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I shouldn’t be pelted with pies for asking difficult questions
‘But what was it all about?” said a kindly woman on my left as I arrived late for dinner last night in Bournemouth. “I mean, what did you actually say?” she asked, as I slumped into my chair.
I felt like a wrung-out dish cloth. It was like being a survivor of the Jalalabad gulch. For a whole 10 minutes I had been dandled before the maniac eyes of the media King Kong. This way and that it had prodded me as it roared its incomprehensible roar and bathed me in the terrifying afflatus of its nostrils, and at the end of the experience, frankly, I was just as baffled as my friend.
What was it all about? I stared at my plate and tried to collect my scattered impressions. All I could remember was having a quiet time at the Tory conference, and round about tea time I was in the press officers’ area, borrowing a computer in order to crunch out a piece for the Times Higher Educational Supplement. I was composing a particularly tricky passage when I became aware of a sort of Apache whooping outside. A mob was gathering. They started drumming their feet.
They started calling my name and bashing on the tinny little partition wall of the Tory press officers’ zone. Then they started thumping on the walls. Then to the sound of rhythmic chanting a ladder appeared over the top of the wall, and the red eye of a TV news camera was trained on us; and at this point the sweet Tory press people said would I mind hurrying up and finishing the piece, because the whole thing was getting a bit Gordon at Khartoum.
So we went outside and immediately they not only started yelling for me to “apologise!” and “resign!” but also to eat various cupcakes that they thrust under my nose.
Eh? I said. What is the story, exactly? And they said that it had been a very slow news day, and that I had said four atrocious and unpardonable things, and they shrieked them unintelligibly into my ear.
I have now been able to consult the morning papers, and to grasp the charges. But I find no gaffes, my friends. I find pure unvarnished common sense. I find important questions of political philosophy, and instead of trying to answer them everyone thinks it’s much more fun to shut down the debate and scream “gaffe”.
I was accused of being rude to the Scots and saying that a Scot could never become prime minister. Rubbish. I repeatedly said how much I adored the Scots, but that it was difficult in the current constitutional circumstances to see how Gordon Brown - sitting for a Scottish seat - could command the loyalty and support of the English electorate.
It is increasingly felt to be unjust that English MPs can be outvoted by Scottish MPs on very controversial questions affecting their own constituents, when they have no corresponding say over health and education and other questions in Scotland - and when the Scottish MPs have no say over those questions in Scotland itself! I said that Gordon Brown, sitting for Dunfermline, must address this if he wants to be prime minister. If that is a gaffe, then heaven help us all.
Then I was accused of being provocative in prophesying that parts of Bradford might have sharia law.
Balderdash. I was drawing attention to a theoretical problem in the localising agenda that we all support. Not only was there a risk that the NHS would become even more balkanised, I said, but you could imagine in a totally devolved system that Islamic zealots might take control of some inner-city area. I was illustrating the classic difficulty of any federal system: that a local majority may do something disapproved of by a national majority. Is that really such a blooper? Especially when I went on immediately to say that the experience of running councils and levying taxes might be a great thing for often alienated Muslim communities, since they would have a real stake in this country and its good government. Is that so frightful? Of course not.
Well then, they screamed in my ear, I was in the soup for my attack on booster seats for 11-year-olds. I will not repeat the argument, but let me summarise by saying that you could regulate with a far lighter touch.
Of course there will be good parents who want to use every possible precaution, even when the risks of not using a booster seat are very small indeed. Surely the best thing would be to have an information campaign about the potential benefits of these seats, rather than impose booster seats wholesale on the entire population, wasting police time and causing total chaos for schools who want to take children of varying sizes on trips. Is that such an epic clanger? Come off it, folks.
And finally I was pelted with pies for having allegedly dissed Jamie Oliver, when the whole point of what I was saying was in support of what he is trying to do. All I said was that it was hard to persuade the kids to eat the lovely healthy stuff when they still had the option of the chocs and the crisps in the packed lunch. One possible solution was to go the whole hog, I suggested, and have a completely paternalist approach in which you bring back mandatory school dinners - delicious, Jamie-style liver and cabbage - and stop kids eating anything else at school but what they are given.
The reason the mothers were posting the pies through the fence is that there is still total confusion about who is in charge of the school meal, schools or parents, and Jamie’s campaign won’t work properly until that ambiguity is cleared up.
I was elected to ask difficult questions. These four “gaffes” conceal very big and very deep issues of democracy and accountability: the West Lothian problem; the consequences of true federalism and localism; the boundary between voluntarism and compulsion in health and safety; the shared role of parents and state in children’s diet.
Sometimes I have an answer, sometimes only part. In all cases we need much more debate and thought, but all my beloved press chums want to do is chuck pies and yodel. I suppose it’s been a long conference season.
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Fascinating stuff.
Were that these comments about pies and Scotsmen made by someone like Geoffrey Boycott - or someone with a similar dialect - people would be carrying him through the streets on their shoulders and demanding he be installed as Prime Minister.
The Etonian accent, combined with Boris’ convivial approach meant that the message content (with the helped of BBC) was trivialised.
Tragically, the light hearted and colourful approach to deliverying serious message content is lost on the dumbed down media and it’s public victims.
May I put it more directly ?
1. The menu in school canteens is not one of top 1000 challenges we must face. Time & effort is being wasted.
2. We are about to be governed by an admirably loyal Scot - whilst his own nation is pursuing devolutionary strategies.
Are these points not valid ?
Bravo Boris. The media distorted things out of all proportion as there was not much else to talk about that day. Perhaps it was their revenge for David Cameron’s refusal to roll out policies!
A couple of things for Jason Jarvis :
Actually what kids eat is important as it affects their behaviour and education, not to mention that obesity at an schoolage usually means for life, and that brings additional costs in terms of healthcare and quality of life.
If Cameron is serious about tackling the causes of crime and antisocial behaviour then education and health at that age are an important part of it. Of course any blue-blooded tory (or champage socialist blairite) doesn’t give two figs about kids on normal secondary schools, because theirs are in private schools.
Also having a PM from ANYWHERE in the british isles is what makes the nation a democracy. The current PM is English, yet decides on issues affecting scotland, northern ireland, wales, etc as a national matter - the important thing is that Regional MPs can’t vote on regional legislation outside their region.
It’s really quite simple - a regional MP (and England is just another region, not some special holy albion) who is PM *should* act as a local MP on regional issues, and PM on national issues. Of course, any PM tends to be more figurehead than active MP in their constituency, so it’s probably even less of an issue.
Boris,
Well written and well thought out, at least somebody in Camerons shadow cabinet can talk specifics instead of hand-waving vaguery. I wish you were a lib dem MP sometimes, but I’d rather have a decent MP in another party than a poor one in my own 
I am one of those mixed up types who hailes from both side of the Scotland/England border being half Mancurian and half Dundonian. I found your comments with regard to Brown (if as the media reports) deeply offensive. Why do you and so many others find the notion of being British so difficult to comprehend?
The West Lothan Question is an issue that has to be addressed by giving England its own parliament. However the fact remains that we are all British and so the location of an MP’s constituency is irrelevent within Westminster. When are people going to understand that. It is not difficult. Does somebody have to be English to be PM of the UK?
The comments attributed to you with regard to Brown are deeply offensive to everybody with an ounce of intelligence. I for one will not vote for a party that has racist MP’s. You have I feel wiped out the Tory vote in Scotland. The Scots, while deriding you Boris, will be rubbing their hands in glee.
Lets face Scotland has the SNP and the Tories are now Englands ENP. Why not tell the truth and change the party name? Absolutely nobody will mind.
No Aaron, TB was born in Edinburgh, which makes him a Scot as far as I can see.
I do hope David’s posting was a troll. If not, and if his OTT outburst against imagined slights are typical for a Scot, then the quicker they attain full independence and can create their own socialist 3rd-world utopia (Gaelistan perhaps?) the better.
DAVID:
However the fact remains that we are all British and so the location of an MP’s constituency is irrelevent within Westminste.
How many English MP`s are currrently occupying Scottish seats ? I feel very sorry for the loyalists stuck in the middle of this nasty divorce but a divorce is what it must now be.
Have a look at the hatered expressed on Scottish nationalist sites before you allocate blame to us. I have little or no inclination to put up with it any longer. I think that is now the majority English view and scarcely rates as controversial.
Oil , army , Barnett Formula , the attempt of evil new lab to bluff their way out of it . Its going to be nasty but best get it over with. WE have a chance to recover our neglected English culture and forget Rabbie Burns , the overrated minor comic turn . So its all goooood news.
I hear the Scottish Parliament wants to ban Scots from buying rounds . …..nuff said .
Boris you were a triumph!
Serious comment on topic in time folks but can hardly focus. Just a quick plea…
Boris, BORIS! Ah there you are.. please please look at Peter Hitchens’ blog here and take pity on the man, I mean he’s just gagging to get into politics. Bless his heart the poor soul is like the only one not invited to the party. Can’t you do something for the little whinge-pot? I think he’d be a damn-sight better than some. Our Labour council was ousted after 20 years and come the general election the Tory PPC did sod all whereas Labour were all over us. Labour won.
I’ll make no mention of Peter’s column or that it apparently causes strong reactions in women as I’m sure you’ll mistake my meaning. But I don’t see why a sizeable column should be an impediment - you cope!
Boris,
The only reason it made such news was because the rest of the conference was so dull. No real debate, just Cameron slapping down the true conservatives. More stage managed than even New labour.
The real downside of this furore was the response of Cameron, misquoting the Sound of Music, to say something like ‘what can I do with a problem like Boris?’.
Cameron has made me an ex-Tory voter with his rejection of the issues that bother me, like paying too much tax to be wasted on lunatic things. Things which cannot be questioned without the media foaming ‘beyond the pale’. Things like, say, paying for two European parliaments, when perhaps one is too many. Or paying for millions of glossy colour leaflets explaining how loving parents can now be arrested for not making their children sit on 12 inches of polystyrene when driving to the shops.
I voted Tory in the past because I believe in a small state and individual freedom. Cameron mouths this stance but leads his party in the opposite direction.
Just to repeat what I prematurely wrote on the last article: Is Boris now the ONLY politician left who says what a great many people are thinking but dare not utter?
Another great piece, Bozza, but methinks you were rather more aware of the likely consequences than you’re letting on!
I’ve just had a look at the Hitchens article. I’d not read the man before but that particular article is extremely sensible. Even though I detest the cherubic garden gnome, Cameron, I was intending to vote tory at the next election just to help push this appalling mob out, but I now wonder if voting for a fringe party might just help to make the current conservative party fragment. Out of the fragments there might even arise, Phoenix-like, a proper Classic-Liberal party. (In which our boy-wonder, Johnson, would fit very nicely).
Dear Boris,
You are now joint favourite for our Englishman of the 21st Century Award.
http://www.englandism.com/latest_news.htm
Mr.Cameron’s impression of C-3PO, the courtesy droid, is becoming rather tiresome and we need more social handgrenade style bumbling.
Chris Morriss:
I am sure that Boris finds the reference to his lunatic fringe to be thoroughly unnecessary.
I fear, Mr Issued, that your comment has just gone straight over the top of my head.
Sorry about that, I’m sure there was an erudite witticism contained within it somewhere
But you’re quite right about needing a few more mavericks letting off some ’social hand grenades’!
About time a politician came out and criticised Jamie Oliver’s statist obsession with taking away all choice from parents. I’m glad that we will have somebody in the next government who will stand up for our liberty.
Hi Teejay - thanks for you comments.
Without any shadow of doubt the diets of our children (and their subsequent behaviour) are issues well worth investigating - and I don’t think I said anything to the contrary.
But it still doesn’t feature on in the top 1000.
In far off and foreign lands, where people less fortunate than ourselves have access to only a small fraction of the nutriouces and varied diets that we enjoy here - and an even smaller fraction of the education available to us - people still manage to survive, invovate, evolve, behave and get educated.
Do think Nelson Mandela had 5 portions of fresh fruit every day from and early age? And something from each of the major food groups ? How about Shakespeare ? No ?? Albert Einstein ? Thomas Edison ? Confucous ? Socrates ? Tracy Emin ? Damien Hirst ? Bill Gates ? Richard Branson ? Boris ? Me ? You ?
No.
Some stage, unhealthy food has played a signigicant part in our food consumption. But some how we made it. An dare I say it, had some fun along the way.
Menus are not prescriptions, nor should they be.
Chris Morriss - I was being satirical.
Anything connected with that bloke backfires on me. (shakes head, pours drink) What bloke? Dunno, never heard of him. More tea vicar?
1) The West Lothian Question
Simple, keep devolution, ensure that England is fairly funded, stop Scots/Welsh/N.Irish MP’s voting on matters that only affect England. Brown and his chums leave the room prior to the debate.
2) Muslims Fundamentalists in Town Halls
I can’t imagine fundamentalist Clerics wanting to take an interest in secular politics, besides they don’t usually like having their policies scrutinised.
3) Booster Seats
Bad legislation, the cops should stick it on a shelf and forget it exists.
4) Jamie Oliver / School Dinners
Better that the little brats get used to canteen food for when they start work. All this ‘food is bad for you’ nonsense is wearing thin. I’m fed up of people having a go at me for eating bacon and fried egg sandwiches.
‘Didn’t you have one of those yesterday as well Steve’
‘Fish and chips Steve? That’s really bad for you, you know’
‘Don’t you worry about all the fat you’re eating Steve?’
I get it all the time, and Jamie Oliver has made it worse. Best thing about it is that the people who whinge at you about what you eat are the same ones that fell for the Fatkins diet scam.
It’s bad enough people always telling you ‘you should give up smoking’ or ‘have you drank the whole bottle of wine?’. Now they are whingeing at me for eating aswell.
What’ll come next? The Public Health (Eating in Front of Children) Regulations?
Regulation 1.
‘Child’ means any person under the age of 16
‘responsible position’ means any person employed to work with a child or children.
Regulation 2.
Any person over the age of 18, employed in a responsible position, shall be committing an offence of they do eat in the view of a child any of the foods listed in schedule 1 of these regulations.
Schedule 1.
Bacon Sandwiches
Fish and Chips
etc
etc
The problem I have with Jamie Oliver and his ilk (esp. that horrid Gillian whats-her-name)is that their arguments are so one sided. Why have they not been complaining about Britain’s failure to ensure that all models (especially those under sixteen) at London fashion week have healthy BMI’s? Many young people die each year from anorexia, yet they ignore, if not encourage, this.
Damn straight, Boris! Glad you chose to stand up for yourself this time.
ps. Jamie Oliver is a self-righteous grinning goit that sold his soul to Sainsburys.
‘Jamie Oliver is a self-righteous grinning goit that sold his soul to Sainsburys’ (Mark)
Surely you’re not suggesting he’s only in the celebrity chef business for the money now Mark?
Jamie Oliver said schools should spend more on meals and dump turkey twizzlers.
Did Boris say they shouldn’t spend more on meals and must bring back turkey twizzlers? No.
They’re probably not that far apart then.
The government/EU says parents must fit a booster seat under threat of prosecution.
Did Boris say parents should not fit a booster seat? No.
Amazing, isn’t it, how twizzled some people become.
What the papers do not mention too often, is that schools are overcharging children for food that is still sub-standard. Perhaps if children were offered decent food at a reasonable cost then they might not want to get food from their parents at lunchtime.
If schools were really that worried about the health of children they should not have sold off playing fields to builders.
The Etonian accent, combined with Boris’ convivial approach meant that the message content (with the helped of BBC) was trivialised.
My thinking exactly. Living, as I do, ‘oop norf’, I encounter this kind of thing every day. They say that they won’t vote Tory because they don’t understand ‘normal’ people and that Tories are snobs. They don’t realise the irony; it is they who are the snobs. Can you imagine saying that they won’t vote for someone because he’s black and can’t understand white people? There would be an uproar! Apparently, though, it is perfectly okay to dismiss someone because he/she was fortunate enough to have had a private education and has a posh accent. Such hypocrites! Incidentally, I have neither a posh accent nor private education; just the bog-standard comp and Auf Wiedersehn, Pet bark for me!
Well done, Boris my son. Don’t ever let the left-wing media gag you!
Calm down, lads.
Poor old Boris. turn up at a conference, mutter a few words about one of the nation’s current saints, and all hell breaks loose. You can imagine his incredulity as he sat in the press office, trying to pen a…
Boris, top showing at the conference I thought. And having been in some of the inner city areas of Bradford post-rioting, I have to say you’re probably not too far from what does go on, we were informed, although I’m not sure on the reliability of this, that some of the areas local people were using their own currency. I assumed it to be false, as I never saw any Burqa clad women leading goats to the shops to exchange for their groceries. But at any rate, your comments were raising a valid point, which is probably why the press didn’t want to debate them properly, that would have been far too sensible.
Keep going Boris, You’re doing an excellent job.
With “Jamie Oliver” - You’re exposing the nanny state tendencies of the current Government and making it clear that the Conservatives are in favour for individuals taking responsibility for their own lives - you’re doing this and you’re getting it across to a huge audience a clear difference between the parties.
With booster seats you’re clearly showing you understand the problems of the loss of parlimentary control over our own laws and the stupidity of much EU regulation.
You’re playing a big role in keeping the problem of Scottish MPs voting on things that don’t affect their constituants in the national conscious.
In highlighting the potential problems with devolving too much power to the local level you’ve made a very good and valid point.
The press are working for you, and you use them well; If you don’t like it then you can always come here to your Blog some more - perhaps with a video camera next time - you have seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6DQkYNzvF4 haven’t you - do keep up.
DAVID
`The West Lothan Question is an issue that has to be addressed by giving England its own parliament. However the fact remains that we are all British and so the location of an MP’s constituency is irrelevant within Westminster.`
If we have our own parliament then why do we need Scotland ?Why indeed do we need Britain ? I know many Conservatives have an endearing sentimental attachment to this dead concept . For Labour it is only convenient.
It has to go ,and it will go it is only the temporary log jam in English politics that has saved it so long. If anyone can think of one , just one, good reason to continue to put up with the abuse, unfairness , tax drain and cultural inertia please tell me . Imagine and English Broadcasting Company. Then we might get some decent drama , arts and news coverage. Britain was never a mystical union it was a political and military reality . Now it isn’t and the more delay there is the more the negotiations will change from a civilised readjustment into a bitter recrimination.. Conservatives must always question the new but in the end must be prepared to jettison dead wood .
Jaq - I liked your comments on the P Hitchens site: you are quite a political force to reckon with!
Pete amillionpieces - you star! good to hear your views…
Let’s hope the conference isn’t a precursor to what will happen in Parliament when it resumes next Monday otherwise we shall need all your help in the Boris Johnson nuts and bolts Office
Well said, Boris! Keep up the good work. Don’t let the b…..ds, get to you. We think you’re brilliant.
Ok off the point here, but what are everyone’s thoughts on Jack Straw’s comments about muslim women covering their faces?
Boris, I love you !!!
I want you to smear meat pies all over me. [Ed: inappropriate comment deleted...]
interesting to note, that the BBC had the “jamie oliver” thing splattered all over their website on the day, but now they run a rather different piece….. i wonder if it had anything to do with the large numbers of people calling on the BBC to back off?
too many people in public life, talk a good game, staged managed, top advisors writing for them, too frightened of upsetting people, instead of saying what they think.
even “old labour” were respected, because even though i disagreed with them on how they wanted to achieve ideal goals we all wanted to see, at least they were honest, they wanted to tax more, and they told you they were going to tax more.
new labour, are old labour, but without the honesty.
what happened to polictician’s suggesting an ideal scenario, then stating how they were going to bring it about, and then explain and win the argument?
now we have a scenario that everyone in the world would like to see, eg, “i want to see every child do well!” “i want no waiting lists on the NHS!” “i will make sure we have economic stability!” but they never tell us how they will do it.
they just talk in two minute teatime news framing, should anything go wrong or someone finds out that all is not what they promised, then they refuse interviews or release a statement….
keep speaking out Boris, someone’s got to!
jack straw not going for the labour deputy or leadership is he?
shame he “thought about speaking out” for some time, yet when presented with tv cameras, he couldnt even pronounce his local paper’s name correctly.
he only asked if they would remove the veil, if they dont want to then thats ok, so wots the problem?
Boris,
The only thing I’m disappointed about is you denying the remarks! Pan fry Mr Oliver, declare war on the Scots please.
Bring it on!
All this ‘food is bad for you’ nonsense is wearing thin. I’m fed up of people having a go at me for eating bacon and fried egg sandwiches. (Steven_L)
I’d just finished a plate of home-cooked bacon, eggs, mushrooms, and tomatoes on fried bread when I read this. So I went and fried up another.
I really simply have no time whatsoever for any of these food fads, having endured dozens and dozens of the blighters over the past few decades.
When I were a lad, school dinners consisted of meat and two veg submerged in dark brown gravy, followed by jam rolly-poly pudding and custard. And on the days when we got grilled bacon, everyone would line up to dunk doorsteps of bread in the hot dripping beneath. I once got beaten up for jumping the queue for this exquisite delicacy.
As best I understand now, such a diet is considered to be actually poisonous by our current overmighty, interfering medical establishment. But, back then, it was called a ‘balanced diet’ by the nutritionists of that vanished era.
My own personal view is that people should eat whatever they want to, but it is probably not advisable to eat the same thing every day. I once read of a man who ate nothing but carrots, and who gradually turned bright orange, and finally died. It was no surprise to me. Although it probably was for him.
After I’d finished my bacon and eggs (which weren’t strictly kosher: I should have had baked beans and black pudding instead of mushrooms and tomatoes - but where do you get black pudding these days?), I heard someone remark on This Week that the NHS had been a religion for the British people since its post-war inception, and Dave Cam had simply recognized this, and replaced “Education. Education. Education,” with “N. H. S.”
He’s probably right. At least it would explain why the medical establishment now has acquired the powers of the Spanish Inquisition, any dissent against which is not only impossible, but dangerous to one’s personal health and well-being.
But it also means that we are here dealing with irrational religious dogma, and the medical establishment are simply another bunch of priests and bishops and abbots peddling another brand of pious indulgences.
One day they will face the dissolution of their monasteries, and the last president of the BMA will hang from its porch, just like the last abbot of Glastonbury abbey, Richard Whiting, was hanged on Glastonbury Tor.
Jaq read the Peter Hitchens thing, which I was hooked on from the moment I read this
“sinister regional assemblies, to prepare us for EU occupation, in the English provinces”, which is something I `ve been worried about for ages . His points on Political exclusion are very close to my heart as well and was the reason behind the “stunt” mayoral application .To say what if someone outside the bubble said “Alright
David I `ll have a go thanks ” . He goes on to fairly standard right wing concerns which are well known so I think the impact tails off.
I think the decline of the unions in politics has been important . Without the ordinary people that have come up through this route to take on ,the Conservative Party has become full of “employees” of the con-trick and as both parties talk the same non-language it goes unnoticed. With real working people represented you could not get away with a party exclusively from the political/media class. The entire debate has floated fee of the country.
I see this all the time where I am as shiny but useless 22year olds try to get jobs working for MPs and in Think Tanks avoid life entirely aiming to be onto their safe seat by say 35 .
Someone like Boris can short circuit the process and that is why I like him but the utter lack of independent experience from other backgrounds is , in my view, a disaster.
This structural problem added to regional assemblies , the EU , adds up in total to the theft of democracy and it is going on quietly in the shadows while we are sitting out in the sunny garden .
So there !
IDLEX - you always suprise me . Something of Beachcomber ,something of Saki ,
Re: Jack Straw’s veiled attack.
If anyone wants to have fun, the Guardian is about to go into meltdown:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/index.html
Regards,
englandismdotcom
K SAID -If schools were really that worried about the health of children they should not have sold off playing fields to builders.
I agree . Well said . My brother is a teacher and he tells me that they have science labs coming out of their ears, funds they don’t know what to do with, but a collection of lazy useless teachers who gave up trying a long time ago. They cannot be fired and they cannot even be disciplined. They did not need the money they got from selling fields to developers and they have lied about it consistently.
Peter Hitchens article was about the truth being banned from politics, well here is such a truth .The problem with education is the teachers and their unions .They will frustrate every re-jig of the system. When I read of this idea and that, being patted to and fro in Policy Forum it is immediately obvious to me that none of the people talking, know anything about a school. It doesn’t matter what you plant in a poisoned field . It will not grow .
Why is it when inclusion is being talked about it is always about getting people from a Public Sector Background like Teaching involved. This is directly against that vastly more important group PARENTS. Who remain excluded? Look at the way parents have been treated in this country The first thing to do is get angry. . I have started a little local thing along these lines . We aren’t angry enough. “I `m angry and I `m, not going to take it any more”
Brought to you by`RENT -A -RANT “available for weddings and birthdays. Give us a call………………….
(a period of silence will now be observed )
Newmania said: “but a collection of lazy useless teachers who gave up trying a long time ago. They cannot be fired and they cannot even be disciplined”
And you can substitute ‘teachers’ for ‘Nurses’ and it’s equally true. You get good and bad in everything but if you have a blanket holier-than-thou attitude to a job title then, as you say, the not-so-goods are left unchecked and the standard of the whole operation goes down. (avoidable pun alert)
Can I just remind everyone on the subject of Peter Hitchens that I’m NOT a prophet for Planet Peter and he’s NOT the Messiah - just “a very naughty boy” (Jones accent please)
Sorry I meant “And you can substitute ‘Nurses’ for ‘teachers’ and it’s equally true”
Obviously my eyes need more medication.
PS: Thought the media feeding frenzy on Boris shown on Newsnight last night just astonishing.
JAQ
“And you can substitute ‘teachers’ for ‘Nurses’ and it’s equally true”
Now nurses I “likey very much” they do a fine fine job in my expierience.Happy memories.
And if anyone has any “massages” to deliver to Boris I`ll try to embarrass him with them
I have to disagree with newmania on that one, in my experience the NHS nurses I have dealt with have been awful. In NHS hospitals I have seen nurses yelling at old ladies for falling out of bed (and that is while they have left them on the floor for ten minutes while they finished chatting. They do not help to look after the wards and it is all too common to see nurse on their way to work already in their uniform-no wonder thousands of people are dying from hospital infection. Perhaps it is time to go back to military style hospitals
K - I suspect we see nurses in a quite different way K but seriously I like what you have to say and JAQ as always .Its the Kings Clothes Syndrome . Our wonderful Nurses , Teachers and worst of all our wonderful Policemen. Even cuddly Dave described the Police as the last unreformed
public service..
If you listen to DC he is lot less of a softy than people think he is and I really hope noone is silly enough as to go off in a sulk and let Brown in.I may moan a bit but I would never do such a thing Centre Righr /Right unity . Onwards to victory !!!!!!
Why was there no such furore when Cameron branded those of us who think an English parliament is the solution to the WLQ ’sour little Englanders’ who needed ‘educating’ about Scotland? Despite a recent MORI poll which found that 41% thought an English parliament was the way to go, he actually resorted to name calling and yet there was no such outcry! Boris says it as it is which is refreshing nowadays. It’s just a shame about his party leader.
Given that Cameron is a very Scottish name, is he perhaps only a generation or two removed from the Pictish horde themselves?
Crivens!
Chris Morriss.
“Pictish horde”
Nice wordage Chris. Of course the tartan beasts have this silly idea that the oil is all theirs. In fact if we could just do a deal with the Shetland we could have our mac-Cake and Eat it. Without them its mostly Norway’s. How I love to drift through Friday afternoon inventing ways to annoy Scottish people.
The clearances were a Scottish idea,. A British football rugby and cricket team would have no more than about 2 Scots in it . They really are useless. No wonder we have to suckle them like a whining infant via the Barnet Formula .
Have at ye “pictish horde”!
‘A British football rugby and cricket team would have no more than about 2 Scots in it’ (Newmania)
And that’s assuming we could go back a season or two, bend the rules to breaking point and somehow poach Rahul Dravid off them.
newmania
Drifting through Friday afternoon? It’s a year round sport having it at the Scotches.
John: Spot on.
The Tories are staring at an open goal but they are relying on others to state the blinkin’ obvious. Oh, and Boris.
Newmania - I think ‘old’ scottish law has a lot to be said for it, like the judgement of ‘not proven’ in a murder trial, hence avoiding the double jeopardy get-out. And the handfasting arrangement has a lot to be said for it (but don’t tell Hitchens I’m advocating this - he hates me enough). So there’s a lot of good stuff north of the border, I just think we should embrace the good and shelve the bad. Which makes me wonder of all the good things in America why we imported McD’s, terrorist hysteria and a stupid illegal war?
‘there’s a lot of good stuff north of the border, I just think we should embrace the good and shelve the bad. Which makes me wonder of all the good things in America why we imported McD’s, terrorist hysteria and a stupid illegal war?’ (Jaq)
What do they actually make in the US that we want to import?
The lager is better, and cheaper, in Eastern Europe, the wine better in Spain and Australia. We might as well import our clothing direct from the Indian Subcontinent and the best cars are made in Germany.
As for Scotland, apart from malt whisky, smoked fish and crustaceans I can’t think of anything we need from North of the Border.
Back to pies: I’d be interested to know Boris’s view on what schools should dish up at mealtime.
We tend to forget there are a lot of kids for whom school dinner is their only proper meal, with ingredients hitherto costing less than a Mars Bar.
I don’t have much direct contact with schools these days but a kid up the road offers a glimpse of the other side. He’s 11, the youngest of four brothers with a single mother and various fathers who might look in when they’re not enjoying HM’s hospitality.
Nice enough boy, although it’s hard to understand him, he insists on coming round at weekends to weed the lawn and mow the roses for pocket money.
Mid-afternoon I’ll ask him if he’s had anything to eat.
“Yer, breakfast”
“What did you have for breakfast?”
“Bag of crisps”
“And for dinner last night?”
“Jacket potato”
“And what will you be having this evening?”
“Dunno. Me mum’s going out. Prolly a jacket potato”.
“Anything in the potato?”
“Mayo. Baked beans. Dunno”
And that’s it. Day after day, a packet of crisps and microwaved potato. Maybe he doesn’t get even that during the week.
This is in a fairly affluent village. God only knows what goes on elsewhere. Pies or no pies through the railings, surely they deserve one reliable source of nutrition?
JAQ-
Many times recently I have found myself more in agreement with Peter Hitchens than his famous brother Christopher Hitchens!
Is it just me, or has the world just gotten dead confusing since 9/11?
K- “Ok off the point here, but what are everyone’s thoughts on Jack Straw’s comments about muslim women covering their faces?”
I could easily take offence at the covering in public and i dont usually go out of my way to be offended.
However, I ve noticed recently that it sometimes turns me on to see a woman in that full garb, all in black with just her eyes showing.
Sometimes they wear lacy gloves with the outfit too, which makes you wonder what underwear, if any, they re wearing underneath it all!
One has to look on the bright side. As France’s Le Pen said of the Burkha, “It protects us from ugly women!”
Reading Boris’s recollection of his media mugging is hilariously funny but belies a far more sinister backdrop to the way the media works these days.
If you have no news, create it by trying to mis-quote and bludgeon someone who can always be relied on to draw readers interest.
Whilst Boris’s comments were to the point and perfectly reasonable the media chose to ignore the logic behind them.
I saw Boris on Question time in Leeds and remember with glee the manner in which he amply dealt with the old hack who is supposed to be in charge of the NHS.
Perhaps the only way to get your point across is to add humour and controversy. If thats Boris’s way it certainly seems to work.
PaulD - I could not agree more. The only distinction I’d like to make is that a childs diet is NOT dependant on a mothers marital status. There are plenty of families, with fathers, who feed their kids exactly the same stuff - I’ve seen it. And it’s this that gets me so mad - the assumption that if you’re a single mum that MUST be the life your kids are living. Well it’s not.
It’s actually cheaper to feed kids healthily - TO COOK! And when you walk up the aisle you don’t suddenly get a blinding light and a cookery lesson from God. Doesn’t happen. There are just LOADS of married folk out there that feed their kids rubbish. They feed themselves rubbish too.
Now if you’ll excuse me, my son has just turned his nose up at home-made spag bol and insists on beans on toast. For breakfast he likes toast and honey. Four slices usually. He had fish and chips at school today for lunch (fri) and will be having braised steak and onions with mashed potatoes, carrots, cabbage and parsnips for dinner tommorow. For lunch tommorow he’s ordered chicken curry so as it’s lunch I’ll do curried chicken and salad wraps with corn on the cob. Chocolate ice cream for desert after dinner tommorow but for lunch the children will be making their own flapjacks.
PS: I’m a single mum if you hadn’t guessed. We often get our veg from a local farm and the children go into the fields and pick their own. Food is fun.
Insomniac - what can I say??
There are many things that annoy me about the little bro, but after some careful thought the most irritating has got to be that he’s prettier than me.
I can take it from Boris, at least he’s younger, and shorter, and blonde.
JAQ”There are many things that annoy me about the little bro, but after some careful thought the most irritating has got to be that he’s prettier than me.”
You do mean Christopher do you? That “booze-adled former Trotskite popinjay” as George Galloway called him. Surely he s not prettier than you?
I wonder if all this strange media attention is a consequence of the publication of a new book: Boris by Andrew Gimson. (Simon & schuster £17.99 ISBN 0743275845)
Reviewing the book in the Spectator of 7 October, Toby Young concludes:
Phew! Perhaps it was all this that had the media putting up ladders to get cameras on the future War Leader, and pestering him with questions in hope of a spot of Fuhrer Kontakt.
I’m sure Boris makes a considerable impact on those he encounters. I doubt, for example, that Frenchman is going to forget the sense that Boris was ‘going somewhere’, as he was being flattened by 17 stone of War Leader on a bicycle earlier this year. Now that’s real Kontakt.
Boris -
“I was accused of being rude to the Scots and saying that a Scot could never become prime minister. Rubbish. I repeatedly said how much I adored the Scots, but that it was difficult in the current constitutional circumstances to see how Gordon Brown - sitting for a Scottish seat - could command the loyalty and support of the English electorate ”
Cameron -recent speech in Scotland remarks upon ” sour little Englanders’ who needed ‘educating’ about Scotland? - he also called the English ” ignorant ” - and dismissed a comparable parliament of England to that of Scotland out of hand ( whilst accepting the Scottish parliament ) .
The difference in treatment and attitudes of the British establishment re the Scots and the English exemplified by the above words says it all really .
The United Kingdom , ie the British , was the result of a marriage , the document of which was the 1707 Act of Union . Article 111 of that Act stipulated that there should be one and only one parliament of that Union - and so it was until the Scotland Act of 1998 .
Since then all is changed . Some of the comments above are by people who are still desperately trying to convince themselves that the British union will carry on regardless and that simply ignoring the massive discrimination against the English will make it all right . It will not .
There are already more than two classes of MP in the British House of Commons
( eg Scottish MP’s - who can vote on English matters but not on Scottish matters ) .
The proposal of EVOEM is only an extension of that complication - an extremely messy one ! Brown as PM , with a constituency in Scotland yet only able to legislate for England would be seriously destabilising to the already rocky and illogical British constitution .
Questioning of the Union is now widespread - in England !
The only way out is that there be a rferendum in England re an English Parliament . This is highly likely to be approved by a wide margin . The Parliament which then ensues must have at least the same rights and competencies as the Scottish Parliament and must be the vehicle for the governance of England .
Thus an effectively federal United Kingdom would emerge . The heat would be drawn from the West Lothian Question and - proably - the United Kindom would continue .
I cannot see it continuing for much longer otherwise .
About the Burkha thing..
..I was walking through Cardiff city centre one day earlier this year when a saw a woman remove her veil. She removed it just long enough to hockle a huge ball of phlem onto the pavement.
So if they don’t mind removing it in public to spit on the street I can’t see any problem with removing it to talk to someone.
insomniac - sadly I meant his not-quite-so-handsome, not-so-well-educated little brother. Hmn.
Oh to be Celia Walden.
How very funny everyone is being : Steven L splendidly un PC , however we may have to part company it has sometimes occurred to me that if in our new dispensation we forgot to take Yorkshire I could probably live with it…..just kidding .
Yes JAQ there is good in Scotland it is lovely country , spoilt by its inhabitants . Like France . Love those Italians though . On the food thing I went to cookery class a few years ago . I thought I`d meet women .I met gay men and somewhat unapproachable African and Hindu women ….it was great actually , nice people ,and well worth the trouble for impressing girlies
IDLEX - I actually prefer Andrew Gimson`s stuff to Boris but then the latter is in politics now and a bit more careful
JAKE - I don’t see the point of saving it and it might discourage egotistical PM`s from imagining we are still a “Great Power”.
JAQ I don`t get the Hitchens thing I am only barely conscious of who he is . Noone is prettier than you and single mothers are wonderful .My wife smother brought her up in the worst area of Bermondsey
With nothing , but she worked and did everything for her . She died a few weeks before our wedding and I have never felt sadder . What a wonderful woman . What all of this proves is that bad circumstances are not the only problem . Mrs. N deals wonderfully with our teacher friends and their illusions about Council estate life . (I `m sure you live in a rose covered
k said:
What the papers do not mention too often, is that schools are overcharging children for food that is still sub-standard… If schools were really that worried about the health of children they should not have sold off playing fields to builders.
You are so right, k, as is Boris and everyone else condemining this food fascist government of ours. How dare they tell us what to eat!
Someone’s already commented that Jamie Oliver does very nicely out of Sainsburys. Could that be the same Sainsbury who are crammed with unhealthy foods, who’s coffee shops sell only the highest fat foods imaginable and who’s former Director, Lord Sainsbury, did his utmost to force GM crops down our throats and onto our farms in UK?
Surely not. What hyprocrisy. Keep on telling it as it is, Boris, you’ll still be well respected for it when Jamie Oliver is long forgotten.
Steven L on the subject of what we import from the US I have this in the local press at the moment. Off subject really so please do not bother unless you are intereted in thwe gang violence in London
On Saturday morning on Stroud Green Road, a 17year old man and a 19 year old man were both shot in the legs .The type of wound is important for this is a so called “respect” crime. Oh drugs again we sigh, and yes these crimes are often related to drugs, but illegitimate business is not the primary motive. For many teenage men drug crime only adds a frisson and some pocket money.
Gang related incidents are proliferating across London. Last month an especially vicious killing occurred in the dull suburb of Norwood . Three rival gang “members” stoned 16 year old Stephan Perslaud to death like “a pack of animals ” .The names of the gangs involved vividly evoke the mental landscape of the perpetrators .”Take Them Out” and “Till Death”.
Where does it come from? Lots of clever people have their ideas but part of the story is simply that it’s fashionable!
The idea of ending a life to be part of an in crowd, may be deranged but the inescapable Rap culture that pumps out of MTV and Ipods non-stop encourages precisely such insanity. I am scarcely up to date but years ago “NWA”,( don’t ask), were in the charts, with the following typical material, hardly any of which is fit for civilised consumption..It is now much worse.
“[Ed: restricted...] the Police…cause I ain’t the one, For a punk… with a badge ….” and so on
After a gangster film I do not suddenly decide to rob a bank, but the atmosphere of misogyny, homophobia and violence is all pervasive in youth culture. The governments housing policy encourages father free families and boys with little structure in their lives make this primitive imaginary world their own.
This week Boris Johnson has been in trouble with the politically correct, for, in his words, “dissing” Jamie Oliver He suggested that children can eat what they like .By contrast we are unconcerned that brutal encouragements to kill and maim drip poison into young lives ; every second ,of every minute, of every day .
Well I’ll be round your place for nosh any time, Jaq.
I honestly wasn’t having a go at single mothers. You can see the problem here: Dim but worthy girl with four kids by the age of 22, two of them now on asbo’s (actually I quite fancy her. Nice legs).
We are only trying to save the youngest from a similar fate, even though it would be cheaper to get Alan Titchmarsh to demolish the roses than pay for mower repairs after the little bugger has driven it into a tree at full throttle.
See, even on this site you get a few softies.
Having lived in America I do worry about gang violence a lot and pray it does not get as bad as America here. In gangs in America an initiation involves murdering someone. Often this is not a rival gang member, but an innocent member of the public who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time i.e sat at traffic lights next to a gangs car or shopping with their children in a mall. Britain needs to act now to stop our society becoming like this.
SINGLE MOTHERS - It is easy to say very unfair things . Having only just related what a great job my wife`s (single) mother did I notice I fall immiediately into the cliche
“…..encourages father free families and boys with little structure”
..Without thinking.Diana , was also living in exceedingly difficult circumstances and poor accomodation that I suspect JAQ does not share. It is very possible in such a place to bring up fabulous children .I do recognise the picture Paul D paints though. You could hardly miss it here .
Spot on Newmania - and I would love to hear Boris on the single most important issue of our age: How to balance libertarian values with the commercial pressures that destroy morality. And all this without introducing new laws.
Negative commercial influence is, in my humble view, at the heart of so many social problems. Why do politicians not tackle it head-on? Because they may lose votes from parents who are quite happy for the child to play Grand Theft Auto while they go down the pub.
Boris, you da man to take this up.
Newmania - thankyou, I appreciate it so much. Bless you.
PaulD - no I didn’t think you were having a go but.., I took the opportunity to clarify and comment. Um, as I will now..
Folks there is a serious message to this single mother thing (as ever). I suppose what I’m quietly railing against is stereotype and prejudice. There IS a stereotypical view of single mothers and married folk in the media, a media that seems bent on causing prejudice or at least sensation.
Stereotypes are usually founded on some truth and I’m sure that there are some single mothers who fit the stereotypical mould. (see PaulD’s post) Of course just being a single mother means you are more likely to be financially challenged and have to live in poor circumstances. But “bad circumstances are not the only problem” so true Newmania. After the Great War and WW2 there were a LOT of single mothers because a LOT of men had died in keeping this country free. They didn’t come home. But the fact of being suddenly without a man in the house, a biological father, DID NOT send hordes of children into crime. The fact of being the child of a single mother/lone parent does NOT guarantee bad behaviour and a life of crime.
It’s difficult to rear children one way when they are rubbing shoulders with the opposite, whether their parents are married or single. And as I’ve said, a marriage license doesn’t magically turn you into ma and pa Walton. There are many married folk who are just awful and whose children you would happily avoid. And there are many good folk who just haven’t got a clue - “bad circumstances are not the only problem” So I don’t think the issue is one of marital status but of education and of social norms, perhaps a new class system.
My example for this is from Jamie Oliver’s website. He says: “I was talking to a young mum who was bottle-feeding cola to a one-year old baby! She was telling me that she couldn’t make a shepherd’s pie because it was “posh”. That’s why I was so angry.” She couldn’t make a shepherd’s pie because it was “posh”?? Good Grief! But attitudes like this really do exist, I’ve seen it. And this is not dependent on being married.
I agree completely with Boris when he says that the Jamie Oliver initiative in schools will be difficult to manage successfully without the support of parents and a paternalistic approach from schools. This NEEDS support from the government. Nor must the schools allow children to roam the streets in school time. This is not so much authoritarian as sensible management. It might dissuade drug pushers too. Boris has made a good point and it should be listened to, even though he’s an old Etonian and has blonde moments. Tuh, prejudice!
By the way, there is a myth perpetuated in the media that a single mother means fatherless families. In my experience this is just NOT true. Apart from mothers wanting fathers to be part of their lives, what makes you think there isn’t a man around? There’s usually always a man around. The only fatherless family was the divine conception and you could argue that ‘Daddy’ was omnipresent.
Boris -
on Friday 15th September 2006 Mr Cameron made a speech referring to ” the unique genius of the Scottish people.”
he also said
” We should not forget that Alex Salmond couldn’t ask for more effective allies in his campaign to break up the Union than sour Little Englanders who cry ‘good riddance’ when independence for Scotland is suggested.”
and
“It’s a question of attitudes
and, in particular, the ignorance of English people about Scots and Scotland.”
and
“Whether it’s Russ Abbott-style lampooning or the inevitable aggressive Glaswegian drunk in TV programmes - - .”
(Russ Abbot, born Russell Roberts 16 September 1947 in Chester, England) is a musician, comedian, and actor.
Russ Abbott He was the 5th of 6 sons born to Donald, who was English, and Elizabeth Roberts, who was Scottish. )
erm - so we are sour little Englanders south of the border but those north of the same border have a unique genius .
Really good, this speech , for cementing Anglo-Scottish relations eh . Perhaps you could draw Mr Cameron’s attention to his own recent words and politely elicit from how this sort of bile is designed to induce the 85% of the British who are English to vote Conservative .
JAQ-”There’s usually always a man” I `m glad to hear it .
Can I ask a question that perhaps pulls these threads together a bit . I think we are talking about different problems . We were all supposed to meet at Sure start
I read today that it is exclusively used by middle class parents which we are ……at a pinch. I know this is true from experience . Why should that be ? What could be done about it ? It seemed like a good idea but aside from being absurdly expensive (of course) for the taxpayer , it doesn’t reach the parts it was supposed to reach.
JAKE Being a bumptious twit I wrote to David cameron`s office about that speech to point out what a bumptious twit he was being. I agree with all you say
Newmania - the family of which I speak used SureStart. Their counsellor (an acquaintance) gave up after a month. Perhaps she was too middle class.
Jaq - there’s really no need to bang on about single mothers. We all know that you and many others in your position are not of the stereotype. You can microwave me a potato any time!
Boris is a genius. He is one of the few who is able to say “the Emperor has no clothes on” and get away with it. As soon as Tony Blair is done, Boris must cross the floor of the House and stand for Leader - we cannot wait a lifetime for this man to get into power.
JAQ-You can microwave me a potato any time to . It just gets better and better here doesn`t it you lucky woman.
Boris would never say “the Emperor has no clothes on.” He, as a properly educated fellow, would say “The Emperor has no clothes,” and leave off the problematic dangly bits.
PaulD - yes I realise I AM banging on about single mothers a bit - as Cathy said - Oh Ellen, I am Heathcliffe (arghh!)
But I was trying, and no doubt failing, to highlight the misleading direction in which the media takes us when using these stereotypes to identify the cause of society’s problems. A piece of paper from the state telling you you are now married doesn’t cause you to behave in this way or that - I realise I’m on dangerous ground here but one could ask: is she like that becasue she’s a single mother, or a single mother because she’s like that? (or just as importantly, because he’s like that)
You know, I suddenly have some sympathy for a certain someone because, when trying to introduce a truth and important point about the problems we’re all concerned with, it’s seen as a bit tedious - ‘banging on’
‘Sure Start’ is a case in point. I was offered help from SS and was in a position at the time when boy did I need help. I don’t like being too personal, contrary to popular belief but no Newmania - I’m not dating anyone, and when I attended a single mothers xmas party I was the only one without a chap in tow. And yes, they looked at me as if I was an alien from another planet. So I had no other help whatsoever - a perfect recipient you might think.
SS offered a person to play with my children whilst I left the home. And that seems to be the main focus of all government schemes - to allow women to be rid of their children. I neither wanted nor needed this. As mobility was a problem at the time, I needed someone to help get a bit of shopping or stand and iron maybe - just a little bit of home help and a chat. This is not available.
When it comes to condemning a mother for microwaving a potato, I don’t. I’m not holier than thou (even if I can’t stand microwave spuds) I’m trying to highlight the fact that cooking isn’t taught in schools, that sex is.
I’m not dating anyone,- Once again “Labour” causes a waste of resources
“cooking isn’t taught in schools, that sex is.” …and not well either . Most women are useless at it
Always a good read JAQ
Actually New Labour doesn’t “allow women to be rid of their children”, it positively encourages them to be rid of their children and puts enormous social pressure on them to embrace State substituted motherhood.
I thought Camerons speech encouraging when he voiced his support for families, hopefully not just the married family but I would support tax breaks for the married family.
I also agree with Boris that a paternalistic approach is needed in schools and the government should fund this.
Newmania - “Most women are useless at it [sex]” - I’m brilliant at it - I get results.
“Always a good read JAQ”? Oh God you make me sound like Mills and Boon. Sorry I’ll go and cook something. More tea Vicar?? Have a macaroon.
I have spent the last few years in a Britain under the curatorship of the ‘New’ Labour government. I have also become increasingly exasperated by what I can only describe as an inexplicable tendency for contemporary society to diverge from the parameters I have felt constituted common sense, and march confidently toward the latest psycho fad.
I have crystallized my discontent into the following categories.
Courtesy
There seems an alarming trend to turn rudeness into a virtue. This vogue is exemplified by the likes of Anne Robinson, Simon Cowel, Alan Sugar and Donald Trump. What has happened to common courtesy?
It has never been, nor will it ever be, my habit to chastise another person publicly and to offend their sensibilities; I cannot think why the public at large finds people, such as the execrable Anne Robinson, so fascinating.
Political correctness
I have heard political correctness referred to, with some justification, as ‘Cultural Marxism’. Although this epithet may go a little far, it legitimately describes a phenomenon whereby one is precluded from saying what one thinks as a result of cultural FEAR rather than cultural prejudice. The mob hysteria which invariably follows any such ’slips’ has been abundantly demonstrated by Boris in his article above. I find it extraordinary that I, apparently, am no longer able to voice my views in a public forum without the fear of being branded racist, fattist, ageist, sexist, anti-semite etc. etc. etc. I always take the position that few things are ‘true’ in the sense that they are incontrovertible; however, the search for a ‘better’ truth must surely come from argument (in the proper sense of the word) which requires voicing such potentially distasteful ‘proto-truths’ out loud. If these statements are palpably false or foolish, this fact will, very rapidly, become abundantly clear. If the latter event is not the case then the argument posed is surely, by any logic, worthy of discussion.
I must also re-iterate my comments about courtesy. Political correctness seems to be usurping the position of courtesy in the community. I must observe, however, that I am courteous because I know it is the right thing to do; most people are politically correct because they know these things are the right things to say. To do the former is a pleasure because it makes me feel happier about myself through interaction with other people; the latter, alas, will ultimately lead to resentment because it is an unnatural restriction of our free will.
Human Rights
I believe it is the mark of a healthy government to protect the rights of its citizens even from itself. I also believe that these rights derive from the obligations of a person to the rest of society. I find is puzzling, therefore, that persons who have strayed beyond the borders of society’s boundaries continue to enjoy the same rights as those who conform to a community’s strictures and mores.
I read this morning of an Italian ‘gentlemen’ who, at the advanced age of 15, stabbed and killed a teacher. I understand that, on his release from prison, he is to be deported back to Italy. I am therefore somewhat amazed at his complaint that the proposed expatriation will infringe his human rights and that consequently he should be allowed to stay within the United Kingdom.
To address the aforementioned issue with the Italian murderer, I suggest TWO discrete sets of rights: ‘Inalienable rights’ (Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, fair trial, etc) and discretionary rights which may be stripped in the event of criminal or anti-social activity. I would also, like the US, distinguish between serious crimes (Murder, rape, serious fraud, armed robbery) and more trivial crime (petty theft, street fighting, drunkenness) The former would attract the censure of a reduction of rights the latter may not. Perhaps three or more trivial offenses within a period of time should usher in the enforcement of the censures normally reserved for the more serious offenses.
Impact of religion
My spiritual views are my own and I do not care to share them with anyone else; they certainly do not hold with the idea of a super-being creating the universe with a quick abracadabra and Industrial Lights and Magic’s yearly budget. Notwithstanding these remarks, I respect the rights of all people to believe whatever nonsense they like.
I do, however, take exception to their dotty ravings impacting my life and freedom. It is high time the United Kingdom became a secular state and utterly divorced itself completely from the trappings of religion. When God is involved in a decision, mortal men and women carry the cost. This has been true since the first cave-dwelling shaman carved a tree-trunk into a totem pole. Isn’t it time to stop?
Self defense
This refers to some extent to my views on human rights. I take the position that, If a person attacks another person, they have stepped outside the law. As a consequence they should no longer receive the protection the law would normally afford them. In other words, they have created a situation which, had they not acted in an unlawful fashion, would not have occurred.
It is therefore my view that they must bear the consequences, however awful, of their actions. Thus, if a person retaliates, they may use any means available to defend themselves against possible harm and are further absolved from responsibility for any injury sustained by the offender.
I cannot see how this is anything but logical, sensible and fair.
‘Affirmative Action’/Positive discrimination/Anti racism legislation
When people are employed on the basis of abstract physical, religious or psychological characteristics rather than merit, society will suffer. I lived for some considerable period in an African country where I was subjected to the most appalling racism. Fortunately, my skills were more valuable to potential employers than my disability in being white, Jewish and English.
EVERYONE can do something useful. If anything, the government should spend more money on finding out what individuals are good at before they are inducted into a career in which they are inept or worse, actively dislike. It is often the case that if someone likes doing something, they will probably excel at it. I do not hold with these ridiculous legislative acts which require one to employ quotas of cultural and ethnic groups rather than on individual capability and qualification.
If I am paying the salary I must be able to choose to employ whomsoever I wish OR claim compensation from the government. In the event that certain population groups aren’t getting a fair crack of the whip, the government should provide business incentives for them to create their own workplace opportunities. Cultural and ethnic integration should occur in the schoolyard and pub NOT in the workplace where it may jeopardize the livelihoods and economic prosperity of others.
Freedom of speech and censorship
I am an ardent and committed supporter of free speech. Distasteful, discourteous and offensive though his comments were, the gentlemen recently given three years for writing horrible things about the poor young man killed in Liverpool has simply been a pawn of our rhetorical government. They have simply made an example of him and this is a travesty of justice.
The young man concerned is undoubtedly a racist and perhaps in need of psychological or social counseling; he is NOT, however, jail material and this order of the court has done Britain a massive disservice. All these comments aside, he has the right to express his views as I have the right to disagree with them. As Voltaire allegedly said “I hate everything you say but will defend to the death your right to say it!” Rarely have better or truer words been spoken.
Age of Apology
I am becoming more aggrieved each time I read of a call for the British government to apologize for some past atrocity or omission committed in the name of empire. Whilst there is little question, at least in my mind, that the British (the English primarily) behaved like barbarians for much of the 18th and 19th centuries, I also believe there is no-one living who is responsible for them. If anything the British government should be apologizing for its current actions not various antiquarian diplomatic disasters.
I am tired of being British and having the world expect me to wander around the world in a state of abject apology and wearing a hair shirt. These things were done, I do not deny them, and I didn’t do them; please move on!
Anti-Semitism
I am Jewish (theoretically anyway) and on Friday evening I join my family for dinner. In my case, having discarded the ritualistic nonsense of Judaism at roughly the same time as my train set, this event has little, if any, spiritual meaning for me. I see this weekly event as a tradition and, at the very least, brings the family together for a while. All this said please let me explain something which I hope will pierce the febrile minds of Middle-Eastern political commentators and diplomats. This is simply expressed as: “Jews can be wrong too”
There I said it!
My point here is that it is NOT, contrary to current European sentiment, anti-Semitic to suggest that a person of the Jewish faith has made a mistake. It is not unreasonable to suggest to this person that have perhaps made an error of judgment. It is further not anti-Semitic to suggest that the Palestinians are being abused by the government of Israel, the latter is simply a statement of fact that many, if not most, Israelis will confirm.
Britain, please stop being cowed by the Holocaust and stop being so politically correct (again) in criticizing Israel. It is not anti-Semitic but almost certainly IS a dereliction of duty.
Given that Boris himself has, to a certain extent, been the victim of some of these perturbing characteristics of modern society perhaps he would spend a few moments of his valuable time in explaining what the Conservative Party proposes to do about them.
Robert Lipshitz
Always a good read JAQ.
May I point out that this is a vastly more positive comment than I ever get .Sniff sniffle
‘Britain, please stop being cowed by the Holocaust and stop being so politically correct (again) in criticizing Israel. It is not anti-Semitic but almost certainly IS a dereliction of duty.’ (Robert)
It’s all well and good making criticism, it not difficult to be a critic. The question is, can you make constructive criticism?
What should Israel do? They are surrounded by a terrorist class of Arabs that teach their childrens things like ‘Jews are pigs and apes’ and hold ‘martyrdom’ in the highest regard.
Arab governments pay thousands of dollars to the families of suicide bombers, the cult of suicide terrorism is actively promoted by parents to their own children in ‘Palestine’.
Jewish Immigration would have been good for the Arabs, they built Tel Aviv from scratch and brought new wealth to a poor agricultural area. But Zionism clashed with Pan-Arabism to disasterous effect. Instead of accept the Jewish settlers as neighbours and friends Arab leaders organised armed struggle against them. The leaders of the Palestinian Nationalist movement even sucked up to Adolf Hitler, such was their hatred of the Jewish people.
The ‘Palestinians’ as you call them are basically just a horrible rascist Arab underclass, no-one in the Arab world likes them or wants them. They have attacked their Arab neighbours in Jordan, those that fled to Lebanon became indoctrinated into the new Hizbullah following support and funding from the Islamic revolution in Iran. It is no wonder Egypt didn’t want the Gaza Strip and no wonder the Jordan didn’t want the West Bank, they are both populated by an uneducated rabble of machine gun toting scumbags.
Arab countries only support the Palestinian terrorists because they hate the Israel’s even more that they do their own criminal classes, after suffering countless defeats at their hands.
Which brings us back to the point of constructive criticism. What should Israel do about the hordes of terrorist class scum that surround their country and want to kill their citizens?
All their Arab ‘friends’ want to do is pay the little sods to blow themselves up. Why should Israel treat them any differently?
‘Whilst there is little question, at least in my mind, that the British (the English primarily) behaved like barbarians for much of the 18th and 19th centuries.’
The English, primarily? Excuse me, but we’ve been united since 1707 and anything thereafter has been done in the name of Britain. The mere fact that England has the largest population obviously means that there are more Englishmen than Scots, Irish or Welsh involved in whatever we do/did, but this doesn’t enable anyone to start dividing up our ills into 70% English, 20% Scots, 10% Welsh and so on. You talk about politically correct nonsense, then go on to qualify it by writing some of your own! I tire of this constant bashing of the English as if it were a sport.
What should Israel do? They are surrounded by a terrorist class of Arabs that teach their childrens things like ‘Jews are pigs and apes’ and hold ‘martyrdom’ in the highest regard. (Steven_L)
After watching Israel wantonly and needlessly and pointlessly destroy the entire infrastructure of Lebanon a few months back, and create for themselves another few million sworn enemies, I regretfully concluded that Israel had lost it completely, and that the days of the state of Israel were numbered.
What should rational Israelis do? Emigrate. And let the few remaining Jewish or Zionist fundamentalists fight the mounting hordes of increasingly well-armed Muslim or Arab fundamentalists that surround them to Israel’s extinction.
I’m sorry to have come to this conclusion. I would have liked Israel to remain as a Jewish homeland. It was perhaps once possible for it to have reached a peaceful settlement with its neighbours, but I no longer see any possibility of this. And any hope of it probably died with Yitzhak Rabin anyway.
Back on top form . Hilariously wise . My only quibble is that as Boris is a Cameron courtier ( Deputy Prime minister they are saying). He is not allowed to ask really difficult questions. Well ..not now , and not in public. Come to think of it though for we Conservative Conservatives he is a bit of Trojan Horse and we are not to know what he may say in private .
Britains Leading Active Conservative and what a relief after the piffle Hefferlump was on about yesterday . Now he is becoming frankly rather stupid and I can hardly be bothered with him any more.