U.K. Ban On Dutch Politician Undermines Freedom Of Speech

   It’s hard to know which is the most objectionable. Is it the British government’s craven cowardice in banning Dutch MP Geert Wilders from entering this cradle of democracy for fear he may offend? Or is it the British government’s gross, head-bangingly crass stupidity in banning a minor politician who would have made a speech in a backroom in the House of Lords which nobody would have heard, and returned to Holland.

Now the whole country will hear about Wilders.

*see YouTube’s version of his interview on BBC’s HardTalk programme - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6cFKQNBH3s

Can it really be true that a British government is afraid of what a freely-elected European MP might say, and stop him speaking, because they think some minorities might be offended? Offended! This is a mature, free-speech loving democracy is it not?

But Wilders has some things to say about extremist Islamists, so we must be protected. The government must put its nannying fingers in our ears.

What is the British government afraid of? On what grounds can it ban the freely expressed view of a European? Is he inciting violence? No. He is telling a few home truths about the Koran, and how some extremist Muslims use it to justify terrorism and suicide bombing. That doesn’t sound very controversial to me. After all, it happened on the London Tube, and the World Trade Centre. Will some extremist seek to shut his mouth by saying this will cause a violent reaction?

Certainly.

But this is the logic of the madhouse. It means that anyone can silence another citizen’s view by saying they will react violently to it. Surely, this is the crime that should be banned, not the expression of a view, short of suggesting violence be committed on another person.

If this ban stands it will set a horrendous precedent, and perhaps fatally undermine this most important of our hard-fought freedoms. If any Muslims are “offended” by what Wilders might say, they should be told that is what happens in a liberal democracy. They are free to argue back.

The BBC reported that the Home Office had banned Wilders from entering the U.K. under E.U laws enabling member states to exclude someone whose presence could threaten public security. In other words, someone can be banned, not for what he does or says, but because others might react in an unlawful, violent way.

That is an outrage in a free country.

Let’s face it, nobody ever died from being offended. But arguments must be free. All issues deserve to be aired. Those people that really do feel offended by an opinion which falls well short of threatening physical violence really ought to return to their medieval societies where this kind of mature discussion is only allowed by unelected, totalitarian elites.

Hamas Killers Sacrifice Palestinians For Their Sick Cause

Hamas Killers Sacrifice Palestinians For Their Sick Cause
Watching the childish, petulant, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s antics while sharing a stage with Israeli President Shimon Peres at the Davos summit served as another reminder of how the reality of Hamas gets lost in the political debate.

Hamas is an extreme, bloodthirsty group of Muslim maniacs who love death the way we in the West love life. Surely Erdogan must know that.

Typical of the quality of Israel’s critics was a performance earlier this week on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, when some ignoramus with a pathological, sick and knee-jerk hatred for Israel, tried to compare Israel’s action in Gaza to the German action to kill innocent Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.

Apart from the fact that the Jews in Warsaw were packed in about 10 times more tightly than the Palestinians in Gaza, nothing was said about the most obvious difference.

Did the Jews in Warsaw somehow deserve their fate by firing the equivalent of rockets on to innocent German women and children in 1943? Of course not. They were wiped out in an unforgiveable bout of racist, senseless violence. They no more deserved their fate than did the innocents in the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001.

It seems most of the media and many of our politicians, not to mention the brain-dead demonstrators who took to the streets in London to support the unsupportable led by Anthony Wedgewood hyphen Benn (wrong about everything in a long, mentally-deranged career), have forgotten the real reason for the aggravation in Gaza.

Hamas, I suspect not with the support of the Palestinians they terrorise, lobbed thousands of rockets indiscriminately into Israel, killing and maiming the innocent. Showing amazing restraint, Israel waited and waited, for years rather than months, hoping that sense would finally be shown by Hamas. But sense came there none. Israel had to act, knowing that Hamas would manipulate the media by using sites to fire rockets from places where retaliation would hit the innocent.

It is outrageous that Hamas is allowed to foment hatred and violence. It’s even worse that the gullible and simple-minded support them. It’s no use saying that because somehow they were democratically elected, that forgives everything. Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 after winning an election.

It is an outrage that the Palestinians are used as pawns in a power game led by Iran and Syria, who use Palestinian poverty and permanent enslavement to further their wicked cause of eliminating Israel. The Palestinians don’t need to live in poverty. Saudi Arabia is awash with money, as are the Gulf states, who seem more interested in financing bling projects like Manchester City than saving their exploited fellow Arabs.

The Turkish Prime Minister did perform one useful act though. He reminds us that an uncivilised country like Turkey should never be admitted to the European Union. Freedom of trade? Sure. No problem. But political affiliation. Never.

The Very Existence Of A House Of Lords Shames Britain

 It isn’t just that the House of Lords is a shameful hotbed of corruption – so that’s why they look as though they are about to fall asleep all the time – surely the most despicable thing of all is its existence in the first place, and what that says about the British.

No other mature democracy would allow itself to be governed by this bunch of played-out, second rate old farts who probably never had an original idea during their failed careers as backbenchers, union whingers, legal chancers, or Church of England hand-wringers.

Just turn on the TV one day, look at the Parliament channel when the red benches are in action and shed tears of shame.

What a sham of a democracy we have in Britain. The lower House, otherwise known as the Mother F*%$£!” of Parliaments, is supposed to hold the government to account, but is in hock to it. The opposition doesn’t have the courage of its convictions, which, if you’ve forgotten, used to be lower taxes, small government, and equal opportunity for all via education. The LibDems are simply awful, professional moaners. Ask yourself, what is the raison d’être of a Lib Dem? What is at the heart of its philosophy? Not being the government is their great rallying cry.

But most shameful of all is the House of Lords. Not an ounce of credibility. One day it will be reformed. Let’s call it the Senate. It will be wholly elected. Members will serve one 5 year term. No repeats allowed. No pay either. When the Lords are reformed, we must make sure that party politics is kept to a minimum, so no gravy train career for its members. No former politicians so no House of Commons members need apply, no former union officials, no clergymen of any stripe, no Lords or Royals. Hopefully citizens over 50 who perhaps have retired and have a huge backpack of experience in the real world will be tempted to participate. They will probably have a comfortable pension so can’t be corrupted either by bribes, or the siren songs of government. It’s not the age of the House of Lords that’s the problem. It’s the participants. The failed remnants of a corrupt Lower House shouldn’t have any power over us. To coin a phrase, let’s have some change we can believe in.