This caught my eye today. 

A Belgian politician has risked causing uproar among Muslims after starting a ‘Women Against Islamization’ campaign featuring his 19-year-old daughter wearing a burka and a bikini.

Filip Dewinter, leader of the Vlaams Belang party, uses a shot of his daughter An-Sofie Dewinter in the dark blue bikini for the political campaign. The glamorous teenager dons a burka that covers her head and face, while the rest of the Muslim garment is draped over her back. The provocative image is likely to inflame tensions among Islamic groups and nationalists in the racially-divided country. The poster shows the words ‘Freedom or Islam?’ written on a red bar across Ms Dewinter’s breasts.

Thoughts? It seems to me that this is a perfectly reasonable, if colourful, way to have a debate on whether Islam is compatible with freedom.

Because Friday night’s Music Night, but roll on tomorrow …

This is one of my favourite times of the year. Whatever else is going on, the 6 Nations is at the top of my sporting tree and tomorrow it’s back.

Predictions? Who knows? It’s all change for many. Six Nations champions England have had a right old clear out with manager, coaches and just about all the old guard gone. In place is a young and dynamic squad with little experience of Test rugby. So they’ll appreciate the warm welcome at Murrayfield tomorrow for the Calcutta Cup match. France and Italy meet tomorrow. France are my favourites to take the championship even though they’ve changed coaches and brought in some new players. They could be pushed very close by either Ireland or Wales, who meet on Sunday in Dublin. I’ll give Wales the edge because they have continuity and Ireland will miss Brian O’Driscoll who is out of the entire tournament with injury. You just don’t replace magic and physical commitment that easily. As always, let’s hope the refs look the other way and we get some good old fashioned scrapping.

The UK media has been running a simple test that has been developed to determine whether your loved ones are at risk of Alzheimer’s.

You can take the test here.

The UK media  has been running a simple test has been developed to determine whether your loved ones are at risk of Alzheimer’s.

This one is dedicated to Fred Goodwin and the gang! Joe Strummer – aka John Graham Mellor – son of a diplomat no less,  liked to write silly street fighting lyrics – but he did have a certain way with them and his heart was always in it….

Job numbers increased by 243,000 in January according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cue much scratching of expert economic heads whose Keynesian models are yet again obliterated. Like the economist I just heard on BBC Radio 5 Live, who was laughably wrong on why jobs are being created, they’ll spend the rest of the year wondering what happened to the double-dip recession which they all predicted, with absolute certainty, for the second half of 2o11. That’s people like Ezra Klein in the WSJ, who is clearly stumped:

The strangest thing about January’s jobs report is that it’s pretty much all good. The headline numbers are great, of course: payrolls are up by 243,000 jobs. Unemployment is down to 8.3 percent. But the inside numbers are good, too.

You see? The “strange” thing is the good news. It’s strange to them because, essentially, Keynesians have no idea how an economy works and therefore do not understand the effects of Bernanke’s incredible money printing. Because they don’t understand how manipulated and inflated the economy is, they also won’t predict the price inflation which is right around the corner.

In amongst all the twitching, grinning and spitting following the resignation from his Cabinet position of Chris Huhne, I wonder how many will be commenting upon the strange and seemingly speedy advancement accorded the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws who is presumably to re-enter the Cabinet after the shuffle!

This was a man who lied about his expenses, having stolen £40,000.00 to pay rent to his boyfriend, despite both being millionaires. This was a man who lied to Parliament. So why is he being singled out for early advancement back into the Coalition Cabinet?

So if you lie over a speeding ticket, you lose your job.

But if you lie to Parliament, you lose your job, but then wait just a little while after being dismissed from the Cabinet, and then, ‘all is forgiven’, ‘welcome back into the Cabinet’.

I apologize to the ladies, but men just grow older.We never grow up

We await the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions as to whether Lib Dem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne will face charges over claims he asked his wife to accept a penalty for speeding on his behalf.

I’ll not pre-empt this issue until we get the decision. Of course even IF the DPP decide to charge him, he is not guilty until proven so by a jury. I am sure the Government would wish that the DPP chooses NOT to prosecute Huhne and so this will be an interesting test of the DPP’s independence. I await the words of  Keir Starmer.

As we live through this nauseating era of the sanitisation of terrorist savagery and the elevation of those who brought this country to its knees through an evil terrorist campaign, the this is perhaps not that big a surprise, it’s just morally repugnant and it seems that all unionists apart from Sinn Fein/DUP are clear enough on the issue; Unionist politicians and victims of IRA atrocities have reacted angrily to the revelation that £18m of European funding has been approved for a conflict resolution centre at the Maze. It has been claimed that the multi-million pound investment will come out of a PEACE III pot of funding for Northern Ireland. It was reported last night that the centre is set to be confirmed in the coming weeks as part of a £300m redevelopment of the 350-acre site near Lisburn.

TUV leader Jim Allister blasted the decision as a “Provo victory.

If a conflict transformation centre is thought to be necessary, why does it have to be at the Maze? Clearly, because the intent is to allow the incorporated prison buildings to facilitate the terror fest aspect of this Provo project. Thereby, the entire site will be blighted. While frontline services are being slashed, including A and E departments, it is full steam ahead with the ‘Maze Shrine’ project, whose funding was ring-fenced in the DUP/Sinn Fein budget while everything else was cut, and now it is the priority for scarce eU resources.”

Conservative and Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson described the funding approval as disappointing.

“This funding is not new money but rather a large proportion of the pot of PEACE III funding already allocated to Northern Ireland and this £18 million could have been used for numerous deserving projects across the Province,” he said. Mr Nicholson said many groups representing innocent victims of the Troubles had raised concerns over the project, “both in terms of the politically charged nature of the site and the level of funding that would be diverted from other projects”. He added: “I find myself wondering how much these groups were consulted by OFMDFM throughout this process?”

Kenny Donaldson, from the victims group South East Fermanagh Foundation, expressed his anger at the major cash boost for the Maze project.

“This will cause great disappointment and anger for all those who lost loved ones at the hands of terrorists,” he said. “I have not spoken to a single victim who has been in support of this conflict centre. There is also concern that this money could have been used to help the many victims groups around Northern Ireland, instead of going towards some kind of terrorist shrine.”

The H blocks where the location where IRA terrorists killed themselves and are seen as some sort of mythic shrine to the Republican movement. That’s why Sinn Fein is determined to ensure that as part of this “Conflict Resolution Centre” the key H Block area where Sands and gang met their Maker is restored to its former glory . (Although I am unsure if this means the cells will be covered in human excrement as favoured by those Hunger Strikers at the time? That might present a few problems for visitors, I suppose.)

Of course this horrendous redevelopment should NOT go ahead, Jim Allister is 100% right. But notice the damning silence of the DUP. They are quite content to go along with the terror shrine thus demonstrating ONCE AGAIN their lamentable hypocrisy and duplicity on the issue. Until Unionism wakens up the the massive threat the DUP represents then there will be many more ritual humiliations such as this.

This Government is just embarrassing on law and order issues. Consider this;  

Tens of thousands of criminals including sex offenders, robbers and violent thugs will be allowed to hide their past convictions from potential employers under Government plans outlined yesterday.