Rate this postPrince Andrew’s latest example of corruption has encouraged me to release another Chapter of my book ‘British Politics is broken, but…‘ This is for those of you who have not bought my book but who might be just persuaded to read or listen to this complete chapter. Just below is the Audible version where you may hear my mellifluous tones reading the full chapter. Today’s Royal family are the anachronistic remnants of a feudal and barbaric group who
Rate this postMy main message is that if we carry on with our current ‘Party’ based political system we speed up Britain’s further decline. You might just recognise the cover because I am re-publishing ‘The Normal Curve’ as ‘British politics is broken’. The reason for this is that a thoroughly detailed review of the book was given to me by Tim, who remains a dear friend despite a fair amount of negative but valid criticism 😉 As a result of
Rate this postMy second book is the first to be published and is all about the danger that faith creates for society. Perhaps not something that most of you might think about, but hopefully this might provoke some discussion. The book is on Amazon in paperback, Audible and Kindle versions. You can read the first twenty or so pages by using the “Look inside” feature. I started my second book six months before the Covid-19 virus appeared so the use
Rate this postAt last! Some objective truth emerges from a USA president’s lips. Biden just said that American troops would no longer fight for a people who would not fight for themselves. “And here’s what I believe to my core: It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not. If the political leaders of Afghanistan were unable to come together for the good of their people, unable to negotiate for the future
Rate this postWords and their changed meaning The process of that change fascinates me. First we need a definition from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Then I will move on to what happened at Batley Grammar School. The OED states that a phobia is an irrational fear of something. So Islamophobia should therefore mean ‘an irrational fear of Islam’. Now it apparently means “a hatred of Islam”. That change of meaning has turned into that ridiculous recent creation, viz. a
Rate this post“No one is above the law”; if only that were true… I quote Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, speaking on January 13th 2021. She said it as she confirmed the second impeachment of Donald Trump. The very fact that she even needed to say those words yesterday reflects the depths to which democracy has descended in the USA. There are many ways in which politicians and the rich in the USA are above
Rate this postMy letter sent to our local MP sent today Dear Nigel Huddleston MP I have written to you before about faith schools and their very existence which cause many obvious divisions in society. Parliament still actively encourages this rapidly developing calamity by funding and encouraging ever more faith schools – but why? Society has changed fundamentally in the last 60 years and I want my representative in parliament to come out in support of radical change. A secular
Rate this postWhilst walking my dog this morning I had a chat with a fellow philosopher He is a bit younger than me, so quite representative of our respective generations. In five minutes we had solved many issues which had defied our best political brains for two years (Ed: Err, better get some new brains in quick then). We agreed that we are just about to lose our best ever chance of sorting out “the troubles”, the unification of Ireland
Rate this postThe words anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic suffer from obfuscation (lies), misdirection and at its very heart, an absence of a rational definition. The current row about Anti-Semitism, and what most people think it means, is flawed and dishonest. It is made far worse by sensationalist journalism. Truth and a rational debate is almost impossible to find and to quote almost all the media, “We are all very upset and angry about all those nasty people who are anti-Semitic, particularly
Rate this postYour challenge, dear reader, is to guess which of these are fake news 😉 There will be prizes (but, see 2* below) A radical change for the Catholic Church Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, has made a number of surprising announcements, while on tour in the Myanmar (Burma to you and me), that will take the Catholic Church in a very progressive and liberal direction. The ministry of the 266th pontiff, it appears, will henceforward, be founded in
Rate this postSuch an important issue this, as is evidenced on front pages everywhere and QuestionTime on BBC 1 last Thursday. Opinions ranged from Rory Stewart(*1) saying “Kill them, there is no alternative”. Then the leftist intellectuals saying “understand them, hug them but then imprison them”. Finally the Questiontime audience saying “don’t let them back in, they have lost any rights, they might have had as British citizens”, by going out there to fight for ISIS etc. What I think
Rate this postOh I know the title of this piece is a bit Daily Mail! But, while the press & TV concentrate on Theresa May’s announcement promoting grammar schools, a far more important part of the new education bill she proposes gets hardly any air time at all. May wants to increase both the number, and the selective power, of faith schools, by effectively removing the current 50% non-faith element! For god’s sake ( 😉 that is today’s only attempt at humour) will all our
Rate this postA few words of light relief and escape from the nauseating, banal utterances from both sides of the public EU debate. This piece was written sometime ago by an American contributor to this blog, and for some reason I have not published it before. It is well worth a read. Thank you perspective. Belief in some kind of “higher power,” or not, has a relationship to one’s preference in governance. The Left has the most straightforward belief in
Rate this postPeter Brookes said it beautifully in his cartoon printed six weeks before Saudi Arabia executed 45 ‘enemies of state’. I can’t show it on my blog but you can see it here. It’s becoming clear that our view of Saudi Arabia is in need of review (Ed: Understatement of the decade?). ISIS Meanwhile our boys have carried out 4 bombing raids in Syria with absolutely nothing to show for their efforts. All the hoohah in the recent Parliamentary debate
Rate this post… party politics! Party politics has stifled any adult discussion of the threat we face from IS (Islamic State). No, it’s not ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq & Levant, the Jewish / USA version). Daesh is the Arabic acronym which really they do not like. For a full discussion of the name(s) of this primitive barbaric organisation see here. Everywhere in the media, even in our best political discussion programs, journalists and politicians consume 90% of the time
Rate this postI summarise some recent news and offer a long term solution as human misery is being played out at Europe’s borders. Hundreds of thousands of foreign Muslims are trying to migrate to northern Europe from Syria and Iraq, to name but two countries. A few hundred British Muslims have left for Syria to help set up an Islamic Caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq. I wonder if those travelling to Syria have wondered why so many of
Rate this postI am greatly amused by the frantic anti Jeremy Corbyn campaign being waged by the other three Labour party leadership contenders. 😉 They simply do not understand why Corbyn is so popular with many Labour supporters, and many of us. The reason is, that Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper (AKA Mrs Balls) are still speaking and thinking poli-balls. They have not twigged that we the people don’t like it. (Ed: I wonder why Ms Cooper uses
Rate this postOur dumbed down BBC news A BBC reporter was interviewing one persistent, but unsuccessful, immigrant on the recent death of his friend. “How are you feeling?” she asked. They were in a tent, “in the Jungle” the Calais camp site, where he had been living for the last month. “Oh it must be so sad for you to still see his shoe on the floor over there…” said the reporter, interviewing the man who cousin died last week
Rate this postOur Dave wants to defeat the poison of radical Islam, jolly good eh? Well, no, he still defends state funded faith schools. His use of the word poison, copies Blair, his hero, who has used the word poison in the same context many times since 2010. Yet, despite agreeing on the word, neither Blair nor Cameraman have the slightest clue about the nature of so-called radical Islam. Cameraman’s Birmingham speech on the 21st July was welcome, but several
Rate this postFrom Irish RTE TV channel program called The Meaning of Life. Fry was being interviewed for the Irish television show when he launched into an impassioned tirade about God’s existence. Stephen Fry, when he supposedly meets God, he says “How dare you create bone cancer in children! What’s that all about.” Just in case you have not seen this, I think Stephen Fry puts it quite well! Watch it on YouTube here
Rate this post In February 2015, Home Secretary Theresa May said ‘ …authorities need to look at the ideology which drives young people to travel abroad and join extremist groups.’ This was in the light of her studied shocked reaction to the fact that three intelligent, apparently well educated, schoolgirls were off to Syria to join Isis as jihadi wives. Ms May said it was important to look not just at terrorism but ‘extremism across the whole spectrum’. Did she
Rate this postAs the old joke goes “Is the Pope a Catholic?” in other words, the answer to the question just asked is Yes, obviously! Catholic he may be, but Christian? No. The new PR man at the Vatican, Pope Francis, has made the most ridiculous statement supporting a violent response to those who poke fun at religion. He would ‘punch‘ anyone who mocks the irrational belief in the invisible, whatever variety of religious silliness is being mocked. This
Rate this postA terrorist attack at the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine, left at least 12 people dead. Paris January 7th was a wake up call to all politicians in the west, and to the vast majority of people who do and say nothing about the slow rise of radical Islam in Europe and Great Britain. Appeasement to the religious vote is no longer acceptable. Radical Islam is being silently and ignorantly supported by moderate Muslims,
Rate this postIn the UK we have private schools treated as charities for tax purposes for no good reason that most of us can see. Other than, perhaps, the establishment who made those tax rules to save themselves money on their children’s education. After all, they need to separate their offspring from the great unwashed (that’s you and me if you were wondering) and therefore invented charitable status to protect their socially divisive academies. We also have a divisive education
Rate this postOr, if you do then you are wilfully misleading the people you lead and represent. Obama has just said in his speech last Tuesday night, “Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not Islamic.” (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) On the face of it, that shows his profound ignorance of the Qur’an and Hadith (supplementary Muslim instructions written after their manual was last updated in 1910). However, he is probably doing what all western politicians
Rate this postCharles, when prince of Wales said “Look chaps, when I ascend, the throne that is, I will sort this all out.” (I paraphrase) I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding that can be solved by an inter faith dialogue meeting with those those nice people from the Orthodontic Society offering us all herbal teas. (Ed: Sire, do you perhaps mean the Homoeopathic Society? ). That nice Mr Blair has offered to help too, so at least I will be
Rate this postThere is currently a daft & pointless row between Michael Gove (Education Secretary) and Theresa May (Home Secretary). The argument is about who’s ideas are best to fight ‘religious extremism’ in schools. They have not, and cannot, define extremism, yet the ill-defined argument nevertheless rages in the ‘poli-news’1 Both want to gain credit for ‘fighting extremism’ in the wake of the UKIP earthquake, which has woken up the Tories. This is a further example of how our party
Rate this postFollowing on from Tony Blair’s lessons in how to be a successful polishitun, our Dave, the heir to Blair, has learned from his master how to use the “Look” word to convey sincerity, where, of course, there is none. The use of “Look” sounds chatty, warm and fluffy but masks the real motivation of those who want power. He wants to appear to be your mate and, in this latest instance, wants to be a “mate” to all
Rate this postAriel Sharon’s recent death marked the end of what was the last slim best chance for a solution to the Israeli / Palestinian turmoil. Sharon was hardly a great beacon of hope for the region, but his last few actions were moving in a positive direction. Age might have been slowly bringing wisdom to this former soldier and enthusiastic, Arab bashing Zionist hero of the 1967 Arab Israeli war. Sharon, in 2006, just before his terminal stroke. As Prime
Rate this postHere are two items of ground breaking news that you will not find mentioned at all on the BBC. French Education Minister Vincent Peillon unveils secularism charter for schools The first is so important to the philosophical development of mankind that it should be shouted from all roof tops. It is this:- The French Education Minister Vincent Peillon has unveiled the controversial secularism charter which is to be displayed in a prominent position in every school to remind
Rate this postCan it really be that politicians are listening to the people? It may just be so here in the UK perhaps even so in the USA?. Pity about France … I hope Congress and President Barak Obama have the balls to say “No” to any more intervention in the Middle East. Let us instead promote the values and reason of the European Enlightenment upon which the USA was founded and wait 500 years while the Middle East catches
Rate this postSupreme Court of Wisconsin (1890) “There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter into our civil affairs, our government soon would be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed. Those who made our Constitution saw this, and used the most apt and comprehensive language in it to prevent such a catastrophe.” (Supreme Court
Rate this post… Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, the Religious Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd say they will contribute nothing to Magdalene Laundry survivors’ compensation. Vatican and the Magdalene Laundry survivors The four orders of nuns that ran the notorious Magdalene Laundries in Ireland have said they have no intention of contributing anything towards the compensation fund set up by the Irish Government. The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the
Rate this postMuslim nutter calmly murders soldier Those chilling words spoken to camera by the calm murderer of a British soldier in Woolwich, London needs very careful interpretation. Islamic extremism engenders nationalist extremism – neither is the way to go, but how on earth can we stop it? There is no quick or easy solution but surely the education of Britain’s children is a solid place to start? Those with a voice, i.e. the government, the Muslim Council of ‘g’reat
Rate this postNo I am not shocked, nor am I interested in the replacement of one old deluded man with another. However, what does shock me is the amount of fawning coverage given to this non-event by the BBC. They rolled out that mindless Cormack Murphy O’Connor to opine on the subject today. The radio and TV news has been deluged with pointless wittering about the last 700 years history of one of the foulest but politically self serving organisations
Rate this postThe management of the Church of England, (Archie Bishes, Bishes etc.) has clearly revealed its true nature. They are political animals. They can see all too clearly that yesterday’s Synod decision to disallow the creation of woman bishops is damaging to the “brand” because their focus group management information clearly reveals that “we the people” have moved on. The are just seven other countries in the world where clerics form part of the legislature, by right and the
Rate this post“Evil & corruption was everywhere” says the Pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele This naïve yet probably honest man actually thought that by exposing corruption in the Vatican. He exposed the two faced underhand power struggles in the Vatican elite. He thougyht he was doing the Roman Catholic Church a favour – he even thought the Pope and Cardinals would be pleased! The Vatican has confirmed Saturday, May 26, 2012, that the pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele, he holding the
Rate this postSeneca (4 – 65 BCE) “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” ’nuff said! I know we all love Queen Elizabeth and the wonderful quiet, dignified way she does her job. But we feel for her when some of her progeny and relations, have, in the past acted as adulterous, spoiled, brats, but ah bless, isn’t she doing a wonderful job? Well actually, in one
Rate this post‘Marriage’ is culturally defined as being between a man a woman This is prompted by Arch Bishop Sentamu’s statement (27th January 2010) that ‘Marriage’ is not for same sex couples. Why this is news or controversial makes me sigh – but let’s have a bit of common sense shall we? For me, the religious definition matters not except for the simple fact that ‘Marriage’ is culturally defined as being between a man a woman, usually for the creation
Rate this postAlmost daily now, on the BBC, we hear religious leaders droning on about the importance of faith in our lives and the dangers of aggressive secularism. Now ‘we’ are sending Baroness Warsi to the Vatican, accompanied by 7 cabinet ministers, to join forces with the Pope to speak out against so-called ‘aggressive’ secularism which I would simply describe as reason and common sense! I find this government mission frankly deeply misguided and almost unbelievable – and who on earth
Republic’s goal is simple: replace the monarchy with an elected head of state and more democratic political system. Instead of a king, we want someone chosen by the people, not running the government but representing the nation independently of our politicians.
A monarchy should not exist in a democratic society. The majority of us believe in democracy, and think democracy makes for a fairer, more prosperous society. Who of us think the British version of democracy is working well?
Too much power in the hands of government, it’s too difficult to hold people to account We see corruption and cronyism everywhere, especially the Lords and in the honours system.
