Looney Toons

What a year 2006 has been so far! There is a breaking development every day with whales in the Thames, militant fathers plotting Leo Blair’s abduction, Ariel Sharon changing the face of Israeli politics one moment and fighting for his life the next while Hamas are elected into office inside Palestine. Just when it seemed that the New Year could not get more surreal than a series of 24, both the British National Party (BNP) and the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten create yet more havoc.

BNP Chairman Nick Griffin and his fellow cockroach Mark Collet walked free from Leeds Crown Court after the gruesome twosome were cleared on some charges of inciting racial hatred while the jury were unable to reach verdicts on the others. The insects had claimed that their remarks about Islam being a “dragon” and a “wicked faith” were part of a “legitimate political dialogue”. Hot on the heels of the BNP’s triumph came the violent, yet understandable backlash from the Islamic world over Jyllands-Posten’s cartoons depicting The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his descendants) as a terrorist.

Everyone has the right to free speech, yet that right as with all other rights comes with responsibilities. Just because you have the right to do something does not always mean you should exercise it. The right to free speech is never to be abused, yet this is ignored at every possible opportunity by elements of a gutter media irrationally hostile to Islam due to its own ignorance of the faith, those so-called ‘Muslim’ protesters in London calling for beheadings and ironically enough the removal of civil liberties, and above all the vile BNP.

As with the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks, the BNP are already making political capital out of Islamophobia by setting up a ‘trade union’ dubbed Solidarity: The Union of British Workers. Just as bad is the insensitive insistence of all-pervasive and cancerous liberals that freedom of speech without responsibility is a non-negotiable absolute. As Anas Altikriti commented in the Guardian on February 10, 2006, those “who claim to uphold freedom of speech by defending the right to reproduce insulting depictions of the prophet are in effect saying to Muslims that what they hold dear and sacred is far more worthy of protecting than what Muslims hold dear and sacred. The cartoons had more to do with incitement of hatred, racism and Islamophobia than with freedom of expression.” Rights and responsibilities are indivisible; you cannot have one without the other.

Quote of the Day 10.2.2006

"The global capitalist system has killed more people than Adolf Hitler" - Swansea University RESPECT Students

So have the Black Death, Uncle Joe Stalin and Mao Zedong, therefore what is the point being made?

Signs & Portents

Although Canada barely registers on most political analysts’ radar screens, the general election held on January 23, 2006 was of great interest in more ways than one. In the Canadian context, the centre-left Liberals of Paul Martin were dismissed from office after 13 years and replaced by a minority Conservative administration under Stephen Harper. Yet the outcome of this election may be of far greater importance in the international context, particularly with regard to the future course of British politics.

The implications were not lost on the Guardian newspaper three days later in its “Maple leaf lessons” piece. It noted that instead of wasting their time and finance on studying on the US politics (the course of which has greatly diverged from domestic priorities to be of any real benefit); British politicians and their strategists should pay greater attention to developments within Britain’s self-governing North American dominion. The broadsheet also drew a number of conclusions that might in time prove to be a foresight of the outcome of the next British general election.

The conclusions were that political parties in a parliamentary liberal democracy rarely remain in power for more than a dozen years as the Conservatives learnt in three times during the last century (the 40s, 60s and 90s respectively) as well as Labour in the early 1950s. Competent government treasurers do not necessarily become fine heads of government and that successful economic management does not guarantee the re-election of the incumbent administrations (as both major parties know again from the 50s, 60s and 90s). Certainly with regard to the first and last conclusions, familiarity does breed competent and a longing for change (regardless of whether it is warranted or not) among a bored electorate and media. By the time the next general election is called, Labour will have been in office for around a dozen years off the back left-leaning feelings that brought it and its cotemporaries in the other liberal democracies to power during the 1990s.

With the political tide shifting towards the centre-right, Gordon Brown is facing an uphill task in convincing voters not to replace him with David Cameron at the next election. Whether he succeeds or not, a Brown premiership will certainly not be as enduring as Tony Blair’s reign.

Quote of the Day 2.2.2006

"Who gives a toss what your union believes,your all silly little liberal lefty types who make up a tiny percentage of the population.You my friend are the cranks."

This is the exact quote (bad grammar included) made by a fascist troll called "john" at Jo's Journal regarding my opposition to the equally fascist British National Party. I think this is the first time anyone has accused me of being a liberal and left-wing. Pity the issues surrounding this hilarious comment are less so!