Defender of the Faith

Which leading British identity said the following:

‘We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so.

'The Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today. Values and morals we should actively stand up and defend.

‘Whether you look at the riots last summer, the financial crash and the expenses scandal or the on-going terrorist threat from Islamist extremists around the world, one thing is clear, moral neutrality or passive tolerance just isn’t going to cut it any more.

‘Put simply, for too long we have been unwilling to distinguish right from wrong. “Live and let live” has too often become “do what you please”.

‘Bad choices have too often been defended as just different lifestyles. To be confident in saying something is wrong is not a sign of weakness, it’s a strength.’

Your choices are:

• Head of the Anglican Church Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury
• British Prime Minister David Cameron
  

Bonus question:

Which of the above leading British public figures ought to have spoken out in defence of Christianity?

-- Nora

Another Reason To Migrate

British composer Gustav Holst quite possibly wouldn't have approved:



Neither might Diana, Princess of Wales.

'We wish England was Australia' is, in fact, I Vow To Thee, My Country, one of Diana's favourite hymns, performed at her wedding and funeral.

The lyrics started life as a 1908 poem by diplomat Cecil Spring-Rice. The tune is a hymnal called Thaxted which Holst adapted from a section of the Jupiter movement in his 1914-16 composition The Planets Suite.

I Vow To Thee, My Country is now a patriotic staple of Armistice Day and regularly arouses the ire of milksop Anglican dhimmis such as The Bishop of Hulme, the Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, who:

... said the hymn's popularity was a symptom of a "dangerous" increase in English nationalism which had parallels with the rise of Nazism. Its associations with the British empire were also questionable in a multi-faith, multi-cultural society.

Holst probably wouldn't have approved of the Right Rev Steve either.

And one can imagine knee-jerk feminists might choke on hearing Holst's requirement for performances of The Planets that:

For "Neptune", two three-part women's choruses, located in an adjoining room which is to be screened from the audience, are required.

Why? Not because Holst was a misogynist but because he was a musical visionary:

"Neptune" was the first piece of music to have a fade-out ending. Holst stipulates that the women's choruses are "to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed", and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is "to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance".

Although commonplace today, the effect bewitched audiences in the era before widespread recorded sound - after the initial 1918 run-through, Holst's daughter Imogen (in addition to watching the charwomen dancing in the aisles during "Jupiter") remarked that the ending was "unforgettable, with its hidden chorus of women's voices growing fainter and fainter... until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence".

-- Nick

Old Blighty

It's would seem that England's green and pleasant land is neither green nor pleasant, nor for the home owner, their own land.

Clive Aslet, editor-at-large of Country Life gives a bleak view of life in the UK. It's a long piece but worth reading all the way through and wonder if such plans are in the works for Australia.

One might feel differently if one believed officialdom truly had the interests of the planet at heart. But green idealism has become a fig leaf to conceal the bulging organ of revenue increase.

The London congestion charge started off, as the name implies, as a means of unjamming traffic. Like the HIPs, it is changing its spots to become a beast for savaging families, often with young children, who have the temerity to drive seven-seater cars. From 2009 they face a charge of £25.

Outside the zone, the Lib Dem Richmond upon Thames council wants the owners of such vehicles to pay whopping fees for parking outside their own home. It is a convenience that the money raised from motorists goes straight into the council coffers, for councillors to spend as they choose, thereby escaping control-freakish capping by the Treasury.

And so it is with rubbish collection. Don't tell me that councils were principally motivated by reducing greenhouse gas emissions when they halved the rate at which they emptied bins and introduced compulsory recycling schemes. They want to save money and damn the rats.

You have only to look at Southwark. It has retained the weekly bin round precisely because it will help promote sustainability. What? I see your puzzled look and furrowed brow. Weekly collection from the doorstep, as it explains on its website, will allow bin snoops to see more easily who is recycling and who isn't. "If residents are not taking part, a member of the recycling team will visit."

Presumably, there will follow the sort of knock on the door familiar to East German dissidents in the days of the Stasi. More information is being collected through microchips installed in rubbish bins - oh, and they will be fitted with a lock to prevent neighbours using a bin that isn't theirs.

Are these the reasons why England is called Blighty?

-- Nora

Hue And Cry

It's straight out of an Ealing Comedy starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway:

A 13-year-old boy who lives with his gran... exposed as one of Britain's biggest internet conmen.. earned more than £250,000 ($607,000) by posing as the boss of several multinational companies selling vacuum cleaners, stationery and office supplies.

Many goods weren't sent, but he used the cash to revel in a luxury lifestyle way beyond his years: he wore designer suits, drank vintage champagne and travelled by chauffeur-driven limousine. He even employed a personal bodyguard, flew abroad on business trips and claimed he was going to buy a private jet.

A source close to the investigation said yesterday: "Despite coming from a relatively humble background, he became an outrageous snob. He claimed public transport was for commoners."

From its origins:

...after his mother died... He received a £16,000 ($38,000) inheritance, some of which he spent on crime books on the methods of successful conmen. Working from his bedroom at his grandmother's house in west London, he set up a website purporting to sell discounted plasma screen TVs.

...to its denouement in which he faces jail and goes straight:

The court was told his latest project was a genuine online lingerie store.

...the entire tale would have fit right in with the producers of such Pommie classics as Whiskey Galore and The Lavender Hill Mob.

Best of all is the now 16 year old fraudster's closing line:

He conceded the idea of buying a private jet was "a bit silly - I was only 13 at the time".

-- Nick

A Voice In The Wilderness

Hopefully there may be more...

(Gina) Khan is particularly worried about how mosques are brainwashing children and young people: “To me, it is starting to look like a cult.” And her local community certainly seems to be in denial. “After the raid I went to the corner shop here, and they were all saying it was a conspiracy. I turned round and said, ‘No, it is not. Let us be honest’.

-- Nora

The Glass Darkly

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountain green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

Who knows if He did.

But one thing is for certain, if He had, he wouldn't recognise the place now.

-- Nora

And The Other Half Are Lying

'Half of drivers' admit speeding.

And some people think the Poms are no fun.

Well some of them are.

-- Nora