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Tuesday 1 November 2011

Sarah McDermott | 10:30 UK time, Tuesday, 1 November 2011

Ahead of the 2011 G20 Summit and emergency meeting with Greece tomorrow, Paul Mason is in Cannes for us tonight with the latest on the announcement of a Greek referendum on the aid package to solve its debt crisis. Read more on Paul's blog.

Shaun Ley is in Tyne and Wear where he'll be reporting on the latest economic growth figures.

Tim Whewell has just returned from Milan where he's been asking how Italy - the country with the second highest government debt in the eurozone - can survive.

And we have a film from Liz Mackean about the joint enterprise law, used by police to tackle gang violence, which is to be investigated by MPs after claims it is criminalising hundreds of innocent and mainly young people.

Join Gavin at 2230 on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

  • Comment number 2.

  • Comment number 3.

  • Comment number 4.

  • Comment number 5.

  • Comment number 6.

    CORRUPTION IS A JUVENILE WAY OF LIFE - DO YOU SEE MATURITY ANYWHERE? (#5 link)

    Our governance, far from being a beacon of 'democracy under rule of law' is a warning of how low apparent civilization can sink, before following Rome to oblivion. And we have infected much of the world. Climate corruption is just a small facet.

    Dim Dave was recently bragging about our continued global reach.

    Nuff sed.

  • Comment number 7.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 8.

    The Greek PASOK just lost their majority - the game is truly up.

    Economic crisis is here and now.

    THERE GOES THE GREEK MAJORITY

  • Comment number 9.

  • Comment number 10.

  • Comment number 11.

    MuseV #8

    It would appear that the stock market parasites are not quite sure but as the FTSE slump recovered somewhat this afternoon it would appear that they are betting on a Greek general election to produce a new puppet government which will deny the Greek people a referendum on the EU bail out deal.

  • Comment number 12.

    CORRUPTION IS NOW CARICATURING ITSELF (#10 link)

    Meanwhile Dave hopes to get us to trick ourselves into thinking we are OK in a country run by charlatans and suffused with nihilism.

    Go Dave! (No no - I meant GO DAVE.)

  • Comment number 13.

    Scientist who said climate change sceptics had been proved wrong accused of hiding truth by colleague

    see the graph that fooled the world

  • Comment number 14.

    give the massive misselling can we now have our carbon tax back?

  • Comment number 15.

    China advocates Europe borrow in renminbi



    which would make it the defacto world currency.

  • Comment number 16.

  • Comment number 17.

    jauntycyclist wrote:"Prof Curry is a distinguished climate researcher with more than 30 years experience and the second named co-author of the BEST project’s four research papers."

    The problem is always the way that the press reports what it hears or is provided as press briefings. Science does not work the way the papers report. Science does not go by how senior someone is, or any other index of authority. This is important. Scientific dispute is never a slanging match between personalities. Where that is all that is going on it is just that, a slanging match between personalities, usually disordered ones more interested in fame etc than science. To fully understand that point one needs to understand how and why science is allo-centric not ego-centric..

    Journalists translate science back into natural language and in the process turn science into nonsense much of the time. One has to learn the rules of the language-game. The David Bellamy video was good. One has to read the Mail and even the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ with caution. The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is generally better, but only just these days.

  • Comment number 18.

    brossen99 wrote: "It would appear that the stock market parasites are not quite sure but as the FTSE slump recovered somewhat this afternoon it would appear that they are betting on a Greek general election to produce a new puppet government which will deny the Greek people a referendum on the EU bail out deal."

    So long as we use the markets to determine value in this way, nothing can change. The essence of Libertarian economics is that Governments can not be trusted to determine value, only the markets. That's because so many people are so "crooked" and life is so fast. Free-market economics was just a capitulation to that miserable observation. It thus makes no sense at all to call those working in the market abusive names as they are just doing us all a service within this system of Libertarian economics. We have to face these facts if we expect there to be any changes. One has to look to nations which do NOT have free-market economies to see the alternative.

    At least Stelzer was honest when he used to come onto Newsnight. Venal, but honest.

    jauntycyclist wrote: "which would make it the defacto world currency."

    Just remember that they are Marxist-Leninist-Stalinists. They manage their population in everyone's interests not the individual's. They have read European demographics and understand the dire functional relations which most people here appear to have a total blind-spot to. How else can one explain this mess we have created?

    Please Newsnight, no more Harvard story-tellers. It hasn't been the same there since the 60s.

  • Comment number 19.

    brown-dog #18

    I do hope that you are not attempting to portray that we have a true " free market " in the UK when its obviously seriously rigged by the banks and a few key corporate players. If we had as close as you can get true free market where the only regulation needed would be to prevent any single private company from having more than 5% of total market share, and individual workers rights protected by a citizens income, we would probably never have got into the current financial mess in the first place.

  • Comment number 20.

    brown-dog further #19

    Of course the key to a true " free market " would require the nationalisation of the Banks and any infastructure companies which could not be sensibly limited in size allowing for the economy of scale. I suppose that is very similar to your beloved China at present and if so so be it, energy and transport should be nationalised at the core but that is not to say that any related services could not go out to private tender if practical. I'm not too keen on private tender for health / social services though but I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere.

  • Comment number 21.

    17

    the bbc are co2 propagandists that help mad men extract taxes and transfer them to the very rich.

    the better model that at least has an 85% success rate of prediction is the solar cycle one whereas the co2 models have zero success rate.

    time to end the misselling and give our carbon taxes back and arrest those who missold.

  • Comment number 22.

    #4 ecolizzy:

    Good one, liz. On that link is the chance for those bloggers who continually identify faults with our government, yet fail to recommend or take any ACTION to remedy them.

    Of course, we can all adopt the stance of 'what's the use as it will not result in any change?' But surely no government can continually ignore the aggregated and published demands of a substantial number of the electorate; it's our form of lobbying and MUST lead to further protest if ignored again.

    There is now a substantial number of MPs who are very angry at the 3-line whip tactics that effectively put them at odds with their electorate's wishes. Least we can do is to send them the message that we have not given up to Bullyington Dave.

    Another refusal to listen, and give serious consideration, to yet another e-petition
    will provide specific grounds for a mass protest, unlike the rather nebulous agenda of the 'Occupy' protests.

    My MP now invites my views on major issues and I have just given him some enlightenment on the Daylight Savings proposals - another attempt to placate the minority Libs and 'harmonise' us further into the EU mould, irrespective of our National differences and requirements.

    So, GO ON - sign the petition; put your name to this and other e-petitions that demand change, rather than just whinge on.

  • Comment number 23.

    #22 Thanks indignantindegene, have you heard anything about it on the Beeb TV or Radio?



    I haven't!


    I've passed the link on to a good many people, hope others do to.

  • Comment number 24.

    "THE PLAY PROVIDED AN INSIGHT INTO THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THOSE INVOLVED"



    I was pondering the Chilcot Report delay, and found this interesting Guardian comment. It is particularly arresting to me, as I wrote to plead with Chilcot to LEARN LESSONS (the brief of the enquiry) SPECIFICALLY regarding the kind of delusional nutter who gets to the top, under THE WESTMINSTER ETHOS. It is no good coming out with a report full of 'required checks and balances', it MUST advise that we

    DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER - INSTALL INTEGRITY or no lesson will have been learned.

  • Comment number 25.

    FUNNY LOT THOSE MPS - PUBLIC DISSENT AND 3-LINE WHIP - IDS AND IRAQ? (#22)

    Remember the marching million? It wasn't Tony who won that war, it was IDS with his whip and his fawning ninnies. From memory, 140odd Labour rebelled, LibDems abstained to a stain, and there were about 15 Tory rebels. IDS got all dewy-eyed for Tony's missionary zeal. I only ever saw IDS asked (nicely) about it. He should have been pilloried to the end of time. Now he is all caring about children. Not the bombed ones, of course.

    Funny lot those media.

  • Comment number 26.

    ARE YOU SURE THAT 'INVITED VIEWS' DO NOT PRECEDE A CRAFTY 'NUDGE'? (#22)

    My MP is not bright enough to be cunning - he simply told me he can do what he likes; declared me illogical, and put up the shutters. Maybe your MP (another Westminster Creature - de facto) is putting on a better show, asking your view and then ignoring it? That would surely be the 'Way of Nudge'. Never forget:

    POLITICS IS THE ART OF SELF-DECEPTION WRAPPED IN THE CRAFT OF DECEIVING OTHERS 'FOR THEIR OWN GOOD'.

  • Comment number 27.

    enjoyed NN till Toryboy came on and tried to defy gravity, the whole Eurozone is in meltdown and all he could do was try to score points of Labour......it looked nice and calm in Cannes where Paul was but nobody commented on the decision of the Greek prime minister and what a brave decision it was to offer the Greek people a referendum. What? Actually offer a referendum? Luxury! Oh, to be offered a referendum! How does one get one of those? Put your country into unfathonable debt....yes, well we 've done that. High unemployment, er, yes, well we've done that. An unpopular Prime minister,? done that! How come we didn't get a referendum....not fair....

  • Comment number 28.

    Osborne's claim to be "on track" sounds like his comment on Ireland just before it went over the cliff: "A shining example" he called it - or his election plan to "share the proceeds of growth" - whilst having zero plan to have any - with the Eurozone in meltdown and rapidly falling UK living standards and the best part of a trillion pounds in aggregate demand still to come out of the Uk economy in +taxes and-spending, we're "on track" to go over the austerity cliff just like Eire!

  • Comment number 29.

    #27 stevie

    Can't fault your analysis, but in response to your (rhetorical?) question

    "How come we didn't get a referendum....not fair...." I'm left wondering:-

    "What action have you taken so far to apply some pressure other than blogging?"

    Do you routinely pester the life out of your MP as I do, and have you signed any of the e-petitions, for instance? These steps are all we have outside of the token democracy of the ballot box. Even there the major public reaction seems to be either to give up on voting or, worse still, failing to VOTE RADICAL in order to at least show contempt for the ConDemLabs.

    Last May over 1 million votes were cast for the leading minor parties yet failed to get any MPs elected, whilst many ConDemLab MPs got elected despite having more votes cast 'against' them.

    The majority of voters were then bullied by Cameron, and took spite on Clegg, by voting against AV in the referendum to dump the First Past the Post system - which perpetuates the above anomalies and gets us more of the same contempt.

    The e-petition opportunity (ruse?) to get major concerns raised and hopefully addressed is bedevilled by a form of uncoordinated amateurism that results in too many competing claims splitting the voting - e.g. there are over 50 e-petitions under the subject heading of Immigration, not counting those already withdrawn or rejected. Most record only a handful of signatures, whilst some, such as the 'NO to UK Population of 70 Million' (see #4 above) have already reached almost 30,000 signatures in the past 2 weeks.

    What is needed is for a 'voter-friendly' organisation (such as Tax Payers' Alliance) to monitor this situation and to make public recommendations about which petitions to support, thus focussing public attention and signatures on the few major concerns. In the absence of such coordination I ask all bloggers to put your moniker where your mouth is, sign the significant e-petitions (such as at #4) and let us make recommendations to each other on this blog for ACTION rather than just complain.

  • Comment number 30.

    TWO MORE, AND THAT DAMNED COCKEREL IS GOING TO CROW!

    The Bishop of London seemed delighted that a "young Muslim" had assured him "Jesus was a great prophet". Apart from the tense applied, and the blasphemy employed, should not some attempt at soul-saving have been enacted?

    Is it me?

  • Comment number 31.

    ·¡³Ü°ù´Ç»åä³¾³¾±ð°ù³Ü²Ô²µ

    "the euro was an inherently flawed idea that can work only given a strong European economy and a significant degree of inflation, plus open-ended credit to sovereigns facing speculative attack."



    "Greece should never have been allowed into the eurozone. Maybe the eurozone should sue Goldman Sachs - which helped hide the nations debts - for the cost of the bailout. "

    "You want a solution. Berlin takes on 150 billion euros of Greek debt. Italy’s cost of borrowing will fall as it tackles it debt, since Rome’s finances are in a better position than most. France won’t lose its AAA rating if it needs to bailout its banks. And no need for Europe to depend on China to fix its economic mess."



    Will Frau Merkel ride to the rescue?

  • Comment number 32.

    IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

    I grew by 0.5% in the month of October. If ths trend continues, I should be too big to fail by the end of this Parliament.

    Error band? What error band.

  • Comment number 33.

    #29 It was ever thus Indi...

    "Divide and Rule"

    But I do follow your example, write to my MP sign various petitions. at the moment one on gravel extraction on an SSSI, Ramsar, and SPA site, and now I see the wonderful powerful big business man Richard Rogers has planned a huge new airport for the Isle of Grain, wonderful, all that agricultural land going to waste. All through the second world war one of my uncles ploughed that bleak place growing food for Britain. Oh and it would mean shooting say around 300,000 birds which overwinter in the estuary, you know bird strike etc. And then that's not to mention the explosion waiting to happen, that I can frequently look at.

    Such short memories business people and MPs have, wait to we start running out of food, it's gonna happen sooner or later. The rest of the world will hold us to ransom, as they now do about our utilities.

    This country's demise started with Thatcher and the "boom" (for some) of the eighties, there is bound to be a ruddy great bust.

  • Comment number 34.

    Didn't anyone see this coming 'cos I did. After everyone had their solar panels and the energy companies were profiting by it, bang the subsidy to ordinary Jo public is slashed, what a surprise.

    The same way that once we are all on water meters watch the price per unit rocket. Another wonderful Thatcher idea privitise your water, which had a knock on effect around the world. An essential necessity for life, but you have to pay through the nose for it now.

  • Comment number 35.

    "DIVIDE AND RULE" (#33)

    Ay - 'ere's one: If 'divide and rule' implies that DIVISION WEAKENS, how does DELIBERATE ADVERSARIAL GOVERNMENT justify itself? De facto: it must consume a considerable proportion of the time and money available, to no gain; and by its VERY NATURE will attract THE WRONG KIND OF MP. That explains a lot.

    THIS IS THE AGE OF PERVERSITY.

  • Comment number 36.

    How come I'm forced to eat Halal slaughtered meat when I don't even know it???!!! Since when was the Islamic religion forced on us?



    Not that I shop in this company, so I shouldn't complain, now should I?

  • Comment number 37.

    I NOTE THAT 'UTILITY' CAN NOW MEAN 'PROFITABLE'! (#34)

    I feel sure it USED TO mean having beneficial properties of consequence.

    Hi Lizzy. You will have noticed: in all the recent discussion of UK exposure to external forces - both natural and geo-political - regarding water and energy, no one refers to the reckless Thatcher dogma of 'Flogoff'. Only one explanation fits:

    WE GOT OURSELVES ANOTHER ONE

  • Comment number 38.

    More visitors for England?

  • Comment number 39.

    I GO TO A TINY LOCAL BUTCHER - HE RECITES "BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP" (#36)

    Do you know - I can't tell the difference!

  • Comment number 40.

    Definition of a prophet



    "Traditionally, prophets are regarded as having a role in society that promotes change due to their messages and actions.

    In the late 20th century the appellation of "prophet" has been used to refer to individuals particularly successful at analysis in the field of economics, such as in the derogatory "prophet of greed". Alternatively, social commentators who suggest escalating crisis are often called "prophets of doom.""

    Does this mean that the Arch Bishop of Canterbury - Dr Rowan Williams - is a prophet in calling for a Tobin tax on all financial transactions?

    Or does the Church of England just profit from the Corporation of London?

  • Comment number 41.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 42.

    AS I HAVE CONTINUALLY REPEATED: MULTICULTURE CRACKS UNDER STRESS (#38)

    More visitors or 'visitation' Lizzy?

    DIFFERENCISM - by my reckoning - is deep in the Ape-brain of the male, and comes to the fore under any provocation; be it gladiatorial football, or confrontational, workless street groups. If grawth continues to be as imaginary as money, it is only a matter of time before DIFFERENCE can no longer be PC'd away, cerebrally, and battle lines will be drawn. With 'luck' the troops will be home in time to man the streets, when Dave declares a state of emergency.

    Of course, the enemy will be called 'TERROR' not 'DIFFERENCE'.

  • Comment number 43.

    Sasha Clarkson wrote quoting "Liberal" Krugman : ""the euro was an inherently flawed idea that can work only given a strong European economy and a significant degree of inflation, plus open-ended credit to sovereigns facing speculative attack."

    Was it not the case that the Eurozone was created as an enclave within the EU to drive through the same Libertarian political-economic system which the USA has? Namely a plutocracy contrived via a common fiat currency controlled by a private Central Bank (ECB) just like the US Federal Reserve? This is a way to govern via those who control banking rather than a democratically elected Government per se. Surely this is just descriptively obvious. The Greeks have seen this.

    Still quoting, but from Al Jazeera

    "Greece should never have been allowed into the eurozone. Maybe the eurozone should sue Goldman Sachs - which helped hide the nations debts
    - for the cost of the bailout."

    But that was how they did it was it not? They extended credit lines and then took possession. It's an age-old trick called usury or riba. The Eurozone suing Goldman Sachs would be as likely as Goldman Sachs suing The Federal Reserve, as its all part of the same USA Libertarian machine which the Axis Powers went to war against in the 30s - it's actually an alternative to democracy. That is what the Chinese, and before them the Soviets, have long been trying to get Western (and Japanese etc) people to wake up to. But they never awake from their child-like, narcissistic, slumber. Our original Labour Party tried to do the same under extreme duress (mainly from the USA and its banks) throughout its short history (alas it is no more)..

    Most people will never wake up. Most people hate being enlightened, as it's demeaning. It doesn't make them LOOK good in public to admit that they were wrong. It takes extreme courage to do that, and that's what researchers have had to endure throughout history. That is one reason why science has been marginalised in recent times, and why celebritism, and the fuzzy arts have been reinforced. This has LITERALLY bred generations of self-centred people (through differential fertility) who can't look beyond their own short-term self-interest, a people who, when they ask if their bums look big, only ever want replies so long as they are flattering, and don't break Libertarian "House Rules"..

  • Comment number 44.

    ecolizzy wrote "How come I'm forced to eat Halal slaughtered meat when I don't even know it???!!! Since when was the Islamic religion forced on us?"

    Because in some parts of the country, especially London boroughs, Muslims are the majority. That's democracy and market forces at work.
    Don't you like it?

    In Israel (and some parts of Stamford Hill) Kosher applies. In Britain, and especially London, the non Muslims are shrinking in numbers. Give it all some thought and you will answer your own questions instead of unfairly blaming others. I don't like it any more than you, but that is not the point.

  • Comment number 45.

    museV wrote "Why is this analysis not in the MSM?"

    One is that it's political dynamite, anathema to Libertarian Democracy.

    Most of those who have published in this area have found themselves subject to more than just verbal hostility. Some of those publishing in this area deserve criticism, I hasten to add. Some have promoted a politics which is counter productive and misguided.

    "Why doesn't the human genome project highlight this considerable conclusion? Please answer!"

    I can't answer that but suggest that the implications of taking it on board are not in the best interests of those sustaining Libertarian economics.

    It is less the Genome Project and more a critical mass of data (from behavioural and physiological research) on human diversity (see the Prader Scale) and possibly the unwitting mass action of a forceful minority (cf NCAH for an entry point but dig deep into the research on sex hormone tilt). One should see it as a new subtle twist on the Battle of The Sexes which lies at the heart of human evolution and Natural Selection.

    There is no more powerful force in biology, and hence politics, and the more familiar it becomes the more apple-carts it will upset. Hence much of the silence I suspect. The sad fact is, it's a silence which kills.

    If my analysis is wrong, I would much rather have that pointed out rather than having the analysis and warning ignored/censored in defence of the status quo.

  • Comment number 46.

    WHAT PROFIT ENGLAND WHEN WE GAIN 'ANOTHER ONE' BUT NEVER FIND OUR SOUL?

    THATCHER was adamant the Poll Tax 'would be very popular'. She flogged the utilities. She took to using the royal 'We'.

    MAJOR signed up to Maastricht. He set up the cones hot line. He developed a weirdly pedantic speech pattern.

    BLAIR went to war on crafted lies. He 'Aped' the mannerisms of Bush. He has turned into a messianic figure, yet who 'stores up riches on earth'.

    BROWN was besotted with money manipulation. He was an Americophile - yet he failed to see the crash coming. He declared he had abolished boom and bust.

    CAMERON presided over the Conservative Liar Flyer. He vilified Nick in the AV referendum. He clearly believes HE is supreme, as his 'Doctored Dave' poster affirmed.

    DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER - LET'S NOT GET OURSELVES ANOTHER ONE.

  • Comment number 47.

    @41 ""We reserve the right to fail comments which...

    Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation and contempt of court." "

    ????????????????? I'm bemused!

    Re halal or not halal: what is sold in supermarkets is pre-stunned etc, and not strictly Dhabihah. The fact that a large number of muslims buy it anyway shows that they are like the rest of the population. Most people are happy to pay lip-service to their religion, but not ask too many questions if it might interfere with their daily lives.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhabihah

  • Comment number 48.

    @ Lizzy #36 - BOYCOTT all meat from the companies that secretly sell us Halal meat, and I note from that article that quite a number of the supermarkets already do :o(

  • Comment number 49.

    @ Brown-Dog #44 There is nothing wrong with wanting the FREEDOM OF CHOICE to buy Halal or not! All meat should be clearly labelled.

  • Comment number 50.

    brossen99 wrote "I do hope that you are not attempting to portray that we have a true " free market " in the UK when its obviously seriously rigged by the banks and a few key corporate players."

    The economy is FREE in that prices and incomes are not FIXED by Government, i.e that there is not state regulation (by Civil Servants and others working in the Public Sector aka state). When we had a more regulated 'mixed' economy, we also had less variation in products i.e. goods. Remember the former austere USSR which offered its consumers limited choice? That is what regulation levels to, austerity. Tat is the price for regulation, for a non free economy. Most people over 50 will remember Britain being like that, and many will be missing it, along with the 9even then being eroded) family values which were part of it.

    "If we had as close as you can get true free market where the only regulation needed would be to prevent any single private company from having more than 5% of total market share, and individual workers rights protected by a citizens income, we would probably never have got into the current financial mess in the first place."

    That may well be true. My point was just to bring some attention to the harsher realities of what some say they want and what they don't like.

    They can't have it both ways. To have more regulation will mean more austerity. Personally, I would vote for that as being in the greater good, i.e that it would increase the indigenous birth rate where it maters as that is the problem at root.. It's probably a fantasy anyway as most people these days thin they are entitled to demand their cake and over eat it with no thought to the longer term consequences to their well being or that of others :-(

  • Comment number 51.

    #44 "Because in some parts of the country, especially London boroughs, Muslims are the majority. That's democracy and market forces at work.
    Don't you like it?"

    No I don't brown dog, but I'm not allowed to say so, I find it disgusting, an abhoration that animals should be slaughtered in this halal/kosher manner.

    We went through centuries in this country learning how to behave in a better way, and now because a couple of million of another religion walk into the country we have given all our hard won victories up. And no I'm not an animal rights person, but I don't like cruelty and it is perverse to say that it is anything else. The RSPCA camaign against it, but you won't find it out on any media source.

    Why can a couple of million muslims and jews dictate how their animals are slaughtered, to a population of 60 million, when did the minority rule the majority?

    Oh no need to answer look at that shower of MPs we have, they are a tiny minority, and do exactly as they and big business want, bugger the people.

    Where is our democracy? I'm glad the home of democracy is fighting back, do what the people want not what a small minority do.

  • Comment number 52.

    PMQs - SAME OLD SAME OLD

    Dave was asked a simple question regarding the sudden halving of the solar power subsidy. Dave's answer had not one word on the subject in it.

    This weekly charade is an insult to competent minds. So typical of the Westminster Ethos that the Speaker never calls for a proper answer. I have little doubt he is not permitted to do so.

    DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER - INSTALL INTEGRITY

  • Comment number 53.

    #48 Yes Mistress it is the lack of choice that annoys me so much. We must kowtow to every other race and religion in this country but not the indigenous one.


    We are vanishing before our very eyes.

  • Comment number 54.

    Sasha Clarkson wrote: "Re halal or not halal: what is sold in supermarkets is pre-stunned etc, and not strictly Dhabihah. The fact that a large number of muslims buy it anyway shows that they are like the rest of the population. Most people are happy to pay lip-service to their religion, but not ask too many questions if it might interfere with their daily lives."

    From your link.

    "Debates still rage among Muslim jurists and the general Muslim population about whether or not stunning, anaesthetics, or other forms of inducing unconsciousness in the animal prior to slaughter are permissible as per Islam. Several halal food authorities have more recently permitted the use of a recently developed fail-safe system of head-only stunning where the shock is less painful and non-fatal, and where it is possible to reverse the procedure and revive the animal after the shock"

    What's legitimate is presumably a matter for experts in Islamic law to decide in conjunction with prevailing laws here as technology advances?

    Presumably the critical issue here is that of the actual (humane) mode of killing of the animal? Stunning is not necessarily the mode of killing so if the animal is stunned and then killed according to Dhabihah that is one matter, if on the other hand the animal is killed by stunning that is another as allowing variations in the law can be the thin end of the wedge - e.g. just hitting the animal with a brick! The concerns for many Muslims will be that efforts are being made to insidiously secularise them (i.e render them Libertarian consumers and borrowers) by eroding their basic religious convictions and practices, practices which do not violate any Western laws. The same issue arises over dress. For some in our society, the proscription of alcohol, and riba is, given the changing demographics, a projection of lower revenue/profits/business. Getting people not to care is part of the pernicious spread of Libertarian anarchism which has brought about the mess we are dealing with across Europe, and which Commonwealth Muslims were allegedly imported to compensate for..

    This is meant to be constructive.

  • Comment number 55.

    #45 brown-dog

    Thank you.

  • Comment number 56.

    Dr Rowan Williams is beginning to grow some cajones...I wonder where that puts him on the Prader scale?

    Cameron condemns boardroom excesses but rejects Robin Hood tax call


    "In his article for the FT, Williams aligned himself with the anti-capitalist protesters camped outside St Paul's cathedral, listing the tax as one of the specific measures that might advance their aims.

    He also suggested separating the retail and trading arms of banks and placing more obligations on banks that had been recapitalised with public money."

    Watch out CoE...I can sense a smear test may be imminent.

  • Comment number 57.

    Oh dear!

    Benjamin Netanyahu seeks cabinet support for Israeli strike on Iran

  • Comment number 58.

    #54 Mr Dog I thought you were a scientist! When is it ok to inflict cruelty on an animal in the name of religion? If a person is an atheist why should they have to eat religious meat? Why is the Islamic religion good in your eyes, but the Jewish race not, which is what you often imply. There are far more rich arabs/asians than there are rich jews in the world, but I don't hear you complaining bitterly about their way of life.

    I would say it is big business here, particularly foreign owned who are looking to make a very big business and profit from the halal slaughter of animals, because of our very lax morals on the welbeing of the animal in this country now. They are after the european market which is being overwhelmed by the Islamic religion.

    I believe an enormous halal slaughtering business is being set up in Wales, and guess what by a foreign company, and no I'm not alright with that. Oh and look to the coming diversity in the region, as a few hundred slaughtermen from muslim countries will have to move in there to kill the animals. Welsh language speakers needn't apply.

  • Comment number 59.

    "All our lamb is electrically stunned before slaughter, meaning that animals are unconscious and are not subjected to pain."



    nuff said?

  • Comment number 60.

    ecolizzy wrote "#48 Yes Mistress it is the lack of choice that annoys me so much. We must kowtow to every other race and religion in this country but not the indigenous one.

    We are vanishing before our very eyes."

    Indeed, but at whose hands ecolizzy and why can so few SEE this? Who chose to go out to work to earn and independent disposable income for fancy clothes and homes far too big for themselves? Why are there so many homes with 3+ bedrooms given the national TFR?

    I'm not kidding about self-centredness and its biological basis and scotoma.

    Which group is not too good at knowing what it does spatially, and why is it genetically programmed that way? What evolved to compensate for this, and which group behaves normally, but has been put under pressure to behave abnormally?

  • Comment number 61.

    #60 Ah I'm an exception from that rule Mr Dog, my spatial skills are excellent, I can measure gaps, and fabric with my eye, and always pick up a pound or rather a half kilo, even to the gram. I'm so good at it, people comment on how did you know how much to collect, so not all women have poor spatial skills. And I squeeze through tiny gaps when driving, other people wouldn't risk.

    Mind you I think you're probably right when you say that women are being coerced into non production of babies, after all as you often say who would they sell all that junk to.

    I think this happened around 20 years ago looking at my kids, my eldest is not interested in any material objects, but my younger two are. Now what happened to change that, the depression in the early ninties, or Thatcher and her crowd?

    I'm sorry but you won't get me producing any more babies, far too old. But I do have two baby grandchildren, one mother back at work, but one at home. Now what do both these new parents say, I have to work hard to pay the mortgage. But the biggest worry to both sets of parents, is there are too many people in the world, I'm being selfish by having more than one child.

    Now try to erase that last sentence from young peoples heads!

  • Comment number 62.

    ecolizzy wrote "#54 Mr Dog I thought you were a scientist! When is it ok to inflict cruelty on an animal in the name of religion? If a person is an atheist why should they have to eat religious meat? Why is the Islamic religion good in your eyes, but the Jewish race not, which is what you often imply."

    You need to get your classes and quantifiers clearer to see what is being said. That's a spatial matter. Many people blur their classes and their quantifiers and so get their logical relations wrong too. There is a sex difference there. That shows up in all the data and choices of subjects at GCSE, GCE and university. It is just the way that we are made.

    No meat is religious and no statements have been made about good or bad races. Racism is irrational but that is not to say that there are not statistical characteristics of groups sustained by gene-barriers. That is a fact. Think skin colour etc. It's all a matter of classes, quantifiers, relations and statistics..

  • Comment number 63.

    it isn't just me that thinks the bbc is a fully paid up and card carrying member of the "friends of israel" along with cameron and hague;



    you no longer have the integrity you pretend. no mention, either, of the two aid boats that had to keep their departure plans secret to prevent israel blowing them up in harbour. the bbc is a sorry disgrace now, and an imitation of fox news!

  • Comment number 64.

    The film by Liz Mackean about the use of the Joint Enterprise Law was well balanced and informative. The law is currently the subject of a Justice Select Committee Enquiry but it is still very concerning how little the general public know about this law. This film goes a long way to educating people about something that could so easily affect them. JENGbA (Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association), the campaigning group challenging joint enterprise convictions which was featured on the film can be found at www.jointenterprise.co.

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