Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The British Dads Are Coming!

From The Telegraph, this shocking report:

Dad’s ArmyGordon Brown wants tens of thousands of Britons to join a new Dads’ Army-style volunteer force to help the Government tackle threats to national security.

Pinch me, I’m dreaming! Has Brown been reading our emails from disgruntled Brits?

The new force, called a new Civil Protection Network, will be based on the local Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to see “improved resilience against emergencies” from floods to terrorist attacks.

This would take “not the old Cold War idea of civil defence but a new form of civil protection”.

Or perhaps the PM has noticed the flood of emigrants leaving for a safer haven than the UK can provide? Or maybe he looked at the plummeting numbers of concerned citizens who give him a favorable rating for his efforts so far? There are a lot of angry voters, Mr. Brown.

The Prime Minister also said ministers will also publish an annual risk register of the top threats facing Britain, from the Al Qaeda terror threat to flooding and cyber crime.

Two steps forward, one step back: the supposed greatest risk right now is…ta da…the flu.

People will be asked later this year if they want to join up to help defend Britain’s security and then be given training in how to deal with a number of threats.

Whitehall officials played down suggestions that the new force will be a new British Home Guard or ‘Dads’ Army’...
- - - - - - - - -
Heh. The Baron told me the context of the reference to “Dad’s Army” and he sang the theme song for me. While rushing around between meetings, he said, “It was a typical mid-’60s British TV comedy, making fun of a pompous old guy -- a veteran of the Great War -- who ran his little battalion of Home Guard people in WW2 as if it were a real military unit.”

But that’s what is needed now, even if Brown won’t actually let the words past his teeth. The Baron sang the theme song for me:

Who do you think you’re kidding, Mr Hitler,
If you think we’re on the run?
We are the boys who will stop your little game,
We are the boys who will make you think again.

‘Cos who do you think you’re kidding Mr Hitler,
If you think old England’s done?
Mr Brown goes off to town
On the 8:21,
But he comes home each evening
And he’s ready with his gun.

So watch out Mr Hitler,
You’ve met your match in us,
If you think you’ll push us.
We’re afraid you’ve missed the bus.

‘Cos who do you think you’re kidding Mr Hitler,
If you think old England’s done?


Oops…guns are not politically correct anymore. Maybe people will get some training in krav maga? If you look at the picture on the link, it’s obvious that krav maga is not limited by age. If not that, perhaps cudgels walking sticks for those long patrols? While he says there will be no “uniforms or badges” I don’t doubt that some kind of attire will emerge from this, even if it’s only orange safety vests, visible at night.

[…]

In a Commons statement, Mr Brown said: “The primary duty of Government - our abiding obligation - is, and always will be, the safety of all British people and the protection of the British national interest.”

Mr Brown told MPs that the security situation in the UK had changed since the old threats of the Cold War and Irish republican terrorism.

Now, the consequences of regional instability, terrorism, climate change, poverty, mass immigration and organised crime “reverberate quickly around the globe”.

He said the size of the Security Services will rise to 4,000 - twice that of 2001 - and announced an extra 10 per cent funding rise for the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre.

Mr Brown also said the Intelligence and Security Committee will be subject to enhanced scrutiny and greater transparency.

Four regional counter-terrorism units and four regional intelligence units will also “significantly increase” police anti-terror capabilities across the country.

I think this will counter some of the harm done by the impersonalization brought on by the EU’s “Lisbon Treaty.” And it will be a great stimulus to the cohesion of local communities.

Maybe Brown has finally realized that it is indeed "the primary duty of Government" to keep its people safe. In fact, if the UK doesn’t take care of its own, it will die waiting for help from Brussels.

In the Telegraph's story there is a link to a pdf booklet, The National Security Strategy of the United Kingdom:Security in an interdependent world. You can get the details if you click on their link.

16 comments:

the doctor said...

Wow , does this mean that I get to use some of that lovely ammunition that I have been polishing for years . Don't panic , just point me in the direction of our local terrorist cell .

Dymphna said...

memo to the doctor:

You didn't read that pdf. You're going to be fighting the flu, currently the biggest danger.

I think Brown thinks this is a good appeasement, busy work program. But he may be creating a Frankenstein's monster that will eat him up and spit him out in the form of a viable, sturdy, conservative party.

From my keyboard to God's eyes...

Ansar al-Zindiqi said...

If a new Dad's Army is formed then the government will probably stock it with a set minimum percentage of Muslims. Then a "sensitivity training" regimen will be included in which members will have to listen to hours of droning speeches by Muslim preachers and scholars expounding "diversity" and whatnot. The Muslim members will get separate facilities starting with requests for special prayer rooms and then to halal rations in a slow, steady encroachment policy. Of course, they won't call it that and keep on complaining about being "oppressed". Ain't multiculturalism great?

ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ said...

Jolly good! "...even if it’s only orange safety vests". Will I be able to donate the orange vest that is only trotted out each St. Patrick's day? With the scheduled ending of the flu season in a few weeks may we expect a redoubled effort to impose additional carbon taxes to fight global warming er I mean climate change?

Charlemagne said...

O/T - way O/T.

I've been watching a program on NBC for years called Law and Order, Americans will all know it, and it used to be quite good but in the last two years it has morphed into an overt Left wing propaganda tool. It is so transparently biased it can no longer be taken seriously.

Tonight's episode is about a young boy who killed his mother by stoning her.

Before the son was arrested the coroner made a comment about Iranian mullahs and stoning and the Captain, S. Epatha Merkerson, made the comment "there is stone throwing in the bible too". Now that the boy has been arrested he is being portrayed as an extreme religious nut saying his mother deserved to die because she was an adulterer. God made him do it.
Now there is a group of kids in a camp who are "Gods Christian warriors" The adult leader is asking them how many are willing to die for Christ. Ah - the leader just called Muslims infidels on a video tape.
The DA just said after viewing a tape of the leader preaching to the kids "My God, its a camp for fanatics."

Law and Order - bashing Christianity and apologizing for Islam - no better champion of moral relativism

Law and Order is famous for putting a twist on real crime stories but they've clearly gone too far.

Last week they busted a ring of people fighting dogs, reminiscent of the Michael Vick case. For those that don't know Mr. Vick is a black football player. In the L&E episode the dog fighters were a bunch of rich white men.

NBC has become a tool for PC nonsense and Conservative bashing.

spackle said...

Charlemagne--

I totally agree. Although I would say it has always been quite PC but has gotten quite worse. I played a heroin addict in an episode about five years ago. And I can tell you from personal experience that my fellow actors and crew members were so liberal I couldn't stand it anymore and I had to speak my piece. Bad decision. I was immediately persona non grata and never worked on L & O again. Coincidence? I think not.

Tuan Jim said...

I did enjoy catching a rerun of L&O: CI last week about "Irish" dowry underage marriages and honor killings. These "ripped from the headlines" stories are generally pretty easy to match up if you know any current events, but you're right, they're getting a little more ridiculous from time to time - although IMO the DA is still squared away.

Joanne said...

I just think your PM wants to be in control of any group that chooses to stand up for themselves.

davod said...

"This would take “not the old Cold War idea of civil defence but a new form of civil protection”."

Brown must not think much of the education system if he trots out such gibberish.

Don't forget that radical terrorism is now anti-islamic acts.

It won't be long before they trot out a PC version of that perrenial favorite - Running Dog Imperialist Baby Killers.

Ray Boyd said...

Dad's Army? No so stupid. Out of the real "Home Guard" as it was called sprang Churchill's secret army. Selected people were siphoned off from the Home Guard and were trained in guerrilla warfare to fight the Germans should they have invaded. It was very secret and information has only come out in the last 10 years.

Take the modern context. All like minded men (infidels) should join, network and make a secret but unofficial sub group ready for what might happen (civil war) in the future. There would not be a better way to galvanise people to join. Heck, just as a means of planting the seed of an anti Jihadist movement it would be worth it.

See my posting:

England 2018: Civil War II

nikolai said...

It's PR. There's local elections in May and I think there's going to be some big shocks--they're panicking and making some kind of announcement related to immigration every week.

Dymphna said...

charlemagne and spackle -

It's not way OT at all...this is a recurring problem, of which Law and Order is but one example.

We don't have a TV but when the Baron travels he makes a point of looking for old episodes. He agrees that it's become ultra-p.c. and likes the old episodes better.

Can you imagine the libel cases if they targetted Muslims instead of fringe Christianity?

Ray Boyd cites some history to back up the idea that something good will come of it. I hope he's right...could be the dads end up taking the reins from the Government.

OTOH, nikolai has a point about the current panic in Labour. Again, though, I think the dads -- and other concerned citizens --will decide the final outcome. It may not be easy to get the war dogs back into the kennel if you open the door. Not with the level of dissatisfaction I hear about.

so, Spackle, you were a martyr for the cause?

spackle said...

Dymphna--

In a manner of speaking, yes. It was one of the reasons I quit "the biz". I was constantly getting into arguments on sets and in the theatre. Not to mention making a living as an actor is next to impossible. It is an unfortunate situation. I love being around creative people but they are almost ALL very PC.

the doctor said...

Dymphna , I did read the post but decided upon a little joke . I am actually already on an operations group planing to deal with pandemic flu , when it arrives . I wonder if our planing will survive first contact with the flu ?

mikej said...

I didn't read the PDF either, but I did search it for the phrase "Civil Protection Network." Didn't find it. I'm not sure what these guys are going to do. I don't know what good a neighborhood watch would do. Assuming that Britain's police forces are like America's, calling the cops for any offense less than murder is a waste of time.

Ironically, some American states have laws that say something like, "A peace officer or any other person [emphasis mine], may, without a warrant, arrest an offender when the offense is committed in his presence or within his view, if the offense is one classed as a felony or as an offense against the public peace." (Article 14.01, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure) Of course, any citizen who acts under this law is automatically labelled a vigilante.

laine said...

It's not just Law and Order but the entire Dick Wolf franchise (Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent) that has become blatant in its leftism.

Any time you see a Muslim near the beginning of any L and O show, he's there as a red herring because the real villain is always some white Christian, (as a bonus, it's an Iraq War vet) and the "lesson" is that the wonderful Muslim was unfairly racially profiled.

As was pointed out in an above comment, when real life crimes are plagiarized for the show, then the perpetrator is usually changed from black or Muslim to white.

Wolf is supposed to be smart, yet has his black female police character mutter about stoning in the Bible too as a rejoinder to suspicion of a Muslim crime. There's the equivalency of a mush brain: routine stoning in 2008 in Muslim countries vs stoning over two thousand years ago by Christians. Oh, and surprise! It IS a crime by a youth indoctrinated by a Christian fanatic, completely fictional of course. Meanwhile, Palestinians actually strap on tiny replicas of suicide bomb vests and AK47's onto their toddlers and Muslim fathers stab their daughters and throw them off balconies in the West, but that doesn't get a mention.

Just wait for the case of the student driving an SUV into a crowd of other students. The injured crowd will be Muslim and the driver yet another crazed Christian in Wolf's bizarro Alice Through the Looking Glass where everything is the opposite to real life.