conspiracy theories on losing office. Where is the vaunted hidden talent in political America and why have the Republican and Democratic parties allowed themselves to be manoeuvred into this odious corner?  

6 May 2023 will be an auspicious day for the UK. Close our eyes to the tendentious coverage from the BBC and The Guardian, ignore the cat-calls from the disaffected, suffuse ourselves with goodwill towards friends and neighbours and stay faithful to the values of our beloved Britain.

SMD

26.4 23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

SPRING MADNESS

  

It must be something in the air. There is much learned talk of dopamine bubbling about in the blood-stream and the normally dead-pan Serbs have a word for it - Vrbopuc (typically unpronounceable), to describe the changes in nature seen in early April. Anyway, Britain is greatly afflicted and most of the rest of the world too – many people have simply gone potty and we sane ones gaze on bewitched, bothered and bewildered. Let me give you belt and braces examples:

1.       J K Rowling, the highly accomplished creator of Harry Potter, was earlier “cancelled”- i.e. denied any academic or media platform even to speak and defend herself, when she denied trans activist claims for special treatment. She concentrated on the birth sex of trans people and stuck to 2 sexes only. Her ungrateful critics included the film actors her works had made famous, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who could not resist jumping on the “woke” green room bandwagon. Happily, the tide seems to be turning against trans-mania and JKR, who has staunch defenders, is becoming more acceptable in trendy media company (Warner Bros are doing a new series and HBO have relented).  But what an unjust episode!

Radcliffe, JKR, Watson et al

2.       Very little of value comes out of devolved governments and a case in point is Wales, which has just announced that forthwith The Brecon Beacons National Park shall be known as Bannau Brycheiniog – don’t even try to pronounce it. A whole smoke-screen of justification has been erected but fundamentally this is an exercise in Welsh-language fanaticism, imposed without consultation by the Cardiff regime. We know The Brecon Beacons to be a lovely part of rural Wales, much farmed and a training ground for the SAS. I hope the general public give the new name and pompous Mark Drakeford (Lab) the proverbial two fingers.

 

3.       Talk of devolved governments inevitably brings us to Scotland, where the SNP regime has fallen into a rank haggis-stew. The sudden departure of ghastly Nicola Sturgeon seems to have uncovered a trail of financial mismanagement. CEO Peter Murrell, husband of Nicola, was briefly arrested and now Treasurer Colin Beattie has been too. The auditors, Johnston Carmichael, resigned in September 2022, but this was never disclosed. Police are investigating what happened to a fundraising of £600k, meant for an independence campaign. There are questions about the ownership of a £110,000 motor-home, said to be an SNP battle-bus, parked at Murrell’s mother’s house. Nothing is clear and Stalinist opacity reigns supreme. Humza Yousaf, Sturgeon’s successor looks out of his depth, the party is in disarray, which suits the Labour and Conservative opposition in Scotland. The reputation of Scotland, alas, is in the mud thanks to this folly.

 

                             

                                                    Some legacy, Nicola!

 

4.        As usual, Ireland is a forum of madness. In the North, Sunak negotiated some improvements on the Irish Protocol (the botched work of Boris) between the UK and EU. Inevitably, this was not accepted by the idiotic hard-line Unionists of the DUP. So, Stormont does not function and inter-communal tensions are high. Into this mess blunders half-awake Joe Biden, wanting to celebrate the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, but really to flatter the nationalist Irish vote in the US. He utters his usual gaffes and then cavorts around the Irish Republic in a green orgy of sectarian anti-British prejudice. He is not our friend, but his country often is. There is the grim prospect of Biden running again in 2024 against Trump (OMG!). These geriatric gladiators diminish us all – please America, embrace a younger generation!

 

5.       Then our home-country is not in great shape. Strikes besiege us. We want to relax and enjoy The Grand National at Aintree, but some outfit called Animal Rising pretends to care about the welfare of horses and disrupts the race. The racing community is outraged and the luckless highly-strung horses are greatly upset by these exhibitionists (but we selected 3 places!)

 

                          

                                                Grand National saboteurs

 

Even more bizarre, our home-grown terrorists, under the banner Just Stop Oil, attacked the Crucible in Sheffield, dedicated to unpolitical snooker, in a haze of yellow powder.

 

A noisy, moronic intervention

 

Yet, repellent and sad as these scenes are, I do not believe they are remotely representative of the real United Kingdom. At Easter, with my eldest son joining as my gentle minder, I took the train to my home town of Aberdeen, Scotland and later flew back. Everywhere I encountered civility, efficiency and warmth which revived my faith in our people and our future. Our day will dawn!

 

SMD

18.4.23

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

APRIL HORIZONS

 

       APRIL HORIZONS

We emerge this year into what is supposed to be Spring with some bright spots amid the fog of gloom which often seems to envelop our beloved Britain. The first bright spot is the highly successful State Visit of Charles and Camilla to Germany.

King Charles addresses the Bundestag

The King conducted himself with charm and friendly good-humour, Queen Camilla did not put a foot wrong, while the German public was delighted to welcome a British head of state who spoke German with admirable fluency and who could even crack jokes in the language. Okay, we have a heavy weight of brutal history in respect of Germany but the country has been transformed since 1945 and good relations between our two nations is crucial. The “soft diplomacy” exercised by Charles and Camilla is valuable. The noisy detractors of the serious members of the monarchy have been put to flight.

…………………

Another bright spot has been the accession of Britain to the Pacific Treaty (The CPTPP). It is our first major move post-Brexit and it combines the key factors of joining a bloc dedicated to trade liberalisation, with a respect for sovereignty and economic national interest. Rishi Sunak will take much credit but most of the early political work was done by much maligned former Trade Secretary Liz Truss, whose mantra of “more growth” must still resound, and the recent negotiations were headed up by her successor Kemi Badenoch, whose common sense made such a good impression during the Tory leadership elections. The CPTPP is now probably larger economically than the EU and is certainly growing faster. Remainers pooh-pooh its significance but as usual they are quite wrong.

Liz Truss

Kemi Badenoch 

It has been a long time coming, but at last some of the benefits of Brexit are seeping through. Britain has good global connections, which it must exploit. It has to compete against the EU, the US and China economically and, with NATO, is in a proxy war with Russia, unlikely to end soon. Joining the Pacific Treaty is a very positive step.

……………………………

A third bright spot is the chaos within the SNP, which benefits the people of my native Scotland and both the Conservative and Labour causes. The surprise resignation of fanatical Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister, is a huge relief – I suspect her real reasons for going have yet to be revealed. Her administration was incompetent, undemocratic and Stalinist in its secrecy. The leadership election revealed deep divisions, not least issues surrounding Sturgeon’s bizarrely woke Gender Recognition Bill, which Sunak promptly vetoed, thank goodness.

Out - Sturgeon, good riddance

 

                                                         In - “Useless” Humza Yousaf 

The new First Minister is Humza Yousaf, Glaswegian-born of Pakistani parents, who has promised to destroy the Union “by any means possible” and proclaim an independent Scottish Republic – in other words he is another fanatic grand-standing as the continuity torch-bearer of Sturgeonism. He has already shown his political ineptitude by insulting his marginally more intelligent main rival Kate Forbes with an offer of a lowly portfolio. The SNP holds 45 of the 59 Scottish seats in Westminster, opinion polls point to a sharp decline in support, and at an election Labour may recapture about 20 and the Conservatives another 8. They are licking their lips but victories do not come easily and a full-blown bi-partisan Unionist offensive is required, led with convincing panache. The SNP bubble can and must be comprehensively pricked.

……………………….

 

Mind you, Wokery still spreads its dismal tentacles unchallenged. The discredited BBC has caved in to arrogant Gary Lineker and allowed him back after his political burbling, although he may walk anyhow. The BBC will probably tighten its control of freelancers, not before time. It continues to downgrade or suppress news-stories favourable to the Tories and give prominence to every contentious pronouncement from its pet coterie of Lefties. Both the BBC and ITV advertisers try to portray happily inclusive Britain as having a white minority – a total distortion of the truth. We will soon be treated to the Eurovision Song Contest, joy of the BBC, coming from insurrectionary Liverpool this year (the Ukrainian winners last year having more pressing priorities). The British entry is “I wrote a Song” performed by a certain Mae Muller, who is described as a “Left-wing activist”. She announced, when Boris was stricken with Covid in 2020, that Boris does not deserve an NHS bed nor intensive care. This kind of toxic slogan-shouting is music to the ears of many in the BBC and the Liberal Establishment. I frankly award Mae and all her gang Nul Points.

Not for me, Mae

SMD

3.04.23

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2023