Ruritania persists

It's that time of the year again when the issues to be presented to Parliament in the next session are announced and what a weird and anachronistic way to do it. One of the less attractive features of the British is our pathological need to ritualise tradition and today's State Opening of Parliament is a brilliant example of this. A wonderfully over-the-top gothic pantomime of epic Hollywood proportions. The King and Queen (gawd bless 'em) process in state from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in a glittering coach, flanked by ranks of the Household Cavalry. In an elaborate ceremony with all the Crown Jewels on display, the King reads out a list of government bills from the throne in the House of Lords - note that it's not from the elected chamber. Only the British could still be doing this sort of thing in the 21st century! Either us or some tin-pot dictator with galloping delusions of grandeur!

It’s a colourful ceremony of seemingly ancient rituals (but they are not as old as you might think) where all the symbols and offices of the constitution come together under one roof. The Lords gather in their ermine robes and the Commons are summoned to attend in a famous door-slamming ritual played out by Black Rod ((by tradition, the monarch cannot enter the Commons). It is amazing how little things have changed in parliament over the last two centuries! It’s a grand pageant set in elaborate 17th century costumes of wigs, breeches, tights and ruffs. Pure high camp drama. The Crown, the Cap of Maintenance (the what?!), the Dutch Cap of Prevention, the Cruel Cap of Benefits (I'm sorry, I made the last two up. I just couldn't help myself) and the Sword of State make an appearance along with officials with extravagant titles like Garter King of Arms and, a particular favourite of mine, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant! The camp splendour of the royal procession through Parliament is quite a sight. The uniforms, gowns, robes and the Crown jewels themselves are spectacular but way over the top. More Ruritanian pantomime than serious government procedure.

The King finally takes his place on the Throne (titter, titter) in the House of Lords and the Commons file into the chamber. The Labourites looking smug, the Tories despondent and, I'm glad to see, most newbie MPs appearing suitably bewildered by the occasion. The speech (and it's not any old speech, it's the Gracious Speech and is read from a goat-skin vellum scroll**) is a turgid list of Government business and legislation, prefaced with a regal, “My government will…”. It’s dull and no one pretends otherwise - despite the fact that what's on this year's menu is potentially inflammatory.  As soon as the speech is complete, the King and his entourage process all the way back again (no, not backwards - sadly they spoil things by turning around) and the politicians get down to the serious business of making soundbites and point scoring - sorry, I meant to say the serious business of debating.

The one thing you can’t help noticing is how undemocratic the whole thing is. Only a third of those in attendance, the House of Commons, is elected by we plebs. The rest are hereditary or appointed. Within the ceremony, the Commons are conspicuously the least prominent. During the speech MPs (our representatives, remember we just voted them in) crowd in at the back of the room -rather like naughty school children, it's always struck me. Of course, it could be argued that any ceremony that makes politicians stand at the back must be a good thing!

However, there is one element that is totally missing from all of the above. The people. Any government presentation outlining upcoming intentions and priorities should, in the modern world (Hey - it's 2024 already or maybe Black Rod and Rouge Dragon Pursuivant haven't noticed?), be aimed at us, the electorate. Strip away the constitutional flummery and you’re left with a governing party stating what it’s going to do in the upcoming parliament. That’s important, and it should be presented to the people in a clear, unambiguous way. It's weird that a day of such high politics should start with such an archaic royal ritual. How long is all of this going to last. Will we see a radical overhaul at the end of the current reign ? Will a forward looking King Charles scale it down or abolish it all together? Probably not.

OK, so it’s a bit of harmless constitutional glitter that pomp and pageantry junkies (and tourists) love. But does it really add any value to government in the 21st century? Would we not be better off with a State of the Union style speech to parliament and people by the Prime Minister? Isn't that what a representational democracy demands? Isn't that what the electorate deserve?

** I was being a little economical with the truth here. It is not on vellum anymore. It is on "goatskin parchment paper" but, confusingly, it's not actually made from goatskin. However it is very high quality, thick paper, which is why the ink takes several days to dry, and it then needs to be bound into a booklet, before being sent on to His Majesty for signing.

Wimbledon. It might only be a fortnight but it seems a lot longer.

Confession time. I'm not a tennis fan and Wimbledon Fortnight is not an event that features at all on my social calendar. It passes me by as a minor inconvenience. But, that doesn't stop me having an opinion on why Wimbledon isn't for me. Here's what I don't like about it.

The crowd 
Wimbledon is often the only sporting event that most of them ever attend, unless you include Celebrity Come Dancing. As a result, they think they're at a show, and have no idea how to behave. They shriek in the middle of a rally, and burst out laughing when a player lunges for a volley and impales themselves on the umpire's chair. Reminded by the umpire that they're supposed to be quiet during play, they applaud in a quite-right-too kind of way, as if it was someone else doing all the shrieking. Ask them the name of the current Australian women's singles champion and they wouldn't have a clue. That's because they aren't tennis fans at all - they're Wimbledon fans and that's a different thing entirely. They are there for the event and not the sport. I bet, in another life, some would have joined the tricoteuse and laughed as they knitted.

The crowd's bizarre nationalism 
Spectators often paint their faces with national flags, somehow suggesting the players are there on behalf of a nation. The problem is that these are professional tennis players: they spend their time wandering the globe in a hermetic bubble, moving from one identical event to the next, racking up the money and seemingly speaking American, regardless of their nationality. The last thing they think they're doing is representing their country. Tennis players represent only themselves - they're up there with golfers, Formula One drivers and footballers in the self-absorbed egomaniac stakes.

The entourages 
For the tennis player, the crowd is useful only when it gives them an advantage during important points. The rest of the time, it might as well not exist. Notice how players turn after every point only to their coterie of chums in their ever-present entourage for approval: this consists, at least, of their trainer, hitting coach, psychotic parent, and partner. They exchange speaking looks and secret hand signals, and mouth the word "focus". (Tennis players are the most focused human beings on the planet. They're so focused it's impossible to take a photograph of them that's blurred.)

The masochism 
The Wimbledon crowd don't care that the players ignore them and their love is unrequited - because in love, as in so many ways, they live to suffer. They sleep outside for days for the chance sit on tiny wooden seats with their knees pressed against the person in front, or to watch something on a jumbo screen that's taking place for real 30 foot away. They buy strawberries and cream at a slightly higher price-per-kilo than thallium. Heaven forbid, they even clap and sing along to Cliff Richard during rain breaks.

The tabloids 
For the tabloids, the tournament is no more than an extended opportunity for seedy journos to pass judgement on the looks of young women. True to form, last year one tabloid's website had its array of "Wimbledon Winners and Mingers". Qualification for the 'Winners' category was seemingly based on whether or not the photographer could get a nipple shot - or, even better, one of someone shoving a ball into the pocket in their knickers in such a way that they exposed a buttock. (Presumably tabloid editors still fantasize over the bum-scratching Athena tennis player poster.)

The BBC coverage
Convinced, as ever, that they know what the country wants in spite of all evidence to the contrary, the BBC insist of giving Wimbledon blanket coverage. They've got this wrong. 

The BBC's recruitment policy 
Further good news for useless British tennis players lies with current BBC recruitment policy. If any plucky Brit manages to win a match, there's a good chance they'll land a spot on the commentary team the following year. The BBC being a committed equal opportunities employer, it offers plum commentary contracts to retired sports stars regardless of the fact that they have the screen presence of a roll of lino and an inability to speak in polysyllables.

The BBC expert summarisers 
The TV audience gets to listen to former hapless losers magically transformed into experts by the simple device of not playing. They'll happily analyse the serves of players and discuss the intense psychological demands of big-match, high-pressure moments with John McEnroe and Boris Becker. And all based on a couple of matches that they'd considered at the time to be nothing more than an extended application for a coaching professional's job on the Costa Brava.

The moaning about players
In a staid, still mostly middle-class sport where wearing slightly longer shorts or a back-to-front baseball cap imbues you with wild-and-crazy rebel status, and where children take up the sport for the sole aim of retiring as multi-millionaires at 25, they moan about the lack of personalities in the game. Yet all it takes is for one player to swear in a moment of stress, and the BBC Complaints Department telephone glows so hot you could use it to cut your way into a bank vault.

The moaning about the tennis 
I find it odd that, despite their professed love of the game, nobody's ever happy with the style of tennis played: if a tournament is won by baseline hitters, it's boring, with never-ending rallies; if it's dominated by those who serve well, the game's being reduced to a serving competition with no rallies or artistry.

The on-court interviews
Anyone else feel like these on-court interviews after a match are really forced and awkward? Why, oh, why are players forced to endure such embarrassment? It's a contractual obligation, that's why, and they get paid for it. But, be still my beating heart, maybe Djokovic is starting a new trend with his recent outburst (that's a bit strong, actually) against a booing crowd.

What goes around, comes around

There's no little irony in David Cameron insisting that the Tories take their time over the leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak. He is clearly worried that a rushed succession would open the door to the far-right of the Tory party to bamboozle Tory members into backing a radical and undefined future for the party, while he thinks that a longer contest would allow time for more sensible old-school conservative voices to win the argument.

It's such a shame he didn't apply the same caution when he decided to gamble the entire future of the country in an unbelievably rushed six week Brexit referendum campaign back in 2016.

He was perfectly willing to rush a decision over the future of the country, despite the obvious danger of the right-wing lunatics on the Tory benches using it to set a radical and undefined process in motion.

But now, when it comes to the future of his beloved Tory party, he's suddenly urging caution and careful consideration!

Could you ask for a clearer demonstration of someone caring more about the future of their political party than the future of the country than that?  And that has been a problem with too many politicians in the past. Let's hope we see a change of focus with the new regime.

All good things come to an end

Say what you want about the last 14 years, but one thing  can all agree on is, that since I've been blogging about the Tories, no party could have asked for a better propagandist than me. If there has been one success story from the dark ages of Tory rule, my supportive blog is unquestionably it. I’m now watching people quietly leave without so much as a goodbye or a thank you for your service, Deri. As you can imagine, I’m hurting right now. When you’ve invested so much time and effort into telling the most embarrassing lies for them, blog after blog, it’s hard when the ride finally comes to an end

Coming to terms with the loss of Liz was one thing. You can imagine my reaction when it wasn’t just Liz, it was Therese too. Yes, our greatest ever Environment Secretary was also taken out by tofu-eating… anti… bollocks, I can’t even remember the stupid names she gave voters she didn't like! What matters is the cigar-smoking former bouncer has been one of the most vibrant MPs since she crawled out of a swamp near a nuclear plant, glowing like radium and leaving a glistening trail of slime. She is going to be one hell of a loss. Among Therese’s greatest achievements in a stellar political career were murdering the river Lim, flooding homes with untreated sewage, refusing to impose fines on negligent water companies, blaming seagull poop when dead sea creatures washed ashore in Suffolk, and declaring war on Greenpeace. Therese sensibly did away with anything that got in the way of corporate profits, such as public beaches and drinkable water, and she solved the Brexit food crisis by telling everyone to eat turnips. I don’t think we’ve ever had a more creative problem solver. Losing Therese was a crushing blow, but thankfully, someone saw sense and made her a dame, and not for being absolutely bloody useless either. At least I don’t think that was the reason. Presumably it was for services to algae overgrowth or something, but whatever the reason, going forward, this woman will be known as Dame Therese Coffey. I’m sure you will agree no one has ever deserved a damehood more.

Obviously, you’re feeling emotional so I’m not sure I should go on, but someone has to break this to you, it wasn’t just Liz and Therese, it was Rees-Mogg too. Poor Jacob is roosting in his crypt, feeling sorry for himself because he’s never known humiliation like it, and he’s lived for over 300 years. I just don’t understand why the public didn’t vote for him. He’s always clean shaven and meticulously dressed, despite having no reflection, and he wears a monocle to prove he’s better than you. Why isn’t that enough?

Jacob did so much for ordinary people and never got any thanks. He courageously fought to end working from home for the sake of the neediest members of society - corporate landlords. He was once given the job of finding the benefits of Brexit because they weren’t as obvious as the bus had suggested. During this highly-productive period, he spent seven months doing absolutely nothing, apart from fighting a war on woke and losing his mind when the word “fat” was changed to “enormous” in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Few have contributed to society like Jacob.

At this point, you are surely a sobbing mess so I probably shouldn’t tell you Michael Fabricant lost his seat and it caused ructions in his family. I’m told his hairpiece has already crawled away and filed for divorce.

Even worse, Gillian Keegan, who once cried her party didn’t “get enough credit for doing a f****g good job”, somehow lost to a Liberal Democrat. This just keeps getting more humiliating, doesn’t it?

Grant Shapps is another giant we’ve lost, but he wants to hide from the press so he’s changing his name back to Michael Green and returning to making dodgy websites. Michael will threaten to sue anyone who brings up his embarrassing past, so please let him forget being a Tory.

Penny Mordaunt is another goner, even though she crowned our beloved king after Liz Truss murdered his mother. Penny will best be remembered for wearing a dress with the Poundland logo while putting a sword on Charles’ shoulder and resisting the urge to swing. Every government needs a woman with this level of restraint. If Angela Rayner was in that position, she would swing that sword and take that crown. We are entering truly dangerous times.

Dozens of Tory legends lost their seats, but I’m going to leave it there for now because you can only cope with so much trauma in one night. Just know that if you need a shoulder to cry on, I won’t be there for you because I’m offering my blogging services to Sir Keir Starmer at a discounted rate. I have absolutely no shame.

The Reform Vulture is circling Sunak

It’s obvious now who is going to win this Westminster general election and it's really just a matter of "by how many seats?". Despite the excited touting of some wildly outlying polls by GB News, Farage’s vanity company calling itself a party, Reform Ltd, probably won’t actually win enough seats to form the official opposition to the Labour juggernaut. But it is likely to make that all important psychological breakthrough of getting Farage, and possibly a handful of his acolytes, elected to Westminster for the first time.

I find the rise of the far right in this election real and concerning. A poll by pollsters BMG published this week put the Tories and Reform both on 19%, with Labour on 42%. This would give Starmer a majority of over 300 seats, the Tories would be reduced to just 53 seats and Reform would win 5. However we are getting close to the crossover point where the first-past-the-post system, which penalises the smaller parties, would start to allow Farage to pile up seats.

Farage has his eyes set on a larger prize, the attention seeking narcissist is not just trying to get into parliament in order to lead a tiny band of extreme right wing eccentrics on the opposition benches. With polls predicting the worst Conservative defeat in the modern democratic era, Farage intends to swoop down on the corpse of the Tory party and devour it. You’ve heard of vulture capitalism, this is vulture politics. Farage wants to transform the cadaver of the Tory party into an authoritarian hard right xenophobic anti-immigrant party led by himself.

Farage is thinking about the election after this one, betting on disillusionment with the Labour administration setting in. He could then be in a position to get the first-past-the-post system work to benefit him and, in that election, we could see a nakedly far right authoritarian English nationalist party led by Farage contend as the party of the next government. It’s quite possible that Farage’s position will improve even further by polling day in two weeks as he gurns his way through the media and the Tories continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

The Tory campaign has been a disaster, and continues to implode. It was already going poorly when Sunak decided it was a good idea to bugger off early from the D-Day commemorations in order to do an interview for ITV. One which will be remembered solely for the multimillionaire ex-public schoolboy’s ham fisted attempt to make out that he understands the deprivations of the poor and low waged in this cost of living crisis, his government bears much of the responsibility for, because his parents wouldn’t get Sky TV when he was a child.

The Tory campaign has been notable for the reluctance of cabinet ministers and big names to come out and defend the government, not least because most of those who have not stood down are eyeing up their chances of leading the party after Sunak’s inevitable resignation. It’s maybe just as well, however, as those who can be persuaded to crawl out of the woodwork do more harm than good. Who i their right minds in Conservative campaign HQ thought it was a good idea to send Michael Gove out onto breakfast TV on Thursday to tell viewers that he thought it was still possible that the Tories could win on 4th July. Cocaine does make you wildly over confident, but even Gove knows, deep down in that shrivelled block of ice he calls his heart, that no one is buying his snake oil any more.

Chris Skidmore, the Conservatives’ former net zero tsar and Minister for Universities under Theresa May, has defected to Labour, writing in the Guardian that he’ll be voting for Starmer’s party on 4th July because Sunak has been “siding with climate deniers” to politicise the energy transition.

It got worse for Sunak during the BBCQT leaders' questions. He got tetchy. He was dying on his arse as the audience shouted “shame, shame on you” when he talked about leaving the ECHR. An awful, out of touch man. Both him and his corrupt party will be decimated in two weeks time and he knows it. He looked lost and beaten.

Meanwhile at CCHQ, Tony Lee, the Tory campaign director, was forced to take a leave of absence after allegations were made that either he and/or his wife Laura Saunders, the Conservative candidate for Bristol North West, allegedly placed a bet relating to the timing of the General Election.

Saunders becomes the second (but certainly not the last - there will be others) Tory candidate to be accused of using inside knowledge of the date of the Election to make a quick buck. Tory MP Craig Williams, a senior aide to the Prime Minister, who is standing for re-election as the MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr in Mid Wales, also reportedly bet £100 on the date of the Election just before it was called. Williams has admitted to placing the bet, calling it an error of judgement, saying: “I put a flutter on the General Election some weeks ago. This has resulted in some routine inquiries and I confirm I will fully co-operate with these. I don’t want it to be a distraction from the campaign. I should have thought through how it looks.”

It’s Partygate all over again at CCHQ but with betting instead of booze. It’s likely that the reason Sunak hasn’t taken decisive action over Laura Saunders, Craig Williams and Tony Lee (both Saunders and Williams are still Tory candidates), is because a whole raft of staff at CCHQ also placed bets for a giggle, and now they are all cacking themselves. The Tories have finally found a hill that they can die on, but no one expected it to be William Hill.

Gove popped up again on the evening news to say the behaviour of Saunders, Lee, and the others was “unacceptable” adding, “people shouldn’t be using privileged inside information in this way.” Is that what he told Michael Mone?

The Tories are in freefall and Vulture Farage is waiting at the bottom of the electoral cliff to feast on their battered remains. Look beyond July 4th and be concerned at what he might do. It could end in tears for all of us.

Let's not get too excited ..............yet!

It’s all over bar the weeping and wailing and gnashing of Tory teeth – Rishi Sunak can afford to go to a private dentist and has never needed to worry about the struggles involved in getting registered with an NHS dentist. So, as he ruminates upon the magnitude of the well deserved electoral humiliation which awaits his miserable party, he can gnash his teeth to his heart’s content without having to worry about losing a filing.

On last Wednesday evening, Sky News hosted a debate between Sunak and Starmer. Well, it was billed as a debate but the two leading proponents of centre-right Anglo-British nationalism did not actually debate one another, rather they were each individually questioned by host, Beth Rigby, before taking questions from the audience in the auditorium of the town hall in Grimsby. A town in which almost 70% of the population voted to leave the EU, so you knew that neither Tweedledee nor Tweedledum was going to be asked hard questions about the immense damage that Brexit is causing to the British economy.

Sunak had previously given us a cringeworthy moment during an interview broadcast earlier on ITV - the interview that he’d buggered off early from the D-Day commemorations to get to. As it turned out, the interview merely compounded his D-Day woes, as he began it by apologising for showing up a bit late, claiming that the D-Day events had overrun. The interview contained just one moment of note, the multimillionaire Sunak’s bid to get himself some relatability by telling us that he had to do without Sky TV when he was a kid. Such deprivation! Opinions are divided over whether this was because, as Sunak would have us believe, his parents were scrimping and saving in order to send him to an expensive private school, or because middle class social climbers in the late 1980s and early 1990s thought that having a big satellite dish bolted to the side of your house merely advertised how common you were.

This interview is what he left the D-Day ceremonies early for and the reason he’s so apologetic about that now is because he realises how little it was worth it.

But then it was on to the more usual political embarrassment. Sunak at times appeared genuinely lost and crestfallen as he was grilled on his failure to fulfil the five pledges that he’d told us to judge him by. You’d almost feel sorry for him if he wasn’t such a lying entitled shyster. He was genuinely discomfited as he was booed by the studio audience after he blamed striking junior doctors for the lengthening waiting lists in the NHS. Sunak had pretty much mentally checked out by this point, wishing he was sipping a Mexican Coca Cola on a private executive jet en route to his luxury beachfront apartment in Malibu.

Starmer, unfortunately, came across as his usual glib and evasive self, stammering a bit when asked by an audience member why he was such a political robot - must have been a glitch in his programming at this point. He gave a singularly unconvincing non answer when asked why he’d wanted Jeremy Corbyn to be Prime Minister in 2019. Beth Rigby asked him: “You said, ‘I do think Jeremy Corbyn would make a great prime minister’, did you mean that?” But all that weasel words Starmer would say in reply was : “I was certain that we would lose the 2019 election.” Perhaps, that would be in no small measure due to the fact that Starmer and his allies on the right of the Labour party were doing their utmost to undermine Corbyn from within.

It wasn’t that Starmer did well in the debate but that Sunak did appallingly. In that respect the programme encapsulated the general election campaign in miniature. The post debate poll found that 64% thought Starmer did best while 36% opted for Sunak, proving only that 36% of people are idiots. There’s no love or enthusiasm for Starmer’s Tory-lite Labour party, but the actual Tories are just so hideously appalling that everyone except that 36% are actively repelled by them. And even many of that 36% won’t vote for them.

The Tories know the game is up. Earlier this week the Minister for multiple personalities, Grant Shapps, warned of the danger of allowing Starmer to win a supermajority. That’s not the sort of thing that a man who is convinced his party is going to do well would say.

Meanwhile The Guardian reports that the Tory campaign on the ground is descending into disarray with a chronic lack of staff and volunteers and a rising sense of panic even in seats which were once considered so safe that the party had never had to campaign to keep them.The original Tory strategy was the so called 80:20 approach, mounting a spirited defence in their 80 most marginal seats while trying to win the 20 most marginal seats held by other parties. But this strategy has disappeared as Tory MPs struggle for political survival. One party official told The Guardian: “The 80:20 plan no longer exists, if it ever did. We are diverting resources to safer and safer seats. People in seats which have been Conservative forever are basically shitting themselves. There is no strategy – it’s pretty much disarray.”  Hooray for that.

The Nasty Party is Back. Did it ever go away?

The Tories have a well deserved reputation as the Nasty Party and so far in this general election campaign, as they stare at electoral devastation, they appear to have decided that the reason they are so unpopular is because they are not being unpleasant and out of touch enough. The Conservatives are the political equivalent of that bullying boy at school who courted popularity by throwing stones at a kitten.

It has come to light that the Tories had continued to accept substantial donations from Frank Hester, even after it became public knowledge that Hester had made remarks about Diane Abbott which were widely condemned as racist and misogynistic. Hester had said that seeing Abbott, Britain’s longest-standing black MP, on TV made “you want to hate all black women,” and called for her to be shot.

The Conservatives refused to return the £10 million that Hester had donated to the party with one cabinet minister claiming the comments were made half a decade ago while Michael Gove said that Hester deserved “Christian forgiveness.” It has now transpired that the real reason Gove was so keen to offer Hester “Christian forgiveness” was because his party was still proffering the collection plate and Hester had given the Tories a further £150,000 after the story of Hester’s misogynistic and racist comments about Abbott had been made public. It was confirmed this week that Hester had given a further £5 million to the Tories bringing his total donations to more than £15 million in a year. New allegations have been made that Hester has made repeated comments about race, religion and ethnicity long after the remarks he made about Diane Abbott, including in recent years. Speaking to The Guardian, two former employees of his described him talking about an individual at a hotel in 2021 and saying she was attractive for a black woman. That the Conservatives continued to take more money from Frank Hester even after his racist comments about Diane Abbott came to light, tells you everything you need to know about the lack of principles of the nasty party. Money before everything else.

With an opinion poll this week showing that Nigel Farage’s vanity vehicle, Reform, is snapping at the Tories’ heels and is polling just 2% behind them, the Tories are looking at the very real prospect of meltdown. The Nasty Party really is in a nasty panic. Hooray.

However, that shabby story was quickly eclipsed by the shabby story that Sunak had buggered off early from the D-Day commemorations in Normandy. Buggered off early in order to do an election interview with ITV that won’t even air until Wednesday next week. So Foreign Secretary David Cameron ended up in the world leader photos and video footage where Sunak should have been. Every normal person understood it was a day for statesmanship not politics, but not Sunak.

Much of the Tory party and the right wing media were incandescent with rage. Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie slammed Sunak saying: “I think it’s political malpractice of the highest order. It’s just not dignified. It’s not the right thing to do at a fundamental level.” And that’s a Tory saying that. Even the Daily Mail laid into Sunak. Farage will be rubbing his hands with glee, Sunak has just ensured yet more former Tory voters will desert him for Farage’s Reform party.

Sunak issued an apology saying that “on reflection” it was a mistake to leave early. But if the Prime Minister and his team managed to work out today that leaving the D-Day commemorations early was a mistake, why couldn’t they work it out yesterday? Sunak wants 18 year olds to do a year of National Service but couldn’t even manage one afternoon of National Service himself. The Tory party has shot itself in the foot big time. This is Sunak’s “bigoted woman” moment. The Tories are beginning to realise that the man who lost to Liz Truss isn’t the brilliant campaigner they thought him to be.

Sunak and his miserable party deserve electoral obliteration. I just wish that Starmer could whip up a bit more energy and convince people that it really won't be a tragedy if he replaces Sunak. 

D-Day: what happened next?

June 6th 1944 is a very important date but it was not an end in itself. The D-Day Landings were the bloody prelude to Operation Overlord and the Battle for Normandy. Following my last post about my dad's involvement with D-Day (here), several readers have asked me "what did he do next?" To answer the question, I'll repost something I wrote in 2019.

Recently, the BBC have commemorated the 80th Anniversary of D-Day with a series of three programmes entitled ' D-Day: the Unheard Tapes'. These gave, via the use of cleverly lip synched actors, hitherto unpublished recordings of those who had fought on D-Day. Two of these were from RM 41 Commando, the same unit as my dad. Perhaps he knew them? We'll never know. But, through their recollections, dad's experiences on June 6th, and thereafter, were given life. Respect and pride.

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As a prelude to our holiday with the family in Brittany, Mrs P and I had a week in Normandy. One of the reasons for this was to visit the D-Day Beaches and to see some of the places that my dad, Marine Derrick Parsons, 41 Royal Marine Commando, encountered on June 6th 1944 and the days thereafter.

His unit, 41 Royal Marine Commando, was part of the 4th Special Service Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division and landed at Sword Beach, which was the invasion beach furthest to the east of the five involved. It is located between Hermanville and Lion-sur-Mer and, when we visited, it looked like a beach on any seaside resort. The expanse and flatness of all the beaches in this region gives an immediate clue as to why they were deemed suitable for an invasion from the sea. Wouldn't the present day holiday-makers have a shock if hundreds of landing craft suddenly landed?

The following extract from the 41 Commando unit war diary describes what happened as the real landing crafts approached the beaches. As is typical of these journals, the descriptions are matter-of-fact and understated.

0825 - Coastline now perfectly visible and Troop Commanders were able to identify their beach from previous study of low obliques during the briefing.  The beach appeared a bit of a shambles.  It was littered with dead and wounded and burnt out tanks and with Flails flailing through wire and mines, Bulldozers clearing gaps etc.  The beach was quite obviously still under fire as mortar bombs and shells were crashing down fairly plentifully.  It appeared however that Red Beach was getting a better share of this fire than White.
0830 - Shells started falling around the craft and several near hits were reaching ships damaging ramps etc. on some craft but caused no casualties to personnel.

0840 - Due to land.

0845 - Touch down about 200 yards out to sea on Red Beach with our proper Beach, White, 300 yds. away on our left.  Whilst still coming in, Lieut. Colonel Gray had foreseen this and did his best to get the craft to slew right on to the proper beach which was in fact drawing less fire than Red.  In the general confusion, however, his efforts were unsuccessful.  'P' Troop commanded by Captain B.J.B Sloley with a nucleus Advance H.Q. moved swiftly across to White Beach and within about 5 minutes were off the beach almost complete.  Within another 5 minutes a section of A. Troop with Captain C.N.P. Powell, DSO, Troop Commander had followed.  Lieut.Colonel Gray then decided to move this body up to the first lateral and to find a more suitable spot for assembly.

0920 - P. and A. Troops halted at road junction 080809 and waited there for the remainder of the Commando.

0940 - By this time a dozen men of 'X' Troop had joined up and reported that their Troop Commander Captain H.E. Stratford, M.C. had been wounded on landing and that they had also lost about 25 men killed and wounded, on the beach.  'Y' Troop reported that the 2 i/c Major D.L. Barclay had been killed and that the Signal Officer Lieut. A.G. Aldis M.M. was a casualty.  Lieut. Colonel Gray then decided to push on with the troops he had collected and P. Troop followed by Y. Troop and A. started to move into LION. 

The road junction 080809 mentioned above no longer exists in its original form and is now the site of a memorial to 41 Commando.

The memorial itself takes the form of a large sundial with the time the marines landed on the beach marked by the location of a plaque on the dial. I've chosen the above IR image from the many I took because the weeds are not so obvious! Sadly, it had a rather neglected look. Time for the locals to get their act together and spend an afternoon with their trowels.

The inscription on the plaque reads:

6 Juin 1944

MONUMENT DE LA LIBERTE
ERIGE A LA MEMOIRE DU
41 ROYAL MARINES COMMANDO
QUE A DEBARQUE SUR NOTRE
PLAGE S L'HEURE INDIQUEE PAR
L'EMPLACEMENT DE CETTE PIERRE
SUR LE CADRAN SOLAIRE AU SOL

Which translates to:

June 6, 1944

MONUMENT OF FREEDOM
IN MEMORY OF
41 ROYAL MARINE COMMANDO
WHO LANDED ON OUR
BEACH TIME INDICATED BY
THE LOCATION OF THIS STONE
ON THE GROUND SUNDIAL

It also gives the Roll of Honour of those commandos who died during the landing and the subsequent engagements with the enemy. There was considerable close ranging fighting as they moved through the streets.

LIBERATION OF LION-SUR-MER 6TH-7TH JUNE 1944 41 ROYAL MARINE COMMANDO Roll of Honour
Major D.L. Barclay	Marine W.Dabbs
Capt. P.T. Howes-Dufton	Marine A.R.H. Drew
Capt. P.C. Dixon R.A.	Marine J. Egan
Lieut. A.G. Aldis M.M.	Marine C.L. Hunter
Lieut. J.C. Pearson	Marine J.G. Jackson
RSM E.J. Belcher B.E.M.	Marine J.H. Parkinson
Sgt R. Fielding	Marine R. Poultney
Sgt A.U. Hey	Marine F.A. Reynolds
Sgt F.W. Pryor M.M.	Marine E. Spence
Cpl E. Johnson	Marine H.T.W.B Swindale
Cpl J.W. Peat	Marine P.J.W. Trolley
Cpl H. Spawforth	Marine E.C. Welham
Cpl F.G. Wiehtman Bde. Sigs.	Marine E.G. White
L/Cpl J.McNeill	Marine W. Jackson
Marine REC. Brown	Marine J.A. Smith

Dad never said much about his experiences during and after the landing but, to some of us, he did mention that he lost several of his friends, one in particular (why, oh why, didn't we ask him questions when he was alive? What was the name of his best friend who was killed alongside him?) the exact details of which I'll pass over. However, they will be listed above. As many of them are buried in the nearby war cemetery in Hermanville, we went there to pay our respects.

The Hermanville cemetery contains 1,003 Second World War burials, 103 of which are unidentified. The majority of those buried here died on 6th June or during the first days of the drive towards Caen. As with all cemeteries looked after by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Hermanville exudes an air of respect and quiet dignity. It is an organisation that I rate highly.

Six of the marines named on the 41 Commando Roll of Honour are buried in Hermanville. I found it sobering to think that an inch or two either way or a minute or two sooner or later, my dad could have lain with them. Hence no me and no-one to make this small pilgrimage to remember his comrades. The details of each I've taken directly from their entries in the CWGC Register. Dad's service number started with PO/X because he had first enlisted at Portsmouth. Perhaps those below with PO/X numbers had been with him from the start?

BROWN, ROBERT REGINALD CYRIL
Service Number CH/X 100561
Died 06/06/1944

Aged 24
No. 41 R.M. Commando. Royal Marines
Son of William Charles Horatio and Annie Elizbeth Brown, of Tottenham, Middlesex; husband of Violet Brown (nee Field).

DABBS, WILLIAM

Service Number PLY/X 102644
Died 06/06/1944
Aged 23
No. 41 R.M. Commando. Royal Marines
Son of George Dabbs, and of Nellie Dabbs. of Harden, Staffordshire.

EGAN, JOHN

Service Number PLY/X103476
Died 07/06/1944
Aged 24
No. 41 R.M. Commando. Royal Marines
Son of John and Norah Egan; nephew of Margaret Shanahan, of Miltown, Malbay, Co. Clare, Irish Republic.

POULTNEY, RONALD

Service Number PLY/X104049
Died 06/06/1944
Aged 22
No. 41 R.M. Commando. Royal Marines
Son of Thomas and Esther Elizabeth Poultney, of Leek, Staffordshire.

REYNOLDS, FREDRICK ARTHUR

Service Number PO/X 120294
Died 06/06/1944
Aged 19
No. 41 R.M. Commando. Royal Marines
Son of Thomas Henry and Elizabeth Jane Reynolds, of Westminster, London.

TROLLEY, PHILIP JOHN WESTON 
Service Number PO/X 121657
Died 06/06/1944
Aged 18
No.41 R.M. Commando. Royal Marines
Son of Edmund Weston Trolley and Vera Annie Trolley, of Banbury,

WHITE, ERNEST GEORGE

Service Number CH/X115681
Died 06/06/1944
Aged 22
No. 41 R.M. Commando. Royal Marines
Son of Henry and Louise E. White, of Canning Town, Essex.

*********************

During the days following the landing, 41 Commando were actively engaged with and involved in the continuing push-back of the German forces and the consolidation of the territorial gains made. In the process Lion-sur-Mer, Duc-sur-Mer and Hermanville were all liberated. On the 16th and 17th June, they were a key part of the action that became known as The Battle of Douvres Radar Station. This radar station was an extremely important communication hub for the Germans and was very well defended, mainly by Luftwaffe ground forces. The attack itself was preceded by an artillery bombardment and supported by mine-clearing and anti-bunker tanks of 79th Armoured Division. 

At 5:40 pm on the 17th, the 160 men of 41 Commando rushed the bombarded positions and soon after swept over the outer defences. Not long after that, they entered the casemates, tunnels and bunkers, opening fire and they found many shocked and dazed Germans. Having lost nearly all their strong points, for the Germans it was clear that the station could no longer be defended. With their protective concrete breached, they surrendered. The assault was similarly successful on the small station on the northern site that was found to contain thirty eight Germans but almost immediately they also gave up; like the others they had been dazed, shocked and exhausted by the heavy bombardment.
41 Commando had suffered six casualties, including one killed, in the engagement. The relevant extract from the War Diary is given below.

The radar site at Douvres-la-Délivrande is now home to a museum. This is the main bunker which housed the main living quarters for the Germans. It was weird walking around this placing thinking that my father might stood in exactly the same spot, but with a smoking gun in his hand rather than a camera.

16th June 1944

Harass each station.  Commander 1 Corps orders an attack to be put in on both station on the following day.  For this purpose 5th Assault Squadron R.E. and the 22nd Dragoons were attached to the Commando.  The plan for the attack was devised as follows - 3 teams of flails should go forward to the main wire under cover of an artillery barrage lasting 1/2 hr. and should make 3 gaps through the wire and minefields at the following points 006803, 007802, 010801.  The gaps having been made, the Avres were to move through inside the wire covered by fire from the flails and engage any targets presented.  After 10 minutes they were to lay smoke and lay hand placed charges on those targets unsuitable for their Petards.  The Commando was then to follow in with 'B' Tp. on the right through 006803, 'P' Tp. through the centre 007802, 'X' Tp. through 010801 and to mop up, 'Y' was to be held in reserve.  A similar and smaller team of flails and Avres was to make a breach in the Northern Station at about 005811 and 'A' Tp. to follow in.  Zero hour was fixed for 1700 hrs. on the 17th.

17th June 1944

1400 - 'A' Tp. moves to FUP area orchard 003815.  B. X. and Y. to Douvre with FUPs in orchards facing the Radar Station in square 0180.

1630 - Barrage commences intense.

1700 - Flails commence clearing minefields.

1720 - Avres move up and into Radar Station.  Avres suffer two casualties (in tanks) and one flail.  According to plan, yet a little behind time, troops go in at about 1740.  By this time the enemy had been dazed, shocked or frightened into surrender and came out in large numbers with their hands up.  The assault was similarly successful on the small station which was found to contain 38 Germans.  The bag in all was 5 Officers and 222 O.Rs.  'A' Tp. suffered the only casualty, 1 man wounded.  In all 44 tanks had taken part in the assault, all was over by 1830 hrs.  Our troops withdrew to the positions previously occupied in the wood.

The main receiver at Douvres-la-Délivrande and the object of the battle.

One of the primary objectives for the main body of forces landing at Sword Beach was Caen to the south. However, 41 Commando and others were deployed eastwards (X on the map above) to both penetrate further into France and also to secure crossings over the Seine. After traversing the nearby Orne (location of the famous Pegasus Bridge at Ranville, which was captured overnight on the 5th/6th June), 41 Commando fought/worked their way through the following towns and villages: Sallenelles, Amfreville/Hauger, Troarn, Goustranville, St Richer, Putot-en-Auge, St LegerevDuboq, Dozule, Pont l'Eveque, thence to St Maclou and Barentin in the region of the Seine. Their journey after that took them northwards through France to the Ostend area. I'd like to say that, for dad, the fighting had stopped but the worse was to come with his involvement in the Battle of Walcheren in November 1944. I'll describe his experiences there closer to the 75th Anniversary of that engagement. Nothing quite like ending a post on a cliff-hanger!

Once a marine, always a marine. Dad in his dress uniform. I think this was taken before all of the events described above.

Hold on to your hats: Nige is back in town

Nigel Farage is the herpes of British politics - annoying, nasty, and impossible to get rid of. After saying for weeks that he wouldn’t be contesting the General Election for his Reform Party vanity vehicle, and that Reform would not be doing any deals with the Tories, Farage announced on Monday morning that he and his mini-me Richard Tice would be appearing at 4 pm for an “emergency General Election announcement”: the emergency presumably being that apart from his mates in the panel booking team for BBC Question Time, he’s not been getting the attention that his massive ego and sense of entitlement feel he deserves. 

Reform, the successor to UKIP (remember them?), is a party that has caused more damage to the UK than any other. It’s a party that has never won a parliamentary seat. Following May’s local elections in England It has just 10 councillors in England, and none at all in Wales or Scotland. Even our own Cornish devolutionist party, Mebyon Kernow, has five councillors. Yet Reform gets more coverage than many parties with greater support and sitting MPs. Its extreme anti-immigration scaremongering is regularly platformed by the BBC and the other broadcasters. Naturally his announcement was headline news on the BBC. Last week Farage insisted that he still has “one more big card to play” and said that he’d stand for Westminster at some point in the future but ruled out standing this year claiming that he was “extremely disappointed by Sunak’s decision to call a General Election on July 4th. Farage said that he could not campaign both nationally for Reform and for one constituency in the six-week time frame of the General Election.

Of course what has changed since last week is that Nige’s best pal, Donald Trump, has been convicted in a New York court on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. Farage had planned to spend October and November campaigning in the USA on behalf of an actual law breaking fascist, but following his multiple convictions, Trump’s chances of taking the presidency again have felon considerably. Trump is predictably railing against the verdict claiming that the trial was “rigged” because the justice system had the temerity to prosecute him and find him guilty. What is the world coming to when you can’t even falsify business records in an attempt to swing an election any more, because of “woke”?

Farage recently received well deserved condemnation for saying during an interview on Sky News that the streets of British cities are full of people who “undermine British values”. Remarks which were widely perceived as not so much a racist dog whistle as a racist fog horn. How dare some people be Muslim in public? The truth is that nobody has done more to undermine “British values” than Nigel Farage. Mind you, when you think about it, imperialism, racism, and the demonisation of minority groups are very much long established British political traditions.

The “emergency announcement” turned out to be Big Nige telling the press that he is taking over as leader of Reform and intends to fail to become an MP for the eighth time. Which was disappointingly predictable as I had kind of hoped that he was going to tell us that he was going to appear on Strictly. But that would have led to him being judged by a black woman and an EU immigrant and that would never do for a Reform leader. So it transpires that Farage is standing as a candidate in this election after all, and this is an “emergency”? For whom exactly? 

The news is dire for the Tories, whose already tiny chances of saving their miserable behinds in this election have now plummeted even further. For all that Farage boasted about taking votes from Labour, it’s the Tories who will be seriously damaged by this development. The Tory vote will now be split in seats which they really need to win if they are to avoid their well deserved electoral oblivion. The Tories will now pivot even further to the right in an attempt to shore up their vote and minimise losses to Farage.  

And wither Labour? If we’ve learned one thing about Keir Starmer in recent years, it’s that where the Tories go, he is sure to follow. British politics are becoming ever more right wing, ever more Anglo-British nationalist, and less and less tolerant of difference and minority groups.

On this day in 1944................

 ........ my father went on a trip to Sword Beach in Normandy with some of his friends in the Royal Marine Commandos. He was 20 years old at the time. A proud and poignant time for all in his family as the 81st Anniversary of the D-Day Landings is remembered.

 Marine Derrick Ernest Parsons (Service number PO/x 109149) 

Aerial view of Sword Beach

RM Commandos coming ashore

The berets of the RM Commandos in the thick of it.

My dad's green beret and his medals from the various WW2 campaigns he was involved in. That on the right is the Operation Overlord Medal issued to those who were involved in D-Day by the town of Caen on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the liberation of France.

And in May 2025, the beret returned to Sword Beach, along with the medals and the next three generations, who, if things had gone differently for dad, might not have been born.