THERE was a period of about a fortnight after September 11 when the chattering classes and the left-wing establishment stopped chattering and crawled back into the woodwork. I have, unfortunately, often found myself at these people's dinner parties - north London is infested with them - where you have to endure their snarling hatred of our country's history and traditions.

Lefties in the education industry have managed to get the teaching of English history banned from the schools. I mean the historical framework of monarchs, battles, treaties, explorations and conquests, which most of us learnt when we were at school. These crucial events are now considered politically incorrect.

You can't teach about kings and queens, because that's elitist and class-ridden. You can't talk about world exploration, because that smacks of imperialism. So a profound historical ignorance is inculcated into today's children, who leave school knowing nothing about the history of the land they have inherited.

The lefties shut up after September 11 because even they did not have the gall to carry on running down western civilisation in the wake of the mass murders in New York and Washington. But the chattering classes are back, emoting all over the newspapers and the air waves about the treatment of al Qaida prisoners being held in Cuba. I must say I enjoyed Andrew Neil's response on David Frost's Sunday morning programme. A viewer had called to complain that the al Qaida wretches had had their beards cut off. Neil said: "Their beards is it? Back where they come from, they cut hands and feet off."

As Donald Rumsfeld has said, these prisoners are among the most ruthless and murderous people in the world. We are dealing here with thugs and terrorists whose sole reason for living is to attempt to destroy our way of life. What are we supposed to do with them - give them tobacco, colour television, a game of snooker in the evenings and a weekly conjugal visit? As usual, the bishops lead the carping. Michael Turnbull, Bishop of Durham, says: "There are indications that the treatment of the prisoners is less than the desired conditions. Some of these people are British subjects after all. If this was in Britain, there would be an outcry." I doubt it, My Lord - except from the usual suspects.

The Bishop of Salisbury, David Stancliffe, says: "Whatever their alleged crimes, there is no justification for dehumanising treatment." The al Qaida members have been shackled, blindfolded and perhaps sedated. These are the sensible precautions anyone would take when escorting fanatical murderers on an aeroplane.

I'm afraid the horrors of September 11 have faded enough for normal anti-British, anti-American service to be resumed. Three times over the weekend I heard it said that the bombing of the World Trade Centre was our own fault. Or that it happened because of America's support for Israel.

Look, chatterers, appeasers and leftie diners, give the western nations which feed you the support which is your patriotic duty, or else stop the carping and crawl back into the woodwork where you belong.

Published: Tuesday, January 22, 2002