Mick Hartley

This is an example of the immense symbolic moral power of the British monarchy deployed to protect and reassure a small, beleaguered section of the British people.
It may seem a small gesture but it has touched and heartened the Anglo-Jewish community.
It is symbolic of course but monarchs have a special ability to make such symbolic gestures over the heads of politicians – Queen Victoria and Franz Josef did so in their own way – and so did, in much worse circumstances, the King of Denmark, The Duke of Edinburgh’s mother, the Sultan of Morocco and Bey of Tunisia, and in perilous, murky circumstances monarchs in Bulgaria and Romania.
The recent spasm of antiJewish hatred that has swept the country has shocked and scared many – a spasm that included the attack on a synagogue and murder of Jewish people on Yom Kippur the holiest day of the year, the terrorist burning of Jewish ambulances who serve all communities this week, the Birmingham police Maccabi football scandal, the marchers who celebrated October 7, who praise Hamas, Iran and promoted blood libels and incited the massacre of Jews and Israelis, the repeated harrassment and attempt to drive out ‘Jewish’ restaurants Gails and Miznon, the intimidation of Jewish students and professors at universities, the arrest of Mancunian jihadist terrorists planning a massacre, the arrest of Iranian state agents scoping out CST and Bevis Marks for attacks, the NHS bigots spreading vile racism and threatening patients and much more….