She loathes Islam, yet supports all right wing beliefs of conservative pro-Israel Judaism. On Planet mel, Israel can do no wrong. She is vociferously anti-gay. Funniest of all, she claims to be a liberal.

Whatever one’s views about the veil, Mad Mel’s motivations are highly suspect

“The niqab is a politically motivated garment, in my view.”

What does that even mean? My niqab doesn’t have stickers on it saying, “Impeach Bush” or “Vote Tory” or anything… I honestly don’t even know what it would mean to wear it for political reasons. I don’t believe you do either, but if so, please explain it to me.

I’d rather stay and change the British way of doing things.

Were that the case, there’d be no need for banks and building societies to ask people to remove them, would there? There are no similar signs requesting customers not to engage in communal singing while on the premises, because that would be redundant.

Unless you’re suggesting that such signs are for the benefit of foreigners who don’t understand our ways, then clearly there are Brits who, left to their own devices, wouldn’t bother to remove their motorcycle helmets when entering banks.

I don’t know how much experience you have of dealing with banks, Old Pickler, but I can assure you they don’t normally refuse to do business with someone just because they think his behaviour is insufficiently British.

So should Melanie Phillips leave because she thinks the British media is institutionally anti-semitic?

Another issue is the purpose of the niqab. The requirement of the Koran that women (and men - though this is less talked about) should dress modestly is not unique to Islam. Orthodox Christian women wear head scarves in Church and Jewish men wear skullcaps. But the niqab is a garment that draws attention to the woman. Surely, if modesty is the issue, women should not draw attention to themselves.

Remember the Luton schoolgirl in the jilbab? She was plastered all over the front page of the newspapers. Modesty?

The niqab is a politically motivated garment, in my view.

Only, IMO, if you’re a coward.

If Muslims or any other group don’t like the way the British do things, there is an obvious solution: leave.

That’s because banks have a not unreasonable fear, based on experience, that people may wear crash-helmets to disguise themselves when robbing a bank. If many banks have been raided lately by niqab-wearing robbers, I must have missed it.

Crash helmets also raise suspicion because you wouldn’t naturally wear one when you’re not actually on your bike — I speak from experience here — because they’re uncomfortable and make it difficult for you to hear what people are saying; that it, a biker who enters a bank or shop wearing his helmet is behaving unusually for a biker. A woman wearing a niqab in a bank or anywhere else is, in contrast, not behaving particularly strangely.

And, of course, requests to your customers who’re bikers to remove their helmets are not going to upset them in the same way requests to your niqab-wearing customers are likely to cause offence. And successful businesses try to avoid upsetting their customers whenever possible.

So is showing emotion (traditionally). Lets have a national debate on that.

Motor cyclists are asked to remove their helmets in banks and other places, and niqabs should also be outlawed.

That sentence doesn’t make sense.What do you mean also outlawed? Helmets aren’t outlawed.