The chorus of outrage grows surrounding Trump’s latest tweets, which suggested that four of his most outspoken critics – all Democratic congresswomen, all women ‘of colour’, and all excepting one born in America – hate America and should ‘go back home’. The four are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent; Rashida Tlaib, whose parents are Palestinian immigrants; Ilhan … [Read on]
Yesterday, I started reading Five Go to Smuggler’s Top, the Enid Blyton classic, to my youngest. He’s not a keen reader and I thought an undemanding ‘Famous Five’ adventure might help him get the bug, as it has done millions of children before him, and as it did for me as a child. I tried out four or five story … [Read on]
The spectacle of all five candidates for the Tory leadership pandering to an Imam who invited them to condemn ‘Islamophobic rhetoric’ in last week’s television debate was disgusting – and that was one’s reaction even before the Imam concerned was revealed to be an anti-Semitic bigot. They were falling over themselves to demonstrate their respect for Islam, their appreciation of … [Read on]
On Monday ‘the guvnor’ touched down in Britain again, this time for a state visit. Welcome back Mr President. There are lots of things to like about President Trump. He’s a patriot and has a real affection for Britain, his mother’s birthplace. He was a wild kid who liked to challenge authority so his father sent him to military school. It worked, he learned … [Read on]
Andrea Leadsom got into terrible trouble in the run-up to the last Tory leadership election for hinting that her experience of being a mother and raising children gave her an advantage over Mrs May – a wider experience, a broader understanding of people, greater empathy perhaps. This was most unwise because according to diversity and inclusivity theory, the new religion … [Read on]
Conservative activists are out campaigning for the local elections. In a few weeks, they may well be campaigning for the European elections. One Conservative MP recently admitted privately that these activists faced an impossible task: how, he wondered, could the party expect them to sell ‘this pile of shit’ on the doorstep. It is a very good question. I found … [Read on]
Decent people of all faiths and political persuasions will have been appalled at the carnage at a mosque in New Zealand, where a lone gunman and confessed Nazi-sympathiser opened fire on worshippers. Subsequent media analysis has inevitably focused on the activities of far-right extremists and white supremacists, whose targets in recent years have included Muslims, Jews, and teenagers at a … [Read on]
Many will regret the passing of that great comic actor Windsor Davies, whose depiction of Battery Sergeant Major Williams in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum made us laugh till our sides ached. We laughed all-the-more because the character, based on one of Davies’ own sergeant majors during his National Service, was so true to life – as indeed were the … [Read on]