Mike Shallcross

Forty years ago: “The United States has stood by us in times of need, as we have stood by her. To refuse their request for the use of bases here would have been to abandon our responsibilities as an ally and to weaken the fight against terrorism.”—Margaret Thatcher, April 16, 1986.

Happy 8️⃣0️⃣th birthday to Alan Bleasdale George’s Last Ride, Boys from the Blackstuff - perhaps the BBCs finest work… “Those dreams of long ago - they still give me hope and faith in my class”

This is probably the only time that Donald Trump has reposted a Saturday Night Live clip, and it is about Keir Starmer preparing to make a phone call to him with the help of David Lammy.

I’m an admirer of Jonathan’s writing but sorry I think this is a cowardly piece. Many excellent points are made, many groups are rightly called out for their Jew-hate or complicitness, but GB News get mentioned twice, because they fulfilled their remit and platformed a far left voice (which isn’t mentioned, implying this came from the right). Anecdotal this may be, and of course people would come up and say this me, but at school, events, shul, nearly every Jew I meet says they only watch GB News now because it’s the only channel that doesn’t go out of its way to gaslight and lie about Israel and Jews. To repeatedly highlight the channel, as though it’s part of why Jews are being attacked, is just total bullshit. To do it in the context of the years of lies about Israel and Jews from his own organisation, even with the slight dig at the most recent disgusting Guardian article, is almost comical. But the main problem I have, is how on earth is it possible to write hundreds of words on the recent avalanche of attacks on Jews in the diaspora, calling out everyone under the sun supposedly responsible, and yet NOT ONCE mention Islam/Islamists/Islamic extremists?! It’s cowardice, it’s a deliberate muddying of reality, and I’m fucking sick of it.

NEW: Keir Starmer continues his blitz of calls with world leaders with a call to Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides. PM said Cyprus’ security was of utmost importance & reiterated that RAF Akrotiri would not be involved in the UK’s agreement with the US to use UK bases"

I’m an admirer of Jonathan’s writing but sorry I think this is a cowardly piece. Many excellent points are made, many groups are rightly called out for their Jew-hate or complicitness, but GB News get mentioned twice, because they fulfilled their remit and platformed a far left voice (which isn’t mentioned, implying this came from the right). Anecdotal this may be, and of course people would come up and say this me, but at school, events, shul, nearly every Jew I meet says they only watch GB News now because it’s the only channel that doesn’t go out of its way to gaslight and lie about Israel and Jews. To repeatedly highlight the channel, as though it’s part of why Jews are being attacked, is just total bullshit. To do it in the context of the years of lies about Israel and Jews from his own organisation, even with the slight dig at the most recent disgusting Guardian article, is almost comical. But the main problem I have, is how on earth is it possible to write hundreds of words on the recent avalanche of attacks on Jews in the diaspora, calling out everyone under the sun supposedly responsible, and yet NOT ONCE mention Islam/Islamists/Islamic extremists?! It’s cowardice, it’s a deliberate muddying of reality, and I’m fucking sick of it.

The removal of historical figures such as Winston Churchill from English banknotes may appear trivial to some. But it isn’t. It matters far more than many people realise. Because what we are witnessing is not an isolated decision about banknote design. It is part of something much larger: a slow but relentless erosion of our national culture, identity, and collective memory. As Professor Frank Furedi has observed, we are living through what he calls “the War Against the Past.” Across the Western world, an assortment of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion bureaucrats, radical activists, and increasingly compliant public institutions are engaged in a cultural project that seeks to delegitimise our national histories and strip away the symbols that once anchored our collective identity and memory. The pattern is now familiar. Statues are toppled. Historical figures are reframed as morally suspect or “divisive”. Public institutions rename buildings, spaces, Tube lines. School and university reading lists are “decolonised”. The past itself is rewritten to emphasise only its sins while ignoring its achievements. Even the quiet symbolism of everyday life — the images on our currency, the names of our streets, the monuments in our squares — is steadily edited and sanitised. What replaces these symbols is rarely anything meaningful. Instead of historically significant figures who helped shape the nation, we are offered neutral, universal imagery that stands for almost nothing at all — landscapes, wildlife, abstractions. On the surface this seems harmless. But symbolism matters. For centuries, historical figures served as cultural signposts, reminders of the history, struggles and achievements that shaped the nation and its people. Remove those signposts, and something subtle but important begins to change. The past becomes distant. Then contested. And then disposable. Gradually, the story of a nation — its triumphs, failures, and defining moments — is hollowed out. In its place emerges a new idea of national identity that is deliberately thin: one that defines Britain not through its history or traditions but through the abstract celebration of diversity itself. In other words, the only thing that is meant to define us is that we have no defining identity at all. The endpoint of this cultural project is not inclusion but historical amnesia, or cultural erasure. A society that is detached from its past, uncertain of its traditions, and unsure of what binds it together. This is what Sir Roger Scruton meant when he wrote: “A society that loses its memory loses its identity.” And that loss happens gradually, through thousands of seemingly small decisions — a statue removed here, a curriculum altered there, a historical figure quietly replaced on a banknote. Each individual change may appear insignificant. But taken together they represent something far more profound: the slow disconnection of a people from their own history and collective memory. A people who no longer really know who “we” are. I doubt the bureaucrats who made this decision at the Bank of England fully grasp the cultural significance of what they are doing. But intention is not the point. The effect is what matters. When we remove the symbols of our past, we further weaken the very foundations of our identity. Or Orwell warned: “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” This is what is happening and accelerating around us. This is what Furedi meant by the “War Against Our Past”. And this is why it really matters. Not because of one banknote. But because of the much larger cultural story it represents.

Oh boy! What a headline... Ask yourself: "What am I being asked to believe?" "Who am I being told to blame?" Take a few seconds to imagine what the Daily Mail (And Telegraph, GB News and Express) WANT you to think is going on. Let's see what's ACTUALLY happening...🧵 1/21

Wisdom from Winston Churchill: “Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that any one who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The Statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”

There is a big risk to the Jewish community going on at the moment, bigger than the usual high risk. The government needs to proscribe the IRCG now.

The insanity of this app when it comes to Starmer criticism captured perfectly in this timeline placement.