Showing posts with label Jacqui Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacqui Smith. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: Controversial talkshow host blacklisted by former home secretary Jacqui Smith claims his views have never incited violence
US "shock jock" Michael Savage has appealed to prime minister Gordon Brown to remove his name from a blacklist of people barred from entering the UK.
The controversial radio talkshow host has already announced he will sue former home secretary Jacqui Smith for libel for placing his name on the list alongside former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black, a Hamas MP and the leaders of a violent Russian skinhead gang.
Savage said his letter to the prime minister, which comes after Smith stepped down from the cabinet last week ahead of the reshuffle, provides Brown with an opportunity to stop his £100,000 lawsuit.
Savage, real name Michael Weiner, said that his inclusion on the blacklist was "arbitrary and based on soundbites taken out of context", adding that he had already approached the new home secretary, Alan Johnson, asking for his case to be urgently reconsidered.
In his letter, he described Smith's claims that he fostered hatred and provoked crime as "entirely untrue and extremely damaging".
"I am advised that these allegations are serious and that should I press my claim, I am likely to recover a very substantial award in damages," he added.
Describing himself as an admirer of "the land of Magna Carta, the mother of parliaments and the great Winston Churchill", Savage said he was "shocked and astonished" to chosen for exclusion. >>> Jason Deans and agencies | Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
MAIL Online: Gordon Brown's grip on government was faltering last night as Jacqui Smith led a ministerial scramble for the exit.
The Home Secretary plunged his Cabinet reshuffle into chaos by letting it be known she is resigning.
An emotional Miss Smith told friends she could not stand the pressure on her family over revelations that her husband's porn films were charged to the taxpayer.
She becomes the biggest casualty of the MPs' expenses scandal.
Miss Smith told Mr Brown of her decision two months ago, but he asked her to keep it secret until he finalised the Cabinet shake-up.
Instead, the news came out just 48 hours ahead of elections expected to be a Labour disaster. >>> By James Chapman | Wednesday, June 03, 2009
SAVAGE NATION:
Take hope, Michael! You’re winning! >>>
GEERT WILDERS:
Take heart, Geert! You’re winning, too! >>>
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
BBC: Jacqui Smith is expected to stand down as home secretary in a reshuffle, Whitehall sources have told the BBC.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to shake-up his cabinet after Thursday's European and English local elections.
Ms Smith has been criticised for listing her sister's London house as her main home for expenses - and her husband's claim for an adult movie.
It is understood Ms Smith, the first woman home secretary, intends to defend her Redditch seat at the next election.
Mr Brown confirmed to the BBC he is planning a reshuffle but refused to be drawn on individual ministers' roles. >>> | Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Listen to BBC video: Jacqui Smith speaking to John Humphrys on Today: April 7, 2009 >>>
Sunday, May 31, 2009
MAIL Online: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will fight defamation proceedings launched against her by a US 'shock jock' barred from entering the UK, the Home Office said today.
Broadcaster Michael Savage has employed top UK law firm Olswang to sue Ms Smith for libel after she put him on the Home Office’s 16 ‘least wanted’ list.
Mr Savage said he was ‘outraged’ the Government had put him in the same category as Islamic hate preachers and terrorists.
The letter from Olswang, due to land on Ms Smith’s desk tomorrow, accuses her of making ‘serious and damaging defamatory allegations’ against him.
It says Mr Savage, whose show The Savage Nation has eight million listeners in America, has asked for ‘substantial damages’.
The Mail on Sunday has been told he is demanding £100,000.
But the Home Office vowed to fight the demands, insisting the decision to ban Mr Savage was the right one.
A spokesman said: 'As the Home Secretary has already said, he was excluded for engaging in unacceptable behaviour by making comments that might provoke others to serious criminal acts and foster hatred that might lead to inter-community violence.
'Any legal proceedings would be robustly defended; we stand by our decision to exclude this individual.
'Coming to the UK is a privilege that we refuse to extend to those who abuse our standards and values to undermine our way of life.'
Mr Savage says ‘lunatic’ Ms Smith had no right to put him on the same list as a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, a skinhead gang leader and a Hezbollah militant who served 30 years in prison.
The lawyers’ letter states: ‘Our client requires the payment of a substantial sum in damages to be agreed and retraction of the allegations.
He also requires a personal apology from you and an acknowledgement that the Home Office has agreed to pay a substantial sum in libel damages.’ >>> Simon Walters | Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
TOWNHALL: American talk show host Michael Savage is banned from entering the United Kingdom. "You've got to be kidding!" was our first thought when we heard this news. But it's no joke. Michael Savage has strong opinions, but he is certainly no terrorist. Yet his name is lumped together with leaders of a Russian skinhead gang who are serving jail time for murdering 20 people, Hezbollah, Kashmiri terrorists, assorted Muslim and Jewish extremists plus a neo Nazi.
On the air for the past 15 years any talk host will undoubtedly make a few comments that offend people, but Savage has certainly never incited anyone to violence. Savage is very successful, reaching an audience of 8.25 million listeners each week. But all Americans should be outraged that the British government has placed him on their 'least wanted' list, banning him from entering the country. This is a blatant assault on freedom of speech.
Since 2005, the U.K. has been able to ban people who promote hatred, terrorist violence or serious criminal activity. On May 5, Britain's Home Office released the names of 16 of the 22 individuals who have been placed on the list since October of 2008. The report describes Savage as: "Controversial daily radio host. Considered to be engaging in unacceptable behavior by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence."
"This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country," said Home Secretary Jaqui Smith about Savage.
To place a successful talk host like Michael Savage on the same list as radical Muslim clerics, convicted criminals, and Russian skinheads is beyond outrageous. Yet we hear not a peep being said by the U.S. government and mainstream media in defense of Savage against this outrage. >>> By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown | Friday, May 15, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: It is shocking that not a single MP has stood up to defend free speech, says Boris Johnson.
About 10 years ago my brother-in-law was giving me a lift through the early morning Washington traffic when he suddenly gave a whoop of joy. "It's Howie!" yelled Ivo, turning up the radio. "We gotta listen to Howie!" And it was with mounting disbelief that I listened to the next 20 minutes of the Howard Stern show, a shameless and cynical attempt to scandalise the ear.
That morning Howard was appealing to his listeners to ring in with the most tear-jerking hard-luck story. In return he was offering a nude massage at the hands of an attractive nude masseuse. In a display of Oprah Winfreyesque exhibitionism, the audience was competing for that massage. We heard of divorces, and bereavements, and embarrassing disfigurements. But the winner (I advise sensitive readers to faint now) was a man who rang in to say that he had just been diagnosed with cancer, and might lose his gonads, but had not yet had the courage to tell his girlfriend.
Howard Stern pounced. "What's her number?" he said. With lightning efficiency his producers patched the caller through to his girlfriend, and soon she was being told – live on air – that there was good news and bad news.
The bad news was that her boyfriend had cancer, and the good news was that he was the winner of a nude massage. The poor woman gasped and sobbed. I sat there in exactly the state desired by the producers of the Howard Stern show – appalled, disgusted, but also thrilled by the horror of what was apparently (and I stress apparently) taking place on the radio.
We just don't have shows like this in Britain, I said to Ivo. That's right, he said, and he told me about the shock jocks. He explained the tactics of men such as Stern and Rush Limbaugh, how they shamelessly chased after ratings by causing outrage, how they goosed the secret prejudices of their listeners. Some people tuned in because they actually agreed with what was being said. Most people just enjoyed the theatre, the vehemence, the provocation.
These shock jocks were national institutions, with millions of weekly listeners. They were a new and important part of the American constitution, and that is my first objection to the utterly demented decision by Jacqui Smith's Home Office to announce that Michael Savage, America's third most popular radio show host, is banned from entering this country. It just makes us look so infantile, so pathetic. >>> By Boris Johnson | Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: As one US shock jock is banned from Britain, Giles Hattersley* asks why millions love to listen to the ranterati
Last week Jacqui Smith forgot the first rule of dealing with shock jocks: never take the bait. On Tuesday the home secretary unveiled 16 names from a list of 22 undesirables the government has recently banned from entering the UK: Ku Klux Klan members, Russian skinheads, religious extremists . . . and Michael Savage, a 67-year-old American radio presenter with a dog called Teddy who can bark the tune of Jingle Bells.
Now, Savage (born Michael Alan Weiner) isn’t some lonely nutcase with a ham radio ranting about Hitler, but America’s third most popular chat show host with 8.5m weekly listeners. Think of an American Nicky Campbell — with a gun, a temper and some highly contentious views on immigration.
Take this gem from The Savage Nation, his nationally syndicated show, last summer: “The illness du jour is autism,” Savage fumed. “You know what autism is? In 99% of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, you idiot’.”
Or this on Muslims: “I said, ‘So kill 100m of them, then there would be 900m of them.’ What is it gonna take for you people to wake up? Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you’re gonna have to make that choice sooner rather than later.”
Savage has also said the victims of the 2004 tsunami deserved it for harbouring terrorists, that children’s minds are “being raped by the homosexual mafia” and that a caller who mocked his teeth “should only get Aids and die, you pig”.
These soundbites were enough for Smith to label him as “someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country”.
And then . . . what? Did she imagine that would be that? If so, she didn’t know her man. In full spit-fleck mode, Savage took to the airwaves later that day to call the home secretary a “witch” and a “lunatic”, adding if she didn’t remove him from the list he would sue for defamation. Since he hasn’t committed any crime, he might have a case. >>> Giles Hattersley* | Sunday, May 10, 2009
*The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the writer of the article, Giles Hattersley. They are his opinions, and his alone.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
DAILY EXPRESS: A RACE hate preacher who praised the July 7 London suicide bombers has been freed from jail – after serving barely 12 months of a four-and-a-half year sentence.
Abu Izzadeen, 33, was back on the streets yesterday after being jailed for inciting UK Muslims to kill British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The firebrand cleric praised suicide bombers, tried to justify the beheading of British hostage Ken Bigley in Iraq, and told followers: “The Americans and British only understand one language. It’s the language of blood.”
Last night Tory MP Patrick Mercer condemned Britain’s soft-bellied justice and warned: “This man will be back on the streets shortly, preaching hate, subverting young minds and trying to inspire people to violence and suicide.”
Izzadeen – born Trevor Brooks in Jamaica – has nine children and will rake in around £800 a month in benefits.
He posed outside his east London home yesterday but declined to answer questions, saying only: “I am in a rush, I have got an appointment.”
His sentence was cut by the Court of Appeal. Judges took a year off at a hearing last week, as well as reducing the sentences of four other Islamic extremists. Fanatic Freed to Stir Up Hate >>> By John Twomey | Thursday, May 7, 2009
TIMESONLINE: The American “shock jock” radio host Michael Savage, who was included on a Home Office list of 16 people banned from entering the country, last night urged his listeners to boycott Britain.
He told his audience that Americans should not travel to Britain or buy British goods, and delivered a personal message to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, who made the decision to include him on the list of unwanted foreigners: “Unless you remove my name forthwith, unless you admit you made a mistake, I will bring a major libel suit against you personally and I will win.”
Mr Savage opened fire on the Home Secretary on the conservative news website WorldNetDaily , where he said that his message to her and the British people was: “Shame on you. Shame that you’ve fallen to such a low level.”
“It’s interesting to me that here I am, a talk show host who does not advocate violence, who advocates patriotic traditional values — borders, language, culture — who is now on a list banned in England.
“What does that say about the Government of England? It says more about them than it says about me.” Mr Savage, 67, said that he had no plans to travel to Britain, which he last visited more than 20 years ago, and joked to the San Francisco Chronicle:
“My first thought was, damn, there goes the summer trip where I planned to have my dental work done. My second thought was, darn, there goes my visit to the restaurants of England for their great cuisine.” >>> Mike Harvey in San Francisco, Richard Ford and Frances Gibb | Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
TIMESONLINE: An American “shock jock” said last night that he was planning legal action against the Government after discovering that he had been on a list of 16 people banned from entering Britain since October.
Michael Savage, who hosts the “Savage Nation” radio show, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had been defamed and endangered by the decision made by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary.
“This lunatic . . . is linking me up with Nazi skinheads who are killing people in Russia,” he said. “She’s putting me in a league with Hamas murderers who kill Jews on buses.
“I have never advocated violence. I've been on the air 15 years. My views may be inflammatory, but they're not violent in any way.” >>> Richard Ford, Home Correspondent | Wednesday, May 6, 2009
MAIL Online: U.S[.] Shock Jock to Sue Home Office for Defamation after Being Included on the List of 22 Banned from the UK
An American 'shock jock' DJ has vowed to sue the Government after being included on a list of Britain's 'least wanted'.
Talk-show presenter Mike Savage branded Jacqui Smith a 'lunatic' after being named alongside hate preachers and a member of Hamas.
He was yesterday named on a list of 22 hardliners banned from entering the UK because the Home Office claims they have fostered extremism or hatred.
Miss Smith said the move was aimed at naming and shaming extremists and demonstrate behaviour the Government will not tolerate.
But the publication appears to have backfired on the minister, whose job is already hanging by a thread due to a string of expense scandals.
Mr Savage said: 'For this lunatic Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary of England, to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses, is defamation.
'I thought this was a joke or a mistake. How could they put Michael Savage in the same league with mass murderers when I have never avowed violence? As a result of this, I am going to sue.'
He added: ‘I've been on the air 15 years. My views may be inflammatory, but they're not violent in any way.’ >>> By James Slack | Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: The preposterous Jacqui Smith is a disgrace to the office of Home Secretary.
I know that people like me are supposed to write newspaper columns because we have a certain command of the English tongue. However, there are times when even the most experienced of us is forced to struggle. How, after all, can one describe Jacqui Smith, our Home Secretary? The adjectives come thick and fast, but all seem insufficient to describe this ambulant catastrophe. Preposterous, corrupt, dim, incompetent, sleazy, incapable: none of them is quite the job.
Miss Smith began by looking corrupt, when it was revealed that she was occupying a room at her sister's house and charging for it as her main residence. She then looked sleazy, dim and preposterous when it emerged that her husband, incarcerated at what was allegedly her second residence, was watching porn films and charging them to the taxpayer. Incompetence and incapability can now be added to the charge sheet following her role in the raiding of the office of Damian Green, a Conservative MP and the party's immigration spokesman: and perhaps one other adjective too – disgraceful. >>> By Simon Heffer | Saturday, April 18, 2009
Saturday, April 04, 2009
TIMESONLINE: The extremist cleric Abu Qatada has issued a 6,000-word rallying cry to his followers from inside one of Britain’s most secure prison units.
The Palestinian preacher hails the “victory” of the Mujahidin and claims that his treatment has helped to radicalise a new generation of young British Muslims.
Despite demanding his freedom, he says that “the gift of prison” has helped him to lose more than 50lb (22kg) in weight. He even suggests that a vigorous exercise programme appears to have cured his diabetes and back trouble.
The cleric boasts of being told by Bilal Abdullah, the NHS doctor jailed for the car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow in 2007, that he was heavily influenced by the cleric’s taped sermons. He describes the bomber, who narrowly failed in his attempts to blow up a nightclub and airport terminal, as “truthfully a man from the men of Islam, in knowledge, action, steadfastness and manhood”.
His communiqué was smuggled out of Long Lartin high-security jail, Worcestershire, and is circulating on jihadi websites and forums, where it is attracting widespread comment. The ease with which it has been distributed is an embarrassment for Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, who is in charge of prisons, and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, who leads the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. >>> Sean O’Neill, Crime and Security Editor and Richard Ford, Home Correspondent | Saturday, April 4, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
This is the woman who denied entry to the United Kingdom to our friend Geert Wilders! Since that ridiculous, undemocratic decision, she’s got herself into a fine kettle of fish! Porn films paid for by the taxpayer, all manner of sleaze, and denying parliamentarians the right to speak freely – how can she sleep at night? – ©Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claimed £22,948 in 2007/08 in taxpayer-funded allowances for her second home, official figures have shown.
Miss Smith, whose claims are already under investigation by a sleaze watchdog, was battling fresh embarrassment today after it emerged that public money paid for two adult films watched by her husband.
Figures released by the House of Commons showed she was paid the sum in additional costs allowance (ACA), which is designed to cover the cost of working in both London and a constituency.
Miss Smith is being investigated because of complaints about her decision to designate her sister's house in south London, where she stays, as her "main" home, allowing her to claim back the costs of running her family house in her Redditch constituency.
Her overall expenses claim, including travel, office and staffing costs, was £157,631.
That sum included 25 journeys for her husband, Richard Timney, who is employed as her Parliamentary assistant, at a cost to the public purse of £2,531.
The figures released by the House of Commons authorities showed that Prime Minister Gordon Brown claimed £124,454 in expenses and allowances in 2007/08, while Conservative leader David Cameron claimed £148,829.
The details are published annually and were initially due for release last October but were delayed amid a legal row over whether full receipts and invoices should be disclosed.
MPs are permitted to claim a range of expenses, including a maximum of £23,083 for the additional costs allowance (ACA), which covers the cost of staying away from their main residence to carry out their parliamentary duties.
ACA is used to cover the cost of running and furnishing a property, as well as rent or mortgage interest payments. Most MPs use it to pay for a base in central London to use while they are working in Westminster, though some – like Miss Smith – treat their London address as their main home and claim allowances on their constituency property. >>> | Monday, March 30, 2009
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Thursday, February 26, 2009
MAIL Online: Jacqui Smith was tonight warned against exercising 'double standards' as an Islamic extremist prepared to travel to the UK.
Ibrahim Moussawi, a known hardliner with links to Hezbollah, has been invited to speak at a London university.
But the Home Secretary is under pressure to refuse an entry visa to Moussawi, who has allegedly described Jews as 'a lesion on the forehead of history'.
Earlier this month, she banned the far-Right Dutch MP Geert Wilders from coming to Britain to show his film about Islam as it would threaten 'community harmony'.
But the Conservatives warned that to ban those who threaten community harmony, while letting in those who glorify terrorism or are part of terrorist groups, would send out the 'wrong message'.
There must be 'no double standards on extremists', warned Tory security spokesman Baroness Neville-Jones.
Moussawi, who has already made at least two trips to the UK, has been invited to speak on political Islam at the School of Oriental and African Studies next month.
Editor for the newspaper of Lebanon-based terrorist organisation Hezbollah, he is a former political editor of the Iranian-backed group's TV station, which is banned in many countries including France, Spain and the U.S, as its output is seen as anti-Semitic.
Despite his background he has twice been allowed to speak publicly in Britain by the Home Office, once in December 2007 and again in February 2008. Will Labour Allow THIS Muslim Hardliner with Links to Hezbollah into Britain? >>> By James Slack | Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The Home Secretary has banned two extremist anti-gay preachers from entering Britain, a move that follows a decision to refuse entry to Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Muslim MP.
Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper, who belong to the US Westboro Baptist Church, were planning to come to the UK to protest outside a performance of a youth play called The Laramie Project, which recounts the death of gay university student Matthew Shepard who was killed in Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998.
It was due to be performed at Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke, Hampshire, tomorrow.
The pair have been known to picket US soldiers’ funerals, holding up banners with phrases such as "God Hates Fags" because they believe that their deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are punishment for America’s tolerance of gays. Anti-gay Preachers Fred Phelps and Shirley Phelps-Roper Banned from Britain >>> David Byers | Thursday, February 19, 2009
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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
THE SUN: TWO American hate preachers were banned tonight from entering Britain by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.
Extremist Christian leaders Fred Phelps and daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper had planned to jet into the UK to protest against a play being put on by a gay youth group on Friday.
The fanatics are both members of the US Westboro Baptist Church - a sick sect which calls for homosexuals to be killed and CELEBRATES soldiers' deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Picket
Phelps, 79, and his daughter Shirley, 51, had targeted a performance of The Laramie Project, about the death of an American man killed for being gay.
They had boasted they would picket the play, due to be held at a school arts centre in Basingstoke, Hants.
But the pair will now be stopped by immigration officials on arrival and placed straight on a flight back to the US.
Home Office sources said other church members could also be flagged and stopped if they tried to enter Britain. >>> By Tom Wells | Wednesday, February 18, 2009
PINK NEWS: Labour's Gay Group Asks for Ban on God Hates Fags Church Members
LGBT Labour has written to the Home Office asking that members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church be refused entry into the UK.
The church, a tiny sect with around 60 members, often picket funerals in the US.
They claim God is punishing the world because homosexuality is tolerated.
The group said on their website GodHatesFags.com that they would be protesting at a performance of a gay-themed play in Basingstoke on Friday.
In a letter to Immigration Minister Phil Woolas, LGBT Labour co-chair Simon Wright referred to the Home Office decision to ban a Dutch MP who is critical of Islam from entering the UK because he would harm community relations.
"As the government refused entry to the UK to Geert Wilders last week, it is hoped that the same laws can also be used to prevent this family from entering the UK to spread their hated of homosexuality," said Mr Wright.
At least one Labour and one Tory MP have written to the Home Secretary about the issue. It is highly unlikely that WBC members will try to picket in the UK.
The publicity-hungry group have previously threatened protests in Canada, Australia and Sweden but never turned up. [Source: Pink News] Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk | Thursday, February 19, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The Home Secretary should instead stop the advocates of violence from entering Britain, argues Charles Moore
'The Secretary of State is satisfied" would be a good title for a satirical television drama. It is the favourite bureaucratic phrase used to convey a ministerial decision.
This week, the office of the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith wrote to Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP who had been invited to the House of Lords to present his anti-Muslim film Fitna to MPs and peers there.
Miss Smith, said the letter, was "satisfied" that what Mr Wilders said "about Muslims and their beliefs… would threaten community harmony and therefore public security in the UK".
So the Flying Dutchman reached Heathrow on Thursday, but was put on a plane back to Holland straightaway.
It is extremely unusual that an elected member of a European legislature is banned from this country when invited by members of our own Parliament. It contravenes a key democratic principle about the power of legislators to talk to one another, whether governments like it or not.
The Dutch authorities – though they greatly dislike Mr Wilders – saw this point at once, and protested to the British Government. Out of his respect for the rights of the elected, the Dutch ambassador went to Heathrow to meet Mr Wilders. It is typical of the collapse of our Parliament's self-belief that this aspect of the case has been ignored.
Anyway, the Secretary of State was satisfied. What satisfied her? I do not believe that it was the intrinsic nature of Mr Wilders's film or words. I have watched Fitna on YouTube. It takes the view that Islam is irredeemably evil. Mr Wilders has said elsewhere that "Islam is not another leaf on the tree of religion", but a totalitarian political ideology. Banning Wilders Plays into the Hands of Our Islamist Enemies >>> By Charles Moore | Friday, February 13, 2009
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Friday, February 13, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Controvery [sic] and wrong decisions have plagued the Home Secretary.
It is a measure of the tribulation attached to the job of home secretary that so few of its holders have subsequently gone on to become prime minister. Jim Callaghan managed it, by appointment rather than election, and it took Winston Churchill the best part of 30 years and the threat of Nazi invasion to complete his ascent of the greasy pole. Prediction is an ugly business, but it can probably be safely said that the present incumbent of the post, Jacqui Smith, will not be troubling the scorers either.
Miss Smith has had a terrible week. First, she is widely and rightly condemned for engaging in an expenses-garnering operation that breaks no law, but certainly breaks its spirit. Then she manages to make quite the wrong decision about the admittance to Britain of the Dutch anti-Islamist Geert Wilders. It has rightly been pointed out that many other people with unsavoury points of view have been allowed into this country to peddle their ideas; not least Islamists who are profoundly anti-Christian. We are, or should be, a land that believes in freedom of speech. No one was expecting Miss Smith to ask Mr Wilders to have cocktails with her; but she should have allowed him in to say his piece, and to have the rest of us judge him on his own merits. Her action is a self-inflicted and entirely unnecessary blow to our tradition of liberty. Read on and comment >>> Telegraph View | Friday, February 13, 2009
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