It was 75 years ago today that tens of thousands of troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in the first phase of what was called Operation Overlord, the campaign to establish a Western front against the Nazis and their allies and thereby assist the Russians, and those fighting their way northwards through Italy, to roll back the Third Reich and hasten the end of the war in Europe. That first day was D-Day.
Newspapers and broadcasters have commemorated the event; some of those still alive who went ashore on that day have been telling today’s teenagers what it was like to wade up the beach with Allied shellfire whistling overhead, and German machine-gun fire coming straight at you. Many not yet out of their teens did not make it away from those beaches. It is not an experience that anyone should have to face ever again.
Alexandra Phillips - claims to be an MEP
Sadly, though, there are still some of what Robin Day so memorably - and correctly - labelled “Here today and gone tomorrow politicians” all too ready to exploit those veterans’ experiences for their own ends. To no surprise at all, one of those is new Brexit Party MEP Alexandra Phillips, who has shamelessly milked the occasion for personal gain.
After her namesake, who is a Green MEP for the same area (South East England) told “We can beat Trumpism. But only by creating a politics which both faces up to the far right and builds an economy and society where everyone can live and prosper” she snapped “STOP SAYING FAR RIGHT! It’s not cool for my grandparents’ generation who fought against it, lost friends and family and know the meaning of that word. Using it as a casual insult, against those whose politics you disagree with, degrades THEIR service to our country and continent”. There are, though, several problems with her observation.
One, Trumpism IS a far-right phenomenon. It endorses and emboldens white supremacists and degrades anyone not white. Two, the Brexit Party has a leader who has used far-right tactics to demonise people who are not white (pace “Breaking Point”).
Three, her party leader’s far-right tendencies extend to demonising those who do not speak English as a first language. Four, she was involved in abuse of the democratic process in the Kenyan Presidential election recently as part of her role with now-defunct Cambridge Analytica. Five, her own party’s campaign chief just got sacked after he was discovered to have stood as a BNP candidate at a local election.
And worst of all for Ms Phillips, Six, the nailed-on batshit far-right, as in the local representative for Alex Jones’ Info Wars operation, is using exactly the same tactic. Paul Watson has claimed “The biggest insult to these heroes is left-wing outrage mobs pretending they are on the same level by ‘fighting Nazis’ when they’re actually enforcing ideological conformism through intimidation and censorship - something that was foundational to the spread of Nazism”. Projection through dishonesty.
Alexandra Phillips (the Green one) had it right. Because Alexandra Phillips (the Brexit Party one) is using her “Grandparents’ Generation” as cover. That generation swore loyalty to (then) King and Country. The only loyalty of her party leader is to whoever is prepared to pay his drinks bill and keep him in the style to which he has become accustomed.
The Brexit Party is an insult to our veterans. No surprise there, then.
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3 comments:
Disgusting how the commemorations are being hijacked by every right wing idiot with a twitter account. Failed sitcom writer now Spiked freelancer Tim Dawson has apparently posted that the veterans we are paying tribute to are the same we are protesting about over their stealing of our future...rather conveniently ignoring the veteran on the news who said how concerned he actually was about Brexit undoing all the good work his generation did in bringing Europe peacefully together. Also the image of the troops arriving on the beach is doing the rounds followed by 'this is what fighting fascism really looks like'
re Mark's comment that images of troops storming the beaches to fight Fascism is very apt.
Sadly if we do not vigorously fight these Fascist fellow travelers now before they really get a stranglehold or are embedded in the political system then the it's inevitable that it will lead to violence and "storming the beaches".
These far right dangerous loons are quite vile with their smugness about the "left"..a "left" that was just the normal thinking of those British and Allied troops who fought the Nazis.
It's become such an extreme type of insult to hurl that when Corbyn says "nationalize the railways"..quite apart from whether you think it makes good economic sense, such insults are hurled that it's the "left" type of dictatorial communism yet Britain built it's own railways and ran them for decades successfully under Conservative and Labour governments.
Policies are no longer discussed on their merits.
I always thought Hannah Arendt's book The Origins Of Totalitarianism should have been required reading for all school kids. She didn't coin the term "the banality of evil" for no reason.
But they'd probably claim now she's a "lefty communist".
I totally agree Sam and was rather surprised to see James Mates on ITV's evening news suggest that we are at a point not too dissimilar from the 1930s now in light of Macron's brilliant speech. Reminds me that ITV's news does occasionally have a backbone compared to the BBC's right wing support. Unfortunately there's an ignorant superiority online with most right wing idiots sharing that photo based on the simple fact that they don't equate their views with right wing or fascism. They just want to play down the left's concerns and fight by dismissing them as keyboard warriors, communists and snowflakes in comparison to what May called 'the greatest generation.' Ultimately, they don't know - or refuse to acknowledge - that they're on the wrong side of history. They might fly the flag, buy a poppy and donate to Help for Heroes, but their political beliefs and their refusal to accept the views of others with respect has more in common with Nazi Germany than they'd admit.
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