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

On the dangers of Iran (again)

I had a short article - just 600 words in the Telegraph over the weekend, concerning Iranian influence in the UK.

This really ought to be addressed in Yvette Cooper's 'extremism review' currently being conducted somewhere inside the Home Office. You can read the article online here, and download a pdf below.

Download Iran promotes UK extremism – it must be stopped 31 08 2024

More in Common?

I have just finished Douglas Murray's "The War on the West: How to prevail in the age of unreason" and was struck by these lines, towards the end of the book:

"In the absence of anything else, the only public ethic in the West that people are encouraged to unite around is opposition toward itself." (p.265-66).

It raises a very pertinent question - if Britain is divided, on what can it unite?

The Islamic Republic of ...............Torsa?

There's not much to laugh about at the moment, but there was some light relief last week at the suggestion Shia cleric Sheikh Yasser al-Habib wished to buy the Scottish Island of Morsa, currently home to two holiday lettings and not a lot else.

I was quoted in the Daily Telegraph article on 30 July, which called the whole idea absurd:

"Paul Stott, head of security and extremism at Policy Exchange, added to the chorus of concern sparked by the reports."

“It’s bizarre, but not totally bizarre, in that religious communities have bought up land in rural parts of Britain before,” he told The Telegraph.

“But I can’t remember a Muslim group doing so before. If you look at al-Habib, he is a contentious figure. This would involve a part of UK territory becoming the land of a contentious religious grouping. I think that requires public debate before it can go ahead.”

Keir Starmer and the Camden Cadre?

How to understand Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour party he has created?

In this article in The Spectator I argue that the London borough of Camden, part of which Sir Keir represents as an MP, is a lens through which Labour's beliefs and policies are best viewed. Its not Islington any more, but Camden!

You can read the article online here, or a as a pdf below:

Download Keir Starmer and the truth about the Camden cadre spectator 07 06 2024

Defining 'Islamophobia'?

For some reason I neglected to post on here the article on the Labour party and Islamophobia debate, which I had published back on 21 May.

You can read it on the Reaction website here, and as a pdf below.

Download Labour must define Islamophobia very carefully Reaction 21 05 2024

Turning the tables on extremism?

Yesterday I had a short piece published in The Critic on the new report by Lord Walney on political extremism.

The Critic added the sub-heading 'vital but flawed' as a description of Walney - you can read his report here, and my view is on their site. I think it is great we are having these debates, and some of Walney - for example on schools and blasphemy - is encouraging. But a large part of the problem in Batley simply came down to the school, local Labour party, and the teachers union, not having the strength of their supposed convictions to say 'No' to those who picketed the school. Until that happens, these debates will always be lost.

A pdf of the review is below.

Download Turning the tables on coercion The Critic 21 05 2024

Notes from the Borderland: Back and sizzling at the table

After a very considerable hiatus, the parapolitical magazine Notes from the Borderland is back. Issue 12 is out now, and covers an eclectic range of issues. The magazine is available in bookshops like Housmans in Kings Cross and stores stocked by Central distribution, and also via the Magazine Heaven chain.

The front cover shows the disastrous National Action rally in 2015, where the far-right's finest ended up hiding in the left luggage facility at Liverpool Lime Street station, besieged by anti-fascists and surrounded by rather nervous looking coppers. Larry O'Hara and Dave Hughes question the state response to far-right terrorism in recent years, not least when it is a phenomenon so significantly dwarfed by its jihadist rivals. A significant player in the trials involving neo-Nazis has been academic Matthew Feldman - O'Hara dissects just how low the bar may be when it comes to academic 'expertise' in some of these cases. The sorry collapse of CARR - the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right - an organisation Feldman founded, features as a perhaps classic example of the ability of some of those on the left of politics (as they would see themselves) to eat their own. The questions this debacle raises illustrate that even within an academia where it has the pitch to itself, the left's iconoclasm ensures that it is more interested in smashing up, than building institutions.

NFB is perhaps the only parapolitical magazine in the UK now appearing in print form. Old rival Lobster moved to online only many years ago, and if there are any new kids on the block (Declassified UK perhaps?) they have been born and will no doubt only ever breathe and toddle online. I think that's a shame - I don't believe the human brain can read detail or theory online for a significant amount of time. Its pleasing therefore to see Verona Silenda pick up her stiletto and wield it in the direction of artificial intelligence and the threat technology poses to both our politics and our personal freedoms. Technology of course, makes hypocrites of us all, and it was a delight to be reminded once more of Steve Booth's old cartoon, on page 50 about the primitivist CD-Rom.

One book I don't have from my days in the Anarchist movement is the Anarchist Cookbook. Heidi Svenson covers recent terrorism trials involving this text, and some of the curious specimens caught up in them - none more so than Mr Logic lookalike Oliver Bel. I have contributed a short piece on the environmental movement and its giddy approach to fascism, which it seems to see virtually everywhere, but most certainly in the production of the fossil fuels that we, for now at least, cannot do without. Comments on my article are welcome.

In general terms the magazine, while detailed, sustains a humourous tone, is well produced and is perhaps best read in chunks. As Brian Clough once said of televised football - you don't want Sunday roast every day of the week. Notes from the Borderland is a roast dinner, not a sandwich at your desk. As with any roast however, some parts are perhaps better than others. If there is a rubbery carrot served it is Dave Hughes's article 'It isn't just them.' This is almost teenage in its naiveté about pro-Palestinian marches, and the wider Gaza conflict. Contrary to Mr Hughes's rose tinted spectacles, the reason the arrest rate at these marches is 'lower than Glastonbury' is because the authorities (including the very spooks NFB is supposedly watching) have treated them as a safety valve, broadly allowing extreme behaviour, threats and support for terrorism to occur on the streets, rather than force it underground. Indeed the point is made by Neil Basu, former head of counter-terrorism policing and Sir Keir Starmer's newest buddy, that the marches are important for that very reason. Bear in mind though, that those people calling for jihad here or anywhere else are not your friend........

And there's more. There is also an NFB special issue on the 1999 London nail bombings, an outrage for which we have just seen the twenty-fifth anniversary. Details of that publication and where to order it, are here.

Its not who you vote for, but what you vote for

Is democracy in good health following the May elections?

One thing that struck me was the defeat of the likeable Jamie Driscoll, formerly Labour's North of Tyne mayor and latterly an independent after being purged by Sir Keir. Driscoll stood and lost to Labour in the first election for the much bigger position of North East Mayor. This covers Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham.

What's interesting about this exercise in devolved power is that it looks remarkably similar to one rejected previously by the electorate. Katie Balls wrote in the 20 April issue of The Spectator:

"Metro mayors were created in 2017, not necessarily by popular demand. In fact, Newcastle, Sunderland and Gateshead all rejected mayors. They're now getting what no one really asked for: a single elected figure to cover all their areas, along with North and South Tyneside. The new North East Mayoral Combined Authority arrives 20 years after the idea of a devolved assembly for the north-east was rejected by voters by a three-to-one margin. The new authority was created in a direct deal with the councils: this time the public was not consulted."

There is of course a pattern here. Back in 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron wanted to see Mayors replacing council cabinets across the country. That was until nine cities voted no - Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Wakefield, Coventry, Leeds and Bradford. These election results were in many ways a mere hiccup - by 2017 Manchester had an elected Mayor anyway. Birmingham went even bigger with a Mayor for the whole West Midlands, and Newcastle, as outlined above, is now stuck in a very similar regional structure.

One of the things which should interest us more in politics is how things happen without anyone directly voting for it, or even being fully aware it is happening until it happens. I would much prefer to see, wherever possible, power devolved to as local a level as it can be. That gives the public more connection with those who are running things. Better Corby council, than North Northamptonshire. Better North Northamptonshire than Northamptonshire. And better Northamptonshire than any future East Midlands combined authority of Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland, Leicestershire and whoever else.

Now - how do I vote for that?

The Conservatives have failed to conserve our environment

One of themes which dominates my thinking is decline, and the signs of decline that are all around. One of the most obvious, especially when you get out of the city, is in our rivers.

"I began to realise that this country is peppered with thousands of little community groups comprised of decent, ordinary people who know their river is not the way it was in their childhood. Decent people who put their trust in the Environment Agency and the water regulators , and trusted that they would nurture, protect and conserve these rivers. And the system's been doing none of that for decades."

Feargal Sharkey interviewed by Chris Packham in the Radio Times, 20 April 2024, p. 14.

I find Packham tedious, but his interview with Sharkey is important for these very arguments.

Recognising the Islamic Republic of Iran's threat to the UK

Last month Policy Exchange published the report I have worked on for some time - 'Tehran Calling: The Iranian Threat to the UK'.

This takes the view that the Iran poses a unique challenge to both the security and social cohesion of the United Kingdom.

Iran is a hostile state in the style of Russia or China: it seeks to interfere with our online systems and takes British citizens hostage. Yet Iran also seeks to wield social and cultural influence in this country, declaring and imposing blasphemy codes, and creating institutions that project power and influence.

You can read the report online here. A pdf can be downloaded below.

Download Tehran Calling The Iranian Threat to the UK 2024

For St George's Day

It sometimes takes an Irishman to remind us of our greatness. Discussing books, the Count states:

"Through them I have come to know your great England; and to know her is to love her."

Bram Stoker, Dracula.

Call 999 - I need a hijab and a prayer mat!

In Carry On Again Doctor, Dr Ernest Stoppidge (Charles Hawtrey) famously stated that he did not object to jiggery, but takes exception to pokery! I do not object to either, but I draw the line at wokery, and unfortunately there is a lot of it about.

On Wednesday the Daily Express published my latest on that bastion of wokeness, the police force, and in particular the pride West Midlands police take in officers driving around Birmingham with prayer mats and hijabs in their patrol vehicles (?).
While citizens of Gotham City used to put up the bat signal at times of distress in order to alert Batman and Robin, perhaps in Moseley the West Midlands Police logo will be projected in the skies when someone needs a hijab to be urgently delivered?

You can read the article online here, and a pdf is available below.

Download The police are taking the public for granted by indulging in wokery _ Express Comment 10 04 2024

An overlooked aspect of the pro-Palestinian marches

Andrew Murray had a big piece in the Morning Star last Wednesday entitled 'Rochdale has shown what can be done'.

In it Murray raised something that was in many ways obvious, but I and many others had certainly missed concerning the London protests. Jointly organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, CND, Muslim Association of Britain, Stop the War Coalition, Friends of Al-Aqsa and Palestinian Forum in Britain, Murray writes of the marches:

"For one thing, the exclusion of Galloway from the platform at the national rallies for Palestine is not tenable. It would perversely echo the disdain for the masses of Rochdale expressed by the Prime Minister".

Well, there was still no room for George Galloway's fedora in London this weekend, and the man himself was instead to be found speaking alongside Arthur Scargill at a miners strike commemoration in Doncaster. I am guessing Galloway's exclusion, while perhaps down to personal issues, is most likely because his position on Syria rubs up some of the Islamists in the pro-Palestinian marches, the wrong way.

If so, its an interesting test of the size and nature of this coalition? Is there room for Galloway and the Workers Party of Britain, or not?

George Galloway: What next?

As George Galloway heads to Westminster, it is important to consider what comes next.

The piece below was first published, yesterday evening, by Policy Exchange. it is also saved as a pdf below.

There are three big take-aways from events in Rochdale.

Firstly George Galloway’s victory will inspire a series of challenges to Labour from pro-Palestinian candidates. This was happening anyway with Leanne Mohamad committed to standing against Wes Streeting in Ilford North, and Tasnime Akunjee taking on Rushanara Ali in Bethnal Green and Stepney. Those activists will have an extra spring in their step today, while Galloway claims to have been approached by a series of potential candidates from neighbouring constituencies. Keir Starmer’s consolidation of power within the Labour party also left at least two big beasts growling outside the tent – Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott. Both are yet to declare their intentions.

Prior to the October 7th attacks on Israel, all looked rosy for Sir Keir Starmer. Opinion polls had him a mile ahead, and bar a few Corbynista malcontents, the party appeared broadly united, as those about to win power often are. That has now changed. Just as the war in Iraq removed the air of invincibility from Tony Blair, so the conflict between Israel and Hamas has re-divided Labour. Starmer has responded in two distinct ways. The first has been to recognise that Israel was going to wage war in Gaza, regardless of anything the leader of the opposition in the United Kingdom said or did. Labour calls for a ceasefire have appeared only gradually. But it is the second element in Labour’s approach which may have the greatest ramifications for the country. Labour has opted to go hard at the Conservatives ‘Islamophobia,’ concentrating their big guns at Suella Braverman, Lee Anderson and Liz Truss, and in turn asking Rishi Sunak to move against all three.

This approach deftly pivoted attention away from the Speaker of the Commons’ admission that he broke parliamentary procedure to allow a Labour motion on Gaza, due to threats being made to MPs. Not only did the Islamophobia furore move debate on from the issue of Islamist threats,

it raises significant questions about how a future Labour government will approach the issue. In 2019 the Conservatives rejected as unworkable an All-Party Group of British Muslims definition of Islamophobia. Would Prime Minister Starmer? Accepting such a definition, which would have serious ramifications for both freedom of speech and the 2010 Equality Act, currently looks like a convenient olive branch to Muslim activists.

The third takeaway from Rochdale is the question of what Galloway’s success tells us about British politics, and where our society is heading. His current vehicle, the Workers Party of Britain, evokes little love on the Left who dislike Galloway’s support for Brexit, his flurries of social conservatism and the party’s origins. Galloway has become the public face of the Workers Party, while other founders such as Joti Brar, of the Stalinist Communist Party Great Britain (Marxist Leninist), and Galloway’s former deputy, have fallen by the wayside.

Galloway’s pitch in Bethnal Green in 2005, Bradford West in 2012 and Rochdale in 2024 was directed primarily at one section of the community – Muslim voters. In Rochdale his campaign placards were in the colours of the Palestinian flag, and Galloway declared the intention of being a voice for Gaza in parliament. Some ugly rhetoric also emerged with Galloway referring to the Labour Friends of Israel as the ‘Labour Fiends of Israel.’

Separate letters appear to have been distributed in predominantly ‘white’ and predominantly ‘Muslim’ areas of the town, the latter stating “I have fought for Muslims at home and abroad all of my life.” A very different letter for non-Muslims stressed Galloway’s support for Britain, small businesses and law and order, even down to offering to arrest grooming gangs himself. Neither script mentioned the Workers Party of Britain.

Translating pro-Palestinian activism into political victories in a general election is however, a much bigger task than the one George Galloway has managed in Rochdale. A general election is about who is Prime Minister – and that means it is largely Rishi Sunak versus Keir Starmer. National issues such as the economy, the health service and the criminal justice system are likely to predominate, and the turnout (which was 37% in Rochdale) will be far higher at a likely 65-70%. Small parties and independent candidates are easily squeezed to such a backdrop, more so if this is a transformative election in the style of 1979 or 1997.

Much therefore depends on the extent to which activists from different traditions – primarily the Far-Left and Muslim representative organisations – can plan and co-ordinate their activities and produce a programme credible to voters. A Red-Green alliance anyone? This weekend in London and next month in Blackburn independent councillors, Muslim representatives and anti-war activists are meeting for ‘No ceasefire, no vote’ conferences. The ball is now in their court. Here attention also turns to The Muslim Vote, a campaign organisation whose backers include the Muslim Association of Britain, MEND, Prevent Watch and the Muslim Council’s of Scotland and Wales. The Muslim Vote’s platform is clear “This election signals a shift – Muslim issues at the forefront. We will no longer tolerate being taken for granted. We are a powerful, united force of 4 million acting in unison.”

What does this mean for the UK? Comparatively small political parties can impact beyond their numbers, even if they fail electorally. Consider the Communist Party of Great Britain in the trade union movement during the Cold War, or the National Front on the streets of London in the 1970s. The idea of voting in terms of faith – as opposed to economic interest or ideological affiliation, is unusual but not unique in the United Kingdom. It contributed to the sectarian nature of Northern Ireland politics and flared in the past on the west coast of Scotland and until the 1960s, in Liverpool. Nor is this era immune to sectarianism – consider the divisions between Hindus and Muslims in Leicester, and the violence which followed.

There is little doubt that some within the leadership of Muslim representative organisations would be very happy to lead and direct a Muslim ‘block vote’ this year. We simply do not know what impact this will have on the United Kingdom. As George Galloway made his acceptance speech in Rochdale, a heckler from Just Stop Oil began shouting, and one of the independent candidates, climate activist Mark Coleman, threw orange confetti in Galloway’s direction. No one seemed to care. Much bigger issues are afoot.

Dr Paul Stott is the Head of Security and Extremism at Policy Exchange.

Download George Galloway scores his electoral hat trick what next PX 02 03 2024

Accuracy is not the left's strong point

It seems any old rubbish will do, when you are a 'good' person writing about 'bad' people.

My attention has just been drawn to the artist Attila the Stockbroker, and his end of year column in the Morning Star of 30-31 December 2023. Mr Baine reflects on the 40th anniversary of his anti-nuclear song 'Airstrip one', before stating "And even Reagan and Thatcher pale in the age of Trump and Braverman. It's been a horrible, horrible year."

Perhaps, but we are hardly in the age of Trump and Braverman. Donald Trump left office on 20 January 2021, having lost the Presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. Suella Braverman was sacked as Home Secretary on 13 November 2023. In office Braverman in particular struggled to deliver on her mandate, and wrestled with officials who either could not, or perhaps would not, do what she wanted.

It's hardly their time, is it?

One region where change will come in 2024

As the stalemate in Ukraine continues, it is hard to imagine the public will tolerate a repeat of 2023 throughout the whole of the new year.

Zelensky, and Ukraine, cannot win. There needs to be a deal. The alternative is maintaining a conflict whereby taxpayers keep throwing tens of millions of pounds to US arms companies, something as obscene as it is pointless.

In his 17 December Mail on Sunday column, Peter Hitchens wrote:

"At last it is becoming possible to say relatively sane things about Ukraine. After Russia's stupid and lawless invasion, many people reacted by developing a strange admiration for Ukraine. But it is in fact a corrupt, ill-governed and increasingly unfree country, not all that different from Russia in many ways. This enthusiasm prevented them from thinking, and so millions in the West placed huge hopes in Ukraine's offensive against entrenched Russian positions during the summer. I kept my mouth shut because apparently impossible things can sometimes happen, but it seemed to me more likely that the attack would stall. It has duly done so."

Hitchens goes on to add:

"The general refusal to admit that this was so has cost vast numbers of young men's lives on both sides. Many, do not forget, have also been permanently maimed or disfigured, perhaps the worst such aftermath since the horrors of the First World War."

Lacking both an independent security or an independent foreign policy, the UK is unlikely to act upon such lessons wrought by experience, until Washington decides for us. With US Republicans underwhelmed by the war in Ukraine, and Trump the Presidential front runner, that decision could come quicker than many realise.

Way back in 1971, the then US serviceman, later Democrat politician, John Kerry, famously asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee how you could ask a man to be the last man who dies in Vietman?The last man to die in the Ukraine conflict is perhaps in the Russian or Ukrainian trenches as we speak, or waiting to celebrate New Year in Kiev or St Petersburg.

Hitchens finishes his article with a poignant question 'And what have we gained by these deaths, exactly?'

On Iran, The Hijab and Freedom of Choice

My 22 September Talk TV interview with Peter Cardwell is available to watch, here, and below.

The concert for Bangladesh 1971

Part of my summer reading was a short book by Abu Sayed and Priyajit Debsarkar on the 1971 concert for Banglagesh, one of a series of momentous events in the period which saw east Pakistan break away from West Pakistan, in a bloody conflict marked by outrageous crimes on the part of the Pakistani military and its supporters, to become the independent nation of Bangladesh.

"The concert for Bangladesh: United friends of Bangladesh" is a 112 page work which first appeared in Bangla last year, followed by an English translation in 2023. It is beautifully produced with a colour cover, and excellent quality black and white photographs throughout. This is history poorly known to British readers, and is all the more valuable for that. Some of the baddies however, are all too familiar - the Chinese government and Henry Kissinger for example, had few concerns about Pakistani atrocities, as they sought a balance of power in the region which weakened India.

This work will also be of interest to Beatles completists motivated to buy anything and everything with George Harrison (and indeed Ravi Shankar) on the front cover. As for the Madison Square garden concert, the concept of cultural diplomacy is now one that is very familiar - less so in 1971. As Sayed and Debsarkar record, by 1985 some $12 million had been raised for Bangladesh - the impact on later interventions, such as Live Aid and Ethiopia, is clear.

Gripes? The text needed a tighter spell and grammar check, and as yet, the book does not appear to be available on some of the main online book sales sites?

Looking Critically at the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP)

Back in January I contributed to a Policy Exchange report on police staff associations.

Blurred Lines: Police staff networks politics or policing? has a marvelous front cover, and a small section on the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) which I was keen to write as it may be the first critical examination of this grouping.

You can download the full report from the Policy Exchange website here.

I attach as a pdf, below, my section on NAMP, which focuses on their interventions on the language of counter-terrorism, and their associations.

Download Case Study NAMP p 24-27

A Britain without coal?

The picture below is from the Isle of Wight Steam railway. I took it during a visit to the railway sheds earlier this week.

For pretty obvious reasons, heritage railways rely on coal, as that is what steam trains used. The Isle of Wight Steam railway long had a choice, if it wishes to continue operating, between using coal from this country, or using imported stocks from overseas. If the UK completely abolishes any coal production, the only option is to import coal, bringing it thousands of miles by sea, and likely from countries with lower environmental and labour standards than ours.

The examples given here are Kazakhstan or Colombia.

Britain clearly needs coal mines - for energy independence, for heritage facilities like this, and as a reserve fuel whilst other alternatives are developed. The noise of campaign groups like Just Stop Oil should not drown this reality out.

The CONTEST review: Incels, LASIT – and the changing threat from Islamists and the far right

This week saw the government announce its update to the UK's counter-terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST. It is from CONTEST that we get the 4 Ps of Protect, Prepare, Pursue and Prevent - the later of course being the bit anyone has ever heard of!

Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced the review on Tuesday at Westminster Hall, and the strategy itself has been published online here.

Yesterday I had a short piece published on Conservative Home analysing the review and offering some broader comment on counter-terrorism. For all the froth and fuss, in reality the two threats that really count are Islamist terrorism, and to a much lesser extent, the far-right. The Home Secretary does, I think, get this. You can read it here, or as a pdf below.

Download The counter-terror review. Incels LASIT - and the changing threat from islamists and the far right Con Home 20 07 2023

No the government should not do God

Earlier this year the Bloom report called for a greater relationship between government and faith. It argued government should recognise faith groups as a force for good. You can read Colin Bloom's report here.

I see things as much more complicated, and in May put pen to paper with the Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, discussing both Bloom's report and the wider dangers it's suggestions signpost. You can view our article on the spiked website here, or as a pdf below.

Download No the government should not do God 09 05 2023

London's housing crisis

This story was the lead in the Evening Standard's business section today - foreigners own £55bn of London homes as buying spree set to climb.

The second paragraph is breathtaking:

"There are 103,425 homes in the capital, including houses and flats, that are currently registered with an overseas correspondence address or an overseas company."

This is nearly 13% of the stock in Westminster, 10% in Kensington and Chelsea, and 2.76% of London's overall stock.

How difficult would it be to limit multiple home ownership in the UK by foreign nationals? Or to prohibit ownership by overseas companies?

Are there any political parties willing to take a stand on these issues?

The phoney war? Radical environmentalists, animal rights activists and direct action

Earlier this year Routledge, who seem to dominate academic output when it comes to the political fringe, published the Routledge Handbook of Non-Violent Extremism.

Edited by Elisa Orofino and William Allchorn, it is a pretty hefty piece of work, with 32 separate articles.

One of them is from me, 'The phoney war,' which charts radical environmental and animal rights activism across five decades. I argue direct action leads to a conversation between protestors and the authorities, and in the case of the animal rights movement, militant activism faded as many of the protestors core demands (such as the abolition of hunting) were won. The present era is significantly different, in that activists propagate arguments of imminent environmental collapse, a position that is to at least some degree accepted, and even echoed, by ruling elites.

What happens though, to this movement, as we get potentially closer to the environmental point of no return (2030?) that they insist is approaching? When does the conversation stop?

Two short comments on the handbook itself. It is a substantial piece of work, covering differing types of extremism, from religious actors to the far-right, far-left and environmentalists. Unfortunately the nature of academic publishing means that for all the sterling work put into the project, few will seriously study it. The cheapest price - £178.18 - guarantees that. Although you can read it via a Kindle for £38. Academic publishing appears content to phase out actual books, and to sell at a high price to universities and similar institutions, leaving out the man and woman in the street. In the long-term that strategy is unsustainable - it is taxation which of course funds the universities. The relevance of academic research, especially in the social sciences, needs to be debated far more than it is. Secondly, I salute the enormous amount of work the editors have put in to tie this project together. It is much appreciated by this author.

Techno Cynics of the World Unite, You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chains

Every time I go on Twitter, there is a thread along the lines of 'this is how AI can work for you' or 'AI will change the world'. I'm sure it will, but will it change the world for the better?

As I see it, there are two problems with technology. The first is that some of the time it does not work. As a society we tend to blame the user rather than the developer or the manufacturer when this happens. One of the greatest miscarriages of justice this century - the Royal Mail subpostmasters scandal - occurred because it was easier to send people to prison for crimes they had not committed, than to admit the computer system, Horizon, was faulty.
The second problem is that technology creates new elites - think Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Microsoft, Google. As we saw in the last US elections, by 2020 America had reached the stage whereby Facebook and Twitter considered themselves bigger than the President of the United States. Indeed as Niall Ferguson wrote in a masterful article for the Spectator in 2017, the battle between tech and Trump was one for the ages. Having won the first fight, Trump was to be decisively beaten in the second.

The power of Big Tech also reproduces itself, in more minor but irritating ways, at the local level. When I studied at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in the late 1980s, lecturers started on the hour, and you took handwritten notes. By the time I was lecturing myself a quarter of a century later, arrangements were in the style illustrated by Prof Stuart Wilks-Heeg:

And remember, these are all labour saving devices being used!

With this tech comes the rise of IT departments who replicate power in a distinct way. Staff at the University of Leicester, where I taught for a decade, were required to change their IT passwords every 90 days for security purposes. Students did not. It was no coincidence that students were paying lots of money to be at the university, whilst hourly paid lecturers like myself were employees expected to do as they were told.
One year the IT department had the bright idea of moving some staff to a new email system in exam marking week. This backfired spectacularly, and I had no access to the system for 36 hours. As an early career academic on a fixed term contract, if I was late doing my marking, the chances of me getting further contracts were zero. When I asked the IT department why they did not wait until the summer holidays to make such a major change, I was firmly put in my place; 'We have to be ready for new students coming from August'. In the new academic hierarchy, the IT department's convenience sat higher than those they provided a service too.

Forgive me therefore if I do not feel Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to liberate us for the better. Indeed, the most logical response appears to be to draw the curtains, carry on as before, using technology we are comfortable with and ignoring that which is too much trouble. And to always push back whenever change is imposed upon us.

A fund exists for those effected by the Horizon scandal, to allow subpostmasters to rebuild their lives. Donations can be made here.

How the Abedi brothers slipped through the net

Earlier this month I wrote a short piece for spiked on the third and final part of the Manchester Arena inquiry.

It details some of the sorry revelations to emerge, and highlights the reluctance of sections of the British state to really get into the weeds and the dirt when it comes to Islamist extremism.

You can read the article online here, and a pdf can be viewed below.

Download How the Abedi brothers slipped through the next spiked 09 03 2023

Two interventions on the independent review of Prevent

I neglected to post on her two articles I had published last month, discussing the long overdue independent review of Prevent, by William Shawcross.

For Con Home I asked whether anything will really be different this time - an attitude which rather percolates the response to many government initiatives, including the approach to immigration. You can read the article online here, and download a pdf below.

Download The Prevent Scheme will it be different this time Conservative Home 16 02 2023

The run up to last months Prevent review saw a series of leaks and counter leaks. For the Telegraph I asked whether the government would allow the various bureaucrats and civil servants control, or whether it would see the Prevent review process through to the end. Time will tell. The article is on the Telegraph website here. The pdf is below.

Download The Tories cant let naive bureaucrats take back control of counter terror strategy Telegraph 08 02 2023

The Trojan Horse Affair: A Documentary Record

Last month I was co-author, along with my colleague Damon Perry, of a report into the Trojan Horse Affair in Birmingham Schools.

You can read The Trojan Horse Affair: A Documentary Record online here. A pdf of the report can also be downloaded below.

Download The Trojan Horse Affair A Documentary Record

Qatar: Two Contributions to Debate

During November we saw the opening of a World Cup that, for the first time in the modern history of football, was not greeted with universal enthusiasm by supporters. Why? The host, and the methods used to win the hosting of the tournament.

I was involved in two contributions which attempted to provide a little more background to Qatar, and in particular Britain's relationship with it. The first was supplying some additional information, along with Dr Damon Perry, to a report by Sir John Jenkins for Policy Exchange. A pdf is below.

Secondly, I wrote a short piece for the Conservative Home which argued that in our dealings with Qatar, the UK's social cohesion must come first. Again, a pdf is below.

Download Qatar-Friend-or-Frenemy 2022

Download Its time that British elites had a reality check about our relationship with Qatar Con Home 23 11 2022

The Just Stop Oil Protests: Some analysis

October saw a series of protests across London and the south east, by the Just Stop Oil organisation.

Who are they, what do they seek to achieve, and why do they get away with things other political campaigns, do not?

I am one of three authors of a report by Policy Exchange which seeks to answer those questions. You may read the report online, or download a pdf, here.

A pdf of the report can also be viewed on the link below.

Download The-‘Just-Stop-Oil-protests

The Personal Is Perhaps Not Political

A couple of years after everyone else, I have just finished reading 'The Madness of crowds: Gender, Race and Identity' by Douglas Murray.

It is very good, indeed the only one of his books which has missed the mark is probably the one no one talks about now - the 2006 text 'Neoconservatism: Why we need it'. The truth of course is that we didn't!

In the conclusion to the Madness of Crowds, Murray writes beautifully of the effort people put into politics, and how identity politics in particular becomes all-consuming. It is worth quoting in full:

But of all the ways in which people can find meaning in their lives, politics - let alone politics on such a scale - is one of the unhappiest. Politics may be an important aspect of our lives, but as a source of personal meaning it is disastrous. Not just because the ambitions it strives after nearly always go unachieved, but because finding purpose in politics laces politics with a passion - including rage - that perverts the whole enterprise.

For anyone who has ever been involved in, or observed a political split within an organisation, these words hit home:

If two people are in disagreement about something important, they may disagree as amicably as they like if it is just a matter of getting to the truth or the most amenable option. But if one party finds their whole purpose in life to reside in some aspect of that disagreement, then the chances of amicability fade fast and the likelihood of reaching any truth recedes.

The quotes are on p.255-56 of the 2020 paperback edition.

Research Note: The Lady of Heaven Protests

The protests against The Lady of Heaven movie have ended in a complete victory for the protestors.

England and Wales abolished laws against blasphemy under the last Labour government in 2008. As at Batley Grammar School in 2021 however, it appears possible for Islamist protestors to enforce blasphemy codes by taking to the streets.

This research note, published yesterday by Policy Exchange, considers events this month, and traces the opposition to The Lady of Heaven movie back to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

You can read the research note online here, and download a pdf below.

Download ‘The-Lady-of-Heaven Research note 20 06 2022

Extremism review must take a tough stance on Islamism

My take on the Shawcross review on Prevent, currently sitting in the Home Secretary's in tray.

Published in the Times on Tuesday 17 May.

You can view a pdf of the article below.

Download Extremism review must take a tough stance on Islamism 17 05 2022

Why is Extinction Rebellion protesting against gender-critical feminists?

Yesterday spiked were good enough to publish an article I wrote on the Bristol Extinction Rebellion FB page calling a protest against a feminist meeting at Bristol University.

A link to the article on the spiked website is here. A pdf of the piece may be read below.

Download Why is Extinction Rebellion protesting against gender-critical feminists_ - spiked 08 05 2022

Delegitimising Counter-Terrorism: The activist campaign to demonise Prevent

Last month I was one of three authors of a new report for Policy Exchange, looking at the Islamist campaign against the prevent policy.

You can find a link to the report here. And download a pdf of the report below.

Download Delegitimising-Counter-Terrorism 2022

Anti-Zionism Coordination Committee and Jeremy Corbyn MP

This is a short piece for the Understanding Islamism project of the think tank Policy Exchange.

It considers the advertised appearance of Jeremy Corbyn MP at an anti-Zionist event. Mr Corbyn did not however, join the proceedings. The controversy was covered in the Daily Mail.

A link to the article can be read here, and a pdf of the article, below.

Download Anti Zionism Coordination (AZC) Annual Conference and Jeremy Corbyn MP - Policy Exchange 25 02 2022

UK Islamist responses to the proscription of Hamas

This is a short article, for the Understanding Islamism project of the website Policy Exchange.

It considers the responses of British Islamists to the complete proscription of the Islamist group Hamas - previously only its military wing had been illegal in the United Kingdom.

You can download a pdf of the article below, and read it online here.

Download UK Islamist reactions to the proscription of Hamas as an international terrorist group - Policy Exchange 16 01 2022

2021 in an image

The Winter Solstice is here (the longest day) and it seems appropriate to consider the year, what we have done and what we have not done.

If I had to summarise 2021 in a single image, it is below:

Network of Networks: The Muslim Brotherhood in Europe

This week the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European parliament published the report on the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe that I have worked on with the Italian researcher Tommaso Virgili.

You can see the report launch, and download a copy of the report, on the ECR website here.

A pdf of the report can be found below.

Download Network of Networks MuslimBrotherhood in Europe Stott Virgili 2021

Turkey expands its religious influence

As Saudi Arabia increasingly looks to move away from influencing the growth of Islam in the west, Turkey is a more important player than ever.

This article, for Policy Exchange's Understanding Islamism project, seeks to explain the influence of the Diyanet, Turkey's Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Read it online here, and as a pdf below.

Download Turkeys Ministry of Religious Affairs An increasingly important player at home and abroad 19 10 2021

14 Questions following the killing of David Amess MP

I wrote the following for the Policy Exchange website earlier this month.

You can read the text here, and as a pdf below.

Download 14 questions for ministers and police emerging from the killing of Sir David Amess MP 19 10 2021

British connections of banned French charity BarakaCity revealed

This article, for Policy Exchange, examines the French NGO BarakaCity.

Proscribed for extremism in its home country, its CEO Idriss Sihamedi, has publicly sought asylum in Turkey. However it has for several years been active in this country, and is currently seeking to expand its operations in Britain, an issue that should raise concerns.

There is a link to the article here, and a pdf below:

Download British connections of banned French Islamic charity BarakaCity revealed

Environmentalist disruption shifts from the West End to the M25

As the protests of Extinction Rebellion have become increasingly staid, it is perhaps no surprise Insulate Britain have opted for a tactic of far greater disruption.

However, those key workers who have kept the country going during the pandemic, will struggle to recognise either the world of the environmentalists, or one where the police stand by as motorways are blocked. My thought on these events can be read on the on the Policy Exchange website here.

The article can also be downloaded as a pdf below:

Download Environmentalist disruption shifts from the west end to the M25 17 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

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."

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

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.