Rolling In The Cess Pit by Les May

IN an article on the NV blog a couple of weeks ago I referred to something I wrote at the end of June 2020. I commented that having read some of the abusive posts directed at Priyamvada Gopal, who had posted a ‘tweet’ which said “I’ll say it again. White Lives Don’t Matter. As white lives”, I thought you would meet nicer turds in a slurry pit.

A long article by Brendan O’Neill on the Spiked Online website graphically describes the vile abuse directed at author J. K. Rowling. From the context it appears that it came via her Twitter account, which of course means the brave authors could remain anonymous.

My own experience of anonymous communications is somewhat limited. I had one letter from an unknown ‘Christian’ in 1970 after I wrote to the local paper saying that I did not think that the Muslim children at the school I worked at should be made to attend what was in effect a Christian oriented morning assembly. I had another in 2010 after I had the temerity to point out in the same paper that Canada Geese were in a nearby park because their staple diet was grass which they got from the lawns and not the bread which they got to the visitors. Short of blocking my letter box there was nothing I could do to prevent them being delivered.

One of O’Neill’s concerns is the almost complete absence of people willing to publicly defend J. K. Rowling. He also took a few well aimed potshots at ‘Cancel Culture’ and ‘Identity Politics’. But it seemed to me that he was somewhat missing the point. If Rowling was distressed at what was being said about her on Twitter, the remedy was in her own hands, literally. All she had to do was switch off her smartphone or if that was too radical, delete the ‘app’.

Rowling, the footballers, Priyamvada Gopal and Sajid Javid are all in their own way ‘commodities’ where image matters. Keeping their names before the public is how they can both relish their present fame and make sure there they are putting something in the metaphorical bank for the future. Rowling may yet write another book; the footballers may think of taking a leaf out of the book of Lionel Messi and launch a premium fashion brand; judging by the Twitter post which led to the abuse Gopal evidently likes to be seen as ‘controversial’, and Sajid Javid is a politician who wants to be seen as ‘just like us’. He has learned the hard way that that there’s always someone who will make a grab the moral high ground if you dare use a word they don’t like.

It’s no use waiting for the government to solve the problems raised by social media by banning so called ‘hate speech’. If you find it unpleasant just stop it being delivered to your smartphone, because it will only hurt you if you let it and no one is forcing you to read it. This isn’t a ‘freedom of speech’ matter. None of the individuals I have used as examples would have the slightest difficulty in getting their voices heard in the UK media, something that cannot be said of the people who resort to vulgar abuse. I doubt the NV editors would turn down a piece on ‘transphilia’ by Ms Rowling.

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Lies, Damn Lies and Lies About Statistics

by Les May

AFZAL KHAN, MP for Gorton recently wrote, amongst other things, ‘Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’ and ‘We have seen during this Covid 19 pandemic that people of Muslim heritage have been disproportionately affected.’

The latter statement is complete bunkum because there is no evidence to support it. Kahn’s use of the term ‘Muslim heritage’ is an attempt to give credence to his claim that the followers of Islam form a distinct racial group and should be treated as such. This claim will no doubt come as something of a surprise to all the people who would identify as being Muslims in Africa and China and the Middle East.

The latest research, published only today, indicates that Black people are about twice as likely to become infected as White people and Asian people about one a half times more likely. It provides no statistics and makes no comment about ‘Muslim Heritage’, and no doubt Black and Asian people whose heritage is that of Buddhism, Christianity or Judaism, share an increased susceptibility to infection.

It has been speculated, and it is only speculation not an established fact, that this increased susceptibility results from multi-generational family structures, the nature of their employment and higher prevalence of co-morbidities in these two groups. Equally plausible are that it results from genetic differences or differences in behaviour.

What Kahn is trying to do is claim exceptionalism for Muslims, something which no other religious group in this country has. Roman Catholicism is frequently subject to criticism due to its views on homosexuality, divorce, contraception and abortion. What would your reaction be if Roman Catholics insisted that such criticism is a form of ‘racism’?

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Nigeria on the Brink? by John Wilkins

AS Nigeria reaches its 60th. year of independence on October 1st, I fear for its future. With a population of over 200 million people and endowed with incredible natural resources it has still become a failed state.

The blame currently lies with the Head of State and the Federal Government and the army and security services. However the source of its troubles go back to the British creating a new country out of a land with several hundred tribes and languages by drawing a line on a map.

After the horrors of the Biafran Civil War the country had a period of military rule, which stabilised the country and then moved to a democratically elected government. However the corruption now in Government and almost all walks of life has left a divided nation. Whilst millions live in abject poverty, vast wealth lies in the hands of a few. Throw into the mix religious differences which have resulted in more Christians being killed in the country than the whole of the Middle East over the last decade. There was even a massacre of more than 350 Shia Muslims in the northern city of Zaria in December 2015 by Federal troops. #1

There has also been a violent crackdown by the state on largely peaceful protests by Biafran separatists seeking their 'Right to self-determination' under Article 20 of the African Charter.

However the current President, Muhammadu Buhari (a Fulani), has allowed Fulani cattle herders to take their animals across huge swathes of farm land. Any resistance by locals has resulted in countless killings by the heavily armed herdsmen. The Federal Government takes no action, many would say it is using the Fulanis as an armed militia to subdue Christian communities in the Middle Belt and now deep into more Southern states.

Also one could view Buhari's poor record of eliminating the threat of Boko Haram #2 in the country is a ploy for greater Islamification of the country. They now have control of parts of northern Nigeria and claim it to be part of the Islamic Caliphate. Over 100 of the mainly Christian Chibok schoolgirls abducted in 2014 have not been returned to their families despite Buhari's pledge on gaining power.

An even more frightening development is the increasing number of Isis fighters and other terrorists coming through Nigeria's porous northern border. I understand this has being encouraged by Turkey over recent times. There is now friction with Egypt, which many terrorists travel through.

Most of the top posts both in Government and the army are held by Hausas or Fulanis. Although there are other ethnic groups represented in Government many do not raise these concerns, either through fear or bribery.

However protests from Muslim and Christian religious leaders, often say the same thing, that poverty and corruption are the twin evils in the country. One Muslim respected voice of reason was silenced recently, namely the former Emir of Kano Sanusi who was dethroned in March this year. Little wonder when he articulated such views as the following: He called for an end to child marriage, women empowerment, building more schools instead of mosques, and infrastructural development. Sanusi also called for population planning, and said that polygamy is increasing poverty in the region.

The country is now engaged in an economic row with Ghana with wrong on both sides. Ghana has been clamping down on largely Igbo traders they claim are not all acting lawfully and Nigeria has closed Western highway linking the countries which passes through Benin, a breach of ECOWAS rules (Economic Community of West African States).

I have spent three years writing to my MP, then Shadow Foreign Secretary and now the current one, to get our Government to exert some political pressure on the Nigerian state to unite the country rather than let it become another Rwanda but worse. The House of Lords debated the issue of violence in Nigeria two years ago warning of impending genocide. More recently 20 of the House of Lords have sent a plea to Baroness Scotland, Secretary General to the Commonwealth highlighting concerns over escalating violence in Nigeria. The letter quotes highly respected former Army Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Danjuma, who says the armed forces are 'not neutral..... they collude in the ethnic cleansing....by Fulani herdsmen'.

I call on all Nigerians in diaspora to speak out. Altering the slogan of the Black Lives Movement, 'White Silence is Violence' to "Nigerians" Silence Equals Violence'.

#1 See Amnesty Report: “Unearthing the truth: unlawful killings and mass cover-up in Zaria,” #2 Boko Haram: the name translates colloquially as “Western education is sin”.

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Black Lives Matter Movement: A New Inquisition?

 a Spaniard questions new craze
by  Carlos Figueroa [Madrid]

Diego Mateo López Zapata in his cell 
before his trial by the Inquisition Court of Cuenca

IT IS VERY interesting to hear in the post below about this dance in Lancashire, related to Moors in UK!!!  Of course [in Spain] we have many traditions related to this 7 centuries, Santiago Matamoros, the parties in the East Coast called Moros y Cristianos...  My opinion is that this fight is related to the Black Lives Matter Movement, anti-slavery demonstrations and this sort of thing.  I know they threw Colton statue in Bristol... I don't like these new forms of "Inquisicion".

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It’s Alright to Persecute Christians!

by Les May

I THOUGHT we had long ago stopped persecuting people for their beliefs in this country. I was wrong.  Saying, ‘I do not believe you can be born gay and I do not believe homosexuality is right’, is enough to get you sacked.   The actress Seyi Omooba was dropped from her role in The Color Purple for tweeting this and backing up her belief with a reference to a passage in the Bible.  As the passage also tells us that, the sexually immoral, the idolaters, the adulterers, the thieves, the the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers and the swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God either, and I’m not aware that any of these groups have complained, it leads me to think that the group who are whingeing are what my dad would have called ‘mard arses’ or in modern parlance ‘snowflakes’.

I should add that I am not a Christian and I think people who treat the Bible as a reliable document or that they know God’s thoughts about what people get up to in the privacy of their bedroom, are a bit gullible.  But that is no reason to persecute them for their beliefs.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/30/actress-seyi-omooba-sues-for-religious-discrimination-after-being-sacked-in-the-color-purple-for-quoting-anti-gay-bible-passage-10834718/

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/christian-actress-sues-hippodrome-after-17007359

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Get Over It, You’re Not Special

by Les May

LAST Evening a lady I’ll call ‘Dot’, who is approaching the age of 70 and my wife’s oldest friend, sent a text to tell her that she, Dot, would no longer be able to take communion at her church.

You see Dot is a Roman Catholic who is divorced and not wishing to spend the rest of her life alone has remarried. Someone snitched to the priest, who passed it up the management hierarchy and was given the answer that Dot could no longer take communion. This may not be a big deal for most NV readers, but for Dot it is devastating.

Taking a dim view of what some people get up to in the privacy of their bedroom is not confined to to the Roman Catholic church. The parsons at the two Anglican churches nearest to where I live differed in the views about re-marrying divorced people. One would, the other would not. No doubt there are individual Christians who also take a dim view of remarriage.

There’s a lesson to be learned here by those who self identify with the LGBT ‘community’ and it’s ever expanding label set, and who are tempted to wrap themselves in the robes of victimhood whenever some prelate or zealot expresses a dim view of their lifestyle. They might like to take note that they are not special at all. It happens to so called ‘straight’ people too. I estimate that the number of divorced people who have ended up feeling like second class humans by the rules about remarriage exceeds by several orders of magnitude the number of LGBT (etc) who have suffered more than hurt feelings at the hands of Christians.

One thing I think we can say with some certainty is that people like Dot are never going to maliciously approach a cake making company run by people who think remarriage is wrong and insist that they make a wedding cake.

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This Sporting Life

by Les May

ACCORDING to the teachings of the Roman Catholic church my wife and I are adulterers.
According to an Australian rugby player called Israel Folau the doors of Hell await us, along with ‘Drunks, homosexuals, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolators’.  As that covers most of the human race I assume the place is going to be a bit crowded when I get there.


Personally I don’t take this sort of stuff very seriously so as to avoid encouraging them.

Unfortunately some people do take it seriously including rugby player Billy Vunipola who ‘liked’ it on Instagram, the English Rugby Football Union who have ‘summoned’ Vunipola, his club Saracens, and Channel 4, which has decided not to employ him again as a contributor to its match coverage.


Now I don’t think that the decision by these organisations to pillory England’s number 8 is an attempt to pledge their undying support for we adulterers, atheists, drunks, fornicators, idolators, liars and thieves. It’s more likely to do with a Times headline of ‘England rugby star defends post telling gay people hell awaits’.


Which rather prompts a question about why homosexuals are thought more worthy of protection from comments like this than than the rest of us.  And please don’t tell me that homosexuals are a persecuted minority.  Forty odd years ago my wife lost her job because the life she had chosen did not meet with the approval of her church.


Will the English Rugby Football Union and Saracens behave like the Roman Catholic Church did all that time ago, and how Channel 4 have behaved just recently?  Quite likely, but what strange bedfellows they make.


As far as I am concerned those who feel offended by this kind of thing are what my Dad would have called ‘mard-arses’.   It’s a pity they’ve nowt better to do with their time.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mard

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Dante's Inferno, Seumas Milne & Europe

by Brian Bamford 

'I've been wondering what that special place
in hell looks like, for those who promoted
Brexit, without even a sketch of a plan how
to carry it out safely.'  
                                      Donald Tusk.
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IN his book 'Movements in European History' [1921] D.H. Lawrence commenting on Dante and the Renaissance, wrote that in the time of Dante in the fifteenth century:
'Europe then was not like Europe now.  If a man were a Christian, all countries were his, for everywhere was the one Church of which he was a son.... What did it matter if a man were English or French or Spanish?  He was a European, a member of Christendom.  He travelled along the roads where all travelled, and on the full high-road every European was at home.... So the student leaving Italy would calmly take the great north road, to come home through the Alps to Germany, walking often on foot without any fears....  Nobody asked if he were English or Irish or German or Italian.  He spoke in Latin to the monks and was received as one of themselves.'

Similarly, A.J.P. Taylor began his book 'English History 1914-19145':
'UNTIL August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman.  He could  live where he liked and as he liked... He could travel abroad or leave his country for ever without a passport or any sort of official permission.'  

 

Dante et Virgile  Capocchio, an alchemist, attacked by Gianni Schicchi, 

who impersonated the dead Buoso Donati to claim his inheritance, 

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In a way the European Union in the 20th century was an attempt to recover this lost world of the yesterday.  Perhaps it was a vain expectation given that since the First World War and the horrors that followed it, so many of us have now become hooked on the nation state.  There is not that many men like Dante knocking around these days or even a George Orwell, who may yearn to understand the bigger picture with a geo-political vision.

Instead today we're blessed with the likes of Chris Draper and Seamus Milne.  This week in Private Eye 'Ratbiter' pointed out that 'Any young supporter who voted Labour in the belief that the party was pro-European should have watched as their leader Jeremy Corbyn took his strategy and communications director Seumas Milne to an emergency Brexit meeting with Theresa May last week.'

Comrade Milne it turns out  'has opposed the EU as intensely as Tory Brexiteers Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson-but for much longer'.  As a schoolboy Comrade Milne wrote a manifesto as a Maoist candidate in a mock election at Winchester College in 1974:  'We would withdraw from NATO and the EEC; that was a year after the UK joined the European Economic Community, as it was then called.'

'Ratbiter' in Private Eye claims that the schoolboy Comrade Milne of 1974 soon swapped his loyalties from Mao to Stalin, and when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Seamus switched his passions from Soviet communism to what 'Ratbiter' now calls 'the Russian gangster regime that succeeded it'.  Private Eye notes that Jeremy Corbyn took this public schoolboy Comrade Milne to meet with Theresa May rather than his Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer. 

D.H. Lawrence in his work 'Movements in European History' writes that '[p]erhaps the most wonderful century in all our Europe's two thousand years is the fifteenth century. .. Then lived the greatest painters, great poets, great architects, sculptors, scientists and men of learning, such had not been seen before.'

Following the First World War the nation state with its frontiers and tariffs came to dominate the culture of Europe with what Benedict Anderson has called 'Imagined Communities'.  Then came the glorification of the nation state which ended up with the Second World War and the Cold War.

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