Alan Johnson's "25 per cent" sop on religious schools does little to ameliorate a problem entirely of the goverment's own making. What non-Muslim parent of a girl would send them to a school where the second-class status of their daughter was institutionalised?
But perhaps I am being unreasonable...
Yesterday Leicester City Council said it did not believe the scarves would deter non-Muslim parents from sending children to the school.
Education spokesman Hussein Suleman, who is also a member of the school's temporary governing body, said: 'We have to find a balance.
'Governors have to take into account the fact that 10 per cent can be of a non-Muslim background and use discretion where appropriate.
'At the same time, parents have a right to send or not send their children to this school. I hope discretion will be used if there are any disagreements.'
The school, which is not expected to make boys cover their heads, was also backed by Suleman Nagdi, of the Federation of Muslim Organisations.
He said: 'All Islamic schools have certain criteria for school uniform. I can't see anything different about the criteria they are setting in this instance.'
How about a benchmark for the idiocy of any Labour policy being the extent to which it is supported by the Conservative Party?
Monday, October 16, 2006
Friday, October 13, 2006
Sticky wicket....
Britain's top general may know all about pincer movements but he could do with some brushing up on honey traps...
Friday, October 06, 2006
Can Your Bunny Do Hijab?
Hugh Hefner today defended his statements on women's dress at the Playboy Mansion (or 'bunny ranch' as it is often known).
Hef said that he only requested that all women dressed as Playboy bunnies at the Mansion and that this was a matter of choice and personal freedom.
It was also revealed today that female visitors were always asked to remove their blouses during audiences with the sex magnate.
"Its just the way that we communicate" argued Hef, "If I can't see a woman's breasts I don't feel like we're really making a connection".
He went on to state that it was a free country and that this sort of personal freedom was fundamental to American values, (which he would also be exporting to the rest of the world in his new club openings)
"These are my values," Hef said, "the Playboy Mansion is my society and I set the rules. Women don't have to come and live here, they choose to do so - and they can leave and 'go back home' whenever they want to."
Hef said that criticism from feminists wasn't Cramping his style but misquotes were the last Straw
Hef said that he only requested that all women dressed as Playboy bunnies at the Mansion and that this was a matter of choice and personal freedom.
It was also revealed today that female visitors were always asked to remove their blouses during audiences with the sex magnate.
"Its just the way that we communicate" argued Hef, "If I can't see a woman's breasts I don't feel like we're really making a connection".
He went on to state that it was a free country and that this sort of personal freedom was fundamental to American values, (which he would also be exporting to the rest of the world in his new club openings)
"These are my values," Hef said, "the Playboy Mansion is my society and I set the rules. Women don't have to come and live here, they choose to do so - and they can leave and 'go back home' whenever they want to."
Hef said that criticism from feminists wasn't Cramping his style but misquotes were the last Straw
In yer face
"Jack Straw can't tell me what to wear, I can wear what I like!" said a Muslim "sister" on the radio this morning. And quite right too - isn't that the kind of attitude decades of public policy has encouraged?
Which is why I believe multiculturalism is inherently racist. Not necessarily in principle but in practice - Jack Straw's objection to the full veil perfectly illustrates the point.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect there was always an assumption by (invariably Christian secularist) policy makers that isn't it lovely for our rainbow society to have its curries and its carnivals - what a multiculti mix! - but difference is only acceptable to a point.
Naturally our New Britons would appreciate the obvious benefits of our society - democracy, liberty, freedom of speech and to have your belly hanging out - which we take so much for granted that we have rarely appreciated these "benefits" are actually hard VALUES. Cultural values that can be accepted (as we arrogantly presume) or rejected. It is our racist assumption that our values are so obviously superior that the other cultural values will simply bow down to them.
The fatal flaw of this assumption has literally been staring Jack in the face.
Which is why I believe multiculturalism is inherently racist. Not necessarily in principle but in practice - Jack Straw's objection to the full veil perfectly illustrates the point.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect there was always an assumption by (invariably Christian secularist) policy makers that isn't it lovely for our rainbow society to have its curries and its carnivals - what a multiculti mix! - but difference is only acceptable to a point.
Naturally our New Britons would appreciate the obvious benefits of our society - democracy, liberty, freedom of speech and to have your belly hanging out - which we take so much for granted that we have rarely appreciated these "benefits" are actually hard VALUES. Cultural values that can be accepted (as we arrogantly presume) or rejected. It is our racist assumption that our values are so obviously superior that the other cultural values will simply bow down to them.
The fatal flaw of this assumption has literally been staring Jack in the face.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Get those oiks orf my Easy Jet!
Sorry Dave, going green doesn't make you any more cuddly to me. OF COURSE I'm concerned about the environment, but I might believe you were more of a friend of the working class (or heavens, even the asprirational lower middle class) if you weren't considering banning the oiks cheap flights.
Don't want them trappling all over Provence, do we.
The circle is now truly closed. The Guardian has long been the most elitist rag on Fleet Street with a higher quota of privately-educated staff than any other (sure, call a chip a chip) and I have always suspected while they publicly sneer at each other in the comment pages the City meet the Chatterati over dinner and in the bedroom. And you can bet THIS policy got a long approving ABSOLUDLEEEEE.... in the salons of Notting Hill.
One of the reasons I quit working for charidee was because it dawned that all these people were preaching poverty BECAUSE THEY COULD AFFORD TO and while I returned home in my hair shirt to my Haringey bedsit (well, almost) they were supping Chianti in their Clapham four-bedroom and looking forward to their ethical holiday building schools for gratifyingly DESERVING orphans in Africa when Alistair's bonus came through (the same applies to immigration by the way: assauge your guilt by championing it for the foreign poor while having nothing but contempt for your own, whose class consciousness has been fragmented to the extent that the "chavs" can only express solidarity through Pop Idol and the Death Of A Princess - well at least they're not asking why we're more unequal now than ever before, eh? And where DID you get your cleaner?).
But I digress... the environment has always been a fave of the aristocrats ever since they got pissed off the Industrial Revolution was drawing their peasants away from the Estate and, horrors, giving them ideas above their station.
Nothing changes. Except, actually, I think its getting worse.
Don't want them trappling all over Provence, do we.
The circle is now truly closed. The Guardian has long been the most elitist rag on Fleet Street with a higher quota of privately-educated staff than any other (sure, call a chip a chip) and I have always suspected while they publicly sneer at each other in the comment pages the City meet the Chatterati over dinner and in the bedroom. And you can bet THIS policy got a long approving ABSOLUDLEEEEE.... in the salons of Notting Hill.
One of the reasons I quit working for charidee was because it dawned that all these people were preaching poverty BECAUSE THEY COULD AFFORD TO and while I returned home in my hair shirt to my Haringey bedsit (well, almost) they were supping Chianti in their Clapham four-bedroom and looking forward to their ethical holiday building schools for gratifyingly DESERVING orphans in Africa when Alistair's bonus came through (the same applies to immigration by the way: assauge your guilt by championing it for the foreign poor while having nothing but contempt for your own, whose class consciousness has been fragmented to the extent that the "chavs" can only express solidarity through Pop Idol and the Death Of A Princess - well at least they're not asking why we're more unequal now than ever before, eh? And where DID you get your cleaner?).
But I digress... the environment has always been a fave of the aristocrats ever since they got pissed off the Industrial Revolution was drawing their peasants away from the Estate and, horrors, giving them ideas above their station.
Nothing changes. Except, actually, I think its getting worse.
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