Cameron on “British values”
The Conservative Party leader David Cameron wrote in today's Observer about the "British values" issues which were under much discussion this past week. Of merit is his debunking of stupid suggestions like having a...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Spammers: why the scumbags do it
Getting the blog spammers to hang up their affiliations (Guardian Unlimited Technology) An article from today’s Guardian Technology supplement, about the intricacies (as they seem to me) of affiliate schemes and how they help...
The city’s in a panic with its first inch of snow
It’s not often that we get snow here in London, and even less often that I have to drive in it. I must say, it’s the condition I most fear as a professional driver,...
How racist is Britain?
How racist is Britain? Julian Baggini on why he doesn’t believe most white Britons are racists – even though he heard racist language almost everywhere he went (from today’s Guardian) This was in the...
The social engineering of integration
Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, today called for schools with an overwhelmingly Muslim pupil intake to be closed down and replaced with large academies serving a mixed community. In an interview with the Financial Times (apparently not online, but there’s a synopsis here), he claimed that the present situation of there being schools with an overwhelmingly Muslim intake and pupils who speak a foreign language, like Bangla, at home, “it has become a real strategic security problem”. “They would be much more likely to collaborate with the police and tell them people within their own community are doing things they shouldn’t be doing if they were better integrated,” he alleged.
More on Misbah Rana
Further to Wednesday's post on Misbah Rana, there is a well-balanced article on the Guardian comment site today, acknowledging that the recent custody decision on Misbah Rana is "the best, or the least bad,...
BBC feature on Misbah Rana
BBC Radio 4 – From Molly to Misbah This is a BBC radio programme which was on Radio 4 this afternoon (I’ve not listened to it yet) featuring Misbah Rana, the girl also known...
Such anger over the antics of idiots
I don’t know why I was surprised by the spectacle of protests in India, complete with effigy burnings, against the racist bullying of Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood actress, on the notorious Channel 4 programme Big Brother, two nights ago. I did not see the actual episode as (until last night) I didn’t watch this wretched, trashy, clapped-out programme. However, I did hear the discussion of the episode on yesterday morning’s Vanessa Feltz show, and most of it was not sympathetic to the three women responsible.
Reflections on “Undercover Mosque”
Having seen Channel 4's documentary Undercover Mosque, which was shown earlier this evening (see earlier entry), I am now more reassured regarding the material quoted from the preachers they showed; however, the programme-makers repeatedly...
Another victim of Britain’s press-driven immigration policy
The BBC is reporting that there was a protest today in Glasgow today against the intended removal of a Ugandan asylum-seeker who was seized when she went for her routine signing-on last Monday. The...
The Wahhabis are our problem, not yours
On Wednesday evening the Evening Standard ran an “exposé” on the central mosque in London, alleging that its bookshop was run by Wahhabis and that the mosque is run by Saudi Arabia. The specific accusation is that the bookshop sells DVDs by Khalid Yasin and one Shaikh Feiz which contains content the average white Briton might find offensive, among them that women are deficient in intelligence compared to men, that Jews are comparable to pigs and that Christian missionaries deliberately spread AIDS in Africa under the cover of vaccines for common dangerous diseases.
“The point” about gays and discrimination
Right now, as I write this, the British House of Lords (for non-Brits, that’s an unelected upper house which can only suggest amendments and delay laws, not actually block them, although it could in...
In praise of hypocrisy
This morning the Daily Mirror reported that the former Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, had sent her dyslexic son to a special private school because she felt that the provision in her area, Tower Hamlets...
“Ashley” and sterilising the severely disabled
I'm sure none of us has missed the story of "Ashley", the nine-year-old from Washington state whose parents subjected her to major surgery, removing her reproductive system and breast buds and giving her hormone...
Joe Queenan: the recurring white hope
From Friday's Guardian film/music review section, Joe Queenan on a recurring theme in Hollywood films prominently featuring Africa or black people generally: that "no matter how bleak the situation seems, they can always rely...
Secular fundamentalists “the new totalitarians”
Tobias Jones (of The Dark Heart of Italy fame) on militant atheists who behave like totalitarians, hiding among anti-sexists, anti-homophobes and anti-racists, but in reality seeking to erase religion totally from the Earth, starting...
Another false exposé by right-wing bloggers
Comment is free: Victim of the bloggers Brian Whitaker of how "patriotic" right-wing American bloggers saw a conspiracy where there was none, alleging that an Iraqi police captain, Jamil Hussain, was someone the Associated...
Is Ken really the man for this job?
In a couple of weeks' time there will be a conference in London, "A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations", featuring a long list of speakers including Ken Livingstone (the mayor of London),...
Manzoor: “Brits should integrate with Muslim values”
Sarfraz Manzoor, a regular contributor to the Guardian and Observer on the so-called Muslim values which gives our community its supposed strength: Muslim parents also tend to be less interested in child-centred parenting and...
Foreign drivers and safety
This morning on Radio 5 Live, the BBC’s AM rolling news/discussion station, they were discussing the topic of whether immigration was good for “your wallet” or not, a somewhat inflammatory topic inspired by yet...