Rolled-up Trousers

Do newspapers lead or follow?

Yesterday's Sunday newspapers all led with the Scottish elections, and in particular the forecasts from pollsters on the size of the SNP lead and the extent of Labour's predicted meltdown.

The one front page that struck me most of all was that of the Sunday Express. They took a break from their usual Diana conspiratorialising and asylum seeker bashing to print a positively glowing picture of Alex Salmond alongside a headline of "IT'S TIME". It may as well have been an SNP leaflet.

What's that noise you ask? It's the sound of bandwagons being jumped.

More with Richard Thomson

Question Time

Last week's Question Time forum on the eve of the Scottish Elections is now on YouTube:

The event was organised by the iWitness newspaper and Office of Muslim Affairs, and raised some of the more moral questions facing the Scottish Parliament not normally raised in the mainstream media. Topics raised by the audience included: torture/bomb flights refuelling at Prestwick Airport; Islamophobia; dawn raids; Trident; Islamic schools; civil liberties and Iraq.

The panel were:
Alex Salmond (SNP)
Margaret Curran (Labour)
Robert Brown (Liberal Democrats)
Bill Aitken (Conservatives)
With lawyer Aamer Anwar in the chair

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Is it cos I is Muslim?

Radio 4 produce a programme reporting on the phenomenon of Muslims leaving their place of birth in the UK and moving to places like Dubai because of increasing Islamophobia. A Guardian/ICM poll found two-thirds of Muslims thinking like this in 2005:

"Here, I look more Arab so I am viewed in a positive way, the tables are turned if you like. And it does affect you psychologically. I feel more comfortable here, which is sad really because Britain is my home. I was born there, my family are there and part of me does feel sad to leave. It's not an easy thing."

I recently visited Dubai for the first time in a while and will hopefully blog on this in more depth soon. Meanwhile, more with Indigo Jo.

Being anti-Zionist is not anti-Semitic

Gordon Brown last week announced that there would be a fresh cash injection for Holocaust education. All good, but the chosen venue for releasing this news was his speech to the annual Labour Friends of Israel lunch. It further underlines the complete blurring of the lines between the distinct issues of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust and that of Israel and Zionism.

I was asked to speak recently at a fringe meeting at the NUS conference. Delegates there were busy preparing for a motion to the effect that anti-Zionism was anti-Semitism, effectively adopting the EU definition. It shows how far things have come since 1975 when the UN said Zionism was racism - not only is it not any more apparently, but it's racist to say it is.

Perverting religion

What if the Virginia Tech killer had said this:

You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die for the pleasure of Allah, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenceless people.

He did say something like this, except with "I die like Jesus Christ" instead of for the pleasure of Allah. Cho Seung-hui also railed against materialism and hedonism - not unlike Al-Qaeda bombers. He glorified those who inspired him to do it - the Columbine killers Klebold and Harris, who in turn were motivated by Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh and the killings of the Christian sect at Waco.

Given the fuss over a reference from Moby Dick on Cho's arm which right-wingers claimed linked him to Islam (and that 'Korean' is one letter from being 'Koran'), imagine the field day these guys would be having if that link were as strong as the Christianity ones.

More from Lenin and Anas Altikriti.

Scottish footballers talk themselves out of business

Scottish football legends have come out today in favour of keeping the Union. I don't often speak against Super Ally, but there is an inconsistency here. It is at the very least odd for footballers who themselves have benefited from having a separate Scottish FA and leagues to be lecturing other people about having other walks of life fused together.

While some of the country's intelligentsia were coming out in favour of the Union, 100 businesses signed a statement in support of the SNP.

On a slightly separate note, I'm surprised at this latest development. I've often wondered why footballers do not use their clout more to campaign on issues of national and international importance. These guys have oodles of cash and media exposure. This intervention is quite unprecedented by an industry which by my reckoning is one of the most bloated and selfish around.

Brain under a hijab shocker!

The lady who committed the grave crime of going swimming while wearing the hijab has finally been able to put her side of the story in the Guardian.

As was patently obvious at the time, the guy at the centre of the Daily Mail and Sun story is a bigot, and the David Lloyd fitness club in Oxford were cowardly at best. Some choice quotes from Manal Omar:

Humanitarian intervention

Oxfam director Barbara Stocking said:

"Day in day out, Oxfam sees the human consequences of Britain's foreign policies at first hand, both good and bad. Labour's foreign policy has been at its best when it has been in tune with public opinion and international law. However it is now clear that the invasion of Iraq, and the government's failure to stand up to all governments when they break international law and harm innocent people, have seriously damaged Britain's capacity to be a force for good on the world stage.

"The Iraq war was a terrible misadventure. But it must not cause future Prime Ministers to return to the caution of the previous Conservative government. That administration stood by while the genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda unfolded. We must say 'never again' as much to our failure to stop these atrocities, as to repeating Iraq."

£10,000 reward

Quite rightly, last week's news of the attack on a Muslim Algerian woman and her baby in Glasgow has repulsed everyone.

She was walking in Yoker when a gang of four started throwing stones, kicking, and shouting abuse at her. One then sexually assaulted her. He then attempted to also indecently assault her one year old baby. The woman managed to rescue her child, fleeing the scene. Police later recovered her pram and headscarf.

The attack marks a new low. The police have described it as a racially motivated crime. The Scottish Executive last month released statistics showing a rise in racist assaults (looking at the figures, they happen to spike particularly around the time of the July bombings - it's clear that there is a new type of prejudice that is brought about by the global terrorism situation). Attacks have been increasing, not just in number, but as we can see, they are getting worse in their nature.

With this background, it's easy to see why a group of businessmen came forward with a £10,000 reward to catch the pervert who did this. The only thing that could be worse than the fact this has happened is if no one is caught and prosecuted for it. The message has to go out that this kind of thing will not be tolerated.

"Worship me"

This is quite a striking image, the police standing in the imam's position at a Dundee mosque. I found the picture at the Dundee Courier. Click the icon on the right to see what they called the picture.

STUC grudgingly back Labour

This was buried in an article in the Herald today:

Meanwhile, Labour's campaign problems mounted as the general council of the Scottish Trades Union Congress had a majority of only one vote in favour of endorsing the party at the Holyrood election. At a private meeting, Unison, the party's biggest funder, voted against the proposal, arguing it would be better not to put it to the test of a conference debate tomorrow, at which several unions not affiliated to Labour will be able to air their grievances.

Nicola Sturgeon, SNP deputy leader, said: "It is a severe blow to Labour just 17 days out from the election. If Unison - Scotland's biggest union and Labour Party affiliate - abstains, and even the general council of the STUC can barely bring themselves to support Labour, then it illustrates the depth of the crisis they are facing across Scottish society."

I would imagine if this had happened in England then it would have caused major headlines. As well as Unison not backing Labour, the Fire Brigades Union has decided to back SNP candidates.

On the other end of the proletariat-bourgeoisie divide, the same Herald article quotes Jack McConnell hitting out at the high profile businessmen who have come out in support of the SNP and independence. Not quite backing up Tony Blair's claim that RBS wasn't a "real business" he did say that "hard-working businesses" weren't being reflected in the debate. That said, I did expect Labour to wheel out some prominent business names to give support during the campaign. As yet, we're still waiting.

Posting

Apologies for the lack of blogging action of late. I've just got an even higher than usual workload and project-load at the moment. Hopefully things will be back on an even keel shortly.

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David T

Inayat Bunglawala appears to have uncovered something about David T of Harry's Place infamy.

Why is he apparently allowed to post anonymously on the Guardian's website? When he got the blog space there, he suddenly acquired the surname Tate. Inayat claims that that really isn't his surname at all.

Which begs the question - what is Mr T/Tate/Taub (whatever his name is) trying to hide via his fake names?