bigmouth strikes again
Conservatives
Thatcher, Tory benefactors, Millwall FC and the hijacking of the FA Cup
I’m not sure which has been most impacting on me this week: Millwall’s FA Cup Semi Final against Wigan Athletic FC on Saturday or the news on Monday of Margaret Thatcher’s death.
These two seemingly disparate events were forced together following the suggestion by Dave Whelan (Chairman, Wigan Athletic FC) that a minute’s silence and the wearing of black armbands should be observed at the FA Cup Semi Final on the basis that football “owed” it to Thatcher. Widely reported in the media, The Telegraph reported Whelan as saying:
“We owe Mrs Thatcher a minute’s silence…It is not my decision, it is for the FA to decide, but I would be in favour of wearing an armband out of respect to Mrs Thatcher. We have to say thank you very much for the services the former PM has given us.
Liberal? Socialist…? No, apparently football is small ‘C’ conservative
I received the following tweet this morning:
“@DrChrisAllen it’s a contradiction in terms to be a millwall and that kind of liberalism. Millwall is small c conservative”
Sent from someone I’d had no previous contact with, they clearly objected to me being a Millwall fan given the political views I hold.
However in the same way that I disagree with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown when she infers that all Millwall fans are racist, I equally refuse to accept that to be a Millwall fan you have to be a “small c conservative”.
Such a statement comes as a bit of a surprise, especially when in recent weeks Millwall Football Club and its players have been at the forefront of the campaign to save Lewisham Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department. The relevance of this is best summed up by a post on the 200% blog:
Redux: Britain’s “Unloved, Unhappy and Out of Control” Youth (Time magazine, April 2008)
A few years ago, America’s Time magazine ruffled British feathers by publishing a 3,200 word article entitled, “Unhappy, Unloved and Out of Control – an epidemic of violence, crime and drunkenness has made Britain scared of its young”. Given the events of the past week, the article makes for uncomfortable reading. For this reason, I’ve reproduced the article in full below preceded by a few lines of how the article was seen by the British press.
The Daily Mail wrote indignantly, “[the article] pours scorn upon the parenting abilities of the British, claiming they do not spend enough time with their children and cannot cope. The magazine criticises our class-riven society, education system and binge-drinking culture”.
The Daily Telegraph reflected on how “Britain’s problems with binge-drinking and youth violence are held up to the world today by the American magazine Time” adding that the article would cause further embarrassment for the Government.
“Down with multiculturalism”: Cameron’s speech was more ‘Old Tory, New Story’
The speech made by Prime Minister David Cameron at the weekend raised a number of issues that should not be immediately dismissed. In fact he made some interesting points that are worthy of further consideration. For example, Cameron said:
“…terrorism is not linked exclusively to any one religion or ethnic group..”
Having said that, he quickly added that terrorism was undertaken:
“…overwhelmingly from young men who follow a completely perverse, warped interpretation of Islam, and who are prepared to blow themselves up and kill their fellow citizens”
He went on:
“…We have got to get to the root of the problem…the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism”.
Cameron also clearly stated that ‘Islamist extremism’ must be distinguished from Islam:
“Islam is a religion observed peacefully and devoutly by over a billion people. Islamist extremism is a political ideology supported by a minority…It is vital that we make this distinction between religion on the one hand, and political ideology on the other”
“Lens of Security felt by British Muslims: a response to the Prime Minister’s speech”
PRESS RELEASE FROM I:CHANGE
Birmingham I:Change welcome the spirit of the speech made by the Prime Minister David Cameron at the Munich Security conference (5th February 2011) but are strongly concerned with the misguided attempt to singularly see Muslims through the ‘lens of security’, something which seems to be a continuing problem obsessing ours and other European governments.
Discussions have taken place in our communities and some feel that what started off as a speech on conflict prevention soon became heavily focused on multiculturalism, Islam and extremist acts carried out by those individuals who we agree wrongly use Islam to carry out unjustified acts of terror. We feel disappointed that the rise in convictions of right wing extremists who also use acts of violence was not particularly addressed nor given a similar spotlight.
JK Rowling attacks Cameron and his ‘New Tories’
Fantastic article written by JK Rowling in response to David Cameron and his ‘New Tory’ election manifesto on the Times website. Reproduced in full below or view here:
The single mother’s manifesto
David Cameron says the ‘nasty party’ that castigated people like me has changed. I’m not buying it
J.K. Rowling
“I’ve never voted Tory before, but . . .” Those much parodied posters, with their photogenic subjects and their trite captions, remind me irresistibly of glossy greetings cards. Indeed, the more I think about it, the more general elections have in common with the birthdays of middle life. Both entail a lot of largely unwelcome fuss; both offer unrivalled opportunities for congratulation and spite, and you have seen so many go by that a lot of the excitement has worn off.
About the book, “Islamophobia”
Reproducing stuff…?
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www.chris-allen.co.uk.
