Monday, September 05, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Historian Niall Ferguson on why broken Britain, celebrity culture and being called a pin-up make him angry.
I have not yet asked Niall Ferguson about him leaving his wife and three children, or his relationship with the Somalian feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, so when he launches in to a lengthy and verbose attack against the press during what I thought was a pretty innocuous chat about political correctness (he loathes it, naturally), it seems a little out of the blue.
“I really hate it,” he scowls.
"I can’t stand it. I find the prurience, the prying, the sneering… I find it utterly odious. But the problem isn’t just the amorality of editors and their minions, it is that the British public also has a nauseating prurience. And what I find disgusting is that people want to judge footballers – and professors for that matter – by an entirely anachronistic yardstick. It’s as if by reading this stuff we become Victorians, and we are scandalised, I mean scandalised, to discover that a professor of history is getting divorced, which is clearly outrageous in this day and age.
“I mean, how can this be news? How can this be ------- news? To me, it’s just a collective hypocrisy that attracts people to these stories. This desire to look into the BEDROOMS” – he is practically shouting now – “and pick up the sheets and have a gander. It disgusts me.”
I understand Ferguson’s anger. His new girlfriend, who was circumcised as a young girl in Somalia and is now pregnant with their first child, lived under a fatwa even before Theo Van Gogh – her friend and collaborator on a film about Muslim women – was murdered by extremists, a message affixed to his chest with a knife saying that she was next.
Both Ferguson and Ali are on an al-Qaeda list now and have security. “It’s not just that I can’t understand why the British press should want to write stories about the private life of an academic who has done a bit of telly [his series for Channel 4, Civilization, based on his book of the same name, about the fall of the West, proved incredibly popular]. More than anything else what makes me tremendously angry is that one consequence of the intrusion was to place Ayaan in danger. That is just contemptible.” Continue reading and comment » | Bryony Gordon | Monday, September 05, 2011
MAIL ON SUNDAY: TV historian is having a child with his Somali-born feminist partner » | Mail On Sunday Reporter | Sunday, June 05, 2011
Sunday, September 04, 2011
REUTERS.COM: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, his presidential hopes shattered by a sex assault scandal that rocked his homeland, returned on Sunday to Francefacing a frosty public reception and unease among his political allies. » | Pauline Mevel and Chine Labbe | PARIS | Sunday, September 04, 2011
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Dramatic plans to disband the Tories north of the border were unveiled by the front-runner for its leadership in a move one senior party figure warned could encourage the break-up of the United Kingdom.
The Prime Minister – who is spending the weekend in Scotland – faces the prospect of being the first British Prime Minister whose party has no Scottish MPs.
Murdo Fraser, who is favourite to become leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, will announce that he plans to wind up the party if he wins a ballot of members next month.
He would follow disbanding the party by launching a new Right-of-centre party that would contest all Scottish elections — council, Scottish Parliament and Westminster.
Mr Fraser, a member of the Scottish Parliament, believes the Conservatives have become a “toxic brand” in Scotland since losing all 11 of their Commons seats in the 1997 Labour landslide.
Mr Cameron, who is staying with the Queen at Balmoral this weekend, has been told of Mr Fraser’s plans, but has decided to remain neutral for fear of being accused of interfering in the Scottish Tories’ leadership election. Read on and comment » | Alan Cochrane, Scottish Editor | Saturday, September 03, 2011
Friday, September 02, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A worldwide travel alert ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has been issued by the US State Department, calling on Americans living and travelling abroad to remain vigilant.
The department said it had not identified any "specific threats" about possible attacks but that al-Qaeda and its affiliates had "demonstrated the intent and capability to carry out attacks" against the US and US interests.
"In the past, terrorist organisations have on occasion planned their attacks to coincide with significant dates on the calendar," the State Department said.
The alert expires on January 2, 2012, it said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there was "no specific or credible intelligence that al-Qaeda or its affiliates are plotting attacks" linked to the anniversary of the worst terror strikes on US soil.
But she added: "We remain at a heightened state of vigilance, and security measures are in place to detect and prevent plots against the United States should they emerge." » | Friday, September 02, 2011
When the President of the United States says he wants to address Congress, it is not normally up for discussion but then again, these are far from normal times in Washington DC.
Barack Obama is taking heat for agreeing to reschedule a major economic speech, because Republicans effectively told him they had other plans.
Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane reports.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Es ist der jüngste Ausfall von Silvio Berlusconi: Der Milliardär und Regierungschef soll Italien am Telefon ein „Scheißland“ genannt haben, das er in einigen Monaten verlassen wolle. Bei dem Anruf soll es auch um die Sexaffären Berlusconis gegangen sein. » | dpa | Freitag 02. September 2011
THE GUARDIAN: Berlusconi vows to leave 'shitty' Italy in conversation recorded by police: Transcripts from blackmail investigation reveal the Italian prime minister's frustration with his country » | John Hooper | Rome | Thursday, September 01, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (AUSTRALIA): A DECISION to use politically correct terms - which do not mention Jesus Christ - for dates BC and AD in the new national history curriculum was an act of Christian cleansing, church leaders said yesterday.
BCE (Before Common Era), BP (Before Present) and CE (Common Era) are the new neutral terms to replace the historical terms BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini).
Removing BC and AD from the curriculum was an "intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human history", Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen said yesterday.
"It is absurd because the coming of Christ remains the centre point of dating and because the phrase 'common era' is meaningless and misleading," he said.
It was akin to calling Christmas the festive season, Archbishop Jensen said.
The Reverend Fred Nile said the deletion was "an absolute disgrace ... the direction of the national curriculum is towards almost a Christian cleansing to remove from our history any references to the role Christianity had in the formation of Australia and still has today".
"This is the final insult to remove BC and AD which are still recognised around the world," he said. Read on and comment » | Miranda Devine | Friday, September 02, 2011
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