21st March 1941. After 15 weeks siege the Italian garrison of the Libyan desert stronghold of Jarabub surrendered. The picture shows victorious Australian troops surveying the dead.
Sixty years later, pictures from New South Wales show disastrous floods with entire houses floating away; Italy faces a new national lock-down because of a global pandemic and Britons, rather than fighting together, are attacking their own police forces to protest about strict government regulations.
The new bill before Parliament that the rioters decry merely intends to give the police greater powers to deal with gatherings which would potentially spread deaths in this country.
The powers granted to the government and the police in 1941 went much further and were geared more towards causing death and disruption elsewhere.
“Wake up Britain.” as Lady Astor might have said.
General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings 