Bermant's blog

Northern Ireland is run by the mob

2008-07-01T07:41:00.003+01:00

Following the collapse of the Robert McCartney murder trial, you can understand why Northern Ireland is referred to by some as "Sicily without the sunshine".

The paramilitaries may not be bombing Belfast, but they continue to shoot, stab and maim anyone who stands in the way of their criminal activities. The rule of law is fast becoming replaced by the rule of Omertà. But the politicians in London and Dublin have been too busy congratulating themselves to notice. They consider Northern Ireland to be a showcase to the world on how to achieve peace and aren't going to let anything so trivial as organised crime overshadow it.

But organised crime isn't trivial. It blights the lives of millions and will ultimately hurt Northern Ireland just as much as the troubles did. Do the people of Ulster really want their country to end up like Sicily where 80% of businesses have to pay protection money and where the local population live in fear of the Mafia, knowing that theirs is the only authority that counts? If I was Tony Blair, it's not a legacy I'd be proud of.

I'm tired of hearing that "Something must be done about Mugabe"

2008-07-01T07:10:00.003+01:00

So Mugabe has "won" another sham election, and is feted by his fellow African leaders as a statesman....so little has changed in Africa. People will continue to cry out "something must be done" and of course precisely nothing will be done.

I am struggling to understand why so many on the left continue to revere the UN as a holy institution after their failure in Srebrenica, Rwanda, Darfur, and now Zimbabwe. In fact the tragedy of Zimbabwe points to the total failure of transnational institutions altogether. So long as the Middle East, Africa (with a few exceptions), Russia and China continue to be run by dictators, the UN and African Union will have little clout.

And I'm not sure what the solution to Zimbabwe is. America and Britain are too tied up militarily to liberate Zimbabwe and even if they did, the whole world (and the liberal intelligentsia) would accuse them of colonialism, and it's not even clear who or what would fill the vacuum left by Mugabe.

The most likely scenario is that Zimbabwe will just carry on imploding to the point that most of her population will have fled abroad and even Mugabe's supporters will be starving. Then presumably there will be a coup with yet another dictator to take Mugabe's place.

The BBC's bias towards Mugabe

2008-06-26T08:27:00.004+01:00

The BBC is often criticised for its alleged one sided reporting of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. But, it's not only Israel where the BBC gets it wrong. Check out Daniel Finkelstein's blog where he comments on the BBC's coverage of the "election" in Zimbabwe. Their correspondent John Simpson is quoted as saying:

"that Mr Mugabe is on course for a remarkable victory, when only three months ago he seemed to be on the ropes".

It can hardly be called a victory when it was a rigged election. He finishes his report by saying:

"The moral is clear: never underestimate Robert Mugabe's ferocious determination to stay in power, nor the ability of his political opponents to destroy their own case".

Whether it's the Islamists or Zanu PF, the BBC seems to have a soft spot for despots and autocrats.

The EU is increasingly beginning to resemble a communist politburo

2008-06-17T06:59:00.005+01:00

The EU's obsession with "ever closer union" reminds me of that cliche "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Its founding ideals were based on the desire to prevent the kind of nationalism and populism that led to the rise of Hitler. Unfortunately, this has blinded it to the ideals of national sovereignty and democracy. The Irish are a fiercely independent people. It was less than 90 years since they were freed from centuries of British rule. Not surprisingly, they are not in a hurry to be ruled by a foreign power and in the light of this, you can understand why they rejected the Lisbon treaty. Similarly, former communist countries such as the Czech republic have bitter memories of the Warsaw pact and are in no hurry for political union. For them, the EU is increasingly beginning to resemble the communist regimes that only 20 years ago were running their countries.

Neither the Soviet Union nor any of the Warsaw pact countries had any democratic legitimacy, but were run by a political elite who thought they knew what was best for their people and felt little need to consult them. National sovereignty and democracy does not equate to nationalism and populism. It's high time Europe's political elite adjusted to reality.

Education is far too important to be left to politicians

2008-06-08T09:35:00.002+01:00

I can think of no quote that better sums up the dumbing down of Britain's educational system than the following from Charles Moore:

No one would say that, because it is useful to be able to drive, the driving test should be made easier. No one says that it is "elitist" to insist that candidates know how to make an emergency stop. No one, so far as I know, compiles figures to show that a disproportionately high proportion of white males from private schools passes the driving test, and therefore "access" to test passes should be skewed in favour of black girls at state schools. Everyone knows that it is more important to avoid car crashes.

The quicker the Tories get in and introduce school vouchers, the better.

Britain's inhumane health service

2008-06-08T09:06:00.002+01:00

It has been reported in the Times that the medical establishment is in revolt against denial of NHS treatment to patients who pay privately for cancer medicines. This follows several recent cases of cancer patients who have tried to purchase life saving drugs that were not available on the NHS. Some have since died. Britain has one of the worst survival rates in Europe for cancer. Many life saving drugs that are freely available in other European countries are not available on the NHS.

But hold on a second, isn't our national health service supposed to be morally superior to America's 'private' system (so private in fact, that 45% of healthcare is paid for by the US Government)? The latest NHS scandal has killed this myth once and for all.

It seems to me that the NHS is driven more by petty class hatred rather than by any desire for universal health coverage. This latest scandal is yet another story that is likely to infuriate Britain's already overburdened taxpayers.

Just Journalism

2008-06-08T08:55:00.005+01:00

If you have a few minutes to spare, this video from the recently launched 'Just Journalism' is worth watching. Their aim is to promote accurate and responsible reporting about Israel in the British media.

Never blame the perpetrator

2008-06-03T07:40:00.003+01:00

There is a good post on Spectator blogs about the violence that took place on the Tube on Saturday night. Rather than blame the perpetrators, the RMT Union bizarrely decided to blame London's Mayor for bringing in the booze ban too hastily.

There does indeed seem to be a general trend for blaming the supposed provocation rather than the perpetrators, whether it's hooliganism, suicide bombers or knife crime. Only the other week, there was a "yoof worker" interviewed on the one o' clock news who blamed knife crime on kids having nothing to do. Just think, if only our cruel heartless government were to build more youth centres, there wouldn't be so much violence.

If only it was that simple.

Why we can't stand up to Putin

2008-06-03T07:07:00.002+01:00

After years in the political wilderness, conservative political thought seems to be making something of a comeback in Britain. In the circumstances, the launch of the new magazine Standpoint could not have come at a more appropriate time.

If you have time to browse, it's worth reading Edward Lucas's piece about Putin's Russia. It goes a long way towards explaining why the West is unable to stand up to Russia, North Korea or Iran. During the cold war, both Reagan and Thatcher had the self confidence to defend western values. Today, we no longer know what we stand for. If you attack the lack of human rights in China or the lack of democracy in Russia, the likely response is "what about..." i.e. "What about Abu Ghraib" or "What about Guantanamo" - Western democracies have never been perfect, but we have always had an advantage when compared to non-democratic countries. To quote Edward Lucas:

When things went wrong in communist countries, you were powerless. In Western countries, you had a chance, either through politics, the law, or the media, to get something done about it.

We seem to have forgotten this basic fact.

Changing attitudes towards abortion

2008-05-27T08:00:00.006+01:00

It's interesting to see how attitudes towards abortion have changed in Britain. It used to be seen in the simplistic light of religious Americans (pro life) vs enlightened secular Europeans (pro choice).

Clearly it's more complicated than that. Contrary to popular belief, abortion is legal in ALL states of the US (where you have a constitutional right to an abortion) whereas it is still illegal in some European countries such as Poland and Ireland. Secondly, it is no longer a religious vs secular debate. Scientific advances have increased the viability of the foetus to a much earlier stage of pregnancy. And we now understand that the foetus can experience pain at a much earlier stage than was previously thought.

In the light of this, I wonder whether progressives will one day re-examine their attitude towards abortion. For over 40 years now, they have been chanting the mantra about "a woman's right to choose". But there's nothing progressive about killing a human being. You don't have to be a right wing born again Christian to realise this. As our understanding of foetal development improves and as scientific advances continue, we may one day ask ourselves how we allowed abortions to take place at all.

How to fight the knife crime epedemic

2008-05-27T07:10:00.002+01:00

Another weekend and another rash of violent deaths, it's become as predictable as rain on a bank holiday. And after 11 years of promising to be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" all that Labour can do is to promise ever more crime initiatives.

Of course, we don't need more initiatives or "tougher sentences", we just need the authorities to impose the tougher sentences already available. But as I said in my previous post, this country is run by an establishment who lives in another universe. To quote Stephen Pollard...

...police must be given full powers to stop and search children. But instead, not only do the courts and CPS treat children found with knives with kid gloves, dangerous idiots such as Sir Al Aynsley-Green, to whom we pay £130,000 a year for his wisdom as the Children's Commissioner for England, warn that allowing police the power to search children might antagonise them. That just about sums up how the whole edifice works: God forbid that a potential murderer is upset by having his coat examined.

Nostalgia for a bygone age

2008-05-26T14:51:00.007+01:00

When I was growing up in the and 1970s and 80s, there was a tendency amongst the older generation to bemoan the behaviour of unruly teenagers and to get nostalgic about the 1950s, the "good ol' days" when murderers were hanged and when unruly school pupils got the cane. Much of that generation has died off or has long retired. It has been replaced by an ageing baby boomer generation who similarly cling to a bygone age, this time the 1960s, and who seem determined to stick to their discredited utopian ideals by any means necessary. The problem is that much of that generation are now sitting in parliament, running our education system and judging in our courts.

It seems to me that over the past 40 years, our politics have come full circle. Where we once had an elitist establishment of toffs running the country, we now have an elitist establishment of guardian readers running our country instead. And much like the toffs, they are highly educated, enjoy a priveleged lifestyle and understand little of what goes on beyond their enclaves of Islington and Hampstead.

Your average voter may not be Oxford educated, nor are they particularly well versed in the ideals of penal reform, but they understand that taking violent offenders off the street would make their housing estates safer and that a more visible police presence would ward off the thugs who terrorise their neighbourhood. But instead they are patronised by a ruling elite which believes that criminals are victims and that regards any effort to be tough on crime as pandering to the tabloids. The Labour party used to be the anti-establishment party and on the side of the underdog, but now they are the establishment. You can understand why Labour's election tactics backfired so spectacularly in Crewe. There is little point in attacking toffs when you end up behaving increasingly like them.

The scandal of the Dispatches programme

2008-05-16T07:46:00.003+01:00

I'm pleased to hear that the West Midlands Police and the CPS have apologised unreservedly for their false claims regarding the Dispatches programme: Undercover Mosque. Not that they had a choice. Their claims were nothing but lies, fuelled by their own political agenda.

As Melanie Phillips says quite rightly, it shouldn't stop there. Both the West Midlands Police and the CPS should be under the microscope for putting political correctness before the prevention of terrorism. It is the preachers of hate who incubate the terrorists, yet they are getting away with murder. If neither our politicians nor our police are prepared to grapple with this reality, we have little chance in the fight against terror.

Hezbollah destroys Lebanon but nobody seems to care

2008-05-16T07:38:00.002+01:00

Contrast Hizbollah's destruction of Lebanon with Israel's attack in 2006, when the world was outraged and Labour MPs urged the hastening of Tony Blair's departure.

This time there is barely a murmur of protest. No one seems particularly concerned that Sunnis and Shiites are killing each other. Dean Godson provides an explanation in The Times:

So why does Hezbollah's putsch of 2008 not excite stern criticism - as did Israel's invasion of 2006? It's simple: many “progressives” hate Israeli and Western policy far more than they love Lebanon.

Well done Boris!

2008-05-05T06:55:00.005+01:00

I can't believe that Boris Johnson has actually won the election for London's Mayor, but then I never thought that Suburban London would actually turn out to vote. For the eight years of his reign, Ken concentrated on wooing voters from inner London and whilst ignoring the car owning middle class residents of greater London. That turned out to be his undoing.

There was a lot of talk from the left about Ken being the more "progressive" candidate, even from members of London's Jewish Community. It's hard to see what's progressive about inviting Yusuf Qaradawi to London (a man whose racist and homophobic views makes the BNP look like bleeding heart liberals). I also scratch my head to see what's progressive about embracing autocrats such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. But that's always been the weak spot of the left. Obsessed with their hatred of the BNP, the Bush administration and right wing dictators such as Augusto Pinochet whilst simultaneously displaying admiration for Cuba's communist regime. (The title of one of Daniel Finkelstein's articles once summed it up: "Murderous dictators, Cool huh?"). As a "progressive" mayor, he showed little interest in local democracy, extending the congestion charge to Kensington and Chelsea despite the fact that most of the local residents were opposed to it.

Many of the left still can't understand what was so offensive about Ken's infamous "concentration camp guard" comments, which again illustrates the left's major weakness. Their belief in identity politics means they must bend over backwards not to offend certain minorities whilst ignoring the sensitivities of other minorities. Ken may have made the buses run on time and his congestion charge is widely admired (so much so that there are no plans to scrap it), but at the same time he was an embarrassment to London. It's not the London Mayor's job to dabble in international politics, nor is it his job to champion one interest group over another. London's mayor should be representing the interests of all Londoners, inner London as well as greater London, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, motorists and non-motorists. Boris Johnson has a golden opportunity to demonstrate how London should be run. For the sake of London (and the conservatives) let's hope he doesn't squander it.

Could the 21st century be China's century?

2008-04-14T06:43:00.003+01:00

When the Berlin wall fell, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Nelson Mandela was freed, it seemed as though the worldwide march towards democracy was unstoppable. We in the West assumed that economic progress was tied to democratic progress. China's meteoric rise has gone to show how wrong we were. To quote Charles Moore from Saturday's Telegraph:

We in the West have been brought up to think that to be rich, you have to be free. But Deng had no such thought. The Chinese communists had once proclaimed the defeat of capitalism: they now proclaimed its rebirth in their own interests.....

....As the choice of Berlin for the Olympic Games in 1936 marked Hitler's success and international acceptance, so the choice of Beijing for 2008 marks China's. But only since the Olympic torch started its would-be triumphal progress round the world have we begun to notice this virtual fait accompli, and to resent it.

He also makes an interesting note about critics of America...

We have spent much time in recent years complaining about America's abuse of power. Sometimes the criticism is justified, but we have hardly begun to consider the alternative, and how appalling it would be.
Whenever we attack America, we do so in the knowledge that it has a visible system of self-correction that might listen to us. It has a constitutional structure which is built to accommodate differing views. China has nothing of the sort, and never has had.

It has become fashionable amongst the European intelligentsia to attack America for every ill in the world from global warming to capital punishment. Have they even begun to think about what the world would be like if China became the world's biggest military and economic power. That day is drawing ever nearer, and I have a feeling that even "old Europe" will look back nostalgically to the 1990s when America was the world's sole superpower.

Thabo Mbeki, Mugabe's partner in crime

2008-04-13T07:50:00.003+01:00

For too long, the world's media has let Thabo Mbeki off the hook. He has been much criticised for the failure of his "quiet diplomacy" towards Mugabe. It's now clear that he has been anything but an honest broker. He has actively supported Mugabe, and done everything possible to frustrate efforts to remove the 84 year old despot from power. The smiles and warmth that the two leaders display towards each other in front of the world's media says it all.

If this is the way the leader of Africa's largest democracy behaves, what hope is there for the rest of Africa? More ominously, what future is there for South Africa? If I was a citizen of the rainbow nation right now, I'd be looking at my passport.

Now even pirates are having their human rights breached

2008-04-13T07:05:00.004+01:00

Every day brings another daft news story about how either terrorists or criminals have had their "human rights" breached. The latest story that I read must be a belated April fools joke, but apparently it's true. The Royal Navy has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.

Alongside the recent ruling that Abu Qatada has indefinite leave to remain here, it's another nail in the coffin of sanity, and it does little to advance genuine human rights. Whilst Al-Qaeda suspects remain free to carry on planning out atrocities here, genuine asylum seekers facing ill treatment and in many cases certain death are routinely deported to dangerous places such as Zimbabwe and Iraq. As Joan Bakewell recently highlighted in the Independent:

The fuss over this man's right to stay in the country is all the more surprising considering how many and how often otherwise worthy and innocent people are returned to their country of origin. Earlier this year, Ama Sumani, a 39-year-old Ghanaian, was deported home even though she was undergoing treatment for cancer, a treatment that would not be available in Ghana. Friends protested and saved money to help her. But their pleas went unheard. She was returned home and died in Accra alone and friendless just a month ago.
There are other stories to wring the heart: Iraqis now being sent back because it is judged that life in Iraq has improved. Any one of these individuals would make a better humanitarian case for remaining here than Abu Qatada.

It's clear that we could have been rid of Abu Qatada years ago. France is also a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights, but its judiciary loses no sleep over deporting terror suspects to countries where they may face ill treatment. Where there's a will, there's a way, but much of England's judiciary clearly have their own political agenda and are determined to do everything in their power to undermine the governments war on terror. In the light of this, it was an act of staggering naivety on the part of Tony Blair to sign the European Convention of Human Rights.

The importance of learning the right lessons from Northern Ireland

2008-04-07T07:10:00.005+01:00

Ten years after the Good Friday agreement, I have very mixed feelings about the peace in Northern Ireland. Yes, on one hand, the terrorists are no longer bombing and shooting their way to the negotiating table. But on the other hand, the process has hugely empowered the extremists on both sides whilst pretty much destroying the moderates. Despite the peace agreement, many of the paramilitaries tied to Sinn Fein have not put down their weapons but have migrated to organised crime. The calm in Northern Ireland is a very uneasy one with "peace walls" dividing the protestant and catholic communities. As far as I'm concerned the jury is still out. As Charles Moore has so aptly put it:

The present peace is brittle. What has happened is not the creation of a modern plural polity, but of a subsidised statelet in which the warring gangs have, for the moment, been bought off. This is unstable, and unjust to all of those - the majority - who do not want to be defined by gang membership.

Many of those who call Northern Ireland a great success story are making the same mistake they made with Mugabe. When he came to power in 1980, there was a lot of hope among Western politicians that Mugabe would unite Zimbabwe's people and bring reconciliation. They turned a blind eye to his increasingly autocratic style, and they turned a blind eye to the massacre of over 20,000 in Matabeland. We were told all along that it was more important to encourage Mugabe than to condemn him. Twenty eight years later, we have helped to turn him into the dictator he is today.

What applies to Mugabe also applies to China, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taleban and all the other autocratic regimes and assorted terrorist outfits. Talking to extremists sends a very dangerous message. Why bother with democracy when it's abundantly clear that the more ruthless and repressive you are, the more likely you are to get a place at the negotiating table?

Similar sentiments are echoed by Gary McKeone in the Independent

So much for China embracing the Olympic spirit

2008-04-07T06:55:00.002+01:00

When China was awarded the 2008 Olympics, there were many in the West who argued that this would focus the world's attention on China and encourage the regime to improve its human rights record. That argument is looking increasingly threadbare. The spotlight certainly is on China right now, but the only thing it's highlighting is the fact that China has no intention of changing its ways. I thought the Olympic spirit was all about peace, fair play and the brotherhood of man. What a farce!

Brave enough to dodge the Talebans bullets, but not to wear their uniforms in Britain

2008-03-08T23:46:00.002Z

It has been reported that RAF personnel have been told not to leave their base in uniform to avoid being verbally abused by civilians. The verbal abuse is bad enough in itself, but to add insult to injury, the same armed forces who are standing up to the taliban haven't got the bottle to stand up to a few yobs. You can understand why the Americans consider us to be unreliable allies.

Daniel Finkelstein - Winner of the Chaim Bermant Prize for Journalism

2008-03-04T22:06:00.002Z

Daniel Finkelstein, Associate Editor of The Times, has been named winner of the inaugural Chaim Bermant Prize for Journalism.

The prize was launched by the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish Book Council in memory of Chaim Bermant, the outstanding writer and journalist who wrote a weekly column for the Jewish Chronicle for nearly 40 years until his death in 1998. The award recognises journalism on Jewish and Israeli themes.

Finkelstein submitted a series of columns published in the Times and the Jewish Chronicle. Although he writes a monthly Jewish Chronicle column, the judges were insistent that this connection had no bearing on their decision.

The judges said: “He was simply the writer who most closely reflected the values, spirit and qualities of Chaim Bermant’s journalism, his controlled playful and witty columns effectively drawing the reader in by anecdote and humour to a deeper issue or painful truth, bringing to a wide national readership issues such as Holocaust denial or property restitution in a fresh, lively, conversational style.”

Daniel Finkelstein is a weekly Times columnist and that newspaper's Comment Editor. He is the author of the popular blog Comment Central and the weekly football column Fink Tank.

Finkelstein said, "It is a tremendous honour for a columnist to have their name associated with Chaim Bermant in any way. I was delighted that the judges detected some of his spirit in my work - his erudition and wit were justly celebrated."

An award for an Aspiring Journalist was won by Ross Perlin, for Ladino in Lagado, a comment piece on the decline of the Ladino language.

The awards were judged by David Rowan, editor of The Jewish Chronicle, Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian and literary agent Jonny Geller to mark the end of Jewish Book Week.

Europeans are woefully ignorant of US politics

2008-03-04T08:50:00.000Z

Gerard Baker's recent article on the presidential election illustrates the ignorance that many Europeans and much of the world have about America.

The competition between Obama and McCain for President (as is looking increasingly likely) is being seen interpreted a fight between good and evil. Obama is a modern day JFK who will atone for all the sins America has committed over the Bush years. McCain by contrast represents more of the same, a hangover of the Bush years (Despite the fact that he is a centrist who is anti torture, pro immigration, is big on the environment and who wants to reach out to Europeans).

Should Obama become President, the world is in for a shock. Despite all his rhetoric, Obama will not be serving at the altar of multilateralism. He will do what every President is elected to do....put American interests first.

Will opponents to Heathrow stop flying?

2008-03-04T08:03:00.004Z

There's nothing that irritates me more than those who oppose airport expansion yet carry on flying. Regardless of whether there is another runway at Heathrow or not, the expansion pales into insignificance when you consider that China plans to open 97 regional airports over the next 10 years. Why should Westerners who have benefited from decades of mass air travel deny those in the rest of the world from enjoying the same benefits?

The left and their flimsy excuses for Fidel Castro

2008-02-28T23:42:00.005Z

Lately, we've been hearing a lot of predictable drivel from George Galloway, Harriet Harman and others defending Fidel Castro which brings to mind that old cliche "He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he is our son-of-a-bitch".

George Galloway was recently interviewed on Channel 4 News. When asked about the lack of democracy in Cuba, he responded that Cuba has been under siege from America for nearly 50 years, and that when you're at war, you have to suspend democratic norms.

It's funny, but the right wing fascists who defend Augusto Pinochet make exactly the same argument: that Pinochet was defending Chile from the threat of communism and that when you're at war, you have to suspend democratic norms. Thankfully, Chile is now a liberal democracy, the same unfortunately cannot be said for Cuba.

It's funny how the left were all clamouring for Augusto Pinochet to be put on trial for human rights abuses, yet they continue have a soft spot for good old Fidel Castro. What a bunch of hypocrites!