Forgetting Remembrance?

This year’s Act of Remembrance was overshadowed by multiple protests taking place across London and the rest of the country. When a recent Ipsos poll shows that only one third of young Britons know what Remembrance Day commemorates, is the sacrifice of our forebears at risk of being forgotten? We spend the first half of our episode trying to make some sense out of events in London over the weekend. On Sunday, an interesting article appeared in the Daily Mail. Written anonymously by a serving member of the Metropolitan Police, it seems to confirm much of what has been said about endemic bias in UK policing. As the author says, “put simply, senior officers are terrified of being accused of racism if they fully enforce the law against pro-Palestinian protesters”. Indeed, Colonel Bob Stewart MP’s conviction for a hate crime a couple of weeks ago demonstrates just how haphazard and unpredictable the enforcement of hate speech law has become. As Fraser Myers, commenting on the case in Spiked, says, “what constitutes a ‘hate crime’ is determined not by any objective criteria, but by the sensitivities and political biases of those working for the state”. Any listeners wanting to contribute to Colonel Stewart’s crowdfunder can do so here. We end our episode with a discussion on Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s recent conversion to Christianity, reported in Unherd. She has been on a fascinating journey from Islam, to atheism, to Christianity; a reminder, perhaps, of how the hearts and minds of those protesting on our streets will only be captured by alternative narratives capable of slaking our deeper thirst for meaning.