You may think I’m pretty bad now, but you should have seen me when I was 15. I said, did and thought terrible things that I now hate. The memory of them is almost unbearable. I still shiver at the memory of them. But there it is, nasty actions once done cannot be undone, cruel words cannot be canceled.
Perhaps everyone is so much better than this, and so pure of heart, that they don’t think there is anything ruthless about the vengeful treatment of the British state of Shamima Begum. I agree with everyone, especially my colleague Sue Reid, that her behavior was idiotic and that she said and did things that she will be ashamed of to the end of her life.
Meanwhile, I would think that the death of her three young children, something none of us would wish on anyone, should be punishment enough for anyone.
I don’t like her look or sound. I suspect her basic problem is that she is not very intelligent. I hope never to meet her. But if anyone has any proof that they are a crime, then have them accuse her of it in a court of law, before an impartial jury. And then if she is found guilty, I will wholeheartedly support the punishment that will be imposed on her according to the law.
But this cannot happen as long as she is sentenced to spend the rest of her life in a Syrian slum. This is due to a revocation of her citizenship, which reminds me of the criminal old Soviet Union at its worst, a despotic Third World measure of which this ancient civilization should be ashamed.
Perhaps everyone is so much better than this, and so pure of heart, that they don’t think there’s anything ruthless about the British state’s vengeful treatment of Shamima Begum (pictured)
If anyone has any evidence that she committed a crime, let them charge her in a court of law, before an impartial jury, says PETER HITCHENS
She was, as is too often the case these days, punished without trial. Perhaps Sajid Javid, the politician who first sentenced Begum to lifelong exile, has a perfectly clear conscience about his childhood, which he would have spent reading the Financial Times and watching Grange Hill on TV. Perhaps he can’t imagine the life of one of his children or grandchildren going so wrong, as life went wrong for “Jihadi Jack” Letts, another idiot.
And perhaps the members of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission have also lived impeccably sweet lives from childhood.
It seems to me that we should have some really pure and wonderful people doing this job. The same is no doubt true of all the politicians and journalists who have applauded the decision to confirm the revocation of Begum’s citizenship.
I would think that the death of her three young children, something none of us would wish on anyone, should be punishment enough for anyone.
But all I see is some nasty mafia justice. The British government claims to be so tough on terror but is in fact quite useless in preventing it, helping to support an Al Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, in a cynical operation in Syria.
They claim they’re protecting us from Begum, who can’t come here anymore. And yet, if she somehow managed to get on one of those dinghies from France, she could walk ashore one afternoon on a beach in Kent and disappear into our uncontrolled towns along with the thousands of others who do so without being hindered by this supposedly harsh government.
This is false sternness, a piece of flesh hurled at the angry mob by a frightened and weak state.
And it’s merciless too, the lifelong brutal punishment of a lonely, grieving woman. Is this something to be proud of?
Those who have done it should remember the old simple biblical advice to all of us, “What does the Lord ask of you but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God,” and ask whether they obey.
Welcome to the Republic of Transgender
Good heavens! Children’s books are being censored to make them more politically correct! Astonishing! A politician is in trouble because she openly professes the Christian faith and says she means business. Where have you all been for the past 20 years? All of these things have been happening for over 20 years.
Try to find a modern children’s book featuring a family with two heterosexual parents. Expressions of conservative Christian faith, especially marriage, have been virtually banned in the public sector for centuries, and the police have long had a habit of cracking down on conservative street preachers.
Look, the revolution has happened. For most people, this is normal life. If it hasn’t reached you yet, it will soon. Visit my hometown of Oxford this week and you’ll see the flag of the Republic of Transgender flying above almost every college of the sprawling university. The new elite, who will enter the political parties, the civil service, the BBC, the police, the courts and schools in the coming years, all know they must salute this flag if they hope to be hired or promoted. Wake up, dear ones. It happened and protests against it are tolerated because they make no difference.
While strolling along the banks of the Thames recently, I came across a sign warning ‘Beware! Loud bang!’ There was no bang heard. Nearby, some sunken ship was wallowing in the river, rotting gently. Given the present state of our defences, I wondered if I had stumbled upon the Royal Navy’s latest naval exercises.
It’s not enough just to get the right clothes
Can the wearisome rewriters of the recent past leave nothing alone? We can’t see it as it was, but we have to let our minds be guided by characters who traveled through time from 2023 to show us how horrible we all were.
the new series about the Brink’s-Mat gold heist, The Gold, features a militant feminist detective (played by Charlotte Spencer, right) in Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad in the 1980s
In this case, the new series about the Brink’s-Mat gold heist, The Gold, is about a militant feminist detective (played by Charlotte Spencer) in Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad in the 1980s. We also get a glimpse of several “strong women” who are the wives of mobsters, a favorite left-wing fantasy.
Senior police officers, meanwhile, muse about the desirability of imprisoning people with posh accents, and a criminal is given lines that suggest he’s a revolutionary hero, taking on England’s traditional rulers.
Sooner or later, for this stuff to survive, the facts about life as it was actually lived at the time will have to be suppressed.