Journalist and novelist Frederick Forsyth, best known for such all-time classic thrillers as "The day of the Jackal" and "The ODESSA file" and a self-described "left-wing Tory or right-wing Labourite, take your pick", thus welcomed Dubya to London:
Today you arrive in my country for the first state visit by an American president for many decades, and I bid you welcome.You will find yourself assailed on every hand by some pretty pretentious characters collectively known as the British left. They traditionally believe they have a monopoly on morality and that your recent actions preclude you from the club. You opposed and destroyed the world's most blood-encrusted dictator. This is quite unforgivable.
I beg you to take no notice. The British left intermittently erupts like a pustule upon the buttock of a rather good country. Seventy years ago it opposed mobilisation against Adolf Hitler and worshipped the other genocide, Josef Stalin.
It has marched for Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov. It has slobbered over Ceausescu and Mugabe. It has demonstrated against everything and everyone American for a century. Broadly speaking, it hates your country first, mine second.
Eleven years ago something dreadful happened. Maggie was ousted, Ronald retired, the Berlin wall fell and Gorby abolished communism. All the left's idols fell and its demons retired. For a decade there was nothing really to hate. But thank the Lord for his limitless mercy. Now they can applaud Saddam, Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il... and hate a God-fearing Texan. So hallelujah and have a good time.
Expat Iranian journalist Amir Taheri probes the pustule:
The [British group "Coalition to Stop the War"] has a steering committee of 33 members. Of these, 18 come from various hard left groups: Communists, Trotskyites, Maoists, and Castrists. Three others belong to the radical wing of the Labour party. There are also eight radical Islamists. The remaining four are leftist ecologists known as "Watermelons" (Green outside, red inside).The chairman of the coalition is one Andrew Murray, a former employee of the Soviet Novosty Agency and leader in the British Communist party. Cochair is Muhammad Asalm Ijaz of the London Council of Mosques. Members include John Rees of the Socialist Workers' party and Ghayassudin Siddiqui of the Muslim Parliament. Tanja Salem of the Al-awdah (The Return) group, an outfit close to Yasser Arafat, is also a member along with Shahedah Vawda of "Just Peace," another militant Arab group, and Wolf Wayne of the "Green Socialist Network."
Rainbow Fascism at its finest. Meanwhile, Instapundit rounds up coverage (here and here) of the
UPDATE: and speaking of batty 'rainbow fascists', Dog of Flanders has the latest on one of their number in Belgium.
UPDATE 2: David Carr at Samizdata, describing the protests, reveals a Tom Sharpe gene or two.
click to view ugg store online ugg store at my estore
Posted by: Pusiaaustin | January 04, 2012 at 11:07 AM