Is Britain Becoming "a fortress"? Being Built (by proxy) by Foreigners?

An over the top illustration? We know there are plenty of people who'll say precisely that. That's as may be. Every one's entitled to a personal opinion. Though we do have to wonder for how long.



Thanks to one of our regular readers, 'sweet old lady', we were pointed in the direction of this amazing/alarming article.

We believe that everyone should read it.

We don't doubt for a moment that readers will see this piece from entirely opposite perspectives, and indeed, isn't that exactly the kind of thing we mentioned at the outset? Every one's entitlement to personal opinions? And the freedom to voice said opinions?

Anyway, here's tasty teaser or two to tempt you into reading this article in it's entirety.

"Sensing opportunity as the war on terror grinds on, its neoconservative architects have swooped in from across the Atlantic to establish their presence in Britain. With ties to the arms industry and the neoconservative wing of the Israel lobby, the Henry Jackson Society seems to be assuming the role that the Committee on Present Danger played in the United States. Its Israel-centric worldview, as exhibited by its roster of speakers, predisposes it towards perpetual conflict. The support for a militarized ethnocracy is not the natural inclination of a liberal-democratic Britain; it can only be sustained in a context where Israel can be seen aligned with Britain in an overarching conflict against a common enemy."

(snip)

"Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue... Such fear-mongering, reinforced by security entrepreneurs, the mass media and the entertainment industry, generates its own momentum."

In Britain each of the New Labour government's political missteps has been accompanied by similar fear-mongering. While a terrorist threat does exist, its magnitude is wildly exaggerated. The European Police Office (Europol) released its first report on terrorism last year which listed 498 terrorist attacks for Europe in 2006; only one was attributed to Muslims. The majority - 136 - were carried out by the Basque separatist group ETA; only one of them deadly. When it came to the arrests on terrorism related charges, however, a good half were Muslims.

(snip)

From Beirut, an outraged Robert Fisk wrote:

"Stephenson's job is to frighten the British people, not to stop the crimes that are the real reason for the British to be frightened ...I'm all for arresting criminals...But I don't think Paul Stephenson is. I think he huffs and he puffs but I do not think he stands for law and order. He works for the Ministry of Fear which, by its very nature, is not interested in motives or injustice."

(snip)

On November 18, 1822, the Observer reported that nearly "a million
bushels of human and inhuman bones" had been imported in the previous year from Europe into the port of Hull. Battlefields swept alike of the "bones of the hero and the horse which he rode" delivered their haul to Yorkshire bone grinders who reduced them to granulary state. "In this condition they are sold to the farmers to manure their lands."[8] Two centuries on, the gap between the 'support our troops' rhetoric and reality has yet to be bridged.

An internal report into the state of the British Military obtained by The Independent on May 11 reveals that soldiers are living in such poverty that they can't even afford food, with many living on emergency food voucher schemes set up by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). "Commanders are attempting to tackle the problem through 'Hungry Soldier' schemes, under which destitute soldiers are given loans to enable them to eat" the paper reported

Read the rest of these remarkable writings right here.

Now, opine away. For the floor is all yours.

(Cross posted at 'appletree')