I read that the government is considering building a Muslim-only prison, in order to better ensure the safety of Muslim prisoners, particularly those of the terrorist persuasion. This follows attacks on the jailed terrorists Dhiren Barot (which I discussed here) and Hussein Osman, and the alleged receipt of death threats by Omar Khyam. Aside from protecting these terrorist lowlife from the justified anger that they arouse even in criminals’ hearts, it is expected that the special Muslim-only prisons will enable staff to better cater (or should that be pander?) to Muslims’ dietary and prayer requirements.

Well, screw that! Personally, I really couldn’t care less if "people" like Barot or Osman are getting attacked – indeed, as my comments following the attack on Barot show, I am more supportive of than opposed to prisoners (or anyone else) giving such creatures the beating of a lifetime. So what if they suffer in jail: it’s no more than they deserve.
Neither do I see why Muslims, or anyone else, should have their unusual dietary requirements catered to. If you’re a law-abiding person, you have every right to insist on keeping Halal, or Kosher, or on being a vegetarian. But when you’re in prison, then your right to deviate from the expected norm vanishes: beggars can’t be choosers, and neither should prisoners. That’s one of the purposes of having prisons, and punishments for those who break the law: you lose some of your rights, and some of your freedoms. In my opinion, prisoners should be given the cheapest, most low-quality food available, and told that if they don’t like it, they can, to coin a phrase, lump it.
Equally, while I would generally say that religion in prisons is a good thing, I think that it is clear to all thinking people, that Islam is an exception to this rule. After all, if you’ve been sent to jail because of terrorist offences committed because you are a Muslim, then I would think that the last thing anyone should want is for you to be further exposed to the religion that has driven you to commit such actions. The worryingly high number of young Muslim men who are radicalised while in prison is a further reason to be suspicious of a plan to put them in an environment where their religious demands are catered for in every conceivable way, and where, indeed, they would only be in the company of their fellow Muslims.

Indeed, the only possible reason that I can think of for wishing to segregate Muslim prisoners from non-Muslims, is to protect the non-Muslims. After all, there have been reports of Muslim inmates forcibly converting non-Muslim prisoners to Islam. But a better solution to that problem would be to simply split up Muslim prisoners, so that, rather than mixing exclusively with other Muslims, as the government seems to wish, they mix almost exclusively with non-Muslims. Then, not only would they be unable to form themselves into gangs and intimidate other inmates into converting, but they would also be unable to radicalise young Muslim inmates, or to plan further terrorist atrocities. And if Dhiren Barot gets his neck broken, well, that’s just a price we’ll all have to pay.

Postscript: Some readers may recall that in the aftermath of the latest efforts by followers of the Religion of Peace to slaughter hundreds of people, Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s favourite dhimmi, Ken Livingstone, claimed that "Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims". I wonder, in that case, how he accounts for the fact that, while Muslims currently make-up just 3% of the total UK population, they constitute fully 12% of the UK’s prison population. Don’t seem to be quite so law-abiding after all, do they?

Pathetic!

It is revealed today that Ministers in the British Government insisted that British secret agents would only be allowed to pass intelligence to the CIA to help it capture Osama bin Laden if the agency promised he would not be tortured, it has emerged.  MI6 believed it was close to finding the al-Qu’eda in Afghanistan in 1998, and again the next year. The plan was for MI6 to hand the CIA vital information about Bin Laden. Ministers including Robin Cook, the then foreign secretary, gave their approval on condition that the CIA gave assurances he would be treated humanely.

Give me a break. Had Bin Laden been captured, and been physically tortured live on prime time TV, if that could have gained the intelligence to stop  the awful atrocity on 9/11, it would have well been worth it. Being nice to Mr Bin Laden, treating him decently and kindly, is absolute nonsense. This man delighted in planning the mass murder of innocents all around the world – and yet ALL the self righteous shills in the Labour Government could do was concern themselves about poor Mr Bin Laden.

Pathetic.

I see that the Alliance leader David Ford has said that any government funding of loyalists linked to the terrorist group the UDA must be halted. Big deal, it should NEVER have been started. The UDA are criminals who should all be imprisoned. Instead they are the recipients of a £1 million cash bonanza care of the utterly corrupt "peace process". The UDA are no different to the UVF and the IRA, and they are all being rewarded for not killing or maiming us. It’s repugnant to any right thinking democrat and whilst I welcome David Ford’s words, the truth is that he is QUITE happy to sit in an Assembly which contains convicted bombers and murderers, with a Deputy First Minister who is a self-confessed terrorist. Sorry, but all the political class here are hypocrites.

For almost 40 years it has been one of the highlights of the summer for young locals and holidaymakers alike. But yesterday the Llandudno Donkey Derby came to grief at the dreaded hurdle of Health and Safety. Organisers were told that they could not put children on the back of donkeys for the 30-second race which is the highlight of the event in the North Wales resort. Apparently the insurers would not touch the event and so it can no longer take place. 

We keep touching on these seemingly trivial little stories but at the heart of all these tales (Donkey tails?) is the erosion of our way of life because of an increasingly compensation crazy culture. It needs to stop before we become paralysed with fear, and where inaction is seen as preferable to doing something. 

"Bills are going to have to go up, both because of drought and floods," says Labour’s Baroness Young."You either pay upstream to prevent, or you pay downstream to mop up but you’ve got to pay. Climate change is coming home to roost."

Wrong. What we do see is the unseemingly speed with which those such as the Baroness seize on the consequences of their own failure to construct and maintain our flood barriers and to prevent building on floodplanes, then linking this to "climate change" which means – putting up taxes! This is a wicked opportunist government.

I have expressed my disgust at both the current London congestion tariff and the proposed scheme for Manchester.  In order to take the concept of ‘rip-off’ to its zenith, Manchester proposes to have two zones where drivers will be charged to drive (nothing about a rebate on the road tax, by the way).  The first zone covers the city centre.  The second – unbelievably – covers the entire urban area within the M60 Manchester orbital motorway!!  Are they kidding!?  If this comes to fruition car drivers will not only have to pay to enter what is generally referred to as the central business district of the city, they will also have to pay extra for the ‘privilege’ of driving in the suburbs.  Why aren’t people taking to the streets about this?  Oh I forgot, it doesn’t concern football of alcohol!!

Why will Mancunians be compelled to pay to drive in an area that will dwarf the size of the congestion charging zone in London?  Not only that, if the geographical extent of future zones is to be decided by the presence of an orbital motorway, or bypass, what’s to say the London zone won’t be extended to eventually cover the 800+ square miles that lie within the M25 – just to ensure the greedy, grabbing b******s really get their hands on a lot of dosh?  Driving in Britain…..the rip-off starts at Dover, folks!!

Isn’t that nice?  A replica of Ulster’s Giant’s Causeway is to be re-created in Dubai.  Most of you will be aware that the largest city of the United Arab Emirates is something of an economic and commercial beacon for the region.  My fellow writers have written favourably about Dubai and, to be fair, it looks impressive.  The world’s tallest skyscraper, with a roof that should stop somewhere just short of Venus, is currently under construction.

My mate asked me if I would ever visit Dubai.  I flatly refused.  The primary reason being that the UAE does not allow anyone to enter the country who has an Israeli passport.  The UAE is a member of the Arab League and was one of the countries instrumental in encouraging the Arab boycott of Israel.  Members of the government and court systems in the UAE have even protested about good which contain small integral parts manufactured in Israel.  For example, Apple Computers were ordered by various Arab states (including the UAE) not to export computers that contained batteries manufactured in Israel.  Takes the shine of all those new glass buildings, eh?

As well as refusing entry to Israeli citizens, the UAE refuses to allow Israel to establish an embassy on its territory; it even asked the United States not to send Jewish personnel to serve on its consular team.  If all this anti-Zionist agenda was not repulsive enough, the UAE has other skeletons in its cupboard.  For a start women are not allowed to vote.  Moreover, as 80% of the total population are made up of foreign migrant workers who are exploited to the hilt by unscrupulous employers with the tacit approval of the governing authorities, workers rights are often minimal. 

Want more?  You got it!  The UAE is a principal drug trans-shipment point for the Asian drug market.  Its eminence in financial industries also make it a prime location for money laundering.  To cap it all, in the context of our war on Islamic terror, the UAE has undefined and unpoliced borders with Saudi Arabia: a potentially major route for arms which could be used against Western targets.

So there you have it.  A state controlled by backward Arabs who, because of the outward economic evolution of the country, are seen as distinctly less prehistoric than other Arabs who dwell on the peninsula.  Don’t kid yourselves.  A state run by backward people is not remedied by a building boom.  Strange how those who praise Dubai never look behind the facade.

‘Distant water cannot quench a fire close at hand.’

(Li Chu)

Ah well, here’s a lovely tune to wrap up this working week, and it’s by one of my favourite Texans!

Here’s a Liberal elected politician who is so liberal that other liberals resign in alarm!

Yes, I’m talking about Liberal Democrat councillor Myrna Bushell who, in her evening job as a stripper and sex chatline hostess take the definition of liberal way beyond the comfort of some of her colleagues. The married 34-year-old is now at the centre of a bitter party split which has seen three of her fellow Liberal Democrat councillors resign from the party. The rebellion came when the three discovered Mrs Bushell was still running her ‘personal services’ when she was elected to the town council in Bideford, Devon, in May. They are also angry that she had not officially joined the party when she stood for election, and that party officials gave her their backing. Her advertising describes her as ‘Jessica – Kissogram, Stripagram and Stripper Entertainer’.  LOL!