I Intend To Escape ......................And Come Back

20 Years On From 9/11, Are We Still Funding Those Who Mock Us?

9/11 retrospective articles are everywhere this weekend.

This piece, for the Policy Exchange website, dabbles with that, but attempts to look more broadly at the importance of funding in the propaganda wars which follow in the wake of both terrorism and counter terrorism.

You can view online here, or as a pdf below:

Download 20 years on from 9 11 are we still funding those who mock us Policy Exchange 10 09 2021

What is Islamism and why should it concern me?

A publication unpublished when I left the Henry Jackson Society earlier this year was a short briefing document entitled 'What is Islamism.'

Aimed at the general reader, it can now be viewed online here, and as a pdf below.

Download What is Islamism and why should it concern me

Lee 'Scratch' Perry: A Tribute

Following the death of the legendary Jamaican reggae artist and producer, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, spiked were good enough to publish my tribute.

You can read it here, or as a pdf below.

Download Lee Scratch Perry Chaotic eccentic and utterly brilliant spiked 31 08 2021

The cultural revolution

How is it that the Conservative party keeps winning general elections, but the day to day running of our society appears to reflect an entirely different set of values entirely?

From Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday:

"People who would have laughed at 'loony Left' councils 30 years ago now use language and follow rules which they once mocked when Ken Livingstone and his allies proposed them. Those who claim to despise Jeremy Corbyn often follow the ideas he helped devise in his decades in London town halls.

And it is not just that they join in. They are afraid to criticise. Huge areas of opinion are now closed off from discussion, for fear of cancellation, advertising boycotts, and generally being cast into the outer darkness.

With gathering speed and completeness, a total revolution in thought and morals is taking hold of Western societies, just at the moment when they should be girding themselves against pressure to become more like China."

Kurt Westergaard Champion of Free Speech

The death at the age of 86 of the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, marks the passing of a strong proponent of free speech.

Of the 2005 Muhammad cartoons, Westergaard's, below, was by some measure the most controversial, as it showed Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

Despite death threats and a serious attempt on his life, Westergaard continued to express himself freely. That, as I write for spiked, makes him a true champion of free speech. You can also download a pdf of my article below:

Download Kurt Westergaard free speech hero spiked 22 07 2021

Cressida Dick has failed upwards

It seems likely that the current Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, will be offered a second four year term in office.

This would be a mistake, and to reward failure, as I argue in this piece for spiked.

You can view the article as a pdf below.
Download Cressida Dick has failed upwards spiked 21 07 2021

Labour's Victory in Batley was Based on Hate not Hope

I neglected to post my final comments for Spiked on Labour's eventual victory in the Batley and Spen by-election.

You can read it on the excellent spiked website, here.

I also place the article as a pdf below. Perhaps the most significant development since the result has been the Labour MP for Bradford West and Shadow Minister for Social Cohesion, who spoke in the Commons of the need to protect Muslims from the 'hurt' of insults to Muhammad. It is hard not to see a connection between the by-election result, and Ms Shah's intervention. It bodes ill for the direction Labour is taking.

Download Labour's batley victory was based on hate not hope 06 07 2021

Batley's Islamist Crybullies

Shakeel Afsar has given us a masterful display of the crybullies art - hectoring and aggressive one moment, pleading for our support and sympathy the next.

Read my analysis on spiked, or in the pdf below.

Download Batleys Islamist crybullies 29 06 2021

Labour gets itself into a mess in Batley and Spen

It seems likely the Conservatives will win the Batley and Spen by-election on 1 July. There is even the possibility of George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain beating Labour into third place.

As I discuss for spiked, having played the game of identity politics, abandoning the Batley Grammar school teacher in the process, Labour now risks being outplayed at their own game by Galloway. You'd need a heart of stone not to laugh.....

A pdf of the article is available below:

Download The Batley and Spen by-election a mess made by identity politics 24 06 2021

Donations are welcome

If you wish to donate to the cost of running this website, and help to fund my writing, donations are welcome.

They can be made, via paypal, below:

On Accepting Transgender Athletes

"Men posing as female weightlifters isn't the biggest problem western civilisation faces, but it's an ominous symptom of deeper rot. When the people in charge retreat into fantasy, and demand that everyone else join them there, society itself becomes impervious to reality. The entire population develops the habits of fact-avoidance and lying. After a while, no one can see a crisis, or even admit one exists."

From Tucker Carlson's Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution. (New York: Free Press), p. 201.

The Manchester Arena Inquiry: Damaging revelations, with more to come

The first stage of the inquiry under Justice Saunders into the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, is now complete.

I analyse what has happened thus far in The Levant, and argue the second and third stages are likely to be as, or more devastating, in their criticisms.

A pdf of the article can be read below.

Download The Manchester Arena Inquiry Damaging revelations with more to come 18 06 2021

Behind the Debates: Iranian Networks in the UK

Iran pursues its interests in the UK, and seeks to build and maintain influence, in two ways.

The first is through perfectly legal outreach work and inter faith initiatives. The second is a much more underhand campaign of online disinformation and skullduggery. I set out some examples of both in an article for The Levant, available here.

You can read the article as a pdf, below.

Download Thelevantnews.com-Behind the debates Iranian Influence in the UK 15 06 2021

Batley and Spen: Bigger Than Red v Blue

The Batley and Spen by-election on 1 July is one of the most exciting in years.

My latest article for Spiked considers the challenge of George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain, the backdrop of threats and violence that have scarred the constituency in recent years, and the candidacy of several pro-Brexit parties, who are searching for political space in the pro-Brexit era.

You can read the article here, and find a pdf below.

Download Batley and Spen bigger than red v blue 10 06 2021

Discussing Iranian Influence Networks in the United Kingdom

I took part in a panel discussion yesterday on Iranian influence overseas, as part of the promotional work following the report I published with the Henry Jackson Society earlier this week.

The panel was chaired by the Conservative MP Theresa Villiers, and I was joined by Prof Saul Chorev, Simone Rodan-Benzaquen and Jonathan Spyer.

You can see a video of the event here.

Iranian Influence Networks in the United Kingdom: Audit and Analysis

I am the author of a new report on Iranian influence in the United Kingdom. You can read the press release and find a link to the report here.

The report looks at seven areas of interest: political networks, religion, the media, cultural networks, the Iranian diaspora, education and academia, and finally, the fields of business and finance. The bulk of the focus, however, is in the fields of politics and religion.

A pdf of the report can be downloaded below:

Download HJS-Iranian-Influence-Networks-in-the-UK-Report 2021

The Silence of the Metropolitan Lambs: A Review of Islamophilia by Douglas Murray

The Summer 2021 issue of the Salisbury Review is now out. You can buy the magazine, or download a copy, here.

Within its pages I have a review of Douglas Murray's short book 'Islamophilia: A Very Metropolitan Malady.' What are the consequences of an outbreak of Islamophilia? Read the review and find out.

Download Murray Islamophilia review Salisbury Review Summer 2001 p 53

Download Murray Islamophilia review Salisbury Review Summer 2021 p 54

Could the Fishmongers Hall attack have been prevented?

Following the inquest into the killing of Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt in the November 2019 terrorist attack at Fishmongers Hall in London, I have written a short piece for Spiked on the question of whether the attack could have been prevented.

The article is on the Spiked website here.

It can also be read as a pdf below.

Download Could the Fishmongers Hall attack have been prevented spiked 02 06 2021

The schools in a flap about flags

On Wednesday I had a short piece published by Spiked covering the fallout from Pimlico Academy in London, which earlier this year took down its union flag after complaints from parents and pupils.

Schools in parts of England are now experiencing a wave of protests in support of the Palestinians, and many of those deeply uncomfortable about the sight of the union flag, are now seeing colours displayed that they are sympathetic too........

A link to the article on the Spiked website is here. A pdf can be found below:

Download Flags are nothing to fear 26 05 2021 Spiked

Manchester United used to be above flag waving

In football, traditions matter. I feel the display of a Palestinian flag at Old Trafford by Paul Pogba and Amad Diallo was outside the traditions of the club.

It is hard to imagine it happening in an earlier era, especially when United worked so hard as a club not to be seen as partisan with regards to the Northern Ireland conflict. You can read my article arguing against sectarianism in football on Spiked, and also as a pdf below.

Download Sectarianism has no place at Man United - spiked 19 05 2021

Blasphemy must be an issue in the Batley & Spen by-election

It is not sure exactly when it will happen, but a by-election in the west Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen appears inevitable, after the sitting MP, Tracy Babin, was elected as the new Mayor for West Yorkshire.

The central issue in the by-election that brought Ms Babin into office in 2016 was the fascist terror attack which saw Jo Cox MP murdered by Thomas Mair. This by-election will occur to the backdrop of threats of violence to a teacher at Batley Grammar, who is in hiding after threats from Islamists. In an article today for Spiked, I argue standing up to the aggressors in this case must be a central issue when the by-election is held.

The article can also be read as a pdf, below.

Download Blasphemy must be an issue in the Batley by-election - spiked 13 05 2021

A Quote To Leave 2020 On.....

Just before Christmas I finished reading Paul Embery's 'Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class'.

It is very good, although I fear that the people who need to read it, and to learn from it, will not. Embery risks that cruellest of fates, being a Prophet in his own land, destined only to be heard from those outside his own tribe.

These are some of the lines on which he finishes the book:

We have learned that any drive to create an 'open' 'diverse' and 'progressive' nation will alienate a large part of the populace if it is forced upon them too rapidly, violates their sense of order and belonging, and comes at the expense of social solidarity and stability.
The British working class has found its voice. Politics in our country is realigning at speed as the old tribalisms crumble. The Left, if it is to halt the slide towards irrelevance, had better start listening.

I suspect this overstates the extent to which life may be breathed into a corpse. But that politics is realigning, is self-evident. And it is genuinely exciting.

Is Macron's Stance Against Islamism Applicable in Other Countries?

On Tuesday 22nd December I will be chairing an online event at 1500 for the Henry Jackson Society entitled 'President Macron's Response to Islamism and Jihadist Terror: Lessons for Other Nations'.

The discussion should last for about an hour, with three leading researchers in the field - Liam Duffy, Dr Tommaso Virgili and Simone Rodan-Benzaquen. There will also be a Q and A session. Sadly, as the event is online, the anticipated mince pies and glasses of sherry will have to wait until next year.

To attend, all you need to do is register online with HJS, and you will receive an emailed link to join the event as it starts.

Where Covid19 Leaves Us

It seems likely the Oxford Covid vaccine will be rolled out across the UK in January.

I was one of over 600 people to take part in the trials for this in Corby, Northamptonshire. Finishing off the tests on Thursday, I was told only 5 people had negative reactions to the jabs, none serious. That is less than 1 percent.

It seems appropriate to be deeply pessimistic about the future. The economic hit we have suffered from Covid has not been fully grasped. The gap between the security and status of public and private sector workers is deepening, and may get worse. The civil liberties lost at times this year, and the cultural revolution that piggy backed on top of the George Floyd protests in America, disastrous. There is not much point having a parliament full of human rights lawyers if, as I found, the police stop you playing football in the park with your children. On race, Britain is not the United States, no matter how much our woke warriors wish it to be.

Internationally, China is greatly strengthened by the events of 2020, the west economically weakened and culturally divided. Those cultural divisions will accelerate in 2021.

But this vaccine is a sign of progress, in the middle of reaction. It is green shoots sticking out of the concrete, and for that we should be grateful.

Is the Tamil Tiger Free to Roam Britain's Streets?

One of the issues in the in-tray of Home Secretary Priti Patel, is the question of whether to revoke the ban on the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers organisation.

In the page of the Indian newspaper the Sunday Guardian, I argue strongly against this. It would be a poor way to treat our allies, but would also send a dangerous message to other militant exiled groups who are, regrettably, exiled here in the UK.

Remembering 26/11: Mumbai and State Sponsored Jihadist Terrorism

Bridge India has now published on its You Tube page the discussion marking the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, which I participated in last Friday.

You can listen below to

involving Burzine Waghmar of SOAS University of London, the author Priyajit Debsarkar, and myself.

Discussing The Mumbai Attacks with TAG TV

This is a 45 minute discussion of the 2008 terror attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, at the direction of the Pakistani deep state.

From the Canadian station TAG TV, I contribute to a panel with the SOAS orientalist Burzine Waghmar. The sound is a little ropey at first (part of one answer sounds as if I am impersonating the late Norman Collier) but it soon improves.

You can view the discussion below

.

We should be wary of laws criminalising conspiracy theories

The Metropolitan Police, and the leadership of the Labour Party, have both spoken out about anti-vaccination opinions, and activists who are circulating such views on social media. As we move closer to immunising people against Covid19, these debates are likely to increase.

I think it would be a bad idea to create legislation against these views, and set out my arguments in this piece for Spiked.

Mumbai 26/11: The nature and impact of a state sponsored jihadist attack

Over the weekend I had a short article published in the Sunday Guardian in India, concerning the 2008 terror attacks in the city.

In it I attempt to characterise some aspects of jihadist violence, for example its anger and hatred directed at 'the other', and also discuss aspects of the impact of the attacks. For example, the view of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, was reinforced.

You can read the article on The Sunday Guardian website here, and also get a pdf of the piece
Download Nature and impact of Mumbai attacks 21 11 2020.

Now - what are my chances of getting a commission to write for the Guardian in this country?

In Praise of Bob Moran

Who is the UK's best political cartoonist?

This year that mantle has been claimed by The Telegraph's Bob Moran, who has produced a series of superb cartoons articulating the loss of personal freedom, and the fears experienced by those trying to understand the changes that have followed in the wake of Covid19.

You can view his website, with a compilation of this years cartoons, here. My personal favourite is from July, and features our national dog, the British Bulldog both scared and muzzled.

Islamism threatens us all

There is much to be encouraged by in the response of President Macron to the wave of jihadist attacks in France.

His understanding of the threat posed to the west's freedoms is correct, and in casting the question in terms of sovereignty, Macron illustrates that the goal of both Islamists and jihadists is to enforce the laws of Islam in the west. That cannot pass.

I discuss this, the emergence of President Erdogan's Turkey as a key player in Islamist circles and the response of British Islamists to events in France, in an article today for Spiked. It can be read here.

A pdf of the article is available
Download Islamism threatens us all - spiked 04 11 2020.

Three Points of the Triangle: Islamic State, Britain and the Indian Subcontinent

The Sunday Guardian in India has published my article on the overlap between British jihadists, Islamic State and the Indian subcontinent. You can follow a link to it here.

I have also saved the article as a pdf attached
Download Three points of the Triangle Islamic State Britain Indian subcontinent - The Sunday Guardian Live 03 10 2020

More generally, most of my writing is collected on my Academia.edu page here. It is all free to download, but you will need to register to do so. In time I will bring over everything from there, to here.

A Jihadist Triangle: Islamic State, Britain and South Asia

On Tuesday I was part of a panel organised by the European Foundation of South Asian Studies, on Islamic State in South Asia. This should have been held in Geneva at the United Nations as one of the side meetings by accredited organisations at the UN HRC, unfortunately Covi19 forced us onto zoom.

Along with Malaiz Daud from Afghanistan and the analyst Tim Foxley, we spent two hours battling through the nature, characteristics and ambitions of Islamic State, as well as discussing more generally the Afghan peace process, Pakistan's influence in the region and America's intentions.

My twenty minute presentation, delivered in a somewhat wintery blue jumper, can be seen below.

A Return To Blogging

Just when you thought 2020 could not get any worse...............

I am going to use this space to promote some of my research and writing, and to draw attention to things I find interesting.

But for Covid19 I would have been over in Geneva this month with the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) at the side meeting of the UN's Human Rights Council. The EFSAS intervention has instead moved online, and I will be speaking on Tuesday afternoon (details below) on the triangle between Islamic State, the UK and Pakistan.

For Remembrance Sunday: An Irish Airman Forsees His Death

To mark Remembrance Sunday, I wanted to link to W B Yeats classic poem "An Irish Airman Forsees His Death."

This was written to mark the death of Robert Gregory, the only son of Yeates' great supporter and sponsor, Lady Gregory. He was killed whilst serving as an early airman in Italy in 1918.

A Review of Al-Qaeda 2.0: A Critical Reader by Donald Holbrook (ed.)

Critical Studies on Terrorism has published my review of Al-Qaeda 2.0, which is largely a compilation of Ayman al-Zawahiri's writings in the post Bin Laden era. It shows the religosity of al-Zawahiri's world view, and the depth of the historical sweep from which he, and indeed Al-Qaeda, view the world.

The first 50 people to do so, can download a free pdf copy here. I think after that, you will need access to an academic library.

On The Death of Harold Covington

Yesterday the death was announced of US Nazi Harold Covington, best known in recent years for his attempts to establish a 'white homeland' in the pacific north west of the United States. Here in the UK, Covington had a degree of public recognition for a brief period in the early 1990s, where he lived here in Britain, and helped to establish the Combat 18 group.

To see some initial reaction to his death, his Northwest Front group's initial comment can be seen here, and the Southern Poverty Law Center's obituary here. One issue with Covington was the belief in sections of the far-right that he was not what he claimed to be, and was working for the FBI or some other intelligence or law enforcement agency. This view was perhaps helped by a media tendency to link Covington to the 1979 Greensboro massacre, where five members of the Communist Workers Party were killed at an anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration. Covington was never charged with any offence in relation to that incident, but gave provocative media interviews stating he did not give a "happy damn" about the demonstrators, and they got what they deserved. If Covington was a spook or asset it would make his time in England, and role in establishing a neo-Nazi group which flirted with terrorism, all the more significant.

Way back in 1995, Larry O'Hara attempted to analyse some of the conflicting threads around C18, Covington and the security services. That article was published in issue 30 of Lobster magazine, and you can also read it on the Notes from the Borderland magazine website here.

It is always useful to go back to articles, even after twenty years, see how they stand the test of time, and how we might examine events anew today. Whether fresh information emerges about Covington, now he is safely out of the way in Valhalla, remains to be seen.

Brendan Cox, Survivors Against Terror and the Manchester Bombing

The 22nd May was a year to the day since the Manchester Arena bombing in which 22, mostly young people and children, were killed.

To coincide with events held in Manchester, the Survivors Against Terror group (SAT) issued an open letter in the Observer of 20th May (scroll down here), calling for five distinct positions to be adopted against terrorism. This received considerable media coverage, see for example that from the BBC. The main figure in SAT is Brendan Cox. Whilst he resigned from positions in two charities linked to continuing his wife’s work in February, his work on countering terrorism was not mentioned at the time. Even when he has been publicly labelled a sex pest, it is perhaps rather difficult to condemn him when he is standing with fellow victims of terrorism. That of course is precisely the type of thing he will have calculated into his thinking, as he seeks to return to public life.

The SAT intervention has a five point programme it seeks support for:

• Please keep your focus on honouring the memory of those who have been killed. Terrorists often attack partly to gain notoriety. We should deny them it; their names don't deserve to be remembered.

• Give to appeals to help the victims of attacks and demand government provide the high quality services that survivors need.

• Ask media and social media organisations to do far more to take on and shut down those driving hate.

• Support our emergency and security services to do their job. If you know something or suspect something, tell them.

• Take on hatred wherever you find it. Very few of us will ever meet a terrorist, but lots of us will experience those driving hatred. Hatred is the sea that terrorists need to swim in, if we take on that hatred, we dry up that sea.

It would be interesting to know who wrote this, or developed the draft. Points 1, 2 and 4 are so anodyne as to be agreeable by virtually anyone, not least those who have suffered bereavement in terrorist incidents. Points 3 and 5 are more contentious, and open up a potential agenda – restricting social media, and acting against ‘hate’ that is more debateable, and entirely in keeping with political agendas from liberal elites and their little helpers.

Social Media and Terrorism?

Terrorism long predates social media – the IRA campaign, or that of the various loyalist groups from 1969-98, hardly needed it, even if the technology had existed. Historically, explanations for terrorism have considered concepts such as injustice, poverty, bad foreign policy, or the nature of, and trends within, ideologies and belief systems, serving to radicalise individuals and groups. Social networks are also important – you are more likely to join a terrorist group, if friends are doing so. That is why some towns, like Portsmouth, appear to have had Islamic versions of First World War ‘Pals Regiments’ going off to Syria. Cox and co ignore all of this. Instead the problem is the media and social media, and the wide, perhaps all too wide concept of ‘hate’.

There is little evidence social media played any role in the Manchester bombing.

The bomber, Salman Abedi, was a supporter of Islamic State, and a Mancunian of Libyan heritage. His father, Ramadan Abedi, was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organisation the British government helped to overthrow Gadaffi. Salman Abedi had long moved in Islamist circles in Greater Manchester, and fought in Libya in 2011 in its Civil War. His brother Ismail Abedi is currently in custody in Libya, fighting extradition to the UK.

But - there is nothing here from SAT or Brendan Cox on foreign policy, immigration or religion. Is it a good idea to be allowing members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group to settle in Manchester? Why did the British government seemingly support the overthrow of Colonel Gadaffi, then work with him against the Islamists, then change course again, to support regime change? What does Theresa May, either the Home Secretary or Prime Minister in much of this period, have to say? There is nothing from SAT on breaking up friendship groups of extremists - in the months before the attack, Abedi twice visited a convicted terrorist in prison. Should we be allowing young men convicted of supporting terrorism to hang out in jail with impressionable young men from the streets?

Taking on 'hatred', requires a definition of hatred that is agreed upon by a majority of the populace. How likely is that? Whilst elite level groups and government departments can readily agree (debating terminology is one of the things they do) such a consensus is unlikely to emerge from where it is needed - the bottom up. And where does any definition of ‘hate’ sit with the concept of free speech?

What Next?

The deployment of victims of terrorism to promote the idea that social media is in some way a ‘cause’ of terrorism is now underway. At the same time, there seems to have been a low level purge on Twitter of ‘extremist’ voices, most prominently of Tommy Robinson. In due course, that is likely to be extended to You Tube, and Nigel Farage has made the accusation that algorithms are being used to censor conservative comment on Facebook.
That, combined with loose accusations of ‘extremism’ or ‘hate’ is likely to be at the centre of the work of groups like Hope not Hate, and it seems, Survivors Against Terrorism, going forward. It avoids asking hard questions about foreign policy, immigration policy and (almost certainly) it avoids asking hard questions about trends within contemporary Sunni Islam. Consider all those politicians and news readers talking about ‘Daesh’ or ‘so-called Islamic State’ to see how readily euphemism can predominate. It risks conflating those involved with violence, with those who are not. And it will almost certainly serve as one of the fronts in the conflicts over politics we will see over the next 18 months.

Do you trust Brendan Cox to define what constitutes ‘hate’?

The Fortean Fall

Mark E Smith completists have some job to do securing every single Fall album - there are reportedly 38.

One thing you can get though is the current Fortean Times, which has a small pic of the great man in the top left hand corner of its cover, and the heading "Legends of The Fall: The Weird World of Mark E Smith". The subsequent article perhaps does not quite live up to its billing - it is a mere one page piece by a New Zealand academic, Dean Ballinger, entitled perhaps predictably "There's a Ghost in My House".

Ballinger is clearly a fan, although I have never been able to summon up much personal enthusiasm for the stories about Mark E Smith and tarot cards, or that he somehow predicted the 1996 Manchester IRA bombing. Better though is the analysis of Smith's use of Lovecraft, Machen and James, and he locates one of the Fall's classics, Wings, in the work of Phillip K Dick. There is clearly a lot more to be said about Smith's general interest in fortean matters - check out the homage to the Cottingley Fairies in the video to Ghost in My House - and I suspect his work, now he is safely dead, is due a whole series of reappreciations.

Let us hope therefore Dean Ballinger is revving up for a longer article. And I can get my hands on the approximately 19 Fall albums I am currently short of.....

December Will Be Magic Again

From 2008 - 2015 I did a lot of security work in order to finance my PhD. Some of the best times were working as a doorman at Epsom Downs racecourse at the Christmas parties, where an enormous effort went into preparing the Queens and Duchess stands for dinner dances.

There are two great pluses to door work. Attractive women speak to you, and you meet some real characters, good and bad. After one party, a man who must have been well into his late 60s, but still had a military bearing, talked at length about his security work in the Gulf, and showed me the scar he got brawling with the late London gangster John Bindon. Before I could ask my new friend if he felt John Bindon and Princess Margaret really had been an item, he was gone, very politely trying to get the phone number of a lady in her early 60s I had seen sitting at an adjoining table. On a loop, reception in the Queens Stand played a variety of Christmas songs, of which "December Will Be Magic Again" by Kate Bush was easily my favourite. It was playing as Bindon's former adversary and his lady friend swapped numbers.

Manipulating the News: A Follow Up

I received a lot of positive feedback and support on social media for yesterdays post, on the manipulation of the news in the case of the stabbing of school teacher Vincent Uzomah. 

A few brief updates. Firstly the Guardian's Helen Pidd confirmed that the judge in the case did NOT order any withholding of the ethnicity of the attacker. This confirms that those news outlets who did not report he is a British teenager of Pakistani heritage, opted to do so of their own volition. 

 

@MrPaulStott @chrishanretty the judge specifically allowed reporting of the ethnicity of the offender

— Helen Pidd (@helenpidd) August 11, 2015

Secondly neither Show Racism the Red Card nor the Today Programme replied to me on social media, where I levied the question as to whether their interventions in this story properly reflected events. Laura Pidcock of Show Racism the Red Card also failed to comment, despite being sent a link to these criticisms.

An unexpected development during the course of yesterday was Matthew Weaver of the Guardian, somewhat bizarrely, picking up on Show Racism the Red Card's intervention on Radio 4, and deciding that in and of itself it was worthy of being a news story. Indeed at one point yesterday it was the ninth most read article on the Guardian site. This illustrates the nature of modern media websites - the need to produce endless layers of content that fit readers preconceived ideas means a highly partial and indeed disingenuous discussion on a radio show can, two hours later, become a news item.

And that serves as a further example of how liberal elites manipulate the news.

The Manipulation of the News

When reporting on matters of race or racism, we cannot even rely on liberal elites to report basic matters of fact. 

Yesterday a 14 year old boy was jailed for 11 years for stabbing his teacher, Vincent Uzomah, in the stomach whilst he was teaching at a secondary school in Bradford. Mr Uzomah had told the boy off for playing with his mobile phone. Mr Uzomah, who is black, was racially abused by the boy, who is British of Pakistani heritage, during the incident. The lad later boasted about it on Facebook, receiving 69 'Likes' for his actions. 

Listening to the BBC radio 4 coverage of the sentencing yesterday evening, there was no mention of the attacker's ethnicity, although plenty of the fact that this was a racist attack. An approach which was continued in the BBC and Channel 4 news internet coverage. Many following such 'analysis' would simply have assumed this was another case of a white racist lashing out at someone from an ethnic minority. That impression would certainly have been absorbed by the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme this morning. Here a discussion ensued between Laura Pidcock of anti-racist group Show Racism the Red Card and Sagheer Azfal, a supply teacher who reported he had experienced racism from pupils at secondary schools. 

Here, the Today Programme seemed to be attempting to bowl a googly from a fast bowler's run-up. If a black man is stabbed by a British-Pakistani racist, it seems a little strange to ask a British Asian to talk about their experiences of racism? Would a report on a black person stabbed by a white racist bring in the comments of a white teacher with negative experiences of some black children? I dare the BBC to try it........Whilst Laura Pidcock eagerly presented a series of familiar left complaints, for example about alleged racism in the media coverage of migrants, there was no attempt by anyone to comment on the elephant in the room - that poor old Mr Uzomah's attacker was not a white racist at all. 

In the media coverage I have seen in the past eighteen  hours, Helen Pidd, the rather impressive Northern editor of the Guardian, is one of the few journalists with the backbone to report the racist aspect of this case fully, both on social media and on the Guardian's website yesterday. I have asked both Show Racism the Red Card and the Today Programme if their comments this morning fully reflect the nature of this incident. I don't expect a reply.

For liberal elites - and BBC journalists and educational groups working in schools such as the government funded Show Racism the Red Card are textbook examples of liberal elites who form and shape opinion - cases like the stabbing of Vincent Uzomah are pre-determined. The problem is racism, and racism is about white people saying critical things about or doing nasty things to black people. If a case emerges that undermines this script, the details are subtly disguised so the expected impressions can still be digested by the general public. That is why we are not told the attacker's ethnic heritage. To reinforce wider political concerns, activists like Laura Pidcock are brought in to attach media coverage of benefit claimants and asylum seekers in Calais to a specific attack, and for additional absorption of the core message, an actual victim of white racism, Sagheer Azfal, used. 

And that, in one simple case, is how liberal elites manipulate the news. 

London's Lost Pubs

Since I have done this blog, one of the most popular features has been the various articles and pictures I have run on Hackney's lost pubs.

Put simply, a huge slice of Hackney's history has been lost, in the space of a few years, usually for the short term profits brought about by gentrification. House building makes more money than pubs.

Other London boroughs are little different. Certainly Islington and Camden, but this week brings news of the worst story yet, with one of the few decent pubs left on the Isle of Dogs, the City Pride, being sold for £32 million. And no, that is not a mis-print.

Rather than comment further, I shall quote from local worker Jim Fry:

"I'm sick of decent pubs closing to make way for posh hotels and fancy gastropubs. All I want after work is a quiet drink with my mates with some peanuts and pork scratchings - not paninis and sun-dried tomatoes.
There's mowhere for normal people to go. Everything is about milking the most cash out of suited and booted City workers."

His point was reinforced by Mark Tolson:

"Pubs are the life and soul of the area and the local community. When they close, that sense of community disappears and you're left with nothing but office blocks."

London loses to the developers - again.