The Bewilderness

Cleaning the augean mosques

Policy Exchange has undertaken another valuable survey of the hateful agitprop distributed in mosques.

Researchers for the centre-Right think tank Policy Exchange claims it found the literature in a quarter of the 100 mosques and Islamic institutions they visited.

Many of the publications allegedly called on British Muslims to segregate themselves from non-Muslims and for unbelievers to be treated as second-class citizens wherever possible.

The literature also allegedly contained repeated calls for gays to be thrown from mountains and tall buildings and for women to be subjugated.

The clear links between indoctrination, identity and terrorist actions are far clearer than the bleats about anomie, alienation and poverty latched on to by the Let to obscure the role of ideas. We had the usual responses from self-designated spokesmen alleging that a mystical majority would never read this literature, although mosques have never taken steps to stop the sale of this literature.

Dr Yunes Teinaz, of the London Central Mosque, said: "Any book or literature like this found in the mosque will reflect the views of the author and not at all the view of the mosque." He added that the bookshop in the mosque was not run by the mosque, but was a franchise.

Iqbal Sacranie, a former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, criticised the report. He said: "The majority of Muslims will totally dismiss this because it is written by the Policy Exchange, who have an agenda to denigrate the mainstream of Islam in this country.

"If there is any material which falls foul of the law, then the law should take its course. We cannot accept messages of hate - there is zero tolerance on that. But it is irresponsible to target religious texts and take them out of context. These texts can be found not just in mosques but in ordinary bookshops - the report overlooks that."

The idea ought to be that you sort out the agitprop in your own mosque before pointing at other establishments. The problem is that our government has ever taken the necessary steps to break this ideological circle, and thus more generations of radicalised Muslims are raised.

Keeping the bloodline pure

One of the more attractive elements of the Libertarian Alliance conferences is the enjoyable lunches, often served by attractive totty from Eastern Europe. After second-guessing the blackmailed  royal, our conversation veered  towards the compulsory testing of genetic material  on the part of individuals.

After all, they are the Royal Family and if we are to be subjects, I do want to be sure that they are descended from the Queen. Without indulging in tittle-tattle on the unorthodox descent of facial features in the Windsor opera, we do have a right to ensure that the line remains pure. My own take was that this would involve a minor amendment to the Act of Settlement, alongside the abolition of the papist prohibition.

This does beg the question of how far back we should go if the present line proves to be a collection of interlopers and carpetbaggers descended from a priapic Keeper of the Privy Purse. My personal preference is for Alfred and a clear line of descent from Wessex and the Heptarchy. I would go back to Cunobelin if I could. Others prefer the continental certainties of the Normans.

The demand that the heir to the throne is a lineal descendant of their father or mother is a natural anxiety for subjects.

A progressive vision

I attended the annual Libertarian Alliance conference in London this weekend and refreshed my sometime hazy adherence to the faith, open-ended and open-minded of course. There was interesting red meat to devour as always, but my aim is to discuss the timely appearance of Progressive Vision.

They are still not high enough on Google as yet. I was sidetracked by some Idaho outfit and a loathsome vision that portrayed Fabian and Toynbee before my  At seven on the Google list comes in the new think-tank run by Shane Frith and Mark Littlewood. Not high enough as yet, since they MUST aim to displace the Miliband conference advocating social injustice and continual illiteracy.

The website is worthy and wordy, and a little too green around the gills for my tastes. Yet, they are not trying to persuade nutters like me. We would just condemn to the fringe, the word that only denotes quality in Edinburgh. They are already getting hits in the media and campaigning on a wide range of fronts where a classical liberal voice is wanting in the United Kingdom.

This welcome alliance of a think-tank with links to both the Liberal Democrats and the Tories warms a faint  heart and  makes me look forward to the day when we have crushed the socialist tribe of Labour. One to keep an eye on.

Labour disses the english (again)

Labour's responses are tired. Listen to Harriet Harman on the Tory idea of 'English votes for English MPs':

Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader, told the BBC that the Government would not support plans that threatened the UK and that what people really wanted was more “regional accountability”. She added: “I think this is a very, very dangerous line of argument that the Conservatives are pushing. They used to be the Conservative and Unionist Party and now they are making proposals which wouldn’t help strengthen regional accountability in England but would actually, I think, threaten the Union.”

Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, accused the Tories of “playing fast and loose” with the constitution. “I think it is a recognition by the Conservatives that they are effectively now an English party,” she told Sky News.

The more that Scotland allows free benefits that are paid for by the English, the less that people will support the Union. It was the actions of the Labour party that created the constitutional imbalances this popular proposal is designed to address. Taking into account the rise of an English consciousness, nothing that Harriet Harman or Ruth Kelly state will bridge that perceived injustice.

Scotiish justice is taken for a ride

The Telegraph relates a story of a man who supposedly had sex with a bicycle. The newspaper does not tell us how this was achieved or what gratification was received from this implement. Yet, the circumstances are a telling reminder of Gordon Blair's Britain.

The subject admitted to sexual breach of the peace for this act. Yet, he did not commence, continue or finish this act in public. The act took place behind closed doors in his room where he was disturbed by two hostel workers who used a master key to open up his room, after knocking. For all we know he may have been practicing the moves to a rap video?

As a consequence of undertaking simulated sex with a bicycle in the privacy of his own room, the guilty party has now been placed on the sexual offenders register.

What the hell is going on here and why are Scottish courts wasting taxpayers money for activity that is committed on one's own? Does this mean that every time one gets disturbed by a hotel cleaner, that is a breach of the peace?

Still, if you get caught naked in your room by a cleaner, they can pretend to have seen you doing something naughty with the fridge, and that is equivalent to rape or kiddiefiddling. Cretins!

Veracity, Experience and Statistics

Jeff Randall diagnoses Gordon Brown's difficulties: telling porkies.

Whether it's on crime, education, taxation, truancy, health, child poverty, public finances, economic growth rates, domestic elections, the European treaty (aka constitution) or the most obscene distortion of all, weapons of mass destruction, almost nothing we are told seems to bear scrutiny.

When examined closely, time and again, there are omissions and distortions, fudge and mudge. Veracity exists, but only as a theoretical concept – nowhere more so than in the emotionally charged debate on immigration.

Yesterday's Today programme provided another striking example of how forces of fantasy are twisting the facts. Figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest that the population of Slough is decreasing. For those who live in this immigration hot-spot, that's an incomprehensible mistake.

No-one can believe them, their policies or their 'results'. That is why the Tories still have a lead over Labour in the polls.

Some historical signposts

The twenty-first century is looming. This is not the statement of a man who missed the last seven years. Eyes check the news and see the tectonic plates that secured the West's last hurrah in the latter half of the twentieth century rapidly misaligning and finding new faultlines. One of the key trends is the emergence of geopolitics and the decline of soft power. The Europeans are indeed condemned to fight the last war, perhaps the Last War.

We see this in the theoretical jostling for territory in the Antarctic; theoretical as the  1959 Antarctic Treaty prohibits any exploitation of the resources, for now.

Chile plans to reopen a naval base in Antarctica, placing it on a potential collision course with Britain.

The dilapidated Arturo Prat base on Greenwich Island, which was closed five years ago in a budget cutback, will be reopened early next year, the Chilean government has said. Senator Roberto Muñoz Barra said that the plan had the backing of all his country's armed forces.

The news comes a week after Britain announced plans to extend its own claims on the icy continent by a further 386,000 sq miles.

More importantly, China has surpassed the United States and Germany to become the largest exporter of manufactured goods on Earth, accounting for 8% of all trade. China leapfrogged both economic powers in 2007. The potential seeds are now set for political actions trapping recession and instigating depression. Central bank failures have been evident in the last few months as they seem unwilling to curb asset price spirals, pumping liquidity to avoid downturns and underpinning economic growth with moral hazard. Protectionist measures are mooted to limit the effect of cheap Chinese goods upon domestic economies. The commodity price of that key product, oil, heads north.

Say 1931, and we would note the similar ingredients: a discordant  United States economy  competing fiercely with the established  industrial powers, protectionist powers as all countries moved towards autarky and abashed central banking structures that did not have the tools to deal with a savage downturn.

History is not repeating itself and our current system holds a new factor: the political risk of a war  choking the West.  Model  Iran blocking the Straits of Hormuz, even for a short while, and the economic impact is considerable, as confidence may collapse in the face of vulnerabilities that appeasement did not offset.

We are beginning to enter rapids.

Why did we worship chalk?

There is an ironic twist to the current fate of Silbury Hill, the largest neolithic man-made structure in Europe. Two centuries of archaelogical intervention have undermined the hill which needs to be shored up.

Emergency work has begun to save Europe's largest prehistoric man-made construction from collapse.

Tunnels built into the side of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire are to be filled with hundreds of tons of chalk to preserve the mysterious Neolithic monument for future generations.

The 4,400-year-old mound, which is older than Stonehenge, has been weakened by the excavations of archaeologists over many centuries.

Engineers working on the conservation project have reached the centre of the mound through a route dug in 1968 by a team led by Prof Richard Atkinson.

They hope to complete the £1 million project by Christmas. Jim Leary, an archaeologist for English Heritage, the custodians of the site, said last night: "This is a unique project. Chalk has never been used to shore up a monument in this way before.

''We plan to fill the voids either manually or by crushing the chalk into a powder and blowing it in mechanically."

Imagine the archaeologists of millennia hence studying Silbury Hill. Not only do they have to contend with the long gap between activities but they cannot fathom the religious activities that gradually undermined the Hill and then shored it up with chalk. Why did we worship chalk?

The credit crunch that never ends

One analyst calls this the summer that will never end. All view this as the continuation of debt emergence, against the backdrop of short-term turmoil and economic downturn.

Libor spreads in Europe's interbank market jumped to 64 basis points, roughly the level that set off the credit crisis last summer and prompted a liquidity rescue by the European Central Bank. The iTraxx Crossover index that measures spreads on corporate bonds has jumped 100 basis since last week to 364 yesterday.

"It's the summer that won't end," said Peter Berezin, a strategist at Goldman Sachs.

He said investors were shaken by last week's drop in US home-builder sentiment to an all-time low and by fresh falls in the ABX index for sub-prime debt. "We continue to learn that it pays to respect the sell-offs in ABX and housing-related credit. This has elements of the February and August sell-offs, where credit markets signalled problems," he said.

This is the volatile activity against which warning signals about the British economy are winking amber. More and more economists are questioning the foundations of the British economy, pointing to the high debt burden, public sector splurge, poor infrastructure and low skills.

An economic downturn may be further exacerbated by inflation creeping in. Food prices have increased and families are paying more for staples: a development that hits the poor worse:

Economists have been warning for some time that the crisis in some key commodity markets – especially the dairy market – would eventually hit shoppers in the UK. David Lang, a food analyst at Investec, said: "It's only starting to filter through to consumers now. But it will go on for some months to come. Prices will have to be raised again."

Sean Carter, at the Rural Shops Alliance, said: "Supermarkets keep their prices very sharp on certain items, and claim there is a continual price war going on. But, in actual fact, their profit margins never seem to fall. You can be sure that if they cut the prices on some items, they are increasing prices on other items."

The gloss is beginning to come off Brown's custodianship of the economy. It is clear that he did not tackle any longterm problems and relied on state spending to mask this lack of policy.

The oath-breaker faces the commons

The Prime Minister will not allow the reform treaty to fail. There will be no free vote in Parliament on the treaty and Labour MPs will be whipped into line. To sugar the pill, Brown promises greater powers in the future. MPs will have to permit any further extension of qualified majority voting and the government will oppose any further institutional changes by treaty. These are hollow promises as further changes are enshrined in the treaty structure, avoiding the need to put further integration to national legislatures.

He said the Government was today publishing its agenda for what should now the be the EU’s priorities - including reforming the EU budget, combating terrorism and a fresh commitment to free trade.

In reply Mr Cameron demanded whether Mr Brown would be offering Labour MPs a free vote on a vote on whether to allow a referendum. He said: “You have absolutely no democratic mandate to sign this treaty without a referendum.

“If you break your trust with the British people, they will rightly say how can we every trust you on anything else again?”

He attacked the scope of the so-called “red lines”, warning they did not include the EU President, the single legal personality, the vetoes, or the ratchet clause.

“So much for the red lines,” Mr Cameron declared, adding: “Even if they were totally robust and watertight, that would not affect the case for a referendum because they are the same red lines that your predecessor set out for the constitution.”

Brown was taunted in Parliament but he is determined not to lose this vote. The redlines may be emphasised but they will not stand up to scrutiny. Tribal restiveness may have stalled as Brown flim-flams on his promises yet the next battle rests in the Commons: as one gets the indications of an oppositional core, disorganised yet ashamed that another promise was broken.