You may think I’m pretty bad now, but you should have seen me when I was 15. I have said, done and thought terrible things that I now hate. The memory of her is quite unbearable. I can still shudder when I remember them. But there it is, evil deeds once committed cannot be undone, cruel words cannot be undone.
Perhaps everyone else is so much better than this and so pure in heart that they don’t believe there is anything merciless about the British state’s vengeful treatment of Shamima Begum. I agree with everyone else, especially my colleague Sue Reid, that her behavior was idiotic and that she said and did things that will make her ashamed for the rest of her life.
By now I would think that the deaths of her three young children, something none of us would wish on anyone, should be punishment enough for anyone.
I don’t like the look or the sound of her. I suspect her fundamental problem is that she is not very intelligent. I hope never to meet her. But if anyone has any evidence that she committed a crime, they should be tried in court by an impartial jury. And if she is then found guilty, I will happily support whatever punishment the law gives her.
But that can’t happen while she’s condemned to spend the rest of her life in some Syrian slum. This is thanks to a revocation of their citizenship that reminds me of the worst form of the brutal old Soviet Union, a despotic Third World measure that this ancient civilization should be ashamed of using.
Perhaps everyone else is so much better and so pure of heart that they don’t think the British state’s vengeful treatment of Shamima Begum (pictured) is anything merciless.
If anyone has any evidence that she committed a crime, let them try her in court before an impartial jury, says PETER HITCHENS
She was punished without trial, as is all too common these days. Perhaps Sajid Javid, the politician who first sentenced Begum to life in ban, has an absolutely clear conscience about his youth, which he is said to have spent reading the Financial Times and watching Grange Hill on TV. Perhaps he can’t imagine the life of any of his children or grandchildren going awry like the life of ‘Jihadi Jack’ Letts, another of those jerks, went awry.
And perhaps the members of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission have lived lives of impeccable sweetness from childhood, too.
We must, it seems to me, have some truly pure and wonderful people to do this work. The same is no doubt true of all politicians and journalists who welcomed the decision to confirm the revocation of Begum’s citizenship.
I would think that the deaths of their three young children, something none of us would wish on anyone, should be punishment enough for anyone
But all I see is an ugly kind of mob justice. The British government claims it is so tough on terrorism but is actually quite useless in preventing it, and helped back an al Qaeda affiliate, the Nusra Front, in a cynical operation in Syria.
They claim to protect us from Begum, who can’t come back here. And yet, if she somehow managed to get on one of those inflatable boats from France, she could land on a beach in Kent one afternoon and disappear into our police-less cities, along with the thousands of others who would, without being obstructed by this supposedly tough government.
This is feigned severity, a hunk of meat hurled into the angry crowd by a frightened and weak state.
And it’s merciless too, the lifelong, relentless punishment of a lonely bereaved woman. Is that something to be proud of?
Those who have done so should remember the old, simple Scriptural advice to all of us: “What does the Lord require of you but to act righteously, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God,” and ask if they obey him.
Welcome to the Republic of Transgendria
Good heavens! Children’s books are being censored to make them more politically correct! Astonishing! A politician is in trouble for openly professing her Christian faith and saying she means business. Where have you all been in the last 20 years? All these things have been happening for more than 20 years.
Try to find a modern children’s book that features a family with two heterosexual parents. Expressions of conservative Christianity, particularly about marriage, have long been virtually banned in the public sector, and police have long cracked down on conservative street preachers.
You see, the revolution has taken place. For most people, this is normal life. If it hasn’t reached you yet, it will soon. If you visit my hometown of Oxford this week, you will see the flag of the Transgender Republic flying over almost every college in the huge university. The new elite that will invade the political parties, civil service, BBC, police, courts and schools over the next few years all know they must salute that flag if they hope to be hired or promoted become. Wake up dear ones. It happened and protests against it are tolerated because they make no difference.
As I was walking along the banks of the Thames the other day, I came across a sign warning ‘Warning! Loud bang!’ In fact, there was no bang. Some sunken ship rolled in the river nearby, gently rotting away. Given the current state of our defenses, I wondered if I had stumbled across the latest Royal Navy naval exercises.
It’s not enough just to find the right clothes
Can the annoying paraphrasers of the recent past leave nothing behind? We can’t see it for what it was, but we have to let our opinions be guided by characters who have time traveled from 2023 onwards to show us how terrible we all used to be.
Brink’s-Mat’s new gold theft series, The Gold, stars 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 Brink’s-Mat’s gold theft, The Gold, stars a militant feminist detective (played by Charlotte Spencer) in Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad in the 1980s. We also see several “strong women” who are the wives of gangsters, a popular leftist fantasy.
Meanwhile, senior police officers ponder the desirability of jailing people with plush accents, and a criminal is accused of lines suggesting he is a revolutionary hero standing up to England’s traditional rulers.
In order for this stuff to survive, sooner or later the facts about life as it was actually lived have to be pushed aside.