The Politics of Dancing

On The Limits of Tolerance: Islam, Islamism and the Pusillanimity of Liberal Left I owe a great deal to ‘Why I am not a Muslim,’ by Ibn Warraq in the writing of this essay. It is a courageous erudite and lucid book and I recommend to anyone interested in the issues raised here. I. The stupidest speech I have heard in recent years, and the bar is not high, came from a Liberal Democrat activist speaking at one of their spring conferences. The gist of her speech was a disdain for the concept of tolerance. ‘I don’t want” she opined from the rostrum, “to live in a society that merely tolerates difference I want to live in a society that openly embraces diversity. Tolerance simply isn’t good enough!” This is the sound of the ideology of multiculturalism finally gone mad. A hysterical cry of a hitherto unknown phenomenon, fanaticism masquerading as liberalism. Leaving aside for a moment how this brave new world would police any perceived failure to embrace diversity, let us pause...

Camus, Penguins, the Shadow of Islamism and the Incompetence of Rebekah Brooks Sometimes I just wish that time would slow down a little. Already approaching July the year is passing at a giddy pace. I have been busy with the citizen journalism class and a little teaching of history. Today off to discuss co-facilitating a group on the origins of World War One. The weather has been glorious and in the sunshine London feels like a more civilised city. This morning I caught a little of Farming Today, an early morning BBC radio programme aimed at the farming community. Apparently it is the hay making season. Consequently some people today will be making hay whilst the sun shines. I find this as strangely satisfying as reflecting upon the fact that it was someone’s responsibility, possibly a junior cabin boy, to both arrange and of course re-arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic. Albert Camus I am currently reading Camus, The Plague . I recently re-read the Outsider and ...

Rod Liddle,Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Cathy  Newman Channel 4 News  Before the furore over the Michael fabricant tweets, I watched the channel 4 interview between Rod Liddle the Spectator columnist and left baiter and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown adopting her trade mark posture of sanctimonious indignation. [1] She was joined in her indignation by the Channel 4 news presenter Cathy Newman, there was no pretence of impartiality, Liddle was there to be prodded and goaded, and prodded and goaded he was. Once there were politicians and reporters, the politicians opined and the reporters reported. Now we have the ‘commentariat,’ columnists and pundits, purveyors of righteous indignation or ‘sound common sense,’ wheeled out on every occasion to provide us with their wisdom and insight. Occasionally they are accorded the title ‘expert.’ Like the priesthood of yesteryear they explain the complexities of official doctrine or interpret the mood of the rest of us, often described as ‘ord...

A Simple Suggestion Whatever their qualities as soldiers, and certainly whatever they lack in sophistication they make up for in savagery and barbaric brutality, members of ISIS currently standing before the gates of Baghdad are not noted for qualities of sceptical enquiry. When it comes to matter of faith indeed they can be characterised as extraordinarily credulous, in short they are downright stupid. This set me thinking. The CIA seems to have a large budget and the capacity for considerable ingenuity, what if they were to turn these resources to find ways to mimic God. After all it’s not as if the God of the Bible and Quran demonstrated particular sophistication in communicating with those whom he wished to terrify.  I mean, burning bushes, pillars of salt, plagues and visions of angels, how difficult are these going to be to replicate given the current state of our technological abilities. Hallucinatory drugs alone suggest a wealth of possibilities, all that would be r...

Madrasa State Funded Religious Indoctrination How would you like your children to be told the following:- “Believers, do not make friends with any but your own people. They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is evident from what they utter with their mouths, but greater is the hatred that their breasts conceal.” No, I thought not. As it happens the quote comes from the Quran, but I could have found something not a great deal different in the Bible. Thus Corinthians 6. 14 -15 “ Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”     Islamic teaching however does rather turn this kind of hatred into something of a mantra. “But the infidels who die unbelieving shall incur the wrath of god, the angels and all men. Under it the...

'Ofsted report into alleged Trojan Horse plot at Birmingham schools finds "culture of fear and intimidation has developed" in schools after David Cameron wades in over Michael Gove and Theresa May row' Daily Telegraph. Michael Gove http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10886674/Trojan-Horse-Ofsted-report-live.html You didn't need a crystal ball to foretell that something like the so called ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal in Birmingham schools was pretty nigh on inevitable. [1] The cosy political consensus on the value of ‘faith’ schools and the view that religion is a force for good in society in general and in the education system in particular, set in train by Tony Blair, was a recipe for the perfect storm that we have now had in Birmingham. No wonder the governors are bewildered, there they were just a few months back getting a pat on the back by Ofsted and told what sterling work they were doing, only now they find themselves excoriated for ...

I. Inside Portcullis House I had thought the Westminster Bubble a metaphor not an actual place. I was wrong, it actually exists, on Westminster Bridge Road with an entrance on Embankment, inside Portcullis House. A guest of Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s research assistant, I drank coffee there last Monday. Under a glass dome, trees growing beneath it, Steve Richards of the Independent, Emily Maitlis of the BBC – looking abnormally glamorous for 11:45 on a Monday Morning- and a variety of assorted MP’s, some more recognisable than others, all talking, drinking tea, coffee, mineral water. Through a side door you can travel under Westminster Bridge Road and enter the Palace of Westminster itself, a short walk, lots of oak panelling, pictures depicting various scenes relating to the Civil War and the execution of Charles 1st and you enter the chamber of the House itself. Ludicrously small, famously there are not enough seats for every Member, when crowded it must feel positively claustroph...