CALEDONIAN COMMENT

In the UK Conservative opposition leader David Cameron (pictured above), addressing his party’s annual conference in Manchester, yesterday pledged to defend “family, community and country” as he set out his vision for “a responsible society” under the Conservatives. Promising he had the character, temperament and judgment to lead Britain, he described “the long road in front of us but how good things could be” if Government was cut back to help “put Britain back on her feet”. He went on : “Recognising that what holds society together is responsibility, and that the good society is a responsible society – that’s what I’m about, that’s what any government I lead will be about. We all know how bad things are, massive debt, major social breakdown, political disenchantment. But what I want to talk about today is how good things could be”.

Well he could start by not insulting the intelligence of anyone old enough to remember the last time the Conservatives were in power – because as I recall there was very little defence of family, community and country as Mrs Thatcher threw 4 million people out of work and destroyed whole industries and communities. And as for a responsible society, only those with short memories could forget the Yuppified “devil take the hindmost” culture that sprang up in the 1980′s as glorified barrow-boys in the City got drunk and flaunted their ostentatious wealth as the National Health Service nearly collapsed. And as for getting Britain back on her feet, well if it’s a choice between incompetent New Labour windbag Gordon Brown or incompetent Conservative windbag David Cameron, it looks like the best we can hope for is to perhaps struggle back on to our knees.

 

And pictured above are the Camerons, presumably in their hotel suite the night before, with the opposition leader’s wife Samantha looking on as Mr Cameron put the finishing touches to his speech – that’s what making up policy “on the hoof” is described as in knowledgeable political circles these days. In a way I find this picture quite reassuring – because she’s obviously as bored rigid with puerile party conference speeches as the rest of us are !

 

There’s nothing like a good dose of political correctness on BBC TV. Veteran 81-year old presenter Bruce Forsyth (above left) has refused to apologise for saying the nation should get a “sense of humour” over the “Strictly Come Dancing” (a weekly show) race row. Forsyth claimed there was a difference between racially offensive language that was meant to be funny and “racist comments which are malicious in intent”. BBC bosses were reportedly furious after Forsyth seemingly trivialised Anton Du Beke’s racial slur against dance partner Laila Rouass (pair above right), whom he compared to a “Paki” after she got a spray-tan. Old Brucie has called for people to accept Du Beke’s apology and move on. He says that in days gone by the “slip-up” would have been treated in a more light-hearted way. Yes Brucie – but in days gone by homosexuals couldn’t marry or adopt and you didn’t get arrested for lighting a cigarette in a pub either. Light-heartedness doesn’t exist where political correctness is concerned. The only exception seems while being racist is a no-no, it’s apparently OK to be ageist and call for Forsyth’s sacking on the grounds of old age. But double standards were always prevalent in entertainment – and politics. 

 

The Royal Mail has lost a crucial contract with its second largest customer, the online retailer Amazon (above), as a wave of strikes threaten parcel deliveries in the busy pre-Christmas sales period. The news comes on the eve of a national strike announcement by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) that is likely to bring the simmering industrial dispute to the boil and further disrupt deliveries across the country. CWU members are angry about the Royal Mail’s handling of its modernisation programme and are expected to escalate their programme of local strikes in a dispute they say is about consultation over changes to working practices. Now I’ve used Amazon quite a few times and always found it to be a quality service. That premium customer like Amazon are leaving the Royal Mail should be a wake-up call to both its arrogant management and the intransigent union to get things settled quickly between them, or they’ll ALL be out of a job.

  

In Russia Yevgeni Dzhugashvili (pictured above), Stalin’s grandson, is taking part in a demand for 10 million roubles (about £200,000) in damages from “Novaya Gazeta” , a liberal Russian newspaper, over an article that accused the late Soviet tyrant of personally approving executions. The case is being brought by Leonid Zhura, a devoted Stalinist, who runs a pro-Stalin website (what a gripping read THAT must be)insists that the dictator never actually killed anybody — despite the deaths of millions in purges and slave labour camps under his rule. Hearings opened yesterday at Basmanny Court in Moscow into his complaint that Anatoli Yablokov, an historian, had insulted Stalin’s memory in a newspaper article. What next ? Perhaps the German right will sue a newspaper on the grounds that Adolf Hitler was a nice bloke really who in his spare time organised the odd Bar Mitzvah ?

 

According to a newly publish “Pew Forum” Report, the global Muslim population (above) stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practise Islam, the landmark study has claimed. Britain has a total of 1,647,000 Muslims – just 2.7 %  of the UK population, and 0.1 % of the global Muslim population, the report claimed. Does our government know about this ? The reason I ask is that if the Muslim population in the UK is only 2.7%, why do our politically correct masters seem to spend 90% of their time pandering to them ? Wouldn’t 2.7% of their time be enough ?

 

Regular visitors to Caledonian Comment who are also Entrecard members will notice that I’ve removed the Entrecard widget from this blog. This decision has been forced upon me as a result of the incredibly naive, immature, arrogant, customer-unfriendly attitude of the Entrecard management. When I recently had the temerity to criticise their unilateral decision to foist paid ads on blogs without consultation or the right of veto, I was banned from their public forum. When I protested about that, my Entrecard account was deleted without prior discussion AND I was effectively robbed of over 12,000 Entrecard credits. It seems incredible that the popular, blogger-friendly network that Entrecard once was could be turned into a contemptible joke – until you consider the cretinous way the organisation is now being run. I have resisted leaving for a long time when many other bloggers of quality left. In the end, I’m almost glad Entrecard made the decision for me, even if they did commit theft.

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Tags: adolf hitler, amazon, anatoli yablokov, anton du beke, basmanny court, bbc, bruce forsyth, caledonian comment, conservative party, cwu, david cameron, entrecard, gordon brown, laila rouass, leonid zhura, manchester, moscow, mrs thatcher, muslim population, new labour, novaya gazeta, paki, pew forum, political correctness, royal mail, russia, samantha cameron, stalin, strictly come dancing, uk, yevgeni dzhugashvili

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 12:02 am and is filed under Daily Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.