PETER HITCHENS: Meet the liberals condemning Trump’s botched putsch – but please approve a real one

Donald Trump is a dangerous yahoo who may well destroy the remnants of the US constitutional government before he is done. I am not defending him in any way.

But there is something almost comically hypocritical about the establishment’s shocked reaction to the failed January 2021 coup he allegedly fomented.

Again, I must point out that the same elite liberal types are happy to overlook a far worse coup, one that succeeded and helped drag Europe into its worst war in over 70 years.

Trump allegedly tried to prevent the Democratic outcome of the 2020 presidential election. If he and his allies did, it was a disgraceful thing. If you believe that power in free societies is determined by voting, then you cannot support such a thing. Your own politics don’t matter anymore. It touches the root of law and power.

So why did major Western nations accept without protest the violent, lawless overthrow of Ukraine’s elected president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014? This embarrassing event, brought about by a screaming mob, was spearheaded by people who made Trump supporters look like Greenpeace and openly threatened violence if they didn’t get their way.

Why did major Western countries accept without protest the violent, lawless overthrow of Ukraine’s elected President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014?

Yanukovych is also not very nice. There are few Ukrainian politicians. But the honesty of his victory in the 2010 election is grudgingly accepted even by his opponents.

Moreover, at the time of his overthrow, he had made a clear offer of early elections to test his mandate. The offer was endorsed and presented to the Ukrainian opposition by a group of EU foreign ministers who had participated in drafting it and would have guaranteed it.

Did the protesters think their group would lose that early election? Who can tell? But there is no doubt that Kiev’s parliament illegally voted to remove him. It clearly lacked the votes required by the constitution. Nor has it followed the procedures of that constitution.

Those who approve of the removal have tried to excuse this blatant lawless act on the grounds (among other things) that Yanukovych had fled the country. But recent research has also exploded this claim.

At the time of the coup in Kiev, Barack Obama’s White House did not condemn the violent impeachment of another elected president, or the blatant defiance of the Ukrainian parliament against its own constitution.

Instead, it released a statement praising the “constructive work” of the Ukrainian parliament. The US ambassador to Kiev gleefully tweeted that it was “a day for the history books,” which doesn’t seem very disapproving.

Our own Secretary of State, William Hague, misled Parliament by falsely saying that Yanukovych had been impeached ‘by the very large majority required by the Constitution’, adding wholly falsely: ‘It is wrong to question the legitimacy of to question the new authorities.’

Donald Trump is a dangerous yahoo who may well destroy the remnants of the US constitutional government before he is done. I am not defending him in any way

There is as yet no sign of the Commons Privileges Committee taking up the matter. Lord Hague (as he is now) cut off contact with me after I pointed out his mistake.

The appalling outbreak of large-scale violence in Ukraine, the growing danger of a protracted European war, Russia’s illegal conquest of Crimea, the splitting of the country, and the appalling toll of death and destruction all began with the coup against Yanukovych.

It is one of the most significant events in European history since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. It is time we were honest about it, and time it was given due consideration. It is at least as important as Donald Trump.

I am amused by the sudden burst of interest in the life of the late Nobby Pilcher, a 1960s drug squad officer disgraced for evidence tampering.

I don’t know if Nobby was really the inspiration for The Beatles’ Semolina Pilchard. But we’ve always had a soft spot for him in my house because he taught Mrs. Hitchens how to drive.

This was no ordinary driving school as a special lesson was given on ‘how to cut up a London taxi driver’. But it served her well when she had to drive our battered Volvo through the murderous streets of Moscow.

It was battered because a Soviet truck had driven into it one night while I was driving and we couldn’t get the damage repaired. It looked like it had been in the Battle of Jutland. The Russians soon learned not to mess with her.

Strange war drama is not for patriots

I see World On Fire, the embarrassing BBC attempt to rewrite World War II history, is back for a second series. In this strange drama, Britons are often portrayed as a bigot of some kind.

Only Lesley Manville, who has decided to like to play a monster (rich, middle class, conservative), brings the tired agitprop to life.

Is this stuff made to overshadow the great war movies of the 1950s, when drama was still patriotic?

I See World On Fire, the shameful BBC attempt to rewrite World War II history, is back for a second series

I love this cool summer with its dark skies, occasionally punctuated by breezy, sunny days. It reminds me very much of my own English childhood, long before people got it into their heads that summer was a time of eternally warm, dry weather.

I also laugh at the way the computer predictions on my phone are so wrong, but disappear without a trace because they turn out to be incorrect. And I wonder two things. Why is this return to cooler weather not being seized upon by climate prophets as evidence that the future will in fact be moderate?

And how come experts who can’t predict the weather pattern in Somerset next week claim to know the fate of the entire planet for decades to come? The climate fanatics have abandoned all normal caution and proportion. And we know from the Covid panic where that leads.

George Bell restoration, best thing I’ve ever done

Eight years ago, I and a group of friends and allies took on the task of saving the reputation of a man we believed had been wrongly convicted of a terrible crime.

The late Bishop George Bell of Chichester (not to be confused with the disgusting proven criminal Peter Ball) was charged with child abuse almost 60 years after his death.

If you take on such matters, you can expect to be charged with sympathy for such crimes.

It mattered because, unusually for the Church of England, George Bell had been a man of tremendous moral courage, an anti-Nazi before it was fashionable, an ally of the German resistance to Hitler and a courageous opponent of the British bombing German civilians. a good Christian point of view.

I’m happy to say that the C of E finally admitted last week that it was wrong to convict him without due process (a serious legal review showed that the evidence didn’t hold up).

They gave up trying to erase his great name from the record and restored it to a building that had long been named after him. I forgive them with all my heart. And I think this might be the best thing I’ve ever done.