Rolled-up Trousers

Lib Dem leadership rivals pledge civil disobedience on ID cards

[Nick] Clegg offered to lead a "people's campaign" against the controversial measure, adding that he was prepared to be hauled before the courts.

Mr Clegg renewed his passport in May last year to avoid being placed on the new National Identity Register for another 10 years.

He said he would also be asking Lib Dem-controlled councils to ensure no local services required an ID card.

"If the government seeks to make ID cards compulsory on every British citizen, I will lead a people's campaign to thwart the programme," he said.

Hate literature and the Saudis

Right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange's latest report into the Muslim community has implicated Edinburgh Central Mosque in apparently distributing hate literature.

They have said that the material in question called for apostates from Islam to be killed. The mosque have not made official comment themselves, but I've spoken to people close to them who say that this is not something they stock or distribute. Further, as evidenced during an event at their Islam Festival held during August, their view on apostasy is that everyone should have the right to practice religion as they see fit. This includes leaving Islam.

Atif Siddique sentenced

Atif Siddique (see here and here for my previous posts on this) was sentenced to eight years this week by Lord Carloway.

This was less than what was expected, with newspaper reports at the time of conviction talking about the region of 15 years. Nevertheless it's still a tough sentence, which is to be expected under any conviction under the Terrorism Acts.

This could have two distinct effects. Firstly, if there are any more like Siddique out there, they will be suitably deterred from their dabbling with these kind of ideas.

Making Trident history

I don't know why I'm surprised about the Holyrood opposition parties' carping about today's summit on Trident held in Glasgow.

After their faux pas yesterday, Labour turned South Korea into Zimbabwe. They are irate about the Scottish government 'meddling' in Westminster affairs. This incidentally has not stopped Labour MPs in the past criticising their Scottish colleagues. Indeed, David Cairns MP once described hospital closures as "madness". Those in Edinburgh did not return the favour, even when they shook hands with Mugabe, even when they slaughtered hundreds of thousands in Iraq.

One can understand why Wendy Alexander is keeping quiet on Trident. What is less comprehensible is the Liberal Democrat position. It is Nicol Stephen that has contributed to turning this into a Union vs Independence stooshie. I was at the summit today. This is not what is was about - it dealt with devolved competencies such as jobs and the environment as well as issues such as Scotland's role in the world.

Why I won't be moving to Dubai

Earlier this year I visited Dubai for the first time in five years. The change in such a short space of time was astounding. The speed at which development takes place is truly breakneck.

It’s said that a quarter of the world’s cranes reside in the area. It’s as if they take an area of desert, plan the most ambitious development of its kind in the world, and just slap it up. The place oozes money, you can see it dripping on the streets.

Everyone says Dubai is a sign of the Day of Judgement. I definitely caught sight of proverbial barefooted, naked destitute herdsmen doing their thing. The ordinary people of Dubai invariably curse the place. One taxi driver, always the fount of knowledge in any city, brought his family over from Pakistan in 1982. Such has been the rise in prices due to Europeans and American moving in, that he’s had to send his family back recently.

It is still undeniably true though that Dubai would be the city of choice for many UK Muslims if they had to pick somewhere else to live. That isn’t a fantasy wish either – many have left and are considering leaving. The Guardian in 2005 found two-thirds questioning their future in this country due to the political situation.

Scotland Office doesn't know one Korea from another

I'll be at the Trident summit tomorrow in Glasgow and am immensely looking forward to the discussions that it will herald.

Today, the news is that the Scottish government is seeking support from the 189 signatories of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for it's anti-nuclear stance, as well as looking for observer status at the UN to be party to nuclear discussions.

Fantastic moves, which have crassly been described as of the "loony left" by Scotland Office minister David Cairns. Labour now seems to be not just out of touch with the people, but also the Parliamentary bubble. The majority of Scottish Parliamentarians in both Holyrood and Westminster oppose Trident replacement.

Another source at the Scotland Office sought to portray Alex Salmond's move as making alliances with Iran and South Korea. Presumably they meant North Korea. Let's hope an international spat doesn't ensue. But hang on a minute, North Korea isn't a signatory to the NPT so wouldn't even have received a letter. Just as well the spinner behind this line remained anonymous.

My top 20 political blogs

In the spirit of the recent listmaking, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. What follows is the 20 blogs I follow the most.

They are all political, though some have different focusses and flavours. I've not included any based outside of the UK to make my life easier. I've also not included any at CiF, because while some are great reads, they're just not proper blogs are they?

Most of those I've listed are what I started off with in the blogosphere a year or two ago, and I've admittedly not been the best at keeping up with new additions. There has to be marks for consistency anyway. Would love to hear your own favourites.

In alphabetical order:

• Beau Bo D'or
• Between the Hammer and the Anvil
• A Big Stick and a Small Carrot
• BlairWatch
• Chicken Yoghurt
• Craig Murray
• The Fanonite
• Five Chinese Crackers
• Indigo Jo Blogs
• Islamophobia Watch
• J. Arthur MacNumpty
• Lenin's Tomb
• North to Leith
• Obsolete
• Scots and Independent
• Scottish Futures
• Scottish Roundup
• SpinWatch
• Tartan Hero
• 1820

Amis says he didn't mean it, but still says Islam is the problem

Martin Amis writes to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown of the Independent about his grotesque views. Here's the roll-back:

It was a thought experiment, or a mood experiment, and the remarks were preceded by the following: "There's a definite urge – don't you have it? – to say... [etc, etc]." I felt that urge, for a day or two. My mood, I admit, was bleak – how I longed, Yasmin, for your soothing hand on my brow! It was, in its way, one of the bitterest moments, one of the moments of wormwood, in the strange tale that began five years earlier, in September 2001.

The press interview took place in the immediate aftermath of the foiled plot (August 2006) to obliterate 10 commercial jets with explosives put together in transit. Which would have resulted in the deaths of another 3,000 random Westerners, the majority of them women and children (these were summer flights across the North Atlantic). Human beings, born of women, caressed such thoughts in their minds.

Yes, you may well have missed that apology. The letter also makes the whole problem out to be of Terry Eagleton's making. One thought - for Amis the problem is Islam:

There were two additional depressants. At least one of the alleged would-be mass murderers had taken the trouble to convert to Islam, suggesting that the exterminatory virus was about to mutate, like bird flu.

Death and Taxes

If as Benjamin Franklin said, there are only two certainties in life - death and taxes - then Inheritance Tax manages to wrap both up into a neat package.

The Tories label it death tax, which some bristle at. I think it's accurate. It takes no account of who will be receiving the bequests. It is a tax on the deceased's estate (i.e. not the recipient) before distribution is made - therefore it is a tax on death. The name 'Inheritance Tax' is actually spin. Internationally it's known as the not quite as euphemistic Estate Tax, if it's not just honestly called Death Duties.

I'm not one of those who is in principle opposed to the idea of giving from a deceased's estate. I think it's very important that on our death we should be looking to make generous bequests to good causes. I'll leave it to others to decide whether the UK Treasury fits that description.

Airline refuses to fly out forced deportees

The Independent reports that XL Airways are now refusing requests by the government to fly out those being forcibly deported from the country. The final straw was taking out people to Congo:

Now it has emerged that the airline has written to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns confirming its decision to pull out of any further flights. The XL email, sent on 12 September, said: "We had a contract with the Government along with other carriers, for a range of flying. Under this contract we operated one flight in February to DR Congo as part of this contract, without full understanding of the political dimensions involved.

"Our chief executive [Phillip Wyatt] had made it quite clear to all concerned that we will not be operating any further flights of this nature ... We are not neutral on the issue and have sympathy for all dispossessed persons in the world, hence our stance."

This is a very important step and one possibility for action hitherto ignored among the various outrages that have taken place at the behest of the Home Office over the years.

XL should be applauded and hopefully other airlines will follow suit. In the Independent article, BA and Virgin said they had no choice in the matter, only for the Home Office to flatly contradict that. Even if it were the case, that's not good enough from these airlines. Turning a blind eye is complicity.

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Mosque Factor

This cheesy title is enabled by X factor no longer being known as Pop Idol - otherwise I would have got into trouble. I'm talking here about Islam Channel's competition to discover Britain's top mosque.

The mosques are being assessed on their interfaith work, women's facilities, youth services and their transparency on finances, policies and management.

As much as I love it, I was surprised to see my local Glasgow Central Mosque on the final short leet. I'm even more surprised to see Edinburgh Central Mosque not on it. There can't be many more progressive mosques. On the basis of their annual Islam Festival alone, they should be winning the competition hands down. And particularly because I'm fasting at the moment, don't get me started on the Mosque Kitchen mmmm....

Amis on Muslims

‘The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.’ What sort of suff­­er­­­ing? Not letting them travel. Deportation – further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they’re from the Middle East or from Pakistan… Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children.

Thus said Martin Amis last year. Fellow academic Terry Eagleton took this to task. He now writes on Comment is Free about the fallout from his criticism - there was no chorus of repudiation of Amis's views, just newspaper speculation about an academic bust up and concern that Muslims may not attend his lectures now.

More blogging accolades

Since being listed as Scotland's number one political blog (have I mentioned that before?), Iain Dale's book on blogging has seen me ranked as #92 on the all-UK 500 list.

That one was voted for by the people, so with Tartan Hero unconstrained by the dilemma of modesty in choosing himself for the Scottish list, inevitably finished above me on this one.

I didn't actually know there was a vote taking place. If I did, I may have organised some sort of campaign as finishing below Melanie Phillips leaves a somewhat bitter taste in the mouth. Still I did come above Oliver Kamm.

John Reid, war criminal, Celtic chairman *updated*

It was heartening to see some Celtic fans objecting to John Reid's appointment as Celtic chairman with cries of "war criminal".

This was a man who was one of the most vociferous in favour of going into Iraq, believed that the response to Iraqi prisoner abuse by US and UK troops was to be "slow to condemn" and be "very quick to support and understand", and is a former drinking buddy of another war criminal Radovan Karadzic. He is also said to have sexually harassed Labour colleague Dawn Primarolo.

In the words of other colleagues, Reid is a "patronising bastard". This was amply demonstrated by his call last year for Muslim parents to watch their children. This from a man who regularly belted out IRA ditties during his own youth.

I think I'm probably down about this as I thought we were getting shot of this man at the next general election. Rather, we're going to be treated to more Reidisms in the years to come. At least Tony Blair had the common sense to bog off to the Middle East. Still, it could be well worth getting a hold of some Celtic shares just to turn up to the AGM.

Football's soul

What on earth is going on with football at the moment? It's been remiss of me not to comment on Craig Murray's blog being taken down. He made comments about Alisher Usmanov, which resulted in the Russian billionaire steel magnate's lawyers writing to Craig's hosts, who immediately took down the blog. Even more remarkably in many ways, other blogs have been collaterally affected including Tim Ireland, who is back in action now though.

The situation has been brought about by Usmanov's desire to takeover Arsenal. This has been resisted by the board at the club, principally on governance reasons. The state of play across London with Chelsea turning into the southern division of Hearts has given them strength in that conviction. Arsene Wenger addressed this when he spoke of English football "losing its soul" last week with all these big money takeovers.

Despite talking about morals, he focussed on the impact of money rather than some of the more troubling aspects of the oligarchs we've seen lately. Indeed, Wenger's own close friend David Dein is heading up the operation to bring Usmanov to the helm at the club. Chelsea supporters have for years taken a nonchalant stance as to where their sugar daddy got his billions from.

Then we come to John Reid becoming the chairman at Celtic. Continued...

More thoughts on the Siddique trial

A number of people this week have been questioning whether Atif Siddique really is a terrorist, quite apart from the legal definition.

As previously noted, there was no plot and no bombs or bullets involved. I think even some of those on the inside came to this conclusion too judging by the leaked details of Siddique's intention, as they put forward, to bomb Canada and to behead their prime minister. This was not presented during the trial, but given to the media by anonymous sources after the verdict. It suggests to me a lack of confidence in the public case for Siddique's guilt. Normally these type of leaks take place after an arrest, not after a conviction.