1977, aged 7, I experienced my first ‘bomb’ in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.
Us kids had our hospital beds wheeled into the corridor as our room windows came through, from a car-bomb in the carpark. It became almost a weekly thing for a while (I was there for a year or so).
Like many of my generation, I grew up knowing almost daily carnage across Northern Ireland. Wondering why people wanted to cause such hurt, but ultimately hating those who do. You never get used to carnage, you never fail to be moved by the sadness, even the bravery of some in the aftermath.
I had hoped, when we swallowed so much to bring about peace, that it was ended. Some still rattle their ‘terror sabres’, but can’t return to it. Now we’ve sampled peace in Northern Ireland, we’ve found no appetite for anything else.
Oh no, we’ve not even paused for breath, before we invited in a whole new problem, a whole new terror. It seems we are, once again, to see regular carnage on the streets of the UK.
Mr Sadiq Khan, current Mayor of London, says we should get used to it. He reckons terror is now a part of our lives, like it has ever been anything else for some of us.
I have some questions for Mr Khan:
- Why should we have to accept what we already know is wrong, from past experience?
- Why should we accept death, destruction & chaos?
- Who decides thresholds? How many dead are we expected to accept?
- Who benefits from the ‘cover up’ approach to the problem in our midst, from the appeasement of those who wish us harm?
We know what this problem is, we know from where it comes. We know who spreads the hate & we know who gives sanctuary to the psychopaths who perpetrate such atrocities. We know who supports it. We know who excuses it. We know who whitewashes it, we can even hazard a fair guess as to their reasons for doing so. We know how they are recruited. We know who by. We know who funds such people. We know how they access and share information.
So, given all we know, is there not a case for acting this time? Do we need another generation who know daily carnage & destruction, who know nothing but hate? Do we have to accept that violent death is a part of our life? Do we have to teach it to our children?
I get that nobody wants to offend anyone, but I have to admit, I’m terribly offended every time I see a child murdered in the UK (or anywhere else). Perhaps feelings don’t actually trump dead bodies?
I know we are a civilised nation, so we try to virtue-signal and to show we don’t stoop to ‘their level’. I often wonder though, is that approach wrong? Surely we identify the problem, deal with it and be damned? If a few feelings are trampled over, in the pursuit of saving even one UK childs life, then surely it’s a price worth paying?
Our ‘solidarity’ approach, our hashtags on Twitter, our procession of weary political statements, are ultimately useless. At some stage we must address the problem, offence must be a price those who threaten us have to pay.
- We need to ban hate mosques.
- We need to ban those who fund them.
- We need to properly vet those who enter our country, even those seeking sanctuary here.
- We need to deport all foreign jihadis. If they’re killed wherever deported to, then tough.
- We need to kick all returning UK ‘fighters’ who ran off to Syria, back to Syria. They lose their right to become citizens of our nation when they lose their humanity & join ISIS.
- We need to stop foreign funding of all religious institutions, particularly from the likes of Saudi Barbaria & their Wahhabi death cult followers.
- We need to allow a milder, more moderate flavour of Islam to flourish in the muslim communities we have invited here. This means removing the Wahhabi/Salafi cancer they are blighted with in their daily lives. Do not be fooled, the average muslim kid in the UK is being left between a rock and a hard place as far as their religious upbringing is concerned, certainly in some areas.
- We need to promote integration, demand it really. Those who want to live in the UK, but live as they do in a foreign land, need to reconsider their location.
- We need to stop virtue-signalling & punishing those who speak out. Appeasement never combats murder, it merely courts more. Discussion should be free and frank.
- We need to stop pandering to the extremists ‘faith’. When your ‘faith’ is used as an excuse to kill UK kids, you can shove that ‘faith’ where the sun doesn’t shine. We don’t want it.
- We do, however, need to stop hating on all muslims, for the actions of a radicalised few. Yes, it is a few, no matter what you hear otherwise. Perhaps consider that UK muslims are also being let down by our inability to act against the cancer they are exposed to.
A nation can only properly call itself a nation, when citizen safety is THE priority. Our nation is not something we can be proud of, if it permits the killing of some of our kids, merely to protect those who plot against us.
The time has come. It’s a straight choice between ‘offence’ and ‘carnage’.
Carnage offends me.
This post was originally published by the author on his personal blog: http://ukrants.co.uk/carnage-manchester-must-last/