When I was sent this tweet yesterday I thought it was a clever parody of the Leave Eu account.
Then I realised that it was genuine.
The comparison between Britain and Germany is an instructive one.
The latter know that they have a very bad history, but the former has no idea whatsoever.
Every school child in Germany leaves school fully equipped with a broad understanding of the Third Reich and the Holocaust.
Vergangenheitsbewältigung is a burden from history that the average German person bears with some dignity.
As I write this, news is breaking of an attack on a synagogue in the German city of Halle.
On this of all days too…
It is Yom Kippur and the attacker would have known that the Jewish place of worship would have been full.
There are no details available at present about who carried out the atrocity on this holy day.
However, it is certain that German society has done huge work over generations in excising anti-semitism from their nation.
Tell the average Brit that the concentration camp is a British invention and they look at you askance.
Then reveal that a decade after Auschwitz closed the Brits were running death camps in Kenya and they think that you’re lying.
Shashi Tharoor wrote in his book Inglorious Empire what the British did to India that the Brits must now make a “moral atonement” for their crimes.
His reasoning was that financial reparations were essentially incalculable and certainly unpayable.
However, it would serve everyone well if Britain admitted what they had done to India over several centuries of imperialist plunder.
I recall when the book came out that he was subjected to some frosty interviews in London media studios.
Ironically his book came out in 2016.
Today Aaron Banks, the main man behind the Leave EU campaign apologised for the tweet about Chancellor Merkel.
Aaron Banks tweeted:
“The Leave.EU team went too far yesterday but the real outrage is the German suggestion that Northern Ireland be separated from the UK. As a result we will delete the post and apologise accordingly … on reflection the point could have been made better.”
What Brexit has uncorked for the world to see is the elixir of everlasting empire.
It is a heady brew that is consumed in large quantities in Middle England and anywhere that Sevco is playing.
It has also been known to be served at weddings in Carrickfergus.
The Brexit vote in 2016 let the imperialist genie out of the bottle and Mr Banks was one of the biggest financiers of the triumphant leave effort.
I have written before that I considered the Brexit vote and the ensuing shambles to be a “slow-moving Suez crisis”.
I think that description still holds true.
As I write this it is becoming very apparent that the latest attempts by Prime Minister Johnson and his advisers to play divide et impera with Ireland and the EU 26 haven’t worked.
This set of events were set in train in 2016.
In the centenary year of Éirí Amach na Cásca, the grand old dame Britannia has been undone by Ireland and our gallant allies in Europe.
I wrote this piece for Bella Caledonia in February 2016 because I saw some trouble coming down the track if the UK voted to leave the EU.
Some of the comments below the piece haven’t aged well at all…
A key component of this self-exculpatory national narrative in Britain is a nasty cocktail of denial and ignorance.
This week the Spotlight programme in Northern Ireland focused on the collusion between Loyalist paramilitaries and the British state.
One of the revelations was that the late Willie Frazer, a campaigner on behalf of victims of Republican violence, was no innocent bystander in the conflict.
The programme claimed that Frazer, who died earlier this year, was the contact between Ulster Resistance and the UDA.
Weapons sourced in Apartheid South Africa with the help of MI5 were used by the UDA to kill scores of innocent Catholics.
For the uninitiated Ulster Resistance was an organisation set up in the mid-1980s with the enthusiastic support of leading members of the Democratic Unionist Party.
Of course, none of this came as a surprise to anyone within the nationalist community.
However, now some of the anti-Republican commentariat found themselves in a sticky situation.
Ruth Dudley Edwards tweeted this:
At the time of his death she was supportive of gushing epitaphs for Frazer in the media:
I think it is fair to say that the late Mr Frazer had friends in some very low places:
He also knew folk in the UDA…
Britain’s dirty war in the Six Counties had been carefully mapped out by their counter-insurgency theorist Frank Kitson.
This wasn’t a case of a few “rotten apples”.
Rather the entire orchard was a stinking, putrid swamp.
This week, I did allow myself to enjoy the warm breeze of schadenfreude.
I saw those who slammed collusion as a Republican conspiracy theory forced to eat their words.
However, it is but a small victory is correcting the record.
The average British person is still sublimely ignorant of the many crimes that were committed in the colonial wars where Frank Kitson was a young officer.
Because of that, they are also victims of this post-imperial disorder.
Indeed, until the toxicity of Britishness is addressed then expect more of this ugly xenophobia.
We already know that it doesn’t always stop at a tweet…
For the avoidance of doubt, that isn’t humbug.
The current British Prime Minister is fond of flaunting his credentials as a classicist.
Therefore, a line from Quintus Horatius Flaccus is perhaps appropriate at this juncture:
Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.
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Has the judge given the rangers board time to settle there bill with SD and them pushing for money for a Morelos sale in January , to me they are trying to nurse along him till January
Anti Semitism?
Since when did Yiddish become a Semitic language?
There are Kenyans still alive who were tortured and castrated by British soldiers for daring to fight British colonial rule. A few were paid pitiful compensation after a court case that began in 2013 (the British resisted as long as possible to reduce the amount payable as survivors died off). No soldiers were ever prosecuted. Impunity in uniform is the norm, with the tabloid press ready defend it with any amount of patriotic hate.
As I cast my mind back to events like Greysteel, Omagh,Bloody Sunday I can’t help but think there was,is and continues to be wrong done on all sides of conflict.
Britain of course has a VERY bad historical past in this regard.
You only have to go back to the early 70’s in order to find Ethnic Cleansing in the Chagis Islands.
NO SIDE is without having innocent blood on its hands when it comes to Ireland.
It might be worth reminding yourself and readers that it was an Irishman who invited the Normans in in the first place Phil and this set the course of what has unfolded since.
One mans greed as per usual turns into many men,women and children’s nightmares.
That aside it was Germany was at fault for both major Wars and is now more or less driving the EU Gravy Train.
Whilst I don’t subscribe to or agree with the thinking of the average Right Wing numpty being a Socialist they do actually have a point regarding Germany.
The fact that the EU is run by and controlled by a Centre Right Political approach (Neoliberalism/Thatcherism) who take their orders from Central Bank in Frankfurt seems to have flown right over the heads (Like a Junckers JU88) of those most critical of Brexit Voters who wish to leave this doomed Neoliberal construct.
History will favour us who voted to Leave in the first place of that I am fairly certain.
We will be the first to Leave but trust me we won’t be the last.
Peace to all men regardless.
Chagos Islands’
Any group who calls themselves socialist surely doesn’t want the UK to become even more right wing than the EU,workers rights or whats left of them destroyed , food standards obliterated and trade agreements with Trumps US threatening our NHS.The Germans have learned from history to avoid conflict unlike the right wing fanatics within the Conservative Party and Right Wing Media in the UK. Where do you think the dogma of neoliberal economics was exported to Europe from if not from the US via the UK.
I am a person not a Group.
As a solitary person I voted to reject Neoliberalism and the European Superstate project.
The EU is a Neoliberal construct there is no other option than Neoliberal Politics within its setup.
We are in the EU and have witnessed the sell off of Nationalised Industry,the destruction of Unions,the introduction of Austerity (after a Global Recession caused by Neoliberal Economics) ,the resulting Foodbanks,the introduction of Zero Hour Contracts and the influx of under paid Foreign workers from Europe.
Fuel prices are at a premium and have been for well over a decade.
The NHS has been paying vast sums for Medication for decades.
The dogma of Neoliberal Economics Has been generated by Neoliberal Economics it is a flawed concept by its own design and the only winners are those who stand to make the most from it.
That is the Globalist Elite who have and continue to be behind it from its inception.
They make a killing whilst we Joe Public pick up the tab.
We now are in a position in this Country to rectify these issues.
Out with the control of the unelected who run and control Europe.
You need to wake up to the reality that the EU is not all that it is cracked up to be.
Over 10,000 within its structure earn more money than our own PM.
It is a gravy train for those who run and control it.
We need fundamental changes to our own way of doing things in the UK and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING stopping us from making this Country work better for itself now we have rid ourselves of the Frankfurt and Brussels based Overseers.
We will have no one else to blame but ourselves.
This is how it was and always should have been for each Nation.
As a Socialist I want a fairer Society Governed correctly by our own Elected people.
Nationalism comes in many extremes and guises.
Even dressed in tartan.
Anyone who advocates subscribing to what equates toThatcherism for eternity needs to see a Psychologist in my opinion.
In advocating we should stay in the EU you are doing exactly that.
Wake up and open yer eyes.
It’s all smoke and mirrors.
If you actually were a socialist in the correct meaning of that word, you would be against the raising of national borders, not for it. Borders are another mechanism used to divide workers across the globe by presenting people in different countries as other, not to be trusted because they aren’t us. You seem more interested in National Socialism, as a party in Germany so falsely called themselves
We come from a small Island, our resources are not limitless.
Our infrastructure can only cope with so much.
To have an open door policy is a ridiculous concept.
At present we have thousands upon thousand of people employed in the UK as cheap Labour.
Our Hospitals are overstretched ,under funded and struggling.
Our Housing is overstretched.
We have record levels of homeless and record levels of families living on the breadline.
At some point you and people like you are going to have to face up to the reality that this simply cannot continue to get worse.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with restricting numbers through a Countries Borders.
But there is plenty wrong with the way things currently stand.
I want a fairer Society for all,not just a select few.
To achieve that we must take control of our own issues and rethink what direction this Country is headed.
Plenty Socialists voting SNP meanwhile who are apparently wishing or hoping to subscribe to an eternity of Thatcherism in the Neoliberal Construct that is the EU.
I personally reject that before any thoughts of Nationalism.
Ps..Borders are also used to stop people abusing the System.
Like those who come here for free healthcare at Taxpayers expense.
It is common sense to control both who comes and goes whilst also verifying why they wish to do so in the first place.
Failure to do so will continue to see the pressure already on our infrastructure increase.
There is a breaking point you know.
This is the reality for the UK.
Acknowledge your real political agenda.Stop calling yourself a socialist as you clearly are anything but. I respect your right to have a view of the world which is different from mine, but don’t misrepresent who you are and what you believe. It tarnishes both you and the people you claim to share a political philosophy with.
I’m sorry you don’t see the benefits that can be derived from continued EU membership. The unfortunate problem is that neither of us can have a solution to this problem without the other being, at best, disappointed.
I would direct you to this excellent wikipedia article on the causes of WWI, before you go further in your finger pointing at the Germans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_World_War_I).
As for being the first to leave, you may well be proven right as I fully believe both Scotland and NI will decide to leave the UK once Boris and his chums get their way.
You shouldn’t fool yourself in any way that their reasons for leaving the Eu are ideological, it’s all about protecting their own wealth
The Irish and the EU in general have been set up to take the fall for Johnson’s no deal EU exit.
Despite every forecast warning of an economic disaster that clown at No 10 and his acolytes are steaming ahead.
He should be locked up and the key thrown away.
His pal across the Atlantic is paying lip service to the UK demands to return the US citizen involved in the fatal road crash.
She will never set foot in the UK again.
As for Trump he’s all but given the green light to Turkey to launch an attack on the Kurds who played a significant role in the battle against ISIS.
Trump’s ignorance of all things outside his personal business interests was there for all to see as he tried to justify the Turkish actions by questioning where the Kurds were when the Allies came ashore at Normandy!
Ffs, if you put a map of the world in front of this clown with the country’s names blanked out he would struggle to find the USA never mind Turkey.
He couldn’t find the map!!!
Nice piece Phil,
I’ve never seen one of your articles go so long without a comment!
Could it be that the subject matter has left folk scunnered,no longer willing to even comment on ‘brexSHIT’,as an STV newsreader’s had a Freudian slip LIVE on air.
I had to reference the Quintas Horatius Flaccus phella,my ignorance of the Latin language left me nonplussed.A Roman lyric poet to Emperor Augustus,known as Horace.
I know I’ve had more than my fill of it,so,maybe another quote from a modern outlook could also have been substituted,you’re more refined than most,not to mention your ever expanding vocabulary.
So please excuse this as you may find it uncouth,but I’ve seen you use ‘bad’ language on your site,rarely,but I’m sure you have in the past.
For me this tory govt has cost lives of the elderly and infirm and I’ve no time for them any longer.
They have shown that they simply do not care about the working man,so my words for them are…
FUTTITI MOLTO and stay there.
HH🍀
Will the “little penguin” in the DUP make a statement about daddy penguin’s “Little” role in the murders of innocent Catholics and others in the “conflict” ?