An anti-Islamic protest organised by racist group Stop Islamisation Of Europe against the building of a new mosque in Harrow attracted just 15 supporters last Sunday.
Meanwhile, a counter-protest - made up of people from many different ethnic groups and backgrounds - achieved a turn out of over 200 people, many of them from Unite Against Fascism, who gathered to show their support for tolerance and religious freedom and their opposition to racism and racist groups
Seems there's hope for real British values after all.
23/12/2009
"Legal highs" banned in the UK
So-called legal highs - chemicals designed to reproduce the effects of illegal recreational drugs - have been banned in the United Kingdom following the tragic death of Brighton student Hester Stewart in April 2009. Hester, whose family were formerly members of the Brighton and Hove Orthodox Hebrew Congregation, died aged just 21 after taking a legal high known as GBL which is metabolised in the body into the already-banned drug GHB. GBL and a range of other substances including piperazines and certain anabolic steroids will now be classified as Class C illegal drugs, with possession potentially leading to two years in prison. Dealers could face up to 14 years.
Jugs of GBL siezed by police. What would you prefer in your body - chemicals produced by profit-hungry and unethical drug dealers or something that has been subject to clinical trials?
These substances are undoubtedly dangerous, as highlighted by the sad case of Hester. Some experts have warned that they can be even more dangerous than the already-illegal drugs to which they offer an alternative - so we should all be relieved to hear that they're now illegal.
After all, since heroin was made illegal in this country (it was once sold as an entirely legal remedy for coughs, believe it or not), there haven't been absolutely any heroin addicts at all, have there? Large sections of our cities are not blighted by heroin use, are they? Nobody has been mugged by an addict, so desperate for the drug they cannot live without that they're willing to risk a long spell in prison; and no homes have been broken into and ransacked by people quite literally dying for their next fix. There are no needles lying in the grass in the park or in the stairwells of flats. Same with cocaine - the prohibition on owning and selling it has been a hundred per cent successful in stamping out use. Millions of pounds do not have to be spent on detecting illegal imports and treating overdose victims. Cannabis too, and amphetamines, and ecstasy, and LSD.
Hester Stewart was just 21 when she died after taking GBL. But will probibition prevent more deaths?
Probition worked so well in the USA when it was decided to ban alcoholic drinks, too. Drunkeness vanished overnight and Al Capone and other gangsters made fortunes - what a perfect embodiment of the American Dream.
If the Government believe that banning "legal highs" is going to achieve anything then I'd like some of whatever they've been smoking in Parliament. British anti-drugs policy is failing dismally, and toughening up the law isn't going to work no matter how many more powers the police and customs agents are given. The only way to combat and reduce use is strictly controlled sales through authorised outlets, education on the dangers of drug use and a strong support network for those that have problems. Drug use is not going to go away - people have been deliberately ingesting all manner of substances for thousands of years in an attempt to get high and they will continue to do so.
If your child was ill, would you rather they took medicine supplied by your doctor, medicine that had been produced under clinical conditions by a regulated pharmaceutical company; or would you prefer them to take some unknown chemical brewed up in an East European bath tub, mixed with various other unknown chemicals and quite possibly bleach or rat poison, bought from some shady character in the toilets of a club? If you want to buy illegal drugs, you have to mix with some decidedly unpleasant characters; believe me, I know - I was a regular drug user for many years, and I bought drugs from people I'd prefer to have never met. If they suffered unpleasant side effects from that medicine, would you prefer it if they could see the doctor for advice and, if necessary, go to hospital for further treatment? Or would you prefer them to sit it out, hoping the symptoms will go away, for fear of being arrested and sent to prison?
Such sweeping changes in the law and the research necessary to provide this education would be a lot more expensive than simply saying: "Do not take drugs, otherwise we will punish you," of course. Obviously the Government do not believe Hester's life, even when combined with the lives of all the other people who die after taking little-studied chemicals every year, are worth that much.
Jugs of GBL siezed by police. What would you prefer in your body - chemicals produced by profit-hungry and unethical drug dealers or something that has been subject to clinical trials?Copyright-free image from Wikipedia.
These substances are undoubtedly dangerous, as highlighted by the sad case of Hester. Some experts have warned that they can be even more dangerous than the already-illegal drugs to which they offer an alternative - so we should all be relieved to hear that they're now illegal.
After all, since heroin was made illegal in this country (it was once sold as an entirely legal remedy for coughs, believe it or not), there haven't been absolutely any heroin addicts at all, have there? Large sections of our cities are not blighted by heroin use, are they? Nobody has been mugged by an addict, so desperate for the drug they cannot live without that they're willing to risk a long spell in prison; and no homes have been broken into and ransacked by people quite literally dying for their next fix. There are no needles lying in the grass in the park or in the stairwells of flats. Same with cocaine - the prohibition on owning and selling it has been a hundred per cent successful in stamping out use. Millions of pounds do not have to be spent on detecting illegal imports and treating overdose victims. Cannabis too, and amphetamines, and ecstasy, and LSD.
Hester Stewart was just 21 when she died after taking GBL. But will probibition prevent more deaths?Probition worked so well in the USA when it was decided to ban alcoholic drinks, too. Drunkeness vanished overnight and Al Capone and other gangsters made fortunes - what a perfect embodiment of the American Dream.
If the Government believe that banning "legal highs" is going to achieve anything then I'd like some of whatever they've been smoking in Parliament. British anti-drugs policy is failing dismally, and toughening up the law isn't going to work no matter how many more powers the police and customs agents are given. The only way to combat and reduce use is strictly controlled sales through authorised outlets, education on the dangers of drug use and a strong support network for those that have problems. Drug use is not going to go away - people have been deliberately ingesting all manner of substances for thousands of years in an attempt to get high and they will continue to do so.
If your child was ill, would you rather they took medicine supplied by your doctor, medicine that had been produced under clinical conditions by a regulated pharmaceutical company; or would you prefer them to take some unknown chemical brewed up in an East European bath tub, mixed with various other unknown chemicals and quite possibly bleach or rat poison, bought from some shady character in the toilets of a club? If you want to buy illegal drugs, you have to mix with some decidedly unpleasant characters; believe me, I know - I was a regular drug user for many years, and I bought drugs from people I'd prefer to have never met. If they suffered unpleasant side effects from that medicine, would you prefer it if they could see the doctor for advice and, if necessary, go to hospital for further treatment? Or would you prefer them to sit it out, hoping the symptoms will go away, for fear of being arrested and sent to prison?
Such sweeping changes in the law and the research necessary to provide this education would be a lot more expensive than simply saying: "Do not take drugs, otherwise we will punish you," of course. Obviously the Government do not believe Hester's life, even when combined with the lives of all the other people who die after taking little-studied chemicals every year, are worth that much.
11/12/2009
01/12/2009
BNP Griffin in landslide victory
Headline news out here in the shires - British National Party leader and allegedly-not-a-holocaust-denier-anymore Nick Griffin has achieved the sort of success he so craves in political elections. Unfortunately for him, the poll in question wasn't a political election. It was one among students at Cambridge University to find the worst Cantabrigian ever.
Cambridge University Students' Union don't like Nick Griffin. Thankfully, nor do the vast majority of British people.
University newspaper The Tab reports that Griffin, who studied law at Downing College and left with a Second Class Honours (Lower Division), attracted an impressive 1,097 votes - that's 44% of all votes cast, sufficient to curse Britain with a fascist government should it ever happen in a General Election.
Nasty Nazi Nick is typically quick to argue that the poll reveals nothing, as he is wont to do whenever any poll reveals the BNP do not enjoy the support he likes to claim they do. "This poll does not even reflect the opinions of students at Cambridge. Let's have a debate at the Union and see what students really think," he says - the fury with which Cambridge Union members protested a planned appearance by Griffin in 2002 rather suggests otherwise, however. Could it be that the students have, since then, been "swayed by the follies of the left-wing?" Erm - the left-wing (note: he can't blame the Worldwide Zionist Conspiracy, because he's rather keen on pretending not to be an anti-semite nowadays)? They vanished with the election of Tony Blair. The reason Cambridge students oppose the BNP is that Cambridge is very successful as a multicultural town - it enjoys a cosmopolitan atmosphere of the type that a flat, damp, mid-sized town would otherwise only dream of and some of the University's most luminous alumni were most definitely not the indigenous British people who, according to the BNP, should be the only people to inhabit these isles. All in all, Cambridge has long benefitted from immigrants who have come to Britain and contributed enormously both to the city itself and to Britain and the human race as a whole. What's more, if you fancy a curry there's about 30 places that serve a damn good one.
Jokes aside - what does this tell us? First of all, far right groups such as the BNP have never been popular in the UK. That's why, ever since the 1930s and Mosley's bad day out in Cable Street, British people have opposed them every step of the way and also why no far right organisation has ever achieved more than limited success on the national stage, certainly not enough to give them any sort of real power. Right now - as is so often the case during harsh economic times - they find higher than average support as people seek a scapegoat on whom to blame society's problems. It used to be the Jews, then it was blacks, then Indians and now it's Muslims. Thankfully, the majority of people value freedom and the true British ideals of acceptance, tolerance, the offering of asylum and equality; and it seems that the up-and-coming generation are no different.
Who knows where we'll be in 25 years' time - but one thing's certain: in the years between now and then, when those students currently at Cambridge (and Oxford and Manchester and all the other universities, each of which have strong anti-right wing organisations) take over the reins and run our nation, the BNP will not be getting the power for which they're so desperate.
Cambridge University Students' Union don't like Nick Griffin. Thankfully, nor do the vast majority of British people.University newspaper The Tab reports that Griffin, who studied law at Downing College and left with a Second Class Honours (Lower Division), attracted an impressive 1,097 votes - that's 44% of all votes cast, sufficient to curse Britain with a fascist government should it ever happen in a General Election.
Nasty Nazi Nick is typically quick to argue that the poll reveals nothing, as he is wont to do whenever any poll reveals the BNP do not enjoy the support he likes to claim they do. "This poll does not even reflect the opinions of students at Cambridge. Let's have a debate at the Union and see what students really think," he says - the fury with which Cambridge Union members protested a planned appearance by Griffin in 2002 rather suggests otherwise, however. Could it be that the students have, since then, been "swayed by the follies of the left-wing?" Erm - the left-wing (note: he can't blame the Worldwide Zionist Conspiracy, because he's rather keen on pretending not to be an anti-semite nowadays)? They vanished with the election of Tony Blair. The reason Cambridge students oppose the BNP is that Cambridge is very successful as a multicultural town - it enjoys a cosmopolitan atmosphere of the type that a flat, damp, mid-sized town would otherwise only dream of and some of the University's most luminous alumni were most definitely not the indigenous British people who, according to the BNP, should be the only people to inhabit these isles. All in all, Cambridge has long benefitted from immigrants who have come to Britain and contributed enormously both to the city itself and to Britain and the human race as a whole. What's more, if you fancy a curry there's about 30 places that serve a damn good one.
Jokes aside - what does this tell us? First of all, far right groups such as the BNP have never been popular in the UK. That's why, ever since the 1930s and Mosley's bad day out in Cable Street, British people have opposed them every step of the way and also why no far right organisation has ever achieved more than limited success on the national stage, certainly not enough to give them any sort of real power. Right now - as is so often the case during harsh economic times - they find higher than average support as people seek a scapegoat on whom to blame society's problems. It used to be the Jews, then it was blacks, then Indians and now it's Muslims. Thankfully, the majority of people value freedom and the true British ideals of acceptance, tolerance, the offering of asylum and equality; and it seems that the up-and-coming generation are no different.
Who knows where we'll be in 25 years' time - but one thing's certain: in the years between now and then, when those students currently at Cambridge (and Oxford and Manchester and all the other universities, each of which have strong anti-right wing organisations) take over the reins and run our nation, the BNP will not be getting the power for which they're so desperate.
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