BY EFFIE DEANS Imagine if there were a new war between India or Pakistan. Let’s say the long-term territorial dispute over Kashmir flared up again and the Indian and Pakistani armies started fighting again. Or alternatively imagine that Pakistan tried to retake its former territory of East Pakistan, modern day Bangladesh. What line should we expect from Rishi Sunak? We should expect him to take … Continue reading Yousaf Hopelessly Biased on Gaza
BY DANIEL JUPP Thinking about what constitutes and doesn’t constitute a just war is in fact a very old process. The Egyptians did it, as did the Ancient Greeks and the Romans. We have surviving Egyptian inscriptions telling us why particular Pharaohs were justified in their conquests, and these told us three things. A Pharaoh was allowed to conquer because he was a legitimate authority, … Continue reading Israel’s Just War?
BY JOHN MUSGRAVE ‘Enough is enough,’ is a phrase now increasingly heard on the lips of all good men and true. The follow-up phrase: ‘They really ought to do something,’ is overused and self-defeating. The problem here is the word ‘THEY,’ a much-abused pronoun of dubious provenance. When we expect ‘them’ to do something we abrogate responsibility. In the real world ‘they’ don’t exist. Suits … Continue reading Enough is Enough
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The Hamas-Israel war has created a febrile atmosphere in Britain, at least on social media. The usual suspects on both sides are there for all to see. On the one side, the extremist Islamists – al–Muhajiroun types marching with Caabu and Hizb ut Tahrir numbnuts supported by weird, anti-Semitic allies like Nick Griffin and those Queer for Palestine wannabe building divers. On … Continue reading More Weeblemen Required
VICAR Dear Readers of Country Squire Magazine, I trust that You and Your families are well. This week it seems appropriate to pray for those at war in the world, from Israel to Ukraine. There seems to be violence everywhere and 2023 has been a bad year for the deaths of innocents from terror and war. Many assume the Bible is against war. However, God … Continue reading A Prayer for Those at War
BY ALEX STORY As winter gives way to spring and days lengthen heralding a longed-for summer, the eighteen men of Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Club can now rest their limbs having met yesterday on the Tideway, the 4.25 mile stretch of the Thames that runs through London from Putney to Chiswick Bridge. The first race, in 1829, took place 14 years after the end … Continue reading A British Institution
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Recently I was thinking about a close relative who died two summers before the turn of the century. I was remembering his personal loo which, on account of being a boy, I was advised to use during family visits to his home in Surrey. I can still picture the room clearly… I recall the hard ‘bumf’ Izal loo paper, which was fast … Continue reading Worthies
BY PHIL DEEKS As bombs dropped to level the ceaseless factories, my great-grandfather did not leave his route home, did not leave his wife and daughters longer than his shift required, did not leave them to wonder or worry as bombs dropped behind him. It was a quiet kind of bravery, not that of men who risked their lives at the front, who fought for … Continue reading Remember Them & Be Proud
