DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Memorial madness betrays our Fallen

Erected to comfort grieving families, Britain’s war memorials signal the nation’s determination to honour those who made the supreme sacrifice for our freedom.

So how sickeningly disrespectful for a seething pro-Palestinian mob to desecrate the Royal Artillery Memorial in Hyde Park on Wednesday by clambering all over it.

Was it really possible these flag-waving thugs did not realise the profound offence they would cause? Unlikely. Remembrance Sunday was only three days earlier. Poppy wreaths still lay at the plinth’s base.

The protesters couldn’t fail to know how important such memorials are to this country – and exactly what they stand for.

This act was almost certainly deliberately provocative. Indeed, it has been depressingly apparent recently that parts of the population detest Britain’s values.

How sickeningly disrespectful for a seething pro-Palestinian mob to desecrate the Royal Artillery Memorial in Hyde Park on Wednesday by clambering all over it

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley had the temerity to suggest arresting the yobs would itself have been illegal

The protesters couldn’t fail to know how important such memorials are to this country – and exactly what they stand for

Equally disgraceful was the police response. Instead of tackling those on the memorial, Met officers looked on supinely.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley had the temerity to suggest arresting the yobs would itself have been illegal. But would the police reaction have been so lame if white football fans holding Union flags had scrambled over such a sacred monument?

Rishi Sunak caved in to synthetic outrage and sacked Suella Braverman as home secretary for saying the police ‘play favourites’. Here is evidence she was right.

If the police genuinely need new powers to protect war memorials, ministers ought to strongly consider enacting them.

But first, they should remind chief constables not to pick sides with demonstrators – and to enforce the extensive laws that already exist.

House of Wreckers

Removing migrants who have come to this country unlawfully should not be a complicated business.

Yet successive governments have discovered it is all but impossible – with attempts thwarted by virtue-signalling politicians and the courts.

The Rwanda plan is the latest to suffer this fate. Stopping the small boats by sending Channel-hopping asylum seekers to the African nation is a popular policy.

After judges blocked it, Mr Sunak pledged emergency legislation to get the removal flights off the ground. This will fireproof the scheme against legal challenges, he says.

The public has voted time and again for politicians to tackle illegal immigration.

But with utter disregard for the will of the people, wreckers in the House of Lords have vowed to torpedo the new laws.

Stopping the small boats by sending Channel-hopping asylum seekers to the African nation is a popular policy

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has staked his reputation on delivering on Rwanda

They’ll inevitably claim to be carrying out their constitutional duty by tidying up draft statutes. But voters will see that the Upper House – stuffed with Labour and Lib Dem has-beens – is using guerrilla tactics to sabotage the Rwanda scheme.

By fighting the Government, these self-righteous peers will simply turn Britain’s immigration policy over to criminal gangs – and encourage more people to risk their lives in flimsy boats.

Reform of this unelected chamber can’t come soon enough. That, though, is for another day. Mr Sunak has staked his reputation on delivering on Rwanda. If he fails, it will not just be his credibility in tatters, but his electoral prospects too.

Coasters crackdown 

Plenty of people who claim unemployment benefits genuinely cannot find a suitable job.

But too many others abuse the generous system by refusing to look for work and instead living off the welfare state.

So the Chancellor is dead right to end this scandal by cutting Universal Credit for those who choose idleness over paid employment. This would save billions and coax people off the dole.

That’s not only good for the economy – it’s good for them too.

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