VE Day 75 years on.

VE Day 1945. Prime Minister Winston Churchill with the Royal Family on the Buckingham Palace balcony to celebrate the end of World War 2 in Europe 

Readers who recall the Royal Family and Winston Churchill acknowledging the crowds on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE Day in 1945 will have survived WW2 bombings only to be targeted by a more insidious enemy today, the Covid-19 virus.

Official celebrations designed to inject the spirit of joy felt in 1945 have been cancelled. Instead there will be some TV programmes to mark the 75th anniversary of the allied victory. The Queen will address her subjects at 9 pm as did her father King George VI on VE Day.

Life in Britain and around the world had become very different until lockdown imposed dramatic changes in routine in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The concept of the nuclear family has gone. Marriage has largely been replaced by partnerships, civil or informal, previously regarded as living in sin.

Feminism dominates Anglicanism, Christianity is lampooned, churches are closing while other faiths are protected. Political correctness has become an unwelcome burden, often depriving people of the humour that sustained us in times of difficulty

Notions of gender contradict what used to be regarded as patently obvious while the snowflake generation threaten free speech by no-platforming speakers whose views they disagree with.

On the 75th anniversary of VE Day we are at war again but with an unseen enemy. Older folk who experienced bombings in WW2 and the discipline of National Service find themselves at greater risk from the virus but appear better able to cope, staying indoors as told while some, mainly younger people, ignore the advice, risking the lives of others in the process

In May 1940 when Churchill first addressed the House of Commons as Prime Minister he concluded, "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory; victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival." The same spirit is needed today.

I recall sitting around the radio with my mother during WW2 listening to Churchill's speeches spurring the allies to victory and strengthening resolve at home. Uplifting broadcasts provided a welcome tonic for housewives bringing up their families in difficult times when their husbands faced more immediate perils abroad.

News bulletins are once again dominated by war reports. War against the Covid-19 virus but the BBC has changed its position from blanket support of the war effort to a more critical, gloomy picture. For example, viewers are constantly told that the UK has the highest number of Corona-19 virus deaths in Europe before adding, as if barely relevant, that demographic factors paint a different picture.

Some voices are spreading discontent, encouraging popular demands to relax the restrictions that have lessened the spread of infections. Hopefully governments will remain resolute in the face of opposition and not give in to unscientific populist demands.

Matters become more complicated while devolved administrations, anxious to be seen flexing their independent muscles, arrive at their own conclusions even though based on the same central, scientific evidence. When aired by the BBC such views can make them appear to be aligned with the Opposition.

The blog A Grain of Sand poses the question 'Is Aunty Biased', suggesting the BBC, founded on Christian principles, has "swung to an institutional mindset of sceptical liberalism".

I was intrigued the other day to see a reference to the BBC's Director of Content. Googling revealed not just a content director but an army of 39 ideas people ending with the Lead on Comedy Nations and Regions.

Today there is little original comedy to provide laughs compared with WW2 radio content such as ITMA, Workers Playtime, Band Waggon and Hi, Gang!

Instead the BBC supplements its regular news and current affairs slots with frequent repeats and a constant supply of soccer matches/comments/analyses while evening dramas provide a diet mainly of murder and misery.

Nevertheless, 75 years after VE Day, we will not be glued to the wireless worrying about air raid warning sirens. Instead my wife and I will be watching Auntie focus on doom and misery with a gap celebrating Churchill's promise of victory if we were to stand firm.

We did. Pulling together we are here to celebrate victory. 'Victory at all costs'.

Time to dump the Lords Spiritual?

Source: Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group on Religion or Belief in Parliament

The recent Report of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group on Religion and Belief includes some interesting recommendations. In addition to dumping the Lords Spiritual there are recommendations on The Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Prayers in Parliament and Parliament's Role in Governing the Church of England.

In their Forward to the report the Group observe that:

"The UK is more diverse than ever before. In 1983 some 40 percent of British adults said they were Anglicans, 24 percent other Christians, 4 percent other religions, and 31 percent belonging to no religion. Nowadays 13 percent say they are Anglicans, 25 percent other Christians, 10 percent other religions, and 53 percent of no religion. These trends look set to continue – today just one percent of British adults aged 18-24 are Anglicans.

"...Parliament remains a Christian institution. 26 bishops of the Church of England receive automatic  places in the House of Lords. The speaker of the House of Commons has to appoint a Church of England chaplain. The Church of England opens proceedings each day by leading prayers. Parliament governs the Church – through its approval of Church measures, through the ecclesiastical committee, and through questions in the House of Commons."

Anglican Bishops and Archbishops sit in the House of Lords by virtue of the Bishoprics Act 1878. But bishops are not what they were. Mainly trendy lefties, the typical Anglican bishop today is wedded to the spirit of the age, conforming to the pattern of the world. As members of the House of Lords they are able to use a privileged position to lead even more people astray.

The situation has become more absurd following the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 which allows  accelerating the appointment of women bishops to the House of Lords for no reason other than they are female bishops.

Assorted Lords Spiritual at the State Opening of Parliament  October 2019                Source: Twitter

What an insult to such formidable peers as Baroness Trumpington, Baroness Seear and Baroness (Shirley) Williams of Crosby to give just a few examples. 

Lightweight bishops sitting as Lords Spiritual is even more of a nonsense when the majority of Anglican bishops give the impression of having nothing spiritual about them.

They have become an anachronism and deserve to be dumped so long as the baby is not thrown out with the bathwater. 

Prince Charles has been quoted in the past as saying that on ascending the throne he would become Defender of the Faiths rather than the Faith. Even if he were not to inherit the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England that would still turn his coronation into a charade. He has since denied the claim but still harbours Islamic leanings.

The Parliamentary Humanist Group drew attention to another charde, the appointment of the Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons. By custom the Speaker appoints a Church of England chaplain. In what was regarded as an act of political correctness, the then Speaker, John Bercow, of Jewish heritage but not religious, set aside convention and appointed his own choice, the Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin.

Hudson-Wilkin now bishop of Dover! 

State opening of Parliament, May 8, 2013.                Source: The Church of England in Parliament

By their fruits you will know them

Former Commons Speaker John Bercow with Commons Chaplain Rose Hudson-Wilkin in the 
royal box at Wimbledon in 2015. Source: Church Times/PA

A couple of stories published over the holiday period serve to illustrate the sorry state of the Church of England. Brainwashed clergy rejecting the Bible.

From MailOnline: Church of England gives staff 'unconscious bias training' to help ensure that half of its leaders are female by 2030

The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, "hopes the change will stop men hiring employees in their own image and create a 'different' kind of conversation in the Church." She told The Times: 'I certainly think that having women as priests enables different types of conversations that probably wouldn't happen if you're a man. My background as a nurse means people often talk to me in a different way.' - Pass the sick bowl?

The Church of England has appointed its first black female bishop, Rose Hudson-Wilkin. She came to prominence when the first Jewish Speaker, John Bercow, controversially appointed the first black female chaplain to the Commons against the wishes of the dean of Westminster.

Committed feminist Emma Percy, chairwoman of Women and the Church (WATCH) who likes to refer to God as a 'she', said: 'The Church of England needs to show that it is a church for all, where women are taken seriously, where women are good enough for leadership and, consequently, seen as good enough for God.' - As Percy sees it!

If the Church of England were a church for all, WATCH would not undermine traditionalists. But it is no longer a church for all. It is being turned into a feminist institution dedicated to overturning moral values and traditional family life.

If these women were secure in their beliefs they would seek to convert the majority of Anglicans who  profoundly disagree with them and Christians in the wider Church. Instead they look to society for support as if the Church existed to provide secular employment.

The Archbishop of York designate put his finger on the problem as the Church of England prepares to ignore biblical teaching in favour of street credibility among people who neither know nor care about the Church.

From CBN News: New Church of England Archbishop Says Bible Must Bend to Modern Sexual Morality

The politically correct Church of England is spiritually lost.

Its 'unconscious bias training' will keep it that way. Designed to expose unconscious bias and eliminate discriminatory behaviors, when difference of opinion is labelled bias and discrimination it will be seen only in one direction. Against males.

That there has been no outcry clearly illustrates where the Anglican Church is going.

Similarly in Wales the bench of bishops effectively waved two fingers at their membership at Holy Synod yesterday with confirmation of the appointment of a women bishop in a same sex relationship before the issue has been resolved by the Governing Body.

Cherry Vann confirmed in Sacred Synod as Bishop of Monmouth                                Source: Twitter

By their fruits you will know them.

What is truth?

This video is the subject of the 2016 'Featured Post' highlighted in the Right Hand Column: If you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. 

The presentation concludes that it should not be hard to tell a 5' 9" white guy that he is not a 6' 5" Chinese woman. But clearly it is. Why?

Three years on there are increasing reports of intimidation and exclusion for stating what previously would have been regarded as obvious.

Sexing at birth is a normal part of life. One's classification as male or female is duly recorded on one's birth certificate. With gender fluidity, people identifying as genderqueer or non-binary express feelings at variance with their birth classification which everyone else is expected to agree with regardless of any evidence to the contrary. Defying reason it is cultural Marxism gone mad.

So far the only 'men' who have had babies are women who have retained their wombs after transitioning but the success of womb transplants has led some to claim the breakthrough could open up pregnancy to all sexes.

While a tiny minority of people fall into this category the demands of the trendy left are having negative effects on free speech with charges of hate crime for voicing any contrary opinions or simply saying what previously would have been regarded as obvious.

Recently a leading tax expert was sacked by a Think tank for using 'offensive language' after she tweeted that 'men cannot change into women' in a transgender row. In an article and a series of more than 100 tweets she rallied against government proposals allowing people to self-identify as a particular gender.

Jordan Peterson, described as one of the "the greatest thinkers of our time", has been branded a racist, misogynist and an Islamophobe for warning against the dangers of "identity politics and raving ideologues because they are divisive and not grounded in reason or fact".

The government sacked its housing adviser Conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton after he appeared to repeat antisemitic statements and denied Islamophobia was a problem. His reported remarks had been taken out of context.

A Cambridge University social scientist Noah Carl has been dismissed after administrators appeared to capitulate to a mob of activists (students and academics) who mounted a campaign to have the scholar fired for “problematic” research. Not because his research is fraudulent or inaccurate, but because "there’s a risk it could lead indirectly to bad actors promoting views that could incite racial or religious hatred". It matters not whether the scholarship is true; the critical thing is whether it upsets people, Quillette reported.

Australian rugby star Israel Folau was pronounced guilty of a "high-level breach of Rugby Australia’s professional players' code of conduct" for expressing his Christian beliefs based on the Bible, eg,1 Corinthians 6:9-10.

Christian Concern has issued a Prayer Alert for Felix Ngole who was expelled from his social work course for saying on Facebook that homosexual practice and other behaviours are sinful. Christian Concern warn that "Court transcripts expose extent of threat to Christian freedoms".

Double standards prevail. The Saatchi Gallery covered up artworks after Muslim visitors' complaints while ‘The Holy Virgin Mary’ by Chris Ofili, an Africanised painting of the mother of Christ that rests on two big slabs of elephant dung was displayed in 1997 despite complaints.

When Pope Benedict XVI delivered a lecture in 2006 in which he explored the historical and philosophical differences between Islam and Christianity, and the relationship between violence and faith, he was forced to issue an apology in response to the angry reactions.

'Correct' knowledge or belief. What is truth today?

Nonpcopinionophobia

Left: Hundreds of people protested against the veil ban on Wednesday Source: BBC/AFP  

Right: Mary McAleese at Dublin Pride with husband Martin (right), son Justin (second left) and his husband Fionan Source: BBC/PA

"Denmark has got it wrong. Yes, the burka is oppressive and ridiculous – but that's still no reason to ban it." - Boris Johnson. The Telegraph (£)

Boris Johnson wrote his article in the Telegraph after the first woman was charged in Denmark for wearing niqab after the Denmark veil ban was introduced.

The law does not mention burkas and niqabs by name but says "anyone who wears a garment that hides the face in public will be punished with a fine".

Nevertheless, the Guardian headlined the event: Boris Johnson's burqa remarks 'fan flames of Islamophobia', says MP.

In the article Boris Johnson is accused of “dog whistle” Islamophobia by a former Conservative chair, Lady Sayeeda Warsi, who said the lack of action by the party over Johnson’s comments showed it was “business as usual.”

Sayeeda Warsi had previously called on the Conservative party to launch a “full independent inquiry” into Islamophobia in the party and warned the Tories were "pursuing a politically damaging policy of denial about the problem in its own ranks".

Back in 2010 she spoke out about what she sees as the rise of Islamaphobia in Britain. By coincidence in 2010 Sayeeda Warsi was "named one of the world's '500 Most Influential Muslims' by Middle East think tank the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre. She also topped the UK's Muslim women power list."

Also getting in on the controversy, "Labour demanded that the Conservative chair, Brandon Lewis, refer the former foreign secretary for mandatory equalities training, amid renewed calls for the party to open an independent investigation into Islamophobia in the party.

"In a letter to Lewis, the shadow equalities minister, Naz Shah, said Johnson’s comments were “ugly and naked Islamophobia” and said Lewis should abide by his word to give Tory members diversity training to combat Islamophobia."

While many people will agree that the Denmark veil ban is reasonable, Boris Johnson did not but he is accused of making Islamophopbic remarks.

Honest opinions are no longer acceptable unless they conform to the latest politically correct dictums so people at large are deterred from saying what they feel for fear of being condemned as Islamophobic regardless of the facts.

In 2011 I blogged under the heading Islamophobia:
"phobia /pho·bia/ (fo´be-ah) a persistent, irrational, intense fear of a specific object, activity, or situation (the phobic stimulus), fear that is recognized as being excessive or unreasonable by the individual himself. There is nothing irrational, excessive or unreasonable about the fear of Islam. In her University of Leicester speech today the Tory Party Chairman, Baroness Warsi, raises the now familiar cry of Islamophobia, warning that describing Muslims as either “moderate” or “extremist” fosters growing prejudice. If it is a question of either we would have to choose "extremist" because at the root of the Islamic ideology is a belief that Islam is supreme and that any means, including lying (taqiyya), are legitimate weapons to achieve world domination."

Constant claims of 'Islamophobia' regardless of the context is a device used to raise a political ideology to a level beyond criticism while religions such as Christianity are under constant threat. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this phenomenon is its contradiction with feminist ideals of 'equality'.

Feminists have used similar tactics in the Anglican Church with their constant cries of misogyny and homophobia. After attacking Western Anglicanism their attention has turned to the Roman Catholic Church which is threatened from within as well as from outside.

 Irish Church must confront issues to avoid 'decline into irrelevance' shouts the Tablet headline. "The Church needs to confront its teachings on issues like celibacy, female ordination, its theology on sexuality and its hierarchical structure, otherwise it will continue to decline into irrelevance, Fr Kevin Hegarty has warned."

In an obvious nod towards secularism he said, “People began to lose confidence in an institution whose teaching on this subject was so out of sync with their lived experience.”

Mary McAleese who was the Irish President of from 1997 to 2011 has condemned the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality as "evil" and was "hopeful the Pope would change the church's position on the issue".

No doubt the former President was influenced by that fact that she was the first recipient of the Vanguard Award at the Gaze LGBT film festival in Dublin. In June she became the first former Irish president to take part in the Dublin Pride parade when she marched with her son Justin and his husband Fionan.

If the Roman Catholic Church follows the example of Western Anglicanism, what hope is there for Christianity in the West?

Free speech must be maintained. If people disagree they must defend their position. Fair comment must not be silenced by unwarranted charges of phobias.

Your new home?

Christ Church, Rhosybol, on sale for £45,000                                                       Source: Daily Post

This is just one of twelve redundant churches currently offered for sale by the Representative Body of the Church in Wales following closure for worship which could be your new home. How many more to follow?

Worship often took place twice and more in bigger churches on Sundays, many with a daily Eucharist during the week. That was before they became the means of spreading political correctness, misapplying notions of gender equality to the priesthood, substituting equality for theology.

With few exceptions Church attendance continues to fall year by year. Ironically, in one of the largest ever surveys of peoples' attitudes towards the role and influence of churches in local communities published in Christian Today, more than a third of UK adults surveyed said that they would "campaign to keep their nearest church from closing because it provides 'vital' services to its local community." Without supporting members, who would maintain them?

MAE Cymru supporters. Source Church in Wales

 In former years five of the bishops of the Church in Wales held Oxford Firsts in Theology. The bishop designate of Llandaff studied social sciences. When interviewed by BBC TV News she was very much into gender parity so regardless of merit no doubt there will be an explosion of female appointments in Llandaff along with St Davids where the first woman bishop was appointed. Bishop Penberthy is a strong supporter of MAE Cymru, an organisation spreading feminism in the Church Wales under the guise of equality but only as they see it.

In response to my previous entry some commentators became exercised over a suitable spiritual home for disillusioned Anglicans. Sadly, as the declining numbers indicate in all but a few churches, most Christians do not look for an alternative. They give up in despair and stay home. Robbed of its mystery and otherness, church-going has for many become another weekly social occasion while others turn up at Easter and/or Christmas expecting their church to be there for them.

The obsession with gender politics has been a disaster. It has spread from the acceptance of the ordination of women to demands for acceptance of just about every sexual permutation including same sex marriage, the red line for many Anglicans.

Woe betide anyone who dares to hold a contrary opinion or to question the basis of different beliefs. Witness the Tory MP forced to stand down after a sixteen year old student and LGBT rights campaigner did not like the answer to her question after she asked him if he was planning on attending the Isle of Wight's first ever pride event.

Shades of Germaine Greer who was pilloried for expressing her personal opinion that she did not think post-operative transgender men are women, an opinion shared by experts.

Devout Christian Tim Farron the leader of the Liberal Democrat party was hounded until he gave a politically correct answer when asked if he thought that homosexuality was a sin. He had no support from the Church of England.

The first Church of England vicar to marry his same-sex partner has announced his resignation as a parish priest complaining that the CofE is 'institutionally homophobic'. He claimed that he and other gay and lesbian clergy were 'barely tolerated'.

That is an odd claim given the experience of remaining churchgoers, a claim which also contradicts the experience of the Rev Sally Hitchiner who told viewers of the BBC Breakfast programme on 30 April while discussing the marriage of Pippa Middleton that she was to "marry" her same sex partner next month.

Many, particularly younger, people today simply shrug their shoulders and say, So what? It doesn't affect me. But it does. As churches close some are converted into mosques while new Islamic centres are being built to accommodate the growing number of Muslims resulting from immigration and higher birth rates. Mohammed already tops the list of most popular baby boy names in England and Wales.

Islam is not tolerant of homosexuality. Woman count for less than men. It is ironic, then, that the politics which have split the Church will be unacceptable to the predominant faith group when Islam becomes the largest religion in the world by 2070.

If church leaders spent as much time exposing the ideology that is stamping out Christianity in its birthplace as they do on gender politics and affirming Islam there would be less need for GAFCON to send a missionary bishop to our shores to speak for traditional marriage.

Meanwhile in New Zealand a transgender weightlifter is causing controversy. Olympic Weightlifting NZ high performance manager Simon Kent described Hubbard's performance as 'magnificent'. "This is such a new issue for society to have a conversation about," said Kent, of the transgender question. "It really challenges how people respond to it - it's not something that is openly discussed and talked about." [My emphasis - ED.]

Transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard  Source: NZ Herald Photo: Doug Sherring

Make believe

Based on past atrocities, which of these three exclamations is most likely to be heard if a suicide bomber decides to 'martyr' himself or herself, killing and maiming as many people as possible ?

Whether in a shopping mall, restaurant, concert hall, hotel lobby, tube train, on a London bus or on an idyllic beach, most will recall with horror 'Allahu Akbar' being shouted in triumph as the innocent are slaughtered and disfigured. 

The recent terrorism training exercise involving a simulated suicide bomb attack at Trafford Centre was hailed a 'great success' but a Police Chief was later forced to apologise for using fake Muslim shouts of 'Allahu Akbar'. One observer rightly pointed out that a terrorist could be anyone but if, for example, the Salvation Army were to be implicated a tea wagon would have been more appropriate than a suicide belt!

Can we learn nothing from Rochdale, Rotherham, Derby and Oxford where gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani Muslim heritage, lured white girls as young as 10 into a nightmare of sexual abuse with political correctness helping them get away with it for fear of accusations of racism and Islamophobia?

In Germany violence by Muslims against Christians in refugee homes is being played down or ignored for the same reasons. Many other examples could be quoted.

In June, to coincide with the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims traditionally fast and give to charity, buses in London, Manchester, Leicester, Birmingham and Bradford are to be used to carry posters which praise Allah.

The Director of the Muslim charity Islamic Relief said: 'There is a lot of negativity around Muslims. We want to change the perception of Islam. The campaign is about breaking down barriers and challenging misconceptions. The posters would help to raise funds for victims of war and disasters in countries such as Syria, and portray Islam in a positive light'.

That is fine but Muslims must accept that if the rest of us are to be held up to scrutiny Islam can not be exempt if they want to be seen in a positive light. We can not live in a 'make believe' world when the reality is totally different.

The real victims of political correctness.

In this 2010 CBN News video "What Will Happen When Islam Takes Over Britain WAKE UP!" a clear warning was given on the perils of not addressing political correctness.

The Prime Minister's claim in 2011 that multiculturalism had failed was met with a wave of indignant protests and denial. In 2016 the real victims of political correctness, mainly vulnerable children, are being identified on a regular basis.

This is the reality. From an Express report: The authorities spent years letting gangs of Pakistani and British-Pakistani men get away with horrendous crimes against white girls. Evidence suggests that such groups have been operating in Rotherham, Oxford, Keighley, Bradford and Rochdale. The dangerously misguided desire to appear tolerant and politically correct allowed these gangs to operate unchecked for so long.

Nobody in authority has been prepared to stand against the tide. While political parties spend their time harvesting votes from minorities, the Established church continues her obsession with politically correct quotas, advancing the cause of minorities over suitability and validating Islam. 

Tolerance of the intolerant rules. "WAKE UP" indeed!

The Islamization of Britain in 2014

Fast food giant Subway has removed ham and bacon from stores, halal only - Pamela Geller

Some 2014 headlines:

• "Britain remains the world's leading recruiting ground for al-Qaeda." — Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph.

• "When she sought help from the police and a lawyer, 'the family of the defendants were insulted that she had gone to the law. They wanted her back within the family fold... Therefore, it was decided that she should be forced to comply or be killed'." — Prosecutor of Ahmed A-Khatib, who murdered his wife for becoming "too westernized."

• "British school teachers are afraid to teach their students about Christianity out of fear of offending Muslims." — Roger Bolton, BBC Radio 4's Feedback program.

• "Rather than taking steps to protect British children, police, social workers, teachers... and the media deliberately played down the severity of the crimes [of Muslim sexual grooming gangs] in order to avoid being accused of 'Islamophobia' or racism." — From the report "Easy Meat: Multiculturalism, Islam and Child Sex Slavery."

• "A group of British lawyers launched a website, Sharia Watch UK. The group called Sharia law 'Britain's Blind Spot'."

• "After Adebolajo, who murdered and tried to behead British soldier Lee Rigby with a meat cleaver, was given a 'whole-life' prison term, his brother said his sibling was the victim of 'Islamophobia'."

• "The problem of honor-based violence and forced marriages in England is "worse than people think." — Claire Phillipson, Wearside Women in Need

"The Muslim population of Britain reached 3.4 million in 2014 to become around 5.3% of the overall population of 64 million, according to figures extrapolated from a recent study on the growth of the Muslim population in Europe. In real terms, Britain has the third-largest Muslim population in the European Union, after France and Germany.

Islam and Islam-related issues were omnipresent in Britain during 2014, and can be categorized into four broad themes: 1) Islamic extremism and the security implications of British jihadists in Syria; 2) the continuing spread of Islamic Sharia law in Britain; 3) the sexual exploitation of British children by Muslim gangs; and 4) Muslim integration into British society.

In January, an analysis of census data showed that nearly 10% of the babies and toddlers in England and Wales are Muslim. The percentage of Muslims among children under five is almost twice as high as in the general population. By way of comparison, fewer than one in 200 people over the age of 85 are Muslim, an indication of the extent to which the birth rate is changing the religious demographic in Britain."

For a chronological review of some of the main stories involving the rise of Islam in Britain during 2014 click HERE.

This is not Islamophobia. It is what is actually happening in Great Britain. The reality of Islamic expansion which is changing our culture at an alarming rate. Denial contradicts reported facts. We have become so paralysed by accusations of racism and prejudice that "Asian gangs" (no mention that they were Muslims who are taught that non-Muslims are inferior) were able to abuse at least 1,400 children in Rotherham alone (report here) resulting in this condemnation:

 "On August 31, the Independent on Sunday reported that a House of Commons committee would launch an investigation into whether Tony Blair's Labour government knew about the Rotherham child abuse scandal as far back as 2001, but refused to act because of his government's desire to pacify Muslim communities."

"On November 10, the BBC reported that police in Rotherham not only ignored, but actively obstructed investigations into child abuse victims, apparently because the perpetrators were Muslim. On November 19, the Birmingham Mail reported that the Birmingham City Council "buried" a politically incorrect government-funded report that revealed to sexual exploitation of young white girls by Muslim men. The author of the report, Jill Jesson, told the newspaper that the report was never published and all copies were to be destroyed."

To view how British Islamist Abu Waleed thinks Muslims should humiliate Christians in order to make them convert to Islam click HERE.

A few more statistics from Fr. George Rutler interviewed here:
"There have been 5.3 million fewer British-born people describing themselves as Christians, a decline of 15% in just a decade. At the same time, the number of Muslims in England and Wales surged by 75% – boosted by almost 600,000 more foreign-born followers of the Islamic faith. While almost half of British Muslims are under the age of 25, almost a quarter of Christians (Protestants and Catholics) are over 65."

Pray that in 2015 HM Government abandons political correctness for reality for the sake of our children and our children's children and that political parties do not harvest cheap votes from Muslim communities by ignoring obvious problems.

Meanwhile, from Cranmer (here) "SOPHIE WESSEX AND THE FASHIONABLE BURQA". - God save us! - And all Muslim women.

A Happy New Year!

Thomasina the Tank Engine

Two years ago I blogged on Political correctness gone mad following a report in the Telegraph that the television company which was recording new adventures of Thomas the Tank Engine was re-branding Christmas as "the holidays" to comply with “politically correct” thinking.

In this holiday season of Christmas there has been another poke at poor little Thomas, this time by Labour minister Mary Creagh who attacks Thomas the Tank Engine over the lack of female characters. There is little I can add to some excellent comments which follow the report here.

Doctor Who and the twits

Time Lord Peter Capaldi

The news that Peter Capaldi is to be the twelfth Time Lord was greeted with some relief. Doctor Who ceased to be family viewing in our household when the children feared extermination by the daleks but the Time Lord transformations have not passed unnoticed. It was with some relief then that I heard that 'Auntie' BBC had resisted the temptation to go transgender or reassign The Doctor's ethnicity from among the list of contenders although it has since transpired that Peter Capaldi was the only name considered.

That Peter Capaldi secured the role on merit, devoid of political correctness, is reassuring. Had the choice of Jane Austen appearing on the new £10 bank note been made on her undoubted merit rather than because she was a woman, many other women would have been spared the inexcusable attention of  the twits on Twitter who have no merit of their own.

Political correctness gone mad.

"Happy Hollyday!"

"Happy Christmas Holiday Thomas!" This is the latest effort of those who prefer to call persons chairs and make everyone feel thoroughly guilty if they don't conform to their overbearingly harsh regime of political correctness.

I missed an earlier report in the Telegraph which broke the news that the television company which is recording new adventures of Thomas the Tank Engine is re-branding Christmas as "the holidays" to comply with “politically correct” thinking.

The fact that the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine was a priest who said that he was a clergyman first and a children's author second would have little effect on persons who regard political correctness as all. This comes on the top of a bizarre decision by the BBC to drop BC and AD in favour of the non-Christian, BCE and CE – Before Common Era and Common Era.


Irritating as these stories are, for pure crassness the pulpit storming, Peter Tatchell takes the biscuit. In a piece for the Guardian he writes: 

"How would you feel if the government banned black people from getting married and made them register their relationships through a separate system called civil partnerships? Most of us would condemn it as racist to have different laws for black and white people. Well, black couples are not banned from marriage but lesbian and gay couples are. We are fobbed off with civil partnerships." 

Also, "Don't get me wrong, civil partnerships are an important advance. But they are not equality. Separate laws are not equal laws. Civil partnerships are a legal form of sexual apartheid. They create a two-tier system of partnership recognition: one law for heterosexuals (civil marriage) and another for same-sex couples (civil partnership)."

I guess this all started because our way of life irritated feminists, then Islamists, now LGTB and so on. If I were an Islamist, feminist, lesbian I may be happy but being none of them, like many others I am becoming more and more irritated by these PC persons. I regard civil partnerships as a sensible levelling for those in stable relationships outside marriage and to condemn them as the sexual apartheid of racists is a new low in political correctness but they want it only their way, never mind the rest of us, including children used to looking forward to their Christmas stories.

An Englishman's word is his bond?

An Englishman's word  is  was (?) his bond.

Promises are in the news again, this time the promises that were made in the winning of the 2012 Olympic Games for London - as if we need them with huge cuts in essential services plus the security implications but broken promises are my concern here. 

Political pledges such as those given on tuition fees are often looked at with scepticism in the shifting ground of politics but what excuse can there be for the Church of England breaking its promise to traditionalist Anglicans as it ponders the question of women bishops? - A 'Broken Promises' summary was published in Forward in Faith's "New Directions" last month (page 10). 

For some MPs it is not faith but political correctness that counts as they attempt a fix regardless of the wishes of the new Synod.  If honour means nothing at the highest levels of government in Church and State with promises continually broken, as the question goes to dioceses for discussion it will be interesting to see if, for the grass roots, still "An Englishman's word IS his bond".

Honour and Dishonour

Eighty-three year old Kathleen White has worked at Claverley Post Office near Wolverhampton for 68 years becoming sub-postmistress in 1960. She has also spent 38 years on the parish council and ran the Sunday school at nearby All Saints Church for more than 20 years. She has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List for her services as an unsung hero.

Sixty-six year old former south-east London MP Peter Bottomley (pictured left) receives a knighthood  after (only) 35 years in the Commons. "The former Tory minister, an MP since 1975, is honoured for public service in recognition of his "long and distinguished" parliamentary career."

Distanced greatly in their service awards , Miss White and Sir Peter share links of service to the Church of England. While Miss White has been busy teaching the Christian faith to children for over 20 years, Sir Peter has been busy on church business. He is a former Chairman of the Church of England Children’s Society and a trustee of Christian Aid but it is his service on the parliamentary Ecclesiastical Committee which is especially noteworthy, particularly for traditionalists in the Church of England. Asked for his views on the ordination of women bishops his response was "Surely people should be considered on merit. Sex is not merit. Sex is not a qualification or a disqualification." 

In 1992 the Ecclesiastical Committee insisted that provisions must be made for those opposed to women bishops, something conveniently forgotten when the Church of England submitted to the will of Women and the Church (WATCH) who have been determined not to honour pledges given. In 2008 Mr Bottomley's response to this duplicity was "Essentially everyone knew that when you had the ordination of women as priests that this would lead to the ordination of women bishops after a decent length of pause. Some would say it has now been an indecent length of pause." An odd sense of honour for someone in a trusted position. Perhaps having served on the Parliamentary Standards Committee and knowing so much about honesty, openness, evasion, misrepresentation and lying he felt well qualified to distinguish between honour and dishonour.

It is a pity Sir Peter doesn't know the difference between faith and political correctness. If he were to read Pope Benedict XVI's account "On the Church’s position on against women priests in "Light of the World" quoted here, or listen to Dr Priscilla Noble-Mathews linked here, he would be much better informed. Traditionalists in the Church of England must hope that his colleagues on the Ecclesiastical Committee are better informed and pray that God rather than political correctness guides them in their work in 2011 and beyond. 

Another covenant?

The Anglican Communion is taking desperate measures to stitch together something that might be passed off as a silk purse rather than the sow’s ear it has become. When the General Synod meets later this month to discuss the proposed Anglican Covenant, designed to hold together its disparate members with their “constitutional autonomy [in] the Anglican Communion”, they will find that lines have already have been drawn and campaigns organised against it.

As the major churches of East and West strive for unity with signs of [gender neutral] brotherly love, the Anglican Communion persists in pushing itself further and further away pretending that God is for their liberal agenda, necessitating rules for dealing with strife. Gone is the mystery, the tolerance, the ‘love thy neighbour’ of the New Covenant which swept away the hypocrisy of old. In its place we have a secularised, do as you please organisation where faith has given way to political correctness, often self-centred rather than Christ-centred.

An example of how badly things have gone wrong is demonstrated by the Episcopal Church of the United States illustrated in the Anglican Curmudgeon Blog and, closer to the context of the Church of England, by the St Barnabas Blog.

Seeing how Anglicanism is falling apart clearly shows that re-interpreting the Gospel to suit today's lifestyle does not work. This is exemplified by the web site of the CofE's neighbouring Church in Wales, the introductory page of which has much more to do with politics than with religion. “His Darkness” the Archbishop of Wales, a disciple of Mrs Jefferts Schori, frequently claims that he is making the church relevant to society today, blind to the fact that the unchanging mysteries of Orthodoxy and Catholicism have far more relevance outside his little domain. Even unchanging Islam growing in their own backyards fails to convince liberals that they may be mistaken.

Compare these examples of modern day Anglicanism with the timeless teachings of the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Compare traditional faith with the modern difficulties caused of choosing another way. I do not ever remember the Archbishop of Canterbury looking so uncomfortable as he does when he seeks to explain the Anglican Covenant. And with good reason as its main purpose is stated to be how to sort out divisions that have arisen [of their own making Ed]. Archbishop Rowan ends by saying that he hopes the covenant will be a “truly effective tool for witness and mission in our world”.

I wish him success in his endeavour but it must be blindingly obvious that if the Anglican Church had continued to follow the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, there should be no need of another.