Unrepentant

Remember the anti-Christian Gay Police advert ?

It stated: "In the last 12 months, the GPA has recorded a 74% increase in homophobic incidents, where the sole or primary motivating factor was the religious belief of the perpetrator."



It was slapped down by the Advertising Standards Authority as breaching their guidelines on decency, truthfulness and substantiation (i.e. the "evidence" mysteriously failed to materialise when the ASA (presumably) asked for it).

You'd think this would be an unsavoury episode the GPA would want to forget all about.

Not so.

Gay Christians have been presented with an award for their work in combating homophobia.

The award was given to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) following their support for a controversial advert which appeared in the Independent newspaper, challenging faith-based homophobia ...

He went on to praise Richard Kirker for the support that he and members of the LGCM had offered the GPA in response to the campaign organised by some Evangelical and Fundamentalist groups who had opposed the contents of the GPA advertisement. Rev Kirker at the time had described the advertisement as “courageous and wholly justifiable in exposing the scourge of religiously motivated homophobia”. He had also made contact with the Home Office, the Metropolitan Police and the Advertising Standards Agency, defending the actions of the GPA. As a result of the response to the GPA advertisement, in February 2007 LGCM hosted the very first national conference on Faith, Homophobia and Human Rights which was supported by 50 other organisations.

In fairness, Ekklesia (the Guardian at prayer) may be putting their own special emphasis on the advert. There are other reasons for the award.

Introducing the award Kevin Boyle a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Gay Police Association (GPA) said that Richard Kirker, chief executive of the LGCM, had first come to his attention in June 2000 when he was involved in a police investigation into homophobic attacks against the Rev Follett, the Vicar of Knightsbridge.

At the time the investigation attracted huge media interest. Kevin stated that whilst many in the church had condemned the victim because of his sexual orientation, Richard Kirker had gone on record to urge the Bishop of London not to tolerate the homophobic witch-hunt. Richard Kirker had also supported the police investigation and had supported the Rev Follett throughout the protracted enquiry.

I know nowt about l'affaire Follett, but a quick Google gave me this BBC report.

Father Neil Follett, vicar of St Paul's, Knightsbridge, is in hiding on police advice after finding himself the victim of a hate campaign.

Police are investigating allegations of blackmail and intimidation after Fr Follett told the parochial church council he was gay.

Blackmail and intimidation, eh ? In hiding on police advice ? The Register had more.

The Reverend Neil Follett, 50, struck up a friendship with a German academic over the Internet. This resulted in the German visiting him at his Victorian vicarage in London's exclusive Knightsbridge district. But the relationship soured, according to today's Times newspaper, after the two bickered over an alleged credit-card bill. The academic decided to play his trump card, and threatened to reveal the Rev's sexuality secret to the tabloids.

Follet, who has three kids and is separated from his wife, revealed details of the blackmail to churchwardens and members of the parochial church council and told them he was gay, before doing a bunk on police advice. The scandal came just days after churchwarden Captain Ian Powe - who commanded HMS Yarmouth during the 'Cod War' - was arrested for alleged anti-gay harassment against Follet. Captain Powe, who has denied any wrongdoing, is out on bail.

Captain Powe was at the time 67 years old, chair of the Standards Committee of his local council and chair of the British Gas Consumers council. Also arrested was Maggie Quaile, a 63 year old member of the congregation.

The human heart is a difficult thing to fathom. But do these sound like the kind of people who'd put you in fear of your life ? The police obviously thought so.

As so often, it was difficult to find out what became of the police investigation. This hard to read text feed was the only information I could find.

The Metropolitan police could face a £30,000 legal bill over the "distressing" treatment of two church wardens by a gay officer investigating threats against a gay vicar. Captain Ian Powe,67, and Maggie Quaile,63, of St Paul's parish in Knightsbridge have received an apology from the police. Powe and Quaile were arrested by Detective Sergean Paul Cahill, who has since been promoted to inspector, in June last year when the vicar, the Rev Neill Follett, claimed he was being blackmailed by his former gay lover. After a "vindictive and homophobic" fax was received by one of Rev Follett's friends, Powe and Quaile were arrested and held at Belgravia police station for six hours. They were released without charge. The case has never been resolved. DS Cahill is chairman of the Lesbian and Gay Police Association. His decision, however, to arrest the church wardens who were happy to help with police enquiries, is now in question. A letter from Detective Chief Superintendent Shaun Swyer, Commander of Professional Standards Internal Investigations to Capt Powe reads: 'It is my view that your arrest was disproportionate and heavy-handed. I wish to apologise for your distress'. Capt Power is now attempting to recoup his £30,000 legal bill. Cahill told the Mail on Sunday that he "treated this investigation with no bias". Rev Neill Follett has since retired.

Captain Powe wasn't too chuffed by his arrest.

"I used to have an expression that worse things happen at sea," Powe said earlier this week. "I'm not using it any more." At St Paul's, Powe is seen as the second victim in the case. "I don't think he'll be saying much at the moment," said one parish insider. "Not after what he has been through."

This unfortunate episode may have upset the good Captain, but it hasn't done DS Cahill any harm. He was promoted to Inspector and made MBE in 2003.

There's a danger that relationship between the LGCM and the police may come to be seen as appearing to consist of the LGCM encouraging police harrassment of the "wrong sort" of Christians - then applauding it whan it occurs. Here's another snippet of Mr Kirker's gracious acceptance speech.

He went on to say that it was in this context that the work that Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) Mike Cunningham of Lancashire Police was doing on behalf of ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) was so important. He said that, “Your recommendation that religious views should be expressed “in an appropriate fashion” and “does not confer a right to express those beliefs … in a manner that amounts to discrimination against others” will, I hope help bring to an end the acceptability of religiously expressed homophobia across the whole police service.

Ah yes - Lancashire Police.

A Christian couple from Lancashire have been awarded £10,000 in an out-of-court settlement after they were questioned by police about their moral beliefs. Helen and Joe Roberts, from Fleetwood, complained about taxpayers' money being used for leaflets about gay rights and called homosexuality "immoral".

Wyre Borough Council informed Lancashire Constabulary. Officers then quizzed the couple for over an hour. The council and police said they had now apologised to the Roberts. They also said policies had been revised to protect all parties.

(We all pay for the GPA through our taxes, as we pay for similar organisations representing black and female officers. Alas, representatives of the Straight Police Association could not be contacted.)


UPDATE - Me no understand. The disgusting murder of David Morley got the full "homophobia" treatment, including Rasputin blaming Christians. Fortunately the murderers turned out not to be "homophobes", just a bunch of young Londoners out for a good evening.
Yet there's been nothing about the murder of Anthony Hoare.

We Are All Civilised Now

There's a wonderful quote in Peter Hitchens' book The Abolition of Britain about the late Woy Jenkins, architect of what he "rightly preferred to call the civilised society rather than the permissive society", to the effect that "Roy Jenkins was already marshalling his tanks on a five-hundred mile front". With his help, the criminal justice system moved from retribution to understanding (and the crime rate went up 1,000 %), abortion was legalised (200,000 a year - over 6 million since 1967), the death penalty abolished (murders tripled despite huge medical advances in trauma treatment) and homosexuality was legalised (and 11-year olds are now removed from foster-parents who aren't cool about uphill gardening).

We are so much more civilised now :

Miss Lakinski - who suffered a life of bullying - had collapsed on her doorstep as she returned home from visiting a friend. But instead of helping her, Anthony Anderson called her a "smackhead" and a drunk before kicking her feet and emptying a bowl of water on her head.

Teesside Crown Court heard that he then covered her in shaving foam, and urinated on her as a friend filmed the act on a mobile phone.

Anderson pleaded guilty to outraging public decency on July 26 when he appeared at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court last month.

So far so bad. This is what gets me :

The 27-year-old was watched by a laughing crowd as he carried out a series of humiliating attacks on the 50-year-old in Hartlepool. A court heard today that one of his friends filmed the incident on a mobile phone while one shouted: "This is YouTube material."

There have always been scumbags. There probably always will be, although I find it hard to imagine such an act in any other time before the cultural revolution. What's really telling is that he had an approving audience.

Here's another tale from our civilised land :

A mother who murdered her disabled daughter and killed herself by setting fire to the car they were in had been tormented by youths who mocked her child’s severe learning difficulties.

Fiona Ann Pilkington, 38, had repeatedly told Leicestershire police that a gang of children had embarked on a campaign of terror against her daughter, Francesca Hardwick, 18.

Neighbours told yesterday how children had taunted the disabled woman shouting “disabled bitch” and other obscenities as she stood at her window. On other occasions they would hurl stones and eggs at the windows and bang on the front door of the home Ms Pilkington shared with her daughter and son, Anthony, 16.

The women’s remains were discovered burnt beyond recognition after Ms Pilkington apparently doused the car with petrol and set it alight. It was discovered in a lay-by in Earl Shilton, Leicestershire, on Tuesday night.

Again, tormenting the 'different' is something boys have always done. Here's Frances Roper describing an Edwardian childhood with a Downs syndrome brother :

Poor little Ben was, as usual, the problem. The boys soon realized that he was not normal, and quite unable to take care of himself, and they would shout after him and pelt him with lumps of mud and sometimes stones, if he went down to the village by himself. As soon as Mother found out about this, he was never allowed out alone, and naturally the duty of keeping a constant eye on him devolved upon me. I was sent down to the village every day on some errand or other, and always had to take Ben with me. On one occasion he insisted on dragging a little trolley cart behind him, and this the village boys found irresistible. There was a long stretch of road between the end of the village and. the cluster of cottages round our house, and as soon as we left the village we were surrounded by a crowd of boys. They kept rushing up and dropping stones into Ben’s little cart, till it became so heavy that the poor little fellow could not pull it, and was on the verge of tears. Several times I tipped the stones out and turned indignantly upon our tormentors, but I was only one small girl trying to protect a tiny helpless boy, and my protests only drew forth more jeers and tormenting. Eventually I picked up the little cart and carried it under my arm. Thus foiled of their fun, the boys proceeded to slash my legs with their top-whips, and continued in this pleasant amusement till we were nearly within sight of home. By this time I was trembling all over with fright and fury, though fury certainly predominated, and I dashed in to Mother and showed the crimson wheals all over my legs.

But we're in the Edwardian age, whan all adults had authority over all children.

For once Father and Mother were thoroughly roused. Father asked me if I should be able to recognise the boys, and on my assurance that I should, he clapped on his hat, seized my hand, and we raced off down the hill to the village. The group of boys were playing with their tops, and I pointed them out to Father. Dropping my hand Father burst upon the group with unintelligible howls and yells, whirling his arms round and round like windmills. After one horrified glance the boys shot over a low wall and fled down the adjoining field with Father in hot pursuit. He did not lay hands on any of them though he could easily have done so, contented himself with giving tongue to a series of terrifying snarls and growls without a single spoken word, which struck the most abject terror into the hearts of my tormentors. One of them tripped and fell flat at Father’s feet, and lay there howling, while Father took a flying leap over him in his headlong stampede. I climbed on the wall and bounced up and down clapping and cheering, nearly hysterical with excitement and delight. Having chased his quarry out of sight Father returned, breathless with running and yelling, and completely helpless with laughter ...
That party of boys never again showed any lack of respect to Ben or me, and caps were sheepishly touched whenever we met.

Not so for poor Fiona Ann Pilkington. In our age boys are still boys - with the pack instinct to run down the wounded - only there's nothing you can do - and nothing anyone else will do :

Leicester police said yesterday that they were treating the incident as murder and suicide, adding that detectives would now reinvestigate a series of complaints about antisocial behaviour in the family’s neighbourhood. The Times has learnt that the women’s deaths came only three weeks after the mother last contacted police to complain that her family’s lives were being made a misery.

Ann Jones, who lived opposite Ms Pilkington, said that the single parent had simply “had enough” of being harassed by local youths. “If the police had done their job she would have been here today,” Mrs Jones, 55, said. The family lived in Bardon Road, Barwell, an area, neighbours said, that was plagued with children wreaking havoc on the streets at night. Other neighbours told how the gangs of children would hang around, making the family virtual prisoners.

There's another factor of course - extended adolescence. I imagine poor Ms Pilkington's tormentors were a bit older than Ben's.

There's a sixteen year old boy who's lost a mother and a sister. How in God's name must that child be feeling tonight ?

UPDATE/correction - Francesca's brother is now being looked after by his father.

Suffering For One's Art

I feel very sorry for his mum and dad, but really -

A graffiti artist described as 'brilliant' was killed by a midnight express train as he daubed a wall next to the tracks on the East Coast main line to London, an inquest heard today (Oct-24). Paul Stevens, the 29-year-old son of a rail worker, was killed at Bethnal Green railway station in East London after being struck head on by the Southend-to-Liverpool Street train. He was daubing the wall on the railway viaduct in Three Colts Lane about midnight on March 20.

Call me old fashioned, but at 29 one really shouldn't be painting other people's property at midnight, having drink taken, while standing on a railway line. But I guess one of the great achievements of the cultural revolution is to have extended adolescence, which used to be pretty much complete by 20, up into the thirties and beyond.

White Racists

Guardianista Yvonne Roberts in the East End :

Now, Linda's mum, Katie, lives on the ground floor of a council block of flats. Linda will tell you that Katie is the only white person on the floor. "It's not colour - it's that nobody bothers with each other much."

Of course, there are examples of multiracial estates pulling together as one but that's not Linda's experience. Linda also says that while she isn't "allowed" to voice her concerns - what she calls "the other lot" can "get away with liberties" by wielding the weapon of political correctness.

Linda's friend, Angie, gives what she says is a not untypical example. She was trying to park her car - an Asian teenager tried to cut in, when she objected, he called her "a ******* racist". "They do it all the time. I don't want to be seen as a racist so what can I say?"

I think the answer is : "Not a lot".

What A Pity ...

That no video of the late great Mrs Mills is to be found on Youtube.

Gladys Mills (1918- 1978), better known as Mrs Mills, was a pianist who was popular in the 1960s and released many records.

She shot to fame during the same period as her stable-mates The Beatles, with whom she shared space at Abbey Road Studios (as mentioned in the Beatles Anthology DVD bonus materials). After previously working as the superintendent of the typing pool in the Paymaster General's office in London in December 1961, she would become a household name by the end of January 1962, having been spotted by a talent scout at a Woodford Golf Club dance near her home in Loughton, Essex.

By the sound she was a major influence on this lot :

Our Culture

Sunday morning, and Radio 5's Rachel Burden is interviewing kids at Farnham rugby club, Jonny Wilkinson's old team.

"So unlike your parents, you're all clear-headed this morning"

I love the casual assumption that every English adult with an interest in rugby was drunk on Saturday. No wonder most Muslims listen to their own-language stations or watch satellite.

"Are you passionate about what you do ?" - this to some poor 12-year old. For God's sake, woman, you're not interviewing a potential Housing Support Officer at Camden Council. Radio Five seems to have an inexhaustable supply of middle class idiot presenters.

"When They Are All Gone"

I was pointing out today that some of the fall in crime like burglary is because there are fewer easy victims, as a more trusting generation, brought up in harder times but with greater 'social cohesion', pass on.

The last generation who were trusting and didn't lock their doors have mostly died, removing one set of easy victims.

Similarly a GP friend who moved from the urban Midlands to the Yorkshire fells says that the "old boys" are really reluctant to bother the doctor - they've got to be really ill before they come in. Different culture.

Reynolds says it :

I've known elderly patients who have fallen over at night, then not pressed the button until gone 8am. They 'didn't want to bother us'.

It's a generation that is getting smaller and not being replaced, this self-sufficiency and the desire not to be a burden on others. The feeling that spending the night on the floor isn't an 'emergency'.

I'll miss them when they are all gone.

Britannia

Kitten-kicking Nicola Collinson.

(see also Callum Myers and Damien French)

And Now, The End Is Near ...

The Respect/SWP split seems to be pretty terminal :

Rebecca Townsend, committee member and Stop the War link tried to explain why this was unconstitutional. She was sitting next to George and speaking quietly to him. I was sitting next to her on the other side and clearly heard the
exchange. George replied to her, "I have nothing to say to you, I don't want to listen to you, that is why I am ignoring you" ...

Those opposing the proposal said they would take the matter to the Respect National Council and started to leave the meeting.

Azmal said he has no confidence in Jackie Turner as secretary and that he wants to take her out. Shaun Doherty said this is undemocratic. George Galloway shouted "off you go - **** off, **** off the lot of you."

Azmal Hussain declared Allad as the secretary of Tower Hamlets Respect.

About three years ago I commented on Meaders blog that they were riding an Islamic/communalist tiger which would chew them up and spit them out. <<"Irony">>Onwards and upwards<<"/Irony">> - to the first English communalist party with an MP, and the continuing division of mainland politics on ethnic/religious lines. How did such a division pan out in Ireland ?

Saint Venomous ?

According to the Sage King, these are plastered all over North Sheffield. I thought he was a nice churchgoing chap who wanted to be a priest ?

From Her To Modernity

If you live long enough, you can move from a different world ...

Deborah Kerr's image was of a refined, lady-like and level-headed person - the perfect English rose. She never liked the image, not least because she was born in Scotland. Within a few years, her family moved to the south of England, and she went to boarding school in Bristol. At first she studied for the ballet, but then decided on acting. An aunt taught drama in Bristol, and it was from her that she learned her stagecraft. Just before World War II, she had walk-on parts at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park in London.

To modern Britain ...

A man has been charged with murdering the 78-year-old brother of Hollywood actress Deborah Kerr. Retired journalist Edmund Trimmer died on Monday after an alleged assault outside a post office in West Heath, Birmingham, on Tuesday lunchtime. Mr Trimmer, who was known as Ted, was the former managing editor of Birmingham-based Central News.

It turned out that her brother was killed because somebody's wing mirror may have been clipped.

Mr Trimmer was attacked in Middlemore Road, Northfield, on August 23 last year after pulling up to post a letter at his local post office. Timothy Raggatt, QC, prosecuting, said Mr Trimmer had gone out in his Rover and there had been a "trivial" incident involving his vehicle and an Escort van driven by Warwood, which may have involved their wing mirrors clipping. Warwood, a grandfatherof-five, is alleged to have suffered six similar incidents in the previous 18 months and "saw red". It was also suggested Mr Trimmer may have inadvertently taken a parking space from Warwood.

Whatever the reason, Mr Raggatt said, it was " unutterably trivial". He added: "No one suggests that Mr Trimmer showed any semblance of resistance, hostility or violence to Mr Warwood." Mr Trimmer was knocked out with the punch and suffered a broken jaw. He died of a brain haemorrhage.

The killer, one Eugene Warwood, was convicted of manslaughter, not murder. No way anyone could have predicted that smashing a 78-year old in the face could kill them. Mr Warwood was "disabled", which I presume translates as "in receipt of disability benefits". He got a whole three and a half years (1 year 9 months to you and me). Apparently "Judge John Saunders said the length of sentence was based on guidance from the Court of Appeal in previous, similar cases" - but it was obviously too much for killing an elderly stranger in an unprovoked attack. On appeal it was reduced by a year. So it boils down to 15 months for killing an old man because you thought he clipped your mirror.

The Court of Appeal in London ruled yesterday that the original sentence could not stand and imposed a new term of two-and-a-half years. During the appeal against sentence before Lord Justice Keene and two other judges it was argued by counsel on Warwood's behalf that the three-and-a-half years was "manifestly excessive".

I try not to be vindictive. But I actually have a greater desire for bad things to happen to the aptly-named Mr Justice Gross than I wish them on Mr Warwood.

Mr Justice Gross said the aggravating factors in the case included the fact that the incident arose out of road rage, Warwood had struck an elderly victim with a blow of "significant force" and had not given any assistance.

You're OK so far, judge.

On the other hand, he said, the mitigating factors included Warwood's age, his early guilty plea and "the question of whether sufficient credit was given for that", his disability and "the fact that the offence was out of character".

Warwood's age ? He was 55 ! Too young to know what he was doing, perhaps ? Or prematurely senile ? It looks as if that band of life called 'the age of responsibility' is narrowing all the time.

Mr Justice Gross concluded: "Having anxiously considered the matter and having regard to the various matters of mitigation, not least the appellant's own physical condition, his plea and the fact that this was an offence where the consequences outstripped the intention, we are driven to conclude that the sentence cannot stand.

The defendant's own physical condition ? He was fit enough to kill an old guy with one punch. Receipt of disability benefit is not proof of disability. And as for "this was an offence where the consequences outstripped the intention", that had already been taken into account when the original murder charge was replaced with manslaughter. Let's hope the judge meets Mr Warwood's little brother when he next pops down to the stockbrokers.

Rasputin Responds

When 138 Muslim scholars addressed the open letter "Oi mate - a quiet word in your ear" (pdf) to Christian leaders, I suggested that Rasputin would be one of the first to enthusiastically endorse it.

Rasputin will be well up for it, I'm sure. He might even agree that no mullahs in same-sex relationships be appointed to British mosques for a year or two.

He certainly seems quite keen.

In this country, in which we are together both British citizens and citizens of heaven, love of neighbour could happily be our watchword for the year ahead. My hope is that we shall be able to demonstrate the meaning of neighbourly love towards those around us, whether of faith or not.

Hope springs eternal. My fear is that the meaning of neighbourly love is likely to become all too apparent in the years ahead. It may not be neighbourly love as understood by the Mad Monk.

Burngreave, Spital Hill

Isn't Burngreave, where a sixteen year old Congolese asylum seeker was shot dead yesterday, just up the road from Spital Hill, where community activist Herald "Ruggie" Johnson told traffic wardens "This is our patch. Go back up Ecclesall Road and do your white aunties and uncles", claiming in court that "They were the only two white people in a predominantly black area and were seen as a source of oppression." ?

Ravensthorpe Ravers

In my last update on the New Wave of British Jihad (NWOBJ), I noted that Ravensthorpe, in the heart of the former Heavy Woollen District of the West Riding, and the home of the young chap charged with trying to blow up BNP members, seemed to have enough racists to be going on with.

Mr Gentles said: “I think this is all because we are black. My two children are frightened of this gang - they are too scared to go outside. The oldest can’t go anywhere in Ravensthorpe – he can’t go to the park.” Mr Gentles said his car had been smashed up and shot at with pellet guns twice in the last two weeks, and he had seen the gang running away. He said: “They have thrown stones through the window and smashed everything up. They are young Asian boys from about 13 up – there are about 20 of them. At night they all linger in the park.

It turns out that Mr Gentles ain't the only one.

"Two men were badly beaten in an ambush by a 30-strong gang of Asian thugs, known as the Ravy Terror Squad. The two Dewsbury men, aged 37 and 41, were out digging for old bottles when they were attacked by a gang hiding in woodland. The random attack happened last Thursday night in fields off Park Road, Ravensthorpe.

Both men were beaten, kicked and punched ... Over the summer The Press reported how the so-called Ravy Terror Squad had been responsible for a number of attacks in and around the Spen Valley Greenway. Last week The Press was told that a 15-year-old, who had walked his girlfriend home to Ravensthorpe, had been attacked and beaten.

Dewsbury’s police commander, Chief Insp Jon Carter, said the Ravy Terror Squad was believed to be responsible but denied it was a real ‘gang’. “This is not a gang as such, more a peer group which has got involved in crime and anti-social behaviour,” he said. “They hang out together and one or two have become misguided and unlawful. “We have just got a positive lead on who they are and what they are about and we aim to lock them up.”"

Be fair. C.I. "Jon" may not know the definition of a gang, and he's obviously treading on diversity eggshells, but he's been as good as his word.

Shortly after 8am today, Tuesday 16th October, officers from the Dewsbury and Mirfield Neighbourhood Policing Team attended at seven addresses in the Ravensthorpe area, one in the Earlsheaton area and one address in the Mirfield area. A total of 5 men aged 16, 17, 19, 22 and 25 have been arrested on suspicion of assault and robbery and are being questioned by police. Searches have been carried out at the addresses and property has been seized.

The operation follows reports of robbery and assault and postings on the internet by a number of individuals claiming to be from the Ravensthorpe Terror Squad. Chief Inspector Jon Carter who is leading the operation said: "This operation marks the culmination of behind the scenes work to identify the individuals we suspect of being involved in criminal offences. We are listening to local communities and we are taking positive action to address their concerns.

I don't want you to get the idea that Asian gangs are the only problem in Heavy Woollen Country. There are plenty of native horrors - and the whole area, within living memory a respectable though hard-drinking network of working class communities, is now a bit of a disaster zone.

Yobs went on a three-night rampage in Mirfield as weeks of anti-social behaviour exploded in alcohol-fuelled violence. Seventeen youths aged between 15 and 18 were arrested after disturbances in and around Mirfield town centre and on London Park Estate. Fighting broke out between rival gangs in the town centre on Saturday night as up to 50 youths clashed in the street. Bottles were hurled at passing cars and shop windows in the town centre were smashed as yobs ran riot. Fighting had also erupted between gangs near the town centre on Thursday night and a children’s play area in the park next to Moorlands cricket ground in Huddersfield Road was set ablaze on Friday evening ... Police quelled the worst of the violence at 11pm on Saturday but later sparked anger from local residents by dismissing the trouble as “low level disorder.”

Low level disorder, eh. Not C.I. Carter abusing the dictionary again ?

The local Intelligent Weekly Press seems a rather good paper - and it's run by locals. So often local rags are emasculated by the simple economic fact of the local authority being the largest advertiser. I wonder how much advertising they get from the council ?

My respect for them grew when I read this.


A trial date has been set for Labour MP Shahid Malik’s £100,000 lawsuit against The Press and former Tory councillor Jonathan Scott. The five-day trial, to be held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, will start on November 12.

Dewsbury and Mirfield MP Malik launched his libel action last October over a letter from Mr Scott published in both The Press and the Reporter. The letter described what happened outside a polling station in Savile Town at the local elections in May 2006. Malik threatened to sue both newspapers but only took action against The Press, which immediately vowed to vigorously defend the case. Press editor and managing director Martin Shaw said the trial had been expected in April next year but the November date became available this week. “We are ready for this trial, we are ready to win and we decided to get it on,” said Mr Shaw. “This is not something we have entered into lightly and there are serious principles at stake. “Our defence is very strong, we have some respected and high profile witnesses and we will see Mr Malik in court in eight weeks.” The Press and Mr Scott will be represented by top media barrister Jonathan Crystal and Leeds-based law firm Fox Hayes. Stephen Taylor Heath, a partner at the firm, said: “All the hard work in preparing the case has been completed and we are ready for trial.” Mr Scott said he was ready for the battle and added: “This trial has been a long time coming but now it is here at last and we are all confident, fully committed and ready to fight hard in court for what we believe in.”

After news of Malik’s lawsuit became public knowledge, the Freedom of Speech Campaign was launched to help fund defence costs. Last Saturday Press director Danny Lockwood organised the biggest and most ambitious event yet, the Freedom Ball, a black tie dinner at Dewsbury Town Hall. The sell-out event, attended by some of the district’s leading businessmen, was a huge success and raised a staggering £7,000. Mr Lockwood said: “The amazing response to the Freedom Ball showed that the people of Dewsbury and Mirfield and the wider business community are right behind us. “We thank them for their support and hope they will continue to back us between now and the trial.”

Hmmm. Mr Malik dropped action against the Dewsbury Reporter, owned by the UK-wide conglomerate Johnston Press, and chose to concentrate on a small local paper, one of the few that's still locally owned and run. One to watch I think - and does anyone know what happened outside that Savile Town polling station ?

The Rush To War

As Turkish tanks take up positions on the Iraqi border, an outraged US academic protests against this attack on a sovereign nation.

Sort of. Well, actually she uses recent events as a stick to beat the US with. I can hear the cries of "Never !" and "No poo, Sherlock !" from here. The basic tone of the piece is "US/Turkish relations are bad and getting worse ! Yay !"

Naturally Laban had to stick his four-penn'orth in, attempting to parody the style of a Guardianista describing the United States.

Here's a gung-ho, nationalistic country, where internal dissent is not tolerated and so-called "terrorists" are tortured. They have a history of solving perceived political problems by force. Further back their history is a woeful tale of genocide, colonialism, displacement, massacre and oppression. Their president is a devout believer, who claims that terrorist attacks justify a response by the might of his country's military - even should that response be an attack on another nation, with the bloodshed and suffering that entails.

In all this he is supported domestically by the forces of the Religious Right, strongest in the rural areas where educational attainment is low.

Of course, the president never thinks about the root causes of so-called "terror" attacks, or asks "why do they hate us" ? No. Blinded by his vision of the oilfields within the grasp of his Army, he'd rather move tanks and jets into position for a brutal, bloody war that in the long run he cannot win. The reality - that his nation's oppressive, racist brutality has provoked this despairing response from a people for whom all peaceful options have long since been closed down - is too nuanced for this blundering cowboy - sorry, I meant goatherd.

And worst of all, our poodle Prime Minister - and America's poodle President - meekly accept their ally's rush to war without raising a finger in protest or admonition. All we get over here is acres of newsprint about our gallant NATO ally, and our longstanding 'special relationship' with our partners in the Crimean conflict who, in the words of celebrated English lecturer Jerry Brotton, "fatally weakened" the Spanish Armada and saved England so long ago.


Given all that, where's Seamus Milne ? Where's Galloway ? Where's Madeleine the Mad Mahdi ? Where's Andrew whateverhisnameis from the Stop The War Coalition ? When is the big march to the Turkish Embassy ? Where's A L Kennedy's new book ? Where's the Early Day Motion signed by 185 Labour MPs ? Where's my "No Kurdish Blood For Kirkuk's Oil !" banner ?

And above all, where are the 174 different Comment Is Free articles by outraged (and tenured) US liberal academics ?

Oh.

UPDATE - the debate has moved on. It's not just recognising genocide that's a problem for these ethical Guardianistas.

"Now that Bush has hosted the Dalai Lama at the White House and really, really -- and unnecessarily -- p****d off the Chinese, a vital trading partner"

You'd almost think that there was some underlying agenda here. And by the bottom of the thread we're on to Israel !

Anorexia Cure Found

"My body today is nothing like I have known before"

"Scotch - broad Scotch !"

...my father, as he sat at table, looked steadfastly on my brother and myself, and then addressed my mother: - 'During my journey down hither, I have lost no opportunity of making inquiries about these people, the Scotch, amongst whom we now are, and since I have been here I have observed them attentively. From what I have heard and seen, I should say that upon the whole they are a very decent set of people; they seem acute and intelligent, and I am told that their system of education is so excellent that every person is learned - more or less acquainted with Greek and Latin. There is one thing, however, connected with them, which is a great drawback - the horrid jargon which they speak. However learned they may be in Greek and Latin, their English is execrable; and yet I'm told it is not so bad as it was. I was in company, the other day, with an Englishman who has resided here many years. We were talking about the country and the people. "I should like both very well," said I, "were it not for the language. I wish sincerely our Parliament, which is passing so many foolish acts every year, would pass one to force these Scotch to speak English." "I wish so, too," said he. "The language is a disgrace to the British Government; but, if you had heard it twenty years ago, captain! - if you had heard it as it was spoken when I first came to Edinburgh!"'

'Only custom,' said my mother. 'I daresay the language is now what it was then.'

'I don't know,' said my father; 'though I daresay you are right; it could never have been worse than it is at present. But now to the point. Were it not for the language, which, if the boys were to pick it up, might ruin their prospects in life, - were it not for that, I should very much like to send them to a school there is in this place, which everybody talks about - the High School I think they call it. 'Tis said to be the best school in the whole island; but the idea of one's children speaking Scotch - broad Scotch! I must think the matter over' ...


... I did not spend my time unpleasantly at this school, though, first of all, I had to pass through an ordeal.

'Scotland is a better country than England,' said an ugly, blear- eyed lad, about a head and shoulders taller than myself, the leader of a gang of varlets who surrounded me in the playground, on the first day, as soon as the morning lesson was over. 'Scotland is a far better country than England, in every respect.'

'Is it?' said I. 'Then you ought to be very thankful for not having been born in England.'

'That's just what I am, ye loon; and every morning, when I say my prayers, I thank God for not being an Englishman. The Scotch are a much better and braver people than the English.'

'It may be so,' said I, 'for what I know - indeed, till I came here, I never heard a word either about the Scotch or their country.'

'Are ye making fun of us, ye English puppy?' said the blear-eyed lad; 'take that!' and I was presently beaten black and blue. And thus did I first become aware of the difference of races and their antipathy to each other.

'Bow to the storm, and it shall pass over you.' I held my peace, and silently submitted to the superiority of the Scotch - IN NUMBERS.

From George Borrow's autobiographical Lavengro.

El Gordo's Ramadan Message

"I know that the holy month of Ramadan has an important and special meaning ....this celebration is also important for everyone in our country ... Islamic art, science, philosophy and thought have enriched our lives over many centuries - and in Britain of course our Muslim community make a huge contribution to all fields of our national life, and to this country's prosperity ..."




The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom commemorates the feast of Eid Al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. I must have missed Blair's Lenten broadcast.

Meanwhile ....

A priest has been interviewed by police on suspicion of inciting racial hatred for expressing his Christian views in his parish newsletter.
Father John Hayes, 71, was quizzed for more than an hour after commenting on the case of a Muslim girl who went to court over her wish to wear a full veil in class.
A sergeant and community support officer turned up without warning at his presbytery after an allegation was made to a Scotland Yard 'hate crimes' unit.

And just to put things in their proper relation to each other, the BBC News Search.

Your 7 pages for Lent.

Your 23 pages for Ramadan.

Forty Years Of Hurt (Warning - not child friendly - in any sense)

Over six million "terminated" babies. Around one pregnancy in four ends this way, while Guardianistas witter about an "ageing society" and why we need lots more immigration.

This isn't an equal-opportunity massacre. Little Mohammeds and Ayeshas will mostly survive it, God willing little Theresas and Dominics stand a better chance. Not sure about little Brooklyns and Jades - or little Micahs and Shanelles. In the States a third of black babies are aborted. The figure for ALL races in England and Wales is just under a quarter - around 650,000 live births and 180,000 abortions.



"AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER ?"

Middle Class Perverts

"I think there is a romanticised view that Trimdon Working Men's Club in the Prime Minister's constituency - solid working-class, patriotic - is the backbone of the Labour Party. They overlook the fact that a lot of Labour voters in the teeming cities are irreverent and radical. Labour succeeds when it brings together that respectable working class with what I call the radical urban perverts."

What does he mean by perverts? "Well, that's just the way your newspaper and others characterised my administration at the GLC all those years ago. You know, I still find people saying to me: 'You're gay aren't you?' which is what they were claiming about me." So is he homosexual? "I'm not going to talk about it now, either. The point is that, 20 years ago, it was a damaging accusation: now it's almost an essential accessory for Cabinet membership!"

Ken Livingstone in 2000.

Beazley was out of touch with many of the "modern" issues beguiling Labor.

At a state conference in 1970, with an agenda that included legalising abortion, allowing gay couples to adopt children and abolishing censorship, he let rip with his most famous denunciation:

"When I joined the Labor Party, it contained the cream of the working class. But as I look about me now all I see are the dregs of the middle class. And what I want to know is when you middle class perverts are going to stop using the Labor Party as a spiritual spitoon."

Obituary notice of Kim Beazley Senior, ex-Minister and Australian Labor party MP.

What is it about Aussie Labo(u)r ? Here's ex-party leader Mark Latham :

For those who cannot buy themselves away from social problems, questions of legality and decency are all-important. If the public sector does not foster responsibility and reward effort then the life-chances of working class people will be diminished. These values are well known to people in my electorate. This is why they strongly oppose illegal migration.

People from a poor background may not be asset-rich but they are rich in the dignity of observing the law. In Green Valley, where I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, people who acted irresponsibly and illegally were known as "no-hopers." Many of our traditional supporters are worried that Labor is now on the side of the no-hopers, rather than the responsible working class.