The Morning I Spent ‘Guarding’ Churchill’s Statue
On Armistice Day, I joined the British Friends of Israel in Parliament Square to make sure Churchill’s statue wasn’t defiled by pro-Palestinian protestors. You can read more about my adventures in this week’s Spectator.
When we arrived at the north-east corner of Parliament Square, the area in front of the statue was occupied by two groups, one made up of middle-aged intellectuals holding up pro-Israel banners, and the other of white working-class men who would later be described by the Guardian as “football hooligans”. I felt ambivalent about the second of these groups. On the one hand, they would undoubtedly be very useful if a mob of masked protestors arrived with Palestinian flags and spray cans. But on the other, I didn’t want to be lumped in with them if any trouble broke out. I could picture the pursed-lipped BBC news reader introducing the item: “In Westminster earlier today, the two minutes’ silence to commemorate Armistice Day was interrupted by a far right mob, including the journalist Toby Young, throwing bottles at a group of mostly peaceful Muslim protestors and shouting, “Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough.”’
Luckily, as more members of the British Friends of Israel arrived, the other group began to wander off. Was it because we had effectively claimed the space? I cannot imagine they were intimidated by us. Was it the fact that a press photographer arrived and started snapping away? That may have been a factor. Or did they just take one look at us and conclude this wasn’t where the action was? If so, they were right. In the hour and a half I spent ‘guarding’ Churchill’s statue, I only spotted two pro-Palestinian protestors and they both looked lost rather than intent on doing damage. The march wasn’t due to begin until noon and the starting point was Hyde Park Corner, about a mile away.
Instead of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with black-clad militants, I spent the morning chatting to like-minded conservatives. “Do you two know each other?” Allison Pearson said at one point, introducing me to Gary Mond, the President of the Jewish Assembly. “You were both at Trinity.” We reminisced about what a lovely place it is. Another gentleman sought me out to tell me that he was a fellow QPR fan and would be heading to Loftus Road that afternoon to watch the first home game under our new manager, Marti Cefuentes. That turned out to be equally uneventful – a 0-0 draw with Bristol City.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Never understood the Churchill cult. He was a total wrong un who oversaw the financial scuttling of Britain and destruction of empire. Like the weirdo Keynes who negotiated chumps terms on post war loans, he seems to have represented US interests far more resolutely than British ones.
Check out this awesome American guy who actually knows more about British history than this ignorant English pro-Dumbass girl. She just got owned, lol! But what does this tell us about what British kids are being taught in schools about their own history? ( 2mins )
https://twitter.com/GusTay5999/status/1724889288590885300
Don’t worry Mogs I’m not a pro Hamas nutter, I’ve just always been mystified by the Churchill worship. In any sort of system of merit surely Gallipoli would disqualify anyone from a position of responsibility.
Or the sinking of the Lusitainia!
My paternal Grandfather was at Gallipoli.
The only thing he ever said to me about it was “Never volunteer for anything”.
Your ability to be able to be “mystified” has a lot to do with Cenotaphs, Memorials and Churchill. IMHO, “NO”.
I hope it’s more about defending our British way of life, our traditions and values, which include recognising the great sacrifices made by those who lived and fought in WWII under Churchill’s leadership. Despite his failings on many policy issues, he symbolises that sacrifice for many. And, notwithstanding the globalist agenda driving yet another war, do you think Churchill was all bad? What would have been the alternative?
The Peter Hitchen book phony victory gives a more balanced view than the one we are taught. The only world power who achieved victory was the USA. I’m not exactly sure it was Britain’s moral duty to bankrupt and denude herself of empire because of a hyperinflation in Germany caused by the French.
yes. hitchens has a lot of thought-provoking views and observations on many topics. not sure he knows how we can get out of the mess we are in so my question remains: how do we come together as a nation to find a better way forward?
You ask a good question unfortunately I don’t think there’s an answer.
You will probably find that many still see the Americans as the bad guys because of Iraq etc but forget that we in the UK would all have a signed phot of the Fuhrer on our mantlepiece had it not been for Americans.
“as a nation”
The majority of the inhabitants of London and other cities are not part of our nation.
The USA was not, perhaps, a world power who achieved victory given their “isolationist” stance post WWI, but certainly became one because of that victory ( as did the USSR but by a slightly different path ) …?
I think you will find there was very significant, vocal and organised opposition to USA involvement in a war in a place they “had never heard of”. Please remember that if not because of WWI, many Americans who fought in the Civil war of 1861-65 were still alive in the 1930’s, some as young as in their late 60’s; given the scale of the slaughter some of which was similar to and predated WWII in Europe, there was a very profound and widespread anti war sentiment. Pearl Harbour changed all that but still in the face of huge opposition which Roosevelt adroitly steered through….thankfully…..with Churchill’s involvement and “others”.
He was the one who coined, “Jaw, jaw – not war, war.” Boris seems not to have noticed that when he scuppered the Ukraine peace negotiations last year.
Some say WW2 was more about stamping out on the German currency that was going against the Western hegemony. Churchill admitted this in some of his quotes, but like many quotes, they are open to interpretation.
Pointless sacrifice.
Imagine if we and the French hadn’t made that moronic commitment to Poland. They’d have been forced to reach an agreement with Germany about Danzig: no German invasion.
If we weren’t at war with Germany Italy would hardly have dared to invade Egypt.
And if we weren’t at war with Germany and Italy we’d have been in a much better position to fight the Japanese.
Far, far fewer military deaths, no civilian deaths or infrastructural destruction caused by German bombing, no need to trash the countryside to increase food production, probably no humiliating surrender at Singapore, no rationing for the plebs, a far better financial situation.
hindsight is a wonderful thing. So with all this failure of leadership and needless sacrifices in the past, how do we come together as a nation and defeat the globalist-cum-military industrial complex agenda?
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing”
So what arguments did the British government make at the time that effectively giving the Polish government the ability to take us to war with Germany was in our national interests?
my point is, where do we go from here? your comments are altogether negative. what hope is there for future generations?
I regard my comments as based on reason and evidence.
I don’t see any hope as long as the vast majority continue to vote for their own destruction and to obey orders which are clearly issued by people who hate them.
Will you stand for election? If not, why not?
Those were the days when agreements between sovereign Governments meant something.
And if that had not been the case, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski might have gone elsewhere including the gas chambers.
The yanks played a large part in destroying the Japs, that burden would’ve been on us.
Nope.
Pearl Harbour preceded the Japanese invasion of Malaya.
All part of the same expansionist strategy ….
The plan outlined in ‘Mein Kampf’ was for Germany to obtain territory in Eastern Europe, including from Russia. That accomplished, Germany would then deal with France.
Britain had the opportunity to stand firm over Czechoslovakia which might well have precipitated a military coup in Germany…..but we flunked it…just as we flunked Syria in 2013 and Ukraine in 2014…..
The results are there for all to see….Putin intent on Russian hegemony once more in Eastern Europe…..
Plus ca change…..
Do you know what a cult is?
Cult? ———Perhaps if our silly government of the time had listened to Churchill we might not have needed Americans to come over and charm all our ladies. But the mamby pamby types still end up being the ones in government , and the ones telling it like it is (like Braverman) get turfed out.
Churchill’s greatness lay partially but importantly in his ability to pick gifted subordinates and back them even when they disagreed with him, provided they could make a good argument for their considered position.
His brilliant appointment of Alanbrooke as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff committee was a case in point, arguably saving millions of allied lives through Alanbrooke’s far sighted Mediterranean strategy.
Crikey, even the school kids have presumably been given permission ( or was it a walk-out? ) to bunk off school this afternoon to protest. You can’t start the tea towel-wearing antisemitism too young, evidently. Looking at them, who do you think has the most influence on them so as to aid understanding of the whole situation over there in the Middle East?
https://twitter.com/EssexPR/status/1725147661408391584
“No sane person who takes the time to study the history of Palestine in a reasonably comprehensive and unbiased way can fail to conclude that there has never been a war in history that has been more obviously and completely just than the Palestinian war against Zionist invasion, occupation, and genocide.”
“If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll probably have to admit that the reason that you haven’t yet come around to openly supporting Hamas is fear: fear of what the Zionists might do to you. Well, I’m here to tell you that fear isn’t the right word for that. The correct word is cowardice.”
https://kevinbarrett.substack.com/p/why-i-support-hamas
The correct word is indifference. Both Palestinian Jews and Arabs were English allies during WWI, ie, opponents of Germany and – to a degree – fighting directly against German soldiers (the fairly few who had been sent to this area, but commanded by Falkenhayn himself). Turns out the English alliance was rather more beneficial to the Jews than the Arabs — that’s such a pity.
Yep.
I don’t support the Palestinians because they’re Muslims – I regard both Muslims and Jews as …..against the interests of the British people – but because they’re the indigenous population and it isn’t too late.
This area became a province (actually, parts of if belonged to different provinces) of the Roman empire in 6AD. It was conquered by the original caliphate in 634AD. It became part of the crusader states from 1099 – 1291 AD when it became part of the sultanate of Egypt. It was conquered as part of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottoman empire in 1517. In 1918, it was conquered by English troops with Arab and Jew auxiliaries. Most parts of it were then conquered by Israel in in the Arab-Israel war in 1948, the remains by Israel in the Six Day War in 1967.
Indigenous population isn’t generally a well-defined term.
You’re talking about who ruled it rather than the composition of the majority population.
What reason is there to believe that any of the conquests you list before the stablishment of the modern state of Israel involved population replacement?
We do know that the Ashkenazi Jews had lived in Europe for nearly 2,000 years before the political project of Zionism and that they are, on average, of 60% European ancestry.
And that the current Jewish population of the area between the Jordan and the Med overwhelmingly consists of people who arrived within the last 100 years and their descendants.
So they don’t strike me as meeting any test of being indigenous.
What reason is there to believe that any of the conquests you list before the stablishment of the modern state of Israel involved population replacement?
What reason is there to assume the opposite? The people who are presently living in this area are the descendents of all these generations of conquerors who (except the English) all conquered it with the intent to integrate it permanently into whatever the current state in control was.
Indigenous population is a nonsense term invented by the ‘decolonizers’ to mean ‘whoever was living there before the Europeans conquered the area’, this usually referring to a pretty remote area only reachable after considerable technical advances had been made like America, the Austrialian isles or the inner parts of Africa. It’s completely meaningless for areas around the Mediterranean whose written histories go back to a few thousand years BC and which have been constantly changing hands during all of this time as various states rose and declined again.
“What reason is there to assume the opposite?”
Well, we know that the Roman and Norman conquests of England didn’t involve significant settlement and that the Germanic invasions of the second half of the first millenium AD didn’t involve the existing population becoming a minority.
We also know that the current poipulation of Turkey is Caucasoid while the various Turkic tribes who conquered Anatolia around a thousand years ago were Mongoloid.
It is overwhelmingly likely that the Palestinians are the descendants of those who were living there when the Arabs conquered the area.In contrast, we know for certain that the Jews are overwhelmingly recent arrivals.
If the Navajo, the Zulus and the Maoris are accorded the status of indigenous people then the Palestinians are also entitled to that status.
It is overwhelmingly likely that the Palestinians are the descendants of those who were living there when the Arabs conquered the area.In contrast, we know for certain that the Jews are overwhelmingly recent arrivals.
So what? The Jews are the so-far last in a long series of outside conquerors who have ruled this particular place of the earth for about 382 years on average (longest were the Romans with 628 years and shortest the crusaders with 192 years). They’re not special and have as much or as little right to rule there as all the others.
Nicht durch Reden und Majoritätsbeschlüsse werden die großen Fragen der Zeit entschieden, sondern durch Eisen und Blut. And that’s just that. Otherwise, we should be talking about the indigenuous population of East Prussia which had a history which was longer (marginally) than the Roman Palestine lasted and has been deplaced for roughly as long as the present-day Palestinians. Plus: The country is nowadays a wilderness (with a Russian nuclear base as pus pimple on top of it).
Principles either apply universally or they don’t apply.
Ok, that second paragraph is the most disturbing thing I’ve read on here. The idea that ‘cowardice’ is what stops someone from supporting militants that abduct, mutilate, assault and kill civilians is the thinking of a twisted mind. I’d gladly remind anyone that agrees with this sentiment of their ‘cowardice’ if their daughter was taken, beaten, mutilated and paraded through the streets as a prize of war. Anyone that thinks like this is due a hefty dose of Karma.
I agree – these haters of Jews are making abusive comments which reveal their moral deficit. Not one word about the actions of Iran and other ME States which led to these atrocities and who do not want a two State solution and never have and use Hamas Hezbollah and others to do their bidding citing Islamist ranting to the gullible masses . Sickening and selective use of historical events too – they should read what Norman Fenton has written about his family living in Israel before 1948 and how all the surrounding States reacted – in concert.
I’m old enough to remember seeing the brutal murder of the two corporals in Belfast pulled from their car, beaten, tortured and shot.
Bad things happen in conflicts.
The Palestinians are fighting a just cause.
Hamas stated “The movement categorically rejects the false accusations fabricated by certain Western media outlets, most recently of the alleged killings of children, their beheadings and attacks on civilians”.
“We have also to redefine what does it mean [to be] a civilian. I cannot consider a settler in the occupied West Bank who has stolen my land, carrying guns, burning the city of Hawara is a civilian,” Dr. Naim said.
When Hamas fighters broke out from their openair prison armed Palestinian civilians, with a decades long grudge, also escaped through the broken fence.
Any true Israeli “civilians” may have been killed not by Hamas but by the other armed Palestinians.
Regardless of who committed what, Scott Ritter describes Hamas 7th October raid as “The Most Successful Military Raid of this Century” and should be essential reading.
https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/the-october-7-hamas-assault-on-israel
What utter blx; as women, children and the elderly are butchered – some alive – if it was Palestinian civilians committing acts of barbaric atrocity you are saying “that’s ok” – I cannot state what I wish to state here because I will be removed. You sure are one of today’s “resident evil”.
If you have the stomach to watch social media content of these atrocities posted by Hamas, go ahead Grima Wormtongue but please include the disembowelling of the pregnant women, the beheading of the foetus and murder of the expectant mother as described by Rachel Riley – or call her a liar and accept the potential consequences. By your inhumane tripe, if that was a Palestinian “civilian(s) ” who carried that out, it would get your endorsement?
Maybe the use by Hamas of human ( Palestinian ) beings as shields get your uptick too?
Your use of the Yellow Star is in appallingly bad taste but reading the abject crap above who can be surprised?
I wouldn’t believe anything Rachel Riley says.
Your government and their Zionist presstitutes in the main stream media will be pleased you have believed all their lies and propaganda.
Then stop hiding behind your weasel words and call her a liar, and accept the consequences if she suspects you for slander, otherwise you will win today’s White Feather for abject moral cowardice – by a very big distance which is saying something.
I’m not just old enough to remember that, I was in my first year in the forces when that happened. I think what you’re saying is not only ignorant, misinformed and naïve in the extreme, but morally repugnant. If yours is the sort of comment that TY is talking about then he has a point.
What is morally repugnant is people on here believing the lies and propaganda coming from the IDF without treating it with any “scepticism”. Governments and media lie as we’ve seen with all the Covid nonsense. Accepting the killing of thousands of innocent women and children at the hands of the IDF is also “morally repugnant”. Independent analysts have been through all the videos and the names of the Israeli people that were killed and they estimate that more Israelis were killed by the IDF than at the hands of Hamas. The Palestinian resistance are fighting against a brutal foreign occupying force for the past 75 years. Atrocities will happen just as there were by the French resistance and French army during and at the end of WW2. I’ve been on this site since it first started as Lockdown Sceptics. Thanks to their “scepticism” of Covid, Ukraine war, Climate Change, Wokery etc. they changed their name to The Daily Sceptic. It seems that their “scepticism” doesn’t apply to Israels brutal 75 year occupation of Palestine as they parrot the main stream media lies and propaganda. Perhaps they should change their name again to The Daily Septic with many articles about Israel… Read more »
Thanks for giving me the biggest belly laugh today….just priceless and as near perfect twaddle as AI can produce.
But you believe, without question, what Hamas tell you? You need to check your thinking. There will be BS on both sides; to understand that is to properly think critically.
A close relative was extremely lucky not to suffer the same fate, in the same geographical setting, along with several colleagues in a car being followed by a car for miles. They got away with it but if it had been different I guess that would have been just
“a bad thing …happening…” according Lord Repugnant.
‘Was it because …?’
Arighteous cause, that’s why.
Proud of you Toby.
Good work.
I like to see video footage of when people actually get to speak with the protesters so that we can see first hand who exactly is making up these demonstrations and what their viewpoints are on the whole situation. This group are obviously coming up with some bogus story for why they’re recording people because if they said who they actually were nobody would give them the time of day, a bit like the reaction the GBNews team had when they tried to interview people. Anyway, interesting short vid and the comments below say it all really ( 4mins );
https://twitter.com/antisemitism/status/1725120959248503196
“A bit like the GBNews team when they tried to interview”
I can see where the protestors come from regarding GBN insofar as the protestors are on the left, and GBN more to the right. But it is a public space and people should embrace free speech. It reminds my of Nick Watt from the BBC approaching GB Resistance thinking they were GBN on a demonstration. He got chased away. But that was a mistake on Nick’s part because the BBC very rarely go out of their way to speak to Jo public, especially if they’re against “The Narrative”.
Why are British Friends of Israel so keen on a Holocaust Ignorer?
And is there an Israeli Friends of Britain?
What you mean there weren’t a swarm of antisemites ready to deface statues?!
Shocker.
Humza Yousaf doing his bit for his people !!
Hats off to the British Friends of Israel! Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few.
Well done for guarding the statue Toby. However, standing guard like that at one high profile monument isn’t going to stop the Palestinian hate marches, or the ongoing Islamification of this country.
The Police are blatantly displaying “favourites” when it comes to demonstrations – and policing in general. If you are white, working class or Christian and hold conservative views they will come down hard at any display of non-conformity with the woke consensus which pervades the Establishment. But if it’s BLM, Just Stop Oil, Extremist Rebellion or a horde of extremist Muslims or terrorist-appeasing members of the Alphabet Groups you get a free pass to intimidate, call for an intifada and threaten Jews.
Suella correctly called out the pathetic excuse for a “Conservative” Prime Minister who has allowed these hate marches to continue week after week. Why? Because the Establishment is terrified of the hordes of potential terrorists it has allowed to flood into the country and ferried in across the channel.
What these gullible idiots who disrespect memorials is that they are only “free” to do so because we have a corrupt Police Farce (sic) and because of people who sacrificed their lives – to secure an independent country, the rule of law and the right to freedom of expression. Don’t they realise their actions are doing the work of former regimes that would have carted them off to the gas chamber had they dared to protest in this manner in the 1930’s throughout parts of Europe…. ?
“What these gullible idiots who disrespect memorials don’t seem able to grasp“…apologies.
Toby, you sound like quite a pompous person there. Are you so intellectual that you always have to look so miserable with a facial expression like a smacked arse as some of the “other” mob might describe?
“The Morning I Spent ‘Guarding’ Churchill’s Statue”
It’s a crying shame that you should even have to!