From the man cave XI

The man cave remained in Hull while its regular occupant – me – went to Greece with Mrs Watson. This necessitated a prolonged publishing silence, as I was threatened with violence if I sneaked my laptop into my bag or even tried to write anything on my iPad or phone for the duration. My wife’s actual threat was, on return to Hull, that she would burn down the man cave. She said, ‘for all I care you could also be in it at the time.’ Where are the coppers when you need them?

Speaking of people burning things down and not caring who was in them, I did watch some of the Allison Pearson interview with Lucy Connolly, mercifully released from prison. I was amazed at her composure; I would have been spitting tacks. But I was also confused by her saying she was glad that Ricky – throat slasher – Jones had not been imprisoned for his comment to a crowd of far-left activists. I disagree with her. While there are no circumstances under which Lucy Connolly should have had her collar felt, I think Jones should have been banged up good and proper.

I am a free speech advocate up to the point, well established in US law and well outside of the boundaries of what is permissible in the UK, when someone either makes a direct threat of violence or – worse still – tries to incite others to do so. Was Lucy Connolly got at behind bars and given a script of acceptable views to promote and the way they should be conveyed, under threat of return to His Majesty’s Pleasure? I am very suspicious that she was.

Run this up your flagpole

I have just been, in rapid succession, in Hong Kong, China, Turkey and Greece. As reported by my grandson Jack, in these pages, Turkish flags were very much in evidence in Turkey. The same was true of Greece. Greek flags everywhere. Chinese flags are flown with pride in China and, unfortunately, also in Hong Kong, but at least there the Hong Kong flag also flies pro tem.

I have returned to the UK to the battle of the flags. Nothing much in this regard in our middle-class area of Hull, but I’ll be downtown with my sons tomorrow and things may look different. The flag campaign has hit nerves I did not expect. I am in a Catholic evangelisation group on WhatsApp and these normally mild-mannered folk, usually concerned with matters spiritual, are fired up. People are asking where they can get flags and flagpoles.

They even appreciated the brilliant AI generated video of the British Lion waking up and leading a campaign to remove alien flags (Ukrainian, Pakistani and Palestinian) and replacing them with the cross of St George. Look out for the shapely (AI generated) lady in the bikini and the bacon buttie van. Sheer genius. One member of our group – someone who has become a UK citizen – said that they would fly the St George’s flag ‘with pride’. I had to read that twice.

I am conflicted over the flag campaign. It would make no sense for me to fly the St George’s flag as I am Scottish. I am reluctant to fly the Saltire, as that has been appropriated by the pro-independence – Flower of Scotland – lunatics who now run my native country. I am also an Irish citizen, but I fear that another bunch of lunatics has appropriated that flag. If I join in, it will be the Union Jack for me (no letters to the editor about the spurious ‘Union Flag’ argument please).

Bordering on the absurd

Speaking of nations, I must report that Mrs Watson and I spent a full 60 seconds in North Macedonia last week. We had a hire car and, being based in Thessaloniki, we travelled around the Macedonian part of Greece, entering Bulgaria for a short time. We spotted a nice place for lunch by a lake in North Macedonia and duly presented our credentials (although not enough of them) at the border. ‘Green Card’ the man in the kiosk said. But Green Card had we none. North Macedonia is not yet fully part of the EU, and you cannot drive a car hired in Greece into the country. After an embarrassing U-turn we were duly evicted.

I did not get the chap’s name but it struck me that this is the kind of ‘papers please’ person we need on the beaches of Hastings and Folkestone to confront the marauding hordes of young men charging up the beaches with their erections, hoping to plant their flags in the young white ladies they encounter along the way. I see they are now arriving 100 at a time in super dinghies. We are so accommodating that we may as well be sending our own ships across to France to pick them up. I sincerely hope that’s a joke. Overantout!

Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.

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