.@robertshrimsley makes an important point👇 about the potential, unintended consequences of getting drawn into confected battles over flags, or for that matter songs at the Proms, statues & much else.
... which, left unchallenged, leads to circumstances in which challenge is no longer possible. More precisely, no longer permissible. Or safe. Safe for example to call for “freedom of speech [&] religion & protection of the individual citizen from [...] arbitrary action”./3.
Naturally, intelligent, decent people, such as @robertshrimsley, will legitimately consider & question what the appropriate approach is for those - including themselves, certainly - determined to confront & reverse deeply troubling political developments. /4.
A tactical “Union Flag” retreat here, a shrug of the “Enemies of the People” shoulders there, a roll of the “there’s no GB-NI border & anyway it’s all the EU’s fault” eyes...
But.
When does that stop?
As an effective tactic (if it is). Or because it’s no longer safe./5.
How do I, how does @robertshrimsley, how do you, know when enough is enough?
So that the retreats, shrugs & eye-rolls stop.
And the vigorous defence of what’s dear to us begins.
Before it’s too late. /6.
(Anyone who doesn’t recognise, or doesn’t like, the references used in the above thread - more than happy to explain them, their relevance & justification). /7. End
P.S. I’ve been asked a bit about the references. Tweet 3 quote: Sophie Scholl of the “White Rose” judicially murdered (at 21) by the Nazis. Photo: memorial to them, Munich. Tweet 4 photo needs no introduction. Tweet 5 photo: Nazi enabling act, 1933. Tweet 6 photo: Sophie Scholl.
P.P.S. OK, the embedded tweet in tweet 2 is what people have really been asking about. It’s from the psychological profile of Adolf Hitler, prepared during WW2 by OSS (forerunner to CIA), this passage describing his approach to politics & control.
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No police force can command the confidence of the public, or the country’s democratic representatives, in the face of such appalling events. As the leader of the force in question, I fully accept that my position is untenable. /2.
I have submitted my resignation to the Home Secretary & have informed the Mayor of London.
The Deputy Commissioner will take over my duties on an acting basis until a successor is found. /3.
Statement not issued by the Prime Minister, @BorisJohnson:
Resignation of Home Secretary
As soon as I saw the shocking images from Clapham Common yesterday evening I called the Home Secretary for an overnight report on what had occurred. /1.
I reviewed the material this morning. There is no excuse for the police actions captured in the photos & videos I have seen.
Everyone will understand that I must not prejudge potential cases against individual officers directly involved. /2.
However, the failure of leadership revealed by the evidence presented to me is so profound & disturbing that the Home Secretary has asked for the resignation of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
And I have asked the Home Secretary to resign. /3.
It’s clearly a sincerely held belief. Not a glimmer of doubt. No reference, even to attempt to dismiss it, to the fact that that - as is the case for countries which issue their own currency, in the 50 years since the Bretton Woods system ended - tax has no revenue raising.../2.
... function, & there’s no requirement for deficit reduction (to the contrary, indeed), unless the economy’s at or close to full capacity & inflationary risks demand. You won’t see a clearer expression of pre-Copernican economic thinking than in this extraordinary hour. /3.
Since it’s impossible that @Jacob_Rees_Mogg isn’t fully aware of the legally binding obligations the UK entered into in the Belfast Agreement, @pmdfoster, this part must just have slipped his mind:
“... it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement .../1.
... between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish, .../2.
... accepting that this right must be achieved and exercised with and subject to the agreement and consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland”. /3. End
.@GermanAmbUK has far better things to do than read my Twitter commentaries. Still, I feel I owe him an apology. I said a tweet of his was a “direct attack ... on” @DavidGHFrost. It wasn’t.
... to some who, variously, criticised my literary style (so far as it exists - rather the point, I suppose) & expressed outrage that I should describe such a nasty world, in which the UK wouldn’t get what it wanted, allow me to share the thoughts of a former colleague. /2.
John Sawers was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), before that UK Permanent Representative to the UN & held other senior roles.