The Today Programme

Allowed one of its Christmas programmes to be edited by a wild-haired, wailing, lunatic Sixties throwback.

(They gave Yoko Ono a programme as well.)

Those Dreadful Attacks

It hardly bears thinking about. Five separate, brutal attacks on a despised class, defined by what they are forced to do to earn a living in Blair's Britain.

Whether the attacks are the work of one person or of many (a theory which shows how widespread in society is this hatred), the perpetrators are obviously deeply disturbed individuals, almost certainly confused about their sexuality, ill at ease and unable to come to terms with a modern Britain which has increasingly shown that old attitudes to what used to be called "the Daily Mail problem" are no longer relevant.

What do these self-appointed moral Tsars (and didn't Peter Sutcliffe claim to be "cleaning Bradford up" ?) think they will have achieved with their senseless assaults ? Like it or not, there have always been Daily Mail columnists - and, despite the best efforts of pursed-lipped, judgemental liberals, there probably always will be.

Poor Richard Littlejohn was merely trying to earn a living the best way he knows how. He doesn't deserve to be brutally attacked in this horrific manner, no matter what his lifestyle.

Were it not for all those 'aren't I liberal' people writing about the murdered girls as plucky little street heroines, he would not have been driven to write what he did.

Society is to blame. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone at a husband and father struggling to fill those column inches to buy Christmas gifts for his little ones.

He may be only a 'Daily Mail columnist', despised and disposable, to the curtain-twitching social worker brigade, but he's Daddy to those children, and we should never forget that in our rush to define him purely by what he does in order to put bread on the table and make those little children's eyes light up.

Which, I ask you, is the greater danger to society ? Mr Littlejohn's scribbles, which only harm himself, or the Archbishop of Canterbury's illegal war in Iraq ?

Strange ...

If I look at the main page for UK Commentators, it's completely blank. I can still see all the individual posts though.

I wonder if posting another post will make the thing visible again ? Or is this Blogger's cunning plan to force us all to beta ?

UPDATE - the extra post seems to have brought the beast back. Odd. Judging by the fact that my last 20 referrers match my last 20 visitors, it seems that I've had an invisible blog for the last 6 hours.

And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge ?

It's an article of faith on the political Left that saying bad things about asylum-seekers or immigrants will lead to racist attacks and murders. Yet the corollary to this theorem, that saying bad things about the natives will lead to attacks on them, is never put forward, despite the fact that saying bad things about the natives is more common, perfectly socially acceptable and actually state-sponsored. If you have a child in secondary school, take a look at their history texts. It's not getting better, either.

Brutal aspects of British rule in India during the 20th century will feature in a syllabus approved for secondary schools in England today.

Pupils aged 11 to 14 will study events like the Amritsar massacre when hundreds of protesters were killed by British troops.

I don't imagine Cawnpore, when hundreds of British women and children, prisoners of Nana Sahib, were butchered in cold blood, will feature highly on the curriculum.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority denied any anti-British bias and said that the optional unit for Key Stage 3 would foster understanding between the mix of nationalities in England.

Looks like the news of the death of multiculturalism hasn't reached the QCA yet. The 'mix of nationalities in England', eh ? I thought we were all British citizens and subjects of Her Majesty, united under Gordon Brown's Union Jack. You can see how telling the natives how bad they were and those 'of subcontinental heritage' how badly their forebears were treated will 'foster understanding', can't you ? As long as that understanding is that the natives are evil racists, of course.

The trouble is ideas have consequences. The fact that for every member of the minority population of England and Wales killed by a native, two natives are killed by a member of a minority community may at least in part be a result of thirty years of propaganda by self-loathing white liberals - for example the BBCs coverage of racist murder. That great iconoclast Yasmin Alibhai Brown addressed this issue in an Evening Standard piece a while back, which Edwin Greenwood has kindly made available.

I have talked to some black and Asian inmates serving time in prison for such (racist) crimes: most justify their actions as collective retribution for attacks on "their people". A knife for a knife, they think, will make for a better world.

As I've posted before , the current demography of the elderly patient population in our hospitals is very different from that of the medical workforce. As Trevor Phillips proudly proclaimed : "The National Health Service, the most British of institutions, was launched by a Welshman, built by Irish labour, sustained by Caribbean nurses and now held together by Indian and other foreign doctors with Filipino nurses, and Somali cleaners. That is modern Britain." I see no reason to imagine that this demography is different in the private care and nursing home sectors, although there'll be an extra dimension in the ownership of such institutions.

Demographics mean that, especially in our great cities, the elderly - who are overwhelmingly natives - will find that their carers and medical staff are more and more likely to be non-natives. Who, as noted above, have been brought up on stories about the evil natives - stories usually amplified and promoted by middle-class white liberals.


'Collective retribution for attacks on "their people"'. Call me old-fashioned, Yasmin - but isn't that called racism ?

'And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge ?'

"A care home boss whose staff goaded disabled patients into attacking each other was warned she faces jail yesterday.

Diane Butler, 47, was in charge of carers who hurled racist and cruel taunts at defenceless residents with physical and mental difficulties.

A year-long reign of terror included one disabled woman being urged to kick and beat a Down’s Syndrome sufferer.

Margaret Burdfield, 49, was also called a ‘white bitch’ and ‘ugly bitch’ at Craegmoor Residential Care Home, North London.

The three abusive staff were shopped to police by carer Basil Hanson who secretly filmed their taunts on a mobile phone.

London’s Snaresbrook Crown Court heard staff warned Butler to take action against the abuse.

Butler had denied knowledge of the incidents and said she was in the West Indies at the time. She was convicted of one count of wilful neglect but cleared of another. One count was put on court file. Judge Alan Pardoe told her: “The possibility of a custodial sentence is real.”

Islington Council shut the home last September.

Detective Sgt Paul Kingdon said afterwards: “It is abhorrent that they sought to humiliate residents. This appears to have been done purely for their own amusement.”

Carers Noelin Bailey, 31, Eulalee Hall, 51, both of North London, and Glendeen Nedd, 35, of East London, will be sentenced at a later date."

The BBC, Islington Tribune and Scotsman also have reports.

"Despite Islington Council regularly inspecting private care home, Craegmoor, in Holloway, and having “no cause for concern” over care standards, police were dramatically enlisted to shut it down last September amid claims of psychological and racial abuse.

The incident was described by adult social services chief, Cllr John Gilbert as “disturbing but rare”. He said: “Our three residents were quickly moved to an alternative home and have since settled well.”

“It (the home) was registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and subject to its robust inspection regime. Our officers also visited regularly to check on the standard of care as well as to assess and review the level of care needed by our residents."

You know what happens next. What always happens when an organisation fails. "Review the procedures !"

“In (the) light of what happened, we carried out a review of our procedures for appointing care providers. We are confident our vetting procedures were followed and all the necessary checks into Craegmoor’s affairs were made before appointing them.”

The unpleasantnesses in Islington are not a one-off. I'm thinking of the innovative feeding regime which 89 year old Lucy Neal was subjected to in Handsworth.

Repeating Myself

At the bottom of this Guardian editorial.

Ther is no rose of swych vertu

Ther is no rose of swych vertu
As is the rose that bar Jesu,
Alleluia.

For in this rose conteynyd was
Heven and erthe in lytyl space,
Res miranda.

Be that rose we may weel see
That he is God in personys thre,
Pari forma.

The aungelys sungyn the sheperdes to:
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Gaudeamus.

Leve we al this wordly merthe
And folwe we this joyful berthe;
Transeamus.







As sung by the very wonderful Sinfonye - three Aussie feminists and a hurdy-gurdy. Translation here. You can hear a clip here. Merry Christmas.

(Image from this site)