Religious Intolerance is a Good Thing

Browns Constitutional Reforms were , in my view , a mixture of window dressing and omission but I have been interested to browse the thoughts of Cramner and Caroline Hunt amongst others . HG picked up that “The Leader has refused to countenance constitutional reforms lifting formal and very real disabilities from members of the Catholic faith in England “ and this started me thinking about “religious intolerance “ now and in the past. I 1`m afraid I am back to the old tactic of posting something solid at the weekend and any old rubbish in the week.. So don`t expect a lot of research if you look in.

Reply to HG


What if my religion requires me to kill members of other "decadent" faiths or betray the country I live in . I think it is too easy to dismiss religious intolerance as absurd and we do it because we have forgotten what real faith is .When I read accounts of people from other times I notice that default belief in heaven and hell nested in an urbane and educated mind is almost impossible for the modern paradigm to simultaneously contain. You draw back in astonishment when a supersophisticate would nonetheless rather burn than spend an eternity in a hell that is as real as breakfast to him .The horror of Popery is hard empathise with now but we should try not to dismiss it as ignorant “prejudice” that loathsome and in this case anachronistic word

This arrogance of chronology is why the West has persisted in its misunderstanding of Islam. It is a misunderstanding of the nature of faith and that is why Liberal plural societies can only exist happily in a relatively homogenous cultural accord. There is no deal to be done and personally I would like to see more religious persecution rather than less albeit of a modern persuasive kind . Immigration is clearly a related issue.

We are sometimes appalled at the devastation to cultural artefacts wrought by religious upheaval and that is because we have come to see such things as having no function other than to entertain . To those who destroyed Catholic gaudiness they were functioning weapons of the dark one . I recall HG you were somewhat against the burning of books . I would be happy for all sorts of books to be burnt because they can also be weapons . Liberty and freedom , to conclude , are very much more nuanced concepts than Liberals would have us believe. The freedom of poetry is coextensive with its rules as is the harmony of music

On the Brown bits and pieces however I think they are probably only there to provide cover for the EU non vote , continued regionalisation despite the clearest rejection and turning Nelson`s blind eye to the problem of English votes . If the Conservative Party can get above 265 seats which I am, certain they will how will Brown govern in England . His laws will have no ....oh whats the word HG....they will have no thingy.


I imagine you may now be wafting elegantly in the mystic stillness of the Italian morning HG, brooding on the world’s troubles

Devo andare adesso.

Ciao

In Praise of Boris

I made this comment on Mr. Dales Blog about Boris and the possibility of him saving us from ghastly Mr. Livingstone. As a couple of people seemed to like it I thought I `d bung it in.

I love Boris I dote on his every word . I `ve met him several times actually but it is the writing and the underlying Conservatism I relish.
Boris stands for a cavalier spirit , not in a frivolous way but in the sense of the Cavalier Poets who spurned ponderous earnestness seeking a rightness through the crafted nonchalance , lightly carried learning and the perfection of lyrical music. It was a political statement then and it remains so today. It undercuts the fake sanctimony of plodding earnest Brown`s persona ( in fact he is just a squalid liar). By his manner Brown seeks to close debate , Boris is plural and modest , fully understanding that most important Conservative principle that new does not mean better and that it is arrogant to imagine you can drive a living society like a car. Humour of a gentle sort is characteristic in that the ambitions of men will be judged against experience and the folly of “cleverness” revealed. In such a character you find One Nation Conservatism and Libertarianism resolved. There is no-one close to him is expressing the living spirit of the traditional Conservative attitude in all its contradictions and noone so instinctively against the new “NATIONAL GOVERNMENT” of Brown. I share his horror .
Islington Conservatives would be overjoyed but I cannot see Boris going to for it . It would be difficult to continue his career and he has no special interest in local politics .I personally would be happy to campaign for him day and night but could he win?
Well in many ways I would rather the Party backed a Conservative and made a heroic fight of it . It is said that immigration has been so fast that the Conservative task in London is sisyphitic but thats no reason not to try

New Plan

.I am going to write something about once a week myself and otherwise comment elsewhere as and when I feel the muse upon me.The idea is to rationalise my available time. I do not expect to be noticed much and that is ok. I will wriote something a bit more considered on Sundays and that is it .

Otherwise I will mostly be found on Dale .

Cannot Resist

I commented thus on Iain Dale and this blog is going to start sporadically limping along again ...( If anyone is intereseted)

Me On Brown`s Terror Statement

Lets face it ,domestic Policy has been run by Brown for years anyway . Who got rid of Frank Field , Brown did ( Thereby condemning benefits and housing to remain disastrously unreformed ) .Who fed the Public Sector like a bulbous prize marrow Good old Mr. B . He can get away with wearing any disguise in the Labour Party precisely because they know what clap trap this theatrical costume change is . He is an old style socialist and the rest of it is just spin.
It was interesting to see how inadequate he was when asked to do something without hiding and preparing like a hibernating bear for months . We were expecting something in the nature of a Prime minister and I was forcibly struck by the stark fact that the interregnum continues with or without Blair . Who did not think , “oh look there’s that spavined gimp Brown pretending to be in charge if the country” “…. then there was a shock of recognition …oh ummm I suppose technically he is .“
The instinct that we all have he should face some sort of electoral process is unlikely to trouble the incanting Labour Droogs hereabouts about for but for ordinary working men like me , a sinister clerk does not sidle from the shadows and thereby become Caesar . No he has to present his policies and become elected . The sensation was there for Major but because of the Party election and the lack of a broken promise to serve the full term it hardly occurred before the day or reckoning was upon us .
Until Brown stops pretending not to be one Gordon Brown , the lying taxing Stalinist weirdo of ten years warty standing and faces the polls, we have no leader . Even if he did , with Scotland clearly wishing to leave the little UK Party he has no mandate in England. In Southern England he has no votes at all. Perhaps we should accept him when the next Cockney is PM of Scotland . He is good at waiting .. So some eery butler who crept about serving up plates of quiet socialism while the young Master handled the media suddenly thrust out into the flashlights of the paparazzi. Disaster ensues. What else ?
It wasn’t that he was good or bad , he was simply not the Prime minister.
Having avoided any electoral accountability thus far we may a well wonder what traitorous gerrymandering he has in mind under the title “Constitutional reform”. When the BBC has quite finished its Coronation perhaps we might get back to the brute fact . Brown equals tax Scottish double votes and unreformed public sector money eaters . Same dank old Socialist cabbage water .
What he says is of no interest .He will say whatever he has to. The fact his Party trusts him is all you need to know .Look at what they said in the Deputy leadership contest. Consider their loyalty to Brown.
Not hard is it .Look forward to “Show Trial Consultations which will magically agree with what he wanted anyway . Look forward to an audacious attempt to rig the election All good men and women must come together to save the country from the plague of rule by a sightless etiolated night creature who hates the English the family the private sector and everything healthy when he is not .The monkey is gone , the Organ grinder is far more dangerous