Pinochet: goodbye and good riddance
It was with some delight that I read the news this evening that General Pinochet had died. It cheered me up somewhat since I've been feeling rather depressed this week. I don't have any...
Category: News
Misbah case: the mother should let her go
Comment is free: If you love somebody … Yvonne Roberts argues that the best thing for Misbah Rana's mother to do if she actually cares for her daughter is to let her go: Whatever...
Have the jobsworths struck again?
Today a Coptic Christian woman, Nadia Eweida, lost her appeal against a decision by British Airways staff not to allow her back into a public-facing role while wearing her cross pendant. Today the Archbishop...
419 scams “still a huge problem”
A study by Chatham House reveals that the Nigerian "419 scam", in which people are scammed out of "advance fees" when they respond to letters asking for help getting the scammers' wealth out of...
British gynaecologists back euthanasia
I always find myself surprised when I agree with anything Melanie Phillips says, but when she’s not talking about global warming (or the lack thereof) or anything to do with Islam, Israel, or the so-called “War on Terror” and its offshoots, which is nowadays what she’s best known for, I often do. In this case, it’s the declaration of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in favour of the “active euthanasia” of severely disabled babies. In the Netherlands, infant euthanasia is allowed “for a range of incurable conditions, including severe spina bifida and the painful skin condition called epidermolysis bullosa”.
Ugly modernist plan for Olympic mosque
Could Britain's mosques ever compete with the east's great places of worship? This article featured in yesterday's Guardian's G2 supplement, and unlike the online version it had a picture of the new proposed mosque...
The other side of micro-credit
The Micro-Credit Cult This is an article from a free-market libertarian website (called *The Free Market*) regarding the Grameen Bank, the institution run by the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Younus. Among other...
PC Bashar not ‘excused on moral grounds’
Here is a police statement regarding the malicious story circulated in the press yesterday regarding PC Alexander Omar Basha, who was excused duty guarding the Israeli embassy in London for the duration of this...
It’s not about her virginity
The author of this article at Comment is Free drew this outrageous conclusion to her story about growing up in a Pakistani family which wasn’t that religious but was very strongly “traditional” with regard...
Stupid dog owners, stupid drivers
Over the last couple of weeks, two separate news stories have emerged, both related to people owning toys which, frankly, are too big and grown up for them: dogs and cars. Last weekend a...
On Natascha Kampusch and ‘Stockholm Syndrome’
One of the biggest news stories the past couple of weeks has been the reappearance of a young woman called Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped on her way to school, aged 10, in March 1998. For most of the time she was kept in a windowless underground cell measuring 3m x 4m (9ft x 13ft), being allowed out for the first time in May of this year according to some accounts. As you might expect, it’s a sensational story with the media somewhat frustrated by the refusal of the young lady and those around her to furnish them with salacious details. This has led to a lot of column inches being spent on speculation and commentary.
£800,000 for this?
One of the biggest British news stories of the past week, apart from the carnage in Lebanon that is, was the payout of £800,000 ($1.52 million) to a woman who had been the victim...
Somali slashing and Syrian repatriation
The BBC programme Broadcasting House had a feature on the Somali community this morning, in reaction to the case of a girl being slashed by a Somali classmate, an orphan with a very low...
Zahid died in jailers’ game
The report on the murder of Zahid Mubarek, the Asian youth jailed for “going equipped” and murdered in his cell in Feltham young offenders’ institution in March 2000, has just been issued, and a press conference can be seen at that page (see this earlier post). It was alleged on Channel 4 News that evidence existed that the staff at the institution had a game called “Gladiators”, which involved putting unsuitable inmates in the same cell so the staff could see the fireworks.
Zia Sardar on intelligence
Zia Sardar in the current edition of the New Statesman on the folly of “intelligence-led” police operations:
Don’t be fooled by the mantra that intelligence is an extremely difficult business, prone to absurdly wide margins of error. If that were so, Britain would have lost the Second World War. The remarkable success of British intelligence, including counter-intelligence, during that war proves that we can produce reasonable – say, 25 or even 50 per cent – rates of success.
Nick Cohen on last Sunday’s demo
Here is what Nick Cohen has to say about a demonstration I attended outside Scotland Yard (London police HQ) last Sunday in response to the bungled Forest Gate raid. He is suggesting that everyone...
Quotes from Forest Gate brothers
BBC NEWS | UK | In quotes: Terror raid brothers Abdul Kahar: As soon as I turn around I just see an orange spark and a big bang. At that time I flew into...
Forest Gate: it was either this or that
STOP PRESS: the Forest Gate brothers have been released Plus: in this week's New Statesman, former editor Peter Wilby on the contradictory stories of the events last Friday: The brothers who lived there were...
Crazies march today; real demo this Sunday
The family of the two men arrested in the raid a week ago are urging Muslims not to take part in a march organised by "al-Ghurabaa", an off-shoot of al-Muhajiroun, according to this report...