Owen Paterson has become an embarrassment and needs to go.

Complete withdrawal

Since about midday Friday I have been ill with 'flu.  A fairly mild 'flu but I have had a continuous headache, ache all over and all I want to do is sleep.  In the hours I have been awake I read After the Coalition by a group of Conservative MPs. 

The book was published in 2011, so is not absolutely up to date.  And my illness gave a bilious sheen to the pages.  But there were many interesting ideas.

As a nation, Britain has always been suspicious of the EU project.  The vision of a United States of Europe does not appeal.  We did well to stay out of the euro, and to secure a rebate.  Nevertheless, as a country we are not yet ready for complete withdrawal...

Which implies that the authors can envisage a time when we will be ready for complete withdrawal.

Possibly after the Euro elections next year.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/After-Coalition-Kwasi-Kwarteng/dp/1849541582

Can I just check, does Bonnie Greer still welcome the appointment of Tristram Hunt as Shadow Education Secretary?

I thought she said he would "take on" Michael Gove, not agree with him whole-heartedly.

The Unite Union has commented on Tristram Hunt's announcements:  "No, no, no to this wrong-headed, ill-thought out policy".

He does not feel particularly English

Sunder Katawala (Director of British Future sic) directs our attention to a short article written by the Cambridge Blogger on the subject of feeling English (or rather how he does not feel particularly English):  http://thecambridgeblogger.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/muddled-talk-about-englishness.html

And then one notices that the author of the piece is Joe Devanny, which is (as the surname research department of Leicester University will tell you) an Irish name.

Is it possible that Mr Devanny does not feel English because his family is not in fact English?

Of course, there is no knowing how many generations the Devanny family has lived in England.

We do know however that English people have lived in Ireland for centuries without their families being accepted as "Irish".  They developed a local affinity and an Anglo-Irish culture and the English called them Irish (although the Irish called them English, or in the north British).  But did they "feel" Irish in the same way that Connemara potato-eaters felt Irish? - I think not.

Each family contains within itself a micro-culture (attitudes, beliefs, perceptions about the outside world) and transmits that culture from one generation to the next.  Family micro-cultures mutate over the generations, but we do not yet know how they mutate and how much remains constant.  It is interesting to speculate whether the constant element in a family micro-culture will transmit itself over hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years (if I forget thee oh Jerusalem may my right hand lose its cunning).

The left will only stop trying this strategy if we start doing the same

On the whole I thought yesterday's Immigration Bill was excellent.

However the Daily Express is reporting that Unite's Len McClusky is already planning to make the legal duties contained in the bill unworkable.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/435928/Red-Len-McCluskey-vows-to-wreck-Theresa-May-s-Immigration-Bill

We should not be surprised at this.

Len McClusky is skilled at gerrymandering the political system - within his union, within the Labour Party, and within the wider British political process.

Like an inverse King Midas he corrupts everything he touches.

Of course, he wants open door unrestricted immigration because he knows that the vast majority of those immigrants will vote Labour and irrevocably change the political complexion of the United Kingdom government.

I sometimes think the left will only stop trying this strategy if we start doing the same.

For instance, we could (quietly, with no fuss) identify a quarter million of the very poorest white people in South Africa and Zimbabwe and encourage them to move to the United Kingdom for asylum reasons or under a special "humanitarian" policy the Home Office can covertly devise.

The quarter million white Southern Africans are then directed to the 50 top marginal constituncies where they are given priority access to the best social housing (decanting out the Labour proles who might already be living there) and fast-track no-questions-asked access to state benefits.

Any opposition from Labour should be shouted down with screams of "racist racist racist" - this needs to be planned in advance to neutralise opposition.

Make sure that the new immigrants are aware of Labour's historic antipathy towards white South Africans - this needs to be hammered home so that they feel under threat.

Next election watch as 50 formerly marginal constituencies become safe Conservative seats with average 5,000 majority.

Hand out food parcels to the starving

According to the Today programme this morning the British Red Cross is contributing to emergency food relief in the United Kingdom, which I suppose puts us on a par with Haiti and Syria.

You might feel alarmed that society in the United Kingdom is presumably near collapse if the Red Cross needs to hand out food parcels to the starving.

And then you might notice that British Red Cross Chief Executive Sir Nick Young held a sinecure NHS "modernisation" position under the last Labour government as well as a sinecure position with the (now discredited) Office of the Third Sector (part of the Cabinet Office under Labour) and has spoken nostalgically about the Labour period of government as "a golden age".

Is it not a disgrace that the Labour party has been voted out of office and yet their former apparatchiks are still controlling major charitable institutions like the British Red Cross and carrying out political stunts such as this?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exclusive-red-cross-launches-emergency-food-aid-plan-for-uks-hungry-8872496.html

It is perhaps unfortunate that Kevin Pietersen should choose to intervene in the "who should play for England" debate.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/oct/09/kevin-pietersen-jack-wilshere-twitter-englishness?CMP=twt_gu

Being English surely implies a broad loyalty to the English people.

And in a key moment of his career Kevin Pietersen was not loyal.  He removed himself from the English team and made 'phone calls to the foreign opposing team disaparaging his English team-mates.  Of course, he has since laughed this off, but some people do remember it.

Are the lefties who are attacking Jack Wilshere for his comments on the eligibility to play for England the same lefties who sneered and jeered at Zola Budd for being given a fast-track to qualify as "British" for the Olympics in 1984?

What makes a person English anyway?

As Gary Younge (Guardian) is found of pointing out, England is not a nation and does not have the "tropes" of nationhood.

At an etymological level English is an ethnicity, not a nationality - the land was named after the people (England, land of the English) unlike say America where the people are named after the land.

The badger cull pilot has failed, so the answer is... let's have another pilot.

It's like that episode of Father Ted where they keep trying the same failed idea over and over again.

The pilot has failed.

Leave the badgers alone.

Is it possible that Diane Abbott MP was sacked today as Shadow Health Minister for no other reason than because the "cull of the Blairites" was looking too one-sided?

Was she sacked because the wider Blairite claque was briefing to the press that the party was moving (indeed "lurching") to the left and Ed's team hurridly needed to prove this was not the case?

My goodness, these people!

The afternoon of the long knives continues.

Patrick Wintour (political editor of the Guardian) tells us "Big Blairite cull underway".

Is this cull a sign of strength (I can kill these people with impunity) or a sign of weakness (I cannot have these people in the team, they are not following orders).

"If I say the word MILIBAND what image comes into your mind..."

On the Today programme this morning the BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson said David Miliband when he meant Ed. 

It was a error made last Saturday on Dateline London by Saul Zadka of Al Lon ("David Miliband" very slight pause as if he had registered his mistake "AND his brother" continuing the point).

The name "Ed" is not foremost in the mind when people discuss the leader of the Labour party - even for very experienced and professional commentators such as Nick Robinson and Saul Zadka.

If these people are experiencing confusion, what hope is there for the ordinary voter?

"If I say the word MILIBAND what image comes into your mind - quickly quickly just say what comes into your mind..."

And what comes into the mind seems to be the name David.

In part this must be because of lack of differentiation between Ed Miliband and David Miliband.

Even after all this time and all this effort.

It must be very worrying for the Labour party.

Ban from future interviews people who pull this sort of stunt

I am not happy that John Rentoul (Columnist, Independent on Sunday) used an interview on the Today programme this morning to advertise a book by David Aaronovitch (the link with the subject under discussion was so clumsy that it cannot be regarded as anything other than a gratuitous advertisement for a fellow lefty author).

This sort of thing may seem innocuous, but undermines the non-commercial status of the BBC.

If lefties are using the public broadcaster as a covert advertising medium, then how can we argue against full commercialisation?

Perhaps the BBC can ban from future interviews people who pull this sort of stunt.

Can we please not see or hear Jon Rentoul or David Aaronovitch on the BBC again.

Remember the Great War

How should the Great War centenary be marked? (2014 to 2018 and also the Treaty of Versailles centenary in 2019).

This is the (rather phallic) war memorial at Ellington in Huntingdonshire.  It commemorates the men of the village who went away and did not come back.  Every November it is still the focus of village respect.

We do not need to wonder how the servicemen of Ellington wanted us to remember the Great War and their fallen comrades.  There must be no sorrow.  We must be proud of the British victory in the Great War, especially because it was won with Ellington blood, and we must emulate the noble behaviour of the Ellington heroes.

Unusual for Bonnie Greer to welcome the promotion of public school posh boy Tristram Hunt MP in the reshuffle earlier today.

And how many millionaires does the new Shadow Cabinet contain now? (it used to be seven).

As  Kentish Town born, bad-comp-educated scion of an East End family I'm afraid I cannot take someone called "Tristram" seriously - at my school he would have got a bloody good kicking just for the name alone.

The Shadow Cabinet seems to be moving determinedly to the left - Byrne out, Twigg out, Murphy demoted.

Of course, it would be ridiculously cliched to say this was a neo-Stalinist purge.

As far as I know no ice picks have been used.

Reshuffle update:  hard left MP Jon Trickett now full member of the Shadow Cabinet and Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Deputy Chair of the Labour Party.

Malala Yousafzai was interviewed by Mishal Husain

On the Today programme this morning Malala Yousafzai was interviewed by Mishal Husain.

Malala Yousafzai is a 16-year-old victim of terror and violence who has come to live in the United Kingdom.  Her views are taken seriously.  She has addressed the United Nations and been interviewed on the Today programme.

Ralph Miliband was a 17-year-old threatened by terror and violence who came to the United Kingdom in the 1930s.  And yet we are told that his 17-year-old views should not be taken seriously.  He was not old enough or mature enough to know what he was saying.

Double standards seem to be at play here.

Today's Observer on "identity"

(please ignore the hair in the top left of the picture - one of the dogs decided to intrude into the shot).

For such an important subject, the page in today's Observer on "identity" was surprisingly lightweight. 

An article by Sunder Katwala of British Future (sic) quoting statistics that did not seem to have any provenance.  An inauthentic use of marketing segmentation jargon.  A slapdash use of celebrity photographs.

The whole thing looked as if it had been thrown together at the last minute.

In his piece Sunder Katwala once again took it upon himself to talk about the First World War.  It might help if Mr Katwala could tell us what role his own family played in the war.  Otherwise his pronouncements invite the riposte:  what's it got to do with you.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/06/what-makes-modern-britain-great-tribes 

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

 

Have just finished reading The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst.

The paperback has 560 pages, and the novel is so well-written that at no time did I feel bored with it.

Ostensibly about a poet (obviously based on Rupert Brooke) it is actually a literary detective story comparable to AS Byatt's Possession.

Alan Hollinghurst is a seditious writer - he subverts the country house Brideshead genre, he undermines the reputation of Rupert Brooke, he exposes the myth-making surrounding the Great War.

The first section is slightly cloying (home life among the Honeychurches I thought), and I did not enjoy entering the soul of a bank clerk, but it is a fine book.

A new ideology of masculinity is developing

Earlier this year Diane Abbott MP made a speech on the Crisis of Masculinity.

After a generally sound assessment of the situation she put forward a number of unconvincing solutions.

In my opinion the crisis of masculinity has been brought about by the left's systematic assault on the institutions (formal, informal and social institutions) that in the past were used to tame and control masculinity.

Whether those institutions have been destroyed through stupidity, through well-meaning interference or through deliberate malevolence and spite we will leave on one side.

The fact remains that the institutions have been smashed.

And as Diane Abbott points out, there is now a crisis of masculinity.

Therefore it is reasonable to ask what the young men experiencing this crisis intend to do about it.

My own assessment is that a new ideology of masculinity is developing, independent of the traditional institutions (which have been smashed) but also independent of the left's gormless social engineering and strident political correctness.

This new ideology of masculinity has fourteen attributes which I have labelled cults, although they could equally be called enthusiasms.  This seems to be an entirely new vision of society independent of the traditional culture of the right and the crass political correctness of the left.  However I might be wrong - it is possible that what is emerging is simply a pre-industrial form of masculinity reasserting itself now that the bounds that formerly held it in check have been loosened.

1  The cult of the body.

Denied access to the identity provided by traditional masculine roles (defined within the family, within a previously all-pervasive Anglican religious culture, within the social hierarchy that used to permeate every class, within the Protestant Work Ethic that governed employment expectations, within the national myth which allotted a "place" and life-meaning for everyone etc) young men have fallen back on the most fundamental point of masculine reference - the male body.  The body has become the symbol of the new masculinity.  It is the one thing that even the most disadvantaged young men can use to define themselves and their relationship to other men and to women.

2  The cult of nudity.

Pre-war men almost never took their clothes off in public.  Now semi-nudity in public is common and complete male nudity is increasingly seen in film, television, magazines etc.  This nudity is not narcissistic but relates to a way of achieving masculine identity.  Naked display is an established way of creating masculine impact.  More than just showing-off, the body is displayed in a timeless classical context with ideal proportions and demonstrative good health.  Nude posing also symbolises fearless courage since the body is shown unprotected.

3  The cult of youth.

In the new masculinity youth is increasingly led by youth and rejects leadership from women or older men.

4  The cult of the fittest.

Over the last twenty years there has been an explosion of gym-orientated activity - for all age groups and for both genders, but primarily led by young men.   The social elite among young men is increasingly defined by physique.  This disturbing body fascism rejects those who do not participate and excel at body culture. 

5  The cult of dynamism.

In the new masculinity young men are expected to be dynamic.  Intellectual activity is not valued.  The dynamism of individuals contributes to the dynamism of the social group, and non-dynamic men (the overweight, the slow, the disabled) are excluded from core membership of the social group - as are women.

6  The cult of violence.

Brutalism is deliberately cultivated with young masculine peer groups, and the ability to inflict and endure pain is highly valued.  Previously this predilection for violence would have been tamed within socially-accepted contexts (military, sporting and educational).  Increasingly it is spilling out onto the streets.

7  The cult of inclusion.

Diane Abbott is mistaken in thinking that young men seek in gangs a substitute for family life.  It seems increasingly apparent that young men are seeking masculine social groups in preference to family life.   Loyalty (a guarantee of safety), honour (a clear code to follow, however that is defined by the group) and obedience (relief from the anxiety of making decisions) are seen as attributes young men cannot find in a family context.  In the masculine social group there is no isolation.  Once an individual has been accepted they are "in".  And making an effort to fit in becomes the over-riding imperative.

8  The cult of manliness.

Manliness is related to looking and acting like a man.  Manliness also implies having the strength to assume the role of social protector, able to defend the community (however that is defined by the social group) - not hiding from danger, not expressing fear.  It also requires (and this is a key dividing point between masculine and non-masculine men) the idea that men are expendable and might need to sacrifice themselves to defend the social group.

9  The cult of sublimated nationalism.

George Mosse famously said that love of country was erotisised nationalism.  The new masculinity can be described as nationalism without the nation (or with a highly exclusive definition of the nation, perhaps relating to the England football team).  This form of nationalism is indistinguishable from male social bonding, and becomes an abstract arena in which young men who do not know each other experience a close fraternity.

10 The cult of hero worship.

With the increasing rejection by large numbers of young men of formal education we are seeing an increasing emphasis upon emulation of role models.  Young men watch and interact with other young men to learn social roles.  The objective appears to be the transformation of feelings of alienation into ecstatic feelings of community led by "heroic" figures.

11  The cult of performance and achievement.

Within the new masculinity individuals are expected to develop a strong ego and sense of self-confidence.  The emphasis is upon performance and perfectionism, and is often associated with extreme behaviour.  The new masculinity is above all related to security and survival, and all members of the social group are expected to contribute towards achieving this.

12  The cult of health.

Remaining absolutely healthy is an obsession of the new masculinity, although ironically the pursuit of health often results in counter-productive behaviour (the taking of steroids for instance).  Diseased individuals are shunned.  Extreme monotonous diets are often adopted.

13  The cult of competition.

The emerging new masculinity is hyper-competitive.  Competition within social groups, competition between social groups, and competition with external forces (authority).

14  the cult of fraternity.

As we have seen, instead of a post-industrial masculinity emerging we are seeing the reassertion of a pre-industrial primeval autochonthus masculinity.  At what point will this new masculinity go mainstream and be adopted by society and integrated within the wider collective fraternity?  And what impact will it have on the rest of us?