Editorial: Onward & Upwards!

The first full month of this blogs return was interrupted by a technical problem which left Howie's Corner off-line for  around three days. However posts have been furiously forthcoming as both guest posts and campaigns have been added to the original content.

It is my intention to not just blog my opinion but to promote campaigns that I am passionate about. Free Tibet, LabourStart and the Campaign Against Anti Semitism will be amongst my priorities plus others as they come to my attention.

This is only a small blog and the long break has reduced readership. August saw just short of 10,000 hits which is lower than before but I am patient and will continue. The most read posts were about the split in the Socialist Party by leading member PCS President Janice Godrich who has founded Socialist View. Currently this group is confined to the PCS.

As readers know I rather like sharing music (and occasionally comedy) on this blog. These posts don't attract large numbers of hits though an old one I was Kaiser Bills Batman by Whistling Jack Smith published back in  October 2013 still attracts readers.

Another perennial post (if that's the right expression) is Anne Marie Waters leaves the Labour Party also from October 2013. When she quit UKIP the hits went up and now she has founded For Britain the article attracted a bit of attention. Someone is bound to tell me off for publishing that link which brings me to neatly to my next point.

Freedom of speech and expression is under attack from all corners in the modern age. Religious objectors (mainly from the Islamic tradition) and the far-left, particularly the Corbynista tendency are the main culprit. Islam doesn't allow for criticism. Blasphemy and apostasy are two "crimes" against their made up faith. "Blasphemy" is misused to the extreme in Pakistan. Iran doesn't really bother with legal niceties they just throw opponents of all sorts into prisons and hang gays.

In Saudi Arabia Atheism has been defined as terrorism so afraid of non-believers the Wahabbians are. It attracts the death penalty. Bloggers in Bangladesh face constant death threats and murder. This is unacceptable.

Whatever happened to the Korans "There shall be no compulsion in religion". 

Superseded by Imams and regimes who use Islamic law to oppress and murder.

Howie's Corner is unashamedly Atheist, Secularist and Freethinking, unbound by any ideology or theology and will remain that way.

I will also continue to post music and comedy as a break from politics. Readers can also pop over to Howie's World of Comics which was relaunched in August. Posts are occasional rather than daily. I also publish public posts on Facebook so you can join me there. (I do not accept "friends" who do not use their real names or create pages just to spam!).

There's plenty more to come on this blog though. Nuff said?

Here's some music. Yes it's an oldie!