Repatriated to their "parental" place of origin

On Newsnight Afzal Amin, Conservative PPC for Dudley North, has just said that individuals in migrant communities should be repatriated to their "parental" place of origin if they do not fit into British society.

This is an extremely interesting thing to say.

One feels that a Rubicon is being crossed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25

A group of Polish people wearing paramilitary uniforms

Is it true that at 10.20am on Sunday 28th September a group of Polish people wearing paramilitary uniforms marched through Boston in Lincolnshire waving Polish flags, escorted by one solitary police officer?

I suppose the police in Boston would be able to confirm if the march took place.

Was this some kind of demonstration against UKIP?

Are Polish migrants aware that political uniforms are banned in the United Kingdom under the 1936 Public Order Act?

Or are they claiming that the Human Rights Act makes this restriction redundant?

Liberalism in the Tory Party

Isn't it amazing the way people can differ in how they see things.  In the Guardian Polly Toynbee is arguing that liberalism in the Tory Party is effectively dead.  It was a thought that had me almost choking in disbelief:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/30/tories-ukip-david-cameron-europhobic-right

I am currently reading The Establishment by Owen Jones.  He tells us that Thatcherism is everywhere triumphant.  It is an assertion that has me asking what planet is this guy on.

If the Tory Party has moved so decisively to the right why are MPs defecting to UKIP?

And now I really must away...

More than a feeling that Boston will fall to UKIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSR6ZzjDZ94

I have more than a feeling that Boston will fall to UKIP.

You cannot pour immigrants into an area so that the English population is overwhelmed and not expect a reaction.

No Labour MPs defecting to UKIP

There have been, of course, no Labour MPs defecting to UKIP.

This rather indicates how inflexible the party is, and how resistant to change when the people demand change.

The last Shah of Persia subscribed to the same keep on keeping on strategy.

Labour will keep up a brittle facade of unity until the inevitable moment of disaster when the whole lot will go at once.

How to stop the defections?

Presumably due to the (entirely honourable) new convention that defecting MPs need to stand for re-election we are only seeing defections where UKIP is confident of re-election.

That indicates that there may well be a series of defections from February 2015 onwards, when the idea of re-standing is redundant.

How to stop the defections?

Devolve power over policy-making to the members (real power, not just a "consultative role").

Mark Reckless is not a nobody.

He has an influential network.

He is an opinion-former for many MPs.

I'm only paying a flying visit to Birmingham but I might see you at this event (if I have not been hunted down and expelled for Un-Conservative Activities).

Orange tabby Double Trouble

The experiences of orange tabby Double Trouble are beyond words:  http://www.peta.org/features/uw-madison-cruelty/

Codex Zacynthius

I am absolutely delighted that the Codex Zacynthius (dating from the 7th century) has been purchased by Cambridge University Library.

Even to be in the same room as this book makes me tremble with excitement ("ich kriege davon eine Gänsehaut").

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/uncovering-the-text-of-the-new-testament

UKIP Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall was stitched up

Having just watched Daily Politics I was left with the impression that UKIP Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall was stitched up by the programme.  He was interviewed by presenter Jo Coburn, and reasonable questions about taxation were asked.  But she then effectively threw him to the wolves (mangy and ineffective wolves, but wolves nonetheless) by turning to Zoe Williams (Guardian) and Hugo Williams (The Times) and allowing them free rein to say what they like without any right of reply or indeed any professional interlocution by herself.

Given the well-known extreme (indeed rabid) views of Zoe Williams and Hugo Rifkind on immigration (either of them could model for the New York statue of liberty, with a "bring me your huddled masses" speech bubble coming from their mouths) how can this be presented as a balanced discussion?

I am a Conservative, not a UKIP member, but I do not like to see unfairness and I do not like to see people being kicked.

There is also, of course, the thought that if Zoe Williams and Hugo Rifkind get away with kicking UKIP people, they will turn their bear-garden tactics on traditional Conservatives (please don't tell me Hugo Rifkind is a Conservative - he is no more a Conservative on immigration than Malcolm Rifkind, and we know what he is).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Let's bomb Iraq!

"This morning Ed Miliband has finally given the green light for air strikes"  http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100287754/nigel-farage-is-just-the-beginning-of-ed-milibands-problems/

Let's bomb Iraq! (raucous juvenile cheers).

Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away! (frenzied waving of giant foam hands).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsokGIeQFFI

Ed Miliband might be able to disregard the Dan Hodges attack in the Daily Telegraph, but this subtle annihilation in the Economist cannot be brushed aside:  http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21620260-labour-leader-flunks-one-his-last-opportunities-look-worthy-prime-minister?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/thedrearyworldofedmiliband

Ed Miliband has got the analysis right, but has failed to marshal an adequate response.
 

The issue is one of identity, not nit-picking parliamentary procedures

Vernan Bogdanor entirely misses the point in this article on the government of England in the Guardian:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/24/english-votes-english-laws-absurdity-separatist

The issue is one of identity, not nit-picking parliamentary procedures.

If Scottish people are allowed to have their Scottish identity given political representation and Welsh people allowed to have their Welsh identity given political representation then English people MUST (shouting here) have the same.

To deny this is asking for trouble Mr Bogdanor.

If you want to devolve power down to local authorities then you should do this for the entire United Kingdom (and perhaps start by giving the new devolved powers to Scottish local authorities rather than just handing them over to the administration in Holyrood).

But I can tell you the English will never put up with a situation where Welsh people are "proud to be Welsh" and Scottish people are "proud to be Scots" and English people are told they are nothing.

That is going to provoke a lot of anger - and it is not wise to provoke anger based on nationalism.

Gareth Edwards (quoted in Ed Miliband's speech and later interviewed on Newsnight)

Gareth is an Arthurian name. 

It first appears in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, (Sir Gareth is a brother of Sir Gawain and one of the Knights of the Round Table).

Did the parents of Gareth Edwards (quoted in Ed Miliband's speech and later interviewed on Newsnight) have this chivalric reference in mind when thinking of a name for their son?

If Gareth Edwards is meant to be Sir Gareth of the Round Table is Ed Miliband aspiring to be King Arthur?

Will he meet The Knights Who Say Ni when he is next wandering on Hampstead Heath?

Will he shout "run away, run away" when next confronted by Dave and the Tory front bench?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92gP2J0CUjc

The new Australian initiative to resettle asylum seekers in safe havens

This report Sun Narin and James Hookway in the Wall Street Journal of the new Australian initiative to resettle asylum seekers in safe havens is very interesting:  http://online.wsj.com/articles/australia-poised-to-resettle-asylum-seekers-in-cambodia-1411550103?mod=e2tw

It is an elegant solution to the problem - on the one hand it provides asylum seekers with a safe environment where they can wait until they are able to return to their homes; on the other hand it provides much-needed investment to the countries volunteering to take part in the scheme.

Of course, those economic migrants who are using "asylum" as an excuse to gain entry to Australia without going through the immigration process will be disappointed.

And those who prey on illegal migrants (from evil people-traffickers to lefty politicians using "grievance" as a way of manipulating votes) will not be pleased.

But Australia has shown the way forward for the United Kingdom.

Perhaps it is justified, perhaps it is not

The Today programme this morning reported on the drift towards war (West vs extreme Muslims) that the United Kingdom seems to be acquiescing in.

Perhaps it is justified, perhaps it is not (so far I am not convinced, but who knows, perhaps a coherent plan will emerge).

However one cannot avoid the front page article by Giles Sheldrick in the Daily Express today:  http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/514893/130-asylum-seekers-seaside-hotel

Note the line "migrants from Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Iran" - all failed states (in various ways) churning out extreme Muslims.

Can we have an absolute guarantee that British involvement in this latest jaunt is not going to result in yet more waves of "asylum" seekers pitching up in the United Kingdom arguing "you fucked up our country therefore we are justified in shitting all over yours" (use of the s-word is not gratuitous - immigrant excrement is a major problem with caravan camps of immigrants in rural areas tipping their excrement into the local dykes, homeless immigrants in the local town to where I live using plastic bags to relieve themselves in full view of traffic on an adjoining road, immigrants living in garden sheds burying their excrement in holes dug in suburban gardens etc).

And if "special forces" are involved can the Army be told in clear and unambiguous language that if they use interpreters they must not promise those interpreters free access to the United Kingdom afterwards (together with their extended families and sundry hangers-on and their relatives and hangers on et al).

Unless these conditions are met I would rather we did not take part.

PS what happened to President Obama's brush-off of the United Kingdom?  You know, where he sent back the bust of Winston Churchill and told us we were not important anymore?  Yes, you know, where he said America had new friends in the Far East and we could go fuck ourselves (he didn't quite use those words, but I think we got the meaning).

Famous bloodlines

Page from a local farmer's record of calves born on the farm.

The pedigrees go back decades.

There are some famous bloodlines among the local cows.

The Labour Party conference just sort of fizzled out.

Go back to your constituencies and prepare to be underwhelmed.

Andy Burnham got wild applause following his speech to the Labour Party Conference

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham got wild applause following his speech to the Labour Party Conference this morning.

However on yesterday's PM programme on BBC Radio 4 an often ratty Andy Burnham was questioned by Eddie Mair on where the money for his big ideas was to come from and irritable replied I just spend the money I don't get involved in raising it (I paraphrase).

Of course it is easy to fix all the problems of the world if one is liberated from economic reality.  Andy Burnham effectively delivered a let's pretend programme in which he goes to the money tree growing in the Treasury garden and just helps himself to fairy gold.  "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride" as the old saying goes.

Is this an indication that Labour has given up on the 2015 election and has retreated into a Michael-Foot-style fantasy-land?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04hvy0n

They will just decide whatever comes into their heads at the time

Ed Miliband supposedly "forgot" to include immigration in his speech to the Labour Party Conference yesterday.

He was interviewed on the Today programme this morning and explained that the speech was just some kind of freeform framework within which he talked about whatever came into his head.

I am still no wiser as to what the Labour Party's policy is on immigration.

Perhaps they think it does not matter.

Perhaps they think that in government when policy decisions need to be made they will just decide whatever comes into their heads at the time.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/labour-party-conference-ed-miliband-4314436

An English institution

Nonsense comments from Ed Miliband about a "Senate" (a Senate is a republican institution).

All this talk of devolving power away from Westminster rather overlooks the fact that Westminster IS the historic English parliament.

Assemblies that are not based in Westminster will not have popular cultural support - they will inevitably be seen as alien.

Remove the Scottish interlopers from the historic English parliament (perhaps on four days per week) and it will work perfectly as an English institution.

Labour's rating could have declined by 5% or 10% or even collapsed entirely

In this disgracefully dishonest article on immigration Barbara Roche (Chairperson of the Migration Matters Trust) argues that apologising for open-door immigration has only managed to improve Labour's rating by one per cent:  http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2014/09/22/time-to-stop-saying-sorry-on-immigration/

This is of course a bogus use of statistics.

Without an apology Labour's rating could have declined by 5% or 10% or even collapsed entirely.

What has happened to David Axelrod?

Very bleak view of Labour's Manchester mood from Dan Hodges:  http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100287338/ed-milibands-wants-10-years-in-downing-street-the-public-would-prefer-he-stays-in-primrose-hill/

Can I ask what has happened to David Axelrod?

All that money they spent on him.

All the excitement over his visit to Labour headquarters.

And now nothing.

It's like he's Labour's ex and they're saying Yeah Axelrod, we used to have a scene with him.

Farcical

When Laura Kuenssberg on Newsnight explained to Tristram Hunt MP that Leaders of the Opposition with negative popularity scores do not win elections his reply was that we were in a new paradigm.

This sounded farcical.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0087fyv

Fantasises about violence against women

On Saturday the Guardian published a short story by Hilary Mantel which imagined the assassination of Margaret Thatcher:  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/19/hilary-mantel-short-story-assassination-margaret-thatcher

Is the Guardian happy to publish a work of fiction which fantasises about violence against women?

Also note that in an accompanying article Hilary Mantel uses the phrase 'psychological transvestite' as a term of abuse.  Presumably she does not think that transvestite people (psychological or otherwise) should be political leaders.  Does the "Cis" community have anything to say to Hilary Mantel about her bigoted use of the term 'psychological transvestite' ?

It will just be seen as divide and rule

Andy Burnham MP has just appeared on Channel 4 News claiming that he wants to see "the North" have devolution.

He is someone who has often talked about his Irish background (http://andyburnhammp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/commemorating-first-world-war.html ).

Of course, as someone from a migrant background living in England he is entitled to his view.

But it would be more convincing if Labour produced some authentically English people to speak on the issue.

Otherwise it will just be seen as divide and rule.

The English democratic deficit

Jon Wilson on the Fabian Society website makes a sensible suggestion about the English democratic deficit:  "We agree that our Scottish MPs won’t vote on English issues, for the rest of this parliament and the next until a permanent settlement comes into place."

However he is wrong to think that there is the same hostility to "London" in England as there is in Scotland.

London is the capital of England and it needs to be brought more fully under English control (is there any reason for a London assembly if England is to gain more powers over home affairs?).

http://www.fabians.org.uk/three-steps-to-tackle-the-english-question/ 

The SNP are saying it is a problem, but is it really?

Is there any polling evidence on whether people in Scotland would be willing to wait for England to have the control over its internal affairs as England?

The SNP are saying it is a problem, but is it really?

Surely the Scottish people are fair-minded enough to see that everyone needs to be treated fairly?

How many of the Shadow Cabinet are from an English background?

Writing in the Spectator, a view by Nick Cohen of Labour's attitude to England:  http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/nick-cohen/2014/09/the-left-cannot-be-an-anti-english-movement/

In A Passage to India the Collector asks Dr Fielding (sarcastically) “Fielding, how does one see the real India?"

"Try seeing Indians" is the reply.

For the Parliamentary Labour Party to understand England it needs to listen to its English MPs.

Unfortunately there are not that many of them.

Even John Prescott (former MP for Hull) came out yesterday (on Sunday Politics) as Welsh.

How many of the Shadow Cabinet are from an English background? (rather than Scottish, Irish, Welsh or British Migrant backgrounds).

And before you all start screaming "racist" it was LABOUR that decided devolution would be on the basis of historic ethnic cultures in Wales and Scotland - if they are so keen on chopping people up into "regions" they should have cut Scotland up into regions.

Political representation based on an identity created by an historic culture

How is a Welsh Labour activist justified in telling English people what they should have?  http://king-tom.tumblr.com/post/98092514386/regional-devolution-will-make-english-voices-heard

If Scotland has political representation based on an identity created by an historic culture, and Wales has political representation based on an identity created by an historic culture, why is England denied the same?

Oh I see, same old gerrymandering Labour.

They are desperate to apply their gerrymandering formula to England

Rachel Reeves now on Daily Politics telling us what the people of Scotland voted for.

Labour created the problem in Scotland through their attempt to set up a client sub-state where they thought Labour would always have a majority.

Now they are desperate to apply their gerrymandering formula to England.

I think we can confidently assert that David Cameron saved the Union with Scotland and will safeguard the rights of people in England - while Labour panics about the evaporation of their manipulated majorities.

I think it was a bit feeble of Ed Balls to claim in his speech that having a bit of a stammer (not noticeable to me) makes him disabled.

It rather devalues people who have serious disabilities.

Watching Ed Balls speech (against a wishy-washy pastel pink background) to the Labour Party Conference when he mentioned the prospect of George Osborne becoming leader of the Conservative Party there was a reaction from the audience that could be interpreted as fear.

His stabbed-in-the-back narrative

Post the NO result in the Scottish Referendum Alex Salmond is effectively saying that Scotland was stabbed in the back (by the so-called "Vow") at the very point when they were expecting to win.

Is there any evidence on how many formerly YES voters who subsequently voted NO were influenced by the "Vow"?

That would allow us to judge whether Alex Salmond is telling the truth with his stabbed-in-the-back narrative.

Personally I think the moment the NO campaign gained the initiative was when the Orange Order marched through Edinburgh - after months of half-hearted apologetic mealy-mouthed weaseling from the Labour-led side the people of Scotland were presented with a whole-hearted assertion of the validity of the Union.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2014/sep/13/orange-order-march-in-edinburgh-in-pictures

Labour's policy is one of divide and rule

It seems fairly clear in retrospect that Gordon Brown's intervention in the Scottish Referendum campaign was an attempted coup designed to seize extra power and influence for Labour MPs at the expense of English people.

Labour's policy is one of divide and rule - to cut England up into "regions" so that they can manipulate election results.

The Prime Minister is quite right to refuse to be bounced into agreeing to it.

Perhaps Baroness Lawrence and Diane Abbott MP could comment

This is an astonishing report that Jamaicans would prefer their country to have remained a British colony:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13952592  Presumably the people of Hong Kong are of the same opinion?  And the Americans as well for that matter?

Perhaps Baroness Lawrence and Diane Abbott MP could comment on this, particularly in view of their assertions that British society is racist.

But to avoid any disappointment the Jamaicans should be informed that re-colonialisation is not an option. 

Imperialism was a disaster for ordinary British people, not least in the arrival here of millions of unwanted migrants. 

Cut up into regions

The idea that England should be cut up into regions to "balance" with the smaller Celtic countries is a non-starter (Michael Kenny, New Statesman):  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/09/after-referendum-will-it-then-be-time-answer-english-question

The only possible grounds on which it could be justified would be if Scotland and Wales were also cut up into regions (Highlands, Glasgow region, Edinburgh region, north Wales, south Wales).

Otherwise the idea will acquire a nasty ethnic overtone of Celtic people dominating Anglo-Saxon people.
 

Devoid of any facts

Dreadful Today programme this morning.

One item after another devoid of any facts.

They were reduced to interviewing Hazel Blears, analysing events management techniques and talking about the Nazis - that's how vacuous it all was.

Women control the world

Quoted in the Independent (in an article by Antonia Molloy) celebrity Pharrell Williams tells us the song Blurred Lines has been taken out of context:  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/pharrell-williams-says-blurred-lines-criticism-is-out-of-context-9738266.html

He also says that women run the world.

Can we have a statement from Zoe Williams please.

Princeton has a Professor of Britishness?

Princeton has a Professor of Britishness??? http://www.theguardian.com/profile/lindacolley

However I think Linda Colley's use of statistics might be a bit shaky.  London does not have a non-white majority.  The 2011 Census told us London's resident population was 8.17 million of whom 3.3 million were non-white.

It is possible of course that two million or so non-whites have surged into London since 2011 - that would not surprise me at all given the open borders we still seem to have.

The Norma Desmond of politics

After a barn-storming speech in Glasgow I suppose we must regard Gordon Brown as the Norma Desmond of politics:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11081025/Scottish-independence-campaign-live.html

He IS big, it's the politics that got small.

Just don't forget he has a bigoted woman floating in his metaphorical swimming pool.

Allowing the supply of labour to expand will inevitably depress wages and salaries

At last!  The fucking penny has finally dropped.  Allowing the supply of labour to expand will inevitably depress wages and salaries (except in those professions that operate a form of closed shop such as lawyers and MPs).

Note how coyly immigration is described as "inward migration".

Article by Larry Elliott in the Guardian:  http://www.theguardian.com/money/economics-blog/2014/sep/17/wages-rise-employers-compete-pay-labour?CMP=twt_gu

The projected fall-out from Thursday's referendum

I think Matthew Norman in the Independent is over-dramatising the projected fall-out from Thursday's referendum in North Britain:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/scottish-independence-cameron-faces-a-choice-between-destroying-his-country-or-his-party-9736305.html

If the No vote wins (as most commentators increasingly seem to think it will) I expect a wave of despondency and defeatism to overwhelm the Scottish National Party and its supporters.

The die-hards will continue crowing, and claim they still hold all the cards.

But ordinary people do not like to associate with losers.

Their support will drift away, they will lose the next election for the North British assembly, and as a party they will decline into sneering, sniping and irrelevance.

Perhaps he thinks he will just do a deal with a few men in London

Alex Salmond was interviewed on the Today programme this morning, verbose and repetitive.

He did not answer the question whether the population in the rest of the United Kingdom should have any say in whatever settlement is made with the population in Scotland following independence or maximum devolution.

Perhaps he thinks he will just do a deal with a few men in London and whatever they decide will be imposed on the rest of us with no further discussion.

He needs to have that misconception corrected.

We in England will not have a settlement imposed without discussion.

Nor will we have Alex Salmond telling us what is in our "best interest".

We will decide those things for ourselves.

State assets in Scotland

If Alex Salmond wants 27% of the Bank of England assets then we in England want a (big) share of all state assets in Scotland - including Edinburgh Castle, the Stone of Scone (cut it up) and the North Sea Oil in Scottish waters.

A racist argument

This argument by left-wing writer Hopi Sen proposes that voters in England must not be allowed to express their Englishness politically:  http://hopisen.com/2014/an-english-proposal/

It is of course a racist argument.
 

No politician has the authority to make this promise

The Today programme this morning on BBC Radio 4 discussed an article on the front page of the Scottish Daily Record whereby the three main political leaders "promise" extra powers to the Scottish parliament:  http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron-ed-miliband-nick-4265992

I thought it had been clearly established that there can be no constitutional changes in the United Kingdom without a referendum?

What is being proposed is to give residents in Scotland control over their own affairs and also control (through the Scottish MPs at Westminster) over what happens in England.

This is not acceptable.

No politician has the authority to make this promise.

In any case, appeasement never works.

Many things have been said that cannot be unsaid

Writing on LabourList Johanna Baxter says:  The nationalists set out to divide the Union but all they’ve done is divide Scotland  http://labourlist.org/2014/09/the-nationalists-set-out-to-divide-the-union-but-all-theyve-done-is-divide-scotland/

Many things have been said that cannot be unsaid.

Whatever the vote on Thursday, how many English people will want to go on holiday in Scotland after all this anti-English unpleasantness?

Enoch Powell had the right idea about these people.

I read in the Guardian about "Jihadi John" and once again the thought occured to me:  Enoch Powell had the right idea about these people.

Embers by Sandor Marai

I have just finished reading Embers by Sandor Marai.

It is a complex book with two possible interpretations to every event related by the narrator - the narrator's interpretation and an alternative.

I was puzzled for a while by the apparent murder attempt in the forest, until I realised that the person we are told was pointing the gun at the narrator (who had his back to him) was actually planning to kill himself.

And at the end of the novel the friend of the narrator is too kind to tell the narrator that he has ruined his life through jumping to conclusions and leaves him in his ignorance.

Stylistically it is very beautiful, although as a translation this must be due to Carol Brown Janeway.

Naturally true obedience required a deeper commitment than that prescribed by laws.  Obedience had to be rooted in the heart: that was what really counted.  People had to be certain everything was in its place.

There is no feeling sadder or more hopeless than the cooling of a friendship between two men.

Self-respect is the irreplaceable foundation of our humanity; wound it, and the hurt, the damage, is so scalding that not even death can ease the torture.

Autumn

The county still has the appearance of late summer, but with the sombre colours of autumn.  Grey, brown, green.  A precious feeling of lonely melancholy (not unpleasant).

Cold in the morning, hot during the day, cold again at evening.  The cool air moves across the empty land.  An intense solitude that creates a deep sense of peace.

By the stone wall the common elder has berries that are turning black.  Lush harvest wasted among the wild foliage.  Green leaves at the point where they are about to turn brown.

I think it is intolerable that the Last Night of the Proms programme should be interfered with to appease Scottish nationalists.

The ideas floating around that England should be split up into devolved "regions" need to be seen for what they are - a scam to ensure that Labour can manipulate elections.

England is a nation and cannot be divided.

Max Irons was very critical of the toffs

Actor Max Irons was interviewed on Channel 4 News about his role in the The Riot Club, a film that apparently defames David Cameron.

Max Irons was very critical of the toffs who get everything handed to them on a plate.

As someone educated at the Dragon School in Oxford (more little toffs than little tots) and who has a career that is obviously helped by Mummy and Daddy it does seem a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

I will watch the film but I will not approve of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZwv6h-LhTw

Terrible news about the fire at Manchester Dogs Home.

Adam Kinzinger

Congressman Adam Kinzinger was interviewed on Channel 4 News, talking about the conflict in the Middle East.

Even in the short time he was on screen I could tell he had considerable charisma.

The Establishment by Owen Jones - 2

One of the first things I did when I received a copy of The Establishment by Owen Jones was to turn to the Index and look up "immigration".  As post-war immigration has been an immense social change (perhaps the biggest social change in modern times) which has occurred without the agreement of the majority of ordinary people one might suppose that a book on the Establishment might help to reveal who in the elite has effected this influx of millions of foreigners, and given them rights of settlement and rights to vote and rights to claim welfare benefits.  At last, I thought, we might get to the truth on this issue.

Unfortunately, there are only seven references to immigration in the Index.

All of them relate to immigrants as a target of "bigotry" and how they are unrepresented in the nation's institutions, particularly Parliament.

Despite referring many times to the 1950s, there is no analysis in The Establishment on how the Establishment (whether through incompetence or deliberate act) effected the entry of millions of immigrants without anyone ever voting on the issue.

This rather indicates that The Establishment is going to be an intellectually dishonest book.

From the Index I turned to the Acknowledgements where the author lists all the people who helped him during the course of writing the book.  Thirty-three people are listed.  As far as I can tell only one of these (Mehdi Hasan) is a BME person. 

Which rather suggests that there has been institutional bigotry in the production and editing of this book.


The Establishment by Owen Jones - 1 http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-establishment-by-owen-jones.html
 

The politicians who failed to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom

On Newsnight yesterday Emily Maitlis interviewed Isobel Hardman (Spectator) and one other person (whose name escapes me) on the implications of a Yes vote in the Scottish independence referendum.

Isobel Hardman was of the opinion that David Cameron would stay on as Prime Minister and "help the Scots to independence" if the Yes side wins.

This is not tenable I'm afraid.

If David Cameron is outwitted by the pro-independence lobby in Scotland then he would be manifestly unfit to negotiate with that lobby in the event of an England-Scotland split.  The same goes for Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg.  In the event of a Yes vote in Scotland we in England will need to have a competent negotiating team able to stand up for English issues and able to drive as hard a bargain as possible with the Scottish negotiating team - this will mean specific elections.

To pretend that the politicians who failed to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom are competent to negotiate the break up of the United Kingdom is not credible.

I do not want the Westminster politicians buying the Scots off with money from English taxpayers so that they can pretend that nothing has changed, that we are still a great power, that the British Prime Minister can still swagger about the world stage "punching above our weight".

Nor do I agree to the last minute extra devolution offer that has been made.  There is no mandate for this serious constitutional change and the offer has no validity.  If necessary I will vote and campaign against my own party to make sure the English people are not sold down the river.

We will see the end of the Edinburgh festival

One compensation of a Yes vote in Scotland is that we will see the end of the Edinburgh festival on the BBC.

It will be bliss not to have to put up with all that forced tartan jollity and "alternative" tartan garbage.

It has never had any relevance in England.

'One in five Londoners want the capital to become independent' says this article in the Evening Standard by Benedict Moore-Bridger:  http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/one-in-five-londoners-want-capital-to-split-from-rest-of-uk-and-become-independent-9722652.html

And I would guess that none of them were English - probably they are all BME people.

Flag-waving nationalism

Dr Gerry Hassan (Research Fellow in cultural policy at the University of the West of Scotland and author of “Caledonian Dreaming: The Quest for a Different Scotland) has got things completely wrong in this article in the New Statesman:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/09/independence-scottish-mind-has-shown-failure-british-nationalism

Flag-waving nationalism has not failed.  Flag-waving nationalism in its SNP form has succeeded only too well.  It demonstrates what an addictive indulgence nationalism can be.

Scottish nationalism will provoke English nationalism - it cannot do otherwise.

And the SNP will find out that they are running a small nationalist state next to a big nationalist state.

Like the Balkans emerging from Soviet domination, the British Isles is going to re-experience all the tensions that were prevalent in the sixteenth century.

I do not think an independent Scotland can keep the monarchy

There was a discussion on Radio 4's PM programme yesterday about the implications for the monarchy if Scotland votes Yes to independence.

I do not think an independent Scotland can keep the monarchy.

Scotland is not achieving dominion status like Australia or Canada.

It is (if the Yes vote prevails) deliberately embarking upon a course that must bring it into conflict with England as the common resources are divided up and the Scottish element removed from government, the civil service and national institutions.  It is naïve to think that this is going to be done amicably and without considerable stress.  In addition, if the United Kingdom is broken up there is going to be a lot of anger from the population of England (who perhaps have not fully realised how their country is going to be fucked up and their lives disrupted).

The Crown cannot be impartial in any conflict between England and Scotland.

Much as I love and respect the monarchy they will have to go if they are not one hundred per cent on our side.

Nor do I want a head of state who lives for several months in a foreign country.

The Booker prize shortlist

On Newsnight yesterday four women were discussing the Booker prize shortlist.

Is it any wonder that young men do not think reading is for them when it is presented in these terms?

The Scottish voters looked at the Labour leadership and decided

As others have pointed out, the faltering of the No campaign is mainly due to the collapse of Labour's vote.

Does this have implications for the General Election in 2015?

Have the Scottish voters looked at the Labour leadership and decided they cannot support them?

Is this what will happen across the United Kingdom in may 2015?

If Scotland votes yes

If Scotland votes yes next week it is unthinkable that Scottish constituencies should expect to return MPs to Westminster in 2015.

It would entirely invalidate any government that was subsequently formed.

If Scotland votes yes all their MPs immediately need to be told to fuck off.

And there needs to be a clear-out of Scottish people in the House of Lords (certainly ex-MPs who formerly represented a Scottish constituency).

The Establishment by Owen Jones - 1

Prominent on the front cover of The Establishment by Owen Jones is a quote by celebrity Russell Brand.

"Our generation's Orwell" Mr Brand proclaims.

For those of use who find Russell Brand distasteful, such an endorsement makes handling the book problematic.  It somehow makes the book feel dirty (Russell Brand is a celebrity womaniser, and possibly the "dirty" reaction is a subliminal feeling that a person who excessively sleeps around probably has venereal disease - unjust perhaps, but one cannot help one's reflex prejudices).  The solution is to remove the cover.

What however are we to make of the comparison with George Orwell?  This may just be publisher's blurb composed more or less at random, in which case the Brand quote might as well have been "Our generation's Shakespeare" or "Our generation's Barbara Cartland".  But assuming it was meant sincerely one must ask whether it is true.


Owen Jones is a good and competent writer, but he is not in the same category as George Orwell.  His writing is seldom emotionally moving.  He is too partisan for his work to achieve the humanity and universality of the Orwell oeuvre.

Nor has he written any fiction (we can ignore the critics who condemn his ideas as fantasy) and without substantial examples of fictional writing the comparison with Orwell is absurd.

Nor does he achieve Orwell status on the basis of being a left-wing writer expressing his life experiences.  Being raised in a comfy middle class family in Stockport and living in rented accommodation in London does not equate to Down and Out in Paris and London.  Going on an expenses-paid trip to Venezuela does not have the same committed intensity as Homage to Catalonia.  His collected articles from the Independent and the Guardian, passionate though they may be, do not add up to The Lion and the Unicorn.  Sometimes his articles (particularly those about the working class) have an echo of The Road to Wigan Pier but echoes are not enough.

If Russell Brand had said "Our generation's Tony Benn" one could perhaps agree with him.

But the comparison with George Orwell does not stand.

I doubt whether seventy or eighty years from now Tory MPs will be supporting the idea of a statue of Owen Jones outside the BBC.

Word association

As soon as I heard the news "Royal Baby" I immediately thought of Kay Burley.

It was like word association.

Hmm

"What are you working on?... oh that... hmm, well don't spend too much time on it, we've got bigger fish to fry."

Egyptian Revival

The gates to Abney Cemetery are in a 19th century Egyptian Revival style by William Hosking.

It seems suitable that the entrance to the kingdom of the dead should be in an Egyptian style (given their preoccupations and everything).

Fern Fever by Sarah Whittingham

I am currently reading Fern Fever by Sarah Whittingham.  It is a history of the Victorian craze for ferns (collections displayed in fern houses, rockeries and the the Watsonian Patent Fern Bricks).  This is the sort of book I love - it teaches you something entirely new, and you are a (slightly) different person after reading it.

If you want to see ferns I can recommend Abney Cemetery in north London.  Lushly luxuriant, delicately scented and soothingly green.  The stone angels seem to float above the foliage.

Many famous people are buried in Abney Cemetery, including the founders of the Salvation Army.  But it is the more ordinary graves, smothered in greenery, that are most poignant.  How confident these bourgeois Victorians were that a grave in Abney would ensure a high status for eternity.

Staggeringly stupid

Article in the Guardian about the Scottish indepence referendum:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/07/scotland-decides-union-tories?CMP=twt_gu

It contains the staggeringly stupid line "Most Brits voted against Thatcherism".

That's how she achieved her landslide victories presumably.

A master of political strategy

How clever George Osborne has been with his announcement on more devolution for Scotland:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-29099431

While seeming to respond to Scottish demands he is quietly dumping the subsidy of Scotland by English taxpayers (thus allowing room for tax cuts in England).

He is also paving the way for a reduction in the number of Scottish MPs at Westminster, which can only help the Conservatives.

How ironic if Alex Salmond and the SNP, after all their efforts, deliver to the Scottish people less money and less influence.

What a master of political strategy George Osborne is.

Scottish carpetbaggers coming down to London

Disingenuous article by George Eaton in the New Statesmen about the implications of Scottish "independence" for the Labour Party:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/11/why-scottish-independence-wouldnt-mean-permanent-majority-tories

If Scotland is no longer part of the United Kingdom there will not be the usual procession of Scottish carpetbaggers coming down to London to build their political careers - more of the socialists will stay in Scotland and turn their attentions to Holyrood.

Thus Labour at Westminster will be denuded of talent, while the SNP at Holyrood will have a more formidible Labour Party to confront.

Whether British-born citizens should have their citizenship removed

The issue of whether British-born citizens should have their citizenship removed is problematic:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11058319/British-jihadists-should-be-stripped-of-citizenship-says-top-police-officer.html

On the one had we do not want to lose an inalienable right that protects everyone.

On the other hand, might this be a mechanism that could be used to reverse post-war immigration? (which of course occurred without the consent of the majority).

As communities misbehave they could have their citizenship rights removed and be required to make arrangements to move elsewhere.

For instance, a Muslim community where atrocities occur (Woolwich 2013).

A black community where riots occur (London in 2011).

An Irish community where bombs are found (Birmingham 1974).

One is not talking of forced deportations of course. 

Just a subtle but firm hand in the small of the back pushing them towards the exit. 

For a repatriation policy to be successful it will need to be polite, gentle (but persistent), and outwardly kind.

I suppose Barack Obama's visit to Stonehenge yesterday honoured the wellspring of our peoples:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-29083959

There were moments when Dateline London earlier today resembled the Jeremy Kyle Show:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04hg3ng/dateline-london-06092014

Horrible

What a horrible person Matthew Parris is:  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4198515.ece

As soon as Zimbabwe becomes a democracy again we should put him on a plane back there (mouth bound with tape and tasered if necessary).

Constantinople

Those policy-makers struggling to understand Russia's expansionist foreign policy should remember that Russia's dream has always been to take Constantinople.

Would it not also be in Europe's interest for them to do this?

Calais

I suppose that by demanding that the United Kingdom intervenes in the financing and policing of Calais the Mayor of that town is conceding that Calais is rightfully part of England (it was seized by the French in 1558):  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29041621

Will the Labour Party apologise for creating the night-time economy?

In the tendentious article by Nazir Afzal (Crime Prosecution Service) on the Rotherham rape gangs he made one interesting comment:  “(the) night-time economy is a factor in terms of this type of on-street grooming.”

Will the Labour Party apologise for creating the night-time economy?  It has not led to a European café-style culture.  It has led to alcoholism, anti-social crimes and gangs of Pakistani taxi drivers raping children.

Perhaps it is no co-incidence that the crimes in Rotherham date from 1997.

http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/solution-lies-in-creating-meaningful.html

The legal system is guilty, society is guilty, we are all guilty

In this cleverly written Guardian article about the Rotherham rape gangs Nazir Afzal tells us the legal system is guilty, society is guilty, we are all guilty (and thus no-one in particular is guilty, which is the subtle get-out clause he is setting up) http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/03/nazir-afzal-there-is-no-religious-basis-for-the-abuse-in-rotherham

Nazir Afzal is employed by the Crown Prosecution Service and it is unclear why this public servant is writing articles in the national press voicing provocative views on sensitive on-going investigations.

However, let us take his comments seriously.

““They were doing this horrible, terrible stuff, because of the fact that they are men” he tells us.  This is an absurd argument.  One can take the ad absurdum argument to its logical conclusion – they were doing this horrible, terrible stuff because of the fact they are human (in which case Helen Lewis from the New Statesman is just as guilty as the most depraved Pakistani taxi driver).

In any case, is it not alarming that Nazir Afzal seems to have already pre-judged the motives of the Rotherham rape gang members when many of them have not even been arrested. 

Arguing that the ethnicity of the rapists did not inhibit investigation by the authorities Nazir Afzal informs us “A few weeks after the Rochdale case, we dealt with a case of 10 white men in North Yorkshire who had been abusing young girls, and they were all convicted and they got long sentences.”  Here Nazir Afzal rather contradicts himself.  The Pakistani rape gangs in Rotherham were ignored for fourteen years, the North Yorkshire white men were dealt with within weeks.

The article tells us that Nazir Afzal “…has oversight of all child sex abuse cases in England and Wales”.

Given the widespread nature of child sex abuse is it possible that Nazir Afzal is part of the problem?  He is obviously partisan and defensive about the asian communities in England and Wales (that is clear from this article) so is it possible he has developed a blind spot towards crimes committed asians?  That (from noble feelings of community love and solidarity) he has been excusing the inexcusable?

I thought it was ironic that the police are no longer investigating

Listening to the Today programme, I thought it was ironic that the police are no longer investigating property crimes.  Ironic because the police is paid for by taxpayers who are overwhelmingly property-owners.  Perhaps if the police spent less time in diversity-awareness seminars they might have more resources to apply to investigations.

In any case, I thought the new Investigating Officers (civilians working for the police) are supposed to have taken on much of the burden of investigating small property crimes?

Have the Investigating Officers gone native and are now spending most of the day loafing around the police canteen ordering from the all-day breakfast menu and gossiping over mugs of sugared tea?

Society is guilty, we are all guilty says celebrity Russell Brand

Society is guilty, we are all guilty says celebrity Russell Brand writing on the Huffington Post website:  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/03/russell-brand-islamic-state-iraq-crisis_n_5757780.html

He argues that because second and third generation immigrants feel alienated from British society they are justified in going to Iraq and indulging in genocide.

Presumably he thinks the public beheading carried out in Woolwich last year was also justified.

And the Rotherham rape gangs were just alienated Pakistanis expressing their cultural dissatisfaction. 

What an absurd person Russell Brand is.

What a depraved website the Huffington Post must be to allow Russell Brand space to write his offensive nonsense.

"...political correctness became more important than child rape..." - article in the Yorkshire Post:  http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/debate/yp-comment/victims-failed-by-labour-1-6819202#.VAaonfrghnE.twitter

Facilitated the operation of the Rotherham rape gangs by inhibiting the police from investigating

Former Home Secretary (from 1997 to 2001) Jack Straw was interviewed on the Today programme this morning:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj9z

Although he was talking about foreign affairs I was disappointed that at the end the interviewer did not ask him about the Rotherham rape gangs which operated from 1997 to 2013.

As Home Secretary Jack Straw presided over the police force at a time when sections of the police were officially condemned as "institutionally racist".

Given that the current Home Secretary Theresa May told us yesterday the police (and other agencies) have become institutionally politically correct is it possible that this institutional political correctness was a reaction to Jack Straw's accusation of institutional racism?

That Jack Straw and the Labour government unintentionally facilitated the operation of the Rotherham rape gangs by inhibiting the police from investigating BME communities?

Institutional political correctness

The Home Secretary Theresa May has condemned a culture of institutional political correctness for the dreadful rapes in Rotherham:  http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/02/theresa-may-political-correctness-rotherham-abuse

Institutional political correctness.

It needed saying.

Labour have got it wrong

Very interested in the idea that the causes of obesity are psychological and that it is a form of self-harm.

Which means that Labour have got it wrong with their idea that you can tax people into healthy eating.

Money-making machines offering private education to the world's elite

I read through this New Statesman article by Karan Bilimoria and at no point does he explain why we need foreign students studying here (the New Statesman announced on Twitter "The UK needs international students coming here to study")  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/09/government-must-stop-treating-international-students-hostility

There were bland comments about economic opportunity (for the foreigners presumably) but no practical demonstration of how this benefits ordinary people.

British universities were founded and built up by the taxes of ordinary British people and should be educating ordinary British people.

I do not see why British universities should be hi-jacked by their current academic employees to become money-making machines offering private education to the world's elite.

I am fed up with the world's elite swarming into the United Kingdom.

I would like them to leave.

Panorama on BBC 1 looks at the Rotherham rape gangs this evening:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04hcg6z

Paul Wheeler on the Progress website

Weasel words from Paul Wheeler on the Progress website discussing the Rotherham rape gangs:  http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2014/08/29/changing-local-government-in-the-wake-of-rotherham/

"We are all guilty" seems to be the subtext of his article.

But is it not the case that in pursuit of the asian bloc vote Labour has abdicated all local government accountability in "diverse communities".

Labour does not have a clue what is going on in these areas - look how they were caught by surprise at the result of the Bradford by-election.