Let's talk about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party without addressing anti-Semitism in the Labour Party

There's a glorious amount of hand wringing at The Guardian and the like, but it's all meaningless waffle.

To my mind, anti-Semitic (which is an inaccurate way of saying "anti-Jewish", seeing as semitic means people from a certain part of the Middle East; and most Jewish people aren't, they don't even look as if they are, unlike, say, Greeks) people are in a few quite distinct categories.

1. Straight forward, BNP-style racists. I suppose there is a minority of (white) people in Labour who are just racist. I think society can handle this, we just ignore it, there has always been a 5% or so minority prepared to vote NF or BNP (or hijack UKIP when it was still worth hijacking), they'll never go away, but the UK is still one of the least racist countries. By and large, they have no influence and do not carry out random attacks on Jewish people or synagogues, so forget it.

2. The weird "Jewish people are lizards who run the world" fuckwittery and Holocaust denial (David Icke and David Irving), this is an even tinier minority or conspiracy theory nutters, who are pretty harmless.

3. The trendy "Israel is evil and we must stand up for our Palestinian brethren" lefties, who are not really anti-Semitic at all. It's just a phase that people go through, like having a Che Guevara poster. I think that most of these trendy lefties are bright enough to realise that 'the country Israel' and 'Jewish people' are entirely separate and independent, and most Jewish people are heartily indifferent about Israel, in the same way as English people have no strong opinion either way on Australia.

Clearly, by Western standards, the Israeli government has been and continues to pretty nasty in many respects, but by Middle East standards it's a shining beacon of liberty and democracy, so again, not an issue.

4. UPDATE: There is a category which also overlaps with 1, 2 and 3, which is what Lola addresses in the comments. Banks are pretty evil and for some reason, people stereotype bankers as predominantly Jewish and vice versa, which is a) bollocks and b) banks are just piggy backing on Home-Owner-Ism and rent seeking generally, the far greater evil. Some lefties are even dafter and equate banking (largely bad) with capitalism (largely good) which is a bloody shame, from a capitalist's point of view.

5. Then of course, the ones we can't mention. From what little info we have, most of the really rabid anti-Semites in Labour/Momentum are in this category. Can you guess what it is yet? I did mention it once on Twitter and was roundly derided as a racist, so I don't know why I bother. And as long as you're not allowed to mention it, you can't fix it. We know for a fact that unlike the BNP-style racists, these people do actually carry out attacks against Jewish people, synagogues, shops etc (thankfully in the UK a lot less than in France or Sweden).

Fun Online Polls: Homophobia; House prices.

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Who is more homophobic?

The DUP/their voters - 3%
Islam/Muslims - 84%
You say it like it's a bad thing - I am homophobic myself - 13%

A good turnout with 103 voters, thanks to the other three people who retweeted it.

I'm with the majority on this one but fair play to the 13% who are truly prepared to swim against the tide.

Top comment:

MC: I suspect they're both equally homophobic, but not equally barbaric, hence: some uproar about a cake vs regular executions.

Not much more to say, apart from, if you project from where I stand on just about anything to the DUP and extend that by a factor about ten or a hundred, that's Islam. I don't like the DUP, hence....

If pointing this out makes me racist, then we truly live in a crazy world. The world which the 3% inhabit.
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Moving on to a completely unrelated topic, from The Metro:

Housing prices are facing a double whammy of a potential Brexit recession and a fall in real earnings, according to two leading professors at the London School of Economics.

The warning comes on the heels of a report by the National Association of Estate Agents that found the number of homes sold in May for below asking price climbed to 77%.

If a crash mirrors that of the early 1990s, when there was a near 40% plummet in property prices, it could put more than a million people at risk of negative equity – when the value of your home is worth less than the cost of your mortgage.

As per usual, they are presenting this as A Bad Thing by hamming up the nequity angle (the 'two leading professors' Hilber and Cheshire are hard-core Home-Owner-Ists). Somebody (TBH) asked me the semi-rhetorical question recently: "Who really stands to lose out from falling house prices?" We agreed that it's only a tiny sub-section of UK households, but that's not how the MSM spins it.

(As to the Metro article itself a) this is all just special pleading and b) what we have now is the usual mid-cycle wobble, always happens about ten years into each eighteen year cycle. And it's never different this time.)

So that's this week's Fun Online Poll.

"How would you feel if house prices fell by a third?"

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Fun Online Polls: The Finsbury Mosque attack; Homophobia

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Are you surprised that somebody finally snapped and attacked a group of Muslims near a mosque?

No - 94%
Yes - 6%

Not much more to say on that.

Except, it was a good turnout with 128 votes. Unusually, eleven people shared the poll on Facebook and five Tweeted it (besides me), thanks to all those who took the few seconds to do that!
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There have been a lot of headlines decrying our new co-overlords, the DUP as homophobes. Well, quite clearly they are, which is A Bad Thing IMHO. The outrage is mainly from the left. The right wingers who secretly agree with them are remaining tight lipped on the subject.

But why the panic? For sure there are 10 DUP MPs, but only 292,316 people voted for them. It's hardly a mass movement.

If you're worried about homophobia (which I am), what is rather more relevant is that there are about 13 Muslim MPs and just under 3 million Muslims in the UK, half of whom think homosexuality should be illegal and of whom 23,000 are 'potential radicals' and 3,000 are on watch lists.

(Somebody did a great graphic on Twitter suggesting that in many respects, the DUP and Islam have a lot of similarities, I can't find it now. But I can't remember the last time a DUP activist carried out a terrorist attack.)

So that's this week's Fun Online Poll:

"Who is more homophobic: the DUP/their voters or Islam/Muslims?"

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Fun Online Polls: Brexit delaying tactics; The attack near Finsbury mosque

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

The major political parties deliberately messed up the election so that they can sideline or delay Brexit.

Probably true - 51%
Probably not true - 49%

So pretty evenly split. I voted 'probably true', although I must caveat that, I'm not sure it was deliberately deliberateor whether there was just a blatant disregard bordering on negligence or even recklessnes; certainly on the part of Mrs T May who basically threw it away. I'm no fan of the Tories in any way shape or form, but this is one thing which they appeared better equipped to sort out.
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This week's hot topic appears to be the attack near Finsbury Mosque.

If you ask me, this sort of thing was going to happen sooner or later, to paraphrase apologist Sadiq Khan circa 2016, this is just part and parcel of attending what is or was believed to be a radicalising mosque.

So that's this week's Fun Online Poll.

"Are you surprised that somebody finally snapped and attacked a group of Muslims near a mosque?"

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

If the usual suspects want to pile in and call me a racist for my casual disregard of the issues, feel free, but please note you are missing the point.

I am a modern, west European liberal who believes in equality between people of whatever colour skin and wherever they are from (provided they are here legally); equality between men and women; equality between straight and gay/lesbian; freedom of religion and more importantly freedom to be atheist; respects democracy; likes a booze-up; and who opposes violence and corporal/capital punishment. I've a downer on any movement which takes the opposite view on such matters.

Interesting Problem

From Yahoo

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Seven Muslim workers at an eastern Wisconsin manufacturer have been fired after disregarding a break policy that did not allow them to pray at the times dictated by their faith, the company said on Wednesday.

The terminated workers were among 53 Somali Muslims who walked off the job on Jan. 14 after Ariens Company, a tools and equipment maker in Brillion, Wisconsin, began requiring them to pray only during the two 10-minute breaks provided to them during the day, the company said in a statement.

...

"It came out of nowhere and the company did not want to listen to some suggestions and options to make the current breaks more flexible to align with the prayer schedule," he said.

Ariens, which has 1,500 employees worldwide, has set up designated prayer rooms for Muslim workers in Brillion, the company said. Brillion is about 25 miles south of Green Bay.

The company said letting the workers pray during unscheduled breaks disrupted production schedules. In certain circumstances, workers can be prohibited from praying during unscheduled breaks if it causes an "undue hardship" for the business, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

I'm personally of the "your religion, sort it out" and it's clear here that the company were not exactly being difficult here.

The problem is that manufacturing depends on the line. I once interviewed at Honda and mid-interview, the interviewers had a tea break. I was like "wait, what" and off we went to the tea room for 15 minutes, before then returning for the interview. Despite being an office job, the rules were no drinks at workspaces, and fixed tea times. You weren't allowed to get a tea at other times. Silly for the office jobs, but they like this whole "everyone's equal" culture, so there you have it.

Tea breaks exist in manufacturing, like they don't in most offices, for this reason. It's about the synchronisation of work. You need the line running smoothly. If a bunch of people aren't there, it doesn't. That's why there's this window for tea breaks - the whole line might stop for that period, but that's the only stop it'll get. A call centre doesn't have this. The "switch" gives calls to people signed in - if you're not there, it goes to another advisor. Everyone goes when they want to (and this actually works better, because it means there's always people handling calls).

This company probably couldn't care less about a small number of people taking 10 minutes off for a prayer. The problem is that it screws up the line. The guy who fixes on the wheels is stood around waiting for you, with nothing to do.

The old ones are the best.

Newsthump did the Sonny and Cher/Sunni and Shia joke yesterday, which was quickly removed again from the main site but can still be viewed via Google Cache.

The last time I did this one was eight years ago.

Hahahalal

Spotted by MBK in The Telegraph:

Aldi apologises after black pudding is incorrectly labelled as halal-certified

"Egypt strife may last several centuries, warns Hague"

From The Daily Mail:

William Hague has warned that the turmoil in Egypt could continue for 'up to a millenium' as it emerged that the former dictator Hosni Mubarak is soon to be freed.

The Foreign Secretary branded the situation in Cairo "very bleak. As per usual" and said the drift towards civil war in most populated Arab nations was one of the greatest crises of the 21st century, just as it had been in the 20th century and 19th century and so on, going pretty much all the way back to AD 610.

Violence flared again yesterday with details of two new atrocities emerging. At least 24 policemen loyal to the military regime were gunned down execution-style by Islamist militants in the Sinai desert. So far, the ongoing state of civil and external wars in the region have led to tens of millions of fatalities in the past fourteen centuries, with no sign of letting up any time soon.

Further violence is likely when the disgraced dictator is released from prison by the military regime, which ousted the Islamist government of Mohammad Morsi elected in 2011. But you might as well say "further violence in the Middle East is likely on Monday 7th February 2033" or "there will probably be violent clashes in the Middle East on the day that your grand-daughter gets married".

Egypt's acting head of state called for unity and harmony: "We Arabs are all brothers and must learn to put our differences aside.

"Instead of killing each other, we must agree on a common enemy - like the Jews or the Americans or somebody else picked at random - and wage a losing war on him instead."

Religion Of Peace

From The Institute for Peace & Economics, here are the bottom ten countries out of the 2013 rankings of 162 countries (the number starting 3... is the score, however that is compiled):  

162 - Afghanistan 3.440
161 - Somalia 3.394
160 - Syria 3.393
159 - Iraq 3.245
158 - Sudan 3.242
157 - Pakistan 3.106
156 - Congo, Dem.Rep. 3.085
155 - Russia 3.060
154 - North Korea 3.044
153 - Central African Rep. 3.031

It's possible of course that the people who compile this list are just "racist" of course; they also cheerfully admit:

The sharp increase in the number of homicides - up 8% over the last year - can be almost entirely attributed to Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa with, for example, the homicide rate in Honduras further increasing by almost 10 per 100,000 people - becoming the highest in the world at 92 homicides per 100,000 people.

Well there's your answer right there, Dave...

From The Daily Mail:

Violent foreign extremists should be put on the first plane home, a furious Tory MP demanded today. Former army officer Bob Stewart said the killers in the Woolwich attack had succeeded in securing publicity for their 'perverted ideas' and urged tough action to deal with 'anyone that supports them....

[David Cameron] said he could not comment on the detailed police investigation but vowed: 'This country will be absolutely resolute in its stand against extremism and terror. We will never give in to terror or terrorism in any of its forms. This view is shared by every community.

Mr Cameron revealed that the two suspected killers were known to the security services and promised that the authorities will investigate into whether the attack could have been prevented.

Of course they "could have been prevented". Go and have a chat with Mr Bob Stewart.

All of which makes you wonder why Sweden allowed in so many "asylum seekers" in recent years. They knew how it ended in France and the UK, and surprise surprise, the same thing is now happening over there.

While I'm on the topic, cast your eye down the list of areas in the UK with the highest per capita welfare spending halfway down this article. What do those areas famously have in common (apart from having lots of unemployed people, obviously, they've got to live somewhere and I've no particular grudge against people who are unemployed)?

My ex-wife's first published work [Fun with Google translate]

My ex-wife informs me that she has had her first book published!

Let's stick the blurb into Google translate and tidy it up a bit:

This selection of thematically diverse, legally relevant and in part exciting excerpts from Mardin's [town register 247] gives the reader an overview of the social, legal and historical circumstances in the region around the north Mesopotamian city of Mardin in the 18th century. Through their analysis can, inter alia, conclusions be drawn about the degree of autonomy of the region around Mardin, whereby the macro-historical perspective is illuminated. Transcription, translation and commentary of the respective texts deepen the case-specific backgrounds.

Based on this and other micro-historical and micro-ethnological studies, [we] can finally generalise about (and check, create, and question) legal opinions, legal practice and the social situation in the region. It is thus possible to accurately analyse the reasons for the decline of the former region around Mardin.

So now you know!

Rohingya minority? What Rohingya minority?

Forced Marriage Laws

Something you notice as you get older is that new laws appear and you think "how come we don't already have a law against this?".

Then you do a little Googling and find that actually, we already do. Or at least, there are things in other laws that allow you to achieve the same objective of the new law.

Such is the announcement of the government introducing a law that would criminalise families that forced their children into a marriage.

The law is unnecessary. A person in this country can refuse to marry in the registry office. Marriages can be annulled because of undue pressure. So, the only way to get them to marry is to take them abroad against their will to less civilised countries. At which point, we have laws against kidnapping. Or if taken to a country and told to marry and that they can't return, we have false imprisonment laws. We even have a Forced Marriage Unit that rescues people that have been forced into marriages abroad.

So, why is the government wasting a whole lot of time and money on a law that's unnecessary? The government's own explanation, of making it clear to families that forced marriage is against the law, as though a family that has to evade British law to get someone to marry hasn't worked this out. Fact is that the families know it's not legal, but have already made their mind up that the government can go to Hell and they'll do it anyway.

So, what's the law really about? What it's really about is creating a positive story for the government, something vaguely about upholding British justice, something that will make the public less likely to think that Fred Karno's Army are running the country.

In terms of outcomes, it makes no difference, as we already have all the laws we need. Arguably, we'd be better not having this law with its consultation, civil servants drafting, redrafting and so forth (all of which costs an eye-watering amount of money) and instead hiring a few more people at the Forced Marriage Unit to rescue women from forced marriages and prosecute those involved in it.

Things which happen in every community

Raping young girls

A Muslim community leader has said there is a "problem" of British Pakistani men thinking "white girls are worthless and can be abused". And the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) said it was "investigating why there may be a majority of Asians in these particular kinds of offence".

But police said grooming was "not a racial issue" and MP Keith Vaz also said "no particular race or religion" tended to be involved.

Sex-selective abortions

Dr Tony Falconer, president of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said: "Anecdotally, there are social and cultural reasons for preferring one gender over another and we need to know more about why these occur. The issues are complex. For instance, women may be coerced or threatened with violence into having an abortion. The priority would be to identify who these women are and to provide them with support."

Forced marriages (1)

The charity said it wanted to help overcome "the mistaken assumption that the problem is a cultural one"... Ms Sanghera said: "It is not a cultural problem, it is abuse. The sooner people start to regard forced marriage in the same way they do domestic violence the better it will be for those affected by it."

Forced marriages (2)

"It's uncomfortable for people to think about, but it can't remain this hidden any longer. It's not simply about Muslim families; we also found that it happens among Chinese and African communities too, such as the Somali families. Nor is it something that comes across with new immigrants."

Honour killings

Happen to white girls too, of course.

I'm still trying to track down articles from the BBC or the Guardian in which somebody says that female genital mutilation, marrying your cousin, blowing up Tube trains and postal voting fraud happens "in every community".

Bradford Spring

Unlikely Allies

From the Evening Standard:

Tower Hamlets council is threatening to take the Government to court if it refuses to ban a march by far-Right group the English Defence League. Leaders are warning of violence if the event goes ahead on September 3 and will seek a judicial review if Home Secretary Theresa May does not ban it..."

As we know, EDL marchers tend to be very well behaved on the whole, the violence comes from the Islamists and deluded lefties who attack them.

From the BBC:

Protesters have disrupted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's BBC Proms concert at London's Royal Albert Hall... The Palestine Solidarity Campaign had earlier called on people to boycott the concert and urged the BBC to cancel it. In a statement published on its website ahead of the Proms, the pro-Palestinian group claimed the IPO showed "complicity in whitewashing Israel's persistent violations of international law and human rights".

So it's the same lot attacking an Israeli orchestra as it is attacking the English Defence League.

Here's a thought: if the EDL are ever allowed to hold a rally, wouldn't it be fun if they invited along an Israeli orchestra to perform at the end, just to show a bit of solidarity? We can get the people from Rye Playland to do the security.

"We just want to be treated the same as everybody else...

... unless we would rather be treated more favourably, of course."

PS, it's not your religion, it's a headscarf. The park was not expecting you to down a cocktail and eat a slice of salami before you got on the ride.

Life Copies Art

There was much kerfuffle in Islamic countries after those Danish cartoons were published.

Hey ho, it turns out that they weren't so far fetched after all.

Pervez Musharraf

Has anybody else noticed that whenever there's news from Pakistan, it is invariably really bad - Bhutto assassination, terrorist attacks (in Pakistan and in India), corruption, failure to deal with flooding, cricketers taking bribes to lose matches etc?

More to the point, is it a coincidence that this has all happened in the past two years since Pervez Musharraf threw in the towel? You didn't hear much from Pakistan - and certainly nothing terribly bad - during the eight years that he was in charge. He even managed to keep his sense of humour despite the numerous attempts to assassinate him.

Is it possible that he was - by Pakistani standards - a genuinely enlightened leader? I'm a pacificist and a democrat, but I always liked him and see no reason to change that opinion. Slightly more controversially, is it possible that people in some countries (particularly Islamic ones) just aren't ready for democracy? Will they ever invite him back, I wonder?

Just askin'.

Burka Ban Fun From Around The World

The excellent Newsnow website has set up a new category for Burka Ban. Here are a few headlines to whet your appetites:

Italy: Berlusconi ally brings anti-burqua bill in parliament.

Ireland: Catholic schools ban full Muslim veil.

Australia: Muslim women rally against burka ban