The Shoah and the Righteous Muslims
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. It is a day that honours our pledge to never forget. And so we don’t. But it is also a time for remembrance and learning.
In Britain anti-Semitism has been on the rise for some time. This has been driven by prolific ignorance and mendacity, predicated on libels levied against the Jewish people for centuries.
And it is also a time of huge anti-Muslim sentiment. Even on the Left we’ve seen idiots equating Muslims or proxy groups with terrorists/ predatory paedophiles/ whatever they fancy that day. As the son of Muslims I genuinely feel more worried about their safety than ever before.
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Three new year’s resolutions for Labour
The Labour Party is in a remarkably positive mood as we enter 2011 despite having lost a General Election in May. Polling data, fickle though it can be, indicates that the Coalition are performing poorly enough for Labour to have captured a hefty chunk of voter intention. Enough to, theoretically, win an election held right now against our struggling opponents.
But that will change. The Liberal Democrats are at such a nadir in public opinion that anything short of surreptitious photographs of an illegal dogfighting ring in Cowley Street will be seen as positive as the media tries to find a narrative for the next year.
So it’s time for Labour to consider its 2011. What do we need from Ed and the Party?
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How we’re ending the law to bring foreign criminals to justice
Last year the Israeli politicians Tzipi Livni MK was advised by her government not to visit Britain as she was at risk of being arrested on suspicion of involvement in war crimes. An experienced magistrate, with expertise in international law, had issued a warrant to detain Ms Livni after being persuaded by a private applicant that she had a case to answer.
Israel condemned Britain in strong terms and politicians of all stripes opined that our ability to conduct diplomacy had been impaired. None of this was true.
Tzipi Livni was here to fundraise, and had she been here for diplomacy she would have been immune to arrest. Now the Coalition is delivering for them.
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How the Daily Mail is using cancer drugs to attack the NHS
The Daily Mail today fulminates to its addled readership “Nice blasted for denying cancer patients lifeline after snubbing Avastin deal”.
On the surface, this seems terrible.
But, as with the seemingly endless slew of anti-NICE stories, there is a deeper agenda here to undermine the NHS.
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Why Angela Merkel is wrong about ‘multiculturalism’
In Germany, Angela Merkel has stated that multiculturalism has “failed, utterly failed”. That the idea of people from different backgrounds living happily side by side does not work.
Further, that it is for immigrants to integrate and, by implication, not for the state that they live in to either accommodate or provide succour and encouragement.
This comes against the backdrop of rising racial tensions in Germany, a country with 3 million Muslims and senior officials publishing books accusing Muslims of lowering German intelligence.
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What qualities will a new Labour leader need?
Blairism’s greatest triumph was shifting the centre ground to the left.
In the last election Cameron competed with Clegg and Brown to argue who was the most reverent protector of the NHS. The language of the Coalition centres on “progressivism”. Thatcher did not feel the same kind of need to couch her reforms in the language of the Left.
We’d never have seen her cycling to work and stressing her environmentalism or play down her support for elitist institutions.
The challenge for Labour is to provide the most authentic voice on the values now seen as most important.
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Using Seph Brown to smear Ed Miliband
Recently, virulently right-wing blogs and magazines have been aflutter over a purported ‘aide’ to Ed Miliband, one Seph Brown, who they claim holds extreme views. The evidence to support their claims is spurious in each case. What we are also seeing here is a vicious attack on Ed Miliband through the callous exploitation of a young man and his future.
The discredited allegations relate to his time at university when he supposedly made remarks about having “shot down [a] Zionist” in a debate.
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Labour must pledge to heal the sickness at the heart of our economy
I once worked at the bank Merrill Lynch. During the tech-boom, one of Merrill’s analysts, Henry Blodget, an expert on technology companies, would write equity research – essentially buy or sell recommendations – that the bank’s stockbrokers would use to recommend securities to their clients.
However, while he was publishing reports saying that certain securities were instant buys, he was also sending internal emails ridiculing what “dogs” they really were. Meanwhile, there was pressure from the retail banking side, which invariably wants to capture cash deposits and provide servces to businesses for large fees.
I saw this often during my time in the City.
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The coalition’s plan now is to dismantle the NHS
The Coalition, now in its most confident phase, is starting the process of changing the fabric of Britain to reflect its shared beliefs.
This morning a close friend, chair of a Northern Primary Care Trust, contacted me for help with an article he was writing on the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley’s, plans to shift “power” to GPs.
My friend, a former GP with 30 years experience, was flummoxed by the decision to ask primary care clinicians to become the key actors in the NHS’s economic and disease management alongside their current role as patient need managers.
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The coming war on affordable housing
Vincent Moss at The Sunday Mirror has revealed government plans to scrap rules insisting that new housing estates are built with a minimum density of homes and that at least 25% of homes are affordable.
This would wreck communities across Britain.
As a resident of Hammersmith this came as a particularly horrifying surprise. Cameron has been closely tracking the radical Conservative initiatives being tried out in their flagship London council, Hammersmith & Fulham.
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» Why Quantitative Easing doesn’t make common sense
» Barclays was also bailed out – Diamond doesn’t deserve a bonus
» Ten myths about private rented housing
» Even on the left, morality has its limits
» The NHS bill could be a Waterloo moment for the govt
» Ken Livingstone and gay rights – it just isn’t an issue
» Abu Qatada deportation: what about our principles?
» New study shows a Robinhood tax would boost growth
» In defence of Sky News’ re-Tweeting ban
» Another reason to continue banker bashing
» An attack on the wind industry is an attack on UK jobs
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