Bel is thinking

Following the Guardian’s infiltration of the BNP, several people have been ‘outed’ as members of that Party.

One of them is the Sugar Plum Fairy in the English National Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker, known as Simone Clarke when she is at home. Her fellow dancers are reported to be confronting her, and members of the audience have been asked whether the ‘revelation’ has affected their appreciation of the performance.

But why should it? Are we now suggesting that BNP members should not have jobs in society? Do we expect them to be hidden in the shadows, sneaking out in the dead of night to forage for food while so-called respectable citizens are in bed? Shock, horror, they have lives like other people, sometimes fulfilling, sometimes not.

The story of the infiltration has a sense of the witchhunt about it which I do not like. What are we trying to achieve here? The agenda seems to run thus: ‘we don’t like the BNP’s views, so let’s smoke out their members and subject them to ridicule’.

As of this morning, being a member of the BNP is not a crime. Being a racist is also not a crime. The most effective way to challenge the ideology of the BNP is to encourage a society where open debate is possible. Perhaps there would be no need to ‘infiltrate’ the BNP if such an atmosphere of free speech existed in the first place. Then they would say what they wanted in the open, and we would challenge them.

As a tangential point, some people wish to keep their party affiliations private while at work. Even members of the sainted Labour Party may not wish their workmates to know about their political opinions. By acting in this manner, the Guardian has breached the privacy of these people. However, don’t expect the do-gooding types to lose much sleep over that; BNP members are apparently not to be treated as normal members of society.

The BNP’s views may be unpalatable to many, but that is no reason to infiltrate them as if they presented some grave and immediate danger from which the Guardian must save us. We all know that there are far more dangerous groups out there which threaten our very existence as a society. If any group is deserving of infiltration, surely it is these. But what’s the betting the Guardian won’t bother?

I read many blogs everyday, and sometimes I come across an article that I want to share.

To do this easily, I have set up a Shared Items site using Google Reader. The site is here. I will also add the link to my link list. Please feel free to check it out now and again. You just might find a blog or an article you like.

The site currently features a tongue-in-cheek guide to grading exams, the Capitalist’s list for Santa, an article on the correct pronunciation of ‘Pinochet’, and a few other gems. Have fun.

Now how the hell did that happen?

Wasn’t he supposed to be immortal or something?

He won’t be best pleased.

David Cameron has called for a snap General Election when Tony Blair leaves office, claiming that the new Prime Minister would not have a public mandate otherwise.

I used to be of this view, but after giving it some more thought, I no longer think that that is correct. Here are some of my reasons:

• unlike, say, the United States of America, we do not directly elect the head of Government. We each elect our constituency MPs, and, basically, the party with the most seats forms the Government. I would submit that the mandate is intact, regardless of who subsequently leads the party;

• the Labour Party’s General Election victory in 2005 gave them the mandate to carry out their manifesto. As long as Tony Blair’s successor intends to stick to that manifesto, they do not need to seek a fresh mandate. If he decides to abandon it in favour of other policies, then he would need to put those before the country in a General Election.

To my mind, the real constitutional issue surrounds the candidacy of Gordon Brown. In view of the West Lothian question, I do not think it is proper for an MP who sits for a Scottish seat to become Prime Minister. If he wishes to become Prime Minister, I would expect him to stand down from his Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seat and stand for an English seat.

Constitutional issues aside, it would be good for the relationship between the Goverment and the people if the next Labour party leader called a snap General Election. However, he doesn’t govern without a mandate if he chooses not to do so.

Excellent, well-researched piece over at Not Saussure on murder rates and the death penalty. Most definitely worth reading.

On a side note, I liked the intro to the essay: ‘It being almost Christmas, one’s thoughts naturally turn to homicide.’ [Emphasis mine]

A seemingly nice young man doing some breast-beating in the Thunderer:

It’s an unsettling moment when you realise you might be a racist. The thought occurred to me as I walked to my home in North London and I saw a group of black lads coming towards me. Instinctively, I crossed the road.

I think Murad Ahmed (for that is his name) is being too hard on himself. What think ye?

The green-eyed monster is at it again.

First, it was Peter Hain, now it is the Lib Dems’ turn to grumble about City bonuses. Their Treasury Spokesman, Vince Cable, attacks huge City bonuses, claiming that they highlight ‘the gross levels of inequality in human wellbeing up and down Britain’.

Of course they do, but that is no reason to take action against them, especially as they are not the reason for the inequality in the first place.

As to ‘the gross level of inequality’, is Mr Cable unhappy about its existence, or merely about the fact that it is being ‘highlighted’? He comes up with a number of daft proposals; such as denying tax relief to senior executives on their pension contributions, and the possible removal of taper relief on the sale of second homes and stock options.

I’m not really in the mood to discuss the reasons that these proposals are sheer madness; this is, after all, Sunday. I should be halfway through the Sunday Telegraph magazine or some such by now. All I will say for now is: since when is it the Government’s business what a private company pays to its employees? And in case it has escaped Mr Cable’s notice, higher earners currently already pay higher taxes.

Maybe I will return to this topic later, maybe not. It all depends if Mr Cable provokes me again. Back to the Sunday Telegraph magazine.

Is anyone surprised by the news (in the Independent) that millions of adults have such poor reading skills that it will hamper their karaoke performance this Christmas?

And since when has the fear of a bad karaoke performance ever deterred anyone, anyway?

I wrote yesterday about the Government’s decision to press ahead with the NHS Care Records System in the teeth of well-founded fears about patient confidentiality and other such matters. One of the comments to that post was from a Dr Paul Thornton, and I thought it deserved wider publicity.

He drew my attention to the NHS Confidentiality Campaign. The aim of the campaign is ‘to protect patient confidentiality and to provide a focus for patient-led opposition the government’s NHS Care Records System’. Their website, titled The Big Opt Out, gives very useful information about what parts of the system you can opt out from, and how to go about the process. One of the things you must do is write to your GP, if you want to prevent your details being uploaded automatically to the NHS ’spine’. The website has a sample opt-out letter you can send to your GP, which you can create on the site by entering your details.

I’m sure some of you may have heard of the NHS Confidentiality Campaign, but I thought it worth highlighting to those who have not. This is a worthy campaign, deserving of support from those who oppose the database.