2 (33) WORLD NEWS.

THE MAYHEM IN PARIS. 

Murderous, quasi-religious zealots. 

I had started on a post about the eighties when the headlines from Paris came through. Memories of Thatcher, race riots, picket strikes and the transfer of the utility services to privatisation, faded into insignificance when faced with the news that murderous, quasi-religious, zealots had butchered and maimed over two hundred innocent civilians in the French capital. 

Clearly the lunatics had broken out of the asylum again. 

There is little I can opine that has not been better expressed by informed minds in the media. In i this week there was an excellent article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown expressing, with regret, her belief that we shall need more state surveillance in Britain.* 

There was also thoughtful input on the mayhem in Paris from i regulars Ian Burrell, Stefano Hatfield, Simon Kelner (below) and Matthew Norman. 

Kelner's View (Thursday Nov. 19th), headed Glorious night for football – just forget about the game, was particularly pertinent. Whilst lauding the “great dignity and wholeheartedness” with which English football fans showed their empathy with the French people at Wembley last Tuesday (“ ...it is at times like this that we see how powerful, emotionally connective, and – yes – relevant sport can be”), Simon Kelner saw it as just a one-off. It would not “turn us into more thoughtful, compassionate people,” nor would it “encourage us to put national interest aside for the greater good.” And it would not stop “England supporters screaming abuse at French players should the two nations meet in proper competition next year.” He concluded that we must celebrate this welcome “outbreak of humanity” for now and added: “I just wouldn't read too much into it.” Too right, mate. 

My apologies to Mr. Kelner and i for so cheekily quoting his work in this amateur blog post and I promise him (the first editor of The Independent, no less) that it won't happen again. He did write what I was thinking better than I might have done, though, and I wouldn't credit that to many scribblers. 

Personal thoughts on the entire Middle Eastern conflagration are hard to portray. My sympathy for the kith and kin of those irrationally murdered in France and elsewhere by stupid born bastards calling themselves ISIL - or whatever - is matched only by my concern for the many innocent souls killed and injured in the (don't tell me it's not indiscriminate) bombing of locations in Syria and Iraq. 

What (I constantly find myself asking), in the name of all the oil in the ground, are we and the Americans and the French and any other nation outside of the Middle East, still poking our noses in there for, anyway? And is it worth hundreds of thousands of lives - maybe even WW3 - to get it? 

For chrissake, somebody, find a cheap alternative fuel for motor vehicles. Let's get out of this nightmare. 

*I think we are already the most photographed populace in the world, even when the powers-that-be no longer have the funds to keep all the cameras running. But who knows? Yasmin A-B could be right. 

Be back soon.