Scottish Political News

The Scottish Parliament finance committee has appointed David Bell as an adviser. Prof Bell was the author of a paper on local income tax that warned that families with two incomes would be hit hard, the tax would have to rise by 17%, and there could be "substantial cuts" to public services.

The Executive would of course already be expecting a difficult time when their financial plans are scrutinised by MSPs. Looks like the MSPs are making sure.

One of the less attractive features of Egypt is the tendency for people to come up to you in public places trying to sell you things. At practically all the ancient sites that we visited there seemed to be a collection of tiny shops between the place where you bought your entry tickets and the bus parking area. This would have been OK if you were simply left with the option of going into the shop. Instead, the shopkeeper would assail you on the way back to the bus and try to sell you a shirt, a guide book, etc. After our visit to the Valley of the Queens one guy seemed to lock onto me like a tourist-seeking missile. Despite my persistent attempts to shoo him away, he was determined to sell me a shirt and the price he was asking dropped precipitously. By the time I got to the bus he was almost offering to pay me to take the item!

The most extreme example we saw (see picture) happened when the cruise boat stopped waiting to get through the lock at Esna on the way to Aswan. Several little boats swarmed around our boat and the people on board repeatedly threw goods (mainly galabeyas) up onto the cruise boat in the hope that someone would throw money, rather than the unwanted galabeya, back.

I suspect many of these folk are pretty poor, and I'm obviously sympathetic, but I really can't imagine they make much money by using these tactics.

Sorry I haven't blogged much since returning from holiday. Holidays are wonderful things, but they have two problems associated with them. The first of these is the fact that you have to go back to work after them. The second problem is the fact that the poor buggers that have been snowed under while you have been away often have the audacity to go on holiday themselves when you go back. This unpleasant behaviour often increases the stress levels of vulnerable individuals suffering from post-holiday depression. It's fair to say that I have been pretty busy with "real life" since returning from Egypt.

Another particular problem was the sudden death of my elderly desktop computer shortly after I came home. Although I also have a laptop, all my photoediting software was on the old machine, somewhat interfering with the post-processing of my 400 images from the holiday! Fortunately, after a period in intensive care at the computer hospital, the old boy is back on his feet---in fact I'm typing on him now.

Hopefully, next week will be better!

I went out walking
With a bible and a gun
The word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure I was the one

- U2, 'The Wanderer'

In comments below, Renegade Eye asks why I haven't said anything about the new atheists. I've read the new atheist books by Harris, Dennett, Dawkins, and Onfray. I haven't read Hitchens' book yet but I've read and listened to enough of Hitchens on religion to have some idea where he's coming from. I've also read David Mills' Atheist Universe, the first (self-published) edition of which preceded them all as a surprise success. I don't really have much to say about them, so instead I'm going to give lots and lots of links.

But first, I should mention that I clean forgot a third atheist paperback, and one I'd written about elsewhere at that: Jacques Monod's Chance and Necessity, (1970, translated 1971.)

The first 21st century atheist books were popularizations of atheist arguments that had developed within philosophy. (A few humanist philosophers in Britain had become Guardian columnists: Julian Baggini, Simon Blackburn, A. C. Grayling. In the US it was a bit different: atheist columnists felt isolated. (Via.)) Daniel Harbour's An Intelligent Person's Guide to Atheism (2001, paperback 2003) and Julian Baggini's Atheism: A Very Short Introduction (2003) were both well-written and, in their differing ways, original. But the only way they prefigured what was about to break was that were each published as part of a series of brief guides to large subjects. Baggini explicitly counselled against atheist militancy: "Religion will recede not by atheists shouting condemnation, but by the quiet voice of reason slowly making itself heard."

On September 15 2001 the voice of reason, or at any rate of Richard Dawkins, made itself heard in a very different tone. Dawkins followed this up within days with a call to stop being polite about religion, repeated here and here, and reprinted in his essay collection A Devil's Chaplain (from which I quoted it after Beslan, which was my moment of having had enough of being polite - though what actually got me to rejoin the National Secular Society was this (PDF).)

OK, on to the links.

Michael Fitzpatrick puts forward materialist arguments against, as he puts it, baiting the devout. Ronald Aronson has a more sympathetic radical take. Terry Eagleton wrote a hilariously pretentious review of The God Delusion, which called forth P.Z. Myers' memorable Courtier's Reply, as well as some patient and puzzled commentary by my fellow SF writer Adam Roberts.

The charge that Dawkins et al are 'atheist fundamentalists' led to the formulation of Stacey's Law. Stacey is not the only one bored with the anti-Dawkins backlash.

The prominence of the new atheists has led to more atheists coming out. One reporter who worked the religion beat for years explains how he lost faith. (Both via.) Dawkins himself has a very civilised conversation with one of his Christian critics, the eminent scientist Francis Collins.

Another scientist, David Sloan Wilson, criticises Dawkins' speculations on the evolutionary origins of religion, to which Dawkins gives a spirited reply; their disagreement is discussed here. There's further intelligent commentary on the cognitive and behavioural roots of religion by Abbas Raza, Pascal Boyer, and Paul Bloom (these two via an earlier good piece by Raza.

Former fundamentalist New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman is interviewed on the documents. Taner Edis, a physicist from Turkey and harsh critic of Islam's relation to science, warns secular humanists against their own simplistic interpretations of the Muslim world and Islam, particularly the egregious tripe peddled by Sam Harris.

If you make through all these, you may be relieved to hear from John Emerson: I’m surprised that people are still talking about “God” any more. I disproved his existence a couple of weeks ago. Despite this amazing feat of logic, the discussion will, no doubt, go on.

Kathryn Cramer is hosting the New Weird archive. This is a legendary online discussion of the New Weird involving all the participants, and then some. It's to the New Weird what a decade's worth of pamphlets, manifestos, pub conversations, opium dreams and police-spy reports would be to the Romantic movement or the Shelley circle or the Dadaists. Someday people will get doctorates on it.

This is simultaneously hilarious and frightening:

Council officials have asked a chef to change the “provocative” name of his new Chinese restaurant after he called it the Fat Buddha. Durham City Council wrote to co-owner Eddie Fung saying the name was contrary to the city’s reputation as “a place of respect for religious beliefs”. But Mr Fung, who is a Buddhist, says the name will stand as no-one has been offended by it.
[…]
Tracey Ingle, the council’s head of cultural services, said she stood by the original comments she had made in the letter. […] The letter to the restaurant said: “I have to say, in my view, the name is provocative. To use the name of a major religion’s deity in your restaurant brand runs contrary to this city’s reputation as a place of equality and respect for other’s views and religious beliefs.”

Hilarious, because even a highly westernised half-Chinese boy such as myself knows, the fat buddha (or more usually, the laughing buddha) is a recurring motif in Chinese cultures and countless restaurants, shops, houses and places of worship have him with his enormous belly, cheery laugh and enormous earlobes that I found terrifying as a small child. He is not The Buddha (aka Siddartha Gautama) but rather a buddha (usually called Budai) in one way at least, whose form is the personification of the jolly fat man (cf. Father Christmas in Western culture) and his presence is a sign of wealth, happiness and prosperity - for good luck, you rub his belly. In short, he is a rather positive figure and there is nothing pejorative associated with the term at all.

The letter goes on:¹

“The generic descriptive adjective of “fat” is not in itself a derogatory term when applied generally [..] the name implies an Eastern offer […] as it is associated with a religion that grew from Asian countries […] It does not, however, offer vegetarian cuisine solely nor does it refer to Buddhist belief systems. The name is provocative.”

For starters there are various misassumptions and uneducated assertions in the letter: As well as the confusion outlined above, the Buddha here is asserted as being a “deity” - the perceived divinity of the Buddha varies according to which strand of the faith you believe in, with many Buddhists regarding him as a human, not a supernatural being - and that Buddhists adhere to a solely vegetarian diet, which they most certainly do not.² Given this is from Durham City Council’s head of cultural services (who has a blog that’s even less regularly updated than this one) it’s a pretty shocking ignorance of the diversity of belief within one of the world’s major faiths; what makes it frightening is the wilfulness to boil down “what is a Buddhist?” down to such simplistic terms in order to make a point which they feel terribly compelled to make.

Within this story lies the real evil of political correctness - not the sentiment behind it (I’m sure Tracey Ingle meant well, in her own way) - but by being so zealous in their duty to create a world totally free of offence rather than one of general mutual respect. The question over whether something is “offensive” is only ever satisfactorily answered by assuming the role of the most easily-offended, i.e. the most fundamentalist and generally pissed-off. Tracey Ingle’s hypothetical pissed-off Buddhists, miserable militant vegetarian deity-worshippers with nothing better to do than be outraged at such blasphemy, don’t really exist, but the politically correct are still fearful of this fictional construct. Ironically, this attitude has underpinning it a certain set of patronising and ugly assumptions about the intelligence and peacefulness of people of faiths and races other than their own (vis. the same softly-softly approach that assumes all Muslims will turn into Rushdie-burning fanatics at the slightest provocation) that share more than a passing resemblance to the intolerance and racism they are so avowedly trying to fight.

¹ Ugh, I linked to the Daily Mail. Feel unclean.
² IANAB: I Am Not A Buddhist, although many of my family are at least nominally so. I don’t claim to be an expert on the faith by any means and I am not willing to get into a theological argument over this quite complex subject - but by and large I am right.

This is simultaneously hilarious and frightening:

Council officials have asked a chef to change the “provocative” name of his new Chinese restaurant after he called it the Fat Buddha. Durham City Council wrote to co-owner Eddie Fung saying the name was contrary to the city’s reputation as “a place of respect for religious beliefs”. But Mr Fung, who is a Buddhist, says the name will stand as no-one has been offended by it.
[…]
Tracey Ingle, the council’s head of cultural services, said she stood by the original comments she had made in the letter. […] The letter to the restaurant said: “I have to say, in my view, the name is provocative. To use the name of a major religion’s deity in your restaurant brand runs contrary to this city’s reputation as a place of equality and respect for other’s views and religious beliefs.”

Hilarious, because even a highly westernised half-Chinese boy such as myself knows, the fat buddha (or more usually, the laughing buddha) is a recurring motif in Chinese cultures and countless restaurants, shops, houses and places of worship have him with his enormous belly, cheery laugh and enormous earlobes that I found terrifying as a small child. He is not The Buddha (aka Siddartha Gautama) but rather a buddha (usually called Budai) in one way at least, whose form is the personification of the jolly fat man (cf. Father Christmas in Western culture) and his presence is a sign of wealth, happiness and prosperity - for good luck, you rub his belly. In short, he is a rather positive figure and there is nothing pejorative associated with the term at all.

The letter goes on:¹

“The generic descriptive adjective of “fat” is not in itself a derogatory term when applied generally [..] the name implies an Eastern offer […] as it is associated with a religion that grew from Asian countries […] It does not, however, offer vegetarian cuisine solely nor does it refer to Buddhist belief systems. The name is provocative.”

For starters there are various misassumptions and uneducated assertions in the letter: As well as the confusion outlined above, the Buddha here is asserted as being a “deity” - the perceived divinity of the Buddha varies according to which strand of the faith you believe in, with many Buddhists regarding him as a human, not a supernatural being - and that Buddhists adhere to a solely vegetarian diet, which they most certainly do not.² Given this is from Durham City Council’s head of cultural services (who has a blog that’s even less regularly updated than this one) it’s a pretty shocking ignorance of the diversity of belief within one of the world’s major faiths; what makes it frightening is the wilfulness to boil down “what is a Buddhist?” down to such simplistic terms in order to make a point which they feel terribly compelled to make.

Within this story lies the real evil of political correctness - not the sentiment behind it (I’m sure Tracey Ingle meant well, in her own way) - but by being so zealous in their duty to create a world totally free of offence rather than one of general mutual respect. The question over whether something is “offensive” is only ever satisfactorily answered by assuming the role of the most easily-offended, i.e. the most fundamentalist and generally pissed-off. Tracey Ingle’s hypothetical pissed-off Buddhists, miserable militant vegetarian deity-worshippers with nothing better to do than be outraged at such blasphemy, don’t really exist, but the politically correct are still fearful of this fictional construct. Ironically, this attitude has underpinning it a certain set of patronising and ugly assumptions about the intelligence and peacefulness of people of faiths and races other than their own (vis. the same softly-softly approach that assumes all Muslims will turn into Rushdie-burning fanatics at the slightest provocation) that share more than a passing resemblance to the intolerance and racism they are so avowedly trying to fight.

¹ Ugh, I linked to the Daily Mail. Feel unclean.
² IANAB: I Am Not A Buddhist, although many of my family are at least nominally so. I don’t claim to be an expert on the faith by any means and I am not willing to get into a theological argument over this quite complex subject - but by and large I am right.

Muslim punk? This I need to hear. The interesting world of Michael Muhammad Knight. "After a disillusionment with orthodox Islam, Knight wrote two books, Where Mullahs Fear to Tread and the Furious Cock, which he printed as xeroxed zines. In winter 2002 he wrote The Taqwacores, which told the story of a fictitious group of Muslim punk-rockers living in Buffalo, New York. Characters included a

Comrades, I am currently in Greece and being tortured by the heatwave. Therefore, I can't for the life of me muster enough attention to make a good post. So, from now on and until I return to Scotland, I will be posting random articles I find interesting and/or amusing. Cheerio.

On our first day in Luxor we also visited the Luxor Temple. We had already seen evidence of the ego of Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great) at Karnak where the picture attached to the last post shows his inscriptions carved deep into the columns to avoid any chance of obliteration by future rulers.

In front of the Great Pylon of Luxor Temple (shown here) there is a single obelisk that used to be one of a pair. Visitors to Paris may have seen the second obelisk from Luxor in the Place de la Concorde.

Three lines of vertical inscription on every face of the remaining obelisk repeat the names and titles of Ramesses II: Mighty Bull; Exalter of Thebes; Favourite of the Two Goddesses, establishing monuments in Luxor for his father Amun, who placed him upon the throne; Golden Horus, seeking excellent things for him who fashioned him; King of Upper and Lower Egypt. Amazingly, but typical of Ramesses, when the second obelisk was lowered in order to be transported to France, the Pharaoh's name was also found inscribed on the bottom!

This guy had an ego that would make Donald Trump look like a shrinking violet.

I'm not going to bore you all/ both with every detail of our holiday in Egypt, but there were certain highlights that I thought I should record. The first ancient site that we visited while the boat was still moored in Luxor was the Temple Complex at Karnak. Karnak consists of many temples built over 1,300 years and the site occupies 200 acres! Needless to say, we didn't manage to see everything, but highlights included the huge statue of Ramesses II (Ramesses the Great), and the Great Hypostyle Hall that was built by his father, Seti I and was completed by Ramesses (shown here).

Other things at Karnak included the tallest obelisk in Egypt erected by the only female Egyptian Pharaoh, Hatshepsut, whose mummy was only very recently identified.

We were fortunate to have a fantastic guide for the trip called Amro Mounir, who also lectured at the Cairo Museum. The visit to Karnak was a superb introduction to Egypt and egyptology.

The Crown Prosecution Service has now decided that no charges are to be brought in the Cash for Honours inquiry. This after 16 months of police investigation. The official reason for the case being dropped is that the CPS consider that there is not enough evidence to secure a conviction. Not that there is no evidence but that the evidence gathered is not strong enough. The media are desperate to claim that the suspects in this case have been cleared but to many this must resemble the Scots law verdict of "Not Proven".

Angus Brendan McNeil, the SNP MP who initiated the inquiry by complaining to the police has queried whether there was political influence in the dropping of the case and this is certainly an opinion which will resonate widely among the populace.

Bannockburn =========

It was in the year 1314 When a nation gathered to the field By the banks of the Bannock and Pelstream burns Where a foreign King would be soon to run Noble King Robert, and Earl of Carrick Led his people to a victory historic By a strategy so carefully thought out A David versus Goliath, emerging triumphant On the day of the 24th of June Midsummer feast on the day of St. John A priest said a prayer before the soldiers who awaited On God deciding the outcome of their fate Bruce gave his address to his men as they listened How their nation had poured forth its blood like a river Against a cruel enemy hell bent on destroying them Obliterating the kingdom over which he rightfully reigned “The barons clad in mail who now confront us See them rejoice in their war-horses and fine equipment But it is us this day that the Lord shall be with We that heartily repent shall be victorious” Since Wallace’s great charge down the Abbey Craig to Stirling Bridge Never had there been such a momentous day as this Like a Hannibal at Cannae our leader was on the verge Of routing each one of an army three times as big Noble Bruce commended his soul to God And lead his men out to the battle to be fought The land he had prepared with pits and spikes To unsteady the assailants upon their mounts His commanders deployed their tightly packed schiltrons Keith, Moray, Edward Bruce, and the mighty Black Douglas Holding firm an impenetrable wall of spears Like tusks of a wild boar, a most obdurate opponent Outnumbered by far, a people under siege The auld enemy had come to take all that they could Confident in victory and presuming with ease Their destriers charged with a thundering speed Gambling their lives for one chance at freedom The brave Scots held their positions and advanced at the legions Down came the monsters and skewered they became On the longspears held out in defence of the realm A panic broke out amongst the ranks of the English Shocked that the Scots had the audacity to take them on Chaos ensued and ranks broke asunder Bruce’s men held their nerve while the enemy fled in terror Their freedom now won, a usurper sent packing To the port of Dunbar where his ship was awaiting Lucky to escape with his heart still abeating Surrounded by his knights who like him were afleeing From across the land Bruce had gathered A nation of Scots who wanted better Than a crouching vassalage to a hostile predator In the name of Edward II Plantagenate Now free from the English yoke A nation proclaimed, Its sovereignty before the world In the document they signed, That day at Arbroath this nation was born!

Taken From The Siol Nan Gaidheal Forum

Just got home today after a fabulous holiday in Egypt. Still recovering from the shock of going from the 5 star Sheraton Hotel in Soma Bay to the Travelodge at Gatwick Airport. We were so knackered from the journey that the most uncomfortable bed in the known universe didn't seem so bad.

Highlight of our Travelodge visit was the shower that gave you a choice of cold or perishing temperature then refused to shut off afterwards! Wosog thought I was just being useless as usual, but she had no more success with the bloody thing than I did. The maintenance man assured us that replacement of the showers was part of a forthcoming refurbishment program. Call me sceptical if you like...

I still think Travelodges are reasonable value for money and often conveniently located.

I suppose you get (or in this case don't get) what you pay for!

Part one



Part Two



Part Three

Every time I think I've banged on enough about Iran, Arthur Silber shames me by urging us all to bang on about it some more. In a just world this eloquent and erudite libertarian blogger would be paid by some vast conspiracy. In this one he has trouble paying the rent. Read him, link to him, and drop some money in the jar.

That other indefatigable drum-beater, Justin Raimondo, is banging on too:

At this point, unless the American people wake up in time – which I very much doubt – war with Iran seems all but inevitable.

. Today's Guardian reports

The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.
The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."

Yes, limbo isn't what comes to mind. There's no need for panic, however. The report continues:

Almost half of the US's 277 warships are stationed close to Iran, including two aircraft carrier groups. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise left Virginia last week for the Gulf. A Pentagon spokesman said it was to replace the USS Nimitz and there would be no overlap that would mean three carriers in Gulf at the same time.
No decision on military action is expected until next year. In the meantime, the state department will continue to pursue the diplomatic route.

Elsewhere, and in no particular order: Russia has suspended its participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty. The US is sending a squadron of flying killer robots (the new Reaper drones) to Iraq. Iran's Jews aren't leaving. Yesterday's Sunday Herald, in an article not online, reports from Bucharest that US soldiers, sailors and aircrew are 'pouring in' to bases in Bulgaria and Romania. Again, there's no need for panic: it's only an exercise.

Meanwhile, another power in the Middle East has been making open threats against Iran. Yes, Al-Qaeda in Iraq has threatened to attack Iran within two months if Iran doesn't stop supporting Shia militias. Like Abu Sarhan's comments (see below) this seems to be a bit of public diplomacy. 'We're all on the same page here, people! Do we have to draw you a picture?'

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Buffalo Tom, originally uploaded by alister. Buffalo Tom London Scala 11th July 2007I had never seen Buffalo Tom before but had been a fan, so a wee trip to see them seemed like a good idea. The band have had a break but

Post-Election Membership Boost for SNP

Membership of the Scottish National Party has increased dramatically since the elections in May. Around 100 new members have joined the SNP every week, leading to an 8% jump in members since the turn of the year.
The organisation said it had been working flat out to cope with a flood of applications after the SNP emerged as the largest party in the Scottish election and entered government for the first time.
SNP business convener, Angus Robertson MP this evening (Thursday) confirmed to the Party's national executive committee that the end of quarter membership figures showed a rise in members of over 8% in the last six months.
At 30 June 2007, the SNP had 13,585 members (12,571 at 31 December 2006).
Mr Robertson commented:
"SNP membership continues to grow apace as we carry forward the momentum of our election success.
"Around 100 new members are joining the SNP every week, making us Scotland's fastest growing political party.
"The elections on May 3 saw the SNP win the most seats in the Scottish Parliament, the most councillors across the nation, end enter government for the first time ever.
"We expect to see the Party continue to grow as we start about the job of building a new and better future for Scotland."
.

Iraqi resistance leader Abu Sarhan recently expressed 'a more restrained view' of the United States than might be expected from a veteran of the insurgency.

"I personally don't have a hatred of the American people, and I respect American civilization," he said. "They have participated in the progress of all the nations of the world. They invented computers. Such people should be respected. But people who are crying over someone who died 1,400 years ago" -- referring to Shiites and their veneration of a leader killed in the 7th century -- "these should be eliminated, to clear the society of them, because they are simply trash."

I wish this was another squib, but it isn't.

"The real enemy for the resistance is Iran and those working for Iran," he went on. "Because Iran has a feud which goes back thousands of years with the people of Iraq and the government of Iraq."

The Pope's recent shock announcement of his continuing Catholicism has brought a rare confluence of condemnation from otherwise divided denominations.

'It is, frankly, a little disappointing that His Holiness should hark back to such a twentieth-century view,' said Bishop Stella Artois, leading Anglican theologian. 'The Church of England has always regarded itself as holy, apostolic and catholic. It just draws the line at papistry.'

'We're well aware that the Pope doesn't regard us as a church,' said the Rev. Jack Black, Moderator of the Presbyterian Reformed Church of the United Kingdom (Continuing). 'And we're more than willing to return the compliment. According to Reformed tradition, the so-called Church of Rome is a synagogue of Satan, the Whore of Babylon, the Scarlet Woman that sitteth on the seven hills; furthermore, the Papacy is Antichrist and the Pope is the son of perdition. We say this sorrowfully, in the spirit of charity.'

Brother Theodosius, of the Orthodox monastery on Athos, was marginally more temperate. 'Rome is indeed a church, but unfortunately that doesn't get Catholics off the hook. They're going straight to hell, along with Jews, apostates, Muslims, Freemasons, homosexuals, fornicators, adulterers and Protestants.'

The following is from Weekly Worker. Readers should know by now that my politics are quite at odds with the CPGB's, however, I thought that the following was too serious not to be passed on by the Lair.

Condemn physical assaults on this year’s Marxism!

On July 7, the second full day of this year’s Marxism, SWP national organiser Martin Smith physically assaulted Communist Party comrade, Simon D. The attack occurred while our comrade was waiting for the session on ‘Organising for fighting unions’ to begin.
Simon was a member of the SWP for three years up to 2006, when he was suddenly expelled (by phone!) for “bringing the party into disrepute” - the catch-all charge loved by bureaucrats everywhere. In fact, all he was ‘guilty’ of was raising some criticisms and questions publicly and reporting on his blog - verbatum - the words of leading SWPers at a Respect meeting in Tower Hamlets. At the comrade’s appeal, led by Pat Stack and where Martin Smith gave ‘evidence’, he was not given any specific examples of his alleged crimes. He was subjected to a show trial with no pretence of allowing the comrade a fair hearing and then was simply turfed out.
In the following weeks, comrade Simon attended a Camden SWP public meeting on Respect. Incredibly, the next day Martin Smith left a message on the comrade’s phone telling him that he was henceforth “not allowed to go to any SWP events”. Smith also said he had written to the party organiser in comrade Simon’s area to let them know this. Comrade Simon texted back pointing out that it was advertised as an SWP public meeting and surely, as a member of the public, he was entitled to go. The response came back: “When you are expelled from the [SWP], that means you are not allowed to attend any SWP event, public meeting, Marxism, period.”
To make this crass exclusion official, Smith sent through a letter a few weeks later that put this in black and white: “an expelled member of the SWP cannot attend SWP public events (that includes Marxism/rallies/public meetings)” (Weekly Worker June 8 2006).
The fact is that comrade Simon has attended SWP meetings since - despite threats. Indeed, how many people at this year’s Marxism were once expelled from the SWP? Applied consistently, this would see the exclusion of hundreds of comrades on the left of the working class movement who have been in that organisation and fallen foul of its crass bureaucratic regime.
Clearly Smith is personally slighted because his foul role in the comrade’s crude show trial and expulsion was publicly exposed by the Weekly Worker. This is clearly what prompted Smith to aggressively approach comrade Simon, to demand his ticket to the whole event be returned and to physically attack him. He was wrestled to the floor, sustaining bruising, abrasions and back strain. A second SWPer then joined in and they started to go through our prone comrade’s pockets to take his Marxism ticket.
This is a foul and cowardly act. In their sect, SWP leaders are used to wielding unaccountable power, they treat the ‘party’ and the wider movement almost as their own property. Disgustingly, when Simon was expelled, Pat Stack told him “You’re now not going to have any life on the left - your activist days are over”. Who the hell do these people think they are? Since when have they been in charge of our common movement? Since when has it been their prerogative to decide who is a working class partisan and who is not?
However, this Stack comment and the attack on Simon reveal the foul, anti-Marxist mindset of people who treat their own members as little more than paper-selling and leaflet-distributing machines. And ordinary SWPers are the people who should really be disturbed by the physical assault at this year’s Marxism.
After all, the likes of the thug Smith cannot shut up comrade Simon or - even more frustratingly for him - the Weekly Worker itself. We will feature this story next week to make sure that Martin Smith is exposed for the anti-democratic goon that he is and that this information is widely disseminated in the movement in this country and internationally.
SWPers have no such outlet, of course. We can brush off these sorts of crude incidents; Martin Smith’s reputation will take the really bad bruising here. But comrades of the SWP - if you tolerate this despicable culture in your ranks, what about when you develop differences, what about when you want to criticise and hold your leaders to account?
That’s the real lesson from this new SWP assault on political opponents and it is one SWPers themselves should really take to heart.

Found this on the Downing Street website so far only 34 people have signed it (must be bad organising by who ever set it up) come on let's get as many signatures as possible deadline is the 15th of August

The cynic in me asks the question has this been set up by the opponents of a referendum so they can say that no one is interested in the question of independence is this why it has not been posted on nationalist forums and blogs

What ever the reason that this petition has not been noticed or advertised we must now make sure that it gets as many signatures as possible the Deadline date is the 15th of August so get signing and then pass it on to everyone you know and put it on your blogs we have got to make sure that this gets as much publicity between now and the 15th of August that we can



We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to hold a referendum on the issue of Scottish independence

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/freescots/#detail_________________

I went into a church house
where the citizens like to sit.
They say they want the kingdom
but they don't want God in it.

- U2, 'The Wanderer'

Between 1970 and 2000 there were, to my knowledge, exactly two new atheist books that found mass-market paperback publication in English: The Misery of Christianity by Joachim Kahl (Hamburg, 1968; English translation Pelican, 1971) and God is Not Yet Dead by Vítězslav Gardavsky (Pelican, 1973; originally published in German in 1968 following serial publication in Prague, 1966-1967). Kahl, like Gardavsky, was a Marxist, but there they parted. The significance of Gardavsky's book is exhausted by its dates; by the tenure of its author: Professor of Philosophy at the Brno Military Academy (retired 1968, aged 45); and by the Christian-Communist dialogue over whose brusque interruption the book's provenance placed a cross. Kahl's work, on the other hand, is an underground classic: the most caustic, contentrated critique of Christianity written in the 20th century (and most others, for reasons all too obvious from Kahl's tally of the Church's resort to the rack). One mainstream book, Michael Arnheim's Is Christianity True? (Duckworth, 1984) gives the eponomous question its Jewish answer. (No.) Muir Weissinger's The Failure of Faith (1984) was sceptical, eccentric, and fell dead-born from the presses. Richard Robinson's donnish but plain-spoken An Atheist's Values (Oxford, 1964) was reissued as a Blackwell paperback in 1975.

And that, more or less, was it. The freethought publishers - the Rationalist Press Association in England, Prometheus Books in the US - kept plugging away. Hume, Nietzsche, Russell remained in print. Academic presses published philosophical critiques: Michael Martin, J. L. Mackie, Anthony Flew. Three lively translations of Lucretius came out in paperback. But most of my six-foot shelf of godless books, three decades in the filling, consists of small hardbacks from the RPA's Thinker's Library, long out of print, and two or three 60s Pelicans on humanism, all picked up in second-hand bookshops.

The uptick of interest in humanism was part of the 60s ferment around religion. I sometimes think the best mood-capture of that ferment is the second appendix to Frank Herbert's SF epic Dune (1965): new Bible translations, novel theologies, ecumenical congresses, the shock of space travel ... it's all there. Everyone (so it seemed) had heard of Bishop J. A. T. Robinson's Honest to God, which popularised the radical theologies of Bultmann and Tillich. The publication of the complete New English Bible was splashed in Sunday colour supplements. Questionings of Christian orthodoxy, from the loopy (Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods) through the bizarre (John Allegro's The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross) to the far-fetched (Hugh Schonfield's The Passover Plot) saw major extracts published in British popular newspapers. In the words of one of Herbert's fictitious scholars: 'Those were times of deep paradox.'

In retrospect, one of the deepest paradoxes was that the Christians and the atheists were singing from the same hymn-sheet. All of them took as given what science and scholarship had established in the nineteenth century: that the Bible, whatever else it might be, was not history, and not science. The quarrel was over what message it still spoke. Darwin and the Higher Critics had done their worst. The Thinker's Library had spread the word. Kahl's scathing contempt - and Gardavsky's wary respect - were for the most radical modern readings of the scriptures. 'The final conclusion,' said Kahl, 'can only be this - the modern theology based on interpreting the Bible existentially and symbolically is not modern and is completely worn out. What really arouses my anger and scandalizes me deeply is that so much of university theology has tried to justify its existence for more than two hundred years by means of apologetic tricks of this kind.'

Beneath the polar radar of the superpowers in this cold war lay a contraflow of dissent. One deep current was the silent withdrawal of belief. The other was the rise of fundamentalism. In 1975 I mentioned to one of my professors - a palaeontologist and a Christian whose faith was as sound as his science - the creationist critiques of evolution. 'Nobody,' he said, 'takes these people seriously!'

In 2001 the iceberg struck.

I haven't found out what happened to Gardavsky, but I can guess. Kahl's still going strong, an independent philosopher, still an atheist, and no longer a Marxist. I don't know why he repudiated Marxism, but I can guess. A recent re-reading of his book reminded me of some of his points against Christianity: the complete emptiness of the signifier, covering total disagreement in belief and ethics; the endless splintering of its sects; their sanguinary mutual persecutions; the apologetic and academic 'manipulation of authoritative texts so that they can still be put to use today'; above all, its complete failure 'measured by the yardstick of its own claims'. 'Immanent criticism', as he says, 'lays bare the ideological limitations of the conceptual structure of theology'. The problem with the universal acid, as the old joke goes, is to find a container.

This is a reply to all the bigots out there who have posted comments on the article
IT'S TIME To Ban Orange Parade's below you will see an example of what the neanderthals have posted

(Its only bigots who are offended by Protestant people supporting and highlighting their culture. Proudly Scottish, Proudly British. WATP.Kevin McKenna)

OK lets start with the first accusation that only bigots are against Orange Parades

Well Kevin you do not know how wrong you are firstly how can i be a bigot and Anti Protestant when i am a Protestant yes Kevin Sorry to shatter your deluded little world but Protestants do want an end to orange walks

Right the next accusation that it is the highlight of your culture well as i said i am a Protestant brought up in the East End of Glasgow and i would say it is a blight on my culture how can going around playing song's that talk about killing another person just on the grounds of religion be a highlight on any ones culture you are one sad individual

on the Orange Walk it's self it has nothing to do with Scotland it is about celebrating a battle that took place in Ireland and nothing to do with Scotland

right Kevin if you say it has everything to do about Scotland as it was a Battle to do with the Jacobite's i would say it is time you went back and re read your history book's or did you not know that most of the Highlanders who fought for the Jacobite cause where Protestant not church of Scotland but Protestant all the same

Now on to the crux of the Matter this site's support for an United Ireland well Kevin yet again i take it you know nothing about History or you would have known that some of the founding Father's of Irish Nationalism Where Protestant including WOLF TONE himself see link
http://www.schule.bremen.de/schulen/wallis/seiten/projekte/eng13/Wolf_Tone.htm

You may ask why this site supports a UNITED IRELAND and the reason is quite simple
this is a Scottish Nationalist site that believes Ireland would be better served as united country and would help bring about the end of the Hatred that you yourself have so aptly demonstrated and also the simple reason it is the right thing to do

There is also another reason to ban walks and it is one that politicians of all parties in Scotland will be looking at the cost of policing such events is a joke and they should be banned for that reason alone

Then their is all the drunken loutish behaviour that goes on at these marches the violence and the intimidation of law abiding citizens when one of these bands thinks it is fun to stop outside a chapel and blast it with their music of Hate

So i call on SCOTTISH NATIONALIST GOVERNMENT in Edinburgh to ban all these Parades now

Today we have seen these marches shame the city of Glasgow where these bands and Marchers have been preaching there Gospel of HATE

It is time for the SNP to ban all these parades taking place in Scotland and Kevin Guess What unlike Labour we will have the courage to Ban the parades as i do not think any of you would vote for us anyway and if you did your vote is not welcome

The UK is going to be history Scotland is on the road to INDEPENDENCE and there is nothing you can do to stop it you might as well keep that Butchers Apron you call a Flag because it will soon be a relic of the past

The perpetrators of three failed terrorist attacks were not, it now seems, alienated teenagers misled by hook-handed clerics (etc etc) but NHS medical personnel. This is disturbing. It means it's possible to qualify in and to practice medicine with almost no knowledge of physics and chemistry. A British bomb-disposal expert gives them a severe dressing-down here. 'The jihadi threat has seemingly sunk to animal-lib levels.' Oh, the shame.

As any science undergraduate will tell you, medical students tend to be well-meaning and intelligent, but only slightly better-informed and better-behaved than students of divinity. When it comes to fundamentalism the people you have to keep a watchful eye on are engineers, who are predisposed to fall for design arguments and to follow literal interpretations of The Book.