LOACH THE ROACH!

I laughed at Ken Loach - whose new movie "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" has won the Palme d'Or the top prize at the Cannes film festival - being interviewed on BBC Radio 4 "Today" programme this morning. He's an uberliberal self-loather who is still angry about the "sins of empire" and who thinks that Northern Ireland has no right to exist. He's also vehemently against the liberation of Iraq. What a hoot he was!

I was also entertained by the profound thoughts of those Cannes Film jury members who voted for this (accidentally) laughable movie..I'm talking intellectual greats like Helena Bonham Carter, Samual L Jackson, and Tim Roth! These champagne socialists willingly embrace the philosophical pigswill of hard-leftists like Loach, it must make them feel reaalllll good before they fly off in their private jets to the next stop in their backslapping global jamboree. Pass the sickbag! Poor Loach hasn't a clue about the insurrectionists in the Republic of Ireland but that's not surprising - he hasn't a clue about very much based on the childish waffle of his interview this morning. The MSM, and the Cannes Jury, will love a guy who trashes his own country and culture and we must remember that is what Loach the roach does best!

Comments

[Peter]

"who voted for this (accidentally) laughable movie"

DV, have you seen the film? I'm a great believer in making up your own mind and then by all means have a go.

[David Vance]

Peter,

I have read the "plot" - I think it's a comedy movie. Making your own mind up from a position of some knowledge is indeed preferable though!!

[David Vance]

Peter,

I have read the "plot" - I think it's a comedy movie. Making your own mind up from a position of some knowledge is indeed preferable though!!

[Cunningham]

You should be proud that an Englishman has won this award, Andrew.

The film was described by the jury as "a fantastic education about the Irish problem".

So you'll just have to go and see it!

Loach said:
"Our film is a little, a very little step in the British confronting their imperialist history.

Maybe if we tell the truth about the past, maybe we tell the truth about the present."

Why, I couldn't have put it better myself!

[Hugh Green]

I like Loach's films - Kes and My Name Is Joe especially - so I'm looking forward to this one. I don't think you have to share a film's ideological perspective in order to enjoy it.

[David Vance]

Cunningham,

Twas me - not Andrew!

Hugh,

I agree that one does not have to share the ideological basis of a movie to enjoy it. For example, I found Team America far too left wing but I still laughed when Alec Baldwin got his!

[Madradin Ruad]

The film was described by the jury as "a fantastic education about the Irish problem".

what a silly point to make.

[Peter]

Dodgeball was really funny. So politically incorrect!

[Andrew McCann]

Cunningham

Could that be the same imperialist history which civilised half the globe, led to huge pioneering feats of human advancement and has left as its legacy one of the least controversial international bodies on the planet?

Will we get the truth about Bloody Friday, etc. Or do Lefties and scumbag republicans merely gloss over anything that doesn't fit in with their warped perspectives?

[Michael Turley]

"which civilised half the globe"

Which half?

[Cunningham]

Andrew,

>>the same imperialist history which civilised half the globe<<

I presume that includes Iraq.

Let’s look at Britain’s civilising efforts there from 1919 to 1932.

Far from bringing the benefits of British order to the region, anarchy and insurrection were there from the start. The British responded with gas attacks by the army in the south and bombing by the fledgling RAF across the country. This was deliberate terror bombing, including night air-raids with heavy bombers, also using delayed action bombs (very popular with playing children) against mud, stone and reed villages through England's sojourn there.

Here’s squadron leader Arthur Harris (yes, he whose statue stands in Fleet Street today):
"The Arab and Kurd now know what real bombing means! Within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be practically wiped out, and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured, by four or five machines which offer them no real target, no opportunity for glory as warriors, no effective means of escape."

Tally ho! Let's do it the British way!

And that lad Churchill was a strong believer in the benefits of chemical weapons long before Saadam Snr. got the twinkle in his eye, suggesting they be used "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment", and "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes _ [to] spread a lively terror"

Ah, sure there’s nothing like a good gassing to civilise people, I always say.

I won’t start about how they civilised Zulu tribes as that might get you unduly aroused.

BTW: The film is about the 1920's Troubles. Bloody Friday happened half a century later.

[Madradin Ruad]

MT - the people responsible for Bloody friday claim legitimacy from the terrorists of that era celebrated by this film.

[Madradin Ruad]

apologies - that should be Cunningham - the people responsible for Bloody friday claim legitimacy from the terrorists of that era celebrated by this film.

can you explain how the light-weight jury are qualified to decide if this film is "a fantastic education" ?

[Andrew McCann]

Cunningham

Let's cut through the emotional bullshit for a start.

Iraq was awarded to Britain as a mandate territory after WW1. Indeed the British were supported there by the Hasemite family of Husayn ibn Ali. It was his son, Prince Faisal who began to sow the seeds of Arab nationalism and demanded that Iraq be made independent - a solution at odds with all the Allied Powers, not just Britain.

Britain's subsequent administration of the territory, in line with the consent of the League of Nations and endorsed internationally. Britain suffered heavy casualties in the years of its governance from Arab insurgents. Action was necessary to try to stem the level of that insurgency.

That has bugger all to do with British 'imperialism' - real or imagined.

Funny how the Micks love to hate Britain, yet were content to send their unemployed labour over here for generations in search of a better life.

[Aileen]

I wonder will we ever get a film tht tellsthe truth about McGuinness and the number of deaths that he is responsible for and the role he played in them?

[gg]

The British Empire should be seen as the greatest force for good the world has ever seen.
Today we are confronted with the threat of Islamofascism, an ideology even more evil than Nazism. The only hope we have of defeating it is through the Anglosphere, the legacy of the Empire. Great Britain may only be a junior partner these days, but we should take pride in our role in its inception.
And if it hadn't been for the Empire the Nazis would have won the second world war. Although I guess that wouldn't have been a problem for Cuuningham and his Sinn Fein pals. True Irishmen volunteered to fight against the Nazis.
Anyway Ireland was not a colony, it was an equal partner in the Empire. You should feel proud that Ireland was part of the making of the modern world!

[Cunningham]

MR,

>>the people responsible for Bloody friday claim legitimacy from the terrorists of that era<<

They could equally - and much more aptly - claim legitimacy from the terrorist bombers in Iraq, whose antics I described at 11.01.

>>can you explain how the light-weight jury are qualified to decide if this film is "a fantastic education" ?<<

I didnt say I agreed with this assessment (I havent seen the film). I quoted them only for Andrew's edification.

[Madradin Ruad]

They could equally - and much more aptly -

If your auntie had balls she'd be your Uncle ....

[Tony]

To Cunningham.

I have noticed a common theme with me.

They don't answer your points either.

Then they respond with slightly dodgy hateful language.

At the end you will be called a supporter of scum of some sort or other.

However that "scum", whomever they are, could not hold the level of hate in their hearts as some on here.

Best of luck trying to be reasonable with the haters, I assure you they don't get it. This is to good an opportunity to vent their spleen.

[Cunningham]

>>Iraq was awarded to Britain as a mandate territory after WW1. Indeed the British were supported there by the Hasemite family of Husayn ibn Ali.<<

That's irrelevant! I'm talking about their war crimes, or their "civilising influence", as you'd say. There can be no mandate for the actions I described.
(Their behaviour in Africa was also hardly more civilised, albeit without the planes and gas attacks)

>>Britain suffered heavy casualties in the years of its governance from Arab insurgents. Action was necessary to..<<

"Heavy casualties" is relative. In one outbreak, the RAF flew missions totalling 4,008 hours, dropped 97 tons of bombs and fired 183,861 rounds for the loss of NINE men killed and seven wounded. The uprising was put down and nearly 9,000 Iraqis killed.

9 to 9,000? Oh, very heavy casualties indeed!

BTW, gg, Ireland certainly wasn't (thank god) an equal partner in the Empire.
Actually, I also don't believe Ireland was "part of the making of the modern world" (apart from Dev's presidency of the League of Nations, perhaps)
I also think Irishmen were right to go off and fight against Nazi Germany (in whatever uniform).
The Free State should have declared war on Germany at the time Britain did.

[Madradin Ruad]

Tony - what sort of level of hate carries out
atrocities like happened at Countess Bridge, Tralee and Ballyseedy? What sort of level of hate throws live human beings into a furnace ?
What sort of level of hate abducts a child with learning difficulties from School and shoots him ? Or uses "Human Bombs" ?
Irish republicanism.

[Tony]

By the way, congratulations to Ken Loach. As fine an example of an Englishman you are likely to see.

I loved "land and freedom", his film about the Spanish civil war. The IRA man in it was a hero fighting for the people, against the sinister forces of facism. Many a tear was shed over the piece. I am a sentimental Celt after all, and empathise with the goodies against the baddies.

Sure that is what all good films are about, I see a similar theme in his latest film.

[gg]

Yes,the Free State should have declared war on Germany but at least they played a small part by interning Nazi sympathising Sinn Fein activists.

And Ireland was an equal partner. It had a much greater status than colonies like Canada or Australia. Ireland was part of the UK, and thus played a leading role in governing the Empire.

[Cunningham]

>>respond with slightly dodgy hateful language

At the end you will be called a supporter of scum of some sort or other.<<

Ha, ha! Tony, if that kind of thing bothers you, you shouldn't log in here.

Let them "spit fire, spout rain". It's all part of the refreshing entertainment one gets from swimming against the Orange stream.

And it's all free!

[Eamonn]

Loach is regarded as a mover-shaker amongst those who believe that Bush is a Nazi or those who think your average white Englishman should be lashed on a daily basis to make reparations for the "sins of empire".

However my strong feeling is that the majority of sensible people think he is just another Galloway-o-file who likes nothing better than to spit upon his own country and what it stands for. I wouldn't mind betting that Loach also shed a tear when the Soviet Union collapsed.