Copyright newsletter
I was glad to see some young people in uniform. Although the educational establishment is unlikely to encourage it, many still enjoy the camaraderie in organisations like the cadets. I went home to watch the ceremony. The 10,000 or so British Legion veterans in the March Past, which included centenarians, were as moving as ever. Later in the day I was sent photographs of my godson and his trombone in his school cadet band. As I share the politics of his parents (one of whom, as a child, was on a refugee boat from Vietnam), they gleefully sent me a shots of Jeremy Corbyn and his chum Emily Thornberry. Both local MPs, they were doing their duty by attending the ceremony at the Islington Green War Memorial, where the Nigerian-born Mayor spoke of being deeply moved “to stand alongside residents of all backgrounds and generations as we honoured those who gave their lives for the freedoms we cherish”. Corbyn, that well-known sympathiser with the IRA, and Dame Emily, a human rights lawyer, are not known as enthusiastic supporters of British military traditions, so their presence made us snigger. But the following day, Tuesday, there wasn't much to laugh about. In an unprecedented and ferociously critical letter to The Times, nine generals and one air chief marshal accused the government of risking “weakening the moral foundations and operational effectiveness of the forces on which this nation depends”, with “the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill and the legal activism surrounding it”. It equated the forces of law and order “with those who bombed and murdered in pursuit of political ends”. That, they said coldly, “is not reconciliation; it is abdication of responsibility”. The bill had torn up the compact that if the armed forces “Acted within the law, under proper orders and in good faith, the nation would stand by them.” Having lost faith in the system, highly trained members of the armed forces including special forces were leaving. “Lawfare: the use of legal processes to fight political or ideological battles” was no longer just confined to Northern Ireland. “Every soldier deployed today must consider not only the enemy in front but the lawyer behind.” This is a grievous charge to level at a prime minister and an attorney general (Lord Hermer)) who have already shown themselves inherently hostile to the nation state and in thrall to the army of human rights lawyers — many naïve and some malignant — who are undermining western civil society. The top brass — who have been largely silent — are at last publicly articulating what the majority of responsible opinion knew instinctively. As General Sir Peter Wall, who was one of the signatories to the letter in The Times, wrote elsewhere in the press, “this cynical bill purports to treat all victims equitably but only does so at the expense of former soldiers who, to paraphrase George Orwell, stood ready to do the nation's violence so that others might sleep peacefully in their beds at night”. It is a trend that will leave us defenceless. I hope the furore disturbs the sleep of Starmer, Hermer, and Secretary of State Hilary Benn.
