Douglas Murray has written two pieces about yesterday’s attack on Salmon Rushdie, one for the Telegraph, another for the Spectator.
In the Telegraph, he urges the British Government not to equivocate in its support for the novelist – no ‘On the one hand…’ type of response in which condemnation of the attack is quickly followed by an acknowledgment that some Muslims find The Satanic Verses deeply offensive.
The attack in New York on Salman Rushdie has brought back sharply into focus the fact that the Booker-winning novelist has been a target for Islamists for over three decades, ever since the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988. After that novel’s publication the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa against Rushdie. Encouraged by British Muslims, the Iranian leader accused Rushdie of blasphemy and put a bounty on his head. For many years Rushdie lived in hiding, protected by the British state.
Rushdie described those bewildering, terrifying, heroic years living in hiding in his 2012 memoir Joseph Anton. It is quite a work, detailing every demoralising corner of the affair. It includes accounts of the politicians of both left and right who failed to support the novelist, as well as the writers, artists and other public figures who pretended that the Ayatollah had committed an offence, but so had the author of the novel. And of course the crowds of Muslims in Bradford and other cities who burned copies of the book and were allowed to call for Rushdie´s murder on British streets and television.
He concludes:
Let us not have a repetition of the caviling, caveating and cowardice we saw from some quarters in 1989. No ifs. No buts. No “on the one hand, on the other”. A British author has been attacked. This time, let his country be fully behind him.
In the Spectator, he’s more emollient, praising the efforts of Susan Sontag and others who stood by the beleaguered author:
In his 2012 memoir – Joseph Anton – Rushdie wrote about the fatwa years. The book is a detailed chronicle of all the people who let him down: the MPs who promised support and then whipped up mobs; the political figures of left and right who said that while the Ayatollah may have caused an offence so had the novelist; the authorities who allowed Muslims in Bradford and others on television to call for a British subject’s murder with impunity.
But it is also a chronicle of the people who supported him, the friends who stood by him and the public figures who stood up for him. One of them was the American writer Susan Sontag, who helped organise a public reading of Rushdie’s work in New York. As Sontag said, the moment called for some basic ‘civic courage’. It is striking how much of that civic courage has evaporated in recent years. Today no one would be able to write – much less get published – a novel like The Satanic Verses. Perhaps nobody has tried. From novels to cartoons a de facto Islamic blasphemy law settled across the West in the wake of the Rushdie affair. The attack today will doubtless exacerbate that.
Worth reading in full.
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Thanks for that useful summary.
— Labour are also going to allow Vindictive Catholics to start harassing Northern Ireland Protestants and British Army veterans again, with endless legal actions over “The Troubles” tying up the courts for decades to come. That will please the Vatican.
— Labour are also going to allow (and fund?) the bizarre, creepy Holocaust Memorial to be built next to the UK Parliament, to show everyone who is really in charge, because no such memorials will be built there for the Holodomor, though no doubt Churchill’s statue will be replaced by George Floyd, and a Muslim memorial, and a Sikh memorial, and a Hindu memorial, and a Buddhist memorial, not to exclude an African Slavery (not White Slavery) memorial, a Pagan memorial, and a Maori Cannibal memorial.
Nationalise the Railways; that’s all a bit Benito. Good luck trying to bring that industry under control.
It is the stuff not mentioned I worry about. Stuff deep down in documentation that only the most eager nerd could uncover. They again, Agenda 2030 has just had a fresh boost of steroids.
“This is designed to avoid the mistakes of the disastrous Liz Truss “mini Budget”
Lol.
The Liz Truss budget that the Bank of England scuppered with their malign interference in the Bond markets?
Hmm.
Exactly, and which had zero economic effect.
Yup, that’s the one.
We’ll have 5 years of disastrous budgets now with tax increases of all kinds that will harm the economy.
Ah, but Kneel is introducing “safeguards” tof. The ‘Budget’ will be referred to the OBR for scrutiny which is marvellous – unelected faceless civil servants will give each budget a once over and if it does not suit (them) it will be altered / rejected. This offers the Chancellor the always sought after clause of
“Not me Guv.”
Ain’t life grand?
In my youthful naivety I thought that leaving such things to “experts” rather than irresponsible politicians was a good idea, but I have changed my mind now. The decisions must be made by people you can boot out of office if you think they’ve cocked it up.
Yes why would they want to avoid that, that is straight out of the Globalist playbook for anyone that undermines the agenda like wanting democracy.
Wasn’t allowed by the Banking Families/aka TRPTB.
Almost as bad as saying no more fractonal banking.
Consider –
Jackson
Lincoln
Garfield
Kennedy.
And
Gaddifi,
Kim Jon Um
Putin,
Putin – No more shall we enslaved by the Rothschilds of thsi world.
Complete smoking ban. “Health” fascism. Thanks to all who voted for parties that support that – Labour, Tories, probably most of the others.
In this respect, the sky is the limit once the practice has been established. Teetotalers, lactose intolerants, vegans, fructose intolerants (yes, they do exist) etc would all love to force others to live as they believe to be healthy by weaponizing criminal law. And that’s just food stuff. I bet there’s pretty much no aspect of human life some people don’t hold irrational but extremely strong “health opinions” about. Eg, so-called sedentary life style is widely believed to cause all kinds of serious health problems, so, why not outlaw sitting in public and demand that everyone must run a minium of … miles per week and be ready to demonstrate that to some public health surveillance authority?
Precisely. It won’t end with smoking.
I don’t think they’re interested in a healthy population. 2020 they closed the Gyms . I was lucky there, I had just moved house and moved my equipment the day before the Lockdowns, though at the time thought it would be three weeks. On the day of the Lockdown I still drove passed the Gym just by the off chance it was open, not taking things too seriously and not sure how seriously the Gym owner was taking it.
“I don’t think they’re interested in a healthy population.”
There’s an awful lot of culling to come.
The population has to be made poorly in order to reduce it.
The free breakfast club allows the government to try and influence the eating habits of the future adult population and/or give the children a poor diet so they have trouble learning.
“free breakfast club”
Exactly. And of course increase dependence on the state. For some parents this is literally manna from heaven.
Don’t give the barstewards ideas.
It’s not a smoking ban but a buying ban
Eventually there will be no one left alive who can legally buy cigarettes- how is that not a smoking ban?
Effectively: The immediate outcome will be a vibrant black market for smuggled cigarettes and without hiring a load of “community health police officers” who aggressively target smokers to force them to prove that they bought their tobacco legally, there’s nothing which can be done against that.
That’s obviously just the kind of measure the anti-smoker NGOs would love to implement. But these guys would also be love to be allowed to shoot smokers on sight because of the “health risks” they pose to them¹. It remains to be seen if they will also get it.
¹ That’s an actual quote from a conversation with such a guy I had in the past.
Exactly
First it was the smokers, then the car drivers – what’s next booze methinks.
The sky’s the limit!
Fake, lab-grown meat gets the go ahead. Now why would we need that I wonder?
Soylent green anybody?
Exactly.
Nonsense. That was real meat.
ulp!
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/uk-the-first-european-country-to-approve-lab-grown-meat-starting-with-pet-food/
https://youtu.be/yY3sNWK1_QU?si=MCOqcf0a_gJ0-NdO
This gives a clue to why we will need “lab-grown meat.”
Farmers need to wake up, I will be checking how many signs are up regarding ‘No Farmers, No Food, No future it the Royal Welsh Show. I remember arguing with one farmer and he said people don’t have a right to know why Bill Gates is buying up so much farmland in the US. FFS.
I ordered some stickers from ebay:
No Farmers
No Food
So these are appearing on local lampposts AND a baseball cap with the same message.
On the transport item, it may be worth clarifying the fact the infrastructure and physical operation of it is already state owned (Network Rail, Transport for London, Transport for Wales etc), and that some of the train operation organisations are also state owned, with the rest being franchised to private contractors, such as various train operators and rolling stock leasing companies. Even within the franchises, there is a lot of governmental management, via the Treasury. In the real world, we are looking at more reorganisation, which is normal; no such thing as stability in that trade, if you look back over the last century!
For quite a while recently, well before the election, there has been a lot of manipulation about the new “Great British Railways” (GBR) organisation, presumably being developed under the DfT. More work for the Civil Service, no doubt.
Over the years, my employers were British Rail, Adtranz, Bombardier, and a couple of contractors, one which took over the other.
So plenty of ruinously expensive activity and beggar all progress.
Plus ça change……..since 1990.
How is barring people born after 2009 from doing certain principally legal things not age-based discrimination? And how’s that going to work in practice in shops once the legal age for being allowed to buy cigarettes has risen to a point where it’s impossible to tell people who are and aren’t of age apart on sight? Lastly, considering that the war on drugs has been so horrendously effective that consumption of illegal drugs is virtually unheard of¹, what’s the likely effect of handing yet more profitable trade opportunities to the Mafia?
¹ If Cocaine consumption was as legal as it is ubiquitous, pubs etc could provide dedicated facilities for this. This would greatly reduce vandalism, violence and other unpleasantries the sometimes preciously few people using so-called restrooms for their nominal purpose would have to put up with.
When the Digital ID/Cashless Society/Social Credit system is up and running Big Brother will automatically be able to identify individuals by age ….. and stop them from buying products which aren’t approved.
I think you have that backwards: Enforcing this would require creation of such a system (plus a load of other totalitarian measures I mentioned in another comment).
Cheer up everyone. No blasphemy law…yet.
Annoying muslims is not goot for your health and hence, introducing one would save the NHS money!
On Labour’s new “Border Security Command”, here is a comment from the Daily Mail:
“Fact for you…On Labour’s Watch since Election nearly 2000 illegal migrants arrived in UK by rubber boats..& 1000s more in the back of Trucks ? A friend saw 9 men jump out of a Truck on M6 Services a week ago and run off across fields. .a member of staff told him …it happens every day & night, mate !”
If that is at least 20 illegals jumping out of lorries every 24 hours at just ONE motorway services stop, can you imagine the true, devastating extent of this invasion by land, coming on lorries through the Channel Tunnel, in addition to the thousands pouring in by sea?
And where do they go after “running across fields”? Years ago there were reports from rural people all over the country that groups of illegals were often seen and heard walking in single file through quiet villages in the dead of night.
Is this not a type of Guerrilla Warfare?
An Undeclared War on the West?
By our own elected politicians?
As you can see from this chart, immigration began to rise steadily and unstoppably from 1994, the year the Channel Tunnel opened.
Immigration: the numbers – UK in a changing Europe (ukandeu.ac.uk)
It was exactly what many British people had feared, as soon as Margaret Thatcher started pushing for the Tunnel to be built.
And long before that:
“So long as the ocean remains our friend, do not let us deliberately destroy its power to help us”: so argued the former Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty Arthur Balfour in 1920.”
“Balfour…echoing the views of a number of serving and retired soldiers plus a supporting chorus of politicians, civil servants and some sectors of public opinion, was arguing that the idea of constructing a Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France was a thoroughly bad one.”
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24430112
“Opposition to the Channel Tunnel, 1882-1975: Identity, Island Status and Security” by Duncan Redford, National Museum of the Royal Navy
What gets me is how they know where to go assuming they have just escaped from a vehicle. I suppose more who get here hitching on unsuspecting truck drivers still have their phones, but who do they phone.
Yes, yes, exactly so! How do they know where to go in a foreign country where they don’t even speak the language?
I’ve just been watching an astonishing explanation of this by US veteran and war correspondent Michael Yon, linked by The Expose website article here:
Michael Yon: The Invasion of Ireland – The Expose (expose-news.com)
and his video here, where he shows the actual map with the Foreign Forces deployed around Dublin: “(Allow approximately 1 minute and 20 seconds for the audio to kick in and the brief countdown to begin. The sound at first appears not to be working, but is actually fine.)”
Michael Yon: Callsign BIG HONEY 6 on X: “Michael Yon Live: Invasion of Ireland / June 19th https://t.co/UehvbR6cFa” / X
It’s a real shocker.
One shock from the video is realising that all the ring roads that were built around British towns and cities may be used as a convenient military barrier to encircle and imprison the inhabitants as in a siege, blocking all escape routes.
I remember reading years ago that some farming communities in the American Midwest were aghast when the military blocked off their access ramps overnight to stop them from driving their vehicles onto the state and interstate highways. They said it was just an “exercise”, and removed the blocks after a short time, but the locals were frightened at the speed with which their vehicular access had been totally blocked in the dead of night without warning, preventing them from getting their farm produce to market.
On the Radio I heard them mention in the King’s Speech that he said something along the lines of…..”Avoiding the snake oil salesmen of populism”. Yes Charles, I already know what team you bat for!
Chuckles and his mob are traitors.
His speech was entirely written by the Labour government for him to read out, as you must surely know.
Yes and he seems happy to read out stuff like that.
Who wouldn’t, considering the pay?
It’s worthwhile to remember that the actual family name of this guy is v. Gotha und Sachsen-Coburg and that the actual name of his father was v. Battenberg. The former was replaced with the synthetic name Windsor during the first world war, the latter anglicized into Mountbatten (literal translation) marking these people as the worst kind of Germans: Those who hide their heritage if it’s more profitable to do so.
I’m sure Nigel was very grateful for the PM making it so obvious where the real Opposition will be coming from.
What an absolute joke Lefties are. A Government Billy and His No Mates voted for intends to wreck the country, wreck the railways and wreck children’s lives. Nothing new under the sun essentially.
The rail bill is especially ludicrous. The railways were privatised for one precise reason: the country could not afford to maintain and replace the stock. The trains were a disgusting joke and I, for one, did not travel on them at all. Privatisation changed the entire ball game and trains are, today, modern and comfortable.
Where is the bit in the Bill about how the railways will be funded by the cash cow Sheeples? I see it not.
Climate Change – The Magic Energy Tree
This King’s speech also had some points on net-zero & climate change;
”The speech highlights the new Government’s recognition of the urgency of the global climate challenge and the new job opportunities that can come from leading the development of the technologies of the future.
It states the Government’s commitment to a clean energy transition which will lower energy bills for consumers over time, introducing the Great British Energy Bill. This entails a publicly owned clean power company headquartered in Scotland, which will help accelerate investment in renewable energy such as offshore wind.
Bringing forward legislation to help the country achieve energy independence and unlock investment in energy infrastructure, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (Revenue Support Mechanism) Bill”
To my mind this is a lot of pie in the sky, wishful thinking, nonsense. ‘Lower energy bills’ ‘achieve energy independence’, they must still believe in the Tooth Fairy and Father Christmas. Gordon Brown gave us the quantitative easing magic money tree that has undermined the economy, this latest Labour gov is giving us eco energy fantasy land that will leave us all huddled round the wood-burner ( if you are still allowed to have one?) and reading fairy tales by candlelight.
No King of mine !!
The usual stuff: a few sops to the poor in order to keep the lid on things. All agreed beforehand by the banker class of course. The whole point of the Trilateral Commison (Starmer is a memebr) is to put their people into positions of power. In terms of quality of life it has degraded massively in the last few years and it will detriorate even more quickly now. They have great confidence in their ability to control things but events that are now occurring globally – no governing class will be able to help you. Accept it in your heart that you are truly alone and then start to build from that.
We have a dismal situation in this country where most of the working class get an educaton which is essentially a truncated utlitarian version of mainstream orthodoxy. Not to mention television and popular culture. They have engendered this situation. If you go back to the mid nineteenth century the working class wre highly literate and producing publications that showed high levels of sophistication. An academic,Jonathan Rose if I recall, wrote a book about it. And then you look at the pernicious influence of cinema and radio and television. You should see some of the anti-German propaganda in 1914. Apparently innocent daschunds got slaughtered. We are very blighted now in terms of popular consciousness but it is worthwhile putting it into perspective.
I have to say though, Charles is a contemptuous little prick. Apparently when he goes abroad with his entourage he is very unpleasant with them. But he and his concubine look particularly nasty in these photos. I remember in the 1990s a leaked text message where he said that he wanted to be her tampon. I doubt that there is much nobility in his mind.
The nannification of the population continues.
Meantime, Big Brother prepares to take over when Nanny is tired.
It would be useful to indicate which issues come under devolved legislation. Ie NHS is not Wales, Scotland or NI.A problem not covered in the recent election debates.