Extracts from the Feb 2006 Journal
Coalitions and other concoctions
That the coalition government now in power in Germany after the recent dead-heat elections consists of the right-wing Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD) has given rise to the customary combination of hilarity and incomprehension in most of the British press: what funny fellows these Europeans are! [more...]
George who?
One of the characteristics of the British that most struck the pre-war Jewish refugees from Central Europe was their reserve. That stolid refusal to display emotion could be an advantage, as when it enabled Londoners amidst the Blitz to dismiss their troubles with a 'Not too bad' or a 'Can't complain', but often it appeared to the more expressive and voluble refugees as a form of emotional constipation. [more...]
Point of View
Are there too many immigrants?
In January 1939, when I saw Piccadilly Circus for the first time, British fascists were selling their antisemitic journal Action at every street corner. In Trafalgar Square a speaker was telling the crowd: 'These German Jews come to Britain in their fur coats and we are supposed to feel sorry for them.' In April 1939 the Daily Express, which at that time had the largest sale of any paper in the British Isles, wrote: 'We don't want antisemitism in this country. The British Government must forbid more German Jews to come here.' [more...]Churchill's 'unknown quantity': A unique commando troop
In Aberdyfi's Penhelyg Park, in a stunning setting overlooking Cardigan Bay, a monument commemorates the members of a unique commando troop who were billeted in the area for nine months in the midst of the Second World War. The monument was unveiled in May 1999 by Meuric Rees CBE, the former Lord Lieutenant of Gwynedd, in the presence of 28 survivors from the UK, New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Canada. [more...]