Daily Express - 23.08.2019

Daily Express Friday, August 23, 2019 13

DX1ST

Frederick Forsyth

Treat teens

as adults in

eye of law

What cowardice of

the ‘great and good’

WHY IS CHINA DRAWING THE EYES OF THE WORLD TO ITS BEHAVIOUR OVER HONG KONG?

THE vast and mighty Republic of China is
making an international fool of herself in her
David and Goliath spat with the students of
Hong Kong. On our TVs we see teeming
torrents of young rioters bring the tiny
former British colony to a standstill.
The British-trained Hong Kong police keep
their calm and refrain from the massacres we
see so often when youth opposes
dictatorship. We know that behind high walls
the mainland’s brutal militia awaits – though
not yet issued orders. Remember Tiananmen

Square? The question nags – what is it all

for? The answer is short and bewildering.

Beijing – very much the capital of a

dictatorship – has instructed its puppet

government of this tiny enclave to utter a

new law. Simply that offenders in Hong

Kong may in future be extradited for trial on

the mainland under much more savage

communist courts.

Hong Kong is an oddity. When we

conceded that the UK-Chinese treaty

whereby we governed the colony was over,

we negotiated generous terms for the people

of the ex-colony – terms the mainlanders

would have given their eyeteeth for.

Technically the supreme governor had to

be a communist appointed by Beijing. But

he/she would rule with a light touch.

Hong Kong has always been extremely

valuable to mainland China as a generator

of wealth. Now China itself has become

immensely rich – practising capitalism

economically and communism politically –

something the Soviet Union never did which

is why it finally collapsed. Now it looks as if

China wants to impose its rule more

forcefully. But what a silly issue to pick.

The world would never have noticed if a few

law-breakers continue to be tried locally. Now

the world stares at these outraged teenagers

and China loses face – so vital in the Orient –

as never since that lone young man faced down

the tanks on Tiananmen Square and died for it.

Beijing would be wise to accept a compromise

so the world can move on. But has President Xi

that wisdom or will arrogance prevail?

EVERY time a teenager

plunges a knife into an

innocent bystander we are

told he cannot be named

and must perforce be acted

against by the legal

structure as if he were still

a minor, i.e. a child.

In a number of recent

cases those originally

arrested were under the age

of 18.

Had a case proceeded

against them, they would

have been treated like a

juvenile, not responsible

really for their actions.

Seventeen is an age when

someone can legally drive

and a car is a potentially

lethal weapon. Surely they

can be held responsible in

law for their actions.

Time to change the law?

Time to acknowledge reality

• that nowadays 17 is old
  enough to be an adult in
  criminal law? I think so.

■

AS remarked

elsewhere on this

page, Boris Johnson has

been splashing

improvements to all our

lives like a kid in the bath.

But where is the money

coming from? Borrow or

make savings? Debts have

to be paid off sooner or

later; savings are ours to

keep and spend on other

and better projects.

So where to save? Easy,

take a claymore to the vast

bureaucracy that enslaves

us all.

Bureaucracy – that edifice

of rules and regulations –

costs on three fronts: to

create, to enforce and most

of all to comply with.

And 50 per cent of them

achieve absolutely nothing

save to waste time, irritate

and alienate us all from our

government. Arm-in-arm

with the bureaucracy are

the quango empires – 50

per cent a complete waste

of overpaid time and money

• voted for by no one,
  answerable to no one.
  There is masses to do,
  Boris.

OUR

dotty Archbishop

of Canterbury avers that

siting the new Holocaust

Memorial right next to Parliament,

“the home of our democracy” will

have a powerful symbolism. It was not

lack of democracy that inspired the

Holocaust but the Nazi-inspired wave of

religious and racial hatred that swept

Germany back then. So surely our

memorial to all that might be more

therapeutic if placed next to Labour

Party HQ. That seems to be

where modern anti-Semitism

makes its home.

MONUMENT: There

are plans for a new

Holocaust Memorial

T

HERE is something very

weird going on in this

country and it all

revolves around two

short words – No Deal.

We all know it takes two

to make a deal. If one refuses

absolutely even to sit down and

negotiate and as a result no deal can

be achieved, whose fault is that?

You’d think it would be self-evident,

not even a matter for debate.

In the matter now exhaustingly

called Brexit there are two sides –

London and Brussels. Our

Government has made plain over

and over again that it is ready and

willing to start talks tomorrow –

on condition...

The EU has made equally plain

it has not the slightest intention

of attending any talks unless...

Well, unless Britain concedes

before the talks every single con-

cession Brussels demands – in all

a capitulation more complete

than any possible short of a coun-

try that has just lost a major war

and must sell its soul to be

allowed to survive.

You might think the UK would

be united in agreeing that we are

not a defeated nation in any war

or contest; that we are doing

rather well, the fifth biggest econ-

omy in the world with vast

resources and potential. Yet thou-

sands of our supposed high-ups

cannot let the sun go down with-

out spending the day trashing our

country and screaming that the

absence of a deal is all our fault.

We see it in the politics of the

Left and so-called Centre, in the

City, the Establishment and half

the media, the bureaucracy,

academia and the law.

I was raised to admire the lads

who flew the Spitfires and

Hurricanes in the Battle of

Britain, went up the beaches of

Normandy on D-Day, set all

Europe free from Nazism, fought

off the threat of world commu-

nism, gave sovereign independ-

ence to a vast empire and parlia-

mentary democracy to the world.

That took a lot of “bottle”. But

when it was needed, we had it.

And honestly, I never thought

that at the age of 80 I would see a

day when this same country could

produce such a phalanx of

cowards, appeasers and capitula-

tors in high places.

My bible, the Oxford English

Dictionary has a word for it.

Degenerate. Can nobody chuck

them out, bring them down and

consign these mediocrities to the

station in life for which Nature so

amply equipped them? Oblivion.

Come on, Boris, start firing.

Come on voters, start

de-selecting.

■

IT IS now official – the HS

pipedream is now estimated to

cost something north of

£100billion. We have all known for

ages that the original £56billion

was complete poppycock. Surely a

Government splashing promises

right, left and centre – defence,

health, schools, housing, police –

is going to need all the folding stuff

it can find, and there is the great

white elephant staring at it. And

there is a possible alternative.

Years ago the Great Central Line

ran like a spine down the core of

England. It was closed down when

Dr Beeching (remember him?) took

a machete to the railways of this

land. At the time we were all taking

to the roads and rail travel seemed

to be dwindling. Thousands of

miles of little-used branch lines

had to go. But why the Great

Central? Anyway it is still there.

Overgrown, half-buried, rusted, but

still there. The bedrock and the

hard-core track have not gone

away. The cuttings, embankments

and tunnels are still there. It would

cost a fraction of even the first

stage of HS2 to restore it.

And while it will take many years

before the first over-priced seat on

HS2 is available for a pair of

executive buttocks the restoration

of Great Central could quickly see

trains running north-south again.

A rapid project study should be

authorised on three questions:

feasibility, budget and time.

Pictures: PA, MHCLG/SWNS