The Politics of Dancing

Whatever else is apparent about the royal wedding one thing is clear, the event does seem to have international appeal, the Windsor brand sells, particularly in the US, everything from carpet slippers, to quilt covers, tea towels and teapots can be shifted by the global phenomenon that is the Windsor franchise. Moreover what PR company could purchase such media coverage, indeed no purchase required, not even a backhand bung, free publicity, indeed propaganda, by the bucket load. All this set me thinking and I would consequently  like to make a modest proposal that I think would address the needs of both royalists and republicans alike. I say set the monarchy free, let them capitalise on the enormous financial potential  that will be House of Windsor PLC. At the moment millions are being made across the world from products bearing the Windsor imprint, none of this cash goes to HM holdings. Once privatised they could quickly patent the Windsor brand and start to see the tills...

I see from the Wikileaks respecting the Guantanamo detainees that more Al Quida Islamacist terrorists were recruited in the UK than any country in Europe, primarily through the efforts of Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque. I refer you to my blog of February 7th ‘The Suicide Factory Abu Hamza and The Finsbury Park Mosque’ Sean O’ Neill & Daniel McGory’ Though of course the real credit goes to Sean O' Neil and Daniel McGory.

As I write this it seems from reports coming out of Syria that a massacre is occurring in the Syrian city of Deraa carried out by the Syrian security services. On the BBC World Service I heard the reporter declare that many of the, [incredibly courageous], protesters in Syria are now locked into protest, since the moment they stop and ‘normality’ resumes the secret police will then come for them. There is a truly terrible poetry to this process, by his own brutality the dictator signs his own death certificate. Where can the magnificently courageous Syrian protesters turn to for support, not I fear from western governments in Europe and the US, who fear an unstable Syria more than they despise Assad, certainly not from the so called ‘left’, not in this country anyhow, the likes of the Stop The War Coalition ‘Respect’ or any number of campaigning organisations focused solely on the Israeli Palestine Situation, they are simply not interested, indeed are more concerned to provide apo...

‘Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide,’* Well it is Eastertide and spring is one of the nicest seasons in Notting Hill and as I write this we are enjoying the most glorious weather and the trees in the streets all around me are strewn with pink and white blossom, though I fear, unlike Houseman when he wrote the poem, I may have less than fifty years to appreciate this glorious phenomenon. Portobello Road takes on a different character as it moves into spring, more upbeat as a cocktail of sizzling smells, sunshine and the streams of tourists mix in the spring sunshine to the constant background music of the buskers and the tinkling of a tin drum. Currently there is bunting on Blenheim Crescent, one of the streets running west from Portobello which is I presume preparations for a street party to celebrate the upcoming royal wedding, this surprises me. I remember the Diana/C...

A week or so ago the BBC current affairs programme Panorama presented a programme about the so called Islamic Republic of Iran, exposing not only the brutal repression and widespread use of torture but also the use of Press TV the English language propaganda arm of the Iranian government in colluding with the torturers. It was a powerful film and an indictment of the apologists of this theocratic state which saddles its people with a primitive medieval theology, locking up and engaging in the most extreme violence, including rape, against the very best of its young people. In reaction to this film the anti-Semitic Muslim Public affairs Committee, MPAC, is launching a campaign of protest against the BBC, encouraging a phone and e-mail protest to the complaints programme Points Of View, (the Muslim Association Of Britain, MAB, are conducting a similar campaign respecting the programme My Brother the Islamacist). This represents a growing and rather sinister campaign to rule criticism ...

I will, with no great rush of enthusiasm, be voting yes to the alternative vote. It is very far from being a perfect alternative and is not without considerable drawbacks, but it represents an improvement on first passed the post, not least of its advantages is that it offers the possible death sentence on the so called ‘safe seat,’ the modern equivalent of the rotten borough. Its major drawback is not the threat of far right candidates getting elected, as put about by Baroness Varsi, who is turning out to be an extremely accomplished liar, but more a risk of watery soup flavoured candidates, insipid enough not to offend anyone and garner large number of second preference votes. The whole campaign thus far has been extremely lacklustre, with an extraordinary degree of dishonesty from the no camp. The whole thing of course is mere tinkering at the edges of a political system that has lost the confidence of the electorate, turnout will be low. Still from my perspective I look forw...

‘As I was walking up the stair, I met a man, who wasn’t there, He wasn’t there again today………..’ Barak Obama is by far away the most intellectually competent President since FDR, not just erudite but humane and a man with real empathy and compassion. His election inspired people across the world, illuminating the best in America. Since then however he has felt curiously absent on the international stage, more a mirage than reality, a good idea, hovering in the background, present but not present, as substantial as steam. Now I may be being unfair, this does feel like a very subjective judgement, moreover I do not have sufficient understanding of domestic American politics and it may well be that he has transformed the political landscape there and it is at home that his overwhelming priorities, as indeed they should, have lain. But the hideous Nixon felt like a presence, Clinton was a presence, the execrable George Bush junior felt like a presence, Obama does not. As the Middl...

I am not in favour of banning the burqa or the veil, to start banning items of dress, no matter how bizarre, is part of a slippery slope, where would it all end? We legislate far too much in the area of free expression already. Burning poppies on remembrance Sunday may be offensive, certainly as offensive to some as burning the Koran, but I disapprove of convicting people of a criminal offence for doing so, both actions would rightly be protected by the 1st Amendment in the US. This said I would require restrictions on a person’s right to remain hooded. Obviously in airports, banks and in all areas respecting security there should be a requirement to show your face. I would also make a similar requirement respecting school premises, including school playgrounds; children should not be subjected to the spectre of hooded adults wondering about the place. A mere polite notice would suffice:- Persons entering school premises are requested to uncover their face at all times. Failure t...

If there is one thing that is probably the most tiresome aspect of the so called anti war ‘left’ is the constant refrain, more a high pitched whine, “It’s all about oil!” This blanket phrase, always given with a knowing worldly wise cynicism, suggestive that anyone who holds a more nuanced view is either naïve or stupid, is supposed to silence all argument. Well, shock horror, the supply of oil is, or certainly should be a factor for any government charged with the welfare of its citizenry and those who go to demonstrations, some no doubt driving, who use their laptops and IPhone to twitter away and who take sandwiches to the demo made up of ingredients purchased from the local shop or even supermarket may be ignorant of the role that petroleum plays in all these aspects of their lives. Those who are aware are the truly cynical ones, those less aware may, I cynically suspect, be in no hurry to disabuse themselves. Respecting Libya the more cynical route would have been to let Qadd...

I am currently watching a lot of TV, this can sometimes be a dispiriting experience. In the last week two programmes on religion, Louis Theroux’s American’s Most Hated Family in Crisis and My Brother the Islamacist, were both incredibly depressing films and testament to the statement that to make a good man do bad things it only requires religion. In Theroux’s film the monstrous clan casually discard unwanted sons and daughters who have strayed from the faith, whilst Rich the Islamacist convert  refuses to meet with his unveiled mother as this would humiliate and disgrace him nor will he shake his brothers hand with his right but reserves his dirty left hand for the unclean ‘Kuffar.’ Such madness is as old as religion itself, the need for the unclean other, the solidarity of exclusivity and separateness, the horror and disgust with modern life, a toxic mix of repulsion, fear and one suspects a certain dangerous attraction, all that naked flesh! Whilst Jamie Oliver’s Dream ...

An attack on a UN base on Friday in the city of Mazar-e Sharif killed 14 people, seven of them UN staff this was said to be a response to the burning of a copy of the Koran by an American Pastor. At least 10 people were killed and many more were injured in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Saturday in a second day of protests. ‘A top UN official has blamed the pastor who burnt the Koran for the violence.’* I think I have already made clear my position on book burning, it’s not really my sort of thing, I’m against it, however to absolve those who have murdered 24 people wholly of blame is extraordinary, it seems the logic of this statement is that murder is bad but book burning is worse! Someone completely unconnected to you burns a text that I hold dear and this justifies my killing you? This appallingly cowardly cringe turns the stomach. There is also something profoundly disquieting about this statement, a sort of latent racism, a sense that to provoke a 'primitive...

One year from the next mayoral election I am already disenfranchised, current candidates are Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and the likely Lib Dem candidate Lembit Opik, one demagogue and two jokes. There will of course be fringe candidates; no doubt the so called Respect Party will put up a candidate as will the insanely masochistic Green Party. I have nowhere to go and may as well deposit my ballot paper into the nearest dustbin. I watched the scenes at last weeks mass protest against the government cuts, the mass march as well as the smaller direct action events. Even before these events one suspects the narrative had already been composed:- ‘The story currently being spun by the police, by parties in government, and by most of the press is that an otherwise successful mass demonstration was ruined by disgusting little vandals with hate in their hearts. That mindless acts of violence were perpetrated by a small, hardcore group of hooligans calling themselves 'the black bloc...

In 1975 in Great Britain there was a referendum on our continued membership of the then Common Market. I may be unique in that I commenced that campaign a convinced member of the Britain Out element of that campaign ending it walking through the Yes lobby. I had become a convinced European. Many things changed my mind, most significantly the sheer nauseating xenophobia of the get Britain out movement, embracing both Enoch Powell and the National Front. Even as a somewhat naive nineteen year old I knew the kind of bedfellows whose company I no longer wished to keep. Despite all its very great imperfections I have never regretted my decision to attach my loyalty to this great experiment in European unity. During the tumultuous intervening years the union has expanded far beyond the dreams of its founding members, extending into countries far to the east of the European continent, including Bulgaria a country that I know and for whom I have a particular love. Now for sometime there has ...