The veteran BBC broadcaster John Simpson has been busy recently defending the BBC’s decision not to label Hamas a terrorist organisation, despite the horrific pogrom it unleashed on 7 October and despite calls for the BBC to change its stance made by politicians, journalists and the public. According to Simpson, ‘terrorism’ is a loaded word […]
Dear BBC, Spare Us Your ‘Neutrality’ Read More »
(Photograph: Surrey County Council News, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) Don’t be fooled by the UK constabulary’s failure to engage when it comes to jihad – that peaceful, ‘inner struggle’ afflicting Muslims as they agonise over Weetabix or Cheerios at the breakfast table; it’s just that plod understands the nuances of these matters
MET Police Cop Out Read More »
Like everyone else I did not pay much attention to the SNP conference which took place nearby me in Aberdeen. The turnout was poor with plenty of empty seats. But this isn’t the SNP’s main problem, nor indeed is Humza Yousaf. The real problem is Scottish nationalism has become a movement of fantasists. In 1989
The Fantasists of the SNP Read More »
“Look what you made me do!” So often goes the stereotypical line of the domestic abuser after being ‘forced’ to grant his wife her umpteenth black eye for failing to come to heel. I can’t help but reflect on that sick form of manipulation when observing the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war. Much like the
Sleeping With the Enemy Read More »
The word ‘anti-semitism’ for what took place in Israel on October 7th is a wonderfully convenient word all round. It is a boon, of course, to Islamists and their Western sympathisers because it blends October 7th into the long history of Christian anti-semitism that concluded (let’s hope it concluded) in the Holocaust. It hints that, if Islamists deliberately
(Photograph: Scottish Government, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) Presumably saving all their bangs for the impending war between Israel and Hamas, the SNP conference in Aberdeen ended with the usual whimper about seeking independence if they had a mandate to do so. This is the safest promise that could be made, akin to
They say it’s all downhill after 40, but in my case it was more of a freefall. While I’ve never been particularly athletic, I’d always been active: a professional juggler for over a decade, with swimming and a little (very) amateur boxing thrown in for good measure. Everything was fine until I hit the big
An Alternate Perspective on the NHS Read More »
Ross Clark in The Spectator reckons that Pope Francis has gone ‘full Greta’ over his recent document Laudate Deum, which he presented to the current and ongoing Synod of Synodality in Rome. He could well be right. Popes issue several types of documents with different levels of authority, including Encyclicals, Apostolic Exhortations and Papal Bulls.
A Climate of Pessimism at the Vatican Read More »
I have come to the conclusion that there are two main breeds of politicians. The ones that come into politics to tidy up the untidy aspects of life, and those who understand human frailty; blessed with the vision to harness it, for the benefit of us all. The former love things to be in order; they
The Two Breeds of Politicians Read More »
My taxi driver in Washington DC was from Eritrea. He had asked where I came from and how it compared with my country; and he told me how different he found it from his. So I braced myself and asked the most politically incorrect of questions: where was he from? Turns out he had won
The Diversity Lottery Read More »
