The lowest of the low

I drove through Bristol City Centre a little earlier on. The Cenotaph, that great shrine to those who gave their lives so that we could be free, was surrounded by largely middle aged men drinking beer and cider. Apparently, Winston Churchill, who attended three private schools, including Harrow and then progressed to Sandhurst, was “one of our own”. I assume this is because of his role leading our country through World War Two and not his vision of a United States of Europe. I stand to be corrected, but almost certainly I won’t need to be.

Seeing the Cenotaph being used as a Thatcher’s Gold and Stella Artois dispenser seemed an odd way to protect it from absolutely no one, but then the whole point was not to protect it at all. Far be it for me to suggest the presence of an actual fascist in Britain First leader Paul Golding, wearing his ‘White Lives Matter’ T shirt, was more about having a pop at anti-racists, but why else would they be there? In London, it appears things are far worse.

#blacklivesmatter made an astute strategic move in calling off their rally today because of the threat faced by the far right. In the absence of BLM, it seems the friends of Stephen Yaxley Lennon and Paul Golding decided to attack the police. If BLM made a clever move, the heroes of the EDL probably didn’t.

But it was one photograph that appalled me more than anything else I have seen today. I’ve put it at the head of this blog post because it represents the lowest of the low. This man decided to relieve himself on the monument dedicated to the late PC Keith Palmer who was murdered by islamic fascists on Westminster Bridge in the terror attacks of 2017. Put very simply: he’s pissed all over the memory of a hero who was trying to save people’s lives. I have described him as a man, but if he is a real man he will own up to his disgraceful behaviour and apologise first to the family of PC Palmer and then hand himself into the police to enable them to establish whether a crime has been committed.

What will it take to end this madness on our streets? The killing of George Floyd has really started something and the longer it goes on the less I understand what it is. We’re about to enter the mother of economic recession which will throw many millions onto the dole with the near certainty of a no deal exit from the EU transition arrangements at the end of the year. And wasn’t there something else? Oh yes: COVID-19, because of which a further 181 people have died in the last 24 hours.

I blogged yesterday that I fear we will end up in a period of serious social disorder, possibly sooner than we might expect. People are angry and people are scared. It’s an unhealthy combination and in the absence of proper leadership from the top I see nothing positive coming down the tracks.