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First the Sun declares that Labour is over. Then Boris is given a cameo role in last night’s episode of the BBC soap EastEnders, thus confirming the BBC’s love-in with the politically correct Cameroons trade-mark objectivity and sealing the Conservatives’ place in the alternative reality that is British politics. Students of British cultural and political life will keenly appreciate the creativity, modesty and statesmanlike profundity of the Mayor of London’s exchanges when he wanders into the Queen Vic pub after his bike has a puncture:

Peggy: ‘It’s such an honour to have you here, Mr Mayor!’

Boris: ‘Oh please call me Boris!’

Peggy: ...’I do so admire a man who devotes his entire life to serving society!’

Boris: ‘...If you have any ideas for how I can help Walford, here’s my card!’

Yes, a glorious new Tory age is truly dawning.

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King Abdullah's imaginative inter-faith initiative

historic and bold

the two-day international inter-faith conference which opened today in Geneva. The conference is the initiative of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who, says Bava Jain, deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for an initiative which potentially

would have tremendous impact on world peace and stability if effective measures were taken to implement it.

The report tells us:

Delegates from 35 countries are taking part in the conference, which opens Wednesday. They include William Baker, president of Christians and Muslims for Peace in the US; David Rosen, director of inter-religious affairs at the American Jewish Committee; Pramjeet Singh Sarna, president of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Sahib; Kuniaki Kuni, president of the Association

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Beef-eating surrender monkeys?

Matthias Kuentzel has written an important piece for the Wall Street Journal explaining just why the world's ‘dialogue’ with Iran over its nuclear programme -- which is continuing with talks between five UN Security Council members plus Germany --  is such a lethal farce. First the Europeans and now the Obama administration have said they want Iran to comply with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory. But as Kuentzel observes, Iran is bound by its own constitution to violate that treaty, since ever since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Iran has been constitutionally bound to abolish the very world order that the NNPT is designed to stabilise. He writes:

An Islamist state like Iran can by definition not be considered a bona fide signatory to the NPT. The mullahs, although opposed

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The British police: a cry from the heart

My article in the Mail yesterday about the failure of the Leicestershire police to stop the decade of criminal harassment of Fiona Pilkington and her family which led her to set fire to herself and her daughter has provoked a large mailbag – a significant part of it from anguished present and former police officers, aghast at what has happened to their calling. One such former officer has written the following to me, which I reproduce here with his permission and without further comment.

'The Leicester case is a disappointing result of a mis-managed police service – a service ruined by political interference and a preoccupation with ‘bean-counting’. Unfortunately, the emphasis seems to be on ‘ticking all the boxes’. This to me means covering one’s backside: apparently doing the minimum to cover a particular aspect or outcome with

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The 'human rights' witch-hunt

As readers may know, I have had my differences with the American civil liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz – specifically, over how American Jews can continue to support Barack Obama given his acute hostility towards Israel and appeasement of the Arab and Islamic world. Nonetheless, all credit to Dershowitz for mounting a devastating onslaught upon Richard Goldstone and his shocking travesty of justice masquerading as judicious analysis for the UN Human Rights Commission on Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. In this piece, Dershowitz accuses Goldstone of conducting a ‘kangaroo court’ in which he

abandoned all principles of objectivity and neutral human rights.

And in this terrific piece he excoriates Goldstone’s ‘wilful and deliberate’ refusal to hear the other side of the story – Israel’s side: the most elementary precondition of justice and fairness. As I wrote...

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Who does he think he's kidding?

On Wednesday, Barack Obama addressed the UN. If this was supposed to be a triumphant projection of the wonders of his foreign policy, his timing was singularly unfortunate. It was as if he had unveiled his shiny new bus after the wheels had come off and the engine had fallen out.

His speech set out the approach that we all know by now: soft power, apologising for America, hand of friendship extended to enemies of America, upholding human rights for enemy combatants, desire to channel foreign policy through the club of terror UN, ‘engaging with the world’ and ‘leading by example’ -- particularly by apologising for America. This approach was to be the antidote to the supposed gung-ho militarism of George W Bush. Swords would be beaten into ploughshares, genocidal lunatics would swap recipes and holiday snaps with their...

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