Think Of It Always - Speak Of It Never

There are some political truths that are better not uttered. Take terrorism and the Iraq war, for example. You know, I know, the cat knows that overthrowing Saddam made a terrorist attack, home-grown or sourced overseas, more likely. IMHO that's just one of those crosses we have to bear.

Some on the left love to remind us of this basic truth - particularly in its home-grown variant. The Government, for eminently sensible reasons, shy away from it like an alcoholic sighting a pink elephant.

The BBC, for some reason, really likes to play the 'if you upset them they'll riot/blow things up' angle, often mixed 50/50 with 'really nice people/religion of peace'.

I can only assume that for the left, and for the BBC, the tolerance and good nature of the natives is a given that they can presume upon, no matter what is inflicted upon them. Their first reaction to 9/11 was to ask 'what have we done to upset them ?', so they assume that the mass of Brits will react likewise to 7/7 and any future slaughters.

Here's a BBC piece on the proposed new Britishness lessons, in which one 'Harris Bokhara' (sounds like a tweed rug to me), of the Muslim Association of Britain, tells it bluntly.

"What was the reason why these people actually committed these disgusting acts?

Unfortunately it was our foreign policy, it was the issue of the illegal war, the illegal occupation of Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the continuing abuses of the Palestinian people, the illegal occupation of Palestine by the Israeli state.

So I think until the government actually addresses these issues unfortunately we'll keep on having these problems in the UK particularly."

Can't put it straighter than that. The MAB spokesman's message is simple :

"Change British foreign policy or more British Muslims will try to kill you. You may not like it, we may not like it - but that's the way it is."