Time to speak out

"Conservative-run Wandsworth council in south London has started eviction proceedings against a woman whose son appeared in court charged in connectiin with the riots in Clapham Junction" was the story that caught my eye in this morning's 'Guardian'. Well maybe the SS did have a case for wiping out Lidice in reprisal for Reinhard Heydrich's assassination and if we are to accept this nonsense we are at least one more stop down the road to giving the Israelis the green light for their illegal  collective punishment of Palestinians.


However, wait a minute, if the Israelis can argue that Article 53 , of the Geneva Convention, which forbids house demolition as a collective punishment, does not apply to the Occupied Territories, there is certainly no law that is going to restrain our modern day Mongolian hoards, the "Tory tartars". With rushed justice obviously going to imply rough justice, with there being no indication that the dismantling of the Welfare State is going to be interrupted, with our freedom of speech threatened as Cameron promises a crackdown on social networks and with collective punishment already being applied, there is something seriously rotten in 'Blighty'.

Nevertheless, life does indeed go on and today it is back to "panem et circenses", the Premiership starts, with only the Tottenham game being postponed, "ego" is sitting supping his coffee in Eccleshall Road and up and down the country they are following the "experts" analysing the crisis. Tomorrow, the riots will be yesterday's news. However, call me a worrier but Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller's words have a strange relevance:

"First they came for the communists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

It is time to speak out but, let's finish that cup of coffee first and, hey, the Premiership starts this afternoon. Although, with the Spurs game being called off there is some hope and in North London at least they might sense that all is not normal.