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No Wheels Good
Two quotes of the day for the price of one this Friday:
First up, here's Jeff Randall on Britain's Donorgate scandal:
"Gordon Brown's premiership has become the Trabant of British politics: we had to wait 10 years for delivery, then it fell apart after less than six months."
Jeff himself says he rips the arse out of the analogy before too long, but as a one-liner, it's great.
And, in the same paper, we find an interesting discussion on what happens to artists when they age and drift to the right.
Her Rejected Majesty?
Australia's new prime minister Kevin Rudd has announced that he will initiate a referendum on removing the Queen as head of state of his country.
Quote Of The Day
As a British teacher faces trial in Sudan for the crime of allowing children to name their class mascot Mohammed:
"This sad little Sudanese tale is part of a larger story, from the Rushdie affair to the storm over the Danish cartoons, in which some Muslims, and some Muslim governments, seem to be almost searching for slights and fights, to be almost determined to be insulted, pushing aside those ready to take a more tolerant and relaxed view.
Leading To Rome
The only surviving copy of an Imperial Roman road map went on public display in Austria's National Library on Monday.
The Tabula Peutingeriana shows the road network of the Roman Empire's Cursus publicus or courier service, extending from Europe, Persia, India and North Africa. It's in the form of a scroll, 6.5 metres long and only 35cm high: This causes the projection of the map to look somewhat stylised, but features such as the "Boot" and "Heel" of Italy and the island of Sicily are perfectly clear.
EU Whistleblower Cleared
Remember Hans-Martin Tillack? He was the German journalist who investigated corruption in the EU, only to be rewarded with an EU-ordered visit from Belgian cops, who confiscated his laptop, searched his home and held him for ten hours without access to lawyers. His notebooks were seized, and police demanded to know who his sources were. Five years of work uncovering EU corruption was confiscated by the people he was investigating.
Tillack says the police, who were acting on orders from the EU's anti-fraud office, told him "I was lucky I wasn't in Burma or central Africa, where journalists get the real treatment."
This week, the former Stern correspondent was cleared of wrongdoing following a three year court battle.
What Gets Banned
Honour-crazed fanatics in the Sudan and a hymn-banning Bishop in Britain
After the Cartoon Jihad, the Teddy Bear's Lashing. British commentators have been queueing up to register their shock at the fate Sudan's sharia fanatics are demanding for British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons, who faces forty lashes for allowing children to name a school mascot Mohammed.
Joan Smith has the most interesting column, in the Independent, titled Islam and the modern world don't mix.
iPhone Arrives In France
Apple's long-awaited iPhone is launched in France tonight, with a fanfare usually reserved for big movie premieres.
The €399 portable phone, internet browser and media player goes on sale in selected shops in 12 big cities, launching country wide the next day. It isn't clear whether recent launches of the product in Britain and Germany, alongside the (hacked) iPhone's wide availability in independent mobile phone shops, have dimmed anticipation of the official launch.
More Riots In France
Well, we had a go at the Independent newspaper earlier for imagining that a student union protest against two BNP nutters amounted to an "uprising against fascism." It's only fair to criticise the other end of the political scale, this time the Daily Telegraph, which today claims that the riots which flared up in several housing estates north of the French capital have "left Paris in flames."
Come on. Your correspondent is in Paris today and can guarantee he saw no flames of any sort. The scene of the riots is more than 20km from Paris.
Sensitive Souls
Just don't call him Mohammed
Let's get this straight... a British schoolteacher in Sudan is facing forty lashes because her class of seven year olds voted to name a Teddy Bear Mohammed?
Oh, Grow Up!
Further evidence, if such was needed, that the Independent has the editorial mentality and obsessions of a students union newspaper.
Yesterday, a couple of hundred students protested against the appearance of far-right politician Nick Griffin and Holocaust-denying historian David Irving at the Oxford Union Debating Society.
Blair And The Nutters
Last week, Tony Blair discussed the importance of his religious faith and its guiding role during his ten years as Prime Minister.
Blair said that he kept the strength of his faith under wraps because "Frankly, people do think you're a nutter".
Quote Of The Day
"Earlier this year, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel, an account of how she escaped from a world of genital mutilation and forced marriage to find asylum and the free thinking of the Enlightenment in Holland, was published. She was attacked, as feminists are, but the assault wasn't led by the churches and Daily Mail but by Timothy Garton Ash and Ian Buruma, men who saw themselves as liberal thinkers. There was an intellectual scandal in Europe, and the New Republic in Washington devoted most of an issue to what the controversy revealed about the contortions of liberal thought. Accusations of double standards weren't thrown about simply because academics who knew no terror in their lives had turned on a woman who can't step outside without bodyguards - just because fanatics want to kill her doesn't make Hirsi Ali right - but because the liberals treated her with a superciliousness unthinkable in the late 20th century.
"Garton Ash wrote in the New York Review of Books that journalists were more interested in her beauty than her ideas. 'If she had been short, squat, and squinting, her story and views might not be so closely attended to.' She was an 'Enlightenment fundamentalist', he continued, as bigoted in her way as the Muslim Brotherhood she opposed. On this reading, there is no moral difference between those who would subjugate women, kill Jews and homosexuals, place the dictates of a seventh-century holy book above the parliaments of free peoples... and those who wouldn't. Liberal intellectuals have no obligation to make a choice between religious fundamentalists and 'Enlightenment fundamentalists', and indeed could devote their energies to condemning the latter rather than the former."
Nick Cohen in The Observer
Inside Europe
Who'd have thought that the best inside look at the workings of the European Parliament we've read for years would come from the Euro-friendly Observer?
I'm A Dutchwoman, Get Me Out Of Here!
Spare a thought for Tanja Nijmeijer, who isn't enjoying her jungle adventure very much. The 29 year old bourgeois Dutchwoman gave up teaching and volunteer work in Bogota's slums to become of a member of terrorist group Farc's International Brigade.
Even the Guardian, which is generally sympathetic towards leftist terrorists, describes Farc as "South America's biggest, bloodiest and possibly last Marxist insurgent group."
England, What England?
EURSOC recommends readers go to the Sunday Times to check out Jeremy Clarkson's epic polemic on the demise of Englishness.
It's hilarious and inspiring: Forget vows of Britishness and quizzes on British identity, this column should be printed off and read in school assemblies across the country.
What Ties With Moscow?
British MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee claim that Britain's closeness to the United States has "impacted negatively" on the UK's relationship with Russia.
"We recommend that the government should seek to improve its relations with Russia without damaging its relations with the U.S," the Committee concluded.
Mystery Surrounds New French Riot
Sunday night saw France's worst riots since Autumn 2005. 21 police officers were injured in six hours of rioting in the banlieu town of Villiers-le-Bel following the deaths of two youths whose motorcycle collided with a police car.
Freedom Of Movement? Freedom Of Speech?
As France's transport strike finally begins to peter out after nine days, No Pasaran has a look at how well strikers take to good-natured criticism from the friendly Blue Helmets of BAF.
Thin skins, these CGT guys.
Come In, Mahmoud, Your Time Is Up
An Iranian newspaper with close ties to the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has condemned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "immoral, illogical and illegal" treatment of his enemies.
An Army Of Big Brothers
Following on from the latest British cock-up, when a CD containing the personal and financial details of 25m people was "lost in the post", The Independent has a look at some of the many government agencies which hold similar information on citizens.
Remember, these people think that introducing an ID card system is a worthwhile measure.
French Sabotage: The Conspiracy Begins
That didn't take long. Reporting on the sabotage of France's high-speed rail lines yesterday, we predicted that it was only a matter of time before some hard-left conspiracy theorists would blame the government for setting up the attacks to harm the strikers' cause.
Precitably, the leader of France's most extreme rail union got the conspiracy rolling. The Times reports that Christian Mahieux, head of the Trotskyite Sud-Rail union, said "who would profit from the crime?"
Where Rome Was Born?
Italian archaeologists reckon they have found the cave ancient Romans believed was used by the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus.
The Lupercal played an important role in the myth of Rome's founding. Lost for centuries, archaeologists say they found it during a search of the Emperor Augustus' palace on the Palatine Hill.
Sarkozy Vows To Punish Rail Saboteurs
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy says that those responsible for the sabotage of the nation's high speed rail network would be "severely punished."
Last night, what authorities are calling "a concerted campaign of sabotage" brought the famous TGV railway to a halt. A series of deliberately-started fires damaged power supplies to signals: The most damaging attack was on the TGV-Atlantique branch, where 30km of track were damaged.
France's national railway company, the SNCF, blames the sabotage on union hardliners who are seeking to halt talks aimed at ending the current transport strike.
Big Brother's Balls-Up
A few months ago, we condemned government plans to put the personal and financial details of every man, woman and child in Britain on a computer database. Alongside proposals to introduce Identity Cards and a whole swathe of measures dedicated to limiting rights and increasing the surveillance of citizens, EURSOC worried that the government is providing itself with the tools to create a fascist state.
Quote Of The Day
So it's something of a non-story about how the EU is "set to quiz women on their sexual history" (yeah, right), but at least the UK Independence Party's MEP Derek Clark got this cracking quote from it:
"When will politicians realise that George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual?"
You've Been Hitched
Reading a blogger giving a reporter a thorough "Fisking" is one of the great pleasures of the Internet. Sometimes, however, you just have to leave it to the professionals.
Check out the Guardian today for Christopher Hitchens' demolition of Ronan Bennett's attack on Martin Amis.
Press Photographer A Terrorist - US
The US military claims "convincing and irrefutable" evidence that a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist is linked to the Iraqi insurgence. The US says that Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein Zaidon appeared with suspicious timing at the sites of insurgency attacks, which suggested he had insider knowledge of targets. After the US requested to use his house as a surveillance platform, troops found insurgent propaganda and bomb parts in the building.
There's More To Life Than GDP (But Not Much More)
A conference at the European Parliament has been told that GDP is an insufficient measure of a nation's overall health. Measures such as how far the nation goes in combatting global warming and social division should also be taken into account, the conference heard. One centre-right Swedish MP said that these indicators could one day become as important as the measurement of GDP is today.
Some Europeans Are More European Than Others
Italy's plans to expel undesirable immigrants has already run into controversy in the EU, not least because the new measures appear to be directed towards one ethnic group, the Roma.
World Politics Review publishes an article by Cristina Arion which calls into doubt the figures released by Italy's media and Rome's mayor, the whiter-than-white "Blairite" Walter Veltroni.
See You Next Tuesday
It's clear that the past few years have seen an increasing number of laws and limits placed on "acceptable" speech. A whiff of prejudice will finish careers; shortly, speaking ill of certain religions and sexual preferences could land you with a prison sentence. It's bad enough that the public will no longer be able to hear, and thus confront, the idiocies of British racists and homophobes: But what about the fact that you can now lose your job for speaking the truth?
Thursday night saw Scotland's Politician of the Year dinner in Edinburgh. At the climax of the evening, the Scottish National Party's leader (and Scotland's current First Minister) Alex Salmond was voted the winner, and marched from his table to receive his award.
A young Labour aide, Matthew Marr, said what doubtless many in the room (and perhaps hundreds of thousands more throughout the UK) were thinking: He muttered that Salmond was a "c***."
Barmy Army Gets Encore
Here's an EU-turn the British press hasn't seized on with its usual hunger. The UK's foreign minister David Miliband called for a strengthening of the EU's military capabilities during a speech at the college of Europe in Bruges on Thursday.
This is quite a change in direction for British defence policy under the new government. Only a few years ago, Britain treated schemes to build EU military capability with scorn. Even though former PM Tony Blair was said to be passionate about expanding the EU's "rapid reaction force", he came to believe that moves to promote an EU Army represented mischief-making by German and French leaders eager to undermine NATO.
Frattini Under Fire
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has come under fire from the European Parliament over his support for Italy's new policy of immediate deportation of undesirable immigrants.
Frattini, who is Italian, was accused of making comments contrary to the spirit and letter of EU Directive 2004/38/EC, which allows for the free movement and settlement of citizens of EU member nations within the EU. Frattini is reported to have said,
"What has to be done is simple. Go into a nomad camp in Rome for example, and ask them: 'Can you tell me where you live?' If they say they do not know, take them and send them home to Romania. That is how the European directive works." EU news site EU Activ says that the Commissioner also "urged Italy to pull down the camps to prevent the Roma from returning."
The Toxic Subject
"Immigration is toxic now in most of the developed world", writes Gerard Baker in The Times. It's identified as the number one issue in many European countries, while the statements of US presidential candidates are scanned for evidence of their thoughts on the 12 million plus illegal immigrants in the country.
In Europe, anti-immigrant parties are on the rise at the national level (even if alliances of nationalist parties crumble in the European Parliament). Even mainstream parties, like Britain's New Labour and Conservatives, are pledging new approaches to mass immigration, even if, Baker continues, "Our political, intellectual and media elites ponder this turn of events with a disdainful eye."
Strikes And Support
A third day of misery for the France that gets up early, as transport union strikes against pension reforms continue.
Traffic on the Paris Metro is slightly better today than yesterday, but despite agreements for talks between the main union leaders, the management of state industries and government representatives, the strike seems set to rumble on through the weekend. The French media is reporting this morning that talks between the three groups have reached a "dead end" today, which suggests that travellers will struggle on Saturday and Sunday.
More radical unions, who claim the strikes as an opportunity to hobble President Nicolas Sarkozy's promised reform programme or even to "bring down the capitalist system" are calling for extended, broader unrest. In this, they're joined by student activists, some of whom have defied votes by their peers to call an end to the blockade of university buildings.
Quote Of The Day
""Hearts and minds" cuts two ways. It is not just up to us to avoid giving egregious offence to Muslims.
"There was nothing in (Gordon) Brown's speech about the plans to build a 25,000-capacity mega-mosque near the 2012 Olympic stadium in West Ham, which is intended to serve as a Muslim quarter for athletes and spectators during the Games, in flagrant violation of everything the Olympic Games represent.
"And no categorical rebuttal of insidious attempts by Islamists to introduce Sharia courts, thereby sanctioning what would amount to exclaves outside the law.
"Emollient vapidities do not conceal the fact that there are people in this country, with patrons and sponsors overseas, who despise our way of life and seek to change it for all time."
- Micahel Burleigh on the Prime Minister's anti-terror measures, in the Telegraph.
National Hymen Service
The Daily Mail and its readers are upset by the news that Britain's hard-up National Health Service is performing "virginity repair" operations on Muslim women who want to convince their husbands they are "pure" on their wedding day.
The operation, which replaces the torn hymen with an artificial membrane (which can contain a fake blood capsule for added authenticity) is illegal in some nations. Private patients pay £4,000 (over $8000) for the surgery, which is reported to be increasingly popular.
The Real Bias At The BBC
On the Independent's dismal new blog site Open House, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown claims that the BBC is indeed biased - in favour of the right.
She bases this staggering claim on the fact that that "several BBC broadcasters" have told her "they are not interested in ‘Guardian and Independent’ points of view. We are passé, irrelevant, annoying, elitist, too middle class and soft."
Maybe it's just you they're tired of, dear.
Study The Problem
Several dozen French universities are being blockaded by students protesting against minor reforms on university autonomy. Some protestors are far-left agitators acting in solidarity with the trade unions who are striking against pension reform; others are fantasists, calling on the French for another "May 1968" and "an end to capitalism." But some fear that President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to improve France's higher education system will mean the appearance of "US-style" universities.
What do the French have to fear from this?
Pick And Mix
The European Union is an attractive place to reside. Especially if your place of birth was in Africa.
Almost every night on television channels in Italy, Spain, France and Malta, there are reports of desperate souls attempting to cross the Mediterranean with the hope of finding a low-skilled job somewhere in Europe.
First Against The Wall
Here's "writer and lunatic" Arundhati Roy in an interview in Haaretz:
"All the battles that we fight, if the people that we are supporting end up winning, we will be the first ones to be hanged from the nearest tree. The Maoists, the Islamic movement in Kashmir. Sometimes you are fighting on the side of people who have no space for you in their imagination. But that's okay."
Smells Like Teen Spirit
This character claims he was assaulted by cops while he took part in a blockade of Nanterre University students' protest against Nicolas Sarkozy's reforms.
He's a second year sociology student and union activist. Hang on - he's a student? He looks about forty. Either French universities serve to prolong adolescence into middle age, or life in France is a lot harder than we've been led to believe. Story from No Pasaran, which also has a video showing how monsieur and his thuggish friends, egged on by Communist party members, tried to prevent other students from accessing their university.
French Strike Frenzy
Tonight sees the beginning of what could be weeks of misery and confusion for commuters as French transport workers strike in protest against plans to reform their pensions.
Union leaders have pledged that their action will last "as long as it takes" to force the government to retreat on its proposals to end "special regimes" in pensions, which allow some workers to retire as early as fifty. Other public sector workers begin strikes linked to other reform plans over the following days; students and left-wing "activists" plan a campaign of solidarity with strikers: As well as blockades of university buildings, students are reported to have staged sit-down protests on railway lines.
The government, led by President Nicolas Sarkozy, is equally determined to face down the strike. Sarkozy was elected on a promise to reform some of France's archaic business practices, which have become increasingly expensive to manage. The reforms are part of a broader package which the public voted for this Spring, designed to bring France in line with more competitive European nations.
Paris Match
A warm welcome at the Gare du Nord
British hacks queue up to bash the French capital
This week, Eurostar trains destined for Paris will leave from London's beautiful St Pancras, described by some commentators as the world's finest railway station. The trains are likely to run straight into a typically French strike (more of which in another post), but the faster link between the cities has sparked a rash of articles about what awaits Londoners at the other end of the tracks - and not all of it flattering.
Rising crime in parts of Paris is given some prominence.
Quote Of The Day
"Recently the Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, argued that the (European Union) should “concentrate on the issues where the EU can really add value: global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty”. Exactly so, which is why, for example, the idea of a single high representative to speak for the EU to the outside world makes sense. This doesn't compromise the foreign policy of sovereign states, but does allow a co-ordination in precisely the areas mentioned by Mr Hague. Unless, of course, he has some kind of perverse interest in wishing the ends but always declining the means. There's a rude word for such tantalisers."
David Aaronovitch isn't convinced by the Tories' long-term plans for the EU's "reform treaty."
Is Hillary Imploding?
EURSOC's US correspondent Chris Timmers on a rocky week for the Democrats' frontrunner.
With a poor showing in the Democratic candidate debate in Philadelphia two weeks ago, charges of planting questions among "disinterested voters", in audiences, and a very slow, but noticeable slide in the polls, Hillary Clinton's campaign for US President may be showing signs of fatigue or even collapse.
The Godfather Part IV
An offer you cannot refuse
This week at a house near Palermo, police got hold of Salvatore Lo Piccolo. He was the most senior Sicilian Mafia boss still at large.
The Right Stuff
Depressing stuff from Jay Rayner in the Observer this weekend. Rayner set himself the task of discovering whether any "right wing" directors or writers existed in the contemporary British theatre scene.
To cut a medium-length article short, there aren't any. Some thespians dismiss the idea that conservatives could create art: Others say that even if one did, they would have no interest in bringing their work to the public. What a dreary and small-minded place the London theatre world must be!
Rayner makes a brave attempt to seek out anything even remotely resembling nuance or ambiguity among the views of those he interviews. Sir Peter Hall comes out best, admitting that "Political theatre is simplistic whatever wing it's on."
Public Safety & The Human Rights Act
Here's a comment From a EURSOC reader "Know your Rights" originally posted following our report on Italy's expulsion of Romanian immigrants.
"Many EU countries routinely chuck out foreigners, like France who are currently deporting en masse.
"Britain's rulers like to hide behind the EU on this issue and to pretend that the European Convention of Human Rights prohibits the expulsion of terrorists and other criminals when this is clearly not the case."
Shut Up, Chavez!
Now we did say that EURSOC was going to lay off Hugo Chavez for a while, following the revelation that the Independent newspaper was printing government propaganda as news items. But this story, of how Spain's King Juan Carlos tried to silence one of Chavez's endless rants by asking him to "shut up" is just too good to resist. Finally!
Iranian Officials On Interpol List
Interpol has added five Iranian officials to its "most wanted list" because of their suspected links to the 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people died.
Faith And Violence
Former Europe Minister Denis MacShane has an interesting column in the Observer on how violent Islamism has been around a lot longer than Tony Blair.
A fairly obvious point, perhaps, but unusual to find it in the left-leaning Observer. A glance at the comment's following MacShane's post suggests that he isn't exactly preaching to the converted.
Inside An Honour Killing
The Sunday Times has a chilling report on how 20 year old Banaz Mahmod was beaten, raped and murdered by the men of her family for the "crime" of having an affair.
Banaz and her sisters had already been subjected to the brutality of circumcision, carried out at home by the girl's half-blind grandmother.
The Smoking Ban
It's been tried before: A classic clip from the BBC's finest ever comedy series (and Margaret Thatcher's favourite), Yes Prime Minister:
In The Lobby
This weekend saw the EU's annual "Agora" meeting, when 500 representatives of various Brussels-based pressure groups and lobby organisations got together with MEPs to discuss "civil society."
Here's Dan Hannan "You see how the system works? The EU firehoses cash at these organisations to lobby it, they tell it what it wants to hear, and it can then turn around and say that, far from being undemocratic, it is giving a voice to the peoples of Europe. Millions are thereby drawn into the system, their livelihoods depending on the EU. And shall I tell you the best bit? You’re paying for the whole racket."
Serving Time
Wasting time is unfairly criticised. We pester our children not to do it. We take pride in the tasks that ensure we never do it. But we all do it.
Italy & Romania Meet On Expulsions
Italy and Romania's Prime Ministers will meet tomorrow to smooth relations soured by Italy's expulsion of Romanian citizens.
Following the horrific murder of an Italian woman, Giovanna Reggiani, Italy's authorities pushed through an emergency decree allowing for the immediate expulsion without trial of any immigrants deemed to represent a threat to public safety. A Romanian migrant belonging to the Roma ethnic group has been charged with Mrs Reggiani's murder.
The decree follows several years in which concerns have been voiced about the disproportionate number of crimes committed by immigrants in Italy: A number of high-profile cases have caused particular outcry.
The issue has complicated relations between the two EU nations (Romania joined the Union as a full member this year). While most EU countries (including Italy and Britain) have refused to relax working restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, there is no law preventing EU citizens travelling to and settling in another EU nation. Up to half a million are thought to have migrated to Italy. According to EU law, however, ejecting those immigrants once they've arrived can be a tricky business.
France Braced For More Strikes
What is it about French strikers and the English? Not content with having made getting to the Rugby World Cup final a misery for English fans, striking transport workers look set to disrupt the first Eurostar arrivals to Paris from London's beautifully renovated St Pancras station.
A series of open-ended strikes by French civil servants and transport workers is set to make November the cruellest month for commuters and President Nicolas Sarkozy alike.
British Church Under Siege
Belfast's Public Prosecution Service has refused to press charges against youths for vandalising a church and terrorising its congregation, despite the local minister offering police photos of the hooligans in action.
Indeed, the police said that the minister "should not have been taking photographs of the children" - even though the minister had pleaded in vain with officers to come to the church to put an end to the harassment.
The Dangers Of PC
"But, even if they perhaps dwell too much on the faculty and journos, one of the best aspects of Taylor and Johnson’s exhaustive account is that you cannot help but notice how widespread political correctness extends. It’s not simply a case of ‘PC gone mad’; PC is now the given etiquette that everyone has to work with. All the major cultural institutions now share basic PC assumptions."
Spiked Online has an excellent review of Stuart Taylor Jr and KC Johnson's analysis of the Duke Lacrosse Team scandal, Until Proven Innocent.
Quote Of The Day
"Here is a country, one of the few across the world apart from Poland, with which we have never been at war. It is really not a reason for us to hate each other."
- French President Nicolas Sarkozy, prior to his first official visit to the United States. Sarkozy was responding to opposition critics who claim he is too close to US President George Bush. Sarkozy's affection for the US doesn't seem to have harmed his standing in France, however. A new poll published this morning shows that if a re-run of May's Presidential Election were to be held tomorrow, Sarkozy would beat his opponent Ségolène Royal by an even larger margin than the 53-47 percent he scored in Spring. The poll showed Sarkozy's support up to 55 percent to Royal's 45.
