Lest we forget...

And definitely not forgetting these two patriots:

So who does the Conservative Home Secretary Amber Rudd choose to target on this of all days?

The headline atop her article in today's dead-tree edition of the Telegraph read: "Toxic hate of far-Right must not be allowed to hijack the poppy". 

¿Qué pasa? How does this line of attack make political sense? Which group of potential Tory voters is Ms Rudd appealing to here? Because of the abject uselessness of the Tory Party leadership, this country faces the distinct possibility of falling into the hands of a far-Left clique which despises Britain - its people, its history, its culture and its values - and whose leaders have revealed on numerous occasions. by word and deed, a contempt bordering on hatred for Britain's military, and their support for those who are engaged in direct conflict with British troops. This should nauseate any right-thinking person. The current Labour leadership's disgraceful record of undermining this country's armed forces at every turn should represent an open goal for any Tory politician, especially  on Remembrance Sunday, should they choose to sully this most solemn of days by indulging in cheap party politics. 

I'm no fan of any of the neo-Nazi/fascist groups Amber Rudd cites in her article: that's not surprising, given that I'm a philosemitic, free market, small state, private property, rule of law, free speech and democracy-supporting conservative right-winger and the people she attacks are none of these things. But rather than attack unpleasant groups for misappropriating the poppy, what about attacking all those nasty, unpatriotic left-wing creeps who refuse to wear one (or, worse, insist on wearing a white one)? They are the real enemy - and, unless Rudd and her colleagues can bloody well get their act together pronto, these unpatriotic poppy-hating shits might be running the country within a matter of months. And why single out the fascist Right for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia when the main sources of anti-Semitism these days are the Labour Left and Muslims? 

The Home Secretary chose to publish her article in the Tory Party house mag. I suspect very few regular Telegraph readers feel any temptation whatsoever to support Britain First or the BNP - so why bother addressing them on this subject? Are you worried that your government's Blairite stance on a whole range of issues risks turning traditional Tories into ranting extremists? Well, here's an idea - drop all those ghastly Blairite policies! And, for God's sake, stop all the me-too aping of Labour's multiculti agenda - and start banging the drum for the glorious benefits of capitalism, and keep explaining in words of one syllable until you're blue in the face that Socialism is possibly the worst idea the human race has ever come up with: the evidence is entirely, completely, wholly, absolutely overwhelmingly on your side.  For God's sake, you fools - concentrate!

If, on the other hand, you were trying to reach the 30% of Britons who, according to a recent poll, are averse to buying or wearing a poppy - the snivelling, ungrateful wretches - then I'd suggest that the Telegraph isn't an appropriate platform. I guarantee that every single person who reads the Telegraph will have bought and worn a poppy, with pride and with a sense of deep gratitude for the sacrifice made by others on their behalf. 

Finally, I have no idea who's in charge of the government's media coverage. Whoever you are, I know you have an extraordinarily difficult task, given that the broadcasters and some of the newspapers and most of the online news outlets hate the Conservative Party's guts, and would be willing to do almost anything to see this government lose power. But, even taking that into account, you're doing a spectacularly lousy job: your performance on Twitter alone is utterly execrable. Please shape up - or ship out. For all our sakes. Just like Theresa May, you're quite evidently not up to the job, and you'd probably be a lot happier doing something else (unless it involves organising drinks parties in breweries, of course).