An article I recently read about the Falklands Campaign in 1982 prompted me to develop a theme that had been taking shape in my mind for a little while. When Argentina invaded the islands, I was an instructor flying Hawker Hunters at the RAF’s Tactical Weapons Unit (Top Gun School for the Hollywood-minded) at RAF Brawdy on the Pembrokeshire coast. Our base had no direct involvement in the war, but we did provide some training ‘opposition’ for the Harrier pilots of No 1(F) Squadron, simulating Argentine Skyhawks for them to combat prior to their departure for the South Atlantic. Having myself been an operational Harrier pilot in the 1970s I was listed among the former Harrier men who would be ‘refreshed’ to ensure a supply of replacement pilots in the event of a prolonged campaign. However, the Argentine forces surrendered, and hostilities ceased before I was needed.
In February 1933 a debate took place at the Oxford Union Society with the motion that ‘This House will Under No Circumstances Fight for its King and Country’. The motion was carried by 275 votes to 153 and it later became known as the Oxford Oath or Oxford Pledge. It is worth noting, however, that six years after the debate, 2,600 Oxford students did answer the call to arms.
What of today, as 2024 moves to its close? Would many fight and risk death, dismemberment and psychological trauma for King and Country? Would I, a former serving officer, do so? Leaving aside the fact that I am now well beyond military age, the question is a troublesome one. At the root of that lies the undeniable truth that the United Kingdom of 2024 is not the United Kingdom of 1970 which as a young man I pledged to serve. The past is another country.
It is often remarked that if the generations who fought in either or both world wars could have known the future of their country they would not have done so. To that we could add: If they could have known what the successive generations of post-war politicians would do to their children’s and grandchildren’s patrimony, they would not have voted Labour in 1945. That was when the rot set in, and the United Kingdom acquired a seemingly permanent left-wing establishment which has only been held in check during the brief interlude when Margaret Thatcher gripped the reins.
Look around our towns and cities today and you’ll see a largely scruffy people, minds numbed by social media and popular entertainment, seemingly demoralised, ill-disciplined and work-shy. Many are overweight or obese and would not pass a basic military fitness test. Admittedly, the crowds in the town centres don’t accurately reflect the population; fortunately, there are still many people who have better things to do than indulge in trashy retail therapy while grazing on junk food or slouching around in coffee shops.
Ask some of these people a few simple questions about the geography and history of our islands and they would not know the answers. Some because they don’t care but others simply because they were not taught in the first place. Consequently, they have no feeling for the land, the people and the stories that can be told.
Today the Union Jack and the Cross of St George are demonised as racist yet the same does not apply to the Crosses of St Andrew and St Patrick or Y Draig Goch in Wales. Our major institutions have been ‘marched through’ and have undergone a crisis of confidence. They must be ‘decolonised’, whatever that means, and our history must be rewritten to reflect what an awful people we are, with particular reference to the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism.
We are told we are a multi-cultural country now and that it is a natural, deserved consequence of our having been colonisers. We are a country in which all cultures are ‘celebrated’ except the dominant English one. It’s fine to be Scottish, or Welsh, or Irish but woe betide those who dare to wave publicly the Cross of St. George.
We must suffer in our Parliaments people who imagine they lead us who are of an abysmally low standard, selected for their willingness to toe a party line and follow instructions rather than the ability to think for themselves. There are exceptions but they are few. Most cannot tell you what a woman is, and some cannot do simple arithmetic, let alone understand any of the nuances of climate science. Many are willing acolytes of Klaus Schwab and puppets of the World Economic Forum, itching to ‘Build Back Better’ and ensnare us all in digital serfdom.
We live in a country which cannot, or will not, control its borders, which does not spend enough on its defence yet with forces which are a pale shadow of what they were just 40 years ago, postures in a war 1,600 miles away which is none of its business. Those same armed forces are increasingly seen as being not for the defence of the nation, but as a tool for the use of globalists as they play geopolitics.
We live in a country whose public institutions are infected by Common Purpose ‘alumni’. One in which white heterosexual men are ridiculed while Islamophilia abounds, feminism (aka man-hatred) is fêted and homosexuality promoted. One in which self-proclaimed transgenderism for adolescents is positively viewed and they can be subjected to irreversible hormone treatment and surgery. One in which the unborn are murdered on demand and involuntary euthanasia was practiced by a ‘caring’ NHS under the veil of a pseudo-pandemic. One in which standing while mentally praying has become a thought crime and articles such as this may soon be censored.
Lest we think that our Armed Forces, frequently cheered for their manning (and womanning) of the borders, fire engines and ambulances, are today paragons of anything, a cursory search of the headlines in recent years shows a lamentable fall from grace of too many in the senior commissioned ranks which undermines the moral integrity, authority and respect which is essential in the command structures. Some examples:
The drug and sex parties on board a Royal Navy nuclear deterrent submarine.
- The senior and junior officers on another nuclear armed submarine who were having an affair and who revealed top secret information about their vessel’s sailing in an email between them.
- Another Major General, a former Commanding Officer of the 77th brigade, who had an affair with a female officer under his command.
- The RAF’s illegal cessation of recruitment of white men. The Chief of the Air Staff condoned it.
- The RAF Air Marshal who thought it fine to parade naked in his garden and harass a neighbour while in his birthday suit.
The ‘toxic’ sex culture in the Red Arrows, the RAF’s public face, and the conduct of the Commanding Officer who after fathering children out of wedlock, married the mother but had an affair with a female corporal under his command whom he also impregnated.
And then there’s The King. The one who, while he has done much that is good, believes wholeheartedly in the climate fraud, helped to launch the Great Reset and who wishes to defend all faiths while turning a blind eye to the often criminal behaviour and backwardness incoming Islamists. The jury isn’t out. It hasn’t retired yet. It is still listening to the rapidly growing body of evidence.
And what about the people? If I spoke openly in public in this manner about a belief in a monocultural nation state and real conservative values, I would attract vilification and hatred from many of them, perhaps even the majority. Why would I even think of fighting for them? What self-respecting, working class, white, heterosexual male, the former backbone of the Armed Forces, would do so now? No. I would NOT fight for King and Country. And to those who would go to war with Russia I would say, ‘good luck with your recruitment plans’.
And yet there exists still another country. One of family, friendship, kith and kin. The country of ‘somewheres’ rather than ‘anywheres’, which was identified by David Goodhart. One of local social, sporting and business communities. One of the ‘we’ referred to by Sir Roger Scruton which newcomers are welcome to join so long as they are willing to fit in. One rooted in the landscapes of these islands for well over a thousand years. One whose people fought and died to create a nation of patriotic free men and women under the Common Law. That one is worth fighting for. First, though, we need to rediscover it and, in doing so, to rediscover ourselves - for the sake of our children and grandchildren.