Jon Gaunt: Oik
Jon Gaunt's show this morning demonstrated how much respect has gone out of our society and how anti-intellectualism has come into fasion – perhaps not to the same extent as in the USA, but...
Author: Matthew Smith
David Blunkett policy maker
The Register has linked this marvellous David Blunkett policy generator page – a site which can generate “draconian rhetoric, whenever you need it”. It may generate real Plonkett policy. (Hat tip: Roger Whittaker at...
Bad diet … bad behaviour
Further to my earlier remarks about diet and behaviour at the bottom of this entry, the BBC has a piece about a report indicating that malnutrition leads to low intelligence, irritability and bad behaviour...
The Olympic bid
Am I the only person in London who gets thoroughly annoyed at the “Back the Bid” propaganda which is being displayed all over town? I was on the District Line today and saw these...
New Apple Centre
A new Apple Store has opened up in London’s Regent Street, which is the first to open in Europe. It’s been very eagerly awaited, and it’s said that some people decided to sleep outside...
Yet another new virus
There’s a report at the BBC’s site about a new virus which “comes back from the dead” if you don’t delete all of it. One thing struck me when reading this report: The infectious...
Nada Jarrar on Khouri and other horror stories
There is an article in today’s Guardian by the Lebanese-Australian novelist Nada Jarrar, about the phenomenon of horror stories about the life of Muslim women being published in the west, with particular focus on...
Disruptive children and special schools
This morning on Jon Gaunt’s show they were talking about the recently announced government policy of moving “excluded” (expelled) children into the more popular schools, so that such kids don’t end up being concentrated...
They’re going for Mosul now
The BBC is reporting that the Americans, having “secured” Falluja, are now working on taking out “insurgents” in Mosul. Ahem, what happened to those Kurdish insurgents which the Americans were supposedly supporting before this...
MPACUK: Do the Saudis own Eid?
MPACUK (Muslim Public Affairs Council, UK) have three articles in response to the annual repeat of the “moon fitna” at the beginning and end of Ramadan: When Exactly Was Your Eid? Do the Saudis...
Travellers undressed by Heathrow X-ray machine
Reuters reports that Heathrow Airport, the biggest airport in the UK, has been doing a 4-month trial of an X-ray machine which produces an “atomically detailed” black-and-white picture of what someone’s like under his...
Gary Younge: Why Should Muslims Integrate?
Gary Younge, in the Guardian today, has an opinion piece on the tendency of the liberal left to criticise religious people, as in America, while overlooking their own fundamentalism in opposition to religion. Towards...
The “outrage machine” strikes again
I was listening to Radio 4’s Feedback programme this afternoon, and there was a feature on the response to a piece on the BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent programme. The piece, Yasser Arafat’s unrelenting...
Who’s asking for special treatment?
Jon Gaunt, BBC London‘s notorious morning talk show presenter, had a feature today about two issues affecting Muslims in the UK. One was about a shopping centre in Birmingham supposedly banning Santa Claus in...
Reaction to Berkshire train crash
Last Saturday a high-speed express train from London to Plymouth hit a car which had been driven, or become stuck, on a level crossing west of Reading (pronounced Redding) in Berkshire. The radio phone-in...
Reflections on the recent US elections
This is the first real opportunity I’ve had to blog about the outcome of the US elections. Everyone I know is gutted, and the best anyone could come up with as a “silver lining”...
Why we shouldn’t support vigilante actions
I’m sure most of you have heard that an obscure Dutch film-maker, Theo Van Gogh, was murdered earlier this week. He was killed by a person of Dutch citizenship and Moroccan ancestry, who is...
Fudged answers on Iran
I’ve just been watching the BBC’s Question Time and watched a British politician fudge an answer on whether the UK would support a US invasion of Iran. Jack Straw was quoted earlier by the...
Israelis punish teenage bomber’s family
The BBC reports that the Israelis have demolished the home of the teenage suicide bomber who blew himself up in a Tel Aviv market yesterday. The report makes it clear that he did not...
IQ & Bush support
Dr Maxtor has posted an amusing report which indicates that there is a correlation between low IQ and support for Bush. Among people of IQs above 140, there is 80% support for Kerry, among...