Mark's tongue in cheek column in the 'Shropshire Star'

Dear Mark

I picked up the Star at the Minsterley Show on Saturday and enjoyed reading your column.  Some readers will take it seriously and believe every word as gospel!

Boris Johnson had months to persuade Biden.  Yet, you wrote, he "could do nothing about it."  I don't think he even tried in NATO to get them to think again, did he?

Many readers will believe 7% instead of 2% would have made all the difference in Afghanistan and given us victory instead of defeat.

Many readers will think we can go marching into any old poor and defenceless country like Afghanistan, not just the actual four times since 1839 but forty times, especially if we maintain the overseas aid cut from 0.7% to 0.5% and up armaments expenditure from 2 to 7%.

You wrote about "defending our realm" and Britannia ruling the waves.  Is this exactly what we are doing with our £3.5 billion aircraft carrier sailing the waters of the South China Sea, right now?  You and your readers are thrilled with that.  But what if China followed our example and sailed their warships in the North or Irish Seas or the English Channel?  And, we are even getting a new £250 m 'Britannia' to further shock and awe the world with another vanity project to impress!

Best wishes

"The region must recognise the right of Israel to exist" Biden on 22.5.21

But that is not the issue.  The West makes so much of it but it is a sideline to the real matter of injustice, oppression and keeping the Palestinians subjugated.  Under the heel of the Israelis.  Just like the Israelis were, over 2,500 years ago, when they were enslaved by the Egyptians.

1st anniversary of BLM and George Floyd

Black lives DO matter so very much, along with all those 248 Gazans, including 65 children and 12 Israelis from last week. 73 years of violence and injustice and STILL the deaths don't matter.

Black lives have never mattered for the West.  My ancestors are responsible for centuries of slavery and for collecting those lands they chose to take in colonial endeavour.  Whites chose to be dominant and to be domineering in their exploration, trading and sheer piracy on the high seas to set a most disgraceful and wicked example.

Blacks chose to be content with their own lands much more than us whites.  We whites still like to think we matter more.  But it exposes our racism, superiority and supremacy that led to wars around the world and the theft of people and resources.  Not very nice attributes!

Hamas is the direct result of Israeli settler-colonialism, Israeli meddling, and the rage of Palestinian people at decades of oppression and dispossession and living under the boot of the Israeli military.

"The region must recognise the right of Israel to exist" Biden on 22.5.21

But that is not the issue.  The West makes so much of it but it is a sideline to the real matter of injustice, oppression and keeping the Palestinians subjugated.  Under the heel of the Israelis.  Just like they were about 2,500 years ago when they were enslaved by the Egyptians.