A three-hundred-year-old Sycamore tree was mindlessly felled under cover of darkness two night ago. Part of history, this tree flourished in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall in a valley which was subsequently named Sycamore Gap. Until yesterday, an iconic landmark – even captured on the silver screen in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves – people travelled from far and wide to see it; to be photographed beside it. Cherished by the locals, it was part of their heritage. Three hundred years old. What kind of person would butcher something of such beauty and significance? A sixteen-year-old boy, apparently.
Only the day before – Wednesday morning – Elianne Andam, a fifteen-year-old girl, was stabbed to death in Croydon. On a packed double-decker bus on her way to school, she had stepped forward to defend her friend during a heated argument with her seventeen-year-old ex-boyfriend. He pulled out a foot-long serrated zombie knife and stabbed her in the neck and chest. She died on the pavement minutes later. A mindless murder at the hands of a seventeen-year-old boy.
As the pus that spews from an infected abscess, so the manifestations of a sick, sick world continue to unfold …
Two nights ago, I just happened to turn over to Piers Morgan Uncensored on Talk TV, on which there was a debate on Trad Wives – short for traditional wives for those not concentrating. A new trend, a Trad Wife is a nod to the housewives of the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, women who stayed at home looking after their families. The Trad Wives of today, however, do not – as accused – fly in the face of feminism; rather, they embrace it by choosing to stay at home. Women’s Lib may have turned women out of their homes and into the workforce in the name of equality but at what cost? That coveted ‘freedom’ boiled down to little more than a job title and a bank balance, the latter day benchmarks of one’s value.
Choice is all-important in a world hellbent on removing personal autonomy. Just listening to Jeremy Vine today, one of the topics was public schools (private) apropos Keir ‘socialist’ Starmer’s proposal to add VAT to said fees should he, by default, gain office. Same old. Same old. Like poking a wasps’ nest, all about the rich versus the poor. Forget racism. In the end, it’s all about class … One caller (who does that, call in?) suggested that – let’s just call them fee-paying – fee-paying schools should be scrapped. What, and condemn every child to the modern-day left-wing indoctrination of the state system? Home-schooling could never be more attractive … Back to choice! It is the right of all parents to choose how and where their children are educated; to choose – in the case of many – to make sacrifices in order to pay for that education. Children should always come first. After all, they did not ask to be born.
My point? Choices have consequences, always, and, sadly – in my opinion – feminism heralded the end of family and community; wounds to society which echo to this day. No more mothers at home, there for their children; rather, chasing an identity in the workplace, a cloning lanyard round the neck, some are little more than an emergency contact in their children’s world of Breakfast, After-School and Holiday Clubs; a world in which Mummy isn’t there to pick you up if you’re feeling sick, nor can you stay at home because she has to go to work. That world is the scenery in the tragedy above: the murder of a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl, by a seventeen-year-old boy she knew, courtesy of a foot-long blade he just happened to be carrying. That world is the prologue to the mindless violence of a sixteen-year-old boy in felling a gift of nature which meant so much to so many. Little more than children, where was the stability and guidance they so obviously crave?
Laurence Fox has two sons to whom he is clearly devoted. They are his world and he is constantly fighting for a better one, for the freedoms they deserve; we, all, deserve. Born into an acting dynasty, he was educated at Harrow before graduating from RADA. Privileged, yes, but that is a fact and cannot be an accusation. Posh? Derogatory. Meant as an insult. Both are words with which he has been labelled, no more so than following his infamous Question Time appearance in January 2020. On the subject of Meghan Markle and racism, he dared to argue that Britain was the most tolerant and lovely country in Europe and the continued accusations of racism were becoming boring. Apparently, though, being ‘a white, privileged male’, denied him of the right to an opinion!
While, up until now, he had not really been on my radar, his subsequent reply alerted me to an educated man of courage and intelligence. Quite rightly, he pointed out that he cannot help what he is; he was born like this and, thus – in fact – to call him ‘a white, privileged male’ was, indeed, racist. Touché, Laurence! However, in this hideously woke world, two of Equity’s Minority Ethnic Committee – who took it upon themselves to represent the Committee without consultation – tweeted that it was ‘extremely disturbed’ that the actor had been given a platform ‘to berate and bully women of colour attempting to discuss issues of race and gender discrimination.’ The Committee did issue an apology to Laurence on Twitter but that sparked the resignation of members across the Board!
Dropped by his agent, his acting career forcibly fell by the wayside but he has since emerged as a political activist, founding the Reclaim Party in a bid to reclaim freedom, fairness and common sense. Who can argue with that? Well, he is, after all a white, privileged male! Unafraid to be heard, he is constantly fighting against the woke gender ideology being indoctrinated by schools into our children and, consequently, the sickness that is the increasingly ubiquitous Drag Queen Story Time! He is passionate about our right to freedom of speech and democracy. He is passionate about the individual and fairness. In short, born to another generation, he would have been an asset on the front line in 1914 – and, believe me, in this day and age, there are few men to whom I would/could afford such a compliment.
Intelligent, educated and extremely well-read, I looked forward to watching him on GB News where he had his own Friday evening slot – until this week, that is, and his comments about the journalist, Ava Evans, to Dan Wootton on Tuesday evening. On BBC Politics Live, the previous day, Ava Evans had belittled male suicide by suggesting that the appointment of a corresponding minister was biased against females. Once again, the equality card regardless of the facts. Laurence, suitably incensed, embarked on a rant of ridicule, on the face of it, personalising his attack. Do I condone what he said? No. However, to my mind, his words were not personal – my analysis further fuelled by the fact that Ms Evans is far from sore on the eye. Instead, he was merely doing what everyone else does to him: he categorized her – in her case, as a chip-ridden, left-wing feminist! His words were not literal nor without humour but offence is the bedrock of this woke world and she milked it – as did all those weak, little men just waiting under a rock for the chance to, collectively, attack this white, privileged man. All, so predictable. For Laurence Fox is way too intelligent for the little man and, thus, Jeremy Vine could see no further than his nose! I quote: Laurence Fox ‘sees this beautiful woman who’s way out of his league and he tries to take her down.’ In your simple mind, Jeremy! Glad you weren’t around in 1914!
‘Fools multiply when wise men are silent.’
Nelson Mandela
This is Trish, signing off – exhausted!
