The vigil in Manchester on Tuesday night was undeniably moving. The assurances that we will stand together, we will not let terrorism win, love is stronger than hate, and so on, were resonant. And yet … and yet … that is what we always do. Politicians jostle to repeat the same platitudes. Maybe the threat level is heightened for a week or two. We debate the percentage of the anti-radicalisation budget that goes to the government’s disputed “Prevent” strategy. Then the dogs bark, and the caravan moves on. Until the next time.
Allison Pearson summed up the point beautifully:
“Even before their bodies were cold, the great and the good were crowding on to the airwaves to murmur their self-soothing mantras about hope being stronger than fear, strong, vibrant communities, keep calm and carry on, businesses as usual. How dare they? They insult the dead, who deserve the country to be outraged and anguished on their behalf. How can we be calm when our children are considered a legitimate target for mass murder?”
One theme to emerge is that the bomber was a loner, representing no one. Responding to a tweet saying that integration has not worked, Tim Montgomerie wrote “It largely has. 99.9% of Muslims are good neighbours”. I responded by re-tweeting some Pew research indicating that in the UK, 24% of Muslims and 35% of young Muslims express some sympathy for suicide bombing. Rather more than the 0.1% implied by Tim. My Bête Noire Professor Michael Merrifield responded with an alternative study showing that only 4% of British Muslims sympathise with extremists. But as I pointed out, even if Merrifield’s figures are right, at 4% it’s still forty times Tim’s estimate.
Peter Whittle on Twitter quoted Mayor Andy Turnham: “The bomber represents no one but himself”. I responded “The bomber (so far as we can judge) represents a large and determined terrorist death cult which is a threat to all of us”. Of course not all Muslims (nor even a majority of Muslims) are terrorists. But we face a large and well-resourced terrorist organisation which claims to represent Islam, and is steeped in a highly conservative and paranoid interpretation of the faith. To pretend that we can deal with the terrorism without responding to the distortion of the religion is fanciful and naïve.
The idea that the bomber was a maverick loner is further undermined by a Telegraph headline “South side of city (Manchester) is a breeding ground for Jihad”. It sounds more like Molenbeek, the notorious jihadist suburb of Brussels which harboured the Paris bombers, than a suburb of the City of Manchester, standing together to face down the terror threat. It is clear that UK security services are anticipating further attacks.
I noted an interesting comment from Brendan Cox, husband of the murdered MP Jo Cox. He suggests that the only alternatives are (A) to turn the other cheek; or (B) “To build internment camps and hold the billion Muslims on the planet responsible for the actions of a few”. Admittedly he does suggest some other measures, but they are all rather vague generalities like “building stronger communities”. Haven’t we been trying to do that through all the years of multiculturalism?
I suggest that there are things we can do. For a start, we should set aside the ECHR and deport foreign nationals whom we realistically suspect of jihadism. Second, we should deny entry and withdraw passports from British citizens who seek to return from jihad (yes, there are legal problems, but we face an emergency). We should identify imams who preach jihad, and deport them (or if British, detain them – incitement to violence is a crime). We should close mosques that give a platform to hate preachers.
Then schools. It is evident that some Muslim schools are hotbeds of Wahhabism and anti-Western values. They should be closed. I’ve struggled for a long time with the apparent discrimination of closing Muslim schools but not other faith schools. But it seems that only in Muslim schools (or some Muslim schools) are anti-Western values systematically promoted, and when we are faced with Islamic terrorism, there is every justification for closing them.
We should ban the burqa. You cannot be integrated into Western society with your face covered. And if you aren’t prepared to be part of Western society, you shouldn’t be here.
Finally, perhaps the most radical point. As a broadly libertarian politician, I am hugely reluctant even to type the word “internment”, but I am coming around to the view that the threat we face – the children slaughtered in Manchester – is on such a scale that we have to think the unthinkable. No, Mr. Brendan Cox, we do not want to build internment camps for the world’s billion Muslims. But we need at least to consider internment for the 3000 or so jihadist suspects on our streets. We are horrified that the Manchester bomber was “known to the police” yet still allowed to go to Libya, to return, and to carry out his atrocity. Yet we have to recognise that it is impossible for the security forces to monitor 3000 people.
I was relieved to find I was not alone in what some may consider an extreme view. I re-tweeted Arron Banks on Wednesday morning: “We should intern people on the terrorist watch and properly investigate them”. I will not say at this time that we should necessarily do so. But I believe it is time to have the debate.
Deportation will not work until our borders are secured, so the only alternative (aside from the much needed death penalty) is internment. Even then there is the possibility of escape.
A prison ship well offshore with no lifeboats would help.
Brendan Cox is an idiot, a typical illogical Leftard with a typical internationalist obsession. What actually matters is what we do in THIS country, to protect OUR land and OUR people. What the rest of the countries in the West do about their share of muslim invaders is up to them. We’re not concerned about 1.6bn muslims worldwide: most of them live exactly where they all rightly belong – in islamic countries of which there are 49 to choose from and to which I fervently long for the ones we’re burdened with to return asap.
In the Second World War, aliens were interned for a hell of a lot less than the crimes muslims have committed or plotted to commit in the UK. Churchill decided to put the safety and welfare of the British people first (oh, how wonderful to have such a leader!) and lock aliens up until it could be determined whether or not they were a threat. Those who could show they were allies by having people vouch for them, or had solicitors to represent their case were released eventually.
There is a Leftard fashion these days, here and in the USA (where Japanese were interned after Pearl Harbour), to manufacture outrage about internment and say how awful it was to lock up people whose loyalty was doubted. Poppycock! It is simple common sense in a war situation or a national emergency. There is nothing ‘extreme’ about it, unless you’re the kind of person who cares nothing more for Britain and the British than for any foreigner or foreign land. Unfortunately, there are far too many people of that kind in our country (revealed in all their ugliness after the Referendum) and their anti-patriotism is sickening to say the least. They don’t deserve to live here.
For the sake of safety, security, saving vast amounts of money we don’t have to waste upon individually surveilling such vermin, and for ease of deciding who should be booted out of the country without delay, the 3,000 or so suspects should be interned immediately and indefinitely until it can be determined if they’re dangerous rats or rather feeble mice.
Of course, the Leftard traitors will howl their heads off; who cares? Let them stamp, march, demo and shout until they all have well-deserved migraines. I believe that the majority of people want to see firm action taken to prevent murderous islamaniacs roaming free, plotting to kill, injure and traumatise our countrymen, women and children. If that loser Abedi had been banged up while they investigated him, he couldn’t have committed the atrocity in Manchester.
Brendan Cox should consider who was most likely to benefit from the murder of his wife and compare it with similar events.
Not a word in the “what we can do” bit about ending the ongoing immigration invasion, both legal & illegal, from Mohammedan countries into England & Wales, from which this jihadist activity is metastasizing.
Without this, all the other ‘solutions’ mentioned are enfeebled attempts to pump water from the Titanic after its been ripped open.
Mr. Helmer thank you for your fine article. The sentiments you express mesh very well with the kind of people that support us that I’ve spoken to down here in South Basildon & East Thurrock.
I’ve seen many comments from others, sometimes even some from some in UKIP, that are along the lines of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’.
I think these words were entirely appropriate during the last war for those working in their vital roles in production to support the war effort under horrendous conditions while their homes were being reduced to rubble.
From what my father told me for the Britons, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Canadians and later Americans that were fighting on the front lines (sorry if I’ve left out a few!) there was nothing calm about it.
Our situation here today is completely different. If we keep calm and carry on doing nothing effective in response to what is happening to us we will lose and losing is not an option. People need to wake up and start seeing things for what they are. For the first time in centuries, we’re being invaded. True, it is a slow, creeping invasion but an invasion it is nonetheless and step by craftily plotted step they are gaining ground.
This time round we ARE the front line and it’s no place for candles.
It’s a gesture which although perhaps well-meant is far worse than useless.
That’s because those that would harm us will see it as a clear signal that they’re winning and that THEY should ‘carry on’.
There’s a ground war against Whites in the UK and it’s been brought by Government using the likes of this:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/streatham-common-stabbing-police-probe-after-man-stabbed-repeatedly-at-busy-south-london-station-a3549966.html
Manchester Arena was just a force multiplier of that.
https://twitter.com/MaineFirstMedia/status/866812987549601792
The jihadi is the symptom, the Government is the disease.
QUI FACIT PER ALIUM, FACIT PER SE.
Roger, many thanks for this article. I came to help with your Newark campaign three years ago.
Yes it does seem inevitable that internment must be used if we are to preserve ourselves. There are thousands of enemy combatants in our midst. The Prevent strategy has clearly failed. The security services cannot keep on top of it, they are clearly struggling.
The security services are now saying that the numbers of jihadis is 23,000.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4546482/Bank-Holiday-ring-steel-Security-ramped-1300-events.html
I think we should be planning for closer to 100,000 interned in the short term, the next year or so. It could go as high as a million before this problem is thoroughly dealt with.
Of course as an absolute priority any jihadi with dual nationality must be expelled immediately and their British passport revoked. Also immediately expel jihadi asylum seekers. We must not make the mistake that the Swedish authorities did, to send the jihadi a letter to tell them that they were going to be deported. Four people would not have been killed if the Swedish authorities had not been so stupid.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/789757/Stockholm-terror-suspect-was-failed-asylum-seeker
Mister Helmer you continue to do an excellent job as a leading member of UKIP.
I still remember with pleasure the opportunity I took to shake your hand and say a few words to you at a fringe meeting in Doncaster 2014.
Speaking personally we should move towards both the ‘right view’ and one that is at the same time popular with joe public…
A) Zero immigration for 5 years and zero means zero.
B) Deportation of all foreign criminals, all with dual nationality ( a large number of muslims), and all overstayers ( several hundred thousands ‘hiding’ within the muslim enclaves in England). Expulsion of all those deemed a security risk – no appeal.
C) Internment on remote islands or abroad using overseas aid money ( eg Congo) of all those with British nationality who are on the watch lists.
D) re-education of all muslims in compulsory night school classes explaining Western society and values and a test at the end to judge their level of understanding.
E) Closure of all radical mosques
F) Each town and city to resurrect the system of Civil Defence/ Citizen Militia giving uniform/training/ etc to part-time volunteers to deal with any emergency. We are going to need this of that I have zero doubt.
A town of say 50,000 should aim to have 250-500 trained personnel after say 2 years. All money for this directed from overseas aid.
I am utterly sick and tired of the loony liberals grandstanding and dominating the national discourse. They do not represent the majority opinion.
We need AnneMarie Waters in a major role in UKIP plus John Rees Evans plus persons unknown by which I mean we need a new leadership and new structures in the party so that it more accurately reflects the party membership.
Stoke on Trent – a place I know well – was a case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The people who ran that campaign were not from the Knotty and were grandstanding their own careers at the expense of local people. Our failure there was devastating. Lisa Duffy was hopeless.
Citizencain, I went three times to help with the Stoke campaign. Lisa Duffy did an excellent job organising the main campaign in my opinion. She has told me that she had nothing to do with the infamous pro-Islam leaflet. That was organised by the local branch and by Paul Nuttall.
I have helped with several campaigns, I have a high regard for Lisa. She seems to be on the ball regarding the details of campaigning. The dire result in Stoke was entirely due to Nuttall and the religious lobby in the local branch. Dr Tariq Mahmood has since left the party, and good riddance. UKIP would be far better placed without the special interest lobbyists like him. There is still some clearing out to do.
Stoke was winnable. I know, I did canvassing there.
Lisa put in a huge effort, it really was not her fault that it was lost.
Seconded, Hugo.
CK,
I don’t feel you can blame Lisa Duffy for what happened at Stoke, did you go there?
Best regards DD – yes I spent three whole days in Stoke Central and I stand by my opinion of Lisa Duffy. She was in charge, we lost.
I would describe it as organised chaos partic voting day itself.
CK, there were aspects of the campaign which were not in her remit, as I explained. It is grossly unfair to blame her.
CK, I agree with all your points, but would not rule out deporting threats with British citizenship. Just because they were born here shouldn’t give them some magic status. They’re either loyal British citizens or they’re not; if not, go back to your antecedents’ country of origin, we don’t need or want you here. We’ve already put up for far too long with the names Britain, British, Briton being besmirched in the eyes of the world by malefactors whose antecedents happened to be let into this country by foolish, thoughtless politicians WITHOUT our consent. The true British, the true Britons are the English, Welsh, Scots and Northern Irish whose forebears have occupied these islands for centuries, pulled together and created the country we have today.
The term ‘British’ has been handed out indiscriminately, demeaned and degraded by aliens who have no geographical, social, cultural, religious or racial connections with us, nor do they share the values that we hold dear. The Empire ended a long time ago, our responsibilities are over, we owe nothing. It’s time we got our country back and lived in safety and peace.
Culpable governments
The situation that we are facing in the UK, and indeed in Europe is the direct result of government failures. In a way you cannot blame the terrorists, they are simply acting in the way that jihadis have done for fourteen centuries. There is nothing new in their desire to slaughter infidels. You can however blame our governments over several decades for allowing them into our country.
If Churchill were Prime Minister today he would sort out the mess in very short order. He understood exactly the threat, and wrote about it in his book “The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan”, published in 1899. Our situation is so precarious today that if you quote from it in public you will be arrested for inciting religious hatred! The police appear not to understand irony. There is photographic evidence of police officers deliberately ignoring religion inspired incitement to murder.
Terrible and utterly inevitable as the jihadi attacks are, there is a far more serious problem. Our existential threat is demographic. None of the three main parties seems willing to do anything about that, or even to acknowledge that a problem exists. We are unable to solve any problem while there is an unwillingness to even look at the facts. The point of no return will be upon us even sooner than I had previously calculated. We cannot have got into this mess by accident, it must have been deliberately created, since the threat has been known for at least a century.
References
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_River_War
A candidate in the South East European elections has been arrested after making a speech quoting from a book by Winston Churchill about Islam. Paul Weston, chairman of Liberty GB, was making the speech on the steps of Winchester Guildhall in Hampshire on Saturday after a passer-by complained. He was detained after failing to comply with a request by police to move on under the powers of a dispersal order. He was further arrested on suspicion of religious or racial harassment.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-27186573
Photo, with placard “Kill those who insult our prophet”
https://i2.wp.com/www.barenakedislam.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/system-vi.jpg?w=600
Deliberate? Yes, by the Left when they get the chance, eg by Blair in this country.
But also by complacency, virtue-signalling, apathy, stupidity, cowardice – none of which are anything new, in all of which the Conservative Party has always excelled.
And let’s not forget liberal economics, from the slave trade to the present day – the same creed so many here on UKIP Daily seem so enamoured with.
Q.
I am certainly not enamoured by them.
I know you’re not, Daffy – thanks.
Trouble is so many other commenters are.
I’ve tried to show how they haven’t thought it through. As UKIPpers they realise the dangers of immigration and globlization, unlike the Tory business establishment – but haven’t twigged this fundamental connection with the whole neo-liberal economics package.
PS – of which Roger Helmer is a leading proponent in the Party!
Hugo, It is impossible not to feel to an uncomfortable depth the truth of all you say, the terrible injustice done to our people, the heinous betrayal of our country by every politician since WW2. Even Churchill, hero that he was, and alarmed as he was, did little or nothing to stem the tide of immigration that the LABOUR government allowed and encouraged from 1945. Labour has not changed except to get even worse in their careless disregard of the absolute claim of the British people to their birthright and heritage – their homeland as they created it together. Blair is the biggest criminal of all in dispossessing the British of their country, deliberately flooding it with foreigners and ‘rubbing our noses in diversity’. I know what I’d like to rub HIS nose in and it ain’t violets. Corbyn is another such traitor, all Labour leaders are. Labour must die the death of a traitor party.