She did it. You could put her whole political career, and Britain’s entire political class, on trial. My latest in FrontPage:
Here we go again. 19 people are dead and 50 wounded in a suspected jihad-martyrdom suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, a target that the jihad murderers apparently chose because of its concentration of pre-teens and tweens, so as to maximize the potential to “strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah” (Qur’an 8:60). But don’t be unduly concerned: Britain’s criminally feckless Prime Minister Theresa May is on the job, saying in a statement: “We are working to establish the full details of what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack. All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of those who have been affected.”
As canned responses go, that one is particularly packaged, processed, and colorless. How grand that she is thinking about the victims and their families. And the police are on the job! Marvelous! Britons can go back to sleep, knowing that selfless public servants such as May are working tirelessly to protect them.
But there was one key element that May left out of her statement: an apology.
One of the things she should apologize for is the routine aspect of her response to this latest jihad massacre. There was nothing she said about this jihad attack that could not have been said about ten jihad massacres before it, and will not be said about the next ten. The Muslim Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said after the jihad bombings in New York City in September 2016 that such attacks were “part and parcel of living in a big city” and that people would just have “to be prepared for these sorts of things” to happen, and May is behaving as if she has thoroughly internalized these instructions.
In reality, no one in a big city or a small one, or out on the farm, should ever accept jihad terror massacres as “part and parcel” of living there. Sadiq Khan’s statement was a declaration of his inability or unwillingness to do anything effective to counter the jihad threat.
And that brings us to the second and more important reason why May should apologize: because she and the political establishment she represents have allowed this to happen.
If it weren’t for the immigration policies that May and her Conservative Party, in collaboration with the other British establishment parties, have pursued for well over a decade, the jihadis who perpetrated this massacre may not have been in Britain at all. Of course, it may yet be discovered that they were “homegrown terrorists,” born and raised in the UK. But here again, the British political establishment has accommodated and appeased the Muslim community at every turn, allowing for the establishment of Sharia courts and partnering with numerous “moderates” who turned out, surprise surprise, really to be “extremists.”
Meanwhile, the full wrath of the British government has been unleashed upon those British citizens who have dared to dissent from this madness and to declare publicly their support for the preservation of British national security, as well as the national character and culture. All too many of these people have been hounded and persecuted, arrested and prosecuted on the flimsiest of pretexts. Others who were in a position to prosecute Muslim rape gangs hesitated for fear of being branded “racist.” May has, meanwhile barred foreign foes of jihad terror from entering the country at all (including me), while allowing the most hair-raising preachers of jihad violence to enter the country and preach all over it with impunity.
As she implemented these policies, what did May think would happen? What did Britons? Did they really think that by coddling their Muslim population, winking at the crimes Muslims committed in the name of Islam and in accord with its teachings, and muzzling all dissent from these policies, that it would make Muslims feel welcome in Britain, and that Muslims and non-Muslims would march arm-in-arm together into the glorious multicultural future?
In other words, did they really think that being nice to Muslims would make Muslims forget the jihad imperatives of the Qur’an and Sunnah? Did they really think that if they appeased their Muslim community, that they would be spared further jihad deaths?
They won’t. Manchester was “only the beginning,” said an Islamic State jihadi in a video released just after the massacre Monday night. And that is true: Manchester is only the beginning, thanks to Theresa May. If a modicum of sanity prevailed in Britain, she would be forced to apologize and resign in disgrace.
Instead, she is looking to be overwhelmingly elected to the Prime Minister’s office in her own right in the coming elections. Britons should enjoy that election, because they won’t be enjoying very many more of them.
quota raven says
Egads, Robert! That is some creepy photo you’ve published! Thanks for another fine article, keenly observed.
Cheers!
quota raven
James says
What is “creepy” about it ? People cannot, by and large, help how they look. She is no longer young – is it surprising if she looks as though she might not be ? Judging people’s character by how they look is very superficial.
RichardL says
maybe, but maybe the saying that at 40 people have the face they deserve, is also true. She looks like a wicked witch – and that’s exactly how I think of her and Merkel.
Rita says
She was actually SUBMITTING TO ISLAM….this photo was taken, when in her former capacity, she visited some muslim males.
Vomit material !
rbla says
Katie Hopkins to 10 Downing Street. In addition to being a lot better looking she also understands the threat facing Britain and the West.
Berengaria says
I wonder why Theresa is always covered in a disgusting HeadBag? Her Long Horse Face is just Priceless, when she apologizes to the Muslims for being Too British! All she needs is a “FEEDBAG” placed around her neck.
quota raven says
James – Chill. She’s wearing a hijab!
Cheers!
quota raven
JawsV says
The creep factor is the hijab on a non-Muslim. That’s what’s creepy. Get it? Otherwise, she is just someone’s grandmother.
gravenimage says
I think the main thing that is creepy about this is her adopting the Muslim slave rag.
Custos Custodum says
Beware of childless politicians, male or female.
gravenimage says
Custos, I can’t imagine you would be fine with Theresa May’s suicidally dhimmi policies if only she had a large family?
JIMJFOX says
IF she had some kids & one of THEM was injured or killed at that concert,
it might just focus what passes for her ‘mind’?
billybob says
The political parties in Britain have agreed on a pause on campaigning. This would be an ideal moment for one of the parties to formulate and articulate a plan to drive the terrorists out and present it to the people.
James says
Bad idea. Very bad idea.
(1) Would her successors have to resign each time another Islamobarbarity occurred ? The implied principle is a very bad one.
(2) A country can’t be governed properly if, each time an atrocity is committed, it changes its premier.
(3) Why should she resign ? She is not the murderer. Should there have been fresh election every time the IRA terrorists committed an atrocity ? These crimes are the fault of the criminals, not of those trying to stop them.
(4) Why should the government of this country be thrown into confusion – during an election, no less – just because a terrorist was successful in commiting an atrocity ? Our way of life has changed more than enough already because of these people – to subject the tenure of the government to them as well, would be to hand them another victory.
(5) The PM’s predecessors did not resign because of similar or greater atrocities, like the Blitz, or or the Brighton bombing of 1984 – nor should they have.
(6) The government of a nation cannot be a hostage to the malice and barbarity of its country’s enemies.
Gerald Mucci says
That government needs to resign. How many times should failure be tolerated? How long will the people remain asleep? You, James wish the frog to stay in the pot of heating water? Blood is on the hands of every public official who allowed and facilitated the encroachment of the vile Islamic ideology into their nation.
Stylo says
The government has already resigned. A general election has been called and the campaign is on. Did you not know that?
vlparker says
Are you really that stupid? The only reason the attacks happen in the first place are because of years and years of the government’s policies that allow these murders to happen with impunity and the criminalization of dissent. She shouldn’t only resign she should be put on trial, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
quota raven says
Hello, James – Thank you for a smart and thoughtful comment. You are so right. One has to think these things through and consider precedents and implications.
Cheers!
quota raven
Bill W. says
The implications ? This has been happing and the MSM , and elected officals have said , that murdering our childern that we have to expected it. It is not one are two cases it many it is also thousands of daily little stupid guilt trips the average person has to put up with. We cannot talk about the problem ,we cannot try to see what the crazy Imans teach in there mosque , we cannot deport crazed lunatics , and we must let them immigrated without checks and balances .It,s the lone wolf, he was not really a good moslem ,he drank beer and smoked pot ect. not really a good moslem. What is the definition of insanity keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. A boat load of flowers, candles ,smiling pictures of murder children will not solve the problem . What is your solution PM May you stated after this terror attack that the victims are in your thoughts what are your thoughts on how to stop the next one? Look up Dhimmitude PM May a Picture of you should be there, maybe you should try full burka face cover that might stop the attacks.
David A says
It is innane and insane to not hold the architect of German and Europe Islamic immigration policy responsible for resulting Islamic terror, thousands of rapes at extremely high per immigrant numbers, and tens of thousands of young girls undergoing FGM.
Matthieu Baudin says
James, she has come to the top job with a rigid outlook and bereft of new ideas for combating this Jihad. Her Party ought to have lost confidence in her by now and gotten behind a new leader. Teresa May is no Margaret Thatcher and probably doesn’t approach the stature of that honest man Neville Chamberlain. Let the Conservative Party gather around a new leader – why not do it right away and infuse some life into this dreary ‘one horse’ election campaign.
quota raven says
To Matthieu Baudin – Sounds like a plan!
Cheers!
quota raven
Phil Copson says
Not a valid comparison between the IRA and Islamist terrorists.
May has been part of the process of bringoing about the mass Third World migration into the UK, and as Home Secretary and Prime Minister has more responsibilty than almost anybody for this situation.
It is blindingly obvious that if you import hundreds of thousands of people with a violent belief system from countries where violence is routine, that you will get violence.
Quite apart from terrorism,her near-total failure as Home Secretary to uphold the law and protect thousands of white British women and children from Muslim rape-gangs, makes her unfit for public office.
Together with many other politicians, police officers, officials in the Home Office, Crown Prosection Service, Social Services etc, she should be in prison for having wilfully endangered and been complicit in appalling widespread criminal acts, not running for Prime MInister.
TH says
You seem to forget she and her `predecessors are responsible for allowing millions of these savages into the country. Hd they listened to Enoch Powell in his 1968 “rivers of blood speech”, it would not be another story.
c matt says
3) Why should she resign ? She is not the murderer. Should there have been fresh election every time the IRA terrorists committed an atrocity ? These crimes are the fault of the criminals, not of those trying to stop them.
Therein lies the rub – no one was actively encouraging IRA members to immigrate to England, coddled them when they arrived, looked the other way when they committed atrocities, or prosecuted anyone under the fake crime of “Gaelophobia” for pointing out the IRA’s activities.
If she were actually trying to stop them (or even minimize the risk of their occurrence) you might have an argument. As her policies actually encourage and increase the risk, she should not resign – she should be hanged, drawn and quartered (maybe in that order; I’d have to think about it).
c matt says
So, under your theory, King Priam would have no responsibility or blame for accepting a hollow horse from the Greeks and bringing it into the heart of Troy. Interesting.
At least King Priam could claim ignorance of the contents of the horse.
gravenimage says
If British authorities had not allowed ravening Muslims to flood into the UK for decades this would not be happening.
And flurries of Jihad terror attacks *hardly* make for any kind of stability, as you imply.
Gerald Mucci says
Righteous and fully justified indignation, Robert. RIP Great Britain, because there won’t be any peace until then. “Feckless” nails it.
billybob says
Trump had some good advice for Teresa May…
“A better future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and extremists.” “Drive. Them. Out.”
“Drive them out” “Drive them out of your places of worship… drive them out of your holy land. Drive them out of the earth.”
carol says
Paul Weston of the Liberty GB party seems to have the right vision, instincts, and sense of history as shown in this 2013 video in front of Salisbury Cathedral:
Paul Weston in Salisbury
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78av3gjYZIc
gravenimage says
Thanks for the link, Carol.
FYI says
That picture of Mrs May….shows her looking like an old crone … a witch.
which is what my little niece said when she first saw her picture.
Out of the mouths of babes…without any prompting..
“Is she a witch?She looks like one”.
But then someone like Mrs May who would ban Mr Robert Spencer (and others) from coming to the UK to explain the TRUTH about the dangers of islamic supremacism must either have some skills in the dark arts or be in thrall to the master/s of this world.
quota raven says
FYI – Didja notice she is wearing a hijab? I think that’s the right name for the Muslim hair-covering head scarf…
Cheers!
quota raven
quota raven says
FYI – Didja notice she is wearing a hijab? I think that’s the right name for the Muslim hair-covering head scarf…
Cheers!
quota raven
Matthieu Baudin says
“… If a modicum of sanity prevailed in Britain, she would be forced to apologize and resign in disgrace.
Instead, she is looking to be overwhelmingly elected to the Prime Minister’s office in her own right in the coming elections…”
This election is all about feeding Teresa May’s own vanity. In the Westminster Tradition she is the first amongst equals amongst the Ministers of the Crown regardless of whether she has led the party to an election victory or replaced the sitting Prime Minister mid term. A Jihad War has been declared against Britain and all three major political parties on the U.K. landscape have declined to muster a challenge to it. The standard response is to treat these attacks as ‘tragedies’ and to encourage great expressions of public mourning while the law enforcement agencies are thrown into the spectacle with much activity and effectively shroud the mental paralysis of the Current Government and Opposition.
Wakup says
We are going to have a vigil tonight and they are going to sing songs. Well that’s alright then, that will fix everything. Might I suggest an alternative strategy when you catch him HANG the bastard.
JIMJFOX says
How do you propose hanging a successful suicide bomber? Is he not already in pieces?
JIMJFOX says
Wrong, apparently- it was reported earlier to be a suicide attack; now this arrest. Apologies.
quota raven says
JimJFox – I understood there are two guys: one, the suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the concert hall and two, another guy (I’ve seen a report that the second guy is first guy’s older brother, but I noticed they have different last names) who was arrested at an apartment by SWAT team, soon after the occurrence. I could be wrong, as could my sources be.
Cheers!
quota raven
Singh the Sikh says
Her speech is the same after every attack. Hollow words. Probably pulled from the cupboard after every attack, dusted and trotted out again: “The cowardice of the attacker met the bravery of the emergency services and people of Manchester”.
The cowardice of the attackers is matched by the corwardice of the British political establishment on which the jihadists continue to thrive.
c matt says
At this rate, the words wouldn’t have time to collect dust.
Singh the Sikh says
London’s Muslim mayor: terror attacks “part and parcel of living in a big city” and people should be “prepared for these sorts of things”.
He is right in a sense. Such attacks are part and parcel of living in big cities like Karachi, which is where this scum really belongs. And he can take that bitch May with him.
gravenimage says
Yes–these horrors were never a regular part of living in the West, just a couple of decades ago.
Tom S. says
I’d like to remind those new to Jihad Watch that Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, and Michael Savage were all banned from Britain when May was Home Secretary. At best she is an apologist, at worst an enabler.
Monty says
There is no one who will do a better job than Teresa May. Where are the men of principle who could stand up to the Muslim hordes that have already invaded England? I sure hear women speaking who are gutsy enough to oppose Islam. Women of course have the most to lose. It’s similar here in Australia, the loudest anti Islam voices are female. None of those opponents of Islam have the means to overthrow the establishment. So we hear Churchilian rhetoric while all the time there is appeasement that would do Chamberlain proud. Henry Ford said that history is bunk. Only if you ignore its lessons, Henry. Sadly, that is exactly what is happening.
gravenimage says
Theresa May is a dhimmi tool. This is true not because she is a woman, but because she is an unprincipled fool who has no interest in protecting the British people.
And there are a handful of Anti-Jihadist politicians like Geert Wilders.
As for Anti-Jihadists, they come in both male and female. Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Mark Steyn, Nonie Darwish, Jaime Glazov, Ayaan HIrsi Ali–I could go on.
I don’t think this is about gender–it is about intelligence, courage, and principle.
Phil Copson says
Have just read this after posting mine. Like it, but it’s usually me who goes in for the short, acerbic comment, while you go for the thoughtful, reasoned response – are we changing places ? LOL.
melancholy observer says
Yes I am sure May has more in common with open borders apologists like ex-PM of Australia Julia Gillard, or ex-pm Helen Clark of New Zealand, than with her old supposed mentor Margaret Thatcher who really did show some old fashioned ‘British’ character.There is one thing to be said in her favour however, that is her Labour opponent Jeremy Corbyn, with his support for Hamas, and Hezbollah, and the IRA is far worse. Pity poor England, a once great country! .
jong ha says
Britain has dived into multiculturalism and the equality of all religions. It pees its pants over Islam. Islam is walking all over Britain and it is too effiminate to do anything about it. May is a joke; Europe is worse. Britain’s liberal leadership has opened the doors of the city, and in have flooded the demonic hordes.
Wellington says
Blood on her hands. Despicable person. And she will never learn.
comeswiththefall says
RIP UK. So sorry that once a great and enlightened country is now hopeless. Can’t protect their own women and children, having soldiers beheaded in the street in broad daylight…hope is lost. What will be the world our kids will live in? If they survive, of course…
gravenimage says
Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Yet Another Jihad Massacre in UK; May Should Apologize and Resign
………………..
She won’t though.
Wilhemina Bothwell says
If not Theresa May, who else? the others are a hundred times worse. I agree about the platitudes but I don’t believe she doesn’t care – she has inherited a diabolical institution.
Frank Anderson says
Ms. Bothwell, I respectfully do not see a difference whether she “cares” or not; or that other “excuses” should permit a pass on willful exposure ot the people to violence. Under some circumstances silence is an admission of guilt (‘tacit admission rule”). She is not silent but constantly speaking lies about the danger and the source of that danger from 1400 years of teaching and practice. If she “does not know” then she is willfully ignorant. She is unfit to serve in any leadership or representative capacity of a free people. She might do well in Iran or Pakistan. The time for any whinning or excuses is long gone. Results are required to save freedom and liberty for those who only wish the live their lives as they choose instead of how other choose it for them.
Phil Copson says
Thanks, Frank – good comment. In the same vein, I personally don’t give a flying-toss whether Theresa May “cares” or not: She isn’t paid to “care” – she has been paid by us – the people of Britain – successively to be a Member of Parliament, the Home Secretary, and now our Prime MInister and has the responsibilty of working to secure and protect our best interests.
Throughout her career, she has not only manifestly failed to do this but is complicit in working against our interests. Essentially she is expert at pretending to do one thing whilst actually doing the opposite. Since the media are largely socialist, she gets a free-ride on this, since they never call anyone to account for carrying out pro-EU, pro-mass migration measures.
As Home Secretary she shamefully failed to tackle the societal problems caused by mass muslim immigration, to protect our borders, or even to weed-out the obvious undesirables amongst the immigrants – the Manchester bomber Salman Abedi’s Libyan gunman father being an obvious example. Incredibly, the UK has just THREE boats to protect it’s coastline from illegal immigrants, immigration officials have been known to let in all-comers un-vetted “because there was a queue building up….”, some prisons have been allowed to become de facto jihadi training-centres, the number of police officers has been reduced, and successive supposedly-Conservative governments have cut the Armed Forces time and again.
(When a decent American President visits the battlefields of Normandy, surveys the thousands upon thousands of white crosses in the graveyards, and says “Never again.” they mean that such a threat to civilisation must never be allowed to happen again. When a European politician says it, they mean “We will never bother again.”)
She is not committed to Brexit, but supports the EU taking over powers from our Parliament and other institutions, supports the European Arrest Warrant under which British citizens are hauled-off to foreign prisons on demand with no prior scrutiny of the evidence by a British judge, and intends to allow migrants to pour into the UK at the rate of at least one-hundred thousand per year. She even regards this as something that she should be congratulated upon, since – if achieved (which it won’t be), it would be a reduction from the suicidal rate of a third of a million per year.
She is not a Conservative, since she has conserved nothing; she is a pro-EU, pro-UN, pro-Arab open-borders internationalist, who sees her job as being to obscure the truth of what is going from the electorate whilst allowing the Leftists and the Islamists to assume positions of power and influence until it is too late for the population to do a blind thing about it.
One point that I don’t think that anyone has touched on, is that I doubt that any government can any longer “do anything about it”, even if they wished to. Just as Trump can’t push his immigration measures through against a political-activist judiciary, there are probably too many Left-wingers and Quislamists throughout UK government institutions for any instructions for decisive action such as rounding-up and serving deportation orders on those working to establish Sharia Law within the UK, to stand any chance of being obeyed.
Frank Anderson says
Phil, the LAWFUL response is to help others see the truth. You and I, with the present readers of JW cannot do the job alone. Every person you can awaken is another person to help awaken more. We on both sides of the ocean are being flooded with people who hate us and everything we stand for; who live for the day we are either converted, submitted to slavery or killed. And who know about conquest by demographics. They will not stop or change on their own.
Phil Copson says
Wilhemina, the consideration you show towards Theresa May does you credit, but it is mis-placed.
May hasn’t just “inherited” it; unlike America, it isn’t possible for outsiders to run for the leadership. May has been a part of the political machinery of the UK for a long time and is a prime instigator of the shambles that she is now in charge of.
(A “shambles” originally meant the area of a town where animals were butchered on the street, rather than it’s current meaning of an almighty mess, so is entirely the right word to use here, I think…)
As Britain’s longest-serving Home Secretary, she has more responsibilty than almost anybody for the failure to warn of and avert the entirely foreseeable consequences of mass Third World migration, and the criminal refusal to uphold the law, and is therefore a fit soul-mate of Merkel the Mad Marxist, under whose nihilistic leadership Germany has plunged Europe into disaster for the third time in a century.
To see British and European politicians now babbling about “diversity” and “cohesion” whilst surrounded by the bodies of the slain and the smoking ruins, is to see a cockerel proudly crowing from on top of it’s own dung-heap.
quota raven says
To Phil Copson – Although I always, always enjoy your comments, this one is absolutely inspired! Superb! Thank you for bringing a smile to my face in the midst of the “shambles” that is now and everywhere!
Cheers!
quota raven
Phil Copson says
Thus spake the Raven, and though I naturally hesitate to demur from words of praise earned from so dark and ill-omened a bird; for fear that they may place too heavy a burden upon the chance-met butterfly of inspiration, allow me to say that any merit you may have discerned is doubtless where the ghosts of better writers paused, and walked among my words.
quota raven says
Wow, Phil, gosh and golly! Sometimes your writing simply takes my breath away! Yours above is such an occasion.
Cheers!
quota raven
Phil Copson says
My very dear Raven,
since you are so insistent in solicitude and so ardent in approbation, my sense of courtesy must at last outweigh my natural reticence in accepting such praise; for praise – like life itself – is a gift that may come but once…..
I beg to remain in this – as in all matters – your most humble and obedient servant,
Oscar Wilde
( the excellent phrase “like life itself” is borrowed from Robert Hamer’s script for that wonderful black-hearted comedy of manners, “Kind Hearts and Coronets”: (The rest is original) Now there was a man who could write an arch and elegant sub-Wildean script! I imagine that he was trying to write the perfect film script in much the same way that Oscar Wilde wrote the perfect play in “The Importance Of Being Earnest” – perfectly paced and with never a word out of place.
If you’ve never seen it, you should really get onto eBay and invest a few pence in a copy. If black-and-white films can be said to come from a “golden age”, then “Kind Hearts and Coronets” is an excellent example of how good films could be when they were aimed at an audience assumed to be capable of appreciating an intelligent script. There are no teenagers, no aliens, hit-men, gangsters or car chases, no special effects, and no large orange explosions – just a set, some actors, a finely-crafted script, a book of verse, a loaf of bread, a flask of wine and thou beside beside me singing in the wil……no, hold on! – that’s Omar Khayam joining in…..and the pleasure of watching some great character actors go through their paces.
The film has the device of the lead character’s thoughts – (Louis Mazzini, distant heir to the Dukedom of Chalfont) – being delivered as a commentary on the film: Dennis Price’s delivery of Hamer’s witty script is pitch-perfect as he develops his plans to succeed to the Dukedom by murdering poor Alec Guinness on no fewer than seven occasions (!) and marrying his widow, played by the actress Valerie Hobson, a plan complicated by the fact that although marriage to the refined, but insufferably priggish Edith suits his social ambitions, he cannot quite bring himself to forego the attractions of his mistress, the smart, suburban Sibella.
(Played by the seductively husky-voiced Joan Greenwood, who – together with Glynnis Johns (watch “Miranda” which also stars Margaret Rutherford) – was one of the few British actresses in the 1940s who could convincingly play a sexy, drop-dead gorgeous femme fatale.)
Valerie Hobson married the British politician John Profumo, the Minister of War in the Macmillan government of the early 1960s, and – in a case of life imitating art to an extent worthy of Wilde or Hamer themselves, and which presumably must have been a cause of bitterness for her – her husband in real life also turned for excitement to a young dancer/party girl named Christine Keeler, whom he met together with her friend Mandy Rice-Davies, at a country-house party given by his friend Lord Astor.
Keeler was also supposed to be the mistress of the Russian naval attache – though she later denied it – and once the press got hold of it, “The Profumo Affair”, with it’s irresistible blend of the Minister of War, his famous actress wife, the British aristocracy, Russian spies, frolics with teenaged girls at country-house parties etc, coming as it did hard on the heels of the defections of the “Cambridge Spy-ring”, Burgess, Philby, and Maclean, looked so like everybody’s idea of a James Bond-era spy scandal, that no one could believe that it wasn’t.
“Scandal”; the film of this story – starring Joanne Whalley-Kilmer and John Hurt – is excellent, and also well worth finding. Especially memorable is the scene involving the end of Stephen Ward, driven to suicide by a vengeful British Establishment determined to get somebody for something in revenge for being made to look foolish.
I seem to have strayed quite a way from the point of Robert’s site here – (though he may enjoy the parallel between the end of one of the d’Ascoyne family – (“I have received something from you today which I could have expected to receive from no other clergyman….”) – and his recent experience in Iceland, but it does no harm to remind ourselves occasionally of what we should value and may lose….
So – a last recommendation for good writing; in the same way that “Some Like It Hot” is the best American comedy ever written – courtesy of the brilliant writer and director Billy Wilder – then watch the original British 1959 b/w film “School for Scoundrels”, in which Robert Hamer was also involved.
It stars Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, Alastair Sim and a teenaged Janette Scott as the heart-meltingly lovely Miss April Smith. It shows a world of sunshine, sport-cars, and Middlesex; of tennis clubs and tells the story of an innocent young man who falls for an English Rose and must win her back from the raffish attractions of a dashing bounder. It is a world that has now gone, and indeed may never have existed at all, but is all the more poignant for that.
quota raven says
Phil Copson — I shouldn’t because, as you point out, this is not exactly the appropriate venue but, with heaped-on additional apologies to Robert et al, I will; you make such a good case for it with your compellingly illustrated suggestion that to preserve aspects of culture at serious risk of extinction is a worthy activity.
‘To be born, or at any rate bred, in a handbag, whether it has handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.’
I AM Lady Bracknell! I have ten copies of Earnest. I used to invite people over for dinner, and then with drinks, we’d all take parts and read it aloud.
Also familiar with and fond of all the films you cite except “Miranda” and everybody else except Robert Hamer, whom I don’t know. Especially love Kind Hearts and Coronets…and Alister Sim. Might I add P G Wodehouse, the incomparable Britwit who gave us Jeeves and Bertie Wooster!
Life imitates art! Yes. Oscar certainly got that right!
Thank you. I’m going to revisit some of the treasures you’ve mentioned above.
Cheers!
quota raven
Phil Copson says
“To be possessed of at least one copy of ‘Earnest is naturally a pre-requisite in any properly-ordered household; and to be possessed of two is no less than a sensible precaution.
To be possessed of ten copies, however, argues a degree of enthusiasm bordering upon Industry, and may well preclude the Proper Expression of Indolence…..” – apologies to O.W
Enough Oscar already! – to tie this conversation back into JW’s remit, the teaching of a proper appreciation of what Western civilisation has achieved should be a major plank of our strategy to cope with Third World immigration.
Short of deporting the muslim population by force, they are here to stay and the numbers will continue to grow.
I don’t see that it is possible to “de-program” muslims out of Islam by theological argument, any more than you could de-program a Chinaman out of Communism under Mao. It’s a power-system more than a belief-system, and you couldn’t get significant numbers to reject it voluntarily any more than you could persuade a press-operator at General Motors to give up on pressing out cars and start on cat-food instead.
While it is still possible, then the separate-development/voluntary-apartheid that is creating muslim enclaves in our countries has to be banned. Muslim-only schools and madrassas have to be closed, mosques should be limited both in physical size (they are deliberately large to resemble fortresses and to intimidate) and in number, and must only be allowed to be open on one day per week to prevent their becoming the focal point of community activity.
The Koran must be only be allowed in a very heavily censored version, stripping-out all calls for deceit, violence, and supremacy and for anything at all that contravenes the Constitution of the host country.
Whether of school-age or not, every arrival must be enrolled in a course that teaches them the history of what the West has achieved, and every one of them must be made to understand that a refusal to integrate will result in deportation.
This is a “strong horse:weak horse” argument; if the West hasn’t even got the guts to protect its own citizens and insist that immigrants obey our laws, then why on earth would any of them consider adapting ? If there is no advantage to changing your ways, and no penalty for refusal, why would anybody bother ?
The West has created the modern world, and must have the confidence and self-belief to teach it’s achievements and it’s culture both to the immigrant and to the indigenous population. What Graven Image was driving at, I think, in commenting on the 1960s, is that a mix of affluence, atheism, consumerism, pop-culture and political theory has created generations of people who no longer know who they are, what their countries and cultures have created, and lost any sense that Western civilisation is not the natural order of things, but is a construct that has to be defended and fought for if it isn’t to disappear. The silly, shallow, and stupid SJWs who can be induced to riot against Trump on the basis of a coarse remark made 12 years ago or claims of racism over a suspension of immigration, but see nothing wrong in the real oppression of women or the murderous hatred inculcated by Islam, do so because they have no belief in a reality independent of their attitudes.
Raven – or anybody else – I should be delighted to discuss the excellence of ‘Earnest, the wonders of Wodehouse, and to suggest a few more great films for you starring such luminaries as Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Terry-Thomas, Janette Scott, Ian Carmichael, Guy Mitchell, Miles Malleson et al if you care to contact me at jagmanphil@ntlworld.com
(I don’t always carry on like Algernon Moncrieff, by-the-way – I am only “having a laugh” as we’d say on this side of the pond, so you’ll be quite safe. I just have the bad habit of channelling whichever source I am feeling inspired by at the time. Probably not Shelley though – I think we’ve all had enough of “travellers from an antique land” to last us a lifetime………)
carol says
Frank says…”Under some circumstances silence is an admission of guilt (‘tacit admission rule’). I think ‘silence’ could easily be replaced with ‘understatement’ in this case – as in ‘our THOUGHTS are with you’.