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The laws of the land take precedence over the rules of any organisation. Muslims can live by sharia law in this country as long as what they do is not in conflict with national laws. The same applies to other religions, clubs etc.
Footballers get red cards for committing fouls but they haven’t broken the law. Orthodox Jews choose to do nothing that can be construed as ‘work’ on the sabbath. Catholic priests agree not to marry. Again, they are abiding by mutually agreed rules of the organisation they belong to.
I am an atheist, I am against all religions, so I’m not promoting them here! The problem with sharia law is where the radicals press for sharia to prevail in situations where it is in conflict with national laws. We can never allow that.
Another problem is many of the sharia rules that are not in conflict with national laws, like not drinking alcohol or women having to wear headscarves are OK if they are voluntary (which they are, technically) but are enforced by coercion or even intimidation.
Another thing I’ve noticed for some time is that the older generation – I suppose I mean the elderly – 70+, have a tendency to stop and chat to people a lot more than my generation or below. It’s not just that they are older, they did this when they were younger too. My parents, in-laws and grandparents would strike up conversations in the street or in shops about some inconsequential matter.
It would never cross my mind to compliment a stranger on their garden or chat to someone about their unusual car, it’s just not something that was part of the culture of someone growing up in the 60’s.
It all seems to be going pear-shaped at an alarming rate. I might be wrong but the housing market has collapsed, unemployment is beginning to rise, basic living costs are going up.
Britain has replaced manufacturing with leisure and entertainment and ‘debt’ was becoming the new ‘wealth’ for many people. But we’re partying up to the eleventh hour, so it seems.
Some of the problems we have today come from the 80’s. Particularly the idea that we should give up on manufacturing because we couldn’t compete with lower labour costs abroad, especially in the far east.
Also when it was decided to privatise our publicly owned utilities, was it foreseen that 20 years later, some of them would be owned by foreign governments?
It was often said, in defence of the decline of the British motor industry, that it was too expensive to manufacture cars here. So how do Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Tata (owns Jaguar and Land Rover), BMW (owns Mini and Rolls-Royce) and VW (owns Bentley), General Motors (owns Vauxhall) and Ford manage to make cars here?
I’m not a grumpy old man looking back through rose-tinted spectacles – the 70s and 80s had problems too – strikes and other forms of industrial unrest – British Rail was not as great as some people seem to remember it – but at least you knew who wou were dealing with. Anything connected with rail travel? That’d be British Rail.
I think the west does care about black Africa – think of all the solidarity that led to the eventual fall of the apartheid regime in Sout Africa. Look at live aid and the work of other big aid charities all over Africa. Even if this has failed, the effort has been considerable.
Zimbabwe is difficult because its problems are internal and it doesn’t appear to threaten its neighbours. The only way to get rid of Zanu PF is by force, which would mean invasion and war. I know that’s happened elswehere, like Afghanistan, Iraq and former Yugoslavia, but intervention in Zimbabwe would probably cause even more suffering than there is already.
If Britain or other western countries intervene in Zimbabwe, Zanu PF will twist it as a war by the white man agains blacks. Iraq taught us this, if nothing else – the fact that Iraqis were unable to topple their leader for 25 years but 150,000 people could come half-way round the world, invade and topple him after 3 weeks must have been humiliating to the people even if they were grateful too, initially. That is why the perception of the west waging war on islam was able to spread so easily.
If these people weren’t so evil and dangerous, they’d be funny. Even the names sound funny!
What’s a kiler?
Would they allow someone in a KKK outfit to work in Sainsbury’s?
I was driving to work a few weeks ago and there was an accident or some other medical emergency at a bus stop. There were a lot of police present, indicating it might have been a crime scene too. The bus shelter had blankets up to screen whatever had happenned.
Screening the scene of an accident is a good idea if it doesn’t interfere with the rescue operation.
The BNP is just an extremist political organisation, in the same way a the Socialist Workers Party, the Muslim Brotherhood, Sinn Feinn or the Green Party. They all have their thuggish tendencies and promote offensive policies (except the Greens who promote ridiculous policies instead) but the majority of members of these organisations are ‘nice, ordinary’ people.
With the way the economy and the financial markets are going, how safe is the money in our bank accounts even if it is secure against fraud?
