Churchill’s opinion of the current wannabe-Churchills besmirching his name

 

 

Collective madness gripped Westminster yesterday, infecting the newsrooms of the MSM. Therefore there’s only one issue occupying the front pages: yesterday’s visit of the Ukrainian PM and his begging speech to Parliament (link). Only the Star didn’t get ‘Teh Message’, going for the proposal of some MP to give a medal and an on-off payment to MPs when they lose their seat in a GE. It’s the only Zelensky-free front page of the lot.

As for the rest: there’s one phrase which clearly had all editors drooling: ‘wings of freedom’. This appears in one form or another in the headlines, in print or online. How the allegedly cynical, thick-skinned adults (he/she/it/they/whatevah) populating newsrooms and parliament can fall for such unashamed flattery, used to wring out yet more military hardware, is beyond belief.

Obviously, together with the MPs and lords listening to yon PM speechifying at Westminster Hall, they lapped up the reference to Churchill. Well, we know an erstwhile PM loved to see himself as Churchill’s second coming, so why not give yon Ukrainian PM the same accolade. After all, that’s why he ’admires’ the UK, provided we hand over more of our armaments. And lo and behold, he was also ‘inspired’ by Churchill, as the DT reports in one of their many articles on that visit:

“I sat in Churchill’s armchair and felt his bravery, says Volodymyr Zelensky – Ukrainian president speaks of how Second World War leader inspired his own resolve as he recalls 2020 visit to UK” (paywalled link)

I didn’t read further that that, thank you very much. All I’ll say is that it is regrettable that, sitting in Churchill’s chair in 2020, meant the Ukrainian PM felt ‘inspired’ to abandon his election promise to the Ukrainian people, of working for peace with Russia regarding the then separatist districts in the Donbass. 

There’s worse though. In the early reports last evening there was a statement by our erstwhile PM who has become the driver of handing over our military hardware (my emphasis):

“Mr Johnson said in a statement: “It is time to give the Ukrainians the extra equipment they need to defeat Putin and to restore peace to Ukraine. That means longer range missiles and artillery. It means more tanks. It means planes. We have more than 100 Typhoon jets. We have more than 100 Challenger 2 tanks. The best single use for any of these items is to deploy them now for the protection of the Ukrainians – not least because that is how we guarantee our own long-term security.” (paywalled link)

What the fluff? Denuding our Armed Forces by handing over all we have, to go into the grinder that is the war in Ukraine ‘guarantees our security’? How can having no air cover make us secure when China and Russia could just send big balloons over our country and we won’t know a thing about it? The DM has a report describing what the Typhoons actually do – the ones BJ thinks we should just give away:

“The Typhoon is described by the RAF as a ‘highly capable and extremely agile multi-role combat aircraft’ that can be deployed for the ‘full spectrum of air operations’. This includes air policing as well as high-intensity conflict.” (link)

Yes, clearly, “we” don’t need those planes for “our” security and are happy to write them off when the Russian airforce targets them. Interestingly, the DM also reports a warning voice (my emphasis):

“Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for airpower at the RUSI think tank, said the RAF’s Typhoon force is ‘badly, badly overstretched already’ amid the demand for the planes to be sent to Ukraine. He has also questioned whether they would actually be suitable for the Ukraine conflict as they are not optimised for low altitude air-to-air conflict, and would struggle with short and rough airbases. Mr Bronk suggested any donation of Britain’s Typhoon planes would be ‘a largely symbolic gesture’. This would perhaps be made in the hope it persuades other nations such as the US or Sweden to provide more suitable F-18 or Gripen aircraft, he added.” (link)

How drunk does one have to be on that honeyed phrase: ‘wings of freedom’ to blithely indulge in gesture politics without saying one word about the costs, while at the same time there’s the ‘cost of living crisis’ which gets trotted out every time nurses or teachers are on strike and Hunt is being badgered to lower taxes!

While the Westminster denizens, politicians and news writers, were in a delirium of adoration yesterday there was one news item which made the rounds rapidly, as soon as it was online. It’s the report by the eminent Seymour Hersh, one of the very last true investigative journalists left. I linked to it yesterday in the comment posts. ICYMI here is the link again:

“How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline – The New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now” (link)

I wondered if any paper would pick it up. Well, to my utter amazement the DM actually did – well down their online frontpage, but here it is, with maps and all, under the headline:

“Did Biden give the order to destroy Putin’s Nord Stream pipeline after Ukraine invasion? Bombshell report claims Navy divers carried out mission to kill Russia’s gas stranglehold on Europe in audacious mission overseen by president” (link)

That was brave of the DM – or are they simply catering to their readers? In their comment posts they are far less enthusiastic about our support for yon fight against Russia than the posh readers of the posh broadsheets. 

I leave you with the link to today’s Matt Cartoon which pokes a sharp pencil into the bloated, self-congratulatory ‘hero’ adulation having gripped Westminster yesterday. This is how far we’ve come: blanket propaganda for going to war-by-proxy because some honeyed flattery about ‘wings of freedom’ while only a cartoonist is able to point out that these Westminster types are cloaking themselves with false ‘heroic’ feathers.

That’s all I’ve got for today. My esteem for the ‘heroes of Westminster’, in Parliament or the MSM, has now sunk so low that it’s coming out on the antipodean side of the globe. Sickening, isn’t it. Keep safe and have a good day.



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