UK EU Parliamentary Elections 2019. The Brexit Party, English Democrats and UKIP take part, but the SDP and For Britain Movement are absent.

The British Political Establishment, which obviously believes in democracy only when doing so suits its purpose, has ducked, dived, dodged and weaved to such a disgraceful extent that Brexit has now been delayed and betrayed.  Three years after the EU Referendum we are still in the European Union and about to take part in the EU Parliamentary Elections on May 23.

The establishment parties in Westminster are dominated by Remainers, so who should Brexiteers vote for?

The obvious choice is Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party which has burst dramatically upon the scene and rides high in the opinion polls.   It will stand in all the EU’s Parliamentary Constituencies in the UK, except Northern Ireland. 

Without Farage UKIP seems to be in chaos having courted Tommy Robinson and his followers only to see him stand as an Independent. 

The English Democrats stood in all of England’s constituencies in 2014.  They are standing in only four constituencies this time; the East of England, North West, South West and Yorkshire and Humber.  A gallant effort to promote English Nationhood, but they will lose £20,000 in deposits and will have done well if they gather 40,000 votes.

Meanwhile the other minor Brexiteer parties, the SDP and Anne Marie Waters’ For Britain Movement are nowhere to be seen.

I will vote for either Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party or Robin Tilbrook’s English Democrats, and make my decision in the polling booth!

ANZAC Biscuits for ANZAC Day.

ANZAC Day today, so I am flying the New Zealand flag and eating Anzac Biscuits cooked yesterday by my wife.

New Zealand flag flying over South Somerset on ANZAC Day.

The famous biscuits were originally made to send to the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) serving in Gallipoli during the First World War.

ANZAC Biscuits made to a Second World War recipe.

My wife used a Second World War recipe which came from a little gem of a book entitled Eating For Victory - Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations, (Michael O'Mara Books Ltd., 2007).  The book cover states: "Never before published in book form this nostalgic collection of original facsimile leaflets helps to show how millions of people in Britain made do with food shortages during the Second World War."

A stroll over Beacon Hill on the northern fringe of Ilminster in South Somerset.

On Easter Sunday I decided to go for a stroll up Dillington Park Drive to Beacon Hill on the northern fringe of Ilminster in South Somerset.  The weather was warm and sunny with plenty of blue sky so I took my camera with me even though the horizon was a little hazy and not ideal for photographing landscapes.

One of a pair of gates and stone pillars at the entrance to Dillington Park Drive near Ilminster in South Somerset.

After entering Dillington Park Drive it was not long before I came upon the remains of Ilminster’s World War Two defences in the form of dragon’s teeth in the undergrowth and a pill-box covering the old London Road east of the town.  Ilminster, along with several other neighbouring towns, was fortified as an Anti-Tank Island to provide a bulwark against any German armoured forces advancing from the west. 

World War Two pill-box in Dillington Park Drive, South Somerset.

Before the drive reached Dillington Park I branched off left onto Beacon Hill, which at its highest point reaches 338 feet, and followed the hedgerow alongside a vast field of rapeseed.  Numerous Peacock butterflies danced around, sometimes settling on the flowering rape, but not long enough for me to take a photo of their colourful wing markings.

Greater Stitchwort in the shade of a hedgerow.

The view from Beacon Hill, near Ilminster in South Somerset, toward the village of Puckington.

I walked as far as Old Road, now just a track between the hedgerows, where I took some photos of the view to the north.  The village of Puckington was clear enough, but the Curry Rivel Ridge was a little hazy.  Nevertheless, I could see the Burton Pynsent Monument and thought I could make out the windmill on Walton Hill on the Poldens, but not positively.

The view from Beacon Hill near Ilminster in South Somerset toward the Curry Rivel Ridge.  The Burton Pynsent Monument was just visible on the skyline to the right.

I returned by the same route.  All in all it was an afternoon well spent enjoying fresh air and gentle exercise with fine views of the English countryside to boot.   

Primrose Day, in memory of Benjamin Disraeli 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, who died on this day in 1881.

Apparently today, April 19, is Primrose Day.  Chambers’ Book of Days (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 2004) informs us:

“In the late nineteenth century, 19 April was celebrated as Primrose Day in memory of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, who died on this day in 1881 (he was born in 1804).  People were encouraged to pay tribute to the statesman, twice prime minister of the UK (1868; 1874-80), by wearing primroses on this day.  It was said that Disraeli was particularly fond of primroses, but his writings suggest the opposite.  The myth seems to have its origin in a simple misunderstanding: when Queen Victoria sent a wreath of primroses to Disraeli’s funeral with a note stating that they were ‘his favourite flower’, people assumed that the word ‘his’ referred to Disraeli, but in fact it referred to Victoria’s late husband, Prince Albert.”

Primroses in Dommett Wood on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset.

I took the above photo in The Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Nature Reserve at Dommett Wood on the edge of the Blackdown Hills not far from the A303.

A single Lance Corporal, Soldier F, charged over Bloody Sunday while senior officers and politicians walk away scot-free.

Soldier F, a paratrooper in his seventies, faces murder charges over the killing of two people at a civil rights march in Londonderry on 30 January 1972 when the First Battalion Parachute Regiment was ordered to police the event.  He held the rank of Lance Corporal at that time.

Soldier F joined the Parachute Regiment in 1966 and left the army in 1988 as a Regimental Sergeant Major after a distinguished career which included a long spell in Special Forces.

It strikes me as typical that the British military and political establishment are allowing a single NCO to carry the can for Bloody Sunday while senior officers and politicians of that era escape the consequences of their orders to enjoy a comfortable retirement with their pensions, peerages and knighthoods.  They were fully aware that the Parachute Regiment was a highly trained and aggressive assault unit, so which military genius thought it would be a good idea for them to police a civil rights march?

On Friday last thousands of bikers, many of them ex-servicemen, protested against the treatment of Soldier F by staging a mass ride-out in Central London.  I say: “Good for them!”

Below are some related news links:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8850252/soldier-f-bikers-protest-london/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6916197/Thousands-bikers-bring-Westminster-standstill-support-British-Army-Soldier-F.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/14/bloody-sunday-soldier-f-has-charged-long-could-face-jail/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47540271

Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, bids to prove in the High Court that the UK has already left the EU.

Robin Tilbrook, Chairman of the English Democrats, is using the Gina Miller case to show that the United Kingdom has left the European Union and that the Prime Minister had no legal authority to extend Article 50 without an Act of Parliament.  He has served papers, in person, to the High Court suggesting that the UK has already left the EU which, if upheld in court, would mean that the government is proceeding with negotiations as if we are still members when in fact we left on 29 March.   

Sir Richard Aikens, a former appeal court judge, has previously said that the legality of Theresa May’s delay to Brexit should be tested in court.  It will be interesting to see if those in the British legal establishment find any illegality with the British political establishment’s Brexit shenanigans.

Mr Tilbrook’s action has been lengthily reported in the Daily Mail, below is a link to the article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6879215/English-Democrats-begin-court-battle-prove-UK-left-EU.html

Here is a link to the English Democrats’ website.

https://www.englishdemocrats.party/