Sunday 16 September 2018

Sunday Supplement at Howie's Corner

Editorial Comment:

Regular readers will notice that there has been a slight increase in the number of posts since I retired. That's because I have more time but still cannot cover everything I would like to so here is the first of a "Supplement" series.

Today's Sunday hence the title but I may well vary the day depending on what I want to bring to your attention. It will probably always be in addition to the main post but that will also depend....

But I digress.

UKIP block IHRA Statement

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With everyone concentrating on the Labour Party NEC finally taking on board the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism despite attempts by Steptoe and some of his more deranged supporters I missed the story about UKIP in the Daily Mirror published nearly a month ago:

UKIP was tonight dragged into the anti-Semitism row.

The party has been urged to accept the globally recognised definition of anti-Semitism.

But senior figures blocked the move, claiming members’ free speech should not be restricted, according to emails leaked to the Daily Mirror.

Elizabeth Jones, a member of Ukip’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), wrote: “No way. We are the party of free speech. We cannot sign any document that restricts that position.”


......Paul Oakley, the party’s General Secretary said he would be happy to sign up to the definition, arguing anyone using “free speech” to spread anti-Semitic abuse would be breaking the party’s Constitution.

Ukip leader Gerard Batten last night refused to sign the party up to the definition in full, insisting anti-Semitism is covered under the party’s existing rules against discrimination.


It's a myth that the IHRA stops criticisms of any Israeli governemt policies and actions mainly put around by the far left. Jewish UKIP supporters may well want to take this issue up with their leadership.

Anne Marie Waters banned from Twitter

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The leader of the For Britain party got into hot water over a twitter remark which resulted in what seems to be a permanent ban.  The alt-right website Info Wars reported that:

Between 1997 and 2013, around 1,400 mostly white children were sexually abused in Rotherham by predominantly British-Pakistani men.

In addition, violent crime in South Yorkshire is up by nearly 60% while stalking and harassment reports increased by a massive 158% over the last year.

This prompted Waters, leader of anti-mass migration party For Britain, to accuse South Yorkshire Police of getting their priorities wrong.

“I was thrown off Twitter for saying that Muslims are raping girls in Rotherham,” Waters said in a Gab post. “But the police care more about tweets. So, just to repeat, Muslims are raping girls in Rotherham but the police care more about tweets.”


Whilst Waters is not a racist (I hear howls of protest as critics hit their keyboards but having had some contact with her in the past I don't think she is).as a trained lawyer she should have chosen her words somewhat more carefully. 

I'm currently reading her new book Beyond Terror: Islams Slow Erosion of Western Democracy and will publish a review in due course.

Liberal Democrats


Photo: By NCVO London

I don't belong to a political party and prefer to maintain my political independence mainly because I'm not the sort who can toe the line. As a trade unionist I used to orientate towards Labour, certainly at election time. Oddly those who opposed me like Mark Serwotka are now inside the party or backing Corbyn like the Socialist Party (Militant) and the SWP.

Labour is no longer for me which leaves me politically homeless so to speak. I noticed the Liberal Democrats are going down the road of letting non-members sign up and may allow non-members to vote for their leader. So I signed up to see what they are up to and their conference starts today. I may dip in to see whats going on of interest, if anything.

By the way Vince old chap. Letting people from outside the membership vote turned out so well for Labour didn't it? Just saying.

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Comments Policy

First of all I owe a number of people an apology. I hadn't checked the "pending comments section of the blog since returning from hospital. With my e-mail account bursting to the rim I've so far deleted over 3,000 unread e-mails. More to go!

The bulk of these are Facebook notifications but I do subscribe to a fair number of things. I have now published those comments (except one which was superseded by a recent discussion).

I have also changed the settings. I'm not sure why it was set for blogger accounts only so I've changed it. Anyone can now comment, even anonymously. Comments will remain moderated but with me being mostly housebound they will appear sooner. My on-line "stalker" seems to have disappeared so hopefully this will allow for more comments from readers.

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