tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61480422024-02-28T09:52:58.592+00:00Francis Bennion's British BlogA blog operated by Francis Bennion in conjunction with his website www.francisbennion.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1140179143876318272006-02-17T12:15:00.000+00:002006-02-20T13:40:31.026+00:002006.005 Polly Toynbee and PROn 20 January 2006 I emailed the following to Polly Toynbee about her Guardian column-You say today that the Social Democratic Party (which I joined at the outset) ‘was crushed by the first-past-the post system, without a fair share of seats’. Please note that the italicised words are untrue, as I could show at length if you wish. Furthermore PR inevitably produces coalitions, where no elector Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1138018903938593922006-01-23T12:08:00.000+00:002006-01-23T12:31:06.110+00:002006.002 Children deprived of contact with adultsIn an article in the Guardian (26 November 2005) titled ‘We have a responsibility to look out for all children – not just our own’ Jenni Russell said man cannot now communicate in any way with a strange child, even if it is in distress, for fear of being mistaken for a paedophile. She adds: ‘This is a historically unprecedented way for children to be brought up – leaving the job exclusively to Geoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07362574349700633799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1124978554940901542005-08-25T13:49:00.000+00:002006-01-23T12:29:27.126+00:002005.052 Treachery of the IntelligentsiaIn previous blogs (see FBBB51 and FBBB077) I attacked the movement described in Julien Benda’s 1927 book La Trahison des Clercs (translated by Richard Aldington as The Betrayal of [it should be ‘by’] the Intellectuals), which attacked treachery by European intelligentsia towards the values in which they were reared. It is otherwise known as fouling one’s own nest. In particular the intellectual Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1121075882388403152005-07-11T09:32:00.000+00:002006-01-23T12:28:42.016+00:002005.041 Brave Muslim voicesAccording to the Sunday Telegraph (10 July 2005) Tariq Al-Humayd, editor of Al-Sharq Al Awsat, a leading Arab newspaper, has attacked ordinary Muslims in Britain for funding terrorists. He said that collections are frequently held in Arab areas of London for jihadi causes disguised as charities. He wrote-‘In London we have seen, and are seeing, the money being collected in the streets, and the Geoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07362574349700633799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1118318053989506682005-07-08T10:30:00.000+00:002005-07-11T10:01:24.873+00:002005.039 London bombed - And this is why they did itWhile a vestige of freedom of speech remains in Britain before the Government forces through its religious hatred Bill, I want to speak out about the Islamic origins of the bomb attack on London which occurred on 7 July 2005, coinciding with the opening of the G8 Summit. As I write on the day following that event it is reported that 52 people were killed and 700 injured in the attack. No doubt Geoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07362574349700633799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1120815171776413062005-06-09T10:40:00.000+00:002005-07-08T09:49:10.253+00:002005.035 An alternative European Treaty?On 6 June 2005 the BBC Radio Four Today programme came up with another of its rather absurd stunts. It published the following-We’ve asked Conservative MP David Heathcoat Amory to come up with an alternative text. Mr Heathcoat Amory was a British representative on the convention on the future of Europe, which drew up the constitution.He opposed the final version and helped produce a minority Geoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07362574349700633799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1118135139276279292005-06-07T09:04:00.000+00:002005-07-08T09:37:02.150+00:002005.033 Hard News and Soft News on TodayI used to think of the BBC as Auntie, and treat her with affectionate respect. Then Mr James Naughtie said on the Today programme just before the 2005 general election the he hoped ‘we’ would win (meaning the Blairites). This confirmed me in the view that BBC now stands for Blairite Broadcasting Corporation. Hence the rather abrupt terms in which I sent a message to the Today programme on 26 May Geoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07362574349700633799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1110199219160990632005-03-07T12:38:00.000+00:002005-06-08T09:19:07.376+00:002005.011Paul Foot goes down for the third timeThat right-wing softy Douglas Hurd (who scarcely deserves the honourable epithet right-wing) made the mistake of reviewing a book by the late Paul Foot in the Sunday Telegraph on 20 February 2005. This is the third time I’ve had a go at Foot since his welcome decease (the others were 2004.013 and 2004.015) . I’d better stop or it will begin to look like necrophilia (necrophobia more like).Hurd Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1108123667603419142005-02-11T12:07:00.000+00:002005-05-06T11:04:57.563+00:002005.006 Brilliant Brat CampChannel Four’s Brat Camp is the best thing currently on British television – for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. It tells us a great deal about what, before we went non-judgmental, used to be called delinquent children. It links to that unfashionable and difficult concept known to the Christian church as original sin. It also links to a news item in The Times for 9 February 2005-A fatherUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1103112841615675182004-12-15T09:28:00.000+00:002005-05-06T11:48:08.160+00:002004.128 Sent to Coventry for saying 'nigger'Football commentator Ron Atkinson, universally known as ‘Big Ron’, was manager of Coventry City football club in 1995-96, a period when they won only 14 matches out of 64. I remembered this when on 13 December 2004 I watched a fascinating programme on BBC One television about how Big Ron has been sent to Coventry for uttering the forbidden word ‘nigger’ when he thought the microphone was switchedGeoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07362574349700633799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1102328601289658382004-12-06T10:16:00.000+00:002005-05-06T11:00:38.813+00:002004.127 Bad manners on the internetThis is about what is called Netiquette, or manners on the Internet. There are different views about this. One guide I found advised the following-To keep messages short, use some common abbreviations:(BTW) means ‘by the way’.A (G) enclosed in brackets indicates grinning.A good one to keep handy in case you’re worried about offending someone is (IMHO) - In My Humble Opinion.One of our favorites Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1100259087325784422004-11-12T11:30:00.000+00:002005-05-06T11:00:05.483+00:002004.126 A lazy accent, lacking in clarityPrivate Eye’s Phil Space has cousins working for every newspaper’s features department. They are on the payroll, and are what I call churners. They are paid to churn out a piece every week, whether they have anything to say or not. Usually they have nothing to say because they have no experience of working life beyond what used to be called Fleet Street.One of these churners is Jane Shilling of Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1100173839018155462004-11-11T11:47:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:59:25.546+00:002004.125 His placard was ordered to be destroyedHe was a sincere believer, though many disagreed with his views. He took seriously the biblical injunction to spread the gospel (meaning ‘good news’). He thought the gospel taught that homosexual practice was sinful. His name was Harry Hammond, and he lived and practised his faith in Bournemouth. Here is a Times news item about him from 25 April 2002-Preacher fined for anti-gay sermonA PREACHER Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1100042136300313392004-11-09T23:06:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:58:47.400+00:002004.124 Are women bishops really good for you?The Dean of Leicester, the Very Rev. Vivienne Faull, has ambitions to be the first woman bishop of the Church of England. She had an article in the Sunday Times for 7 November 2004 headed ‘Women bishops are good for you’. Is this true?I have to say the article made me squirm. Its author came across as self-satisfied, not to say smug. It was also theologically unsound. The Dean says: ‘If the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1099924883927852492004-11-08T14:39:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:58:15.646+00:002004.123 Women don’t understand menCurrently there is a furore because midwives have been officially instructed to ask every pregnant woman they encounter professionally whether, while pregnant, they have suffered physical violence at the hands of their husband or male partner. Apparently there are proportionately many more cases of such abuse on pregnant women than on women who are not pregnant. No one asks why this should be so.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1083583781737382112004-05-03T11:29:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:57:31.753+00:002004.122 A Bishop should be blamelessToday Richard Harries, the Anglican Bishop of Oxford, was interviewed by John Humphrys on the BBC Radio Four Today programme. The Bishop said that the media, in reporting current worldwide Al Queda suicide and other bomb outrages, should not say they are committed by Islamic terrorists. Instead, the Bishop maintained, the media should say they are committed by anti-Western terrorists. The reason?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1083251874226844282004-04-29T15:17:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:56:57.540+00:002004.121 There is really no need to be squeamishI want to talk about a certain kind of journey. If you look at a beautiful youth or maiden, say in a swimming pool, you will see smooth, tender flesh covering an attractive slim body. Let us concentrate on the trunk of such a person, which is divided into the chest or thorax, and the belly or abdomen. The external trunk of one of these young creatures (let’s say it is a youth called Daniel) is Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1082817243840390702004-04-24T14:34:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:56:02.763+00:002004.120 An age-old problemTwo items on the same page of the Times for today [page 47] draw attention to an age-old problem very much troubling us still, the clash between Islam and Christianity. Geoffrey Rowell reminds us that 800 years ago to the month the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul) fell to the forces of the Fourth Crusade, designed like the other three to wrest Christian holy places in Jerusalem and the Holy Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1082563568013018962004-04-21T16:06:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:55:26.620+00:002004.119 Economical with the truthThe third edition of the HMSO official publication MI5 The Security Service has the following to say on Peter Wright’s ‘Wilson Plot’ allegations-In his book Spycatcher, the former Security Service officer Peter Wright claimed that up to 30 members of the Service had plotted to undermine the former Prime Minister Harold Wilson. This allegation was exhaustively investigated and it was concluded, asUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1082456274373965752004-04-20T10:17:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:54:38.033+00:002004.118 John Mortimer: a lawyer who despises his professionI hold every man a debtor to his profession, said the sixteenth-century lawyer and philosopher Francis Bacon. Many people have been rude about the law, not least Charles Dickens. Famously, he made Mr Bumble say the law is an ass, and remarked sourly that the one great principle of English law is to make business for itself. But then Dickens was not a member of the learned profession of the law.WeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1081164247414062582004-04-05T11:24:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:54:01.673+00:002004.117 Putting it into perspectiveIn the hope it might cheer up people who are naturally worried about the current terrorist threat, and as a form of Easter greeting, I reproduce below an item about William Michael Rossetti (WMR), brother of Dante Gabriel Rossetti the painter. It reminds us that throughout history since the invention of gunpowder in AD 850 people have been trying to blow up other people – and often succeeding.WMRUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1081085639043509752004-04-04T13:33:00.000+00:002005-05-06T11:45:44.563+00:002004.116 A new way to treat the delinquent young?On 3 April 2004 Adrian Turner, editor of the weekly Justice of the Peace, wrote a wise editorial headed CRIMINALIZING THE YOUNG. He started by referring to his editorial of the previous week in which he wrote approvingly about ‘lifestyle punishments’ for delinquent youths, such as confiscating their mobile phones. These punishments would not criminalize them, while still hitting where it hurt.Mr Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1081009402529817602004-04-03T16:23:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:52:41.470+00:002004.115 Joy in HeavenOne of our current masters, Mr Trevor Phillips of the Commission for Racial Equality, today decreed that multiculturalism in England has ended and that we are to return to being a monoculture. I rejoiced at this news, as I was taught in Sunday School that there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons (Luke xv 7).In 1989 I wrote an article which Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1080924344530446662004-04-02T16:45:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:51:59.130+00:002004.114 On All Fools DayPoliticians tend to be very bad at justifying their existence to the voters. I was reminded of this when on All Fools Day 2004 I watched the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party Charles Kennedy making of himself what the day rendered appropriate. This distressing exhibition was broadcast on the BBC2 television programme Newsnight, and took place at Chatham before an audience of about thirty Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6148042.post-1080245424854089502004-03-25T20:10:00.000+00:002005-05-06T10:51:18.640+00:002004.113 A canard perpetuatedI hereby make an award for the stupidest journalistic remark of 2004 (so far). The Times has acquired a brand new columnist for its T2 tabloid-sized insert. His name is Robbie Millen, and his first puerile effort appeared today under the heading Proud, passionate and pointless. The last word was certainly appropriate. Judging by the accompanying drawing of Robbie’s head, he is aged about fifteen.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com