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UPDATE 3 (21:50), The Times:
…One eyewitness at [the] attack in Glasgow, Jackie Kennedy, 46, a beautician from the city, described how she watched one of the occupants of the car douse himself in petrol and set himself alight.
“He had a big smirk on his face. He lifted up what appeared to be a five-litre drum, which I think had petrol in it, and set himself on fire,” she said. “His clothes were melting in front of my very eyes.
“The police tried to pounce on him but he fought back and was struggling with them. It was only when a member of the public punched him in the face that the police managed to restrain him. The police were trying to spray CS gas in his face but it was not working. I can’t believe what I have just seen. I have no doubt this was a terrorist attack.”…
I can’t believe the word “smirk” was just used. I used “smirk” below to describe someone else well known for his. Purely a coincidence that.
Oh, and the brave guy who punched out the “smirker”? He’s lucky to be in Scotland. In the U.S., he would probably have found himself sued.
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UPDATE 2 (21:40): The Glasgow ”jeep crash” is apparently now “officially” a terror attack. The BBC reports:
The UK’s national terrorism threat level has been raised to “critical” after attacks in Glasgow and London.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged the public to be vigilant and added: “I know the British people will stand together, united and resolute.”
The announcement came after a meeting of the government emergencies committee Cobra, following a burning car being driven into a Glasgow airport terminal…
What a way to have to start his prime ministership.
…London’s Heathrow airport, Europe’s busiest, introduced “additional security measures” following the Glasgow incident, it said in an e-mailed statement.
Heathrow wants people traveling to and from the airport “to avoid using private vehicles where at all possible,” it said…
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UPDATE (19:35): I’m told intellectuals’ celebrity reactions to the incident have, urrrr, begun to roll in:
Rosie O’Donnell (acclaimed structural engineer and religious scholar, on her personal web site): “I do believe that it’s the first time in history that a Jeep Cherokee has ever been driven into the passenger terminal building at Glasgow airport. I do believe that it defies physics.
“To say that we don’t know that the building imploded, that it was an implosion and a demolition, is beyond ignorant. Look at the films. The crash defies reason.”
Bill Maher (historian, international affairs expert, smirker [because smirking means I know more than you do]): “You know, Larry, I mean come on. We know the Brits stopped Hitler from crossing the Channel, okaaaaay. Are you telling me they can’t stop a couple of guys from driving a Jeep into an airport building? That they they didn’t see it coming?
“I’ll tell you what really happened. It’s because the parking is so expensive there, that’s probably why they did it. They are not cowards, in striking a blow for the freedom to drive a big American SUV and park wherever one damn well wants to. It’s the best example of the American way. Who says democracy isn’t spreading around the globe?
“We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly. Staying in the jeep when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.”
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INITIAL POST: Sky reports:
Two people have been arrested after a burning Jeep smashed through the terminal building at Glasgow airport…
…The Cherokee 4×4 smashed into a glass door at Terminal One of the airport, the busiest in Scotland, which has now been closed.
Hundreds of holidaymakers were in the area at the time, and witnesses said some of them removed gas cylinders from the jeep before it caught fire.
But there are reports the occupants - described as Asian males - were trying to pour petrol on the flames.
Scott Gleeson said he saw the jeep speed up and swerve towards the terminal at an angle to hit the door.
“They were obviously trying to get through to cause as much damage as possible,” he said.
Holidaymaker Stephen Clarkson said he knocked one of the men to the floor before police intervened.
He said: “There was an Asian male. He was lying on the floor and he was on fire, the Jeep was on fire as well.
“The fellow got up and started fighting with police. I managed to knock the Asian fellow to the ground and four police officers got on top of him.”
He added: “His whole body was on fire. He was quite a big fellow and was disorientated otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to knock him down.”
James Edgar told Sky News: … “Everyone was in a panic and police and security were scuffling with an Asian gentleman.”
He added: “There was a lot of anger - if the crowds had got hold of this gentleman it would have been the end of him.”
Eh, there will be none of that sort of talk. You are never allowed to be “angry”.
More undoubtedly to follow . . .
ABC News last night (via Viking Pundit):
British police have a “crystal clear” picture of the man who drove the bomb-rigged silver Mercedes outside a London nightclub, and officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com he bears “a close resemblance” to a man arrested by police in connection with another bomb plot but released for lack of evidence…
Well, now’s the test. A real test. Given the local authority “camera-fied” West End location, as well as all of the private cameras owned by the clubs themselves, if police can’t pull up at least one ”crystal clear” photo from someplace . . . then, to be honest, what the heck is the freakin’ point?
That “crystal clear” story is now getting play in British media. While as of about 11 AM it is not yet on the BBC or Telegraph sites, it is on the tabloid Sun web site — “…Last night it was claimed that cops had “crystal clear” CCTV images of the driver of the Haymarket Merc…” — and in the tabloid Daily Mail, in which we are told:
…There are now fears that other bombs could be primed and parked around the capital, but police are refusing to confirm reports they already have a ‘crystal clear’ video image of the bombers…
The Mail writes as well:
…It emerged last night that hours before the first bomb was found, a message on a jihadist website proclaimed: “Today I say: Rejoice by Allah, London shall be bombed.”
Posted in the “Al Hesbah” chatroom, the message suggested the attack was linked to the war in Iraq and to the controversial author Salman Rushdie, whose award of a knighthood earlier this month sparked outrage in the Islamic world…
In a weird way, one can almost credit a degree of Iraq outrage, but in doing so that utterly undoes another argument: that the Iraq outrage is somehow confined to Iraq. For in planning to detonate car bombs over Mr Rushdie’s knighthood, one can but reflect on the fact that if there had been no war over majority rule in Iraq there are still seemingly virtually unlimited excuses (including the outright asinine) for “outrage” that “justifies” bombings. So, what “outrage” is next?
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UPDATE: Shield of Achilles:
…Some see a conspiracy behind all the hype…
Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA and State Department employee, the CEO of Berg Associates, and a self-styled expert on terrorism, has made a career out of trivializing terror fears as much as possible. Now, he thinks the bomb plot was a “crock of crap“, a non-incident hyped up by the media, encouraged by the US and UK governments. In his rush attempt to downplay this incident as much as possible, this “expert” actually confuses “gas” (meaning propane gas) with “gasoline”…
Such is the world we now inhabit.
If an attack is somehow broken up beforehand, we are told by “experts” it was “trivial”. And/or, according to some, “invented”.
But if an attack kills, many of the same people are likely to cry out, “Why wasn’t it stopped!? We need an inquiry!” Or, again, for some, it was, of course . . . “invented“.
And all that’s extra odd when one considers that even those who tell us they believe virtually nothing suggested by the British government, do accept that 7/7 was a day of terrorist “barbarity”.
How about something lighter (given the “events” of yesterday)? BBC sports, last night:
England drew the Twenty20 series with West Indies after sealing a five-wicket win in the second match at The Oval…
The wife and I caught as much as we could of the match on Sky, but the match itself isn’t the point to this post. It stems rather from how a couple of times (and as I recall a couple of times also at the previous match Thursday evening) the Oval crowd broke into a dance party melody (no real words, just “humming/shouting” the tune) to a song which sounded oddly familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Then, suddenly I remembered:
Obviously, some in the crowd latched onto that song to celebrate runs.
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Meanwhile, on Wimbledon, BBC sports observed on Thursday:
…We’ve seen British hope in the singles ended with defeats for Henman and O’Brien…
The wife (who played county badminton, netball, cricket, and skis) pointed out to me that she believes Britain will never produce consistently winning international tennis players until the reality finally dawns on the country that tennis as a game has radically moved on. Tennis is now for millions around the world a game played with as fervent a passion to win as is every other power sport. Sometimes more so. Particularly, tennis has become for many a means to rise above perceived low expectations (the Williams sisters) and escape grinding poverty (just about every Eastern European and Russian, especially the women).
So naturally, there is a hunger in such players; they aim to thump opponents, and drive them off the court. Simply put, for them, it is a game played for keeps. Unfortunately, the mindset here surrounding tennis has not evidently changed all that much from what it had been when Anne Jones and Billie Jean King were, by comparison, tapping the ball politely back and forth.
All the change in the sport in especially the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s made little impression in Britain. For while the country loves the game and does produce some decent players, tennis is by and large still seen by most as, in the wife’s words, ”a game you play politely at the club . . . while waiting for the cucumber sandwiches to be served.” Hence Britain’s perpetual inability to produce “killer” tennis players long before a Federer, a Roddick, a Williams (either one) and a Mauresmo were even born.
Essentially, Andy Murray aside, right now Britain appears unlikely to produce any major tournament winners anytime soon. And a possible physical fragility in him at age 20 that is not evident in, for instance, a Nadal who is only slightly older, must mean that on Murray, too, the jury is decidedly still out; even worse, there are currently no women at all competing on a top level. So unless a couple of the Steven Gerrards, Jonny Wilkinsons, Kelly Holmes’ and Paula Radcliffes of the next generation take up tennis, it seems Britain is unlikely ever to be truly competitive in the game.
[Newest updates on top]
UPDATE 11 (22:15): In case you don’t know by now, there were actually two bombs. A second was discovered in another Mercedes. Reuters tells us:
…Similar materials were later found in a blue Mercedes that had been parked illegally nearby and towed away. The two cars were “clearly linked” said Peter Clarke, London’s anti-terrorism police chief.
“The discovery of what appears to be a second bomb is obviously troubling and reinforces the need for the public to be alert,” he said.
Authorities said they did not know who left the bombs but they had begun a counter-terrorism investigation…
As to why neither exploded? As of tonight, anyone’s guess is probably reasonable.
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UPDATE 10 (19:10): The BBC has a useful “Q & A” up.
No, really. It’s useful.
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UPDATE 9 (17:25 — and hello Tigerhawk readers; to clarify, we lived in London until January, but we now live in Dorset, about 90 miles to the southwest): Sky reports:
Sky News sources say one of the first police officers on the scene of the London West End car bomb may have saved dozens of lives by diffusing the explosives before the bomb squad arrived.
It is believed the quick-thinking cop recognised that the car was wired to blow up, jumped in and disconnected the trigger device, thought to be a mobile phone…
A real “James Bond”! (Our heroes disarm bombs. “Theirs” — regardless of whoever precisely they are, but which will be determined, one suspects, in due course — try to detonate them among scores of women.)
…Park Lane has also been closed to traffic due to a suspect vehicle in an underground car park that police believe is connected to the attempted bombing in Haymarket.
Sky News crime correspondent said: “It might be the escape vehicle of the Mercedes driver, or it might be the vehicle of an accomplice, but it is turning into something very significant.”
Fleet Street has also been closed after the discovery of another suspect vehicle…
The multiple nature of all this, may speak volumes as to whom those “heroes” might well be. The tabloid Daily Mail doesn’t mince words:
Hunt for Al Qaeda terror gang behind ‘massive’ London bomb attack
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UPDATE 8 (14:30): The Times:
Inside Tiger Tiger last night, hundreds of young women were dancing to club classics and party anthems at ladies’ night, unaware of the drama about to unfold.
The super-bar stretches over three floors with city workers and visitors to London buying expensive cocktails and bottled beers in bars, a club and a restaurant.
At around 2am, when police arrived outside the club to find a massive unexploded car bomb, there was an hour left of ‘Sugar ‘n’ Spice’, the regular night billed as “run for women, by women”…
So, were certain bastards aiming to kill women, en masse?
Usefully, The Telegraph summarizes . . .
What do we know about the car bomb discovered in London’s West End?
Click over for its bullet-point breakdown.
The Home Office web site has a few words from the new Home Secretary:
…Home Secretary Jacqui Smith asked for the press and the public to give investigators time to do the work at hand.
‘What I think is very important is that the public remain vigilant at all times,’ the Home Secretary said. ‘Obviously the police are investigating, and I think we should allow them to get on with that without undue speculation.’
What some of us out here might also think is that that was one statement that upon reading one could only feel to be an utter waste of a few moments of our lives well worth waiting for.
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UPDATE 7 (12:35): BBC ”News 24’s” bottom screen scroll just told us that “60 litres of petrol” were found in the car.
60 litres? That should have cost them just under £60 (about $120 US) . . . if they’d paid retail. If they didn’t, well, when caught they will be in serious trouble with the Brown government. (And that’s not even taking into account the talking to they must receive about the dangers of unoffset CO2 emitted by any explosion.)
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UPDATE 6: (12:20) BBC 1 has dropped “News 24’s” live (failed) bombing coverage. BBC1 now has “Cash in the Attic” on. Since noon, BBC2 has offered a replay of Wimbledon coverage . . . because it’s currently raining, so there’s no live play. (I don’t think any bombing coverage was ever on BBC2.)
I guess that BBC1’s having gone to “Cash” means the Beeb has declared the “crisis” now “unofficially” over. Nothing more to see here, folks. Move along now.
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UPDATE 5: (12:15 PM) Frank Gardner again notes it as apparently an Iraq-style car bomb. What the police have not answered is if someone was with the car, and ran off. Why engage in a suicide attack . . . when you don’t have to? They could have just left the car to explode. Or, perhaps, as the wife just observed to me, perhaps a suicide bomber got cold feet at the last moment? We shall see.
The potential “Ministry of Sound” bombing also comes to mind. And Gardner also just mentioned it.
We are now awaiting a statement from the new Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith.
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UPDATE 4: At a news conference, DAC Peter Clarke just told us that “nails” were found in the vehicle. And it was indeed outside “Tiger Tiger”.
Our first reactions are perhaps natural. We do know that nightclubs have been bombed elsewhere in the world (Bali in particular comes to mind), but there have in the past been London nail bomb attacks . . . for reasons other than “anger” over ___________ [oh, fill in the blank].
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UPDATE 3: The BBC’s Frank Gardner was just on telling us that there is an “international element” to this — that it isn’t “animal rights” people or “Irish”.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m shocked . . . shocked!
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UPDATE 2: Interestingly, notice a difference in general reporting styles.
A diffused car bomb in London? This is not good. After all, this story might crowd out today’s Wimbledon coverage.
Sky tells viewers to head for the hills!
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UPDATE: Watching BBC “News 24″ on TV, the wife just told me that it looks to her like the car is being removed from just outside “Tiger Tiger” . . . a place we’d been when we lived in London. (It is a “slick”, end of workday hangout, which is open very late. And no, we weren’t regulars.)
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[INITIAL POST] The BBC reports:
Police have disabled a car bomb containing gas cylinders in the heart of central London.
Officers carried out a controlled explosion after reports of a suspicious vehicle parked in Haymarket shortly before 0200 BST (0100 GMT)…
…John O’Connor, former commander of Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad, told BBC News the incident bore all the “hallmarks” of a failed suicide bomb attempt. And it was “lucky” the police had received the tip-off…
Presumably, the search for “Christian terrorists” is now well underway?
“Metaphysics” and “Ontology”, defined by Routledge:
Metaphysics is a broad area of philosophy marked out by two types of inquiry. The first aims to be the most general investigation possible into the nature of reality: are there principles applying to everything that is real, to all that is? – if we abstract from the particular nature of existing things that which distinguishes them from each other, what can we know about them merely in virtue of the fact that they exist? The second type of inquiry seeks to uncover what is ultimately real, frequently offering answers in sharp contrast to our everyday experience of the world. Understood in terms of these two questions, metaphysics is very closely related to ontology, which is usually taken to involve both ‘what is existence (being)?’ and ‘what (fundamentally distinct) types of thing exist?’…
U.S. President George W. Bush made plain his feelings about Fidel Castro on Thursday — wishing the Cuban leader would disappear.
“One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away,” Bush said in response to a question after a speech at the Naval War College.
Asked whether Bush was wishing Castro dead, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: “The president was commenting on an inevitable event.”…
That he as president would prefer (as a matter of policy) that the current Cuban “president” were no longer in office is hardly a surprise. For it has never been a secret that every president (and even when in office, a President Carter) since Kennedy (and arguably also Eisenhower) has felt much the same way.
One has to like Reuters’s interpretation, though. There’s President Bush, asserting a reality that no one can deny will occur (Castro will, for whatever reason, absolutely cease to “govern” someday), and Reuters reports that as Mr Bush “wishing the Cuban leader would disappear“.
Okay then, so how about this one also? Reuters “will someday cease to exist”. (No business lasts forever.) Now, by making that observation, did I just infer that I wish Reuters “would disappear“? Definitely not. After all, if they do, there will be much less blogging material.
Mail deliveries will be crippled today by the first national walkout by postal workers in more than a decade…
Hey, if they are going to strike, today is not a bad day for it:
It’s just after 6 AM . . . and it is ABSOLUTELY POURING outside. I mean “deluge” is not too strong a word.
There appears to have been some “leaking” overnight. The BBC reports:
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to begin his first full day in office with an overhaul of the Cabinet.
Mr Brown, who has promised a “new government with new priorities”, is expected to make long-time ally Alistair Darling his chancellor.
Assuming this to be true, that choice for Chancellor is not a huge surprise. But one hardly could call it a ”younger, fresher look” at the second most important post in the Government.
One of the other potential changes, however, appears somewhat to fit that description:
…Environment Secretary David Miliband is thought likely to be promoted to foreign secretary…
If that also turns out to be true, it ought to be amusing to see a British Foreign Secretary who, if a video linkup (powered by wind or solar) is unavailable, walks or sails to overseas meetings . . . or it will be endlessly fascinating to listen to detailed explanations on how this one ”carbon offsets” ALL of his international air travel.
Come to think of it, though, few are probably better prepared to take on this job in the early 21st century. Indeed, Mr Miliband might well invoke the very same words used by his early 20th century predecessor:
Dec 1905-Dec 1916
Grey, Sir Edward, later Viscount Grey of Fallodon: holds the longest continuous term of any Foreign Secretary, and it was from his room that he observed ‘the lamps … going out all over Europe’.
Although, ummm, nearly a century on, that same observation now has a decidedly different meaning. (And fortunately so.)
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UPDATE: Mr Miliband was given the job. Regarding his stance and possible impact on another vital issue, Reuters tells us:
…”Miliband wasn’t closely associated with the decisions that were taken in the Iraq war,” said David Mepham, head of the international unit at the Institute for Public Policy Research.
“It’s an asset when meeting foreign secretaries in other countries in getting people to focus instead on the problem of how to move things forward in Iraq,” he said…
Speaking of getting to other countries, given Mr Miliband’s known aversion to “carbon creating” transport, it will likely take him quite a lot of time to reach Washington for his first meeting with Secretary Rice:
…Prior to the institution of regularly schedules sailing packets, early 19th century, travelers might have waited weeks for their vessel to fill its hold or its cabins. Once started, these trips often lasted much longer than anticipated since even the fastest vessels could become oceanic prisons when the wind stopped blowing…
However, if he finds a sturdy ship now . . . Mr Miliband could still get there for talks with Secretary Rice by September. (Thomas Jefferson — who knew a little something about Atlantic sea journeys – had reckoned that most ships lost at sea were older ships; so he preferred one that had made at least one Atlantic crossing, but was also less than five years old.) And if Mr Miliband is lucky to quickly fall in with another good ship for his return, he might even make land at Portsmouth before Christmas . . . just before winter in the North Atlantic makes that return crossing too dangerous to attempt unless absolutely necessary.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on the media on Wednesday to be more careful in their choice of words when reporting on religious conflict.
Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, said that broad understanding of trouble spots was often complicated by the language used to describe the activities of people or religions involved in them.
He was speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in London to mark the launch of the Tutu Foundation UK, an organisation intended to bring the experience of truth and reconciliation in South Africa to inner city communities in Britain…
…”‘Muslim terrorism’ - have you ever read anywhere ‘Christian terrorism’? - as if Islam propagates violence, but you have never spoken about what happened in Northern Ireland as Christian terrorism,” he said…
I know, it is absolutely shocking that Reuters would sponsor an event at which the use of the word “terrorism” is criticized. Separately, it would be nice if the Archbishop endeavored to work to produce some original thoughts on this matter. However, then again, mischaracterization is nothing new for him.
I say that because Northern Ireland perpetually appears to be about the best example anyone can ever seem to summon up for “Christian terror” . . . and it’s wrong, at that. Given that, it seems worth repeating this (which I wrote almost 2 years ago):
…The IRA is a nationalist organization that rooted its “revolution” in the politics of the nation-state and socialism. Yes, most IRA members were and are undoubtedly at least nominal Roman Catholics. However, referring to them as “Christian terrorists” would have been a major misnomer because their goal was never, say, to re-create the medieval “Papal States” on Irish soil, or to eject all “non-believers” from Italy and re-establish papal rule there.
On the other hand, had they called their group “Catholic Holy War”, one could have reasonably labelled them Catholic (or Christian) terrorists.
By the way, “Islamic Jihad” rolls right off the tongue . . . because, wouldn’t you know it, there is just such a violent group that roots (according to its very name) its “revolution” in Islam…
And there are a myriad of other Islam examples of course, including those which are newer . . . like the currently headline grabbing (owing to their having kidnapped a journalist) ”Army of Islam“. Considering his forthright views on “reporting”, has the Archbishop perchance heard of them? Would he personally report on their existence and actions by using another name, which they themselves have not chosen?
But they are an “army” you say, not terrorists? Really. Okay, and just whom is the “Army of Islam” battling? The “Army of Christianity”? No, they kidnapped a solitary journalist. That’s called “terrorism”.
So it appears time once and for all for a “Northern Ireland” moratorium in this debate. If one is going to try to make the “everyone are butchers all the same in the name of religion” argument . . . please at least try to come up with a real example of “Christian terrorism”.
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UPDATE: Catholic World News:
…In an interview for the German radio station Deutschlandfunk, Cologne’s Cardinal Joachim Meisner said, “Muslims should have the right to practice their religion in Germany.” But he added that Christians should be equally free to practice their religion in Islamic lands. “Mistrust stems from the fact that German Muslims do not protest at all when in Muslim countries, Christians are discriminated against or killed,” he observed.
The head of the German bishops’ conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz, sounded the same theme. “I would like to be able to celebrate Holy Mass in Saudi Arabia and not be imprisoned,” he said. “True religious freedom can only be practiced reciprocally.”
Indeed, perhaps to prove his point on how all religions are the same, Archbishop Tutu might go out to Saudi Arabia and hold an Anglican service publicly?
The Roman Mysteries:
…the Emperor Vespasian had passed away with the words ‘Oh dear, I think I’m becoming a god.’ His son Titus had succeeded him quietly and without bloodshed,…
Gordon Brown has officially become Britain’s 52nd Prime Minister after being asked by the Queen at Buckingham Palace to form a new Government.
Speaking with his wife Sarah beside him in Downing Street, Mr Brown said: “I have just accepted the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen to form a Government.
“This will be a new Government with new priorities and I have been privileged to have been granted the great opportunity to serve my country.”…
[Sigh] Of course, one wishes Mr Brown well. Yet why does one also harbor the uneasy sense that (and unlike Vespasian’s jest on his deathbed, this is no wry joke), ”Oh dear, I think our taxes are about to skyrocket.”
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UPDATE: Sky’s Glen Oglaza tells us:
…[Mr Brown] … will have a new team, and will try to give the government a younger, fresher look…
Really? Sky also has a partly “interactive” page on the various possibilities for cabinet jobs. Actually, there seems not so much a “younger, fresher look” in the offing, as there is a serious shortage of substantive talent for high level posts. (David Miliband as Chancellor of the Exchequer?)
That merely goes to show how little depth there is in Labour now, and how they seem to be relying on retreads. (Charles Clarke . . . again as Home Secretary? Is that because he was such a success last time around?) And that’s shocking. For given a decade in power, one would think that they would have scores of new and able people, ready to take on cabinet jobs. As it is, Jack Straw can’t possibly be Justice Secretary, Deputy PM, Chancellor and Foreign Secretary (again) all at the same time.
Tony Blair will visit the Palace and resign as British prime minister after Prime Minister’s Questions at lunchtime. Gordon Brown will then be asked by Her Majesty to form a new government.
For Reuters, obviously the long, agonizing wait is therefore almost over . . . and the wire service can hardly contain itself:
Yes, “finally”. It’s only a few hours more, guys. Hold on. Hold on.
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UPDATE: The day that will end with the man who had been Chancellor for 10 years becoming PM, began with us receiving yet another high tax demand in the post. Could anything be more appropriate to mark his ascension? After all, it will, as we know, cost a lot to “save the planet“.
Whoever ends up as the new Chancellor should probably be prepared. For it is hard to believe Mr Brown will be able to avoid interfering in the running of the Treasury. As Mr Churchill was literally his own Defense Secretary, Mr Brown will probably try, for all intents and purposes, to function as his own Chancellor.
ITV News headline, Friday, June 22:
White boys are ‘low achievers’
That sounds pretty scary. ITV then goes on to elaborate:
Nearly half the students who leave education with no or limited qualifications are white British males, research has revealed.
The Guardian, too, jumps in, with this headline, also last Friday:
Half school ‘failures’ are white working-class boys, says report
Interestingly, the Guardian newspaper — the de facto newspaper of professional education, here in Britain — is itself cited eight times as a source in the research itself. That aside, those media reporting tacks are understandable, as they’ve pulled such almost verbatim from the web site of the research’s sponsor: the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Anyway, reading those headlines, a question comes to mind: Why would the finding of “nearly half” be worth such banner headlines? I ask that innocently for these reasons. First, note what the report’s authors tell us on their report’s page 8:
The BBC reports:
The law-abiding majority is a myth, according to a survey, which finds most of us have indulged in some sort of petty crime…
…Subjects were given a list of 10 petty crimes to choose from, including paying in cash to avoid tax, taking something from work, and exaggerating an insurance claim.
Presumably, that 61% would be higher still if the list had included a wider range of crimes, such as downloading music and copying software illegally…
…The report authors Susanne Karstedt and Stephen Farrall concluded crime does not belong to the margins of society and there is no “law-abiding majority”. The respectable middle classes, they say, are a “seething mass of morally dubious, and outright criminal, behaviour“…
…For Michael Northcott, professor of ethics at Edinburgh University’s School of Divinity, the report is evidence of moral corruption in British society.
“It’s no surprise to see that these crimes are widespread in the middle class - we ought to know that having more money doesn’t make you more moral,” says Mr Northcott…
May we all stop laughing yet? For leave it to two academics and, ironically, to a third academic who is supposedly an ethics expert, to assert that, in all seriousness, there is no discernable moral distinction — “…Anti-social behaviour by the few is mirrored by anti-civil behaviour by the many…” — between the likes of picking up a paper clip and paying cash . . . vs. murder. (Incidentally, the last time one looked, cash is still legal tender. Thus the illegality in not reporting a cash transaction accurately for VAT purposes is not the customer’s crime. No matter what he charges, it’s the seller’s; he sets the price and he does the VAT reporting.)
And, unsurprisingly, leave it to the BBC to consider that “study” actually worth reporting upon.
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UPDATE, June 28: (Hello Laban readers!) Incidentally, I always also think it is worth keeping some serious perspective in mind. Unfortunately, the ability to attempt to do so is something too many academics/activists (and the BBC) appear utterly incapable of, even if a mastery of such could actually prove quite useful:
…A visitor to Mudeford Quay 200 years ago would not have had to wait long to meet a smuggler. In these parts, the smuggling trade was part of everyday life and few people were not involved in it in one way or another. The most vivid account comes from a contemporary clergyman, the Rev Richard Warner, who described the number of smugglers in Christchurch and neighbouring villages as “immense”. “It is,” he wrote, “scarcely credible how many families were implicated more or less in this illicit and barbarising traffic; what large sums were accumulated by its practice; or with what openness and insolence it was carried on.”…
Oh, that “seething mass of morally dubious, and outright criminal, behaviour“. And its existence was truly remarkable. After all, in those days there wasn’t even a societal tone-setting, “paper clip stealing”, middle class.
Mr Blair must have made more enemies than any of us had appreciated. Indeed, this is how the Bush administration — “…President Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are thought to have been pushing for Mr Blair’s nomination…” – rewards friends? Sky reports:
Tony Blair is set to be confirmed as a Middle East envoy, with an announcement thought likely as early as today, according to reports…
. . . and after his likely vast accomplishments in that role, it is rumored he’s a shoe in for promotion to command of the Odessa Military District.
I had a little fun over Wimbledon earlier. But, in fact, today has been no joke generally. It has rained in some parts as if it would never stop raining; in places, it has been horrific.
Fortunately, here in the South/Southwest, it hasn’t been as bad as elsewhere. But get a load of this:
That was one heckuva dark, ugly cloud bank . . . which — thankfully! – did not produce torrential rain then and there. (It was snapped in the New Forest by your friendly blogger about an hour ago. Notice “blogger dog” in the foreground is typically unconcerned.)
A video showing the kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston wearing what appears to be a belt of explosives around his waist has been posted on the internet.
In the short tape, which has the title Alan’s Appeal, Mr Johnston warns that the explosives will be detonated if an attempt is made to free him by force.
The video was made by the Army of Islam, a group with apparent links to al Qaeda which claimed responsibility for snatching Mr Johnston from a street in Gaza City on March 12.
“Captors tell me that very promising negotiations were ruined when the Hamas movement and the British government decided to press for a military solution to this kidnapping,” Mr Johnston says in the recording…
The BBC reports:
The Palestinian captors of an Israeli soldier have aired what they say is an audio message by him - the first such tape exactly a year after his capture.
The recording of Cpl Gilad Shalit says his health is deteriorating and requires medical help.
It was posted on a website of the Hamas military wing…
So let’s see if we’re clear on this. One group of terrorists is holding the British journalist, fearful apparently of the fates awaiting themselves at the hands of a larger group of terrorists, while that larger group of terrorists itself in turn holds an Israeli soldier, out of fear of democratic Israel. If this all weren’t so sick and dangerous, it would almost be funny.
…Separately, Hamas’s television station has broadcast footage which apparently shows Cpl Shalit’s capture on 25 June 2006 and him being pulled by two figures dressed in Israeli army uniforms…
Unless those “two figures” were also Israeli military prisoners merely helping Cpl Shalit, there is only one other explanation: Hamas fighters were wearing Israeli military uniforms. Obviously, what we have here is yet another bunch of careful respecters of the “laws of war”.
Brown promises social crusade
“Crusade”? Using that increasingly hot-button term to characterize his plans seems out of place . . . considering that nowhere in the article is Mr Brown himself quoted as using the word “crusade” in the speech.
You’d almost think some writer was deliberately trying to stir up “anger”?
Also interesting, just across the Channel, we are told by Thomson Financial:
France’s new finance minister Christine Lagarde said she will present to parliament in the first week of July a bill featuring a series of tax cuts…
In comparison, despite his Olympian “vision for Britain” — …”In his first speech as leader of the Labour Party he told Labour delegates that the new government he forms later on this week “will meet new challenges ahead,” including climate change, globalisation and extremism…” — Mr Brown apparently “sees” no room for some little things, like tax cuts. Adfero reports:
…Halifax building society says that since 1997 the average council tax bill has increased by 91 per cent, compared to the 31 per cent rise seen in the headline RPI rate…
…Halifax’s data shows that ten years ago the average council tax per dwelling in Britain was £564 and that this figure has now risen to £1,078…
How about another “100% increase”, over the next decade? It’s hardly outside the realm of possibility. For that sort of increase will almost certainly be what’s needed, considering the ever-increasing plethora of costly local authority initiatives demanded by Westminster . . . to enable Britain singlehandedly to “save the planet”, courtesy of the British taxpayer.
Iran parliament speaker says Rushdie honour “shameless”
Actually, light years far more “shameless” is Reuters’ unquestioning use of the term “parliament speaker” . . . as if the Iranian parliament inhabits the same moral universe as the UK House of Commons and UK House of Lords.
A Christian teenager accused her school yesterday of religious discrimination for banning her from wearing a “purity” ring. Lydia Playfoot, 16, told the high court that preventing her from wearing the ring, which symbolises chastity before marriage, was a breach of her human rights.
Miss Playfoot is one of several students at the Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, who wear a silver ring as a symbol of their belief in sexual abstinence. Her family is central to the UK branch of the Silver Ring Thing movement, which preaches against sex before marriage.
The school, which allows Muslim and Sikh students to wear headscarfs and religious bracelets, argued that the ring was not a integral part of the Christian faith and broke its uniform policy…
Yet another school, offering essentially the same ignorant argument. Obviously, these educators have never noticed a ring as also playing something of a part in Christian observance. Indeed, one would think also that those granted the title of ”education professionals” might actually at least be sharp enough to learn something from others’ ”uniform policy” experiences.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the WSJ (via Kathryn):
Americans keen to understand the ongoing struggle for a new Iraq can be guided by the example of their own history. In the 1860s, your country fought a great struggle of its own, a civil war that took hundreds of thousands of lives but ended in the triumph of freedom and the birth of a great power…
The points he raises are familiar and more than reasonable. Any fairminded person of honest democratic (with a small “d” at least) inclinations would have a hard time arguing with it.
But, as we know, we have had eminently reasonable arguments by the busload for years now. Particularly, it has seemed to be “1864″ . . . for the last four years.
Time is, however, of course not standing still. ”1865″ has simply got to appear on the immediate horizon within probably the next couple of months . . . or at some point afterwards before American resolve finally collapses completely (whichever comes first).
Ageing Europe confronts demographic time bomb
Wait a second. Talk about biased. Why not view the matter from the far more vital perspective of ”the future of the planet”?:
Environmentally conscious Europeans reduce their long-term “carbon footprints”
From a memo by Harry Hopkins, on President Roosevelt’s meeting with Ibn Saud in Egypt, during a stopover on the President’s return trip from Yalta in 1945:
…I am sure the President did not realize what kind of man he was going to be entertaining when he invited Ibn Saud to meet him–a man of austere dignity, great power and a born soldier and, above all, an Arabian first, last and all of the time. He had spent his life fighting and enjoyed it and his subjects all enjoy fighting and they don’t like the Jews. So, when the President asked Ibn Saud to admit some more Jews into Palestine, indicating that it was such a small percentage of the total population of the Arab world, he was greatly shocked when Ibn Saud, without a smile, said “No.” Ibn Saud emphasized the fact that the Jews in Palestine were successful in making the countryside bloom only because American and British capital had been poured in in millions of dollars and said if those same millions had been given to the Arabs they could have done quite as well…
Interestingly, some remember that meeting rather differently. However, since then, as we know, not just millions but billions have been ”given to the Arabs” of Palestine. Just in the last two years, we are told:
…The International Monetary Fund and the United Nations say the Palestinians received $1.2 billion in aid and budgetary support in 2006, about $300 per capita, compared with $1 billion in 2005…
And “the bloom” such billions have subsidized is now evident to everyone:
The power struggle between Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas has spilled over to the internet with a propaganda war using a popular video sharing website.
After both groups moved to disrupt each other’s television and radio broadcasts, the internet - and YouTube in particular - has become an important medium for disseminating propaganda.
The killing of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander Samih al-Madhun appears to have been the catalyst for the release of a flurry of videos by both sides…
Yes, it’s magnificent to see how their leaders’ careful investment of those billions over the decades has brought the Arabs of Palestine nothing but happy prosperity.
The BBC reports:
Scientists in Chile are investigating the sudden disappearance of a glacial lake in the south of the country.
When park rangers patrolled the area in the Magallanes region in March, the two-hectare (five-acre) lake was its normal size, officials say.
In case you aren’t sure, two-hectares . . . would not have made it anywhere near the “size of Wales”. (”Area” size comparisons here in Britain are usually based upon the official “Size of Wales” yardstick. Try it yourself. Have fun. Americans probably already know that their version is the “Size of Texas.”)
But last month they found a huge dry crater and several stranded chunks of ice that used to float on the water.
In case one needed any further evidence of the rapidly increasing pace of “climate change”.
One theory is that an earthquake opened up a fissure in the ground, allowing the lake’s water to drain through…
Okay, maybe not. But that still doesn’t sound quite right. Any lake “disappearing” must be because of “climate change”.
…Geologists and other experts are being sent to the area, which is some 2,000km (1,250 miles) south of the capital, Santiago, to investigate…
Whoa there. Not so fast. Anyone considered what might happen if the lake suddenly reappears . . . while the “geologists and other experts” are milling around pensively where it had been previously?
The British government thinks it is vital for us to be able “to calculate” our so-called “carbon footprint“:
…Everyone has a carbon footprint - it’s your own personal measure of how much carbon dioxide you create and how much you contribute to climate change…
And the department head responsible has already tried it. The Telegraph reports:
…The Environment Secretary David Miliband was one of the first to use the calculator and revealed his own footprint was 2.76 tonnes of CO2 which is below the estimated annual average of more than four tonnes…
Having used it myself yesterday, I have to say I’m pleased. For I see that according to that “calculator“, there are ways I could look to increase my output considerably. (Who says we can’t all do our share?)
I do apologize for being one of those who just cannot accept at face value this (latest) “We’re doomed!“ scenario. There are reasons for that. They are perhaps best summed up by one scientist, who pointed out (and one would think he would hardly have to) in Newsweek back in April:
Judging from the media in recent months, the debate over global warming is now over. There has been a net warming of the earth over the last century and a half, and our greenhouse gas emissions are contributing at some level. Both of these statements are almost certainly true. What of it? Recently many people have said that the earth is facing a crisis requiring urgent action. This statement has nothing to do with science. There is no compelling evidence that the war