As I Please

For a variety of reasons my previous blog was substantially reduced in size.

Following a civilised discussion with my editor it was agreed that whilst he had sound reasons for abbreviating the draft submitted to him (Ed – because large chunks of it had been in the previous blog verbatim) an appendix would be added to Holdenforth to restore some of the omitted material.

One reason for the confusion – I challenge HF readers to write a coherent blog in the current national and international climate- an unseemly blend of chaos, corruption and mendacity.

Let’s see how we get on this time.

Slaughter in Gaza

Where does Holdenforth  stand on the most worrying issue of today – the conflict between Israel and Palestine – or, or many refer to it- the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The media – official and social – are replete with details of the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists in Israel.

For its part Israel has vowed to inflict retribution on those responsible.

“A STORY has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead”

From “The End of the Affair”  by Graham Greene

In the beginning

In Year 2 of the first world war – 1915 – Lloyd George, in his capacity as Minister of Munitions, was concerned about the acute shortage of explosives.

He contacted Professor Weizmann, an accomplished chemist, to explain the problem to him and to seek his help. Professor Weizmann  quickly  solved the problem and his achievement  was a most important contribution to the British war effort.

Lloyd George asked him how he, Lloyd George, might reward Weizmann for his work.

To quote Lloyd George – “Weizmann  explained his aspirations as to the repatriation  of the Jews to the sacred land they had made famous. When I became Prime Minister – in December, 1916, I talked the matter over with Mr Balfour – the outcome was the famous Balfour declaration in 1917.”

This declaration read:-

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

During the next  28 years the collective mind of the Jewish Diaspora was understandably pre-occupied with the murderous activities of Hitler in pursuit of his final solution of the Jewish problem.

“In Palestine there was irreconcilable conflict between Arabs and  Jews.”

English History 1914 to 1945 —– AJP Taylor

“The Balfour Declaration was abandoned after 20 years of attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable. It was no doubt unreasonable that the Arabs of Palestine should pay the whole price of what was a world problem, anti Semitism. On the other hand British Governments had made repeated promises to the Jews”

Extract from English History -AJP Taylor

In our time there is no shortage of extremely effective propaganda machines.

To illustrate the point the Israelis rightly and raucously highlight that Hamas is a terrorist organisation but they are quite reticent on the terrorist organisation that brought Israel to power, namely Irgun.

Other critics of Israel point out that the Balfour /Lloyd George declaration in 1917 was conceding land that was not theirs to dispose of. That consideration would not have weighed heavily with Lloyd George.

The Years 1945 to 1948 in Palestine

In post war Palestine the British Government attempted to maintain peace between Jewish immigrants and existing Palestinian communities.    This was not an easy task and the UK sought to relinquish the mandate.

One feature of this phase was the emergence of Irgun, a Zionist  group roughly equivalent to Hamas in Gaza today.

In the years from the end of WW2 to 1948 Irgun proved to be masters in using terror to secure their aims. Given the scale and severity of the terror the British Government of Mr Atlee wished to be relieved of the mandate.

The Irgun Group wrote the text book for terrorism that has been imitated around the world to this day.

It is ironic that the “terror”  tactics employed by Hamas are taken out of the Irgun textbook.

One terrorist activity of Irgun was to place a bomb in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in the summer of 1946.This hotel housed the British Secretariat and Army HQ and almost 100 people were killed.

The public comments of senior British politicians about this appalling act of terrorism could serve as a template for the terms used to describe  Hamas today.

The universal hostile references in the UK – including the comments of the then Prime Minister, Mr Attlee, – to the terrorist activities of Irgun -can be accessed on the internet.

The State of Israel was established in the summer of 1948.

Events in Palestine since 1948  have seen years of the steady expansion of Israel at the expense of Palestine and others.

Israel continues to occupy and even extend illegal settlements, a point noted in the last 48 hours by Mr Gutierrez, the Secretary General of the UN despite the opposition of the United Nations.

“All the devouring and insatiate Monsters imagined since imagination could record itself are fused in the one realisation, Guillotine. And yet there is not in France, with its rich variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a sprig, a pepper corn which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of shape once more and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again and it will surely the same fruit according to its kind.”

From “ A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens

In the above extract Dickens was making the simple point that the horrors of the French Revolution arose from the suppression of the people by the ruling class in previous years.

Thus – The French Revolution

Thus the emergence of Hamas

As I write possibly the most harrowing event now taking place anywhere in the world is the treatment by Israel of the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza, a tiny narrow strip of land – approximately 45 square kms to the south and west of Israel.

It is in this tiny area that Hamas operates and in which the October 7 attack was planned

In the 12 or so weeks that have elapsed since October 7 Israeli forces have inflicted huge casualties on the civilian population.

“Political language has to consist of euphemism, question begging and sheer cloudy  vagueness. Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets; this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers… “

From his essay -Politics and the English language –1946

HF considers that these words of Orwell accurately describe the current situation in Gaza.

Where does Holdenforth stand on the vexed question of illegal immigration?

* Many of the asylum seekers and refugees are simply seeking to do what you and I would do were we in their shoes – to improve the conditions of their lives.

* It could be argued – indeed it is argued by some – that the criminal gangs arranging illegal entry in small boats are simply exploiting a clear gap in the travel market – to provide a travel service to those seeking a better life.

* The UK authorities encourage the growth of this market opportunity by making available to those who succeed in landing on our  shores a significantly more agreeable life style.

*  Most of the venom of those in the Tory party anxious to demonstrate that they have a workable plan to tackle the problem is directed against small boats with their cargo of illegals.

* As I write there are around 2 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza being subjected to the sort of treatment and worse as described by  Orwell in the previous paragraph. Sooner or later someone will suggest that arrangements be made to allow these genuine asylum seekers and refugees to come to the UK possibly in very large boats – say a couple of Royal Caribbean  Cruise liners with each with capacities of at least 5000 thus getting around  the ban on small boats – what happens then?

Which of us would not gladly exchange life  in Gaza for a new life in the UK?

What about Brexit? .

The Brexit debate rumbles on. Very few now seek to argue that the UK should rejoin the EU.

The Labour MP for Torfaen -and the MP for Holdenforth –  Nick Thomas-Simmonds , has been handed the most formidable challenge of all in the Starmer shadow cabinet, that of reaching new arrangements with the EU short of full membership.

Mr Thomas – Simmonds has our full support in this Herculean assignment.

For all practical purposes – the UK is out of and will remain out of the EU for the next few years.

For HF that leaves a little unfinished business. Prior to the referendum in 2016 we had a modest wager with a rambling colleague about the outcome. We hoped fervently for a remain outlook – but we lost our preference and our wager. We hope to settle up before the Grim Reaper calls. 

Finally – a few HF slogans from previous blogs- slogans dear to our hearts and a few new issues that we will return to in future blogs.

Whither the BBC –  We will continue to campaign for the privatisation of the BBC.

We demand to know what is holding up the appearance in court of those responsible for the appalling miscarriage of justice in the persecution of sub postmasters.

Full credit to The Daily Mail for its vigorous campaign

HF is, if nothing else, a kindly blogger. We would be quite happy for The Rev Vennells to take her  CBE with her into Holloware were she to be convicted by a jury of her peers of criminal conduct.

While we are on the subject – we beg  HMG to abandon the languid Chilcot approach to interminably protracted public enquiries so beloved by senile judges and rapacious lawyers. We will open the bidding at a maximum duration of 3 months on any public enquiry.

When will the issue of who can work from home and in what circumstances be decided by management rather than by those languishing in the comfort of their own homes.

Let us widen this point – when will the management sector of our society be persuaded to do the job which it is paid to do. The public is constantly  assured that this is the reason  for the substantial reward packages paid to those in the sector.

Players and managers. HF was not surprised at the early departure from the management scene of Mr Rooney.

“Rooney on the scrap heap”

Daily Mail Jan 3 “

The Daily Mail piece noted the absurdity of the argument that the very best players in soccer are well placed to move into managerial positions.

The job of the manager/coach  is very different from that of the player.

How many more players will be quickly humiliated when they “move into management” before this obvious outcome is appreciated.

The Mones V HMG

“WE have been hung out to dry on PPE, the Mones moan”

Daily Mail Jan 2

Holdenforth noted that The Mones were fighting back after the initial setback of Lady Mone admitted telling porkies to an interviewer.  As one might expect the facts as opposed to the gossip are not easy to come by but the gist of the defence now being put forward by “lying Baroness Bra” (soubriquet courtesy of doughty Mail reporter Guy Adams) and her husband Mr Barrowman is that they followed the rules laid down by HMG at all times.

More to the point – this issue will not be on the Pandemic enquiry for over a year.

HF thinks that the Mones have a point.

Dead Souls

“How ghost patients have boosted GP coffers by £955m”

Daily Mail- Jan 2

“ GP surgeries are being paid millions of pounds a year for patients who do not exist, figures show”

Nice work if you can get it ,.

Even better if you can get it for not working.

The business model for this imaginative venture was described by Nicolai Gogol in his novel “Dead Souls” published almost 200 years ago in Russia. The hero of the novel, Tchitckoff, bought the souls of serfs who had died between one census and the next. He used these dead souls as raise cash.

There have been one or two changes in the past 200 years but you can see the similarities.

A word about Mark Almond, the  crusading campaigning columnist – and the director of the Oxford Crisis Research Institute.

“Make no mistake, this escalating crisis in the Red Sea could prove to be America’s Suez”

Mark Almond, Daily Mail, Jan 2

Mr Almond details the substantial hazard that has been added to the problems faced by the West in The Ukraine and in Gaza, namely the problem of keeping the Suez Canal open for business as usual. After reading his column it is not easy to think that 2024 will bring about any easing of international tension.   

Charity queen with a colourful life dies aged 61

The charity queen in question was Camila Batmanghelidjh who rose to national prominence some 20 years ago. The charity she founded and helped to manage was Kids’ Company.

The charity raised huge sums of money to provide support for young people suffering from abuse, poverty and trauma, all worthy causes. However unkind critics of the charity felt that Camila was enjoying an expensive lifestyle funded by the charity although a  lengthy and costly High Court case exonerated her of mismanaging the charity or its funds.

The lesson here – it is not easy for charity commissioners to ensure that monies raised for charity always find their way to the intended recipients.

Finally – a memory test.

HF vaguely recalls that Kate Bingham was thought to have done a good job during the CV pandemic whilst Dido Harding was deemed to have turned in a shaky performance – or is it the other way round.

So – Holdenforth memo to Lady Hallett – chair of the pandemic enquiry – get a move on – we demand to see your report by the end of March, 2024 – repeat end of March, 2024.