A Tangled Web

Bearded Bigmouth



Wasn't Gerry Adams a vocal little terrorist during his recent foray to London? Let me remind you he was there as part of the European Social Forum - a gathering of eccentric political schizoids who believe it is far better to cower before a terrorist threat than actually seek to combat it.



So, what did the Sinn Fein chieftain and IRA Army Council member have to say for himself? Well, firstly, he launched into an analogous fulmination about the activities of 'the British Army in Ireland' (translated as UK soldiers patrolling the streets of a part of their own country) in comparison with their 'actions' in Iraq. Nowhere did Adams mention the well-practiced activities of the Jihadists - such as ritual torture and decapitation. Mind you, one filthy lousy terrorist is hardly going to condemn the actions of other filthy lousy terrorists. Solidarity among insurgents seems to be a key foundation principle.



'What the British establishment did to my country they will do here to you. This approach has already been seen with the miners and now the Muslim community.' Let's break this utter gibberish down into bite-sized pieces. First off, republicans don't own Northern Ireland (or any part thereof). The 'British establishment' spent years in behind-the-scenes negotiations trying to persuade the scumbags Adams praises on a daily basis to desist from murdering people. If one compares the statistics of deaths caused by State forces in comparison with those attributed to his fellow murderers in the Provisional movement, I hardly think he is in a position to catapult insults at others.



Secondly, being a Yorkshireman, I experienced the miners' strike at first hand. Although I think the treatment of the miners and their communities in general brought shame on Thatcher's record, I also believe the miners' cause was gravely damaged by the leadership of a self-confessed communist who manipulated the genuine grief of NUM members in order to pursue his own agenda of class warfare. In other words, the essential ingedient of pragmatism which could have come forth under another leader such as Joe Gormley, was sacrificed on the altar of rampant, self-indulgent struggle.



Thirdly, this neat republican propaganda trick about the infringement of minority rights obviously fits in well with classic concepts of 'victimhood', but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. If there are Muslims out there who do feel intimidated by surveillance, I suggest it is a consequence of not putting loyalty to their country ahead of their religious obsessions. During the height of the Troubles I argued that the Irish who were prepared to lend vocal or financial support to the IRA should be deported back to their own country. This principle applies equally to Muslims. In these circumstances, the fact that some of them were born here should not matter one jot. If they owe primary allegiance to the predominant religion of their ancestral homelands to the detriment of their adopted country's security, they should be kicked out of the UK and sent to live in those same homelands.