Blair not the man to lead Brexit fightback
The former British prime minister, Tony Blair, today gave a speech in the City of London in which he declared that Brexit could be defeated if the people who opposed it "rise up" (the...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
On the “Muslim Luther” fallacy that won’t die
Last night on BBC's Newsnight, there was a two-minute slot by a Canadian journalist called Graeme Wood, who claimed that the rise of the "Islamic State" was equivalent to the Christian Reformation spearheaded by...
How prevalent is FGM in the UK really?
Last Monday was apparently FGM Awareness Day, and that means there were a lot of FGM stories in the media with vain attempts to interpret figures in a new way to make a story...
Who are ‘Liberty GB’ anyway?
Yesterday Channel 4 News broadcast a conversation involving Jack Buckby, the "outreach officer" and former parliamentary candidate for 'Liberty GB', and Barbara Ntumy, deputy president of the London Metropolitan University students' union and a...
Citizenship is not just a visa
Today three members of the notorious 'grooming gangs' who raped and sexually abused girls in the Rochdale area lost an appeal against deportation to Pakistan. Two of the men, who were jailed in 2012,...
Trump has no business in any parliament
The speaker of the Commons, John Bercow, has made himself unpopular (again) with a number of Tory MPs for announcing that he will not allow Donald Trump to address the Commons if and when...
Trump’s election is no ‘rejection of elites’
In yesterday's Observer, there is a piece by one John Daniel Davidson, identified as "a senior correspondent for the Federalist" who lives in Austin, Texas, defending Donald Trump from claims that he is a...
Time for Europhiles to divide and rule
So, in the last few weeks Jeremy Corbyn has shown his true Euro-Sceptic colours, issuing a three-line whip to order his MPs to vote in favour of the government's bill to trigger Article 50...
Life isn’t fair?
The other day I came across a discussion on the forum MumsNet about a boy at primary school who had been, for the umpteenth time, given a trivial role in his school play while...
Why couldn’t Dean Saunders get a secure hospital place?
Last Friday an inquest jury gave its verdict in the case of Dean Saunders, who killed himself in Chelmsford Prison in January 2016 having been remanded there having injured his father who tried to...
Treaty rights versus legal rights
A couple of days ago there was a demonstration in Dublin to pressure the government there to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD), which Ireland has signed but...
How to make sure wheelchair users can ride the bus
'Wheelchair v buggy': Disabled man wins Supreme Court case — BBC News Today the Supreme Court gave its ruling on whether FirstBus, a major provider of bus services throughout the UK, discriminated against a...
Stonehenge, and the A303, really need that tunnel
Stonehenge Tunnel plan finalised by government — BBC News So, the government have finally agreed on plans to build a tunnel to the south of the ancient stone circle, Stonehenge, outside Amesbury in Wiltshire....
Jill Saward, the Press and civil liberties
Last week Jill Saward (pronounced Say-ward), best known for having been the victim of the notorious "Ealing Vicarage" rape attack in 1986 in which she was raped and subjected to other sexual assaults and...
Watership Down: the significance of Cowslip
In today's Guardian, there is a piece by Giles Fraser about what might be the significance of the book Watership Down, whose author Richard Adams died earlier this week. Focusing on the part of...
On Black Lives Matter and Muslim participation
On Friday evening a well-known western Muslim scholar, in an interview with the British journalist Mehdi Hasan at the Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) 2016 conference in Toronto, made some offensive and inaccurate remarks...
CyanogenMod knocked on head
Update 26th Dec: Cyanogen, Inc. turned off CyanogenMod's web servers yesterday, likely in response to a final blog post from the team. The download site remains up until the end of the month. As...
Regarding Brandon Reid
Brandon Reid is a 16-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome whose family home is in Sheffield. He was in the news in November when a local paper and then the Daily Mail reported that the...
Some thoughts on the Berlin truck atrocity
On Monday evening, someone hijacked a 40-tonne Scania articulated lorry, murdered the driver, and then drove it into the Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people. Police arrested a suspect, an asylum seeker from Pakistan,...
Does Sleaford really matter much more than Richmond?
Why Sleaford matters more than Richmond – CapX Last week there were two by-elections in the UK triggered by resignations of MPs. One was in Richmond Park, in which Zac Goldsmith had resigned from...