This week  we recall the launch of a mighty force to liberate the continent of Europe in 1944.
At tomorrow’s commemoration our Queen will stand alongside the President of the USA, the Prime Minister of Canada and the Prime Minister of Australia as representatives of the allied nations that mobilised that awesome force. The President of France will attend, on behalf of the largest country they planned to set free. So too will the Chancellor of the new Germany that arose after her defeat, as a reminder that Germany too agrees the Nazi German tyranny over the continent had to be purged.
Some 160,000 troops made passage by boat to the beaches of Normandy, or flew in for a dangerous parachute drop as the advance party. Surprise was achieved despite the magnitude of the army and the length of time it took to assemble and concentrate the force, thanks to disinformation about where the blow would be struck. The Americans encountered the strongest resistance on Omaha, one of the five beaches, but Operation Neptune captured all beaches and began the long process of consolidating a position in France for the advance on Berlin.
In the days that followed D day temporary harbours were installed for future supplies and reinforcement, a pipeline was put in to fuel the highly mechanised armed forces, and air and sea control was established against the enemy planes and U boats. It took many more months of hard fighting with many losses to unite with the advancing Russians in Germany, but total victory was secured some eleven months later.
The second world war was a necessary tragedy. Germany’s wish to dominate Europe with her Italian ally and Japan’s wish to colonise much of Asia by military means had to be resisted and defeated. The axis powers would not compromise and could not be trusted to honour any possible peace agreement. The wanton Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the long preparations for the German invasion of the UK, the impetuous and ultimately self defeating German  invasion of the Soviet Union all demonstrated this was an occasion when military victory had to precede diplomatic and political settlements.
It was a reminder of what happens when politics fails. Germany had been defeated just 21 years before the outbreak of the second world war. The Peace Treaty imposed on her created grievances which Hitler was able to manipulate to his own advantage. The victors’ failure to intervene in German politics when Hitler overthrew the democratic constitution, or when he remilitarised the Rhineland showed a failure of resolve and understanding of what could happen next. Western politics failed to produce an acceptable peace, and more importantly failed to police a tough peace. German politics was subverted by a demagogue who restored German pride, won an election and then  created an evil tyranny which went on to perpetrate mass murder on the battle field and in the gas chambers and concentration camps.
We owe much to the many allied service personnel who were killed in wounded during the liberation of Europe.
June 4, 2019
Sir John,
D-Day was indeed a fine example of co-operation between the greatest of allies and shows what can be achieved with determination and a clear objective. However, you refer in your penultimate paragraph to the consequences of political failure. I have the fear that such failure is, so sadly, in evidence now as iterated in the dynamic article from Gwythian Prins, âBrexit and the US-UK Defence Relationshipâ dated 3rd June on the briefingsforbrexit.com website. An absolute âmust readâ for anyone remotely interested in learning more of the devastating treachery of the May negotiating team.
I urge everyone to take the six minutes required to discover just how determined the plan was to turn the UKâs back on the other four members of the âFive Eyesâ Alliance of the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The plan would lock the UK into the EU Defence Union and likely fracture NATO. The link to the related 56 minute video on the heritage.org website, frighteningly, provides so much more,
It is essential this information is widely known, particularly now it transpires that Michael Gove appears to becoming the Remainerâs âsecret weaponâ of choice as leadership candidate. If we do not get out of the EU cleanly and promptly, who knows the extent of the devious detrimental arrangements which will be foisted on the Nation?
June 4, 2019
Pominoz: “An absolute âmust readâ for anyone remotely interested in learning more of the devastating treachery of the May negotiating team.”
She’s not gone yet!
June 4, 2019
Thanks for the tip off. The machinations of the May Cell are truely mind boggling. An MP has just lost her seat for lying about a driving conviction. May and her Cell have connived to deceive the UK electorate since the referendum result was announced, and have publicly lied to the electorate and to Parliament since Chequers. Yet in our corrupt interpretation of morality she is still in place and eating at the Queens table. She and her Cell should be in court answering for their treachery.
June 4, 2019
Indeed. She should be arrested and incarcerated for her treason!
June 4, 2019
I totaly agree
June 4, 2019
Mrs. May is “still in place” because The Conservative Party High Command are giving Mr. May and her EU supporting colleagues in Parliament and the Civil Service time to shred all documents concerning their “negotiation” with the EU.
June 5, 2019
I fear you are right. However it takes more effort than people realize to delete digital files, although unfortunately there are tools to help.
But to delete all evidence – and I am convinced there is a great deal – is not easy, and it is time-consuming.
June 4, 2019
Pominoz
now it transpires that Michael Gove appears to becoming the Remainerâs âsecret weaponâ of choice as leadership candidate.
I find it incredible that these back stabbing types still managed to attract supporters but then maybe it is because they have so much in common with each other. Thy should be banished from public life
June 4, 2019
I see it reported that Trump is going to meet Gove.Perhaps he will see all the wannabees and make the selection for us,Apprentice style.
You’re fired!
June 4, 2019
Mr. Gove is a remainer in leaver’s clothing and leavers know it.
He stopped Mr. Johnson to allow Mrs. May to become PM.
He has always supported Mrs. May’s surrender WA treaty – â the one where we accept EU laws, budgets, taxes, fines and policies (trade, energy, environment, foreign etc) but without representation or veto and with no lawful means of exit â the one described by Mr. Vehofstadtâs assistants as reducing the UK to EU colony status.
He is now saying he would extend exit date until next year….
If the CP select Mr. Gove they will be in really serious electoral trouble.
June 4, 2019
Thanks for this./
June 4, 2019
Our parliment seems to have arrived on the scene under false pretences to undermine our system of government and democracy forever. More importantly to deny the sacrifice made by so many to keep us free and a democracy.
While I am against it and the dangers it could present I feel we need a General Election to remove those that lied to us.
Gove and his LibDem friends should never have found thier way into a Conservative Party, they have its destruction and thier own egos upermost – not the Country and its people
June 4, 2019
Pominoz
Agree..all should read this article.
They prob wonât…too scared as always of being called â tin foil hattersâ.
The idea of this Brexit betrayal has been around for a while and treated as â conspiracyâ.
But obviously we are being betrayed by this Blairite govt and the previous one.
Just for starters..why was our army disbanded and run down?
Why did Rudd scuttle off for defence talks soon after the Referendum?
Why is N Farage so shy about discussing EU Defence Union only referring to a âEuropean Armyâ?
Why has defence been hived off from Brexit negotiations?
Why suddenly does a UK govt treat a US pres with such utter disrespect?
June 4, 2019
Thanks for the pointer to Briefings for Brexit.
The article makes for grave reading. I have always considered the security and defence implications of the WA its most dangerous and horrific components.
June 4, 2019
Thanks for the reference, I was aware that dark deeds were involved but not the extent as is described in the report by Prof. Gwythian Prins. I would urge everyone to read that full report and not just the summary as it only takes 25 minutes or so and names those involved.
The Conservative Party has now clearly discarded every principle of a free society, as defined by the Freedom Association. I cannot in good conscience view them as conservative, let alone vote for any under their banner.
June 4, 2019
Thank you for the links to the article and his talk. The activities of the May cell are truly shocking. They confirm the suspicions of many who commented here last year both before and after the notorious Chequers meeting attempt to stitch up the Cabinet, parliament and the rest of us. Quite why the Conservative party has allowed May to continue in office for so long must be a measure of the power of the political patronage available to a Prime Minister. There must be doubt whether the Conservative party will be able to recover from the utter betrayal of the national interest that the May cell has sought to achieve through her WA and Political Declaration.
June 4, 2019
The revelations in the Kit Kat tapes are shocking. Why has nobody been prosecuted for this treachery? Any potential leader needs to read this article and rethink any desire to renegotiate just the backstop. The whole of the Withdrawal Agreement must be binned and we must leave with a clean break.
June 4, 2019
The pits of perfidy, Pominoz. How did we get to this ? If not already aware, Nigel Farage should be apprised. It would be useful ammunition in his cause.
June 4, 2019
Thanks for that.
This is from May 3rd:
https://euobserver.com/tickers/144798
“Top candidates clash on EU army plan in pre-election debate”
“The top candidates to lead the next European Commission clashed on plans to create an EU army at a debate in the European University Institute in Florence Wednesday. The German centre-right candidate, Manfred Weber, and Belgian liberal one, Guy Verhofstadt, endorsed the idea, but the Dutch centre-left candidate, Frans Timmermans, rejected it as being unrealistic. “There will be no EU army for the foreseeable future,” Timmermans said.”
Yes, that’s the same Guy Verhofstadt who heads the ALDE group which includes the Liberal Democrats whose previous leader Nick Clegg flatly denied that there were any plans for an EU army …
June 4, 2019
Thanks for deleting my post from this morning. Paying tribute to the fallen is no longer acceptable these days plus, pointing out some of the hypocracy of those in office.
How very sad.
June 4, 2019
A truly humbling event remembering the selfless sacrifice of extraordinary individual. Their spirit now lives within all of us
June 4, 2019
@Dominic; “the selfless sacrifice of extraordinary individual. Their spirit now lives within all of us”
Indeed, and for many quite literally, the sacrifices of our parents, their lost or wounds were very real, the hurt was oh so very real for many, often talking little of their experiences.
D-Day was but one battle, yes significant but not the entire story, many brave men died at sea and in the North African desert, not to mention in the air (why do we not have a formal day to remember the BoB?) all of which had to be won for D-Fay to even be planned. No disrespect to the men, and women, enlisted and non-combatants, of D-Day but I really am getting annoyed at events that tend to become a show-case for current politicos than the events being commemorated due to the gutter MSM we now have.
Oh and please, let us not forget the war in the Far East.
June 4, 2019
Good Morning,
Looking at a longer timeframe, it is possible to see the European conflict of WW2 as a continuation of the competition between the two largest economies, (greater) Germany and France, for dominion over western Europe. The fallacy that the EU has and will prevent further conflict between these 2 nations, unless there is full political union, is already demonstrated by their methods and effort to control the EU for their own benefit.
When it becomes intolerable for Germany to keep paying for France’s arrogance, there will be a resumption of conflict.
June 4, 2019
âŠand Greece needs German money to repay their German loans. And Italy is about to implode. And Eastern Europe is drifting (Poland, Hungary) into militaristic, nationalist dictatorship. And then there is Russia ogling Lithuania and LatviaâŠ
June 4, 2019
Russia is not ogling Lithuania and Latvia-that’s an excuse given to station NATO forces on Russia’s borders-they are the West’s liabilities.Russia is much more interested in central and southern Europe and integrating those states into Eurasia along with the Chinese.
June 4, 2019
Germany should write off Greece’s loans. They have not fully paid reparations from the WW2, although they maintain that 115 million dmarks paid in 1960 is the total due. Most commentators reckon 300 billion Euros is nearer the mark.
Add on interest and what figure could it be?
The EU is for the benefit of Germany and France, nothing else.
June 4, 2019
they may have lost the 2 military wars, but aren’t doing badly with the economic one. The sheep seem willing to go to the ‘slaughter’.
June 4, 2019
Peter Wood
“When it becomes intolerable for Germany to keep paying for Franceâs arrogance, there will be a resumption of conflict.”
Very true……..and this time we should keep well out of it. Though of course we could sell some anti – ship missiles to Germany, especially if they were made in Sheffield.
June 4, 2019
Amen to that John, but we must always remember that the sacrifices made only created an opportunity to do things better in future. On balance I think we have done, under considerable pressure from outside forces that have answers other than democracy to solve their problems as they see them. Even those who believe they are democratic within the EU are likely, on their present course, to create the very situation their developement was designed to avoid. While paying tribute to the sacrifices of D-Day do not for one minute think the struggle is over.
June 4, 2019
Indeed, we owe them a great deal.
Good performance on Newsnight last night JR, but why did they not ask you to comment on Hammondâs interview. He said our deficit down to 1.1% of gdp and our public debt falling sustainably. Lies in the May mode, or is the man so foolish he actually believes this? So we are borrowing a net 1.1% of gdp but our borrowing are falling!
Needless to say Hammond still sees Mayâs ÂŁ 39 billion handcuffs as the only way to go. He keeps talking of a market economy and competition. But May and his governmentâs policies kill most real competition in health care, housing, energy, banking, schools, universities, long term care, employment, pensions, transport, cars & vehicles ….. indeed almost everywhere. Hammond has delivered the highest, most complex, irrational and most idiotic taxes for 70 years combined with dire public services and endless waste everywhere – please just go man. Perhaps the penny will finally drop with these dopes after Thurdayâs election result in Peterborough.
Good to see Corbyn and Khan doing so much to show why we must never have to suffer a Corbyn letâs be Venezuela Government. Socialists May and Hammond have done more than enough damage.
June 4, 2019
I donât much like Hammond – and his comments of poverty were outrageous.
But he has an excellent clarity of thought on Brexit.
He was able to destroy the plans of most of the contenders in a few sentences.
Brilliant.
June 4, 2019
That’s certainly one way of looking at Hammond, Andy. My take is somewhat different.
I think Hammond is absolutely terrified of finally being proved “wrong all along”. A successful clean Brexit would utterly destroy his professional credentials and leave his already-tarnished reputation in tatters. Thus, in an act of megalomaniacal self-delusion contrary to all the mounting evidence, he is now simply ramping up his Project Fear (Mk 3) mantra.
Hammond is a very dangerous man in a powerful position, and he seriously threatens the future of both his party and our country. The sooner he is removed to a position of less influence and importance, the better.
June 4, 2019
So do you agree that a clean break is the only way to honour the referendum result? It being the only action that the EU commission cannot control or veto.
June 4, 2019
The winning campaign – Vote Leave – promised a deal. A better one than we have with all of the benefits of EU membership yet with none of the responsibilities or costs.
That is what people voted for in 2016. That is what you need to deliver to honour the referendum result.
Get on with it old chap and stop whining at the rest of us.
June 4, 2019
And the Remainer in charge of it took No Deal off the table and threw away every other card too.
June 4, 2019
Andy
Yet strangely despite being asked very many times by lots of people you still can’t tell us what exactly these unique benefits of belonging are. Why is that?
June 5, 2019
Andy, VoteLeave did not “promise” a deal they advocated a deal. The two are quite different as you well know. Not one single Leave voter I know voted because of speculation about a “deal”, we all voted to restore sovereignty. You really have to get out of this habit of yours of telling us what we think – it is the most monumental arrogance.
June 4, 2019
Andy, If he did so – which I don’t believe – then he has pulled the rug from under the independence of every nation in the rest of the world. Ask yourself, are they all going to see the light like you have? Really?
You still haven’t managed to say why the UK cannot be independent. You still haven’t managed to come up with a plan to avoid the massive youth unemployment in the EU. You still cannot explain why one result of the Referendum – Leave – can be discarded without affecting every vote from now on. You have no assurances that the EU can be prevented from taking away your rights. And no explanation of how you can democratically rectify that when it happens. You have no excuses for the EU military because you don’t apparently know anything about it. You have no principled reasons to opt for government from Brussels rather than London. And no justification for law-making by the Commission and civil servants rather than by our democratic national parliament. You have no cure for the Euro financial crisis (banks/sovereigns/Target2). And so on . . . .
You know the EU is a re-creation of the Roman Empire by bureaucracy, without justification, without consent, without democracy, by stealth, by corruption and by propaganda. The EU is fundamentally evil. There is no other word for it.
June 4, 2019
Hammond is an economic illiterate who is providing appallingly high taxes, appallingly complex taxes, totally idiotic taxes some over 100%. This all at the same time as we have appalling and declining public services, very expensive green crap energy and endless waste all over the place like HS2 and Hinkley C.
He (like Theresa May in her leaving speech) claimed they are reducing the government debt – are they lying, deluded or just both very stupid? Not many other explanations.
June 4, 2019
Andy, reading your post yesterday about the NHS and how you are overjoyed to think that many of us will have to use it when it’s run or owned by the Americans reminded me of a time when I went into a private hospital for a routine operation and had problems under the anaesthetic. I was in danger of having either a stroke or a heart attack because the team didn’t know how to bring down my blood pressure. Private hospitals do not have cardiologists to hand 24/7 but they managed to get advise from one in an NHS hospital who told them what to do and probably saved my life. Be careful what you wish for and don’t always assume that private is best.
June 4, 2019
Lifelogic
Good performance on Newsnight last night JR
Very impressive even when not speaking the body language was brilliant. Showed real attention to detail. Well worth staying up for.
June 4, 2019
Indeed, it really makes you realise the only chance is for one N Farage to garner MPs , PPCs and support. Time is short to bury the two main parties (as was). Tough to imagine, but otherwise we could be in a situation in six months where we’re out of the EU but the USA won’t talk with us because Corbyn is there, or we’re not out of the EU and the USA won’t talk to us because a continuity May is there.
June 4, 2019
@LL; “governmentâs policies kill most real competition”
Do you have to always go off topic, could you not simply post your thoughts about D-Day, rather than go off on a rant, brave people DIED, not just their opportunity to make money, so that you could be free to say what you wish, show some respect!
June 4, 2019
I agreed with everything JR had already posted and did not think I could add much to it. As I said we owe them a great deal.
June 4, 2019
@LL; “I agreed with everything JR had already posted”
Then your first line would have been sufficient, or perhaps say nothing – rather than 200 odd words, plus other’s follow up replies to your off topic comments, that have nothing what so ever to do with the subject our host wants to debate.
June 4, 2019
Jerry, You are making a nuisance of yourself. You are not the site monitor, JR is. D-Day was not only a military expedition to defeat a military occupier, but ultimately aimed to restore civilian national governments to Europe – and also to restore freedom and free markets, as opposed to the dirigisme redolent of the EU. So perhaps LL is more acute than you would allow.
June 4, 2019
NickC; “You are making a nuisance of yourself. You are not the site monitor, JR is.”
LOL! Pot, meet Kettle…
Perhaps if more people would try and stay on-topic this site would be easier for our host to moderate.
June 5, 2019
Jerry, I may disagree with your opinions, but I do not tell you that you shouldn’t post them on JR’s blog – that is for him to decide. Not me. And not you. However your lack of liberality is now revealed.
June 5, 2019
@NickC; “but I do not tell you that you shouldnât post them on JRâs blog”
I did not tell @LL not to post, I asked him to post on-topic, but then perhaps that difference is to subtle for you to grasp?
June 4, 2019
Soviet troops invaded Eastern Poland in Sept 1939 two weeks after German forces invaded Western Poland. Under the Soviet-National Socialist collaboration pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop) both nations secretly agreed to carve up Poland between themselves
Maybe Western politicians should stop pandering to the Russian interest and halt re-writing history to portray Russia has one of our allies. They weren’t our allies. They were the allies of HItler’s Germany until events made this untenable
Following Stalin’s annexing of Eastern Poland and the brutal subjugation of 14m Poles he unleashed a wave of terror, brutality and torture
June 4, 2019
Donât forget Finland
June 4, 2019
Bismarck’s secret of European politics?
A good treaty with Russia.
June 4, 2019
Absolutely correct.Russia is the world’s balancing power.You are likely to see increasing effort to prise Russia away from China over the next few years.
June 4, 2019
Erratum – ‘annexation’
June 4, 2019
It should indeed never be forgotten that the Soviets were allied with Germany at the start of the war. By the time of D-Day however, they were allied with us against the Germans. The huge contributions on our side from Canadians, Newfoundlanders and Poles to the allied effort should also be remembered.
June 4, 2019
Well so what?Surrounded by hostile western nations (“the Thirteen”)who had invaded Russia- North (Archangel),South (Caucasus,Transcaspia),East (Vladivostok) and West(Ukraine) during the immensly destructive Russian Civil War(Churchill-“strangle Bolshevism in it’s cradle”),why shouldn’t the Soviet Union have sought a pact(with the devil if necessary)that “guaranteed” it’s security(it did the same with Turkey and Japan)?
June 4, 2019
It didn’t start with the Nazis,the Germans of the Weimar Republic began collaborating with the nascent Soviet Union almost as soon as the ink was dry on the treaties that emerged from Versailles to circumvent the terms,particularly in the military sphere.
June 5, 2019
Mitchell, That’s one interpretation of history. The other is the West was trying to help Russia transition to a democracy via the provisional government after the abdication of Czar Nicholas. That was certainly better than sitting back and applauding the evil lying bolsheviks torture and murder their way to totalitarian power. As you appear to be doing.
June 6, 2019
Total rubbish,the west(including,then, Japan) was out to dismember Russia and grab it’s resources.The Caucasus oilfields,the Transcaspian railway.The Japanese in Manchuria after the Trans-Siberian railway and the gateway to Eurasia.The British buying up controlling interests in the Russian banks(which actually were holding companies dominating the economy)from fleeing Russian capitalists,looking to capitalise on a Bolshevik defeat-and then intervening,unsuccessfully, to try and make it so.
There was no more genuine interest in democracy than the US’s more recent misadventures around the world.
June 4, 2019
@Dominic; You point being what, after all were you not complaining just the other week that a UK conservative PM allowed Germany to walk into both Austria and the Sudetenlands…
Errors were made by many, corrections were made by many, Nazi Germany was defeated.
June 4, 2019
My point is simple. TELL IT AS IT IS not as the authorities would have us believe it is. The two approaches are very different.
I resent history being filtered for political purposes. It infers manipulation, control and propaganda.
The truth is fundamental to understand all that needs to be understood
June 5, 2019
@Dominic; I agree, history should be presented unfiltered.
But Dominic you do not tell it as it was, you tell it as you hoped it was so that you can have a political rant of the back of your perceived historical facts. In soort you are the classic example of those you claim to dislike, you are just as much the revisionist!
June 5, 2019
Jerry, Dominic’s stated point was that historians should not simply record the USSR as the UK’s, and the USA’s, ally. Which is actually the truth. Dominic did not indicate that he “hoped” he could change “the facts” by that statement of preference.
And the fact is the USSR was (until Nazi Germany attacked the USSR) just as much the UK’s enemy as Germany was, in principle (ie as the joint invader of Poland, with which the UK had a pact, which was the proximate reason for the declaration of war in the first place).
June 5, 2019
@NickC; What do you not understand about the historical fact that the UK conservative PM also allowed Germany to walk into both Austria and the SudetenlandsâŠ
No one is arguing about what the USSR did or did not do in the late 1930s, but if Dominic wants to cite history then he should cite all of it, not just the bits that agree with his personal political beliefs.
June 4, 2019
Itâs difficult to defeat ideas. If it was so, Socialism would have been dead and buried decades ago. Proponents of German expansion made a tactical withdraw, regrouped and came back with the political version instead.
June 4, 2019
@Jagman84; The same might be said, by some, about both Capitalism and the British Empire!
June 5, 2019
Jerry, Capitalism was the creation of Marx.
June 5, 2019
@NickC; LOL!
Capitalism existed long before Marx, it existed before Christ…
June 6, 2019
Jerry, As ever you miss the point. I did not say that capitalism did not exist before Marx, I said Capitalism was the creation of Marx. A quite different proposition. Think about it before launching into an attack. If you can.
June 6, 2019
@NickC; “I did not say that capitalism did not exist before Marx”
Do stop trying to troll, this is what you said (my emphasis);
“Jerry, Capitalism was the creation of Marx.”
If Marx created Capitalism it could not have existed before, yours is like a Creationist claiming that God made the world, man and everything else, but then admitting that the planet existed since the ‘Big Bang’ that created the Universe…
“Think about it before launching into an attack. If you can.”
Oh the irony, Mr pot!
June 4, 2019
Dominic and others-those eastern territories of Poland(effectively parts of Belarus,Lithuania and Ukraine were grabbed by Poland after WWI whilst the Russian Civil War was in progress-ignoring the ethnographic border suggested by the western allies(the Curzon Line) for a restored Poland.It was always likely that Russia would take them back and the British and French probably recognised this in the guarantee given to Poland which applied ONLY to the latter’s western (ie German)border.
The British,French and Poles had been offered a collective security treaty by Maxim Litvinov(the Soviet FM-Jewish and therefore no friend of Nazi Germany) but the Poles and British hoped for a clash between the Soviets and the Nazis so prevaricated.Litvinov was replaced by the more Germanophile Molotov and the rest is history….
June 5, 2019
Mitchell, “Litvinov was replaced by … Molotov” – oh, was there a democratic election then? “Grabbed” by Poland – so you’re implying it was all Poland’s fault? Poor Russia, always the misunderstood victim, eh? It seems to me you have been highly selective in your history, completely omitting the previous century where Poland was partitioned and occupied.
June 6, 2019
Stupid comment.How often are ministerial appointments put out to election in any country.
Yes,Poland (which itself was not a democracy)does bear some responsibility for the outbreak of WWII by virtue of it’s actions between the wars-see also it’s collusion with the Nazis over the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.
There is a thousand year history of enmity between Russia and Poland over which is the “Motherland”.The partition of Poland-Lithuania was Frederick the Great’s idea-Catherine the Great was happy for it to remain a self-governing Russian protectorate.
I would suggest it is you who needs a good history book.
June 4, 2019
I see the stain that is Corbyn continues to shame this nation
The BBC ridicule the POTUS with an inflatable dummy while Marxist Labour, Corbyn the Marxist and anti-Semite is treated with kid gloves.
When will a future Tory government dismantle this left wing organisation and sell it off?
Just find a way, anyway to crush its bias
June 4, 2019
Dominic
The BBC is at it again, this time referring to the Welsh Assembly as the Welsh government.
They will keep on doing this, until they provoke a Welsh indy ref.
The Director General should be nicked and charged with sedition.
June 4, 2019
A timely reminder of why the American President is here.
It is a pity that people like Corbyn, Cable and even Bercow never stop to consider he is here to pay his respects to the armed services who at that time consisted of, in my case, parents, aunts and uncles who believed in and fought for sovereignty, freedom and self determination. Many gave their lives to protect and uphold these rights.
To the younger generation of snowflakes, these people were their grandparents. To people like Khan the sacrifices these people made enabled his family to come here and live in a free and sovereign country.
And the best these myopic people can come up with is slurs, insults and silly balloons.
June 4, 2019
Then, we fought people whose aim was to takeover and destroy us – – now, our govt tell us we have to accept hundreds of thousands a year, house them, give them NHS, schooling, and benefits – all while they have the same aim. This time, a very slow and steady invasion, compared to war. The difference between now and then ? no bombs planes or warships. Only last week a school in Leicestershire was told to stop segregating boys and girls – – so much for coming here to integrate !!!.
June 4, 2019
In some cases (my great uncles), they died before being able to marry, so have no snowflake grandchildren/greatgrandchildren. Their father died fighting WWI. I fear they may have died in vain.
June 4, 2019
Please don’t say that.
They died for King and Country.
Their Name Liveth Forever More.
June 4, 2019
J.Bush (a name of interest)….’the best these myopic people can come up with is slurs, insults and silly balloons.’ Exactly, at least state the issues you have with him personally, but never insult the country. We too have managed to appoint cowboys as our political leaders.
June 4, 2019
The build up to and aftermath of D Day remains an enduring memory. I then lived a few miles from Harwell airfield, built just before the war. It was used to train the glider pilots employed as part of the initial airborne assault. Around us were many military bases, thousands of troops, convoys of trucks and armoured vehicles. Then they were gone and the days were marked by large formations of fighter bombers headed towards northern France, notably Mustangs and Thunderbolts.
After the war Harwell was converted to atomic energy research; it has now evolved into an advanced physics research facility – a modern equivalent of swords into ploughshares.
June 4, 2019
We indeed do owe much and the lesson should be learned: never again. In future, let continental Europe stew in its own juice. Time to repudiate the defence commitments T. May has stealthily recently signed up to with the Evil Empire.
June 4, 2019
formula57
“In future, let continental Europe stew in its own juice.”
I agree entirely. Not one more drop of British blood should be sacrificed for Europe. Never again.
Next time France causes a do in Europe we should keep right out of it.
June 4, 2019
When David Cameron tried to be nice to the EU and to get a good settlement for this country, he was simply fobbed off and his promising career simply cut short. So? Did they care?
Poor Mrs May was dealt a knockout blow with the WA. Then they turned their backs.
Now President Trump arrives, hand outstretched, smiling, with his lovely wife in a new hat, meeting Her Majesty and offering us a really good trade deal, supported by large swathes of American farming and industry.
It is all so very much like Winston Churchill’s position in 1941âŠ
June 4, 2019
Cameron had two open goal elections and a great chance to be a great PM. All he had to be was the Cast Iron Eurosceptic and low tax at heart (and in action) real Conservative he pretended to be. Alas he was an EUphile, tax borrow and waste pathetic lefty. One who just abandoned ship like a spoilt child after losing the referendum.
He also did huge damage to millions with his foolish & ill thought through bombing of Libya.
June 4, 2019
Mike…..one has our hands tied behind our backs, and requires us to become escape artists, the other has never been other than a defence and business partner where we choose what parts want. Seems pretty easy to me.
June 4, 2019
Yes, WW2 was a tragedy and changed the world for the worst – WE lost so many decent people, and we also lost an empire. It cost us so much. Still it seems as though our sacrifice is barely acknowledged by what were our allies, who now prefer to call WW2 a local conflict.
Then we were a united people against the tyranny – now we have mostly swallowed the propaganda and some of us even agree with the tyranny trying to destroy us.
What did WW2 teach us: “WAR IS TERRIBLE, BUT LIVING UNDER A DESPICABLE CORRUPT DICTATORSHIP THAT IMPOSES ITSELF UPON US AND DESTROYS OUR ABILITY TO REASON, OR TO HAVE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, IS FAR FAR WORSE”
June 4, 2019
The Empire was lost in WW1 – after we had defaulted on our gargantuan debts to the USA and they, instead of holding us to it, built their navy to be twice as big as ours.
I think it is wrong to have empires by the way but has been a necessary and inevitable part of societal and scientific evolution.
June 4, 2019
Well said. Which is why it is staggering that you support the Brexiteers and Farage who are doing all the things you claim to dislike.
June 5, 2019
Andy, What’s staggering is how in your mind you try to turn the fight against one European tyranny into support for another European tyranny. And, no, I am not equating the EU to the Third Reich; more like the EU to Vichy France.
June 4, 2019
We do owe those brave men almost everything.
But there is more. We also owe a huge debt to those great post war leaders – including Churchill, Attlee, Truman and De Gaulle – who pledged to not allow it to happen again.
They did not make the mistakes made after WW1. Instead, out of the ashes of WW2, they created plans to bind countries much more closely together – as they all swore never to repeat the mistakes again.
The United Nations, NATO, the World Bank and – in Europe – what became the EU – all created out of the ashes of one global war to prevent another one.
It is a tragedy that – just 75 years since the sacrifice of so many – the lessons of D Day have really not been learned. The institutions which – for all their faults – have prevented WW3 under assault from a no-nothing President of the United States and self proclaimed populists in Europe who, actually, are not that popular.
Shortly after the Brexit vote I stood on the beach at Arromanches – looking at my children and many others kids play in the rock pools around the remnants of the Mulberry Harbour. In a handful of years all of those children will be old enough to be cannon fodder in the sort of way that has been common place in Europe for a millennium.
The rise in nationalism throughout the world sadly all but guarantees we will soon be there again.
June 5, 2019
Andy, Integration (the EU model) is not the same as cooperation. The long term aim of the D Day invasion was to restore European nation states and their concomitant right of self-determination.
It is your tendency to obfuscate these vital differences that prevents you from seeing how the EU is the antithesis of the free nations fought for throughout WW2 by the British, the British Empire, and later, the Americans.
Nationalism (defined as the right of a people to have their own nation) fully accepted for your own nation, and therefore for other peoples and nations, is the way to peace, cooperation, understanding, and prosperity. That truth led to the dissolution of the British Empire, and the emergence of the Commonwealth.
Imposed centralisation over many nations never works in the long run. How could it? It defies the right of self-determination. Just because the EU imposes centralisation by bureaucracy rather than military power, does not make it any more right in principle, or palatable.
June 4, 2019
Sir John, you mention that the UK, USA, Australia and France will be represented at the D Day commemoration ceremony. What of Canada? That country put an Army into France and played a major role in clearing the Channel ports and the Scheldt estuary to open the port of Antwerp, and much more. Is Trudeau not attending?
June 4, 2019
The Times recently interviewed surviving D-Day veterans then organised their memories into a timeline so that chronological events unfolded in their own words. That piece opened my eyes to the sacrifices made by the Canadians; it almost read as though they bore the brunt of it.
June 4, 2019
Justin Trudeau will be in Portsmouth on the 5th (according to Canadian press).
June 4, 2019
maybe I missed it, but what about the assistance many Commonwealth countries provided, and a friendship which we seem to have been willing to abandon when pro-EC back in the day.
June 4, 2019
We must consider whether it is right to treat the citizens of the erstwhile Dominions, our own flesh and blood who remain Subjects of Her Majesty, as aliens, causing them to enter our country at âotherâ customs checks while allowing the citizens of the aggressive continent, where fascism is the default politics, free access.
It is time to reverse the destruction of all the trade deals and other profitable relationships that were trashed overnight by the Heath Government when he signed the political treaty that made us subject to the oligarchy that is the EU for 46 tragic years, under Royal Prorogative.
We owe the ground under our feet to our colonial relations who volunteered by the million to fight with us for the enduring British values – Democracy and Capitalism.
June 4, 2019
Exactly Lynn.
June 4, 2019
Today, when reflecting on that momentous event, can we remember the class
of the majority of those called on to make this great sacrifice? It would seem
most unlikely that they had a bird’s-eye view of what was going on. Their fear
must surely have been overcome by a love of country and a sense of duty,
yet how are their like treated now by those who govern them?
June 4, 2019
Will there be any Russian , Ukrainian representation at D-Day ? Some put their losses as high as 27 million soldiers and civilians . Have they ever indicated a desire to participate in D-Day commemorations ?
Although D-Day could be considered a Western European issue , I believe this would be a mistake given Germany’s defeat came about partly from her failure to follow Napoleon’s sound advice :-
– “When contemplating battle, it is the rule to concentrate all your forces and neglect none. One battalion often decides the day.”
America has had a good run for their money ignoring Napoleons advice but now finds itself unable to police the whole world militarily .
It is resorting to trade and economic warfare and threats thereof instead which will be just as unsuccessful .
Few seemed to notice American hegemony disappearing while the lemmings were screaming that Brexit was the biggest game in town .
June 4, 2019
Isn’t our Queen a wonderful woman, a true role model, a skilled diplomat and our Republicans would rather have us led by people like Corbyn a totally undiplomatic man who has snubbed the elected leader of the United States of America (a man whose popularity is rising not falling in his home nation).
A man whose personal feelings trumps everyone else in the Country, just like Mr Khan who seems to be getting way ahead of his station (he does not speak for everyone in London, or does he now? To allow what he is allowing and encouraging in London over this visit is undiplomatic, not at all British and frankly is very troubling to me).
June 4, 2019
In the Nineteen eighties and Nineties I owned a company that exported 10% of it’s bespoke product to the USA , providing employment in a rural area to a skilled workforce, who were proud of their efforts being in demand and valued by our West Coast customers, and who often worked odd hours in order to accommodate the eight hour time difference.
I am aghast and horrified by the disgraceful outpourings from the leader of HM’s Opposition Leader, the Speaker of our House of Commons and the pipsqueak Mayor of London against President Trump , the representative of the American Nation.
These worthless individuals, none of whom have done a useful day’s work in their lives, are thoughtlessly jeopardizing real workers’ real jobs by their preposterous egotistical actions and need to show some humility in the positions to which they have been over promoted.
I am glad that I am now retired and do not have to answer to my old customers this afternoon who would have been outraged by the gross insults offered to their nation yesterday and could well have cancelled our commercial relationship.
June 5, 2019
roger, I believe the public are being riled up so much right now and this level of discourse, especially by our supposed political leaders (with years of political paid public service employment behind them) is gutter politics that I last saw as a child on tv I thought our politics had moved on from that militant nastiness but we’re going right back there, and just like the blonde woman I saw losing it with a Trump supporter on Guido Fawkes yesterday getting in his personal space, loudly jostling and insulting him, laughing when he got milkshaked frankly makes her and her posse much worse than anyone she thinks she is protesting about. If our elected, PAID politicians don’t start controlling their personal agendas there will be a tipping point.
Channel 4 news last night, I’m so sad that this is the news at 7pm when I get in from work because its bias and twisting appals me, gave Mr Khan an opportunity to make out how reasonable he is and how his poor behaviour is all down to Mr Trump – NO, NO, NO. You control your responses to the President Mr Khan, you are allowing YOUR personal dislike, YOUR personal feelings and word twisting and YOUR personal agenda to represent the whole of London and the wider UK because you get air time because of proximity to the Channel 4 newsroom over someone for example that is turning out to be quite a good Labour Mayor, Mr Burnham in Manchester, if we ever had the choice of Burnham or Khan as leader of the Labour party he is blotting his copybook.
June 4, 2019
a-tracy
Both the Queen and Trump are half Scottish and half German. I’m sure they have much in common.
The Queen had a German father and Scottish mother.
As had Trump who was born in New York City where his Scottish mother met and married his father, himself the child of immigrants from Germany.
So they should have had lots to talk about.
June 5, 2019
Good, perhaps she can better advise him about guarding his tongue (do you reckon he gets that impulsive communication side from his Scottish or German side of the family)? I checked when you said her father George VI was German and he was born in England (Sandringham, Norfolk), his father George V was born in London and Mary of Teck was born in London? (Anyhow havent we all got a bit of Dutch, Danish, Scandi, German, in us?).
The Queen is also directly descended from over a thousand years worth of Britainâs royal houses, including the Stuarts, Tudors, Plantagenets, Angevins, Normans, and Wessex. Perhaps that side of her family line is stronger in her and gives her diplomacy skills.
June 5, 2019
a-tracy
“I checked when you said her father George VI was German and he was born in England (Sandringham)
I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that. He was from the Saxe Coburg Gotha (Kings of Hanover) dynasty whether he was born in England or Timbuktu.
And his mother Mary of Teck from the Kingdom of Wurttemberg wherever she was born.
Although they renamed themselves Windsor after WWI because of the strong anti German feeling they do in fact go back to the House of Welf the ancient European dynasty rulers of Bavaria and Saxony that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century.
June 6, 2019
quite honestly margaret I just don’t get your point?
David Lammy recently tweeted @DavidLammy
“Born in the Whittington Hospital in Archway. Raised in Tottenham. Went to school in Peterborough. Member of Parliament and the Queen’s privy council. Drink tea like it’s going to run out and avoid eye contact on the tube. I am as English as you mate. Deal with it. ”
I absolutely agree with this point David is making margaret and in the same way the Queen, born in Mayfair/London to parents Father born in York Cottage Sandringham, Mother born in London, her Father Claude George Bowes-Lyon
born 14 March 1855 London, England; her grandmother Cecilia Nina Cavendish-Bentinck 11 September 1862
London, England and her Father’s line George V born 3 June 1865, London ; Mary of Teck Born 26 May 1867 London
Kensington Palace, London is as BRITISH as most of us.
You said her Father was German he is not he was born in England, raised in Britain end of.
June 4, 2019
D Day was a one disaster in the second disastrous and unneccessary war that century. Both were caused by politican’s ambition’s and elitist greed. Both were enabled by government’s ability to print money and use it to fund grotesque armaments to murder millions. Now we have a generation of politicians grandstanding on the graves of the people that died whilst promoting very similar policies that started both those wars. These “leaders” should be made to be at the lead of any attack they instigate. They should be the first, along with their children, to storm a beach or clear a trench. See how brave these posturing idiots are then.
For now lets have less of their glamourising war for their own ends.
June 4, 2019
Go to any of the public schools and see the memorials for pupils killed in action. You will be humbled.
WW1 and WW2 were both turning points in social history because mechanised killing put everyone in the front line, including the Queen.
June 5, 2019
Anonymous
Humbled? No – outraged.
Old men messing up and then sacrificing young boys to clear up the mess.
Do you ever consider the risks and sacrifices women have to make to produce just one human being?
Only then to see them thrown away in their millions?
June 4, 2019
Alex
Bravo! 100%.
Spot on.
You are so right. At least the Kings of yore mounted their chargers and led into battle. As should every man Jack of them!
June 4, 2019
Alex…..D Day was a disaster? – how so?. Or would you wish to rewrite history? Care to explain ‘ a generation of politicians grandstanding on the graves of the people that died whilst promoting very similar policies that started both those wars’.
If you are younger than 20, idealistic and truly ignorant about the 2 WWs, I forgive you. Otherwise I’m speechless.
June 4, 2019
The German people voted to disregard the Versailles Treaty by an overwhelming majority in a referendum .Is it possible that the âthe peopleâ ( or Volk) may, under some circumstances be catastrophically wrong ? The Daily Mail likewise.
June 4, 2019
The Versailles Treaty was known to be too harsh.
You have cause and effect the wrong way around, as usual.
June 4, 2019
Your analogy is offensive though I suspect that is your intention. Slander through indirect association.
June 4, 2019
What was catastrophically wrong was the Versailles Treaty and itâs crippling reparations which drove Germany into economic ruin. Bad treaties which unfairly burden populations will prove a fertile ground for extremists unless abrogated with good sense from all concerned. When a population has been tricked into a poor agreement by lying politicians, there will be a reaction, which is what we are experiencing in the UK today.
June 4, 2019
You have not been tricked into anything.
And, as Brexit has shown, EU membership is actually quite a good agreement.
All the alternatives your heroes have been able to come up with are clearly worse.
Shame.
June 4, 2019
Andy
Any evidence for that fairly stupid statement?
June 4, 2019
The Daily Mail is profoundly wrong since it moved its position to support Mayâs putrid W/A. Please replace the direcGeordie Greig and get Paul Dacre back.
June 4, 2019
Replace the new dire editor Georgie Greig.
June 4, 2019
LL
Its easier to just stop buying the Daily Mail and dont click on their clickbait
June 4, 2019
Grandad was a much decorated REME Commando – he was rank of RSM by the end of the war and spent several years as an officer in the Indian army. A remarkable man.
He was at Dunkirk and also involved in the D Day landings and I still have the citation he received after his unit came under fire and took on a squadron of Stukas with a Lewis gun and downed several of them. Not even worthy of a medal, so numerous were the acts of bravery in that campaign.
He performed in many theatres of WW2 and suffered shell shock under a creeping barrage of German artillery. My brother and I used to mock his rattling cup and saucer whenever he held his tea – he used to laugh it off, a darn good sport.
He loved us dearly and would regale us tales of his adventures. And no bullshitter. You don’t get to the rank of RSM in a mob like his for no reason and then launch a hugely successful career after it.
For his influence I am proudly nationalistic and it is hugely difficult to let go of my country because some lefty wimp tells me to.
June 4, 2019
I believe it is tomorrow that President Trump and the Queen will be commemorating D day at Portsmouth.
June 4, 2019
Oh the irony.
All those lives lost only 18 or so years after the mass slaughter of the previous male generation.
And what for??
So we could be ground under the heel of the German dominated EU ( or are they synonymous?).
As flies to wanton boys are we to the politicians.
Apologies to the Bard.
June 4, 2019
All those troops who died in wars to keep England free, died for nothing. Now our own so-called Leaders have took us into EU slavery – and our own extinction. Paying a fortune in, only to be told we have to continue paying in FOREVER, while the EU floods us with Third Worlders to commit crime and force their ways on us, while WE see our taxes pay for them. The people who have organised and allowed this will run away as soon as they realise what is going to happen in this country. Of course – it will be everyone else to blame – as usual. Politicians can never admit they screwed up a whole country – deliberately.
June 4, 2019
Apparently Siddiq Khan described president Trump as being “like a 1930s fascist”. You wouldn’t know from the BBC reporting that this disgraceful and absurd remark was what triggered the President’s understandable response, which was in the circumstances quite mild. What a disgrace and absurdity it is we have people like Corbyn Emily thornberry and Khan, a useless mayor of London, as the alternative governing party.
June 4, 2019
I salute all the allied force that where involved in D-Day operations for our freedom
But D-Day was a result of weak government and poor leadership some years prior to the landings.
Prime Ministers Chamberlain infamous ââI hold in my hand a piece of paperââ surrender to European political forces (Munich Agreement 1938) was the initial mistake.
History repeating itself
June 4, 2019
How inappropriate and embarrassing for the UK that the left wing Mayor of London chooses this time to be rude about the President of the USA.
June 4, 2019
Agree Robin and watching the news at six I felt ashamed to be British when I saw the protesters in London. Corbyn’s speech was pathetic and for the leader of a party full of (allegations about anti semitism ed) to go on about Trump being a racist was beyond belief. The man should just shut up and lock himself in a dark room until he gets over himself and take Kahn with him.
June 4, 2019
Another D-Day on its way in two days time on the 6th of June 2019, the people’s revolt of parliament.
June 4, 2019
While Corbyn and Lady Nugee are busy entertaining protestors against the visit of President Trump, it appears that everyone’s favourite Marxist has resurrected Labour’s planned “Garden Tax.”
This disgraceful piece of legislation will increase costs for millions of families, especially as the proposal is to exempt tenants ! That means the burden of the current Council tax will be exclusively born by those who have made the effort to buy their own home. No doubt they will take the opportunity to greatly increase the overall amount of money currently raised by Council Tax, delivering a double whammy on home owners.
This has to be Corbyn’s Poll Tax moment.
June 4, 2019
On the subject of D-Day, I wonder why the role of Canada seems so down-played when that country was absolutely crucial in operations.
Their efforts are constantly subsumed into the omnibus term “the allies” it seems.
I am not Canadian and am instead from Britain, but I do wish the role of Canada were given a higher profile more in keeping with what it merits.
That said, it is typical of the brave and noble Canadians to show their class by never complaining about this and being modest. We shall always be indebted.
June 4, 2019
I feel proud to belong to the heritage of the D Day heroes, however I feel ashamed to be considered representative in any way, of a nation of younger generations who have no love of country, no commitment to political sovereignty, who are seemingly oblivious to the immersion of Britain in a new country, soon to be, called Europe, and who carelessly disregard intelligent contrary points of view, about a wide range of issues. The ignorance of the left is very worrying, substituting as they do, bigotry for knowledge, and being themselves victims of propagandizing group think.
June 4, 2019
My father landed on Sword Beach with No.6 Commando on D-Day. He was badly wounded 3 weeks before the end of the war and carried the scars to an early grave, so 6th June has a special significance for me.
My father admired the German soldiers he encountered who, he said, were brave and honourable; but he had a great distrust of Germany’s political aspirations. He died before we joined the EEC but all his predictions about German domination of Europe have been borne out.
June 4, 2019
Mrs Thornberry said on the Tele that she felt uncomfortable with Mr and Mrs Trump bringing their family into the UK.
Oh fish! They are all on a temporary three-day work visa. I understand though not necessarily agree with her view of Chain Migration.
The facts: they have thus far not applied for permanent residence or asylum here. If of school age they are entitled to free-school meals paid for by an adjunct of the NHS regularly in such cases. However, the parents say they have sufficient resources to pay for their children’s meals without the need for NHS assistance. So she not worry her pretty head about being swamped by them though they be foreign American types and, she should not be afraid.
June 4, 2019
Just saw some of the greatest collection of modern day war mongering hawks streaming out of no.10..Pompeo, john Bolton, Kushner et al..and hard to say but it looks like we’ll get a trade deal provided we enter into war with them against Iran..something like this because the window of opportunity for Bolton and others including Netanyahu is now closing very fast
June 4, 2019
Indeed John, we owe our freedom to many servicemen from many countries and I do firmly believe that without the Americans the war would have lasted longer or we may not have won it at all. We are fortunate we have such brave people. As for Corbyn and Kahn there is not a lot to say about them. They are beyond contempt and I cannot imagine for one moment having someone like Corbyn to represent our country. I hope he is staying away from the D Day celebrations. The man is a complete idiot and his actions this day should be enough to put many off voting for him. He is not fit for any kind of responsible office.
June 4, 2019
We. Wanted to vote for her, because her Manifesto was just about what Nigel Farage might have penned.
Now we see these ghastly people with there dirty tricks try to de face Boris.
We learn today that May and her team have betrayed this nation on an epic scale for the last three years.
Yet she is still there with her faithfull little assassin, Gove, ready to slip into her shoes.
Well Sir John What is to happen to these people, what will be done with them.
As I keep saying here nothing will change without change, are what is left of your party going to see them in court in the next few days, I think we know the answer to this,,,
No it will all be hushed up as if nothing happened at all, in this day and age Treachery is just a shrug of the shoulders.
Frankly I think the voters deserve to see the Treason Act brought back, furthermore and it needs to be back dated so that those guilty of treason against this country over the last 40 odd years, should be called out , no one ,no matter There station in society.
Otherwise these shenanigans will continue
June 4, 2019
Mayâs WA has been likened to the Treat of Versailles, if it ever passed I think down the line it would cause conflict here.
June 4, 2019
Not entirely off-topic:
The NHS is not for sale to the Americans, but this is a French company so that’s OK:
https://uk.elis.com/
“Berendsen is now Elis – more than just a name change”
“Across Europe and Latin America, organisations including hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies have chosen us to be their textile, hygiene and facilities services partner. We’re proud that this means we’re the leading supplier operating in this space.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berendsen
“Berendsen plc (formerly The Davis Service Group Plc) was a major British-based provider of textile maintenance services with headquarters in London. In September 2017 the French company Elis completed the acquisition of Berendsen.”
More about the “hospitals” element here:
https://fr.elis.com/en/sectors/healthcare
June 5, 2019
Exactly Denis it is so hypocritical. The Labour party more than half privatised the dental services in the UK, the Blair government were directly responsible for so many people not going for regular dental appointments.
It is time someone did an expose on just who owns what part i.e. the buildings, land and car parks and where the controllers buy supplies from for our National Health Service.
June 4, 2019
As you say, despite all the horror he inflicted, Hitler did at least come to power through winning an election. Through that, he had more legitimacy to govern than any of the leaders of the EU.
June 4, 2019
Not completely D-Day relevant…
I see that the Dutch National Railways have at last admitted being complicit in the transportation of Jews from the Netherlands during the second World War.
https://nieuws.ns.nl/ns-stelt-commissie-in-over-individuele-tegemoetkoming-2e-wereldoorlog/
June 4, 2019
Aged 67 or 68 , some kind of mental anomaly of sixes and sevens when summing up ones age, ones life age from zero as me in seeing our Queen in such decreased physical stature yearly and now again is unseeable.
Government must prepare for the shock to many. 67 or 68 years to bury your mother yet again is…
June 4, 2019
“This week we recall the launch of a mighty force to liberate the continent of Europe in 1944” – why do you not give full credit to the Soviet Union for their role [and immense sacrifice] in the defeat of Nazi Germany? Germany had, in all reality, LOST the war before a single allied soldier set foot on the Normandy beaches. The contemporary Operation Bagration on the Eastern Front involved more than ten time the forces deployed on D-Day.
June 5, 2019
Gordon, Because we are commemorating the D Day operation, not the defeat of Nazi Germany.
June 5, 2019
Gordon
” why do you not give full credit to the Soviet Union for their role [and immense sacrifice] in the defeat of Nazi Germany?”
Because the Soviet Union were allies of Germany carving up Poland and murdering thousands in the process.
And post WW2 they invaded and occupied more of Europe than Hitler did and Stalin murdering far more people including his own in the process. He used the concentration camps for his own victims and sent millions into Siberian labour camps where they slaved and died for decades after.
And his evil regime lasted not for 12 years like Hitler’s but for decades when several uprisings by occupied countries eventually led to the fall of the Soviet empire.
June 4, 2019
JR
“We owe much to the many allied service personnel who were killed in wounded during the liberation of Europe.”
The owing is by France and Belgium in particular. The former having caused ideal conditions in Germany for the rise of Hitler. (Versailles)
June 4, 2019
The odious May in the press conference with President Trump – just seen here by me in the US on Fox News – looked very uncomfortable and had a twisted facial expression which reminded me of a bulldog chewing a wasp.
She is unchanged. She could not resist saying that her surrender document was the best way of getting out of the EU. And she is still PM.
I pray that the President told her in no uncertain terms which way is up. She remains a danger to our freedoms.
June 5, 2019
Prangwizard
“I pray that the President told her in no uncertain terms which way is up. She remains a danger to our freedoms.”
The president told her in no uncertain terms? Have we become the 51st US state already?
June 6, 2019
Margaret Howard, Since you are the one who wants to squander our independence, why not squander it to the democratic USA rather than the corrupt despotic EU empire?
June 4, 2019
The BBC need totally and utterly purging. It is now infected by a liberal cabal that is malignant, intolerant and utterly out of control
In a week when we should be remembering those who sacrificed their lives for our freedoms we are being subjected to a torrent of anti Trump hatred on a scale that is simply unacceptable for the State broadcaster
The Tories had the chance to kneecap this vile broadcaster and they did NOTHING.
The Tory party is gutless, spineless and utterly without principle
June 4, 2019
As Churchill informed the House of Commons on June 6 1944: “This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place…
“Complete unity prevails throughout the Allied Armies. There is a brotherhood in arms between us and our friends of the United States. There is complete confidence in the supreme commander, General Eisenhower, and his lieutenants, and also in the commander of the Expeditionary Force, General Montgomery. The ardour and spirit of the troops, as I saw myself, embarking in these last few days was splendid to witness.”
The contemptible kneejerk anti-Americanism Labour and LibDem politicians have displayed in recent days – concealed under the pretext of ‘not liking Trump’, and clearly deliberately aimed at the Anglo-American alliance that is so fanatically opposed by large sections of Labour’s client ‘communities’, – has been repulsive to witness.
But now the EU has re-defined WW2 as a ‘European Civil War’ and claims to have brought peace, presumably few children have the chance to learn any Real History.
June 5, 2019
Mancunius, Well said.
June 4, 2019
Germany still does wish to dominate Europe. The difference is that it has chosen peaceful means, at least so far.
June 4, 2019
Lindsay
Are you therefore implying that Britain is still intent on regaining its empire and thereby occupy a quarter of the globe?
June 5, 2019
Margaret Howard, Are you therefore implying that Macron is the new Napoleon intent on regaining the French empire? Is Verhofstadt the new Vespasian? Alternatively, what on earth are you talking about?
June 5, 2019
Actually, Margaret, if you read the remark more carefully, you will see that it implies no such thing. Lindsay is saying that the German state is resolved to dominate Europe by economic means – a matter on which there has been little dispute since the 1990s and the results of Reunification.
We have already noted your rather unhealthy obsession with the pre-WW2 British Empire. But strawman exaggeration is rarely conducive to rational discourse – something you might want to ponder. đ
June 5, 2019
mancunius
” Lindsay is saying that the German state is resolved to dominate Europe by economic means.”
So by your reasoning it must follow that because of its economic success London is resolved to dominate Britain?
June 6, 2019
Margaret Howard, If you cannot see that London dominating the UK is not quite like Germany dominating all of the EU, then you really need a long lie down in the dark to recover.
June 4, 2019
Just finished reading your latest book…very goodâïž10/10.
David Easton, the political scientist, said that ‘Politics is the authoritative allocation of values’, and it is undeniably true that liberal left authority is under very welcome attack. However, this is only half of Easton’s definition, as allocation is firmly in the hands of the MSM still, despite the explosion of social media. On pages 135-136 you describe perfectly everything they, as a matter of dogma and doctrine believe, most notably by the BBC. Until studio interlocutors give contrary opinions an ‘uninterrupted’ voice, and some sort of nodding assent, the globalist zeitgeist will continue to dominate.
June 4, 2019
Without the AngloSphere the Continent would still be living under the jackboot of the Nazis. Without the UK there would have been, for the Continental Europeans, no liberation – the lamps of Liberty would never have been relit.
I give thanks to God for all those who gave their lives during that terrible War.
I give thanks that God sent us Sir Winston Churchill, but I also give thanks for the quite dignity, dedication and determination of the King and Queen.
June 5, 2019
Andy
“the Continent would still be living under the jackboot of the Nazis.”
As it was much of it ended up under the jackboot of Stalin.
June 4, 2019
Thank you for this clear summary. It is a difficult story to tell in a short space and you have done it well. It is one more people should know and concentrate on, rather than the malicious trivia and gossip served up by the broadcasters
June 4, 2019
Low turn-out for Corbyn today
“Sorry Comrade Corbyn, I can’t come to the Glorious Socialist Workers Revolution today, it’s raining.”
June 5, 2019
… or possibly a sign more of the ‘leisured leftwing demonstrator’ community are finding actual work to do?