On Wednesday, I listened in horror to Emily Thornberry’s car crash interview. It marked not only a new low for the hapless Shadow Defence Secretary, but depressingly another example of the hateful and loathing attitude toward our country and its far flung territories by members of the Labour party.
I say another example as Thornberry has considerable form. She took money from two firms of solicitors, which have pursued compensation claims against our brave men and women sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, the vast majority of which were false, and yes, their exorbitant fees were paid for by the taxpayer.
She also notoriously took to Twitter, posting a derogatory message about a working class voter in the Rochester who owned a white van and proudly flew the Cross of St George from it. Her implication was clear, that he must be some sort of mentally unstable racist thug for flying the English flag.
But this interview plumbed new depths.
Ms Thornberry appeared on the ever-entertaining Julia Hartley Brewer’s Talk Radio show to answer questions about a UN ruling, which Argentina claim strengthens its claim to the Falklands Islands. You can listen to an extract here.
Given a fairly soft opening question about the position of the Labour Party towards the islands and its inhabitants, Ms Thornberry waffled on about self-determination and this UN ruling changing nothing.
Not an unreasonable answer, but when pushed by the presenter if this view was shared by her party leader the interview quickly turned into a classic political car crash.
Not since junior Tory minister Chloe Smith has a politician been quite so brilliantly take apart live on air.
The Shadow Defence Secretary twisted and turned, she evaded, nervously laughed and several times called the presenter Julie – but worse was to follow.
Asked if Jeremy Corbyn agreed with this position, she either would not, or could not answer this. After all earlier in the year Comrade Corbyn publically backed a “Northern Ireland power sharing” type of arrangement with Argentina, despite this proposal being decisively rejected by the local inhabitants.
But the crash turned into a wreck as, in a stroke of genius, the radio programme’s producers had also invited on the show retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry CBE. The Rear Admiral is not only one of the outstanding members of a great generation of sailors produced by the Royal Navy in recent years, but is also something of a historian – and he “Trafalgared” her.
The plain speaking sailor, who was mentioned in dispatches during the 1982 conflict for rescuing 16 SAS soldiers, accused her of “equivocating” and “double speak” as he repeatedly asked her simple questions, such as would she commit Labour to defending the Falklands and its interests in her Party’s defence review? She responded by saying it had not been written yet, but this cut no ice.
He retorted: “You don’t know, do you, whether you’re going to defend the Falklands or not?”
Ms Thornberry replied “I certainly do” but then declined to say whether the protection of the islands would be outlined in the review.
As the Rear Admiral fired salvo after salvo at Ms Thornberry, Ms Hartley Brewer piled on the pressure. Asked if she wanted to respond to the views of the heroic Falklands veteran, the Shadow Defence Secretary replied: “No, not really”.
What a sneering and disgraceful response to someone who has not only served his country with distinction, but who put his life in harm’s way defending our interests and freedoms – the very freedoms that Corbyn now wants to negotiate away.
Troublingly, it’s an attitude that is all too prevalent on the Left. It despises our history, always focuses on the darkest and most negative aspects of colonisation and loathes our great institutions, including the Church and the monarchy.
So perhaps the real question is why are we surprised that those who hate our country and distrust our armed forces would never stand up for the Falklands?
