Braverman Hate Marches On

With Armistice Day imminent, the temptation of the usual Culture War suspects to hijack it to raise the public profile of Themselves Personally Now has proved too much, especially with a potentially very large march in solidarity with those under everyday rocketing, shelling and bombing in Gaza, and those being dispossessed in the West Bank, scheduled for November 11.

Smearing peaceful protesters and whipping up the mob ...

The commemoration and march past does not, of course, take place on that day but on Sunday November 12. But this has not deterred the likes of former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage from blaming failure to have this expression of free speech cancelled on London Mayor Sadiq Khan, but not because Nige is an Islamophobic bigot, you understand.

In any case, the person he should be upbraiding is whoever is Home Secretary, and here we come to Suella Braverman, previously adept at deploying the anti-Semitic trope of “Cultural Marxism”, but now effortlessly pivoting 180º and declaring that anyone showing solidarity with the Palestinians is part of a “Hate March”. She’d know all about the hate part.

So when Rishi Sunak, who does very poor Prime Minister impressions, went all Culture War and bleated “To plan protests on Armistice Day is provocative and disrespectful, and there is a clear and present risk that the Cenotaph and other war memorials could be desecrated, something that would be an affront to the British public and the values we stand for”, off went Ms Braverman.

“I agree with the Prime Minister. It is entirely unacceptable to desecrate Armistice Day with a hate march through London. If it goes ahead there is an obvious risk of serious public disorder, violence and damage as well as giving offence to millions of decent British people”. Is Armistice Day a sacred concept? Is London’s road network sacred ground?

Because if the answer to both of those questions is NO, using the word “desecrate” is bang out of order. Anyone might think that Ms Braverman, far from trying to calm the situation, is trying to whip up the mob, especially in her pejorative use of the phrase “Hate March”. Previous marches have been well-ordered, and her attempts to smear participants are lame and misguided.

... with a little help from her friends

In any case, as has been pointed out to Sunak and his Home Secretary, the planned march will not go near the Cenotaph, and will not start until more than an hour and a half after the all-important 1100 hours mark, when the end of the Great War, the guns falling silent, is commemorated. Moreover, the hate of which Ms Braverman speaks is not coming from those marching.

As usual, the hatred comes from the far right, as in the 1930s, as in the 70s and 80s, and as when Jewish, and Muslim, MPs and other prominent figures were targeted recently. To see a demonstration of this phenomenon, we need look no further than Doug Murray The K, not at all bigoted and racist, and still given a platform by the increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine.

Here’s his take: “UK Hamas supporters are now planning a ‘million man march’ on Remembrance Day. They plan to defame our war-dead and desecrate the Cenotaph itself. This is the tipping point. If such a march goes ahead then the people of Britain must come out and stop these barbarians”.

Solidarity with those who are being rocketed, bombed and shelled round the clock does not make anyone a “Hamas supporter”. Murray is just inciting hatred, as when he spuriously claims there will be “defamation” of war dead, and borrows Sunak’s pejorative to claim non-existent “desecration”. Following that, he smears peaceful protesters as “barbarians” and, nudge nudge, wink wink, doesn’t suggest the far right should come out in force, oh no.

Meanwhile, Murray, who is a snivelling coward, will not be getting his hands dirty, and nor will Sunak, Ms Braverman, or any others in the public eye, like comedy immigration minister Robert Jenrick, blubbering “disrespectful and often hate-filled marches, routinely intimidating our fellow citizens”, which suggests he should heed the old Ford Fiesta advert, and Get Out More.

Hate still comes from those out there on the right. The only difference from the 1930s is that many of those whipping up the mob are now in Government.

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