BNP Suicide Bomber?

West Midlands Regional organisor Mike Bell has been well and truly caught with his pants down. After years of denying the BNP have any links to nazism and proudly boasting that his family had "a pround history of opposing the Nazis in both world wars" (sic) and of collecting money for the Royal British legion, he was photographed this week at a Neo-Nazi Rock concert in Germany where he was the headline speaker. His reaction on the Stirrer forums was really quite disturbing:

prod, probe, attack, destroy me , just be aware that the preservation of the martyr within me will live on.You will all see me very soon unleash the wrath of gods heil Odin, Heil Thor.I shall go down in flames,remember my name it will be etched into your memories forever.You will be part responsible,an unwanted trophy which you will have to take the credit for.

Now, what does this remind you of?

Bloody Useless State-Head

Tomorrow will be George W Bush's final day as President and this is my tribute. The defining moment of the Bush presidency was of course September 11 2001. I will never forget that after Bush was told a second plane had hit the World Trade Centre, he sat aound for five minutes reading "The Pet Goat" because nobody had told him what he was supposed to be doing.



Conservative leadership at its best.

Support Staff Beware

Bin Laden's driver has been given 66 months for "supporting terrorism". He has already served 60 without trial, and will serve 6 months more before... he continues to be held for being an "enemy combatant". Presumably next at Guantanamo bay, we will have Bin Laden's chiropodist and binman up in the dock, striking blows against al-Qaeda where it hurts most; taking out their support staff.

Meanwhile the four surviving members of the supreme court who voted to effectively overrule the will of the American people in the 2000 election are still free and three are still hold their positions in government, despite their judgement which in my mind verges on treason.

Who are the real enemies of democracy?

Another Declaration of Independence

Europe got its newest nation earlier this week. No, the existence of the People's Republic has not finally been recognised by the UN. Rather Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, ending nearly ten years under the jurisdiction of the UN. The declaration of independence has been backed by most EU countries and the US, while Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania join the Russians in opposing it.

But let's hold on a minute. The US supporting the independence of a predominantly Muslim country from a Christian one? Can this happen in the post 9/11 world? Of course it can; as I pointed out previously, US policy is not anti-Islamic but depends on the situation and the interests in the region the US has. I will not be holding my breath for an Osama Bin Laden video praising the US roll in Kosovo's independence, neither will I be expecting idiots from MPAC to give the US and NATO any credit. It kind of blows there "US is the enemy of Islam" empty rhetoric out of the water".

Kosovo's independence does raise interesting questions however. In the words of one Serbian, how can someone kick you out of your own house?. Should an immigrant community, once settled, be allowed to declare independence from its host community? There is precedent for this of course; Jewish immigration to the Holy Land led to the creation of Israel after the Second World War. It could be argued that America and Australia were among modern nation states founded in a similar way, although these waves of immigration took place without the permission of the natives at the time. How far do we go back? Did the Anglo-Saxons wrong to carve out England over the centuries from the culture of the Celtic Brits? What about before them? And in future, will we see Britain pockmarked by pockets of a new Islamic nation, operating under Sharia Law with the blessing of the Archbishop of Canterbury?

These questions are difficult. I believe immigration is generally a good thing, allowing cultures and ideas to fuse and flourish. I think the problem lies with the concept of the modern nation state, which is all too often based on the restrictive notions of the ethnicity and culture of a certain population (not always the majority) rather than protection of the rights and freedoms of the individual, whose efforts often make a country what it is.

Cloverfield

The Promroiship took a break this weekend to make way for the FA Cup, leaving me with an opportunity to go to the cinema to see Cloverfield, the new film produced by JJ Abrams of Lost/ Alias fame.

The best way to describe the film is Godzilla meets Blair Witch Project starring the Alien's big brother; the events surrounding a monster terrorising Manhatten happens to be captured on film by a group of young people armed with a video camera. As they try to escape the monster and save their friends, they happen to get some astonishing close-ups of the entity and the army's attempts to subdue it.

The film taps into the post 9/11 / 7/7 collective consciousness by exploring what it would be like to be caught up in a city under attack (albeit by a monster rather than Islamist terrorists). As one building collapses, our heroes take shelter in a shop to avoid the dust cloud which consumes the streets, and later on they find themselves walking down subway tunnels in the dark in an attempt to reach safety. I was unsure whether this film was a direct consequence of the aforementioned attacks, and whether it is as yet OK to use these circumstances in an attempt to create a box office hit.

Morality aside however, the fact this film was excellent was marked by the silence of the audience as the final scenes ended and the credits started to roll. I got the sense that the audience would have liked the film to continue a bit longer, being rather short at just under one hour thirty minutes. Or maybe they were just terrified of what would happen on the way home as they entered central Birmingham...

From Brum, With Love

When I was at University one of my Muslim friends joined the Society for Future Husbands of Britney Spears (apparently it was either that or the Taliban). I did not bother as I thought there was no hope of her ever marrying a Brummie of Asian origin.

Shows what I know.

The website is now defunct but given her track record there is surely plenty of hope yet for anyone who decides to marry the schoolgirl-clad songstress one more time.

Does anyone know if Christina Aguilera is still available?

Wheeling Around

Finally! The New Street redevelopment project has been given the go-ahead after the government released the remaining cash. Regular readers will know this is one of my favourite topics (see here, here, here and here). With a new coach station also on the way, the first impression people get of Brum will finally be closer to reality.

Why retire a good strapline? The Sun resurrect the Talibrum headline that they previously used during the plot-to-behead-a-British-Muslim-soldier case. Of course, the fact there is very little substance to the story and that the Black Country is not part of Birmingham will not get in the way of a good headline.

It appears London is slipping behind in the world's largest Ferris Wheel league table. Perhaps they can retain world class city status by building a giant merry-go-round instead?

And finally... in the South it is about race; in the North it is about gender. A detailed analysis of the demographics of the support of Clinton and Obama.

Laptop For Sale

The theft of an MOD Laptop from a car in Birmingham containing the names of 600,000 people who have demonstrated an interest in joining the armed forces was of particular interest to me, mainly because on two occasions while minding my own business I have been offered a laptop for sale by total strangers. Once I was walking down the road and was called over by a woman and a child sitting in a car who spoke to me in such a strong accent I had to get them to repeat their offer twice before I went on my merry way. The other time I was parking my car outside my home when someone knocked on my window and offered me a laptop.

It begs the question: if I am offered a laptop in the next few weeks is it my patriotic duty to buy it just in case it is the laptop in question. Or would I be foolish to handle what are probably stolen goods? If I did come to be in possession of the laptop I would of course hand it over to the authorities despite almost certainly being under suspicion of being a terrorist; despite recent reports it is not true that everyone in Birmingham is now under the control of the global jihadists.

School of Terror

All I can say is this is outrageous. It is generally known that an A level chemistry student can manufacture ecstasy and certain other banned drugs, and as part of the course will make aspirin and paracetamol. So, in order to strike a blow in the war on drugs as well as the war on terror, why doesn't the government go the whole hog and ban chemistry altogether? Then we can all do mickey mouse degrees in law and politics, like our Glorious Leaders.

Why has this story not been more widely reported?

H&S Training for Office-rs Overdue

The Metropolitan Police have been convicted of breaching Health and Safety Law when they killed Jean Charles de Menezes in the wake of the failed July 21st bombings.

I propose we send Gareth from the office give them some much needed Health and Safety training. Learning how to correctly place a hot cup of coffee next to a monitor will clearly reduce the probability of accidentally shooting an innocent person in the head seven times.

An excellent summary of the court case has been presented here.

Personally, I think anyone who defends the police on the grounds of stopping potential suicide bombers in future is advocating legalised terrorism. By the police. On anyone they do not like the look of.

Ian Blair has so far refused to resign.

Time for democratically elected Police Chiefs?

Political Incorrectness Gone Mad

Iain Dale has an interesting blog but it is at times ruined by his small minded conservatism. In a recent post Iain Dale's Diary: Political Correctness and Racial Profiling he defend racial profiling, claiming

"... that political correctness has to go out of the window when dealing with terrorism."

I have pointed out in the comments that when the IRA were bombing this country, white people were not being disproportionately stopped and searched.

Conservatives love to say that racism works both ways; but they don't half prefer the old-fashioned way.

ID Cards and Segregation in the Real World

I have not been blogging much recently because I have become addicted to the phenomenon of web 2.0 know as Facebook. If you read blogs, you probably know that this is a social networking site where you can post information about yourself and associate with you friend letting them know you are alive and what you are up to. It got me thinking that if the government wanted to create a bottom-up version of a national identity database, facebook would be a pretty useful model - but let's not overestimate the intelligence of our democratically elected officials.

It was fascinating catching up with people I have not seen for the best part of 10 years. I was surprised to find that many of my asian friends were still unmarried. If you believe the press, at the age of 18 (or sometimes younger), they are shipped to the subcontinent against their will where they are forceably married to someone they have never seen before. Well actually, no. For second and third generation immigrants, the truth is closer to this - caught between two worlds that leave the individual at a loss. I should know - as an asian catholic I too have struggled to find a suitable future spouse.

While we are at dispelling media myths about ethnic-minority communities, particularly in the wake of the Glasgow-London terrorist attacks, you might be interested to know that none of my muslim friends appeared to be involved in terrorism, and many seemed to be more integrated than me! One was actually dating a white girl, while another had actually joined the group opposing the academic boycott of Israel.

But of course, these kinds of stories do not sell newspapers, so it will be up to blogs like this to inform interested British people what really is going on.

We Shall Never Surrender

The recent terror attack attempts in London and Glasgow are sickening, seemingly designed to corner the new British administration into a more antagonistic position.

It is refreshing to see no links to Birmingham in this one though.

I have added a terror alert status to my sidebar, but I will not be taking down my links to Taking Liberties.

After all, maintaining civil liberties and fighting terrorism are not mutually exclusive.

The Rise of Social Mobility

Current affairs seemed to come to me this week. First of all in the terror swoops on Wednesday, along with the widow of one of the July 7th bombers, two people were arrested in Birmingham, one in Lozells and one in Victoria Halls on Grange Road, just around the corner from Birmingham University. I myself used to have a couple of friends living in these halls of residents and was surprised to here it was being searched in connection with terrorism. The rooms are not cheap, all being on-suite and tend to attract the richer students in the University, hardly the kind of clientele associated with terrorism.

Meanwhile, David Cameron has moved in with a Muslim family for a couple of days in Balsall Heath, where I have recently bought a house. I hope he does not stay too long.

I don't want the property prices to drop.

Update 13/05: An excellent post by the West Brom Blogger notes that Cameron's visit was not exactly all that it appeared to be.

Birmingham or Baghdad?

Birmingham was once again the centre of a terrorist plot in the land that has become Al-Qaeda's number one target as a result of our glorius leader's "prescient" (spelled president?) foreign policy. A plan hatched by disillusioned muslims to kidnap a Muslim British soldier and behead him on television was allegedly foiled by the police, leading to 9 arrests and numerous houses across the city being searched. Leaving Big Brother to fill a gap in the market.

The media is full of angry muslims or so the national press would have us believe. On a local report I saw a lot of Muslims supporting the police action, but presumably this would not go down well in the rest of the country. So instead we are treated to the assorted cranks and nutters you can find in immigrant communities, who presumably would vote UKIP or Conservative under Michael Howard if they were white and middle-class (maybe the latter is a bit harsh).

One such nutter unfortunately is chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, Dr Mohammed Naseem. In a previous post I took his side against Khalid Mahmood, but I was glad to see I did not support his views unequivocally. In his latest outburst he compares treatment of Muslims to that of Jews in Nazi Germany, and claims that the arrest were an example to the government justifying its political agenda.

Not quite Dr Naseem. Although I am no fan of this government, I am also no fan of those who seek to exploit their idiocy with their own brand of tomfoolery. These were not comments that helped the community, and not a great advert for British or Birmingham Muslims. Perhaps Khalid Mahmood is right after all.

Events Take a Turner the Worst for Blair

Ruth Turner's arrest by the police has been criticised by Labour MP's Tessa Jowell and David Blunkett, although I am not exactly sure what there grounds are other than she is close to Tony Blair and so should be untouchable. This is outrageous. They did not have much to say when an innocent man was shot in the head eight times as a result of incompetent policing, nor did they worry much about David Kelly's death. Does New Labour's arrogance never end? It is a real pity Ruth Turner was not charged; what would really have been great is to see these two idiots charged with contempt of court.

After a 90-day detention under suspicion, of course.

It's Terrorism John, but Not as we Know it

Over the last couple of weeks we have had a man murdered with a radioactive chemical and an attempted terrorist attack on Stormont, the home of the parliament of Northern Ireland. Yet the silence from Prime Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary John Reid has been deafening.

Shall I start a rumour on here now that Islamic terrorist groups were involved? That will ensure a string of government pronouncements and further attacks on our civil liberties and race relations that will last long after Christmas.

If we survive Christmas...

Birmingham "Most Ready for Disaster"

According to the Reader's Digest Birmingham is the most ready of all the major English cities to cope with a major terrorist attack or disaster. Maybe a little too ready..?

Talebrum from the Sun

Just as Birmingham became the centre of a new Al-Qaeda terrorist plot (Talebrum was the classic headline from the Sun) my computer packed in to stop me blogging about it.

There is no evidence that this was linked to the plot, or any ongoing police investigations around it.

More likely, it was a dodgy internet connection.

Al-Qaeda to Buy Villa?

Apparently a group of Arabs are involved in a fourth bid to take over the club. The People's Republic speculates it could be the Saudi king, the only person in the world who could improve Ellis' amazing record at the club. He's sacked more managers. And contrary to some stories, Cleveland Brown's Randy owner is still interested in buying the club - he just isn't interested in dealing with Ellis.

Is he a former Villa manager?