Milk of the Poppy

Suella Braverman - I'm surprised no-one has charged her with incitement. She's literally engaging in hate speech by calling a peace march a hate march and egging on far right thugs. 

Methinks she's had too much milk of the Remembrance poppy. I'm certain she's hoping to rally trouble from the far right, flag wrapped knuckle-draggers in order to justify herself. If you look on Twitter and the feeds of the likes of Fuhrage and Richard Tice, their supporters, who have their bulldog avatars draped in St George's crosses, are certainly all riled up and itching for a fight.

I had an anonymous comment on yesterday's post; "It isn't about military superiority. It's an occasion to remember those who gave for freedom. Yes that includes protests but don't use that freedom to to disrespect those that gave it to you. That's not Islamophobia... That's just called respect."

For this person who commented - I totally agree it's an occasion to remember those who gave for freedom, but why, when the protest is away from the Cenotaph and 2 hours after the Armistice ceremony on Saturday (and has been taking place regularly on Saturdays), do you call it disrespect? 

Why, when they're literally protesting for peace during a time when thousands of civilians are dying, do you call it disrespect? The marchers include people from all walks of life and all religions.

Also, I know that, for the vast majority, Remembrance is not about military superiority; however, if you're far right it is, and calling it a hate march, when the purpose has been made abundantly clear, is very definitely Islamophobia and designed to stir up hate. 

Would you also wish to ban a peace march in support of peace between Russia and Ukraine and, if not, why not?

Had it been before 1995 and it was a peace march against IRA and Loyalist violence, would you have wanted that banned too? If not, why not?

I eagerly await your reply. I really do - I want to understand your logic process considers a protest away from the Cenotaph and at a different time is disrespectful. 

Talking of imbibing too much milk of the poppy, I heard Claire Coutinho, the Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero, being interviewed about the licencing of new oil and gas fields in the North Sea the other day.

She stated that the gas storage had increased by an enormous 30% since last year. When asked how many days supply there was storage for now, she couldn't answer. She's the Secretary of State for Energy, for God's sake! You'd expect her to be at least half way across her brief - especially after what happened last year.

I suspect she didn't want to answer, as it was 15 to 16 days in January 2022. A 30% increase takes it to 21 days.

Here are the figures for elsewhere.

Austria - 186 days

Denmark - 132 days

France - 126 days

Germany - 108 days

Netherlands - 107 days

The only EU countries with capacity similar to the UK are Bulgaria and Portugal, and even they are higher than 21.

Whenever you hear a government spokesperson say; "What I can tell you is.....," it's a prelude to utter incompetence and an attempt to divert from the question.