I saw this first on Devils Kitchen.

“Muslims Under siege” interesting metaphor. But how are they under siege?

They are free to practice their religion. They are allowed to build temples to their god. Employers put aside prayer rooms and allow Muslim workers to pray as and when. They are allowed to vote and stand for parliament. They are allowed to ritually slaughter meat in the Muslim stylee. They have their own schools, committees and community centres. And if the prison shit house happens to point in the general direction of Mecca there are folk who will actually consider moving it.

That doesn’t sound like “Muslims under siege” to me.

Anyway I managed to squeeze this post past the thought pol moderator.

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Muslims under seige? They built their own castle then.

“Stuart Weir” They are disadvantaged and discriminated against in housing, education and employment by comparison with other faith groups;

That doesn’t stack up from where I’m sitting. Many workplaces allow a room for prayers. Muslims are allowed their own schools. There are housing projects specifically aimed at Muslims. There are halal bank accounts for Muslims. They’re allowed to ritually slaughter their meat in accordance with their own beliefs. And so on.

As far as I can tell the “UK” is bending over backwards to accommodate the Muslim belief system.

“Stuart Weir” They suffer disproportionately more from discrimination, racial abuse and racial attacks than any other faith group, and the more openly devout they are, the more likely they are to experience harassment and abuse.

Violence, bigotry and abuse - all absolutely unacceptable in a civilised society.

BTW you must know this, but it seems to need stating - Islam is not a race - it’s a religion.

Bottom line - in the UK Muslims cause more trouble than any other faith group. We get the odd sacred cow incident from the Hindus, there have been cases where the Sikh community have caused a fuss about one thing or another. But with Muslims it’s routine. It’s week in week out - and the threat of violence is never far away.

Now you can blame the press if you like but they are categorically not making everything up. The Rushdie affair wasn’t a conspiracy concocted by the Daily Mail. The “behead those who insult Islam” placards were not photoshopped. The explosions that tore through the tube were not staged.

These sorts of things do tend to get people’s backs up.

Another reason is we’re getting to learn more about Islam too. Religious intolerance is by no means exclusive to Islam - they’re all at it. But the Muslims are right up there with the best of them.

Allah the compassionate and most merciful - doesn’t he have a strange way of showing it? Homosexuality - punishable by death. Adultery punishable by death. Apostasy punishable by death. Blasphemy - you guessed it.

It seems to me that the more devout they are - the more likely they are to believe that homosexuals should be tossed off that cliff. The more likely they are to believe that women are inherently inferior to men. The more likely they are to believe that Jews are pigs or apes. The more likely they are to approve of limb chopping, stoning and beheadings. The more likely they are to hate the kuffar. The more likely they are to want sharia law for the “UK”. The more likely they are to want Islam to dominate the world.

Then there is the constant threat of violence. If I was inclined to draw a picture of a fat ginger desert bandit on a camel riding across the desert with bags of swag hanging from the saddle and then put the caption “Mohammed on tour” underneath it and published it. Then my life would be in danger. Actually I’d struggle to get it published anywhere because people are already shit scared about the threat of Muslim violence.

“Stuart Weir” There are those who deny that Islamophobia actually exists.

I’m a denier.

As I understand it, a phobia is an irrational fear. As far as I can tell there is nothing irrational about fearing Islam. It threatens everything I believe in…

Violence, bigotry and abuse - all absolutely unacceptable in a civilised society.

Someone have a word with the Muslims about it.

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I expect to get some stick for writing this but please don’t cut my head off.

Obviously not just any answer would do…

It looks to me like Dave C may have had words with Ken - possibly at the taskforces launch…

“Now remember Ken - I want to be PM of the whole UK not just sour little England, right? So don’t do anything to rock the boat. Better an imperfect Union than a broken one eh? That’s the spirit. Oh and one more thing, for God’s sake don’t piss the Scots off. Got that? Good show. Lord Rushcliffe does have a certain ring to it doesn’t it? Toodle-pip”

If you thought that Tory ideas about devolution couldn’t get any fudgier than that English Grand Committee thing or English Votes on English Laws - hang onto your fillings.

The answer to the West Lothian Question is… to exclude Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh MPs from voting on the committee stages of England only legislation.

Of course it would be rude and petty to deny non English MP’s a vote on the actual final English laws. So the DUP and Scottish Labour would carry on as normal.

Which as far as I can see - achieves - precisely - bugger all.

So what have they been doing all this time? My guess is that instead of toiling they’ve been spending most days in a parliament smoking lounge; drinking fine wine and brandy, having a smoke, playing a bit of Jenga, with Thelonious Monk rattling away in the background. Nice.

Ken explains all here talking on yesterday’s Today programme.

Labour are in deep financial shit.

“Marvellous news”I hear you cry! Indeed it is…

You can help make the shit deeper for Labour.

If you know someone in a trade union, encourage them to opt out of funding Labour.

Plyd Cymru have produced a very helpful guide to making sure your union funds don’t go to supporting Labour.

via Iain Dale with the assistance of aardvak.

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Gordon. There’s always this option…

It’s great to read something positive about Englishness coming from Mr Goodhart. Although I disagree with a lot that he’s saying.

“a minimum national sense of “being in this together” is still necessary to avoid long-term ethnic balkanisation and a small, low-tax state”.

Avoiding “ethnic balkanisation” would be good - have a word with some of the immigrants about it. The indigenous population are not responsible for all the problems of integration faced by immigrants. The onus is on them to fit in, and not the other way around. Freedom of speech for instance - is non negotiable - and anyone’s gods are fair game.

And why is it necessary to avoid a low tax state? Personally I think that is exactly what we should be aiming for. That doesn’t necessarily mean cut services - I’d like to see alternatives to paying cash to the state - as they only waste it once they have it.

It seems liberals want “redistribution of wealth and generous welfare”.
As far as I’m concerned; fair redistribution of wealth can only happen slowly and through better education and increased opportunities. Generous welfare robs people of the necessity to strive and improve themselves and as far as I can tell is perpetuating not removing the underclasses. That may suit the political and some of the under classes but it’s doing no-one in between any favours at all.

I’ve had a couple of extended periods of unemployment and the state helped me out.. So I am all for a safety net but not an extended lifestyle choice. I also object to people having 8 kids and expecting someone else to pay for them. Hello! Limited resources - use some contraception.

About England. Mr Goodhart asks…

“Britain has been an extremely successful multinational state. Personally, I would be sad to see it go. Moreover, if it ain’t broke…Surely the English are big enough to live with some small representational and public spending biases in favour of the small nations of the United Kindgdom. What exactly are English interests? And how are they being suppressed? (And one could ask the same of Scotland.)”

I’d be like to see the UK replaced with a council of the Isles - one where England gets to sit at the table.

If it ain’t broke? But it is broke - and new labour broke it with the way they tackled devolution.

Devolution has left England ruled by a man making laws that don’t even apply to his own constituents. No mandate Brown has to bleat “Britain” and “our Country” from when he wakes up to when the mercy of sleep takes him. England. He dare not speak its name.

Then the state weighs our lives on crooked scales. There may be a case for slightly more funding per person in remote areas but no way is a Scottish life worth so much more than an English or Welsh one. The Barnett Formula is an insult to 50 million English people.

Then there’s how inequitable funding manifests; better drug availability, lower or no prescription charges, smaller classroom sizes, care for the elderly etc. I’d not deny these benefits to the Scots or Welsh or Irish - good on them! The English should have the same too - but there’s no-one talking for us.

England is big. Big enough that it doesn’t have to put up with the British Governments warped sense of justice and its delusions of global significance.

We need an English Parliament that speaks for us. But let’s not be half hearted about it - let’s reform parliament while we’re at it. Make parliament and the civil service and the military smaller and more flexible - lets make waste history starting at the top - and for gods sake lets get rid of the political parties and vote for people instead.

Like he says an EP “would make the UK parliament increasingly residual and thus erode the political bond between England and Scotland.”

Let’s say farewell to those political bonds then, and say bon voyage. When the political bonds are broken we will still be neighbours and before long we will find a new level of friendship and co-operation between the ex-home nations.

Who knows how far it could spread?

Home rule for England.

Someone over at Guido’s has had the bright idea to send Gordon Brown a single white feather - a historic symbol of cowardice.

It will be a pleasure. So much so that I’m going to send separate feathers for each member of my family. Hopefully it will help to remind the walking turd that writing a book about courage is not the same as having it yourself.

Send your feather to The Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, London SW1 2AA

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Update:

The British Government intends to ratify regardless.

I hope there’s a pro referendum demo in the offing in England -this needs taking to the streets.

It goes without saying that Labour are the biggest maggots of all.

Someone somewhere might appreciate this…