An age of barbarism

Hysteria

Thanks Melanie - another good analysis of one of the fundamental ills of our country.

You say it is too late...You are right in that "we are where we are", but surely there is something we can do?

Not overnight perhaps - but we can't just give up.

Philip Owen

Outstanding, and angry - as it should be. I hope it will be finding its way into newsprint, for a wider audience.

Frank P

Haven't missed a word of it for the entire couple of decades and have disagreed with hardly a single idea behind the words: a true reflection of what has been evolving. You speak for (almost) everyone that has been battling away and trying to hold the line against all the things you delineate above and are frustrated by events and the docility of the general populace in the face of it. But how do we harness the truth of it into positive action? I for one am not sure that the next election will begin the long march back to sanity, regardless of whether the deluded incumbent of No.10 is displaced by the smoothie who lusts after the address (and I'm talking Cameron not Mandelson; though the latter is by no means an impossibility).

It is truly depressing; but as you have said so often yourself Melanie, "Never give up!" A grievously damaged and almost collapsed culture is an opportunity for renewal. Keep your powder dry for when the debris finally gets sucked into the fan. Your blog is now solidly transatlantic and you have a great audience in Australasia; despite the QRN and QRM (to use the International comms. jargon) of the jammers on this blog, your words are a beacon of hope for so many and must remain so.

Never despair. It is understandable that after a few days in The Land of The Free (despite its recent bizarre political aberration) you should feel depressed at the prospect of immersing yourself back in Dystopia at the one end of the spectrum and the baleful dreams of Utopia of the pseudo intelligentsia at the other. There are acres of fertile and arable land between. Till away and keep sowing the seeds. My watering can is getting rusty. But even some of the hostile crap that is splattered across your blog will mulch down into fertiliser if you keep the plough moving. The malign foolishness of your detractors is predictable and is its own denunciation.

Not Even Likely

Yes, you are correct. Expecting transitory "partners" to feel the same about someone else's child as the biological parent would, just really goes against human nature, and in fact, a lot of mammals feel the same way. Of course they don't. Raising a child is hard enough when you love them like your own kin. When they're not your own kin, they are just brats, highly annoying, loud, obnoxious and needy.

Worried, Windsor

The intelligentsia, or the female intelligentsia?

Is it not women's attitudes to sexuality, procreation, family structure, welfare policies, etc that has got us to this point?

Men have always behaved badly, given the opportunity. It's women who have changed.

I think maybe you started to say this, but then the argument became diffuse.

Alex Bensky

If Britain's progressives are anything like ours over in the US, your imprecations will fall on deaf ears. For all their talk about being for "the people," they actually regard people mostly as objects for carrying out their own ideology. The ideology trumps all and since ipso facto the ideas are correct, their failure must be attributed to something else; self-reflection is not these people's normal condition.

Too bad; the results are plain to see in any American inner city and the only reaction of this class seems to be to throw even more money at the problem.

Chris

Seriously, Melanie, however horrific an individual case is, it is still an individual case. It's patently obvious to everyone who is sane that this "truly dark age of barbarism" is constructed for target practice.

Sue

Briliant analysis Melanie, heartbreakingly true. Exactly what has happened in America as well.

God, in His mercy, always positions 'watchemen on the walls' to warn of coming destruction. Sadly, seldom do people listen.

You're right, it is too late now.
Now we reap the whirlwind.

raymond joseph douglas

On radio five,on victoria derby shires phone in show, I tried to put the very points you have talked about.I was shot down in flames,not only by derbyshire,but also by other phone in people.I conclude by this,that we are in a state of mass denial on this topic.We want to believe in the deception that we can enjoy hedonistic pleasure without the responsibilities of marriage.We want to believe we can abandon the mothers of our children,or their fathers,in order to chase "the love of our lives"!We want our collective cake,and eat it!We can't

David Raynes

Brilliant and accurate. This is worth rehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5133966.eceading in conjunction.

Jeremy Wilkinson

I, I, I etc. Many of the problems with to our fragmented society stem from solipsism - something Melanie and the 'progressive' intellegentsia share. Melanie, a late-comer to traditional morality (and still 'open-minded' on to abortion, torture, nukes not to mention that dissolver of the instituion of marriage, contraception (which she recommends) etc.)really should practice the virtue of humility. She might find that it enhances her ability to get her message across - esp. when it is (as it not infrequently is) a valuable one.

Pedro Erik

Brilliant, Melaine. But I feel that the progressive intelligentsia, unfortunately, will reach the peak when the advent of Messiah Obama. It is not enough ask how many dead children are needed. We need adopt again the Christian faith. It will be a long time until that.

Best,
Pedro Erik

Alcuin

I can do little but echo the words of Frank P. Never give up, Melanie. If the BBC, bless its heart, holds a special Moral Maze on this issue, I hope you are on it, and I hope you give them both barrels. But I fear I know what the reactions would be - yet more soft progressive soap. Only a catastrophe will shake these people from their smug hubris, and even this is not enough.

Margaret

I cannot stop being amazed by your honesty and hard-hitting analyses! Thank you for telling the unvarnished truth. A pity that the right people will not read or understand you.

Rob

Melanie, when you say progressives have bullied Britian into a "truly dark age of barbarism" you do yourself no favours.
Britain today has many faults i agree with you on, but in terms of British history it's probably the best. One hundred years ago Baby P was a common occurence as were children sweeping chimneys. Fifty years before that children were working 12 hour factory shifts.
The only real pro-family golden age in Britain was a short ten years after the creation of the welfare state. Before that violence, rape, child poverty, and infant mortality were taken as part and parcel of life. From this, and the fact we're living much longer too, it's hyperbolic to use such apocalyptic terms.

EC

Melanie, this is undeniable and very inconvenient truth!

Dehumanisation, evil and wickedness proceed apace but the scourge is not solely confined to our country. The post WW2 fad for cultural Marxism was launched upon the West by our enemies but the retreat of reason leading to the descent into anarchy is a cancer that is being enabled and enacted by the malign and credulous of our own!

Summon Hercules!

Norm

Sad but true Melanie.

Brain Brian

Using a terrible tragedy as a means to spout more self-congratulatory claptrap.

Dave

It's awful and terrile. But an "age of barberism"? Seriously?

Verity

Rob writes: "One hundred years ago Baby P was a common occurence as were children sweeping chimneys. Fifty years before that children were working 12 hour factory shifts." I would like a reference to Baby P being "a common occurence", please, as I have never read about such a thing before in novels of the time, nor in history books. Children working in mills and up chimneys were necessities of survival of the times. They were not events of sheer, brutal cruelty. Little by little, we pulled ourselves out of the situations you describe and willingly passed laws on child labour and required children to attend schools.

Another apologist, Chris, writes: " Seriously, Melanie, however horrific an individual case is, it is still an individual case." What about the kidnap of her own daughter by little Sharon Matthews's mother and her boyfriend, who hid her in a flat and had her tethered her the ceiling when the the conspirator went out so should couldn't escape, for "reward" money? These are the ones we know about. What about the horrifying brutality of children to children - as in, let's say, "happy slapping", allowed to run rife because if punished, some slag mother of a perpetrator would be down at the school in her pajamas screaming that her daughter was being victimised. We read daily about brutality that would have shocked people out of their minds 50 years ago.
A Jeremy Wilkinson, referring to Melanie, notes with lofty disapproval that she "really should practice humility as she might find it enhances her ability to get her message across -". And you became an editor when?

I believe Melanie Phillips has been getting her message across, as an international journalist and author for at least 15 years without your kind counsel.

It's unravelled. And it happened so quickly ... accelerating in the last decade, and so deliberately ...

A J Scott

It breaks one's heart. How is it these people have no sense of their responsibilities for succeeding generations? Planet of the Apes indeed.

Vision Aforethought

@Rob: Well, maybe, but back then, life was tough by default. Good behavior, common sense ethics and etiquette were luxuries of the well to do. Today, even the most hardened working classes live well: Enjoying Sky TV, a warm home and affordable food on the tax payer or (to be fair) a hard working spouse/partner. The values M so correctly highlights that have been stripped from our society have lead to a whole generation of thoughless 'animals?' who completely fail to comprehend their station.I am afraid, that if this is what a modern society surrounded by technology, solutions and opportunity comes to, then the situation today is far worse than back in the old days. We are selfish! It's that simple. Blame Facebook, celeb TV, Politically Correctness, reality TV, lack of moral leadership from the government (& a terrified Church), weak discipline at school - and even a soft military. Remember the Iran kidnapping debacle? We shall reap what we have sowed, so G-d help us.

Anthony

This is why this blog is my number one read every day and why Melanie Phillips is my number one journalist.

We wouldn't be here again and again if it wasn't for the ripping up of our traditional values.

Our ancestors may have got things wrong, yes, but they understood the essentials of what binds a family and a society together. But we were assured it was A Good Thing to smash the granite base of our society. And if you're like Melanie Phillips and dare to point out the dangers of this vandalism and where it will lead to, you'll get smashed even harder.

How we even begin to pick up the pieces, I have no idea. We have never been here before. Centuries and centuries of slowly altered tradition have been blown to bits within about 50 years. Nationhood? Bin it. The family? Bin it. They sometimes made you unhappy so listen to us and just bin the lot.

Come join the dysfunctional family of nations at the UN. Come join the dysfunctional family down the road.

And remember, don't judge any of them.

david skinner

Far be it for me to disagree with you Melanie but what are governments for but to govern and enact legislation that will either move us away from barbarism or towards it? There are those in the corridors of power, such Iris Robinson, MP, to name one, who work fearlessly for righteousness and Justice, whilst there are others like Evan Harris, who in any other age would at the very least be in the tower of London. One thing that we can certain of and that this whenever there is some awful occurrence such as this, the leaders in the land, both spiritual and temporal, will immediately blame the parents. The massive buck is passed speedily and swiftly into their hands.
The contribution that both Tony Blair or Rowan Williams have made toward the inner rot and decay of our society that murders over 200, 000 unborn babies a years makes the sins of individual parents infinitesimal by comparison.

Kerry

In Ausrtalia its the same Melanie, the Rudd government wants the term 'marriage' replaced with 'coupled relationship' and 'children' will be referred to as 'the product of a coupled relationship'. This is an attempt to satisfy the sodomites who regret that the term marriage cannot be used for their relationship.
It does look grim, even globally, but we have yet one hope-God! He has said, if his people will humble themselves and seek his face and pray, he will hear their cry and heal their land. I believe, inspite of the presence of evil, that the blame rests upon sleeping Christians. We have the numbers to turn the tide, but most of them are off their knees and caught up with the ways of the world. That silly American sitcom that many watch, with its off-colour humour is costing them more than they realise. Thanks for being such a true witness to the truth Melanie, I know you will be paying the price of such righteousness.

Pcollier

Agree in the larger sense but this sort of case comes up every so often regardless of the wider culture. It wouldn't be entirely out of place in Victorian England. Worked in SW in Hackney some time ago. Strange experience. Nothing in the organization worked but certainly all staff worked long hours. Police are typically very involved in cases like this so I am surprised they did not have a hand in the case. Social workers are not detectives. If the mother was manipulative it wouldn't be hard to pull the wool over most social worker's eyes. They are not rocket scientists. If they thought something was going on they would certainly do their best. The practice of placing children with family and family friends is pretty common out here. System is massively overstretched (and overused) as it is.

C Powell

Indeed - a trahison des clercs.

The biggest crime liberals have committed is to say that we must not be judgmental and to attack all moral standards other than doing what you want.

Utter tosh and dangerous, too: we cannot behave as civilized human beings unless we apply judgment; we cannot have a civilized society unless we apply judgment; we cannot provide sensible services or care to the vulnerable unless we apply judgment. And the result is a society where - at least in parts of it - there is a moral vacuum, where evil flourishes.

So we have a a society which refuses to criticise girls (and boys) who have sex when they are still children; girls who have children one after the other with different men; men who disappear as soon as the deed is done and abandon their girlfriends/wives and children; girls who think it OK to live like slatterns (drinking to excess, dressing like tarts, vomiting and generally behaving indecently and vulgarly in public); girls who think that having a baby entitles them to a flat and benefits; parents who refuse to take responsibility for their children; people who blame others or "society" for their own failings.

We should insist on personal responsibility, personal morality, decent living. We should talk about "good" and "evil" and "right" and "wrong". We should say that people have a choice and need to accept the consequences of their choices. We should be judgmental about appalling or even just bad behaviour. We should stop pretending that it's all about lifestyle choices and one lifestyle choice is much the same as another, when all the evidence shows that some choices are extremely damaging and harmful, especially for children.

If we don't, if we refuse to teach the difference between "right" and "wrong" or the concept of personal responsibility and what that means, it is little wonder if people behave without restraint, gratifying only their own desires (however repellent or disgusting) without any regard for anyone else.

I think that we should make clear that if you have a child you need to take responsibility for it and you shouldn't have one if you can't. The only benefit you should get is child benefit, payable to all mothers. We should stop now this nonsense whereby having a child on your own entitles you to free housing and a range of benefits. The families of such girls should take responsibility, the fathers should take responsibility and if neither of them are around or refuse to then we should have a system of foster families for the girls and their babies or, maybe, mother and baby homes, where there is a responsible adult who ensures that they learn that growing up is about more than having sex but entails responsibilities, for years and years. And if the girls don't want to do this then the babies should be adopted by those who will give them a loving home. But no more girls living on welfare at our expense with a succession of men wandering in and out of their lives and their childrens' lives. We permit this, subsidise it (unlike every other European country) - and then wonder why we have the problems associated with such a way of life. (Look at the dreadful Shannon Matthews case, look at the mother of the girl murdered in Goa.)

And it isn't about demonising single mothers. It's about making clear that you have a child only if you are prepared for the responsibility - financial, emotional and social -that it entails and that it is not a way of getting things (a home/an income of sorts) which others have to work for.

There will always be people for whom we as a community need to care for but our welfare system needs to be based on some level of judgment not just simple woolly-minded "compassion" for the "poor" (some of whome are poor only in the moral sense). It needs to reinforce the concept of personal responsibility not relieve people of the consequences of their actions so that people come to believe that they have no obligations, no duties, only "rights". That is what our welfare system fails to do because we are afraid to say these simple things because they might be unpalatable, because we are afraid to say - other than when an awful case like this comes to light - this is wrong.

Verity

Dave - "But an "age of barberism"?"

Wasn't that when they were cutting off people's beards in Russia? There was an awful lot of barberism going on, and not all of it good, frankly. Some faces are best left undisclosed.

Meanwhile, regarding the disintegration of Western civilisation, may I point to two words: Common Purpose.

Herbert Thornton

Horrifyingly true, Melanie - and not confined to Britain.

After pondering Melanie's comments, I suggest people also refer back to the posting by SAL (November 5th, 2008 6:47pm) in Melanie's blog 'Freedom now stands alone'. SAL drew attention to Antonio Gramsci's manifesto on how to subvert western societies from within.

Gramsci's proposals have had tremendous influence and have been horrifyingly successful - not just in Britain but in Canada.

It is interesting to compare Gramsci's aims with those of Mao Tse Tung's Cultural Revolution. Whether Mao was influenced by Gramsci I have no idea, but remarkably their aims were very similar. Both men so hated the society that they lived in that they wanted to utterly destroy it. What might follow, they cared little about, other than their own personal satisfaction in seeing it destroyed. But a comparison of the results shows that in Canada and China they had very different outcomes.

In Canada Prime Minister Trudeau introduced policies that amounted to Canada's equivalent of Mao's Cultural Revolution. They aimed to impose on Canada Trudeau's (and liberals') belief in moral relativism. Disastrously, Trudeau's Cultural Revolution has succeeded and has caused immense harm. It continues to inexorably subvert the best aspects of Canadian society, and not just in the nation's traditional institutions. The subversion now includes the limitation and suppression , by truly Orwellian Human Rights Commissions, of Canadians' supposed freedoms of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression. The traditional family in Canada has not yet been has not been entirely destroyed, but it has been severely damaged and is growing steadily weaker.

In China on the other hand, Mao's Cultural Revolution has been largely discredited. The reason for this, I believe has been the immense strength of the Chinese family system. Fortunately for China family bonds are bonds are very strong indeed - unlike in the west where the bonds have become very weak and often ceased to exist at all.

The family system is the fundamental building block of every civilised society. But as in the case of any structure built of brick, the strength of the structure depends, ultimately, on the soundness of the bricks. When the bricks fail, the whole structure is destined to crumble. We are now seeing it slowly happening.

The west is in danger of reverting to barbarism. Indeed, in many ways it has already done so in the ways Melanie so eloquently describes. China's civilisation on the other hand is as strong as ever. We have a great deal to learn from China, but is anyone willing to listen?

Neil Saunders

Your best piece for a while, Melanie, and not a syllable with which any reasonable person could disagree.

What a tragedy that so many UNreasonable people - wedded to discredited dogmas - are now in positions of immense social and cultural influence!

Wilfred

You are marvellous, Melanie.

And a magnificent post from Frank P.

shocked

Well done Melanie. You saw it coming before everyone else. You're more brilliant than everyone else. Quite amazing.

Your analysis of the US political situation has been spot on as well. Congrats to the Spec for having someone who is so well attuned to the political sphere.

This person knows their stuff

Hugh

This willfull blindness and "official" tut-tutting is prevalent in the US, too. Why? Whilst the grove of academe can insulate itself with self-serving platitudes and amoral pandering quips, it is they who are largely at fault.No? Then what of all the "social study" programs and tenured chairs/Depts? What of the endless "expert " testimonials in court and@ the UN? The answer Melanie is to detach yourself from society by obtaining your "teaching cert."Then you would not be responsible...as they are not.No shame ,no morals , just poses...like politicians,eh wot! There is right or wrong and there is good and bad- just don't tell "them".

Bentley Wexford

Great article! We have a very similar situation here in the States, where, especially in academe, ideology reigns supreme and is often unchecked by caritas and empathy (think William Ayers and Ward Churchill). You mention a only few examples of the barbarism perpetuated on children but that kind of behavior is quite common. Only a fool would believe that you are speaking of isolated incidents.

An American

In socialist societies...everything is gray. There is no white or black...no right or wrong...no decent or indecent...no innocent or guilty.
Socialist goverments and the far-left liberal press have done a good job of brain-washing and intimidating people to go along with this madness...and in the end, innocent children suffer...but, hey, socialist dogma is more important than a mere child.

Verity

Vision Aforethought: Does " so G-d help us." mean God help us? Why not write God? God has been so written for over two thousand years. What is this coy "G-d"? If you are referring to God, then write God. Anglo-Saxon is a robust language. The word we employ in English is God.

Dear God! The pretentiousness!

Brian Foy

You wonderful brave woman. More and more of us will stand with you to resist the dishonest liberal lunatics who are determined to destroy western societies with their idiot policies.

Walter Moran

Lots of agreement here. How many of you - I'm speaking to those posting - have grabbed your local government representative by the shirtfront and gotten in his or her face, and told them plainly that these values are NOT acceptable - that you EXPECT to see change and that, since your vote has meaning, that you EXPECT this person to deal with the problem?
Has even ONE of you done this - whether in the UK, USA or in Canada, where I'm writing from?
Well? Because letters to Melanie here won't change a thing.
Well? What are you waiting for?

sebastian

"..the amoral and criminally self-regarding so-called ‘progressive’ intelligentsia, who have bullied, smeared, intimidated and manipulated Britain into a truly dark age of barbarism......particularly at the BBC", I think Melanie meant to add.

Conservative Cabbie

Rob

The progressive revolution certainly had it's day, in the sixties and seventies, the world needed progressivism. However, a revolution can be taken to far. The welfare state is fine if it catches the genuinly needy but in time it becomes an entitlement that suppresses personal ambition. Civil rights was an absolute necessity in the sixties but has today morphed into affirmative action that denies meritocracy and generates resentment.

We should be calling an end to the progressive movement, it's time to start focusing more on personal responsibilities and less on personal rights.

Geoff Miller

Is it any wonder that 250,000 people, myself included, leave the UK evry year?

Look back in Anger? - Horror more like.

To see the country of your birth disintegrating like this is horrifying. Dont believe that the headlines of the past week are aberations - there is much more that never gets reported.

The UK was on track until the Labour Governments of the 70's. Now unelected, and unrepresentative, liberals infest and influence every area of public life.

Add economic collapse to moral and social collapse and I think the next few years will be quite "interesting".

Emmet

Brain Brian and Chris, living as you no doubt do in some kind of middle class ivory tower, it's quite easy to believe that what Melanie is saying is only hysteria. Start living in the real world and leave your Brave New World fantasy behind. Try living in Peckham or Easterhouse for even a few days and then come back and talk of hysteria. Otherwise, shut up.

Dee Ranged

Melanie

I have but one word for this!

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant!

Barackobama

Rather than get angry and despair about the latest societal monstrosity, conservatives should ask themselves this question: why, when the overwhelming majority believe in strong families and responsible individual behaviour free from state direction, conservatism seem to be losing? There are three principal reasons, and they lie within the conservative movement itself. One is that conservatives have wrongly associated themselves with free market individualism. The free market is a revolutionary, anti-family idea used to justify the legitimisation of abortion, drug use, pornography, sexual promiscuousness, every kind of personal irresponsibility including abandonment of marital responsibilities and even criminal behaviour. It is a false conservative God. You can't be coherently conservative and support the free market.
The second is that conservatives have allied themselves with anti-illectualism, now most prominently expressed by minority, bible-based Christian sects who have taken over the Republicans and are using defeat in 2008 as an excuse to reject intelligent consevative thought.
The third is believing that things would be so much better if only we had a conservative president, or prime minister, or government. This is the largest of all conservative illusions. Conservatives should stop wasting their time on elections, which many believe are fixed any way, and concentrate their energies at the level of the individual and the family, using example to change the world, not law or coercion which will only strengthen the state. It will always be morally-neutral, no matter who is in charge, and is wide open to being captured by opportunists from right, left and centre.

Frank P

Walter Moran

"Lots of agreement here. How many of you - I'm speaking to those posting - have grabbed your local government representative by the shirtfront and gotten in his or her face,"

Wally - and I use that in the familiar nominal sense in the nicest possible way, rather than in the descriptive sense: a neighbour of mine did that just recently and threw said official into a nearby wheelie bin after some bureaucratic lip from him.

Finished up being charged on four counts:

(1) Assault, causing actually bodily harm (loss of dignity)

(2) Criminal damage to said jobs-worth's shirt (a button popped).

(3) Obscene language likely to cause a breach of the peace (Described him as an officious little turd).

(4) Dumping a turd in a wheelie bin intended only for waste paper.

You obviously haven't visited Britain in recent years since the Gramscian Long March walked through the door of 10 Downing Street 11 or so years ago.

Maybe after a few years of Obamania in the USA and creeping Sharia, which has already erupted in Canada, you'll understand.

The British people are being disenfranchised by ceding legal powers to Europe; by local draconian laws involving suppression of free speech - and by a politicised police non-service that is unavailable when trouble erupts, as they are too busy acting as secret police for the government implementing "hate" laws and dancing to the tune of Yurrups Yuman Rights. There will be blood - but not until the food starts to run out! In the meantime Melanie will keep you in touch and believe me, her rage does seep through, in various ways, to the corridors of power. It would be ten times worse without her constant chivvying.

Frank P

Melanie

Forgive me for lowering the tone in my last comment, particularly as you tried to set a high standard with your depiction at the top (EC - help (again)! who painted it and what's the legend?); but I just wanted our transatlantic friends to know that our bawdy sense of humour is still extant, even if it's beginning to wear a bit thin.

phil

Melanie welcome back to what you do best .well what goes around comes around ,you may remember this is where you and I came in after I had seen a question time that you appeared on with TRACY EMMINS quite some time ago . I emailed you to ask why you were perceived as right wing particularly as I who consider myself as rather liberal absolutely coincided with what you had to say -The discussion was about a lady who decided not to send her child to school and after many attempts to deter her the law gave up and sentenced her .Some on the panel agreed with the mother as did some of the audience ,and the shock I felt prompted me to write to you and tell you to keep your chin up as many of us supported you

.Societies condemnation of wrong doers is so weak now that the values that I was brought up with seem to have disappeared -failure is not allowed in school,punishment is usually deferred ,whistle blowers reviled and silenced and I feel like a dinosaur .

I have semi joked with friends regarding football hooligans where I suggested putting them in stocks(protected)in the middle of the town that they have abused ,for humiliation - I know it will not happen but I would bet it would stop these idiots who consider "respect" is all .It is real respect that has gone missing along with compassion and care for others so if nothing else comes from your campaign at least I can renew my support for all you are trying to do .

Scott

Verity: Vision Aforethought: Does " so G-d help us." mean God help us? Why not write God? God has been so written for over two thousand years. What is this coy "G-d"? If you are referring to God, then write God. Anglo-Saxon is a robust language. The word we employ in English is God. Dear God! The pretentiousness!"

Dear God, what an empty vessel she continues to parade; the crass, insular stupidity of this woman continues to be mind-boggling.

Ask a religious Jew WHY God is G-d you ignorant, self-aggrandising wannabe.

Vision Aforethought

@Verity: I was (under fairly strict instruction) taught at (Jewish) school, never to write the full word - in English. I am also aware of far more strict laws with regards to the Hebrew equivalent. No pretense at all, it has been a force of habit since 1974. BTW, I tend to agree with all your postings - keep it up.
@Walter Moran: So true. Where do we start?

Leslie

Verity.

http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_g-d.htm

Neil Saunders

It's difficult to gauge the actual extent of the influence of organisations such as Common Purpose (referred to by Verity) since they strive so hard to conceal the nature and scale of their activities. (At the same time, very powerful organisations, such as the Evelyn Oldfield Institute (affiliated to Common Purpose), operate (with minimum coverage by the media or consequent public awareness) with generous sponsorship from both private business and central government.)

Such concealment, of course, makes (and is intended to make) socially conservative people appear as lunatic conspiracy theorists when invoking such organisations and speculating about their influence on society and public policy.

What is indisputable is the permeation of all of our major institutions by ideas derived from or otherwise congruent with those of cultural Marxism.

There certainly has been something like a "long march through the institutions", but it has happened covertly, beneath the radar of public debate or oversight.

It seems implausible to me that everyone who has assisted this almost imperceptible revolution was or is an avowed Marxist, or an explicit disciple of the Frankfurt School or Gramsci. My suspicion is that these culturally Marxist ideas have somehow seeped into the wider culture, and that many of those who hold them would be either amused or outraged at being labelled cultural Marxists themselves. These ideas are therefore like a virus carried by hosts who are likely to be unconscious of being infected - a very dangerous state of affairs.

However it has arisen, I'm afraid that this infection now rages unabated through all of our mainstream political parties. Simply challenging their representatives when they appear on our doorsteps at election time will change nothing, because those professionally involved in politics (even at doorstep level) are skilled at disarming criticism and pretending that self-evidently harmful policies are actually designed for our own benefit if we could but see it.

In other words, all of our main institutions and political parties are now too diseased to be capable of reform, even if they were prepared to acknowledge the need for it and willing to undergo it.

Augustus

"One of the most sublime characteristics of human nature is the love for the weak; a child in the crib, the most vulnerable of all creation, has nothing to fear even from criminals." Yes, naive perhaps, but this was written in 1909 as part of a thesis on child murder. As society emerged into the 20th Century, there was a dawning of different attitudes towards children of all ages which perhaps had been lacking in the previous century. Children, from tiny tots to adulthood were valued as the hub around which a family turned.

But in the New Labour Britain of today, a party which specifically promised to abolish child poverty, so many now face the twin calamities of deprivation and depravity.
An epidemic of drugs and drink is pole-axing parenting. Thousands of children are said to arrive at school barely able to speak, let alone behave. They are Children in Need indeed.

Joe Strummer

What a strange and sinister little country we are. There are countless stringent Health & Safety laws vigorously and gleefully enforced by the local council Stasi representatives in schools to prevent children injuring themselves in what was generally accepted before as normal horseplay, yet no laws could be enacted to remove Baby P from his living Hell.

As for the modern working class aka the underclass, Melanie's forebear on the Moral Maze David Starkey summed it up perfectly, " they don't work and they have no class".

Verity

Scott writes with the toxicity of the easily excited: "Ask a religious Jew WHY God is G-d you ignorant, self-aggrandising wannabe."

I'm a "wannabe" what, Scott? Please explain.

I'm not Jewish. Why would I be expected to familiar with what is proscripted in the Jewish faith? Any more than I am familiar with the religious niceties of the Catholic Church. I'm not dismissive of them. I'm not familiar with them. I have never seen God written thusly before, except on LGF and I just thought it was a cliquey little habit they had.

But do tell me what I'm a "wannabe" of. I'm dying to know what my ambition is!

Neil Saunders - Thanks for an excellent and thought-provoking post.

None of these people will own up to belonging to Common Purpose. They are warned not to let on. I have read that the entire British cabinet, and the one before that, are members. As are most of the local apparachiks and every member of Britain's 1,300 "quangoes". (Why does no other country need quangoes? But I digress.) They are warned to deny membership. I can only guess that David Cameron and most of his shadow cabinet, save the independent-spirited William Hague and David Davis, are members. It's a very powerful organisation - as you noted - Marxist - and very secretive. No one will admit to membership, but their members permeate our society.

I'm trying to copy a link about Common Purpose, and when I manage to get it to work, I'll post it.

Verity

When I went to this link about Common Purpose, which I saved a year ago, this morning, it worked. When I tried to post it on this thread, Google Video came up, but the screen is blank. Does anyone know what is wrong with this link? I cut and pasted it a year ago and it worked 10 minutes ago on my computer and now doesn't work.

Have I chopped the end off, or something? It runs for 116 minutes and is rivetting.

Verity

I think this might work. Maybe not exactly Saturday night viewing ... it's almost two hours long, but it is rivetting.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1165968ctQM9ckt

(Posted in response to Neil Saunders' comments above.)

phil

Vision Aforethought please do not apologise to this stupid woman ,she insults anyone she can get a chance to,The more educated understand why you use the hyphen and Scott has put my own thoughts down for me extremely well.For anyone other than the fragrant one ,we should not take the lords name in vain .

Frank P

Neil Saunders

Yours is an astute diagnosis of the dilemma; its effects just as planned by Gramsci's disciples. But despite being tagged as 'lunatic conspiracy theorists' we must persist, as more and more light is shone on the counter-culture hegemony that has developed.

Exposure of Obama's links to Frank Davis, his exposure to Alinski's 'rules', his close association with Ayer's and his wife Bernadette Dohrn - and the coven that revolves around their milieu, has been helpful. Melanie's blog was one of the first to expose the Gramsci influence back in 2003; others such as John Fonte of the Hudson Institute have also written extensively on the subject. For those who are new to the phenomenon it is worth practising your Google skills. A plethora of information exists if you are interested. Sean Gabb is another writer who has written much about Gramsci, though his ultra libertarian stance may not be everybody’s cup of tea.

Gramsci himself would be delighted that the seeds he sowed have reaped such a rich harvest. Those of us who have for years invigilated (officially and unofficially in retirement) watched and warned of the ravages of Marxism and its modified covert by-products must continue to rally to Melanie's support. Its unholy alliance with Islamic jihad - a marriage of convenience that each party intends to ditch when either feels it has gained the upper hand in global domination - is a liaison spawned in hell. We must not underestimate its insidious and pervasive contagion. Unfortunately HM Opposition seems oblivious to the phenomenon and I suspect many within their upper ranks have, as Neil points out, unwittingly assimilated some of the tenets during their days immersed in the Halls of Academe, which are awash with Gramscian covert tutelage.

Few realise just how many covert counter-culture agents from the US, South America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Far East, financed by Sino-soviet Agitprop, descended on London during the mid 1960’s and early 1970s, using the squats in the Victorian Houses of Notting Hill blighted by the Westway Extension works, where they organised and spread through the institutions. Some of their contacts now hold Offices of State. The mainstream media, particularly the BBC is riddled with them; leftist authors, playwrights, educators abound. And the institutions and infrastructure of the nation seethes with the infestation. I fear that credulous electorate may again fall for the subterfuge and vote them back into power in 2010, as there may be no choice with the current contending parties to do otherwise. The Tories should assure us that they are Gramsci-free. As far as I know none of the shadow cabinet has mentioned Gramsci, or his counter culture writings. Moreover the deep silence from the Tory party during the US Election campaign about Obama’s dubious leftist connections was disgraceful. Wake up Britain! Your country is the victim of a two-pronged attack and there is no visible political representation to oppose either prong of that attack. Dhimmitude and accommodation are all that is offered. Wake up Uncle Sam! I feel that once aware of what you have done this month, your country has at least the balls and gumption to do something about it. I’m not so sure about Britain, but we must keep on going on.

James Hodson

C Powell: "The biggest crime liberals have committed is to say that we must not be judgemental and to attack all moral standards other than doing what you want."

Unless, of course, the action, thought or speech being judged falls outside their current PC idea of so-and-so being OK - beliefs which changes like the seasons.

Personal anecdotes don't really have much have a place here and mostly don't advance any argument but ... My own father died when I was 3 months old; essentially I was brought up as the child of a single mother.

However, her morals (remember those?) were those of one half of a married couple. Her age - she was born in 1921 - probably helped too.

This does make a difference.

Verity

Vision Aforethought, thanks for your civil response to me. If I'd known it was a religious requirement, of course I would not have commented on it.

At the same time, we are under no obligation to be familiar with the strictures imposed by other religions. I have never been to a service in a Roman Catholic church, although they look interesting, because I don't know when to curtsey. I never went to a ceremony in a Hindu temple when I lived briefly in India because I was always afraid I'd wash my hands in the holy water, or something and they'd all come racing forward.

Barackobama

Neil Saunders
Welfarism is an idea originating in the arguments in favour of liberal individualism. Its first manifestation in the UK was the 1834 Poor Law Act which was based on the view that the individual was responsible for his/her poverty. It replaced the previous belief that the poor were divinely-ordained or, as Malthus argued, an unavoidable expression of the natural order. Its authors were impeccable Christian, free market, liberal individualists (ie, not Marxists/lefties) who believed that the poor, with the right government incentives, could lift themselves out of poverty. Every British social reform originates from that. All UK welfare payments, including the state pension, continue to be barely above subsistence levels, as those who designed the 1834 law would have recommended.
Large-scale income and wealth redistribution, the other bogey in this blog, was first attempted in the UK by the Tory government of Lord Salisbury which was in power with one short interruption from 1886-1902. It involved the state nationalising huge tracts of Ireland and providing government-subsidised loans to Irish peasants to buy it. Salisbury was an advocate of self-help and said: "No men ever rise to any permanent improvement in their condition of body or of mind except by relying upon their own personal efforts". But, of course, he may have been a Marxist revolutionary of the Gramscian kind.
The Whig Poor Law didn't work (it was superseded by serial increases in public social welfare spending) nor did the Tory Land Purchase scheme (the UK gave up on Ireland in 1921 after the very people who had benefitted from British generosity turned violently against it).
We are where we are today because of unintended consequences, not conspiracy, and ideology has practically nothing to do with it.

Kennybhoy

Jeremy Wilkinson,

Please forgive my obtuseness but could you perhaps elaborate on your post below.I think that I might be in agreement with you, but I am uncertain as to what exactly you are getting at...?

EC

Frank P,

The method is easy,

Put the mouse pointer over the picture. 'Click' the RH button and then select 'Properties' on the drop down menu displayed.

The 'Properties' information displayed reveals that the image is stored at: http://www.spectator.co.uk/blogs/media//Image/Niobe.jpg.

The people at the Speccie are very obliging and usually store the image with a helpful name and in this case it is "Niobe.jpg"

Googling about Niobe and a visual check reveals:

The subject is "Apollo and Diana Attacking Niobe and her Children."
This particular depiction is from 1772 painted by Anicet-Charles-Gabriel Lemonnier,
and its current location might be the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen.

A visit to: http://www.loggia.com/myth/niobe.html

... will give you the whole tragic tale.

Kennybhoy

Jeremy Wilkinson,

Please forgive any obtuseness on my part but could you possibly elaborate on your earlier post above? I think that I might very well be in agreement with you, but I am not quite sure if I understand what exactly it is that you saying...

Anyways. Has anyone else here read J D Unwin's "Sex and Culture"? In common with Freud, he believed that civilization was the product of the rational control of innate desire. The book is hard to come by and rather expensive these days but I think that I may be available online to download.

Sergey

It is not the first dark age of barbarism in English history. In the early 19 century alcoholism of working class was a social norm, every second woman in Whitechappel was a prostitute, and so on. How did it ended? By a Great Awakening and a huge effort of charities, orphanages and propaganda of sobriety and moral restraint. And this really was the only way out of rampant moral depravity. Let us hope that a new Great Awakening of moral fundamentalism will emerge from present chaos and economic hardship.

john east

There have been some excellent views expressed on this thread, and I congatulate you all on looking at the fundamental causes rather than simply blaming social workers, the police, parents, or whoever the latest knee jerk scapegoat happens to be.

The one aspect of the recent Russell Grant, Johnathan Ross scandal that will stay in my mind when all the details are forgotten illustrates the fundamental nature of the societal changes that we have increasingly witnessed over recent years. I read in one newspaper article a breakdown of those who were most critical of the BBC and the two comedians, and it was claimed that the moral outrage against the humiliation and distress caused to Andrew Sachs and his family was concentrated amongst the over 40's. It's not that the younger generation are consciously cruel or insensitive, it's just that many of them honestly didn't get it - there was just no empathy. If true, and I had no reason to disagree with this story, it's quite chilling. The implication is that things can only get worse when those of us born before the 1960's, when hedonism and individual gratification began to replace morality and family, eventually die off.

Frank P

EC

Thank you very much for your instruction on the wonderful ways of the Internet. You are very kind. Sometimes I wish I had been born 50 years later, but taking a look around, perhaps I've seen the best of Western Civilisation at first hand and I'm not so keen on experiencing its accelerating decline. But then I've just been watching the Govan Gargoyle McBraun strutting his stuff in Washington, quaffing booze at £250 per bottle and complaining that HM Opoosition is resisting his attempts to impose his form of Communism upon the World's capitalist infrastructure, by pointing out that the £ is going through the floor. He apparently has not noticed. Oh my!

Frank P

EC

Hmmmnn. Beware of Bubbles baring barbarisim! And Dianafication of it at the Apollo sinema.

Andrew Rutey

Mrs Phillips you're a very smart lady, sadly I fear it is far too late for our society to ever regain its sanity.
The class of '68 have won but what exactly have they won - it breaks my heart to say it but this land is a broken, morally decrepit hellhole that can surely only get much, much worse.
I would write my thoughts at greater length but you have already voiced them so acurately.
How ironic that it is now conservatives like us that are having to adopt hippie slogans about 'dropping out' and 'going underground'.
Stop the world, I want to get off.

Ray

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Matthew 5:11-12).

Plus ca change, Melanie. But take heart. God will not forever be mocked.

Herbert Thornton

It's difficult to summarise, in one blog, everything that is going wrong, but I think it would make a rather good book for somebody who could combine the talents and techniques of George Orwell and Alexander Solzhenytsin. It would be set in Britain in the near future.

The economic crisis would, in Britain, have turned into a depression much worse than that following the 1929 crash - many more millions people would unemployed. The government's efforts to revive the economy are not working, and there is severe inflation.

Things are so bad that in some towns, there are riots.

The government is in such despair that it calls a General Election.

Loyal Labour and Tory voters stay away from the polls to such an extent that Labour and Tory M.P.s are reduced to a rump of about 25% of members. 15% of M.P.s are militant Muslims with ties to Al Qaeda. 10% of the members belong to the National Front. 15% consist of Liberals, Greens, The New Feminist Party and Independents. The rest are the BNP with 35%.

The Queen confers with Prince Charles about whom to invite to form a government. Various M.P.s from the Liberals, Independents, Labour-Tory rump and the Green Party are asked if they can attract enough support to form a government. They can't and it develops into a crisis lasting many weeks.

Finally, the Queen invites the leader of the B.N.P. to form a government, on condition that he doesn't join forces with the National Front. He agrees, on the understanding that a new General Election will be called within a year.

It then becomes obvious that Parliament is not going to be able to enact any legislation proposed by the government. There are more riots, some instigated by the National Front, some incited by militant Muslim Clerics calling for the establishment of a Caliphate.

The year is nearly up and the promised new General Election is called. By now, the amount of social disorder in some towns requires the intervention of the Army to preserve general law and order. Despite this, the day after the Election is called, Islamic extremists succeed in detonating a dirty nuclear bomb in London. This so incenses the electorate that Election Day ends with the BNP having 40%, followed by the National Front with 30%. For the first time, the seats formerly occupied by militant Muslims remain vacant - because Islamic Clerics have denounced the British system of government as un-Islamic and sinful - and have issued fatwas against both nominating and voting.

Parliament now enacts legislation to suppress terrorism and to completely stop further immigration. This is followed by widespread Muslim insurrection which the army has difficulty in controlling.

Then in a surprise move, the National Front - supported by some parts of the army, effect a coup. Parliament is shut down, all other parties including the BNP are ordered to disband, and Britain descends into civil war.

The book would of course include the effects of these events on the lives of various ordinary people, an assassination or two, attempted interventions by the E.U., deportations of Brussels bureaucrats, maybe even the blowing up of the Channel tunnel, outbreaks of various deadly epidemics caused by the collapse of the public health systems and people being hanged from lamposts and in some places beheaded. All very apocalyptic. If a best seller results, may I please have 1% of the royalties?

Dave

Vertitty: Thank goodness there's no story so terrible that a cheap jibe based on my poor spelling isn't worth it.

Mike

The strangest part in all this is the Head of Haringey's Childrens Services failure to comprehend they have in any way done badly. They have ticked all the right boxes and know all the right on phrases, they are part of the ruling elite and if they say everything is OK then that is how it is. The screaming horror of this case does not register with these spaced out Hippy children.

mckenzie

A good post on a blog on the Internet. And lots of good comments. The Internet is a better place for it now. Shame that the real world is so fucked up though.

Frank P

Herbert Thornton

Why not write it yourself and cop the lion's share of the royalties.

Btw the plot is not much more preposterous than Gordon Brown winning the next election - and that is already on the cards. In which case your lamp-post scenarios become even more feasible.

Jim

Scott, your response to that ill-mannered know-it-all Verity was priceless. I hope you don't bother explaining what you mean by "wannabe" because she'll never get it (though the rest of us do!). And to you Miss V, I'd simply say that whether you understood the reason that Jews do not write the word God in full is irrelevant; this is not a forum that is supposed to be run on your rules or your terms. At least on this blog equality rules, and bad manners are simply unwelcome.

Verity

Herbert Thornton - Only 1%? Are you mad?

Not to detract from Herbert Thornton's brilliant post, but I have said for over 10 years, since the advent of the toxic Blair, that the Army would be on the streets of Britain at some point.

George Steiner

From time to time some of you invoke the name of God. As in “God help us”. He will not.

I had a word with him the other day. “Look Mr. Steiner, you know the old saying, I will help those who help themselves?

These people don’t help themselves. They just sit around and moan. When they decide to get off their **** I will see what I can do. But not till then.”

Scott

Verity: "I'm not Jewish".

A given - Jews are generally well-educated and courteous.

A wannabe what?
A wannabe 'opinion-former', desperately seeking to be a 'somebody'.

Reality: a nobody; playground bully; conspiracy wingnut; ferociously fallacious; hateful to others - except toadying admirers; racist; just a typical bloated and rootless ex-pat.

Definitely not up to your own standards Verity but I'm new to vitriol.

Mehran

As someone who's not British by birth, and therefore not naturally used to the 'British way of life' I used to deride the old-fashioned and stuffy ways things were done in this country. I used to long for a reinvigorating breath of fresh air to blow away the cobwebs and make this country look and act like every other.

Now I look around me and absolutely despair of just about everything: the falling educational standards, bad behaviour and general lack of respect and consideration for others, the monumental selfishness on the part of the spoilt young, the idiotic way people speak nowadays, the de-sensitisation to violence...the list goes on.

And like Melanie, I think the liberal intelligensia have a lot to answer for for this state of affairs (I reserve a particular loathing for that joyless Polly Tonybee and her pieties, as she perfectly exemplifies the liberal commentariat's self-appointed role as champions of progress). They have created or caused to create a nasty, over-regulated, dumbed down and violent society.

In short Britain has lost its way. But more tragically it's lost the will to do anything about it.

An American

Conservative Cabbie,
I read many of these comments a second time...I'm impressed with the intelligence of Melanie's bloggers....however, when it takes a blogger an enormous amount of print to get to his/her point or try to impress...I move on. I always enjoy your comments...You are concise and stand out as having both intelligence and common sense.
Your latest comments to Rob were right on. Unfortunatly, our societies have fallen over the moral precipice. Let's hope there is a rope tied around our ankle before we hit bottom.

An American

Herbert Thornton,
This isn't fiction...many of us see this coming... I've been having nightmares that come close to what you describe in your blog. How did we allow this to happen?

Ellien

A couple of 17 year olds with a baby want to move out of her parent's flat. She goes on her own to the Housing Office (he's at college), where the very helpful and "right-on" officer tells her she'd best take the flat on her own as she'll have all expenses paid, as long as her boy-friend doesn't stay more than four nights a week. If he lives with her he will have to pay the rent once he gets a job. They've had a tiff and so she's all for it, while he reluctantly concedes as he is terrified he will not earn enough to pay the rent, the bills, food, etc..
So here we see a public service actively helping in the break-up of a fledgling family - and who are we to judge. She's on medication for depression, so am I being alarmist when I fear for the future of this baby? Battering comes to mind, and the kind of neglect that, if the child survives (usually they do)he or she ends up on the child Protection Register or in Care (and frequently also develops serious mental health problems).

Melanie is spot on with her understanding of what it is children need in order to thrive in life. One of these is two parents who support each other, and who feel that the values of the society they live in support them.

William B Hammond

When a civilisation cannot decide what is right or wrong it will be taken over by a civilisation with stronger convictions. It's happening now but we still have a choice. 1) Dump the relativistic thinking and return to Christian values or 2) Continue with our decadent ways until we are taken over by Islam. It's that simple. No civilisation lasts forever and usually brings about its own demise through decadence, weakness of mind and a general lowering of defences leaving it open to attack by invaders. We are playing host to the invaders now and they are behaving like good guests. But that will end when their numbers reach a critical mass and they become much more assertive. When this happens the feminists who have contributed to the downfall of western civilisation will realise they have shot themselves in the foot. They certainly wont get what they want from Islam.

Jerry

I am amazed at the logic expressed by more than one of the posters on this article. They state as the basis for their opposition to MP's point of view that baby-P is an aberration and cannot be used to draw conclusions about British society. That MP is misusing the tragedy of this baby to make a point that she has made before, ad nauseum.

What argument would suffice to change their opinions? Not individual tragic cases? Not well conducted studies of human family relationships? Not solid research work on strangers within a family? Not developmental and cross-species studies in successful rearing of the young?

What fact is useful to those who have an entire world view to protect? The acceptance of any finding contrary to an already established point of view is near-impossible for such organisms.

Shy Guy

Melanie, it was summed up in half a sentence in this past Shabbat's Torah reading, Parshat Va'yehrah, when Abraham said to King Avimelech "For I said, 'Surely, there is no fear of God in this place....'" (Genesis 21:11).

James Murphy

Melanie says: 'The truth is that it is all far, far too late. Britain has simply undone the fabric of civilised life...' I'd like to believe in the conclusiveness of her argument, but something in baulks at the suggestion that this is a new problem. In this regard, I've just re-read Dickens' excoriating letter to The Times 150 years ago about the abhorrent nature of the low-life London mob at the scene of a public execution. It's all there: the vulpine appetite and greed, the animalistic blood-lust, the delight in cruelty and the ecstasy in the distress of others. - And of course, it's ALWAYS been there, and always WILL be there. Politics cannot address this problem - because it does not permeate the soul of man and reach to the part where his ugliness might be worked upon and transformed. Ultimately, I see societal energy as possessing a kind of oceanic quality, with its ebb and flow, its neap tides and high tides upon which true individuality is a proverbial storm-tossed bark. All that sensitive, intellectually passionate, emotionally articulate individuals can do is to navigate as best they can by the sun, moon and stars of their own ideals and personal integrity, and enjoin other like-minded souls to get on board with them and leave the masses to drown in their biblical floods... - By the way, in reading The Old Thunderer I couldn't help but wonder - when exactly was the precise moment that The Times turned into the tedious, lippy whore of the bloated left-wing sugar-daddy establishment it has become..?

Oliver

Only the truely ignorant of history would see this as A: new, or B: the sky falling in, erm sorry emblematic of 'a new dark age of barbarism.

A quick look at infant mortality in the 19th century is in order, during the 'golden age' of Victoria.

For example look at the Marylebone Vestry district between 1843 and 1858, where 46% of children born out of wedlock died before they reached a year, or Sheffield during the 1870s where 58% of children born out of wedlock died before they reached a year old (for children born in wedlock it was 16%)

It is precisely the advent of progressive values of child welfare that has caused these horrible horrible deaths to become newsworthy due to their scaresity.

Brian G.

Spot on!!!
I agree 100%

Jim, Yardley, PA, U.S.A.

While I was reading this for a moment I thought the author was referring to the United States because every last word certainly applies. Family life has truly taken a turn for the worse with the government as a willing accomplice. My theory on this is that when the father is out of the house, the government takes on greater import in the way on an increased dependence of both mother and child. This dependence brings forth political allegiance which is exactly what the government is striving for. It's awfully sad but true.

phil

Scott and Jim -brilliant! I have been trying for so long to tell her what you have both told her succinctly and I have got nowhere,because she claims never to read those that criticise her-of course she does ,.but one thing we shouldn't accuse her of is anti Jewish rhetoric, and I am not one normally who will defend her-she is not guilty of that -rather she has a DR STRANGELOVE REACTION ENFORCING HER TO WRITE UNCONTROLLABLY, SARCASTICALLY AND OFFENSIVELY .I doubt there is a cure

.It is a pity as she has a lot of knowledge that could be useful ,but loses her audience once they become appalled by her ignorant manners .I am grateful for your better grasp of language than I have previously been able to muster

phil

One thing is a given that when 60 visits have been made to one home to see one baby,something is seriously wrong and anyone with an ounce of common sense should stand up regardless of any so called rules and scream the house down .That is part of what is so wrong now within our society -"its not my concern,pass it on "-THAT STARTED AT MINISTER LEVEL -The abominable people who eventually killed this baby were merely the bullets ,someone else fired the gun and it certainly was not the poor social worker who was dismissed .The fact that the head of the department in Haringey cannot see that someone needed to intervene is beyond my comprehension regardless of the fact "that everyone kept to the rules "

Geoff M

The guilty party?

You said it Melanie.

The "amoral and criminally self-regarding so-called ‘progressive’ intelligentsia".

Socialists one and all. Enemies of the People, humanity and nature....

These creatures have undermined and broken our society.

But to what end? Will someone please enlighten me?

Is it better? Of course not.

Will it get better?

How?

It is too late Melanie.

Only when everthing is broken will we begin "their" upward journey to a monolithic, regimented and totally soulless society of frightened worker drones - "having and getting" in a futile attempt to satisfy their empty lives.

That is, of course, if the Caliphate or the Fourth Reich doesn't get there first.

Frankly, I think either of them would be preferable.

Mark

I'm not sure if it's accurate to attribute social work failures totally to post-1960s relativism. To do so seems to imply that social workers never messed up prior to the cultural changes of that era, and that other factors such as incompetence and denial do not -- and never have -- played a role. But I do agree with you 100% that moral relativism and political correctness are having an enormously destructive impact world-wide.

Worried, Windsor

Verity, old thing, you have stumbled into the proverbial religious minefield. Perhaps the much missed Miles Kington can guide you out - www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/miles-kington/miles-kington-remembered-the-lord-thy-god-is-a-little-liable-to-fly-off-the-handle-876682.html

Jim

phil, I do not accuse Verity of anti-Jewish sentiments -- not at all -- just bad manners. It's a pity because she is quite clever (not brilliant but quite clever) and sometimes contributes an intelligent take on things. But that abusive, childlike footstomping and name-calling! That's not for here. masquerading as

tony

James Murphy, a public execution of a criminal has nothing to compare with the private torturing to death of a baby.

Yes, Dickens' era had some abhorrent things about it. But back then, the church and its values were used to try to help people out of the moral mire.

The curch's set of values commanded respect. Not any more. That's the point. They've gone. Gone forever.

In the words of Richard Littlejohn on Friday: "The game's up."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/columnist-322/Richard-Littlejohn.html

Peter Hitchens has an interesting column on it too:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1086127/PETER-HITCHENS-If-Baby-P-middle-class-hed-taken-away.html

Ken south Wales

Melanie Phillips Is correct in her analysis.

Archie

James Murphy: probably when that noted republican and anti-British American citizen R. Murdoch bought it!

An American

We have a portion of US society in a downward spiral of low aspirations, low educational achievements, high drug addiction, high abortion numbers, over 50% unwed mothers, rampant neglect of children...don't forget 'hip-hop' with all its hate, profanity and filth being peddled to youngsters.
Instead of running for President...why didn't Obama take this problem on? He is worshipped by the black community. Perhaps he could have helped make a difference. Obama is about Obama...the few things he's touched ...better housing in inner city Chicago...failed miserably. He has done one thing though...he's promised his fellow blacks a check for their votes. Reparation is in the works...do you think it will help?

phil

Jim I didn't think you were doing that at all ,sorry if that's how it came over -I meant that with all her faults and there are many, that was not one of them -she justs engages mouth/pen before brain and narcissistically elevates her beyond her station

Verity

An American - We are indeed walking through the miasma of a mass delusion. Black Americans adore Obama for no known reason. He is not black; he's café au lait. No matter how he positions himself, he is not an African American. (Very few children of former slaves grew up in a Muslim household in Indonesia.) He shares not their terrible history, nor their resilience of spirit, nor the mind-boggling creativity that poured out of them - their music being the outstanding example. And the strength of will and character that formed the Underground Railroad and planned and planned and planned for decades - passing on the torch - to set themselves free. It's an astonishing and bitterly touching story, and Obama is not part of it.

(Just as a point of interest, the people behind the promotion of the gay lifestyle and gay marriage - or gay liberation as they styled it - studied the black experience and copied it step by step.)

Verity

As is their wont, the techies who put comments up have carefully taken a comment I wrote around eight hours earlier and, instead of slotting it in at the end of the thread, have carefully scrolled back for eight hours and slotted it in there in its time sequence.

On the assumption that anyone following this thread isn't going to scroll through 600 posts to see if anything new has been inserted higher up, I'm reposting it.

Not because I think my comments are too important to be buried, but because of the link I linked, which is a whistle-blower about Common Purpose. It's long, and it is quite chilling.

Here it is again:

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1165968ctQM9ckt

Verity

As is their wont, the techies who put comments up have carefully taken a comment I wrote around eight hours earlier and, instead of slotting it in at the end of the thread, have carefully scrolled back for eight hours and slotted it in there in its time sequence.

On the assumption that anyone following this thread isn't going to scroll through 600 posts to see if anything new has been inserted higher up, I'm reposting it.

Not because I think my comments are too important to be buried, but because of the link I linked, which is a whistle-blower about Common Purpose. It's long, and it is quite chilling.

Here it is again:

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1165968ctQM9ckt

An American

Verity,
Isn't it amazing that the same bloggers over and over again attack Melanie's articles and her defenders?...This is just a microcosim of what continues to happen...this creepign liberalism, socialism, communism...call it what you may...has taken root and the intended decay of our societies is now progressing nicely. I don't always agree with everything you have to say in your comments but I do defend you right to say them.
Unlike Scott and Phil who are trying to shut you up.
We're now down to being unable to express our beliefs without these thought-thugs shouting us down...
There's lots more conservatives reading Melanie's webpage than far-lefties. It's unbelievable to me that they can't see that this very liberal thinking is bringing about an end of our great societies...or maybe they do know.

James Murphy

Tony - 'James Murphy, a public execution of a criminal has nothing to compare with the private torturing to death of a baby...' Indeed it has not, Tony, but you miss my point, which is that the capacity for human evil exists at all times and under all circumstances, regardless of contemporary social pressures. In citing the Dickens case I intended to emphasise the point that within that ghastly baying 19th century mob of sub-humans there existed exactly the kind and degree of cruelty that, in our age, has now perpetrated this particular atrocity.

- Archie - Ah yes, I'd forgotten the dead hand of Murdoch where the cadaverous integrity of The Times is concerned. Thank you.

David R. Usher

Hi Melanie,

Re: "the women in whose name modern feminists were promoting female independence from men" -- Same Sex marriage is the ultimate feminist exercise in absolute liberation and intentional socioeconomic segregation from men.

see: mensnewsdaily[dot]com/2008/11/14/from-california-with-h8

If you think things are bad now, wait to see what happens when men can no longer be a part of society at all.

Paul

"And the most bitter reproach of all must be for the people at whose door the ultimate responsibility for this catastrophic state of affairs must really be laid ... the amoral and criminally self-regarding so-called ‘progressive’ intelligentsia, who have bullied, smeared, intimidated and manipulated Britain into a truly dark age of barbarism."

...The truth. Naked, unashamed and most unwelcome...

Peter

This is what you're good at Melanie.

Peter North

In the wake of the Baby P scandal we will no doubt see calls for more funding and more supervision. We will hear of "lessons learned" and "procedures followed", scapegoats will be pensioned off and I will remain unsurprised when it happens again a few million pounds later. It all comes down to the basic fact of life that the bigger and more centralised an institution or organisation becomes, the less competant it is.

Social Services, or whatever it is now called, is a prime example of this. Like the forces, you could never say it was under resourced. There is just no accountability for how money is spent. Counicllors cannot intervene or prevent money being spent on mandatory government requirements. Its a breach of law if they dont spend the money how they are told to.

There are three telephone books worth of statistics required from local authorities which must be sent to whitehall. Hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent meeting these requirements before the deadline. Namely £50k to Capita just for the software this year in one West Yorkshire SS department (where I worked over summer). That takes half a dozen consultants paid twice the rate of the average office worker and it needs a full time department of 30 people just to phone up schools to synchronise data. And this isn't counting the actual cost of hiring and cost of IT infrastructure for a system that does nothing but pile more responsibility on social workers.

What is worse is its hopelessly disorganised. I have watched ex social workers printing out databases to send to social workers so they can MANUALLY check them for accuracy. By the time this is done, it's out of synch again.

I'm quite sure half the statistics end up being late and are barely accurate and that's because the people compiling them are overpaid data entry clerks or ex social workers who, while jolly nice and very experienced, have no clue how computers work. Thats how they get blindsided by software providers into shelling out hundreds of thousands of pounds. This being barely two years after their own in house development was finished. It became obsolete in the wake of the last scandal which resulted in more shifting of goalposts. Yes, you herad that right! West Workshire local authorities actually have in house software developers.

There is penty of money in the system but the management structure is woefully inadequate, there is mammoth waste and the wage structure means that the most experienced social workers are in back offices doing admin jobs. Much like the police.

This is classic big government at work and the sad part about it is the result of this Baby P thing, is that more money will be thrown at them and government will demand more statistics and more supervision and Capita will sell more databases. Thats why this will happen again and again and again.

This is why central government must relinquish all control, abolish all central funding and make social services accountable to councils again. If a council votes not to participate in central government schemes it should not be required to. Subsidiarity is the answer here. The more we allow government to do, the less we do for ourselves and the worse the service becomes.

The sooner we base all our decision making and spending on the assumption that everything the government does is rubbish, the better off we shall all be.

Frank P

Verity

Your 'common purpose' link requires taking Veoh Web Player Beta aboard.

When I tried to download it, my Norton barricade had a hissy fit; but also it demands a lot of personal info that I normally refuse to give to ISP's that are not my current one, after having been blitzed with unwelcome spam in the past. Is it the only medium for this video? Are there any other written links that discuss this covert association of influence?

Israel

An American:

I see that you and the poisonous one have managed to take a commentary about the social erosion and breakdown of the family in the UK over the last twenty years and the uselessness of the social services in Harringay to do even an adequate attempt at their jobs, let alone have the honour and dignity to fall on their swords for failing to save a poor innocent life from torture and death into yet ANOTHER reason to bash Barack Obama!!

Well done (sarcastic handclapping). It's not like you two are sad silly obsessives or anything but i'm sure that somehow you will find a way to make this his fault as well. Go to it.

phil

american your intelligence decreases in inverse proportion to the amount of posts you submit .are you unable to see that what Scott ,Jim ,Ronnie and many others including me here only ask that posters write in a polite and coherent manner -do you really think that makes one a "commie"? Is it necessary for us to write ignorant self aggrandisement to obtain your approval ? And as this thread is about "the age of barbarism " do you not see how utterly stupid are your remarks -I will answer that for you -probably not. But maybe rude remarks like those I have just made turn you on ,so I suppose you will now accept me as a fellow redneck - I await your approval .

Scott

'An American' writes:
"Verity, Isn't it amazing that the same bloggers over and over again attack Melanie's articles and her defenders?...This is just a microcosim of what continues to happen...this creepign liberalism, socialism, communism."

In Verity-speak: Do pay attention to spelling and syntax 'american'. You are a perfect example of an illiterate 'toady'! (See my original post for clarification). Doubtless the resident dominatrix will reward with a kind word.

Please confine yourself to verifiable accusations, neither I nor 'phil' have EVER "attacked" Melanie Phillips whom I happen to admire.

Unfortunately for you, neither "Yo'" nor the wannabe, though united in distasteful and discourteous presumption, are ANYTHING, even approximating to Melanie Phillips - intellectually or otherwise.

Do take a class in basic comprehension; "liberalism, socialism, communism" are three different and distinct ideologies.

Point of information: phil has already declared his political position, I too am a British conservative.

PS:I'm starting to feel very comfortable with vitriol. It's fun. Keep them coming.

Ron Kilmartin

It is part of the Cultural Marxist attack on Western Civilization, as championed at the Frankfurt School of Social Research. They have invaded both British and American university systems with ideologies designed to destroy the Judo-Christian basis of family, indeed of civilization. Thy plan to destroy the very concept of morality.

Combining the Cultural Marxist attacks and the Islamic attack on Western Civilization it is clear that we are under the greatest danger and most intensive attack on the West since the Battle of Britain.

amfortas

".the amoral and criminally self-regarding so-called ‘progressive’ intelligentsia,.." being the Feminists predominantly, aided and abetted by the cultural marxists that have corrupted the thought of two generations of University graduates - the very people who have been systematically infiltrating and wrecking our Institutions.

But we mustn't make judgements. That's offensive.

david skinner

Surely this is not an isolated incident . Haringey, including the boroughs surrounding it, Islington and Hackney are at the very cutting edge of deconstructing society, even in the midst of this tragedy this abomination is taking place:

http://lgbthmuk.blogspot.com/2008/09/pre-launch-of-lgbt-history-month-2009.html

For things to have got to this stage, this must be happening to a greater or lesser extent right across Britain.

What the eye witness account of Nevres Kemal reveals is that we all live in a word of virtual reality. As long as you can demonstrate graphs and tick boxes you can make truth whatever you want.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Baby-P-Whistleblower-Nevres-Kemal-Warned-Of-Haringey-Council-Failings/Article/200811215151255?f=rss….

What this story also reveals is that the human inclination towards denial, self- deception and lies will make reform impossible. Things will get a lot worse, a lot worse, before we are forced to wake up one day and acknowledge that human nature is helpless to change itself.

Grumpy

Oh Boy - Mel is Back!!!
Living out here in the 'colonies', one can only watch in wonder, as the UK performs ritual suicide, in its quest to out-do all others in the free, liberal, human rights race into oblivion.
A great article - incisive as always.Social commentary at its best.
Keep it up!!

Ronnie

An American, has anyone ever prevented you, Verity or anyone else from contributing your posts to Melanie's blogs?

From what I've read Phil is a common sense moderate Britsh Conservative who very strongly supports Israel, you cannot possibly have a problem with him.

Verity often says perfectly sensible things (ssssshhhhh!), it's the way she says them that I have a problem with. However, I would defend her right to say them, to the very last.

I just wonder what colour of balloon you live in if you are so fragile about people expressing their disagreement with you?

EC

Verity,

Thanks for the prompt to start Googling about "Common Purpose." Very interesting. Never heard of it before - well it used to be secret.

I remember that the "Man From UNCLE" was subjected to regular attacks of THRUSH.

A self-serving "CP" sustained at public expense might be more difficult to shift!

The number of highly paid sinecures, with bullet proof pensions, in the public and quango sectors appears to have risen exponentially in the last ten years. 'Non-jobs' with incomprehensible jargon filled job descriptions. I ponder about the rare, almost superhuman individuals that could possibly meet such stringent requirements. I have come to the conclusion that they must be part of a club. A club where not matter how badly they cock the job up they can either resign or be ritually sacked in the certain knowledge that when the dust settles they will re-appointed elsewhere.

I used to call this club 'The establishment.' A not uncommon pecuniary purpose. But add to this a hidden socio political agenda and you will arrive at something quite different.

John Thomas

Melanie - What you say is what I'm convinced of: that the bad things in our former-civilisation come, and have come, from the top down; and it looks as though things are going to be just as bad, or worse (if that is possible) for the foreseeable future.

Paul M. Clements

Melanie Phillips is absolutely correct. Increasingly, we are being governed by elitists who are far removed from the problems they impose on others. They are like dogs, who enter on your property to relieve themselves, then just walk away, unconcernedly leaving their messes behind for you to step in.In their arrogance, they engage in social engineering, with no concept of the detrimental collateral effects. Then they attempt to cure those ill effects by creating more laws and throwing more money at the problem. All the while, they are going to illogical, illegal extremes, bordering on insanity, to cover up the messes they have made. It's a a downward spiral, leading us deeper and deeper into dystophia. We need to start with the family court system, demanding that BOTH parents be recognized as equals, to begin to clean up this mess.
Paul M. Clements
South Carolina, USA
pclem@juno.com

sarah fletcher

Is she suggesting that if these people were married, it wouldn't happen?

Since when did "modern feminists" affect the viewpoints of council estate women? Feminists (and shame on you for using the term in such a derogatory fashion) have only really affected the middle classes - the issue of "mass fatherlessness" is one for the (un)working classes. Feminists haven't caused this problem at all.

Don't fall into the trap of believing that everything would be ok if everyone just conformed and married - It's a reductive, nonsensical argument.

Conservative Cabbie

Sarah Fletcher

I don't think Melanie singles out Feminists as the sole cause of family breakdown, she just identifies them as part of the liberal intelligentsia coalition that she and I believe is responsible for the current sorry state of society in this country.

You make the point that feminism is only for the middle classes, I hope that's just you not articulating your arguement very well because otherwise it's an incredibly elitist position to take. Are you saying that working class women aren't capable of understanding the issues involved in female equality? The other fact that you seem to miss, is that ideas whilst formed amongst the intellectual elite percolate down through the social stratas as they achieve a consensus. Whilst it may be true that the working classes (or at least those that don't go to higher education) may not be engaging with the latest in feminist theory, they are certainly aware of womens more equal role in society and their entitlements whether legally, occupationally or socially.

Frank P

A further development from Our Great Leader, still glowing from his elevation to Master of the Financial and Fiscal Universe (MFFU), is to announce today that we no longer individually own our bodies – the have been, like the banks, nationalised. In future, should we not agree to their 'redistribution' (as per the creed of his friend the Obamessiah) after death, he will confiscate them and have them cut up into whatever pieces are required for NHS purposes (including fertiliser for the private garden of the Chairman of the local NHS Trust), whether we wish it or not.

This will enable the repair of the ailing bodies of NuLab voters from the sink estates, who have abused themselves half-to-death on drink and drugs, at our expense, so that they can continue to drag themselves to the polling booths to approve his global polices for tax credits and other hand-outs from those who are working themselves to death in order to make ends meet. A very neat and circular solution, some may think.

He moots that his next measure, should this dictate not bring forth enough body parts from the dead, will be to alter the laws on euthanasia, so that elderly and 'useless' people, as defined by his friend Lady Warlock, can be persuaded to voluntarily hand over their bodies, while still breathing. Organs thus removed are less prone to natural rejection after transplant, as most bloggers will appreciate, particularly those who have had ‘out of body’ experiences.

There will be an appeals procedure, of course, adjudicated by retired members of the Haringey Social Services Department, who will shortly be seeking another quango position after stepping down to deflect any blame from Our Great Leader for the Baby P debacle.

Our Great Leader has assured us that this plan has received the full approval of the President Elect of the US, whom he consulted over the weekend after the tumultuous applause he received from his co-members of the G20, aka the ‘G-Whizz Gordon-What-a-Great-Idea-and-If-it-Don’t-work-it’s-Down-to-You!’ Group.

Verity

Frank P - I am absolutely astounded. I loaded instantaneously on my computer. Yes, I did see other links and I'll post one of them. It is one of the most chilling videos you'll ever watch and it got a lot of publicity at the time on the internet from independent posters. Nothing in the MSM, oddly enough ... Nothing from Rupert Murdoch's paper, for example ... And I think Charles Moore was editing The Telegraph at the time and, of course, he had already been under orders not to run any of the Motoons ...

Let me have my breakfast and I'll look up other links for you and post them here.

EC, the difference is, we were all aware of the Establishment and it was one of the pillars of our society. Common Purpose stays under the radar and its members - just about everyone with even a part-time lever of power to operate, is warned to keep absolutely quiet about Common Purpose and to deny that they know anything about it.

Sarah Fletcher - You are correct in one sense, but it is the middle classes which rule, not council estate tenants. The middle class harridan "feminist" cause of getting their own back on men is imposed on the ethos of the council estate and the benefits office.

We must find a way to disenfranchise the public sector and the welfare sector. Together, they now outnumber us, and it was planned thus.

I doubt that anyone on "benefits" as a career will go out and get a job to guard his franchise. In fact, I've just given myself a first-cup-of-tea laugh at the thought!

The grotesque, venal, bloated public sector likewise.

An American

Ronnie,
I agree. I shouldn't worry about the large number of bloggers ganging up on Verity. She's seems to be a very bright and resilient soul. She does seem to get under many of these blogger's skins though. Apparently I do too.
Being an American...when I read some of these bloggers calling themselves 'conservatives'...I don't equate them to what I and most Americans believe is true conservatism. Educate me...how far left is Britian' conservatism to ours? Just curious.

Verity

Frank P - here is one to be going on with. http://www.stopcp.com/

I will try to find a copy of Brian Gerrish's talk (the one that blew the whistle) a bit later. But the above link gives a lot of information about this underground, very, very silent (yes, I know that "silent" is an absolute) and bizarre organisation. Gerrish says it is now embedding itself quietly in the US, and if that is the case, it is inconceivable that Barack Obama and William Ayers are not active members.

More later.

Geoff M

Rudyard Kipling predicted what many of us are feeling now:-

THE BEGINNINGS

It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.

They were not easily moved,
They were icy — willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Saxon began to hate.

Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Saxon began to hate.

It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.

It was not suddenly bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.

That time is now.

An American

Israel,
The UK is already well on the enlightened road to socialism...unfortunately, the destruction of our two great countries is nearer for you than for us. I brought up Obama because this is the first ever US president who is an avowed socialist with strong Marxist leanings...I believe his presidencey will push us further along to our undoing.
Please forgive me if I'm disturbed by what I see happening in our black community... this goes back to Melanie's article about child neglect and worse. If Obama truly wanted to do good...he could have taken this this very big problem on and tried to help. Unfortunately, he has other bigger, devious plans in the works.

Verity

Frank P - This isn't quite the one I tried to send before, it's later, but just as rivetting.

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/5706/Common_Purpose_NWO_Fifth_Column_Brian_Gerrish/

phil

Can I just say that I admit to knowing almost nothing about CP but because of the noise being made about them more than a month ago I found them on the web and telephoned them in london -they seemed quite normal and not the least secretive -try it and see what you find ,it wasnt hard -There is nothing like an old fool so maybe I was naive -but you can talk to them -just try it -we await all revelations .Phone: 020 7608 8118

Fax: 020 7336 6844

Email: London@commonpurpose.org.uk

Verity if you can see this out of the corner of your eye -,I did it for you !

Ronnie

An American, from where I sit its the other way round. How far to the right are you in relation to UK Conservatives.

Remember, UK Conservatives are working to try to conserve what your Founding Fathers rejected and escaped from. You guys are working to conserve what your Founding Fathers created.

There's quite a big gap and to understand it you have to go back, you can't just look at each other now and start condeming.

The UK Conservatives are more to the centre here because that's where the votes are. Courageous, principled electoral defeat went out of fashion in the UK some time ago.

You're right about Verity, she can look after herself. And if you quit yelling at everyone, you'll get on fine here. I personally may not agree with some of what you say but its a learning experience for us all, because this is a British publication.

An American

Scott.
What an ugly hissie fit you're throwing...calling me an illiterate toadie, etc. I wish I could help you with your 'problem' but I wouldn't know where to start...

Conservative Cabbie

An American

I don't know if you are aware, but our right of centre party is called the Conservative Party so when someone calls themselves a Conservative, it often means they support the party, not necessarily that they are conservative with a small 'c'.

To be fair to people who don't share yours or my views, the historical circumstances in the U.K. and europe are very different to the U.S.

Ours is a continent built upon rigid class distinctions which means that the right is often focused on paternalistic Toryism whilst the 'lower' classes gravitate towards class based left wing ideologies. We also don't have an inbuilt inclination towards individualism something Americans needed historically as they moved westwards and which I believe has become part of the American psyche. That's my brief and somewhat simple take on why there is a general difference between the right in our two countries.

Just a word too on socialism. Americans tend to call anything left wing 'socialist'. Believe me, Americans have yet to experience socialism and are unlikely to, even under Obama. To experience socialism is to experience government owning most of the major industries, to experience compulsory universal government controlled health care, to experience all-powerful trade unions, to experience punitively high taxes on the successful (would you believe 98% income tax on the highest earners) and seemingly unconditional and uncontrolled welfare for the unsuccessful. I could go on but I'm starting to traumatise myself. Just be thankful you've never had to experience such a destructive political force, it's ruined this country.

phil

Verity in spite of you not reading me -I read everyone ,not always fully as I am easily bored -but I was intrigued with this stuff by Brian Gerish so I BROWSED HIM AND WHAT DID I FIND ,HE IS ON THE BNP SITE ,HERE IT IS

bnp.org.uk/2008/06/brian-gerrish-speaks-on-common-purpose--

its only 10 minutes and he is clearly off the wall - hope you will watch it its not 96 minutes like the first one you found.He even claims GORDON BROWN was installed by the Scottish communist party -how many votes do you think they have :)-Im sure you will be thorough so let us all know what you find with all the clues I have given you -I,m going to play golf before that lot get elected ,.lunch on me and I WILL PERSUADE THE CABBIE TO TAKE US

Verity

Phil writes: "There is nothing like an old fool so maybe I was naive ...". NSS.

Do you honestly think we don't know they're listed in the phone book and have their own website for propaganda? This was supposed to be a revelation? Do you believe they do not have a vast edifice behind which to hide? Do you really think that listing their phone number somehow refutes the grave charges against them?

Do you know what these people are engaged in under the radar?

Of course they have a website and a phone number. Do you have any idea who is involved in this outfit and what their numbers are, and what their methods are and what their intentions are? You think they must be OK because they've got a phone number?

Hitler had a phone number. And if it had been possible at the time, Hitler would have had a website.

BTW, this Brian Gerrish said, in this presentation, what I have been saying for the last five years, which is that the government imported large numbers of people from an alien society for one purpose, and it wasn't a rush of human kindness: destabilisation of the indigenous population. I have said it time and again, the Muslims were brought in as a weapon. It is a comfort that the more thoughtful Muslim leaders are aware of this, too. All the honest Muslim leaders, incidentally, will disavow the Muslim Council, which they know is an arm of the British government to serve its own purpose, not the "advance" of Islam.

Sorry to bite your head off, Phil, but such complacency is unnerving. If someone is brought up on a criminal charge, do you say, "Well, he has a phone number, and he's listed, and he has a website ..."?

This is why I don't engage with you and normally scroll past your posts. Empty rubbish presented as a point.

phil

An American I have a free afternoon so I will take the trouble to give you an answer ahead of Scott-posters here from time to time write rudely to one another but it is usually when the recipient has started the rudeness first ,and if I might remind you it came from you, both to me and him , way back as you say in the USA -I have also seen you have written common sense in the past and if you continue with that you will not receive rude remarks from me -I will leave Scott to decide for himself

Verity

Phil - Listen carefully, for I weel say zis only wance: The BNP put him on their site because they approve of some of the revelations he makes about the government (any government, by the way; the evidence points to the Tories being in on Common Purpose as well - certainly David Cameron is). He cannot help it if they put some of his words on their website. We can't edit other people's websites.

You should watch the whole video instead of grabbing a snippet and making a judgement based on it.

Mr Gerrish, by the way, is on friendly terms with the people who run some of the mosques, and he notes that their concerns are the same as ours, and that they are aware that being used as a weapon to further the disintegration of our civil society. Mr Gerrish recommends that we all stick together. He also notes that the Muslim establishment in Britain do not like the Muslim Council - which they note is not supported by Muslims, but by the British government - and don't have anything to do with it.

You have witnessed the disintegration of Britain. Do you think it happened spontaneously?

Scott

Well said phil - Manners maketh the man - AND the woman.

Funny how offenders always scream 'foul' when responded to in kind!

I will have no further interest in confronting to either the wannabe or the American if they can operate with the minimum of basic courtesy.

Frank P

Verity

Thanks very much for the links.

All this insidious 'networking': the Gramscian mesh will soon be so fine that there will be nowhere left for free minnows like us to swim in the oceans of freedom that once existed, without getting ensnared in one or other of their hauls and trawls. Well ...as long as they keep us on ice, so that our body parts can be farmed out to the needy, we should be grateful, I suppose.

An American.

Perhaps a little word of encouragement is necessary; as one of many I'm sure, who find your posts from 'over there' very informative, I thank you for persevering.

Melanie has always attracted a following of what can only be described as what my brother who served in the Royal Navy in WW2 called 'shite hawks' (apparently such birds fed off the scraps that were left by the convoys he was helping to guard in his frigate).

Melanie's columns in the Daily Mail and occasional guest appearances in other publications are revered by the traditionalists and 'small c' conservatives and of this country. However she is reviled by the arty-farty pseudo intellectual left, because once she wrote for the Guardian on social affairs and was therefore considered to be - de rigeur - a socialist by them. However her writings did not follow the message always and eventually she jumped ship and after a spell at the Sunday Times made a career move to the Daily Mail. She is therefore an apostate and a literary fatwah has been issued.

The DM is much maligned by the left of the MSM but reaches a wide audience. It has some of the remaining few good investigative journalists and though it is an eclectic tabloid chasing circulation it does a lot of good work. The editor seems to have curtailed somewhat Melanie's Middle East articles in the past, but she has for several years nonetheless provided excellent analysis of that issue through her blog, which she independently operated prior to getting invited to this platform.

So perhaps you can understand why she gets not only a fervent following of supporters, but also a small band of trolls who unsuccessfully try to negate her excellent posts and also attempt to malign Melanie's admirers. Most of Melanies supporters refrain from given the shite hawks oxygen by getting into daft debates with them, but you may enjoy the craic for a while, it’s easy to get them very excited almost to the point of apoplexy. But that wonderful tool invented by Mr Bill Gates – the scroll wheel on the mouse – soon fixes any real nuisance they may cause, if you get bored with the leftist crap.

Regardless of the juvenile outbursts, from the anti-American, anti-Boosh trolls, I hope you continue to keep us up to date about is happening over the Herring Pond. It matters a lot, to most of us here, anyway.

phil

Well Verity I didn't expect a bunch of flowers so it has not come as a shock -you have ignored my question re the BNP which does surprise me ,I don't think you are a supporter are you ?

Perhaps you can enlighten me and tell me what you have discovered about them other than these strange videos from the BNP-it is them of course who consider all Muslims alien and previously all Jews ,who are now popular in order to put down the Muslims -it gives me no comfort you will understand .How odd that you would think Sen OBAMA WOULD BE ALLIED TO WHAT MUST BE SOME RIGHT WING SECRET SOCIETY OR ARE THEY LEFT WING or maybe just a large group of people who are trying to do some good in this world -Your hero Gerish seems to think the whole of Plymouth council are in cahoots doing nefarious deeds ,he includes the police and paedophiles and you name it -he is pretty obviously barking mad .oh and btw ,I dont think you have done your homework.

As regards hitler ,yes he probably had a phone but I don't think he would have taken a call from me ,and CP certainly did as I TOOK THE TROUBLE TO FIND OUT WHAT THEIR PURPOSE ACTUALLY IS ,WHICH YOU HAVE NOT .(shouting -no -emphasising) I think it serves your purpose to be outrageous rather than analytical along with your supporter who hangs by every word you say

.Rudeness and outlandish accusations just prove what store we should make of your "knowledge" and that includes your lack of an answer to my question about Bill Ayers , who you said had murdered 13 people and refuse to let us have proof -I think you owe it to us to tell us as nobody else seems to have any knowledge of this .You might also tell me why you have to be so dismissive and obnoxious when it is just as easy to be pleasant -I have no idea what you have done in your life but I do know what I have achieved and were it not for that, I would assume I am the fool you like to tell me I am -happily I know otherwise .(you know got the tee shirt)

.DO REPLY EVEN IF YOU HAVNT READ WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN

An American

Ronnie and Conservative Cabbie,
Thank you for your informative replys. Now I have a better understanding of what 'conservative' means in the UK.

Conservative Cabbie,
It goes without saying that the UK is further into this destructive socialist decline the we are. But things are moving so quickly with the election of Obama, a Democratic/socialist House and Senate, who will, most likely, do a lot of damage in a very short time....and don't forget about our very liberal Press.

I knew that things in bad shape there, but didn't know how bad. How many years/decades did it take for socialism to take hold?

Too bad we can't have people like you come into our schools and public forums to explain what socialism can do to a people and their country.

I find it endearing that Melanie and many of her bloggers have an affection and concern for America's future. Your political knowledge of what's happening in the US is better than many Americans. Most Americans are completely unaware...our liberal- leaning schools have done a good job of dumbing down our nation.
I've told my friends to check out Melanie's articles and her bloggers...maybe they'll learn something as I have.

Simon Baumberg

hear hear

Verity

Phil - This is infuriating because I responded at once to your predictable comment about Common Purpose being on the BNP site. It has gone the way of so many comments under this technically inept blog. Who knows, it may surface at midnight tonight, and they will carefully slot it in at the time it was posted, so no one who isn't an obsessive about scrolling back through a few hours will see it.

I don't remember my exact words, but in effect, I noted that it is not Gerrish's fault who picks up on some of his words or points and puts them up on a site. He referred to this in the video I posted.

The fact is, Mr Gerrish's slashing open Common Purpose is finding resonance among many, among them conservative Muslims who are at pains to say the Muslim Council is none of their doing. It's the government funding it, not the Muslims, and it has its purpose in Common Purpose. Non-Cameroonian Conservatives are also taking heed. The purpose of Common Purposes is to subsume Great Britain in Europe.

I'm not sure what its under-the-radar presence in the United States bodes, but something along the lines of One Worlderism, that's for sure. And I would bet real money that William Ayers and Obama are involved.

I'm not a spokesman for Gerrish. He can speak very well for himself. Go to the link I sent and watch the presentation. If it is too long for your attention span, split it up into a few minutes a day with your Ovaltine.

sandy

Wiiliam B Hammond

"When this happens the feminists who have contributed to the downfall of western civilisation will realise they have shot themselves in the foot.They certainly won't get what they want from Islam."

I am sure it will be considered sexist to say it,but have you ever considered the possibility that at some deeper level they may get exactly what they want from Islam?

phil

Verity you continue in the same way as all failures you blame others .you have replied with nonsense again and failed to answer for your accusations about Bill.AYERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! let alone go and research what CP is all about -you are just a grandstander and not a good one at that IT IS TYPICAL OF ALL YOUR WRITING .you name ,shame, blame anyone who cannot answer back and fail to back it up with evidence ,I SO WISH I could get you on the stand and cross examine you -5 minutes would do to demolish you .Your elderly friend has a choice of words that I cannot use to describe what I think of you full of- P AND W ,The posters will judge you for what you are ,most of these people are educated ,intelligent ,and perceptive ,As for your silly friend referring to us a lefties it just shows what an old fool can be

Sanctimonius Maximus

Phil,

You're becoming more incoherent with each successive post. Calm down or you'll do yourself a mischief!

If the BNP put up a link to a "Dr Phil" video on Youtube would that make him BNP by association too?

Anybody heard from Ann recently? Some of us remember that you had a spell of stalking that poster too. Now it appears that you're on the verge of adopting that style of which you so readily disapprove.
Disappointing.

pax vobiscum

An American

Frank P,
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I do feel intimidated by all of these very bright bloggers, but I've become addicted.
You Brits really know how to express yourself. Most US bloggers lack the skill of writing articulate, entertaining, thoughtful, well- informed blogs like yourself.

I'm glad I found Melanie's blog. I'm throughly enjoying it... and it helps me vent about the up-coming Obamanation.
The worshipping is in full swing over here in the newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio...So I'm turning to this blog to keep me sane.

Josh Wittner

It seems a sad thing to me that you believe the ultimate responsibility does not lie at the feet of those that took the direct harmful action against the child, as though they don't deserve at least equal blame. It makes it apparent that although you have many valid points, your judgment is also quite clouded by your obvious disdain for the "'progressive' intelligentsia".

hadrian

Well, Melanie, once again we hear almost the lone voice of sanity in a world turned mad. The basic problem is spiritual- Sixties Permissiveness combined with value-less atheism and absolutist 'science'. We have still not reached the lowest we can sink, however, that's still a long way off but it WILL envelop us if we insist on our current course.

Conservative Cabbie

An American

There is nothing I would like more than to come to America, I'm angling for political asylum, getting away from the oppression that is the leftwing - Gordon Brown our PM now wants to nationalise our bodies, forcing us to donate our organs on our death.

I think there is a difference between socialism and the liberalism that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi subscribe too. Socialists are very much for class warfare, they make no apologies that they support the interests of a particular class ahead of any one else. Liberals however make no such claim. They believe somewhat arrogantly that their values are absolutely right, that they benefit everyone and that any dissent should be treated with contempt. I have to say that I find liberalism much more insidious than socialism. I hope you won't have too undergo what we in the UK have been through the last few years, a massive increase in stealth taxation, a significant loss of freedom and free speech and government goons waiting to criminalise normally responsible hard working members of the community. Basically liberalism = facism. Oh dear, now I'm scared for you. Good luck!

Conservative Cabbie

An American

I have a passion for America, from Baseball and Football to it's history and it's politics. In the space of just over two hundred years, you have gone from an Imperial enclave to the most powerful and important nation on earth - quite an achievement and a credit to it's people and system of government. One day I hope to travel throughout the U.S. although that is still some way off yet.

Whilst you will no doubt go through some liberal pain over the next four or eight years, I don't think you need to worry about a socialist revolution, term limits do have their advantages.

Here's how you know if Obama will be a socialist:

1. If he favours taxing the rich to give bailouts to the poor.
2. If he attempts to manipulate the media to his own advantage.
3. If he favours socialised healthcare.
4. If he wants to suppress freedom of speech.
5. If he is servant to the trade unions and other left wing groups.
6. If he favours dramatically reducing the military and talking to other socialist/communist leaders around the world.

Oh crap!!!!

Jeanie

Well said. My husband is an outspoken defender of the rights of the family and speaks passionately about the destruction of the family caused by the Liberal Elite, who never have to live in the world that they have created for others. The result is that one of my brothers-in-law refuses to have anything to do with him and this has caused a fracture in our family. Some people will be blindly led into the abyss, others choose to stand up and voice an opinion that may not sit comfortably with the thinking of the day. But we have to stand up and be heard. We cannot be bullied into submission, although I admit it is very hard and it would be a lot easier to agree with everyone and to shut ourselves away in our little bubble where we cannot be touched. But society is interdependent and we have to realise that we cannot stand alone. Empathy has been lost; contributing to a world famine relief charity does not replace the daily caring of your neighbour, friend, relative. We should not be looking to vacuous celebrities to gain inspiration on how to be a good parent, but unfortunately most of the young people who do that have no other role models. Why is there no one singing the praises of the family?
This Government need look no further than Ian Duncan-Smith’s excellent report of the breakdown of family and Society, but unfortunately, politics will intervene and this report will never be more than a reference tool for journalists to quote when writing another article about ‘How can we let this happen’.

hadrian

Verity, I am as ever in substantial agreement with most of you sentiments. However on one issue I fundamentally differ- your seeming suggestion that Roman Catholicism is largely benign. To the contrary I suggest it is a perverted form of true Christianity which it formally curses with the highest solemnity and all its authority in its Tridentine pronouncements that define it.( And as a self confessedly irreformable body, it cannot disown those curses of the Council of Trent)
In cursing justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ and His righteousness alone it actually aligns itself with the current prevalent threat of Islam. Both religions are rooted in earning personal righteousness through works of one type or another; both therefore have a tendency to self righteous fanaticism in order to gain brownie points with their deity. Secular statist ideologies share he same mad drive. I highly recommend John Robbins' Ecclesiastical Megalomania from the Trinity Foundation to get a good grip of Rome's social impact; its thoroughly unBiblical nature is exposed in many publications, both historical and theological, though highly entertaining is Peter De Rosa's Vicars of Christ; and ex-priest, Richard Bennet's Catholicism East of Eden is instructive; and Robert Reymond is a formidable theological critic of the papal religion in general.

Mike Murphy

Your rihjt on the money Melanie. We have a society in English speaking countries and others that bows to the matriarchy and feminism to the neglect of our children

Jolly Stanesby is in prison for caring too much for his child. We need to work for real equality in parenting to keep both mom and dad in a child's life.

Dominic L-R

Regarding the tragic case of Baby P, perhaps contributors would care to like to contemplate a few statistics: The number of children killed in Britain has actually fallen over the past 30 years - it is down 50% in England and Wales since the 1970s. The World Health Organisation statistics show that Britain was fourth worst among western nations in the 1970s. Now it is among the best: only four countries have fewer child murders per million. Contrast that with America, where child murders have risen by 17% since the 1970s.
Of course, if even one child is killed, that is one too many, but in the face of Melanie's relentless gloom, these figures must surely give us some pause for thought?

phil

Sanctimonius Maximus_may I suggest you look after yourself as these ladies are well capable of doing that ,and in particular the one who seems to be your role model -if insults and fiery rhetoric is your model -enjoy -I DO NOT

Frank P

Dominic L-R

Ahhh, Yes! of course. Statistics! That's alright then.

Let's move on, until the next 'statistic'. Then we can apply, statistically, the same excuse that has been statistically trotted out in one hundred per cent of the never ending chronicle of failures of this government and all who sail in her:

"Lessons will be learned!"

And that, statistically has been, in one hundred per cent of each of the egregious examples of incompetence, neglect and cruel complacency, a wilful and despicable lie, not to mention an insult to the general public in its implicit assumption that we all forget very quickly. We don't; and I for one will remember it as I enter the polling booth at the next election. Perhaps there will be enough of like mind to form a majority against this administration of bloated bureaucracy and oust it.

Verity

Frank P - Yes, of course this malign adminstration needs to be consigned to the tip, but what to put in its place?

It's not easy. David Cameron is firmly in the EU's pocket. As in, completely embedded and completely committed to washing our tiny remaining liberty down the tubes in return for a seat for life at the top table in Brussels.

Dominic L-R

Frank P:

It's curious how even the mention of one statistic sends you into a frenzy of bitter sarcasm. I notice you do not deny the statistic.
I find it worrying how so many people, like you, are willing to quote statistics when they serve their argument, but when they are 'inconvenient', they launch into a general tirade as if we cannot trust statistics at all. Were I to quote a raft of statistics showing how educational standards have declined (and I could), then Frank P would be only too willing to listen.
On this matter, I am not even denying the basic truth of what Melanie has said. Only that maybe, just maybe, not everything is as dire as she makes out. We cannot always rely on that loathed creature 'the statistic', but sometimes it can dent our cherished theories and assumptions.

Frank P

Verity

You may indeed be right, I'm not sure what the intentions of any political group with a dewdrop's chance in Hades of gaining a majority could, would, or will do in the face of current implosion of the markets, nor have they. But one thing is certain: the current lot must go. Another 4-5 years with the Weirdo of Westminster in charge and there will be a gigantic faecal impaction at Barking Creek with back up reaching the outer perimeter of Greater Londonistan. The Thames is already turgid with it.

David Alcock

Thanks Melanie. I share your anger and no doubt pain. But what's to do?

I watched the apalling 'Stupid White Men' rise up the best sellers and just wished someone could get a book to sell to that extent,that would reach the general public and talk ot these concerns.

I have read 'Londonistan' and 'All must have prizes' but I fear that however apt and well researched and well written, they were largely only read by the converted. While the print and broadcast media are so hideously PC. It needs a communication to by pass these and get into the hands of ordinary people.

Sue

But isnt capitalism itself, of which you are an enthusiastic supporter, the engine of this cultural breakdown.

Capitalism being an anti-"culture" based on the war of all against all and everything.

Social Darwinism, the survival of the fittest, and winner take all dramatised all over the planet. Which by its very nature reduces all tradition based forms of culture to rubble. Everything is reduced to another consumer product or an advertising jingle.

Íve got mine-stuff you.

Turn on your TV set. What you see there is the entire substance of modern "culture"--there is nothing else.

And talking about barbarians. How else could you describe the current Bush adminsitration in the USA, and the neo-psychopaths that produced its culture wrecking agendas.
The Wrecking Crew.

Conservative Cabbie

Sue

Is that the same Bush administration that has given more to Africa than any previous American administration, that has done more to combat malaria than any country on earth, that has enabled two new democracies in this world.

I'm always amused by opponents of capitalism, capitalism is a redundant economic program without the willing participation of the consumer. Macdonalds wouldn't succeed in Mogadishu, Coca-Cola wouldnt sell in Dar-Es-Salaam if the people didn't want it. If they want it, where's the problem?

phil

Sue its all very well dishing out lessons here on behaviour ,but isnt it normal to respond to someone who writes to you in a pleasant manner,even tells you a couple of jokes and sends you good wishes ?

Verity

Sue - Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, neocons, Rumsfeld, Halliburton, "illegal" war, Cheyney ...

OK, now that's out of the way, you write, with towering stupidity, if I may say so: Capitalism being an anti-"culture" based on the war of all against all and everything.

Do you have the faintest notion how daft you sound?

phil

SUE having read the fragrant ones response to you just below my last ,I am more offended than ever that you choose to reply to her and not to me .who has been perfectly charming to you :):)

Robert

Even if matters have gotten so bad that it's too late for society as a whole, the individual does not have to go down with the ship. You can perform your own personal secession and voluntarily associate only with those who will not drag you down, and build up your own community. The people traditionally have had little use for the intelligentsia or so-called "intellectuals". They are only really useful to the state or those who want to try to force their own way on a society as those who seek to shape public opinion. Unless and until the intelligentsia actually comes up with some GOOD ideas that actually WORK in practice, they need to be shunned.

Verity

Robert - You are clearly posting from the US. In Britain, no one escapes surveillance.

Stuart Houghton

I received this in my inbox.

Dear All,

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who

has been with us for many years.

No one knows for sure how old he was, as his birth records were long ago

lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing

when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn’t

always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more

than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are

in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned, but

overbearing regulations, were set in place.

Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing

a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after

lunch and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened

his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the

job they clearly failed to do, in disciplining their unruly children.

He declined even further when schools were required to get parental

consent to administer Paracetamol, sun lotion or a sticking plaster to a

student, but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant

and wanted to have an abortion.

He began to lose the will to live, as churches became businesses; creationism

vied for equal footing with proper science; alternative treatments became

available on the NHS (while cancer drugs were banned) and criminals

received better treatment than their victims.

He also took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar

in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

He finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a

steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was

promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Barely recovering from that, he was bludgeoned to death by the news that

the world's financial markets had been demolished by irresponsible bankers

who made a fortune doing so. What's more, the governments bailed them out

by demanding money from those wise enough to have adopted sensible fiscal

policies.

This grand old man was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his

wife, Discretion, his daughter, Responsibility and his son, Reason.

He is survived by four stepbrothers; "I Know My Rights," "Someone Else's

Problem," "I’m A Victim" and "Work? I'm better off on the Dole," and his

stepsisters; "Gymslip Mother" and "I'll have a baby and they'll give me a

house."

Not many attended his funeral, because so few realised he was gone.

If you still remember him, pass this on.

If not, join the majority and do nothing...

Frank P

Stuart Houghton,

Stick around; this blog has been the Wailing Wall of mourning for common sense for most of this Millennium so far. Some visitors here, however, seem hell-bent on defiling it. But, with the cleansing power of Melanie's essays and the Bill Gates scroll wheel (a wonderfully liberating device), logic usually prevails. Gives a whole new meaning to the colloquial phrase 'get the gate'.

The other thing that you may enjoy is Melanie's recent innovation of including a wonderful artistic depiction to the topical header of her posts; moreover by clicking the right hand button of the mouse with the pointer over the picture - a nifty trick revealed to me by EC, a regular member of commentariat here - it is possible to glean information about the picture and thus fully enjoy the allegory of the theme in addition to the Melanie's analysis of the issue. But of course you may not be a Philistine like me and need such enlightenment, or indeed technical instruction on how to achieve it.

John D

Dear Melanie: Thanks for saying this. It's much needed, and we need you to keep saying it. But is it really too late? I hope not. Britain deserves better.

Maureen

Must reading and ever prescient, no matter how long has elapsed since its publication: "The Abolition of Britain" - Peter Hitchens. These themes are well covered in it. He names names and describes root causes in plain, non politically correct language.

Pat R., Boston, MA

Modern feminists have been brainwashed into thinking that competition with men is the epitome of social equality rather than one of inequality. Human animals are equal if all spend 100% of their time doing the same things - a situation women have never been privileged to do. Organizing society around the necessity of child care, and giving women the advantage of the time, money, and support necessary to do so has always been a fundamental premise of civilized society. To force society into a social darwinism model where women do double duty and men reap the benefits of that "system" is little more than the glorification of profits from the enslaved. It is neither capitalism rooted in free trade, nor is it the example of how christian ethics produces morality. In short, it accomplishes neither and it is deception to suggest that it does, and pretend the problem doesn't exist. It is, and has always been the oldest problem in the world - liberty for all, and equal opportunity to survive. Mankind still doesn't have a solution - after all these years.