Separation of church and state, right ? Did you know there are 26 so-called “Lords spiritual” writing U.K. laws, among whom “Most Revd.” Justin “You’ve no understanding” Welby ? What unholy business is it of theirs ? Matthew 22:21 asks…
Additionally, there are 91 “peers” legislating by sole virtue of being born and subsequently appointed by political parties, among whom, at this moment, “4 dukes, 25 earls, 15 viscounts [and] 45 barons”.
All members of this undemocratic relic are appointed for life, none ever requiring the People’s unction ! All “can usually claim £323 a day tax-free – for the rest of their lives”, even if they never show up. “Between April 2019 and March 2020, £17.7 million was spent on Lords allowances and expenses, with the average peer claiming £30,687.”
According to the Electoral Reform Society, Benny Hill appointed 36 new “peers” to the HoL in 2020, among whom “his brother [,] the son of a KGB agent” and this bloke, the U.K. government’s so-called “independent advisor on political violence” in your city, yeaaah, who’s now attempting to ban pro-Palestine advocacy for the sake of some defense contractors :
Look at that ! If ever there was one, that is a Lord indeed, folks ! How could you ever think otherwise ? And what that bought and paid-for thing is saying is that, while you’re allowed to say that there is, for instance, a Saudi lobby, without it ever amounting to “a textbook example of” antisaudism, you’re never allowed to mention its Israeli counterpart, lest you end up before the IHRA tribunal. In other words, you are required to conceal not only the obvious, but reality itself, for…
You see, your negationism is critical : “applying double standards” by denying Israel’s shady influence-peddling while acknowledging “any other [undemocratic country’s]” is the moral, the Jewish, thing to do…
Yes, that thing is a contemporary “Lord”, ladies and gentlemen, and, while it greatly values “some defense-related companies’ […] contribution […] to the U.K. economy”, it struggles valuing freedom of expression, of assembly and association‘s constitutive contribution to democracy.
Worse : it is unable to tell the difference between the “textbook […] antisemitism” contained in any evocation of “the Jewish lobby” (as in : any and every Jew has the same set of ethnocidal interests) and the factual condemnation of the Israel lobby (as in : whether vaguely democratic or openly fascist, Israel über alles, and Gott mit uns !).
“Ah ! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira !
Suivant les maximes de l’Evangile
Ah ! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira !
Du législateur tout s’accomplira.”
Yannick Baele 