Rolled-up Trousers

Interview in the Scotsman

The Scotsman today feature a Q&A with me in the wake of this week's government report into discriminatory attitudes. Here.

St Andrew's Day march against racism

Well done to the STUC for yesterday again organising their St Andrew's Day march against racism. Some of the media coverage - Scotland on Sunday and BBC.

I had a short article in the programme for the event. Points I touched upon were the reaction to the Glasgow Airport attack, Martin Amis's cruel experiments, and the attempts of some Labour MPs like Margaret Hodge to triangulate with the BNP.

This year's march marked 200 years since the end of the slave trade. I made the point though that neo-slavery is very much in existence on our high streets. We all have a duty to buy ethically.

The Brightest and the Best

I feature in the Sunday Herald's special pullout today entitled "The Brightest and the Best" about the people who are building the new Scotland.

It's not online so I can't give you a link. Same is true of a news piece on a project I'm working on at the moment. Check out the paper if you can, otherwise hopefully I'll blog about it in the near future.

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.

In conversation with Alex Salmond

A couple of months ago I bumped into Alex Salmond in Glasgow's George Square. He was recording some YouTube broadcasts, and was good enough to take the time out to recording something with me. You can view it here.

We talked about he state of community relations on the back of the Jack Straw niqab "debate".

For those outside of Scotland, Alex Salmond is the leader of the Scottish National Party, whom the polls show are on course for victory in next year's Scottish elections. If you're interested in moving to a country where the political leadership is as enlightened as this, please note that Scotland is welcoming of those wishing to bring their talent here.

Incidentally, Alex was nominated by the BBC Politics Show for their poll of political heroes - no mean achievement in a London based programme. You can vote among the final seven here.

Quick comment on the Sunday Times article about my supposed comments on Islamophobia and the Holocaust last week. Under the headline Treatment of Muslims 'echoes Jews under Nazis', the newspaper averred that:

ONE OF Scotland’s most prominent Muslims has compared the treatment of Asians in Britain with that of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Except I didn't, and as Martin Sullivan at IW pointed out, if you read my actual comments in the article, you'll see I didn't. The headline of the article contains quotation marks, but again, as you'll see, there is no such quote contained therein.

The Blog Digest

Quick plug for Justin McKeating of Chick Yog fame's new book which is out this Friday. It's called the Blog Digest 2007 which is a self-explanatory title, except that it includes a pick of the posts from British blogs in 2006.

I've already got a copy through the post courtesy of the fact that one of my posts is featured. This one about the cartoon malarkey. Strange to think that a quick ten minute posting would later become my first piece of work published in a book. But that's blog land.

The book's an excellent read, and a great synopsis of the year that's gone by. The blogosphere has definitely churned out very decent comment, and I'd be interested to see if anyone could codify opinion from the MSM in the same period which would be as good as this.

I've got a comment as one of the 100 Scottish "key opinion-formers" on the issue of independence in today's Scotsman.

Welcome to Herald readers

Joan McAlpine picks up on the issue of there not being enough Muslims in Scottish newsrooms. Whose fault is it?

So what of the Scottish media? I believe it will have learned from this sorry tale. It will be reminded of the need to "assume nothing" and ensure basic fact-checking, something that requires the manpower to canvass a wide variety of sources. The media must also improve and extend its links with the Muslim community at every level. This point is made by Osama Saeed, whose blog – www.osamasaeed.org – offers an interesting Islamic perspective on a range of current events.

Greece boycott Israel?

Israel's final match which was due to take place today has been cancelled. Last night we were told that is was due to a "technical fault". Can't see what equipment could have been broken to cancel a game of cricket. Maybe a wicket snapped in half, and they didn't have a replacement stick?

Today, we've been told that Greece could not travel up to RAF Lossiemouth. OK it's in the north of Scotland, but they have come all the way from Greece. Surely they could get a coach or a few cars from somewhere?

I was on Newsnight Scotland about this last night with Alex Salmond and the Zvi Ravner from the Israeli embassy. It wasn't like the Galloway interview, but was ok. It should be online but BBC Scotland don't seem to have updated their Newnights since Thursday.

UPDATE: It has been confirmed that the above excuses were spin aka lies. Greece pulled out of the match, condemning themselves to relegation in the process. Statement from the ECC:

In spite of being made aware of the serious ramifications of their intended actions, Greece have decided not to fulfill their obligation to play Israel in the 7th /8th play-off match tomorrow (Wed 9th) at RAF Lossiemouth, and as a consequence have handed the match to their opponents and committed themselves to 8th place in the tournament and subsequently, relegation to Europe Div 3.

Note, the phrase "intended actions" and that Greece "decided" not to play this match. Background here, here and here.

Scottishness

Check out this special publication by Holyrood - the magazine of the Scottish Parliament - on Scottishness. Yours truly is one of the featured commentators on what Scottishness means to them. Other writers include:

• Jack McConnell MSP
• Alex Salmond MP
• Sir David Steel
• Jim Kerr
• Alex McCall Smith
• Ian Rankin
• Aamer Anwar
• Craig Murray
• Stuart Cosgrove
• Gavin Hastings

Does the media make it worse?

I'll be taking part in a debate entitiled "Conflict and terror: Does the media make it worse?" at this year's Festival of Politics in the Scottish Parliament. Also speaking will be:

• Hugh Miles, an authority on al- Jazeera and a Times Young Journalist of the Year,
• Professor David Miller of Strathclyde University , expert on propaganda and terrorism in Ireland and the Middle East ,
• Rev. Ruth Scott, writer, broadcaster and Trustee of The Forgiveness Project

It's on Thursday 24 August at 2pm at the Parliament's Venue 2.

Sunday Live and the cartoons

You can see my prerecorded polemic on the cartoons for Scottish TV's Sunday Live here. It's about 10 minutes into the programme, after the newspaper review but before Boris Johnson.

The piece was followed by a studio discussion involving Donald Findlay QC who defended the right to insult other faiths. Amusingly, his own well-known interest in the matter went uncommented on.

Sunday Herald article

I have an article on Muslim schools in today's Sunday Herald. One quick quote about Glasgow City Council's position:

At last year’s general election, after realising their support among Muslims had collapsed, Labour continually cited their establishment of state-funded Muslim schools in England as a saving grace. With elections due next year, I expected a softer line in Glasgow, especially now every vote counts with proportional representation.

You can read the whole thing here.