Monday, February 16, 2015
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More and more politically correct jargon and restrictions infect our culture
I hope the festivities are not too demanding, if that is possible these days, and that you have fun with your families. As I look back over the year I come to the "unmerry" conclusion that it has been a happy one for political correctness and a sad one for freedom and rational debate. So in a spirit of bah humbug to all who curtail liberty of opinion here is my round-up of what we should be able to say but could not in 2014.
Baroness Jenkin was perfectly in order to refer to "the poor". After all nobody objects when you refer to "the rich". Both terms are descriptive and cannot in themselves be automatically pejorative.
Lord Freud was only making a statement of the obvious in saying that some disabled people could not produce work justifying the minimum wage. Refusing to acknowledge this means refusing to address the problem of how to maximise independence on the part of those who want to work despite disability.
It is absolutely true that there are parts of the country which are flooded with immigrants. When I said this in 2001 I was called a racist and even now when immigration is at last able to be debated there is a resistance to the perfectly accurate use of "flooded" or "swamped".
There is no law against saying you do not believe in the validity of gay marriage but if you do say it you may find yourself deemed unfit to foster or even volunteer for the Red Cross.
It is simple common sense that there is an enormous difference between the experience of a woman who is pounced upon by a stranger and raped and that of one who gets drunk, goes home with a man and then gets into bed with him before shrieking rape the next morning. It is not justifying the crime but recognising her share of responsibility for the circumstances yet Judy Finnigan was reviled for calling a rape "non-violent". It is also inequitable that a man can be falsely accused, named and pilloried while his accuser is protected with anonymity, as the president of the Oxford Union found out. Saying it is time for a level playing field is not betraying women.
The one prediction I can make for 2015 with confidence is that far from rolling back the cancer of suppression the year will almost certainly see it advance even further into the British way of life. Sentences beginning apologetically with, "You're not supposed to say this these days but..." will be heard more often and sound even lamer.
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KOBALChristian Bale and Maira Valverde in Exodus: Gods and Kings is a must-see
I RARELY plan to see films on the big screen but I will make an exception for Exodus: Gods And Kings if only to compare the parting of the Red Sea with Cecil B DeMille's original - then very startling - special effects.
Despite its secular approach the film will bring the story of Moses to a biblically illiterate generation.
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Councils need to show a human side
HERE is a suggestion: instead of talking about "service users" why don't local councils start talking about human beings? In Milton Keynes a pensioner couple who have never claimed benefits are being kept apart at Christmas because, despite doctors' recommendations, social services are not convinced that they should be kept in the same care home without a process of assessment lasting six weeks.
It is, say officials, a procedure applicable to all service users.
Now try substituting the term human beings and see how that reads. Could even Ebenezer Scrooge be so heartless? But do you suppose even a twinge of conscience will interrupt their own family Christmases? Not Pygmalion likely. May their mince pies fall flat, their stuffed turkeys shrivel in their ovens, the brandy fail to light on their figgy puddings and may their stockings be full of tick-box forms.
I would rather clean lavatories for a living than do what they do.
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THE EU has decided that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation. So what else do you call a group of people which fires rockets on civilians, tunnels underground to attack whoever happens to be about and which bases itself in the centre of communities so retaliatory attacks will kill children? An old folks' benevolent club?
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CONGRATULATIONS to our security services and police forces for foiling some intended terror attacks in the past few months. Inevitably when one does slip through their net there will be an outcry, demands for an inquiry and headlines suggesting that the atrocity could have been averted.
We take success too much for granted while working ourselves into a fury over every failure. Yet this could have been a very different country if any of those terror plots had succeeded.
So for a peaceful 2014, thank you MI5, MI6, Special Branch and every vigilant copper.
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I AM not an admirer of the Prime Minister but it is a fact of life that he and George Osborne will not bankrupt the country while Ed Miliband and Ed Balls will and in May we will be faced with a choice between them. That is why troops of Tories are at action stations up and down the country.
For the second time in a few months Theresa May's advisers have caused rifts by briefing against her colleagues
Sadly the officers are yet again brawling in the mess, their eyes on the next leadership election instead of the next general election. For the second time in a few months Theresa May's advisers have caused rifts by briefing against her colleagues. First there was an almighty row between her team and Michael Gove's, resulting in the dismissal of her closest adviser.
Now more heads have rolled among some of her entourage on the candidates' list because this time they appear to have attacked Number 10 itself, briefing that the Home Secretary has lost faith in the competence of the PM's team.
It ill behoves anybody whose department has lost files galore and any semblance of control over immigration to berate the competence of someone else's operation. Readers may remember the difficulties I had getting so much as a reply to a letter I had written to her.
Secondly a leadership candidate who cannot impose on her team standards of loyalty towards even the PM will in turn never have any moral claim to loyalty from others towards her. If any of my aides had briefed against William Hague they would have been booted out before you could say "election" but they would never have done so because they knew what was expected. Clearly some of Mrs May's advisers do not have that knowledge. The only other explanation is the unthinkable one: that she knew and approved of their conduct. However Number 10 should be more careful. The ostensible reason for removing the candidates from the party's list is that they failed to canvass in Rochester and Strood but as civil servants they had no darn business out on the election trail.
Also, Cameron needs to be very certain that he is raining down revenge on the right people because he has a most unfortunate habit of rushing to judgment and has been criticised by more than one real judge for doing so.
So children, stop fighting, eat up your greens and save Britain.
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