Wednesday, September 17, 2008

A Few Clippings From The Curate's Lawn

Stuff I've noted but not had time to post on :

Everybody knows that one of the things which destroyed the Major government was 'Tory sleaze', exemplified by the 'Cash for questions' affair, when money was handed in brown envelopes to MPs in exchange for questions in the house - questions on behalf of the people putting up the cash.

Journalist and regular Biased BBC commentator Jonathan Boyd Hunt doesn't see it that way. He and a colleague, Malcolm Keith-Hill, reported on a different story - that the thing was basically a fabrication knocked together by the Guardian (who wanted to attack the government for obvious reasons) and an embittered Mohammed Al-Fayed, who'd just been denied British citizenship.

The story is on this website, it's a long and copiously documented one. It certainly looks as if there's a case to answer. Tory MP Neil Hamilton, usually known as "the disgraced former Tory MP" sued al-Fayed for libel, but Al-Fayed's staff impressed the judge under cross-examination and the case failed. What wasn't known at the time was that Hamilton's case, including draft transcripts of the cross-examination questions, were in the hands of the defence - having been retrieved from the lawyers dustbins by Benjie "the binman" Pell. The whole thing is well worth a look.


Elsewhere :

Radical Muslims Warn of another 9/11 - the usual British suspects.

"Lord Carey warns that immigration could lead to violence" - what does he mean, could ?

Yasmin Rehman, like pretty much every other minority officer in the Met, is suing them for discrimination. It is amusing to see Ian Blair being bitten in the hand that feeds.

Andrew Anthony on immigration : "The Time Has Come To Say Britain Is Full". Well England certainly is.

Immigration levels have pushed population density in England to a higher level than any other major country in Europe. The figures, released by the Office for National Statistics, indicate there is an average of 395 people in every square kilometre in England. This is an increase of five per sq km in the past two years. The increase has pushed England's population density above the previous highest figure set by the Netherlands.


More stats. According to the EU :

The European Union's statistics office has projected a British population on the rise, growing from the current level of 61 million people to 77 million over the next 50 years. As incoming migrants and rising birth rates multiply the number of Britons, Germany, currently Europe's most populous nation, is projected to decline from 82 million to 71 million people by 2060.


Frank Field's cross-party immigration committee is set up :

Field claims in the pamphlet, entitled Balanced Migration, that the government's solution of an Australian-style points system for non-EU migrants based on skills amounts to an open door for tens of thousands to migrate, since any work permit holder staying on for more than five years will be qualified to apply for permanent residence in Britain or probationary citizenship. He claims the rate of inflow is higher than any other previous period of immigration since the Norman Conquest in 1066, making Britain the most crowded land in Europe.


Genetics is something I don't know enough about. Stephen Oppenheimer writes in Prospect that, far from being either a 'nation of immigrants' or descendants of the Saxon hordes, pretty much all Brits are descended from the same stock. He answers questions on the article here.

"BBC banned me because I'm Christian"
. He certainly wouldn't be the first.

The Rev G P Taylor, who has sold millions of books worldwide, claims that a producer at the corporation told him they couldn't be "seen to be promoting Jesus". The author of Shadowmancer, which spent 15 weeks at the top of the British book sales charts in 2003, says that he has been the victim of political correctness that favours minority religions at the expense of Christianity, a claim the BBC denies.

No comments: