Bishop Bashing - In A Left Footed Stylee

The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, a body who make the Church of England look like the League Of Empire Loyalists, have issued a new 'teaching document' pointing out that not all of the Bible is to be believed.

Peter Glover has issued what he calls a 'thinwa' ('like a fatwa, but with less calories') pointing out that not all documents produced by Catholic Bishops are to be believed.

The Tories

I haven't had time to post on the Tory leadership shenanigans, though I see a Chris Dillow report that the great Aaronovitch has come out in favour of David Davis.

Mr Davis, for all his weekend warnings to the almost non-existent Religious Right, is a hanger, has voted against ending discrimination against gay people and has admitted that, though the father of three, he never changed a nappy. Individually these preferences would be only mildly disturbing. Together they almost amount to a persona.

Sounds like a good bloke to me.

Dumb Jon says most of what I'd have wanted to say, in a piece so good it could have come from Mark Steyn.

But there's one other factor the Tories need to think about. I don't expect to see a public debate of even a fringe meeting discussing it. You can only talk in code about 'do we look like modern Britain ?'

Approximately 10% of the "ethnic minority" vote goes to the Tories.

That fact alone accounts for most of the 2% vote share gap between Labour and the Conservatives.

It also accounts for their disappearance from urban constituencies in England.

Around 25-30% of babies born in England are born to ethnic minorities or recent immigrants.

So on current trends the Tories will have even fewer votes in the future, as their voters die and are replaced on the roll by young Africans, Bangladeshis, Indians, Poles.

There are therefore three choices open to the Tories.

a) embrace multiculturalism in a half-hearted fashion as done currently, with the conspicuous success described above, in the hope that the wheels will come off Gordon Brown's bus in spectacular fashion.

b) embrace it and really mean it - go beyond Teresa May's wildest dreams. Major on self-help and education (thank you Hindu voters) and family values (add the Muslim vote). Problems ? Most competent potential Indian/Hindu leaders are too busy making money to bother with politics, Muslim leaders care about politics, but it's intimately linked with religion. The other great risk is that you'll shed party members like autumn leaves, some of whom, perfectly decent people, will find a home in the BNP.

c) accept the fact that these votes are unattainable and all that springs therefrom. Become the political voice of the Native Brits, grab what remains of the white working class vote, campaign strongly against further immmigration while retaining a strictly One Nation approach (i.e. no discrimination of any kind, judging on content of character rather than skin colour etc) to those immigrants already here and their descendants. Risk - a sad farewell to the Letwins and Camerons of this world. Plus no prospect of power for the foreseeable. On the plus side, the BNP will wither away like the State in an ideal Socialist society.

None of these look terribly palatable choices. But major demographic change is already with us. Its first political fruits were seen in Bethnal Green earlier this year. There'll be more - I imagine rather a lot more.

"I warn you not to grow old, I warn you not to fall ill ..."

Visiting Grandma in hospital ?

Don't forget the food parcels.

(We have been here before).

Nazi Prison Officers Exposed

Or something like that.

NHS News

Me no understand doctor. Gordon Brown has increased health spending to record levels. And all the NHS primary care trusts are running out of money.



Remember the joke about the out-of-hours call to the doctor always resulting in the prescription "take two aspirins and see me on Monday if it's not better" ?

It's actually two paracetamol. And it's not funny.

"A grieving father broke down in tears yesterday as he listened to a tape of his daughter pleading for a doctor to visit her, hours before she died of meningitis.

The first day of the hearing was told that when Miss Miah first called, she was told to take a couple of paracetamols and call back if her condition worsened.

In the middle of the night she began vomiting, complaining she had pins and needles in her arms and legs and saying her neck and legs were sore. Miss Miah, in another phone call to the helpline, was told that doctors only did home visits "if it is an emergency".

When a doctor eventually arrived at the family home, Miss Miah was screaming in pain and unable to speak. She was rushed to hospital by ambulance where she died later in the day."

Did You Know ...

... that slavery in Saudi Arabia was only abolished in 1962 ?

(info from Bernard Lewis' fascinating book 'The Crisis of Islam', which I devoured over the weekend - and very tasty it was, too)

The Guardian vs Scott Burgess Round II

Either the anonymous Observer hack who penned this doesn't know what he's talking about, or it's another dig at the great man (who, remember, "spends his time indoors posting repeated attacks on the Guardian") from the Guardian/Observer combine.

"It was Harry who revealed that Dilpazier Aslam, a trainee reporter at the Guardian, was a member of Hizb'ut Tahrir, a radical Islamic group, under the memorable headline: 'Why is the Guardian employing an extremist Islamist?'

Aslam's contract was subsequently ended. A rare example of a British blogger doing what his US counterparts do so well - shaping the news agenda rather than merely commenting on it."

Now Harry is a great blogger. But he would be the first to admit, as the Guardian has previously done, that Scott Burgess did the research and broke the story.

Light Blogging ...

As ever, take a look at the Dumb One's stuff.

Just a wee thought, as Turkey's potential EU entry is all ove the broadsheets and BBC. I'm getting a flavour of 'they're really nice - but if we don't let them in they'll be our enemies forever' from the usual suspects. Would you let someone into a party with a pitch like that ?

You do have to wonder what dark fears lurk in the hearts of liberals. General de Gaulle put a ten-year block on Britain's membership of the EU - yet I don't recall any sense of a 'clash of civilisations'.

Ther's a bit of a parallel with the BBC's view of British Muslims, spun in this report as 'nice guys - and if you say different watch out for riots'.

Hurry Up And Come Back

The eponymous founder of group blog Harry's Place is suspending blogging (another long and thoughtful post with no less than 276 comments as I write) due to work and family commitments (probably Mrs H wants to use the laptop), though the site continues. Harry's was one of the first blogs I ever read, and it's still one of the first I read each day. I may disagree with some of what they write, but they're decent people.

Thank you Harry - and come back whenever you like.

Call Me Old Fashioned ...

But I'd assumed that pretty much anyone with a knowledge of British history (note - that doesn't mean a GCSE at O or A level, alas) would have heard of the Barbary Coast Pirates, Muslim sea-rovers who operated off the coats of Britain in much the same way that the Vikings had 800 years previously.

Seems to have come as quite a shock to the Divine Ms M.

The Dumb One calls it Four Hundred Years Of Dhimmitude, but it ain't really. It's just what they did. It was the culture, man. And the Knights Hospitaller of St John (yes, the forebears of those nice First Aid people) and other Christian corsairs took their share of slaves when intercepting the ships of the Ottoman Empire.

Perhaps it might stop liberals beating themselves up about slavery to be reminded that it had been an integral part of most Islamic economies for seven hundred years before John Hawkins started sailing West African waters, continued into modern times in Arabia, and continues today in places like Sudan.

Aussie Uni Appoints Heterosexuality Officer

I must say the University of New England, logically enough situated in New South Wales, sounds an entertaining place.

While many of Australia's 38 universities have a queer officer to represent gay students, Dave Allen, 22, is the only heterosexuality officer in the country.

Last night, as he loaded his Holden ute for a night of roo-shooting near his home town of Narrabri, Mr Allen said he did not give "a rat's arse" about homosexuals as long as they were not being given special treatment.

"It doesn't matter whether you're straight, gay, black, white or brindle, but when it starts getting 'Oh, we need a space for us to hang out', it's crap; just come down the pub and have a few beers with us," he said.

He had not seen or heard of any harassment of gays at UNE that would necessitate a queer safe space.

"I'm a country redneck bloke and I seem to mix all right with city people without having to find my own little country space," Mr Allen said.

Dangly-cork hat-tip - iFeminists newsfeed.

Shocking Court Revelation

A social worker said Mr Gray appeared "disinterested in attending the police station and court with your son".

The social worker described this as "concerning".

I'm concerned, too, that our social workers can't tell the difference between 'disinterested' (unbiased, impartial) and 'uninterested'.

Real Life Makes Satire Redundant Part 412

Boy, 11, banned from driving

Top Comedian At Labour Conference

Charles Clarke has vowed to "eliminate" anti-social behaviour and disrespect in society by the time of the next general election "whenever it comes".

Meanwhile in the real world ...

The Old Bailey heard how the youth and his 14-year-old friend, who was found guilty of blackmail, waged a campaign of intimidation against the victim's 13-year-old son. The pair, who denied the charges, hung round the boy's home last December, demanding he give them £20 and a copy of the computer game, Grand Theft Auto. The 14-year-old warned him to hand over the game and the cash or he would kill his father.

Neither of the defendants, both from Brixton, south London, can be named because they are juveniles. Judge James Stewart QC also ordered that the bullied boy, who gave evidence against the defendants, should not be identified, meaning his father cannot be named. The court heard the boy told his 35-year-old father about the threats and on December 16, the defendants were again cycling around the boy's home.
The father tried to phone police but was put on hold, and, ignoring his wife's and son's pleas, went outside to remonstrate with the pair. The older boy stabbed him with a single wound to the heart. He managed to stagger home, where his family called an ambulance to rush him to hospital, but he died within a couple of hours.

The Guardian's crime correspondent, Rosie Cowan, is a bit of a comedienne too. She thinks the killer is 'facing life imprisonment'.

Evens he's out by age 20, 100-1 against him being still inside at 25.

And the 14 year old, who told the boy his father would be killed ? Out by 16 for sure, in the unlikely event he goes away. After all, you shouldn't put children in prison, should you ?

Another Terrorist Victory

Perhaps the police interviewing Mr Wolfgang could spare a bit of time to check out these people.

A chain of children's nurseries has become the target of animal rights activists who are attempting to close down the chemicals testing company Huntingdon Life Sciences, it emerged yesterday.

The directors of Leapfrog Day Nurseries, the biggest provider of childcare in the UK, received letters warning them to sever all links with HLS, which has been the subject of sustained protests over its use of animals, including experiments for pharmaceutical research.

Leapfrog, which runs 102 nurseries and was offering childcare vouchers to HLS employees, yesterday said it had received threats of physical force and that it had cut its ties to HLS.

What's That ?

Blogging ?

New Labour - New Freedoms

Not content with jailing pensioners for council tax arrears, they're being questioned under terrorism legislation for shouting 'nonsense' at Jack Straw.

According to a Radio Four PM report, when 82 year old Walter Wolfgang, a party mermber since 1948, was manhandled by stewards, the chairman of his constituency party tried to stop them, only to be himself assaulted and thrown out. Outside the hall his pass was taken.

When Mr Wolfgang attempted to use his pass to re-enter the conference, he was stopped by police, who said they needed to question him under anti-terror laws.

UPDATE - the excellent Wardyblog tells us all to calm down.

Light Blogging Alert

Due to upcoming change of employer.

Here We Go Again

I don't think this work of art has been withdrawn to spare the feelings of Christians or Jews, do you ?

Tate Britain "misunderstood" a piece of art it took out of a show to avoid religious offence, its creator said.
The gallery cancelled plans to display John Latham's God Is Great, concerned in particular that it could upset Muslims after London's 7 July bombings.

An Academic Writes

Dr Martyn Amos of Exeter University was incensed by the BBC report on the pensioner jailed for non-payment of council tax.

The BBC's John Kay said: "One of the pensioners I've talked to described her as the council tax equivalent of Emily Pankhurst or the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

"That is how she is being perceived by people down here, where her plight has been recognised for some time."

I was pretty furious when I read that, too. Don't the BBC know that it was Emmeline Pankhurst, not Emily, who led the WSPU before the First World War. Emily Davison was the one who chucked herself under the favourite in a well-organised betting coup which made £23,000 for Emmeline's daughter Christabel.

Dr Amos has other concerns.

"Her stance is a purely political gesture, not that of an impoverished pensioner scraping by on a tiny pension. To compare her to Emily Pankhurst is (a) wildly inaccurate, and (b) offensive."

He's right. Quite apart from Emily/Emmeline, unlike Mrs Pankhurst, Sylvia Hardy has organised no campaigns of vandalism or arson. And it is certainly offensive to compare a harmless retired lady to the woman who in 1917 founded the Womens Party, successor to the WSPU, on a platform of abolishing trade unions and eliminating all persons of non-British descent from government departments and essential industries.