The Unsavoury Face of Islam
According to this report the government is concerned about the teaching in Saudi controlled schools in the UK. Here’s the first paragraph or so of the report.
The government says it will not tolerate anti-Semitic and homophobic lessons being taught to Muslim children in the UK.
BBC Panorama found that more than 40 Saudi Students’ Schools and Clubs are teaching the official Saudi national curriculum to about 5,000 pupils.
One text book shows how the hands and feet of thieves are chopped off.
We don’t want this sort of teaching in this country. Surely, it is illegal too!
I’m worried about this for other reasons too. Is it just me, or is there a rise in the murder of young Muslim men? There was two last week, one in Sunningdale and one in Milton Keynes.
This type of teaching could make race relations more difficult.
Would You Like to be Rescued by a Chihuahua?
This seems to be a story that someone made up about a chihuahua being trained to be a police dog. But on reading it on the BBC, it appears that because of its size it can squeeze through small holes to find people trapped by earthquakes.
The only time I’ve seen small working dogs before, was in an airport in the United States, where the Beagle Brigade were sniffing passengers for illegal food imports.
Today is St. Edmund’s Day
St. Edmund should still be the patron saint of England.
Today is his feast day and in the place of his death, Bury St. Edmunds, they had a mini-festival with a charity market and some other events.
The Bury MP, David Ruffley is quoted in the East Anglian Daily Times as saying. “No one will persuade me that we are not the most gloriously historic county town in England” He also said that the Magna Carta was not about Runnymede in Surrey in 1215, but about Bury, where it originated in 1214.
A Solution to Binge Drinking?
Nick Sheron is a doctor, who specialises in liver disease. So when he makes a proposal about how alcohol should be taxed, we should take notice.
Read what he says in the Daily Telegraph. As a control engineer by training, I like his solution which optimses the reduction of alcohol intake against the Government tax take.
Let’s hope the Government listens, as his proposal might cut problem drinking and help to save pubs with landlords who want to provide customers with good beer and cider and a relaxed atmosphere.
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Holy Smoke!
The new heating system in Norwich Catholic Cathedral is causing people to dial 999 because they see a fire, according to reports on the BBC.
The Kitsch is Here
BBC Breakfast has a piece from the Royal Crown Derby works showing some of the kitsch that is being produced for the wedding next year.
One piece actualy had an entwined W and C on it. She should have stuck to Kate, rather than Catherine.
The only thing to be said for it, is that it gives employment to people and creates a bit of money for the company.
An Edinburgher Makes Peace with Glasgow
Gavin Mackay successfully makes sausages in South Korea. He had a bit of a problem with the seasoning and eventually found one in Glasgow. This he admitted is very unusual for a man from Edinburgh, as ne’er the twain shall agree!
A Replacement for Warfarin?
On BBC Breakfast this morning, they were talking about a replacement for Warfarin, that would be just one pill a day.
For a lot of people, this will obviously be better and it is likely that the cost to the NHS will be less in terms of blood testing. But this new drug will not be cheap.
In a way, I think that the alternative of providing an up-to-date National Anticoagulant Service might be much better.
As an example, I’m moving to London in a few weeks, so I’ll have to get that sorted fairly quickly. But as I usually have to be tested every two weeks or so, I can envisage a few small problems, especially as I’ll be needed to be tested over Christmas.
A Royal Wedding! Is that what we need?
I only met Prince William’s mother, Princess Diana, once and that was in Buckingham Palace at a reception for Queen’s Award winners in 1991. I should have met Mrs. Thatcher that day, but one of her ministers had died so she had more important things to do than meeting me!
Some things stand out from that party. Obviously, the setting was magnificent and the service was up to the highest standards. But afterwards as you thought about it, nothing that was served was extravagant, and anybody could make a party run as smoothly, by just being good and watching the small details. The drink flowed well and a couple of souls, were a bit merry as they left.
But what really stood out was the treatment of Diana by the guests. To say she was hounded would not be out of hand. But then she was going to marry Prince Charles in the summer and everybody wanted to talk to her. We didn’t, but we had quite a very long conversation with the Duke of Kent.
Diana really wasn’t up to coping with this type of do and it was good to see that Katherine Middleton is a much stronger personality, who can probably hold her own in the sort of receptions and dinners, that she will be expected to attend.
Also too, she’s marrying one of her generation and peer group from University, so they’ve probably done a lot of the things that might be difficult in future. Diana didn’t have that luxury. But marrying someone you’d met at university certainly helped give us nearly forty years of reasonably happy marriage.
So here’s hoping for them!
But I won’t be watching or listening!
I did notice that they’re using Diana’s ring for an engagement ring. Let’s hope that this theme passes through the plans for the wedding. Make it a happy and fun affair, but do make it in keeping with today’s austerity.
That way it might help to lift the gloom and bring in lots of tourists, who’ll spent money. It wll be a good test for the Olympics in 2012.
Smoking Mothers Breed Criminals
I hate smoking with a vengeance and for good reason!
But when I read this study from Harvard that mothers who are heavy smokers, are more likely to have children with crimnal tendencies, it enfoces my view, that we need more restrictions on smoking and more help for people to give up.
I’d like to see the following come into law.
- It should be illegal to smoke in any vehicle.
- It should be illegal to smoke within 100 metres of a school at all times.
- It should be illegal to smoke within 10 metres of any child under 10 on the street.
- All tobacco should be sold in approved outlets, where all customers are videoed. Such video can be inspected by the licensing authorities.
- Children under 10 are not allowed into premises where tobacco is sold.
- No sales in garages and petrol stations.
- Tobacco can not be sold in the same building as food. Shops would be allowed to set up separate entrances to a part of the store where tobacco would be sold, but this would be videoed and child free. Waitrose in Newmarket used to sell alcohol this way.
- Councils would be allowed to create no smoking zones. I wonder what would happen if say town A made it’s town centre and shopping area smoke-free and town B didn’t!
I know it’s draconian, but get rid of the evil of tobacco and we’ll probably be surprised at all the results.
The Anonymous Widower 