Sim-O

Do you remember Gordon Browns’ Britishness ‘thing’ he had a while ago? Where we would all walk around being British and proud of it. But no-one could really define what being British was about. Every one had different ideas about being and to be British.

Well, the daily mail have had a fantastic wheeze and have come up with a very simple definition…

According to the new statistics, published yesterday, foreign-born people make up one in nine of the population of the UK as a whole.

However although the figures from the Government’s Office for National Statistics show an increase in numbers of foreign born people they still fail to record the true impact of immigration because they record their children as British rather than second or third generation immigrants.

See? Easy isn’t it? If you are fresh into the country, with your new passport in hand, you’re not British. If you were born in Britain, but one or both of your parents were born outside this country, your not British. If you were born here in this green and pleasant (ha!) land but one or both of you grandparents weren’t, you’re not British.

Some nice clean straight forward rules, with no grey areas to confuse things. It helps to identify us from them and keep them them for a few generations to come so we have a nice underclass for all the horrible low paid jobs no one wants to do and someone to blame when the shit hits the fan.

Well, I have a better, simpler idea that would even the knuckledraggers of the BNP could understand, although would not like, but who cares, huh?

Anyone with a British passport is British.

What? You want more rules? Well, that’s it. Maybe for immigration figures the amount of new passports issued could be counted, but when a baby is born to British passport holders, that baby is British. Why would it be anything else? I hasn’t gone anywhere. It may have a Pakistani or Nigerian or Polish background in it’s upbringing, but what’s the problem with that? Seriously I’d like someone to explain in a way that doesn’t either make me want to laugh or punch them in the face.

I don’t know why, but it amazes me that after 70 years and 11 editors after the Mail sympathised with the Fascist that they would still be sitting on the same side of the fence, pushing the same agenda of hate and bile.

————–

An open letter to Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, from Sunder Katwala:

Dear Mr Dacre,

I was disappointed to read reported in today’s Daily Mail that the newspaper regards it as a mistake to consider that the children or grandchildren of immigrants are British, but rather would classify us as “second or third generation immigrants”.

although the figures from the Government’s Office for National Statistics show an increase in numbers of foreign born people they still fail to record the true impact of immigration because they record their children as British rather than second or third generation immigrants.

I hope that your proposed reclassification of Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry as not British, as second and third generation immigrants descended from the foreign-born Phillip, will not distress them too much.

But it does seem most ungrateful, when Winston Churchill was voted ‘greatest Briton’, to now strip him of that status because he had an American mother. (However strongly your newspaper disagreed with Churchill’s criticisms of appeasement in the 1930s, isn’t it now time to let bygones be bygones?)

Perhaps you could let us know who the Daily Mail thinks is truly British. I can see you probably think it is too late for my children – as “third generation immigrants”, currently aged under 3 – but perhaps there might be a tip or two they could pass on to their descendants.

So, given our shared interests in integration and citizenship, it would be terribly kind if you might let us know whether there is anything that those of us who were born here as British citizens could ever do so as to become British in your eyes.

Yours sincerely,

Sunder Katwala

So, my wife and childrens’ passports and birth certificates are lying then, eh?

Via Tygerland

*Subtitled: The Daily Mail are cunts

jdc325 – Hypocritical morons:

The Daily Fail are calling people who failed to protect their children by getting them inoculated “morons” and characterising them as “middle-class twits”? Really? After everything they printed about not trusting MMR, or Blair, or the scientists who spoke in defence of MMR? After everything they wrote about Saint Andy being a brave, charismatic doctor determined to ferret out the truth? After all the references to a conspiracy of silence surrounding MMR? It appears the trend now is for papers to criticise those who failed to have their children protected against measles, mumps, and rubella with nary a mention of the sustained campaign by the mainstream media (including themselves) to cast doubt on the safety of MMR.

Chris, in Justins comments:

Tony Blair

Laureates 2009 – 2009 Present Leadership
Anthony Charles Lynton (Tony) Blair, former British Prime Minister, is one of the most outstanding statesmen of our era.

From the time he assumed leadership of the British Labor Party in 1994 until he stepped down as prime minister in 2007, he showed exceptional intelligence and foresight, and demonstrated moral courage and leadership.

Having led a demoralized and struggling party to power in 1997, Blair exercised a pragmatic approach, strong conviction and personal charisma to lead his country in a period of remarkable economic and cultural growth. He helped broker an agreement between Unionists and Republicans in Northern Ireland; he engineered, against all odds, the policy that resolved the crisis in Kosovo, and he was one of the architects of transforming Britain’s position in the EEC. It was the Kosovo crisis in particular that transformed Tony Blair into an international leader on the basis of his steadfast determination and morally courageous leadership.

Tony Blair has consistently asked the important questions and thought deeply about the interconnected world of the 21st century. Early in his prime ministership, he came to two beliefs that guide him to today: first, that it is a mistake for the world to wait for America to solve all of the tough questions, and second, that there are some things a state may do within its borders that justify intervention even if the actions do not directly threaten another nation’s interests.

Upon stepping down as Prime Minister, Blair was appointed as the Middle East Quartet Representative. As envoy for the united Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States, his goal is to bring stability and peace to the Middle East.
Throughout his career, Tony Blair has acted on the basis of what he believes to be right, a hallmark of leadership.

See what I mean? WTF?

Update: This isn’t Chris’s view, it’s the citation for the Dan David Prize. Just thought I’d make that a bit clearer.

I’ve got a new post up at The Sun Lies.

It’s about the Suns’ defence of it’s Baby P reporting.

Bartholomews Notes on Religion:

Jeremy Reynalds has now published an extraordinary second piece on the Glen Jenvey affair, in which he points out that the Guardian employs as a columnist Faisal Bodi, who has “denied Israel’s right to exist”. Bodi has links with Ummah.com (allegedly), and so he may have been “Abuislam”. The Guardian therefore published the article questioning Jenvey in order to protect their columnist. Really – it’s that weird

The Sun:

HEARTBROKEN TV star Lorraine Kelly has told of her agony over the murder of her local Big Issue seller.

Tragic Paddy McDade was found in his flat last month in what police described as a “particularly brutal” scene.

Now GMTV favourite Lorraine has paid tribute to the 37-year-old who worked outside Dundee’s Marks and Spencer store.

The Scottish Sun columnist said: “I used to buy my Big Issue from Paddy whenever I was in Markies.”

Speaking to the mag, she added: “He was always so cheery. He’ll be sadly missed.”

Heartbroken? Agony? Lorraine must’ve known Paddy very well to be in such grief, otherwise Lorraine would just be ‘shocked’ or ‘saddened’.

Could the Sun be exaggerating their columnists feelings?
The Suns’ piece says ‘Speaking to the mag’ so nobody at the Suns’ office has spoken to Lorraine and the piece has been lifted wholesale from The Big Issue…

Lorraine spoke of her sadness when she heard of the death of Paddy McDade, who used to sell the magazine outside Marks and Spencer in Seagate.
“I used to buy my Big Issue from Paddy whenever I was shopping in Markies,” she said. “He was always so chatty, optimistic and cheery even when the rain was hammering down. He will be sadly missed.”

Ah, ‘sadness’. Ms Kellys’ heart is still in tact, spared of agony for someone she barely knew. The words she spoke in the Big Issue are pretty stock for a celeb that had a passing acquaintance with someone.

Thanx to the Sun, though, she has a couple of extra emotions added and viola, Lorraine seems more sensitive and caring and so, when she writes her column, you know she’s not a hard nosed woman, but is writing from the heart and has our best interests in mind.

Cross posted at The Sun Lies.

Gimpyblog:

Derek Draper in a recent Guardian profile claimed to have a MA in Clinical Psychology from Berkeley, University of California. Guido Fawkes has been doing some digging and found out that Mr Draper has not been entirely honest. It turns out that Berkeley have no record of Derek Draper and, as The Guardian report today, he actually received his degree from a private institution, the Wright Institute, which does not offer full time degrees and has no affiliation with Berkeley, merely sharing a neighbourhood. Derek Draper admits that while the Wright Institute have no academic connection with Berkeley “I did have the use of the facilities at the Berkeley campus.”, but his use of the gents at Berkeley has not prevented him from implying that he studied there on his website.

Via

Update: In the interest of balance and fairness, Dereks’ response.

I read a piece in Asian Voice at the weekend. It was sharing page 2 with Keith Vaz.

It reads…

What is a life worth?

Readers will remember that in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Mumbai, our Kapil Dudakia in ‘Kapil’s Khichadi’ had discussed how our MPs had voted on the Mumbai EDM. Below is a comparison between EDM37 (Mumbai) and EDM585 (Gaza). It does make for some interesting reading

and the little box they have shows exactly that…

The piece itself asks why so few MPs found the time to sign the EDM on Mumbai but did the one on Gaza.

The reasons why could be anything, from simply the Israel/Palestine issue being fashionable, or the ‘Israel lobby’ doing it’s thing to Mumbai being attacked by individual. A group consisting of, basically, criminals, not as in the case with Gaza, a nation state demolishing anothers territory.

The piece continues…

Interestingly the so called self proclaimed champion of the victims of war, George Galloway of ‘RESPECT’ Party failed to sign up to the Mumbai EDM. Even more interestingly he found the time to rush and sign the Gaza EDM. For a party called ‘RESPECT’ it certainly does appear to show any support or respect for the victims of Mumbai. Maybe this says a lot about Mr Galloway, his politics and his perception of right and wrong! So what does all this prove?

It proves nothing. If the wording of the EDMs had been printed would’ve shown…

EDM 37

TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI (No. 2)
03.12.2008

Vara, Shailesh

That this House unreservedly condemns the terrorist outrage in Mumbai; offers its sympathies and condolences to the victims and families of victims of the attacks; and expresses its support and solidarity for the government and people of India.

A good, worthy EDM. But it’s also the second on the Mumbai attacks.

The first is EDM 36

TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI
03.12.2008

Gardiner, Barry

That this House expresses its outrage and disgust at the terrorist attacks on Mumbai; is appalled and deeply saddened by the suffering of so many victims and their families; sends its wholehearted solidarity to the people of Mumbai and India; notes with pride the support and succour provided by the Indian community in the UK; and urges the world’s greatest democracy to continue to stand as a beacon of peace and tolerance in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi.

(That in my mind is an even better EDM, but then, that’s just me.)

Now, for the Asian Voice piece to carry, the EDM on Gaza would have similar wording. Wouldn’t it?

EDM 585

DEC GAZA CRISIS APPEAL
26.01.2009

Burden, Richard

That this House is astonished by the refusal of the BBC and Sky to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Gaza Crisis Appeal; considers that the explanations given for this decision by BBC spokespersons are both unconvincing and incoherent; and draws attention to the fact that people wishing to obtain information about the Gaza appeal can contact the DEC by visiting www.dec.org.uk.

EDM 36 and 37 are condemning the attacks on Mumbai and EDM 585 is astonished at the refusal of the BBC to broadcast the DEC appeal. The EDMs are completely unrelated.

Maybe if the Mumbai EDMs had been about an appeal to help the victims that had been refused airtime or EDM 585, the ‘Gaza’ EDM, had been condemning Israel, or the Palestinians for that matter, then yes this piece would have some merit.

It doesn’t excuse or explain why so few MPs signed the Mumbai EDMs, but to compare it to EDM 585 like that smacks of jealousy at best, and at worst trying to imply racism of some kind.

LC:

Monday 9th February is the launch date for FactCheck UK, a new blogger-driven project that aims to pull together some of the best talent from the British blogosphere and subject the veracity of Britain’s politicians and mainstream media to some much needed independent scrutiny.

I shouldn’t really have to explain the concept as you should all be familiar with the US FactCheck website and Channel 4’s own sporadic efforts. We’ll operating to more or the same principles but with a somewhat wider brief, one that takes into account the role of the media in spreading disinformation and bullshit. We’re also planning to be a bit less po-faced that our American counterparts and lace the site with a bit of humour to go along with the serious business of chasing the truth.

Also starting up are the Bullshit Awards (nothing to do with US ones, I think). The awards nominations are open from the 16th February for 10 days and have loads of catagories, of which the Churner Prize, the Witchfinder General Award and the Whores of Babylon Prize sound interesting.

See Liberal Conspiracy or Ministry of Truth for more details.

The Guardian:

The Press Complaints Commission is investigating a front-page story in the Sun newspaper that claimed Islamic extremists were targeting The Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar.
…
The PCC has launched an investigation and will consider whether Abuislam is Jenvey. The regulator has contacted the Sun and is awaiting the paper’s response.

It is understood that the Sun story originated from a news agency.

The Sun declined to comment on why it had removed the story from its website.

Via Tim