The EU Referendum - an interesting point

All day I have been hearing the BBC call the referendum split as whilst England and Wales voted for Leave, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted for Remain. The BBC have also been explaining how London also voted Remain and Nicola Sturgeon said that she would ally with Sadiq Khan in negotiations.

I looked at the BBC's own results front page which splits the vote by UK constituent country and saw this...

Do you note that whilst the BBC's analysis is correct there is something else of note here. The two nations that voted Leave had a higher turnout than the two nations that voted Remain. That's the sort of inconvenient fact that the BBC won't be highlighting. What they are highlighting is that:

'A petition calling for Sadiq Khan to declare London an independent state after the UK voted to quit the EU has been signed by thousands of people.

The petition's organiser James O'Malley, said the capital was "a world city" which should "remain at the heart of Europe".

Nearly 60% of people in the capital backed the Remain campaign, in stark contrast to most of the country.'

If Remain had won, imagine the BBC reaction to some areas calling for independence for themselves. Laughter, derision, pointing out what democracy means and so on. But as it's a view that the BBC agree with...

Parts of London have higher TB rates than Iraq or Rwanda per BBC News

The BBC report that parts of London now have a rate of tuberculosis infection higher than Rwanda or Iraq. The BBC report is keen to persuade is not to blame this on immigration:

'The rate of infection among UK-born Londoners has risen, while among the non-UK-born it has fallen - and the report said it would be wrong to assume TB was a disease of migrants.'

Of course rates are not measures of absolute numbers and that last section isn't saying what the BBC wants you to think that it is. 

The BBC want you to think that line says that it would be wrong to assume TB was a disease caused by immigration. Whereas it actually means that TB is no longer a disease just of migrants because it has spread.

I read that BBC report and was reminded of a report I read back in the early 2000s that said that mass immigration from Eastern Europe was bringing with it TB, a disease that had all but been eradicated from the UK. I seem to remember that claim being dismissed as racist at the time and the fuss went away, unlike the TB.

Take a look at this New Scientist report  from January this year. Here's a section that needs wider attention:

'Russia and Eastern Europe still have high rates of MDR TB today. Spiro says that many of the cases he sees in London, the TB capital of Europe, can be traced back to those countries. "The control over treatment regimes out there is dreadful," he says. "It's chaos." The number of MDR cases has been rising in England from 28 cases per year in 2000 to 81 cases in 2012.'

So do you believe the, so far as I am aware, independent New Scientist or the decidedly pro immigration BBC? The choice is yours.

The new A40 average speed cameras

The new A40 average speed cameras all seem to be up and the signs have started to go up too. It looks like they will be put into operation shortly.

I thought that I would see if the speed limit was feasible to keep to so I tried driving from Paddington to Northolt Airport.

This report is about the elevated section of the A40, I will post about the other sections later this week.

Driving at 40mph on the elevated section of the A40 was very hard, I was getting flashed by other drivers who were speeding (pun intended) past me. As I drove I realised why 40mph felt so slow. I remember that when I first drove on the A40 elevated section it was a restricted urban motorway, called the A40M with a speed limit of 60mph, which felt about right for the road even in my aged early 1970s car. Some years later, maybe when it ceased to be a motorway in 2000, the speed limit was reduced to 50mph which always felt a little slow but most people continued driving at 60mph anyway. This state of affairs continued for quite a while and then there was the issue with the lights failure on the elevated section and the speed limit was reduced to 40mph. This of course makes no sense: in daylight the lighting is of no relevance and at night I believe that most cars have headlights.

In fact I have done some digging and it seems from this and this that the speed limit was meant to go back up to 50mph when the A40 repairs had been finished. Indeed this report from May 2011 says that:

'Transport for London (TfL) dropped the limit from 50 to 30mph in February as it made repairs to the expansion joints.

...

But TfL will put the limit up to 40mph on the eastbound carriageway on Sunday morning, and on the westbound carriageway one week later. They say it should be back to 50mph by late summer.'

That's late summer 2011, why did this not happen?

Instead what we have on the elevated section of the A40 in London is the speed limit reducing from 60mph to 50mph and then to 40mph and then the introduction of a average speed cameras to enforce this reduced speed limit.

Some would argue that this was about revenue raising, using the driver as a cash cow. Others would claim that it was about criminalising the motorist. I wouldn't disagree with either of these points but I actually think it's more sinister; this is about control. As I drove along at 40mph on the elevated section of the A40 I felt cowed by the cameras, powerless in the face of the state; and that is how the state want us to be.

Average speed cameras to blight the life of many Londoners

One of my early pieces on this blog was about the new cameras appearing on the A406 that I thought could become average speed cameras. They didn't but anyone travelling along some of London's main roads will have noticed new gantries and cameras appearing. These are for a new average speed camera system that will soon infest four trial sites and then no doubt spread their revenue raising way across the capital.

The first four road sections to be blighted are the A406 (North Circular Road) from the Hanger Lane Gyratory to Bounds Green Road; the A40 from the Polish War Memorial to the Paddington slip road, the A2 from Black Prince to Tunnel Avenue and the A316 from the M3 to the Hogarth roundabout.

The claim from Transport for London (TfL) is that these are to eradicate accidents at gaps between existing, but obsolete spot speed cameras. But the reality is that they are to a) raise revenue and b) victimise drivers who realise that the 40mph speed limit on most of these roads is set far too low for the quality of the roads.

A report to TfL’s finance policy committee, which approved the spending on the trial, said members had “concerns about the public acceptability” of the new cameras.I bet they have.


In France there would be riots, I'm not suggesting that we go down that route but the motorist needs to fight back somehow. Any suggestions?

I favour a drive slow when 20 motorists in each direction on each section on the same day all drive at 4mph preceded by a man with a red flag, for that is what  the anti-car zealots would like us to return to, after all it would reduce traffic accidents for as well know, 'Speed Kills'. Except it doesn't...

This is of course rubbish as I pointed out over seven years ago

"A DfT strategy paper claimed speed was "a major contributory factor in about a third of all road accidents". The "excessive and inappropriate speed" that helped "to kill about 1,200 people" each year was "far more than any other single contributor to casualties on our roads". The source given for this claim, to be repeated as a mantra by ministers and officials for years to come, was a report from the government's Transport Research Laboratory, TRL Report 323: "A new system for recording contributory factors in road accidents". Not many people would have looked at this report, since it was only available for £45. But some who did were amazed. The evidence the report had cited to support its claim that speed was "a major contributory factor in about a third of all road accidents" simply wasn't there. Many other factors were named as contributing to road accidents, from driving without due care and attention to the influence of drink; from poor overtaking to nodding off at the wheel. But the figure given for accidents in which the main causative factor was "excessive speed" was way down the list, at only 7.3 per cent."

Do read the whole of that piece but this extract might also prove interesting:

"The statistics for Durham showed that, of 1,900 collisions each year, only three per cent involved cars that were exceeding the speed limit, just 60 accidents a year. Look more closely at the causes of these 60 accidents, the "actual cause of the accident invariably is drink-driving or drug-driving". Drug-taking was now involved in 40 per cent of Durham's fatal road accidents. Many accidents, he said, were caused by fatigue, although one of the most common causes was the failure of drivers to watch out for oncoming vehicles when turning right. To none of these could speed cameras offer any remedy. "The cause of accidents," Garvin (chief constable of Durham) concluded, "is clearly something different from exceeding the speed limit"."

Also

"In September 2006, the DfT finally conceded one of the central points that Safe Speed's Paul Smith had been arguing for five years: that only five per cent of road accidents were caused by drivers who were breaking the speed limit. In The Daily Telegraph, Smith was quoted as saying "the government's case for continuing to install cameras has been destroyed"."

So the truth is that speed cameras do not make the roads safer, are not needed and are being used to raise revenue - who would have thought it?

Night Tube per Transport for London

Finally some good news for London party people:

'From the early hours of Saturday 12 September 2015, Londoners and visitors to the Capital will be able to travel on the Jubilee, Victoria and most of the Piccadilly, Central and Northern Tube lines all night on Fridays and Saturdays. We also hope to expand across other lines in subsequent years.'

More details here https://www.tfl.gov.uk/campaign/tube-improvements/the-future-of-the-tube/night-tube

London population: The city's record numbers explained in 60 seconds per BBC News

Explained by the BBC?

Not really explained, more like a few statistics and not a word of analysis. 

Now what might Hillingdon and Tower Hamlets have in common? Massive immigration?

'Jihadist' flag flown in east London | World | The Guardian

When even the Guardian reports this sort of story you know the situation is getting bad.

'A black flag with white Arabic writing, similar to those flown by jihadist groups, was flying at the entrance of an east London housing state near Canary Wharf.

In a highly provocative gesture, the emblem was planted on top of the gates of the Will Crooks estate on Poplar High Street, and is surrounded by flags of Palestine and slogans.

The flag bears similar writing to the jihadi flags that have been flown by the extremist group in Iraq and other jihadi groups since the 1990s. When the estate was approached last night, a group of about 20 Asian youths swore at Guardian journalists and told them to leave the area immediately. One youth threatened to smash a camera.

When a passerby tried to take a picture of the flag on a phone, one of the gang asked him if he was Jewish. The passerby replied: "Would it make a difference?" The youth said: "Yes, it fucking would." Asked if the flag was an Isis flag, one local man said: "It is just the flag of Allah." But another man asked: "So what if it is?"'

Supporters, or worse, of Islamist terrorists on the streets of London, putting up flags, claiming control, and threatening Jews. Well done the last Labour government who all but ended border controls and increased immigration from the third world so as to 'rub the right's noses in diversity'. Our noses have been rubbed but soon we fear they will be broken. 

More here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/flag-isis-jihadi-islamic-state-flown-poplar-east-london but not so far as I can see on the BBC, where I wouldn't be surprised if there were some who'd support the Jihadist supporters in Poplar.

The BBC, The Guardian and The Independent all have increased hatred of Jews by their biased coverage of the Israel Hamas conflict and will bear responsibility when Jews are attacked and / or killed by enraged Muslims or left wing agitators on the streets of Britain.

Only one in five white Britons votes for Labour - Politics - News - London Evening Standard

'...  two thirds of non-white voters supported Labour, which received the backing of just one in five white British voters.

The analysis suggests that the migration of ethnic minority voters to the capital's inner suburbs is behind recent Labour victories there. '

Now do you see why Labour massively increased immigration whilst in government? Forward planning, they're not as stupid as you might think. They are as evil though.

More here http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/only-one-in-five-white-britons-votes-for-labour-9604547.html

Bob Hoskins R.I.P.

I was shocked to learn that Bob Hoskins has died at the age of just 71. It was only a few days ago that Mrs NotaSheep and I were watching him in Mermaids, a much underrated performance of his.

I'm sure most of the reports will centre upon his role in the mediocre (in my view) Who Framed Roger Rabbit but I prefer to remember him in that great 1980 London film The Long Good Friday.

Hopefully one of the TV channels will show this film in its entirety, and if they do you MUST watch it, but in the meantime here's the ending of that marvellous film with one of the great Londoner speeches - "The Mafia, I've shit 'em" - and that lovely long concentrated look at Bob Hoskins' face.



Also here's Bob Hoskins' entrance in The Long Good Friday, great walk and great 1970s music.


The Long Good Friday was a marker for the end of the stagnation of the Labour and wet Tory 1970s and the start of the dynamism and optimism of the Thatcher era. Watch the whole film and see how much London has changed since 1980, especially docklands - Harold Shand was a visionary, but also to see where the recent London gangster films such as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Layer Cake and Snatch owe a huge debt. Also spot Helen Mirren, as Harold Shand's wife, near the start of her film career.


Sitting here I'm also remembering Bob Hoskins for his part in the great Denis Potter's Pennies From Heaven and the wonderful film Mona Lisa in which Bob Hoskins plays the very cheap George, here's an extract but do watch the film if you get the chance.

Spot the 'rabbit' reference, a good Pub Quiz question could link Bob Hoskins and rabbits. Also Michael Caine playing a superior London villain, for a change.

London in 1926

London in 1927 from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.

Incredible colour footage of 1920s London shot by an early British pioneer of film named Claude Friese-Greene, who made a series of travelogues using the colour process his father William - a noted cinematographer - was experimenting with. It's like a beautifully dusty old postcard you'd find in a junk store, but moving.

Music by Jonquil and Yann Tiersen.

The lovely people at the BFI have got in touch and it turns out the film was made in 1926. They have lots of other footage from his film, The Open Road on their YouTube channel up here bit.ly/1920sEngland. More background on this here bit.ly/1077PVK.

The BBC's Mark Easton asks 'Why have the white British left London?'

Do read Mark Easton's piece all the way through but after reporting the headline news that:

'Something quite remarkable happened in London in the first decade of the new millennium. The number of white British people in the capital fell by 620,000 - equivalent to the entire population of Glasgow moving out.'

 Mark Easton concludes that 'It is a story of aspiration. It is a story of success'

Anybody care to fisk Mark Easton's article, I just don't have the time today?

"Let me take your hand and take you through the streets of London"

Muslim Patrol are back...




Some quotes from that piece:

"The kuffar, you can go to hell; this is not a Christian country. Christianity, you can go to hell."
"We are in East London, we are in South London, we are in North London... the police cannot stop us, the kuffar cannot stop us. We are coming to implement Islam immediately."
"... anyone who tries to stop us, we will take their alcohol, we will tell the women to cover up, and we will implement Islam upon your own necks... David Cameron." 

Perhaps most scary is the soundtrack of gunfire behind the braggadocio commentary.

Yes these  people are a minority and yes they are not yet much of a threat but how much more dangerous will they be if they link up with jihadis who have been to the training camps in Pakistan?

"Vigilantees implementing Islam upon your own necks"

See what unfettered immigration and the creed of multi-culturalism is bringing to the streets of London. Islamic thugs patrolling their self-proclaimed "Muslim Area" and forcing Sharia on non-Muslims.




Today East London, tomorrow...? Compliance with these thugs is dhimmiism, although they'd intimidate many. However standing up to them would probably be deemed Islamophobic.

Thanks to Gates of Vienna for the video spot. 

An anti-Semitic mural on the streets of London?

Tower Hamlets Council says the following:

'Community concerns about Hanbury Street 'mural'

Whilst the mural that has been put up on a building in Hanbury Street is not on council property, the council is responding to a number of complaints about it and working with the police in order to establish how best to proceed.

The Revd. Preb. Alan Green, Area Dean of Tower Hamlets and Rector of St John on Bethnal Green, who serves as Chair of the No Place For Hate Forum, said: “Whilst I appreciate street art in Tower Hamlets, it must always respect the principles of our diverse community. This mural uses images that have for centuries been used to incite hatred and persecution against Jewish communities. There is no place for such incitement against any community in this borough”.

Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman added:  “I have received a number of complaints that the ‘New World Order’ mural on Hanbury Street has anti-Semitic images. I share these concerns.

"Whether intentional or otherwise the images of the bankers perpetuate anti-Semitic propaganda about conspiratorial Jewish domination of financial and political institutions. I am of the view that, where freedom of expression runs the risk of inciting racial hatred, as for example when the EDL attempted to march in Tower Hamlets last year, then it is right that such expression should be curtailed.  I have, therefore, asked my officers to do everything possible to see to it that this mural is removed”.'

The East London Advertiser has the following:

'A Tower Hamlets councillor complained to the Met Police Borough Commander about the mural in Hanbury Street—in what was once the heart of the East End’s thriving Jewish community.

Tory Group leader Peter Golds is due to meet senior police tomorrow (Thurs).

He has also asked Mayor Lutfur Rahman to use planning law to get the giant 20ft by 30ft work removed.

“I am horrified at this mural,” Cllr Golds told the Advertiser.

“It bears a similarity to anti-Semitic propaganda in pre-war Germany.

“As well as the anti Jewish overtones, there is even the quasi Masonic and dollar bill aspect to encourage conspiracy theory.

“The fact it has appeared over Yom Kippur and the Jewish New Year gives added menace. This is absolutely appalling.”

He is calling for prosecution under ‘race hate’ legislation after receiving a flood of complaints from the public.

The mural by an American artist calling himself Mear One has been condemned by Tower Hamlets Inter-Faith Forum.

Its chairman, The Rev Alan Green, Church of England Area Dean and Rector of St John on Bethnal Green, said: “This mural uses images that have for centuries been used to incite hatred and persecution against Jewish communities. There is no place for such incitement against any community in this borough.”

Mayor Rahman has asked council officers to “do everything possible” to remove the mural, which is on private property owned by a curry restaurant businessman.

The Mayor said: “The images of the bankers perpetuate anti-Semitic propaganda about conspiratorial Jewish domination of financial and political institutions.”

Comments have appeared on blogsites such as Rebel News for ‘dissident analysis for the global resistance’.
These include: “The characters on the two ends of the table are clearly caricatures of Jews—this mural is racist.”

Another says: “The mural is Nazi propaganda.”

A Third reads: “Ignorant racist conspiracy-mongering rubbish.”'

The International Business Times reports:

'A mural in the heart of bohemian east London has caused uproar among local politicians and community leaders who have accused it of being anti-Semitic - in an area with a long Jewish and immigrant history.

But Mear One, the American artist who painted the mural on a wall on Hanbury Street, off Brick Lane, has denied charges of anti-Semitism.

The painting depicts caricatures of wealthy Jewish men playing Monopoly, using the backs of hunched people as their table.

In the background is a pyramid with an eyeball in it - synonymous with the Illuminati conspiracy theory. To one side of the painting, a man holds up a placard that says: "The New World Order is the enemy of humanity."

"I have received a number of complaints that the 'New World Order' mural on Hanbury Street has anti-Semitic images," said Lutfur Rahman, the mayor of the local council, Tower Hamlets.

"I share these concerns. Whether intentional or otherwise the images of the bankers perpetuate anti-Semitic propaganda about conspiratorial Jewish domination of financial and political institutions.

"Where freedom of expression runs the risk of inciting racial hatred, as for example when the EDL attempted to march in Tower Hamlets last year, then it is right that such expression should be curtailed. I have therefore asked my officers to do everything possible to see to it that this mural is removed."

Rev Alan Green, a local dean, also condemned the picture.

"While I appreciate street art in Tower Hamlets, it must always respect the principles of our diverse community," he said.

"This mural uses images that have for centuries been used to incite hatred and persecution against Jewish communities. There is no place for such incitement against any community in this borough."'

IBT quotes Mear One's defence:

'"My mural is about class and privilege. The banker group is made up of Jewish and white Anglos," he wrote.

"For some reason they are saying I am anti-Semitic. This I am most definitely not.

"I believe in equality and brother- and sisterhood on a global scale. What I am against is class. Ruling class - this is a problem and we need humanisation."'

Tosh! Here's more from the IBT:

'Local Tory councillor Peter Golds urged the police to pursue Mear One under race hate legislation.

"I am horrified at this mural," Golds wrote in a letter to council bosses. "It bears an awful similarity to anti-Semitic propaganda produced in pre-war Germany.

"As well as the anti-Jewish overtones, there is even the quasi-Masonic (and dollar bill) aspect to encourage conspiracy theory.

"What will be done about the person or persons who has produced this and when will it be removed?

"The fact it has appeared over Rosh Hoshanah/Yom Kippur gives added menace."''

The fact that an apparently anti-Semitic mural can appear on the streets of London and there is equivocation about its significance speaks volumes about the real rise of anti-Semitism in the East End, the rest of London, the UK and Europe.

Anti-semitism is real and increasing in London

Reproduced from Jihad Watch


You'd think that after all these years Islamic supremacists would think of some other explanation when they get caught uttering hateful words. For years now we have seen Islamic supremacist after Islamic supremacist insist that his words of hatred and blood were "misunderstood," "taken out of context," and the like. Islamic jihadists, supremacists and Jew-haters are apparently the hardest people in the world to understand properly, what with all the glorious complexity of their peaceful and tolerant religion; they're right up there with astrophysicists and Hegelian philosophers.
"'Son who pelted Jews with eggs is no racist,'" by Simon Freeman in the London Evening Standard, July 5 (thanks to David):

The parents of a Muslim university student convicted of a religiously motivated attack on young Jews said: “Our son is no racist.” Mohammad Khalifa, 19, was fined for hurling eggs and yelling “Oi, Jews” and “f***ing Jews” at passers-by while driving his father’s BMW through Golders Green with three friends.
But his father, a paediatrician, today claimed the victims had misheard and the students had shouted “Oi, you.”
Dr Khorshid Khalifa said: “My son has never been racist. All he said was, ‘Oi you,’ and people took it as, ‘Oi Jew,’ but that’s all it was.

Yes, of course! And when he said what was understood as “f***ing Jews,” he really was saying "“f***ing queues,” decrying the long lines at the supermarket where he bought the eggs, which he was offering to the targeted Jews solely in an effort to improve their nutrition, doncha know.

“It’s very stupid.

Truer words were never spoken, Khalifa.

The solicitors said the case should have been dropped.” Willesden magistrates heard the four friends were driving to watch a film at the O2 Centre in Finchley Road in December when they stopped to buy eggs, which they threw at a group of women and a group of teenage boys. The women were “angry and startled”, magistrates heard. Fifteen minutes later, two teenage boys heard one of the four yell ‘f***ing Jews’ before they were targeted, ending in one egg cracking on a 14-year-old’s trousers.
Khalifa and Mohammed Jawad, of Wembley, along with Haider Al-Fardan, 21, and Aimen Mohamed, 19, of Hendon, admitted throwing the eggs for fun but denied their actions were religiously motivated.
Al-Farden, who studies accounting and finance, told the court his grandmother was Jewish and if he had wanted to target Jews he would have gone to a synagogue near his house.
Jawad, a 20-year-old international business student, said he had a Jewish ex-girlfriend and played football with Jews. But magistrates rejected their account and found the four guilty of using religiously-aggravated words or behaviour.
They were ordered to pay £415 each, which includes costs and compensation for victims.
Passing sentence, magistrate Philip Sethil said: “We found the evidence of witnesses to be clear and consistent. Despite the fact of their previous good character we do not accept the defendants’ explanation they said ‘Oi you.’
“You all came from good families, you are all hard-working and at university. You are all intelligent boys. This was crazy what you did.”

No. It was a perfectly intelligible, albeit unconscionable and reprehensible, outpouring of Islamic antisemitism.

Dr Khalifa said his son was a hard-working student who had been badly affected by the court ordeal. “He's very upset, especially as that’s not what he meant at all. He never said that.”

Of course! His remarks are almost as complex and difficult to understand as Islam itself!

Here come the Zil lanes

When the planning was being done for the London Olympics the aspect that worried me the most, apart from the terrorist threat of course, was transport. My heart sunk even further when I read that Olympic Lanes would be created to allow athletes but also IOC officials, sponsors and media to waft through London whilst Londoners sat in the reduced lanes left to them. At the time this was something that I put to the back of my mind and I carried on with life.

However over the last few days it has started to hit home how affected I and London will be. The template markings for the Zil lanes have started to appear: I have noticed them on the A4, the A40 and the A406 (North Circular Road). As I sat in traffic on the A4 the other day I realised how much worse it would be when one third of the lanes is put out of action so the IOC fat cats, their corporate friends and our media masters are not inconvenienced by London's traffic.

This site shows the road changes that are planned and in case you are worried, Transport for London whilst admitting that the special lanes will create 'hotspots' at certain places such as the Euston Road say that 'doomsday' will be avoided if drivers plan ahead to avoid the busiest times of day. Because we can all change our work times for the length of the Olympics and Paralympics, can't we.

So when you are sat in stationary traffic on the Euston Road whilst the odd logo'd BMW and BBC van speed past in an otherwise empty Zip lane I am sure that you, like I, will just sit and take it...?

The fine for unauthorised use of a Zil lane is £130, can they fine us all if we use them en masse? I am a Londoner, born and bred. I was here before London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and I will be here long after the thrill of watching the beach volleyball has dissipated. It's my city and I don't see why I should have to make way for the IOC chiefs, corporate chiefs and the likes of the BBC.

The one hundred and thirty-ninth weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's award is presented to the Office for National Statistics for their report as found in yesterday's London Evening Standard'; here's the headline I am sure you will not need to read the rest:

'Official: Londoners pay highest prices in Britain'

London is the most expensive place to live in Britain - "No shit, Sherlock"

All thanks to multiculturalism

Graeme Archer's piece in Saturday's Telegraph struck a chord with me and not just because I too am a Finkler and am reading Howard Jacobson's latest novel 'The Finkler Question'. If you read only one broadsheet article this weekend read Gareme Archer's, it sums so much of what Labour's obsession with multiculturalism as a means of 'rubbing the right's nose in diversity' has resulted in.

Here's an extract to give you a flavour:

'A few weeks ago, I crossed the road outside Sainsbury's in Whitechapel. Glued to the lamp-post was a rainbow poster, with a cross through it, decorated with the words "Gay Free Zone" and "Fear Allah". I felt sick. And, yes, resigned. Unconsciously, I mimicked the behaviour of Jacobson's Jewish Londoners: I tried not to think about the implication of what I had seen.

Such stickers soon appeared all over. Not to worry! We were reassured by civic leaders that it was wrong to link these manifestations of hatred with the increasing Islamisation of the borough. Didn't we realise, warned our betters, that by reacting, we might be allowing ourselves to be duped? They could easily be the work of a far-Right group, trying to stir up division on streets that would otherwise hum with quiet multicultural harmony.

They could even, said a "community leader", be the work of that bogeyman de nos jours, the English Defence League. So important was it not to draw the obvious inference (that untackled radical Islam makes the East End an increasingly hostile environment for gay people) that when a small counter-demonstration was proposed, its organisers were smeared as a front for – you guessed it – the EDL. Don't look at the posters; move along, please.

In Tuesday's paper, we read of the trial of five Muslim men, who admitted "grievous bodily harm with intent": that is, they attacked and maimed Gary Smith, a religious education teacher from an East End school. They were recorded on the way, saying: "This is the dog we want to hit, to strike, to kill." Mr Smith, in their opinion, had been insufficiently pro-Islam. But what's the scarred face of one schoolteacher when set against the need to keep the peace?

There's more, a lot more. A young Asian chemist has received death threats for refusing to wear a veil. You know, the veil that some people tell us is a sign of female empowerment. A Muslim councillor was given similar treatment, for dressing in too Western a fashion.

So I'll tell you what I never want to hear again. I never want to listen to a politician, living somewhere far, far removed from Bethnal Green, uttering a sentence like: "On the one hand, the Islamic extremists… On the other, the equally offensive English Defence League", as though the two have independent but morally equivalent aetiologies. I don't expect philosophical grandeur from any government. But I do expect its representatives to understand the difference between cause and effect.

The cause of all this is not just Labour's immigration policy, or the Human Rights Act, or the fawning of Ken Livingstone over Yusuf al-Qaradawi (a preacher who'd like to put me, and other homosexuals, to death). First, Labour enacted legislation that taught minority groups that their grievances had legal recourse (rather than suggesting that in a good society, we all need to be able to get on). This has spiralled into today's culture of fear – you think I'm not scared to write all this down? And when – as in Tower Hamlets – minorities come into conflict, the response of the rulers is entirely predictable: the group with the most votes wins.'

What's happening in London's East End is just starting to happen in Golders Green and other places in London will not be too far behind. Thanks to multiculturalism, militant Islam is on the rise in London and elsewhere in Great Britain and we will probably not be able to stop it. Thanks Tony, thanks Jack, thanks Labour.

In case you fell for Ken Livingstone's genial old uncle act on Newsnight last night

On Hugo Chavez and Socialism



On Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi

Fine words Ken but you know what taqqiya and doublespeak are. In case you really don't, here's Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in his own words
On Christmas

Contrast with how Britain, Europe and the rest of the Western Christian world is told to accommodate the religion of Islam

On justifying suicide bombs (from 2:15)


On the Jews and Hitler and his hope for the future

What do you have to say about those comments by the man you have invited to London and described as representing 'a more progressive strand of Islam than the Wahhabi sect'? Actually Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi may well be more moderate than the Wahhabi Islamists but that is a question of degree.

Here's Peter Tatchell on Ken Livingstone and his views of Islamists


So remember who Ken Livingstone allies himself with and vote accordingly next year. He has made his choice and hopes to benefit from the large Muslim vote in London as a result. Let's hope that decent people of London of whatever religion, or none, stand up for the rights of the followers of religions other than Islam, for homosexuals, etc. In fact for all those people who the man Ken Livingstone called moderate wishes harm to.

Ken Livingstone is an unredeemed socialist, a former friend of the IRA, a recent inviter and defender of an Islamist extremist to speak in London. That's the truth about the ex, and he hopes future, Mayor of London - Ken Livingstone; let's make sure he is not re-elected to bring more shame on this great city.




As an aside it was the same Al-Qaradawi who led the prayer in Egypt's Tahrir Square following the revolution. The same Al Qaradawi who the BBC represent as being a moderate Muslim leader and who will figure somehow in the future leadership of Egypt; a man who supports suicide bombing of Israel.

Mixed news on London Congestion Zone charging

The Western extension is finally going to be scrapped at the end of 2010. However the charge is going to rise from £8 to £10 (a 25% increase), however there will be an auto-pay system that will 'only' cost £9 per day but have a £10 registration charge. Swings and roundabouts I suppose, the benefit of never missing a payment is a definite plus but even that is at a cost 12.5% higher than the current cost. Don't forget that the Congestion Charge will have doubled in seven years by the time of this increase; somewhat above the official rate of inflation.