Islamic Threat to UK Greater than Ever

The image above is that of a leaflet which - as part of Counter Terrorism Awareness Week - was distributed yesterday by the police at railway stations around the UK to guard people against a possible Mumbai-style attack that security forces are expecting may be attempted by Muslim extremists.

The leaflets tell the public to "run, hide and tell" in the event of such an attack.

They are part of a campaign just launched by Chief Constable of British Transport Police (BTP) Paul Crowther, who said: "More than six million people travel on our railways every single day."

He added: "Earlier this month a man was sentenced for terrorism offences after being caught in possession of information about how to make bombs.

"This was as a direct result of a rail passenger reporting suspicions to train staff. We need others to follow suit and play their part in keeping the UK's transport systems safe from terrorists."

The government has warned that the threat to Britain from Islamic radicals is "greater than ever".

Home Secretary Theresa May has just published a Counter-terrorism and Security Bill containing a range of new powers, including a legal requirement by schools, prisons and councils to put in place policies to stop would-be extremists being radicalised.

The bill, about to go before Parliament, includes a vast package of measures to tackle the threat from Muslim militants and those returning from fighting with the Islamic State.

It seems to me that much more useful than warning potential victims would be to target the would-be criminals. We know that the Muslim community in Britain harbours many terrorists, some of whom have gone to Iraq and Syria to join the ranks of the beheaders and torturers of the Islamic State and have been let back into the UK.

These home-grown jihadists have done us a favour, first by betraying where their loyalties lie and second by leaving the country. We should use both favourable conditions and not allow them to return to Britain, making them stateless if necessary.

British security services have informed that since the 2005 7/7 attacks in London, that killed 52 people, no fewer than 40 terrorist plots have been disrupted in the UK.

Home Secretary Theresa May disclosed this week: "There have been attempts to conduct marauding 'Mumbai-style' gun attacks on our streets, blow up the London Stock Exchange, bring down airliners, assassinate a British ambassador and murder serving members of our armed forces."

In the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, which security chiefs believe are inspiring the current Muslim militants, a group of Pakistani men linked to the terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba went to various crowded public places across the city - including a railway station, a packed restaurant, two hotels, a cinema and a hospital - armed with machine guns and bombs, slaughtering 164 people.

The attacks only ended when commandos stormed the buildings, killed the terrorists and rescued hostages. The one survivor was later executed.

Why Don't Rioters Protest Black Crime?

The very fact that people think they are justified in committing criminal acts just because they are not happy with a verdict which any person with a moderately-endowed brain can recognise as entirely reasonable and based on physical evidence shows how these people are the least capable of judging that verdict.

They are criminals. They find any excuse for their antisocial and violent behaviour. Of course they side with their fellow delinquent Michael Brown against the man who represents the law, Officer Darren Wilson.

And the race-industry leaders, the media and politicians, who have kept telling us for decades that we must be colour blind, all of a sudden discover that they can't be blind to colour. So, every time they mention the shooting's victim they have to say that he was black, and whenever they refer to the policeman who pulled the fatal trigger they must add that he is white.

The black protesters and rioters obviously go along with that, demonstrating that colour blindness is something they appeal to only when it suits them. If opening their eyes to chromatic differences is in their interest, they start seeing who's black and who's white. They never believed in this nonsense themselves.

Obama, the worst and most stupid president of the USA that ever existed, in his speech after the verdict of non-indictment described the protests as legitimate ways to express concern about real problems. But they are not legitimate, and the problems are not real. He is responsible for not trying to calm these subversives who listen to him because he's black like them. And these are the anti-racists, of course.

"13 Facts About Ferguson the Media Will Never Tell You" from Newsmax:

According to protesters who erupted in violence after a grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., this was the case of a white policeman shooting an unarmed black teenager with his hands in the air in a community plagued by racial tension.

That's an account promoted by many in the mainstream media as well. But here are several facts about the case that are harder to find:

1. Surveillance video showed that shortly before the confrontation, 18-year-old Brown stole cigarillos from a convenience store and shoved a clerk who tried to stop him.

2. The autopsy report showed that Brown had marijuana in his system when he died.

3. Officer Wilson, driving to the call of a medical emergency, first encountered Brown walking in the middle of a street and told Brown and his friend to walk on the sidewalk. Brown responded with an expletive.

4. Wilson chose to confront Brown only after he saw the cigarillos in his hand and recalled the radio report of a robbery at the convenience store.

5. Wilson said when he tried to open his car door, Brown slammed it back shut, then punched Wilson in the face.

6. Fearing another punch could knock him out, Wilson drew his gun, he told the grand jury, and Brown grabbed the gun, saying "you are too much of a pussy to shoot me."

7. An African-American witness confirmed that Brown and Wilson appeared to be "arm-wrestling" by the car.

8. Another witness saw Brown leaning through the car's window and said "some sort of confrontation was taking place."

9. After Wilson fired a shot that struck Brown's hand, Brown fled and Wilson gave chase. Brown suddenly stopped. An unidentified witness told the grand jury that 6-foot-4, 292-pound Brown charged at Wilson with his head down. Wilson said Brown put his hand under the waistband of his pants as he continued toward Wilson. That's when Wilson fired.

10. A witness testified that Brown never raised his hands.

11. Gunpowder found on the wound on Brown's hand indicated his hand was close to the gun when it fired. According to a report, the hand wound showed foreign matter "consistent with products that are discharged from the barrel of a firearm."

12. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist who reviewed the autopsy for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said the gunpowder "supports the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has particulate matter in the wound."

13. Wilson said Brown was physically uncontrollable and "for lack of a better word, crazy." He said that during the confrontation, he was thinking: "He's gonna kill me. How do I survive?" Legal experts say police officers typically have wide latitude to use deadly force when they feel their safety is threatened.

Israel Not Such a Haven for Christians

We hear very little about the treatment of Christians in Israel.

Among the terrible persecution that Christians face in Muslim countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, Israel is usually portrayed as a beacon of tolerance where Christians are free to follow their faith without fear of being killed.

Everything is relative. Looking at what happens in Israel's neighbouring countries, where Christians are forced to convert to Islam, humiliate themselves by becoming second-class citizens and paying the extortionist jizya tax, die or flee, Israel may indeed seem a good place for them to live.

Israel has no policy of persecution against its Christian residents. They are part of a country that does not seek their physical destruction.

But, if we judge from a Western, rather than Middle Eastern, point of view, things may appear less rosy and Israel not the safe haven for Christians that it is fictionally depicted as.

Christianity is one of the recognised religions in Israel and, according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2011 over 161,000 Israeli citizens, 2.1% of the population, were Christian. About 80% of Christian residents of Israel are Arabs. Of the remainder, around 25,000 are Slavic Christians from the former Soviet Union who came to the country under the Law of Return, which has provided - at least until now - for Israeli citizenship if a person has a Jewish grandparent, and a smaller minority are Assyrians.

The Jerusalem Post and Charisma News report that Christians, despite their above-average level of education among the Israeli population, encounter major limitations when it comes to job opportunities and housing.

The employment rate for Christians is 54% : 63.8% for men and 45.3% for women. The national average is 75% and 66% respectively.

They are also victims of worse prejudice than that:

Another issue that worries the church is hate crimes against Christians, including vandalism of holy sites. Israeli police and authorities have worked with the church to reduce the number of hate crimes, but Pizzaballa says they are still prevalent.

“If you don’t denounce these issues when they happen, they will continue. We need to work on this,” he says.

The church’s concern for the “alarming level of ignorance about Christianity in Israel” is very real. Lutheran World Federation President Bishop Munib A. Youman—a Palestinian—says the Hebrew media propagates the bias and denounced travel restrictions for Christians from Bethlehem and Ramallah to Jerusalem.

“When I read in the Hebrew about Christianity, I wonder if I’m Christian,” he told The Jerusalem Post.

Messianic Jew Chaim Goldberg confirms that in Israel, where he lives, he found much ignorance about the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, and much hostility to the very mention of the name Yeshua (Jesus).

Negative feelings towards Christianity and in extreme cases hate of Christians are not uncommon among the Jewish population of Israel.

There have been many reports, as well as videos, of the intolerance displayed towards Christians and the attacks on churches and monasteries in Israel.

Although most Israeli politicians have spoken out against the mounting attacks on non-Jewish places of worship, a senior Vatican official recently accused the government of failing to respond adequately to protect Christian sites.

Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who as Custodian of the Holy Land is charged with overseeing Christian sites on behalf of the Vatican, also criticized an educational culture in Israel that he said encouraged Jewish children to treat Christians with "contempt".

Warning of a growing sense of persecution among followers of the faith, he said that life for many Christians in Israel was growing "intolerable".

Earlier this month the door of a famous Trappist monastery in the town of Latroun was set on fire, while earlier this year the 11th century Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem was also vandalised.

In both cases anti-Christian slogans reading "Death to Christians" and "Jesus is a monkey" were daubed across the buildings.

Although such incidents are the work of a minority, Christian clergymen who walk the winding streets of Jerusalem's old city say they are spat at and taunted by ultra-Orthodox Jews and their children on an almost daily basis.

Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Vatican's Custodian of the Holy Land, and fellow senior clergymen of other Christian denominations protested the failure of the police to identify the culprits behind the incidents.

But, they say, the most important issue is that Israel has failed to address the practice of some ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools that teach children it is a doctrinal obligation to abuse anyone in Christian Holy Orders they meet in public.

In an unusually outspoken interview with Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, he denounced the failure of the political system to address blatantly anti-Christian acts, particularly those carried out by prominent radical politicians.

Earlier this year, Michael Ben Ari, an Israeli legislator, publicly ripped up a copy of the New Testament in the country's parliament, the Knesset, and threw it into a rubbish bin after denouncing it as an "abhorrent" book.

A second legislator called for Bibles to be burnt.

Although Mr Ben Ari was criticised by the Knesset's speaker, he faced no official sanction despite protests from the church.

"Such a serious thing occurs and no one does anything," Fr Pizzaballa said.

"In practice, it negates our existence here."

Before and during Pope Francis' visit to the Holy Land in May this year, acts of aggression against Christian sites and symbols, abuses and threats by Jews became particularly frequent and intense.

Christians are the innocent victims of the two warring factions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: they are the only ones who don’t use violence but are caught in the crossfire.

This subject is now topical, as the Israeli government has approved a controversial new bill declaring Israel to be a "Jewish state":

Israel is poised to pass one of the most divisive laws in its 66-year history, a bill that would declare it the homeland of the Jewish people only -- and further alienate its Arab minority.

Political infighting over the measure is already threatening to tear apart Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition.

The legislation, which is seen as compromising equality by differentiating between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens in enshrining some symbolic rights to the Jewish people, could also have long-term practical ramifications for Israeli democracy and jurisprudence.

Whether the bill might or not have negative consequences for non-Jews, including Christians, will be explored in another article.

1/4 Brits Want All Immigrants Sent Back

A new report, "How to talk about immigration", contains some interesting statistics.

It was published by British Future, that describes itself as "an independent, non-partisan thinktank engaging people’s hopes and fears about integration and migration, opportunity and identity, so that we share a confident and welcoming Britain, inclusive and fair to all."

That description belies the "non-partisan" label, as we know what the socialist-shibboleth words "welcoming, inclusive and fair" actually mean. And reading the paper, whose authors declare to be shocked by some poll results it reports, confirms its partisan nature: if you are impartial, you should refrain from emotional involvement, which in itself shows that you have something at stake.

This is what shocks them. On page 17: asked what they think about the statement “The government should insist that all immigrants should return to the countries they came from, whether they’re here legally or illegally”, 25% of all UK respondents said they agree, 52% disagree.

One out of four is an impressive proportion, especially if you consider that the repatriation would be for all immigrants, legal and illegal, and given the current climate of fear of expressing opinions that the report's authors classify as "rejectionist": much nicer to be classified "liberal", which in the deceptive lingo the Left has imposed on all of us doesn't really mean - as it should - a defender of the freedom of the individual from the power of the state (the meaning intended by the creators of the term and its general philosophy), but a socialist or communist, namely its diametrically opposite. Leftists don't like to be called by their proper names: Marxist, socialist, Trotskyist, Maoist, communist, anarchist. They prefer the stolen moniker "liberal", even though - nay, exactly because - it's totally inaccurate.

But the opinion surveys carried out by ICM, Ipsos MORI and YouGov, on which the immigration report is based, have other good, indeed better, news. On page 16: over two thirds, namely 67%, of people interviewed disagree with “In an increasingly borderless world, we should welcome anyone who wants to come to Britain and not deter them with border controls”, while 14% agree.

England Calling comments:

Public rhetoric about immigration is rapidly hardening. There will come a tipping point where the rhetoric has departed so far from the politically correct position that serious action to restrict immigration will occur because the stretch between rhetoric and action will become too great to sustain in a society where governments are elected.

A party political bidding process on the subject of immigration is already taking place and there will come a point where serious action has to follow or there will be a very real chance that either one or more of the mainstream parties will become irrelevant and be superseded, or members of the mainstream parties will wrest control of these parties from their pc indoctrinated leadership and adopt a policy on immigration closer to what the public wants.

H/t to David Brown

US Mum Bucks Muslim Propaganda in School

Islamic supremacism is taught in American public schools, one of which is Porter Ridge High School in Union County, North Carolina.

A ninth-grade world-history teacher assigned an in-class worksheet about Islam which the pupils had to fill in with the "correct" answers (the worksheet's first part is in the above picture).

FALSITIES TAUGHT AT SCHOOL

Some of those answers were that Islam is a peaceful religion, Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world and most Muslims' faith is stronger than the average Christian.

Islamic Scriptures and history are testament to the fact that the exact opposite of the first is true.

The second has been investigated and proven false. It's one of those cases in which, if you repeat a lie enough times, it is eventually believed. The claim that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world has been made by Muslim websites providing no explanation or grounds for the assertion:

As proof, they usually present unverifiable claims and baseless media quotes. Apparently ABC News had claimed "Already more than a billion-people strong, Islam is the world's fastest-growing religion", a quote which cannot be traced to its source. Also CNN World News stated "Fast-growing Islam winning converts in Western world", a statement which they fail to back up with any evidence.

The Encyclopedia of Islam Myths has made a thorough investigation leading to this:

Conclusion:

1. There are more new Christians added to the world population than any other religion on earth every day. This data makes the entire discussion about "rates of growth" irrelevant. The fact is today, that Christianity is the fastest growing religion on this most critical basis. This may change, but today, in 2004 AD, Christians take the prize for being the fastest growing religion.
2. On none of the 6 continents are Muslims the fastest growing religion.
3. That Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world is pure myth at best and at worst a deliberate deception of solid statistical facts.

After careful research and examination of the sources, WikiIslam has reached this conclusion:

According to "The Future of the Global Muslim Population," published in January 2011 by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the growth and anticipated future growth of Islam is primarily due to "their relatively high birth rate, the large number of Muslims of childbearing age, and an increase in life expectancy in Muslim-majority countries" and conversions play little part in the increase due to available data suggesting "Islam loses as many adherents via conversion as it gains."[1][2]

In 2006, countries with a Muslim majority had an average population growth rate of 1.8% per year (when weighted by percentage Muslim and population size).[3] This compares with a world population growth rate of 1.12% per year[4], and according to the World Christian Encyclopaedia, between 1990 and 2000, Islam received around 865,558 converts each year. This compares with an approximate 2,883,011 converts each year for Christianity during the same period...

All the actual data available reveals that Islam is neither the fastest growing religion by number of adherents or the fastest growing religion by percentage-increase.

The growing number of Muslims in the world is due primarily to the higher than average birth-rates, and consequent population growths of Muslim countries and communities. And their growing presence in non-Muslim societies such as Europe and the Americas is overwhelmingly due to immigration.

Furthermore, converts to Islam are vastly outnumbered by those who choose to leave the religion and embrace another faith or worldview. And the majority of converts that Islam does manage to attract, decide to leave within the first few years of practicing it.

An analysis by Islamoscope also arrived at something similar:

From the statistics available we can clearly see that the fastest growing religion in the world in real terms is Christianity. Where Islam gains 23 Million new adherents annually, Christianity gained 30 Million new adherents in that same period. Thus, Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world.

The Religion of Peace has other intelligent considerations to add:

Islam is not "growing faster" than other religions because “people are accepting it,” but rather because the birthrate among Muslims is significantly higher than it is among Christians and others, particularly in the West. Kids can be raised to believe in just about anything, so growth from a higher birthrate hardly constitutes any sort of genuine accomplishment.

A 2011 Pew Research study of global Muslim growth rates concluded that there is "no net growth through conversion", meaning that for every person who "embraces" Islam (usually by changing their nominal designation after marrying a Muslim man), there is at least one other who is willing to leave the faith in spite of harsh consequences.

Of the so-called “converts” from other religions, only a miniscule number were active believers. Nearly all are really just people who had no faith to convert from – regardless of their nominal designation. In the West and other parts of the non-Muslim world in which all religions are allowed to compete equally such people experiencing a spiritual awakening are far more likely to turn to Christianity than Islam...

In the Muslim world, Christians who evangelize are imprisoned, assaulted, beaten, set on fire, shot, bludgeoned, and tortured by Islamists. Missionaries are raped and killed. Former Muslims who embrace Christianity as their religion of choice are thrown in jail along with their children, sexually assaulted, crippled, hanged, stoned, stabbed, dismembered, carved up, scalded, beheaded, brutalized, doused with acid, burned alive and publicly executed...

...and Muslims brag that their religion is growing faster!

Muslims who gloat over their “fast growing" religion are no different than the child from our example who deludes himself into thinking that he is smarter and better for “beating” a much wiser adult in a game played under manufactured conditions that render the artificial “victory” entirely meaningless.

So the more pertinent question isn't which religion is growing faster, but which is growing faster where people are free to choose. In this environment, Christianity wins easily. Converts are even won in Muslim countries under draconian conditions that Muslim evangelists never have to face anywhere on the planet. When was the last time a person was killed or tortured merely for embracing Islam?

This takes care of the second answer in the school worksheet of those quoted here. The third is impossible to verify: how do you measure the strength of the faith of a person, let alone of billions of people? Certainly Muslims will tend to submit more easily to Islamic prescriptions through fear of the immediate consequences rather than free will, but Christians displaying the greatest courage possible to a human being by remaining Christian in the face of the most horrendous persecution (generally from Muslims) are witnesses (martyrs in Greek) to the value of their faith.

There are other falsities in the study sheet (for example the definition of jihad as "inner struggle", whereas the most important element of jihad is the physical, holy war against infidels).

In addition, it contains several elements of overt Leftist political indoctrination disguised as "correct" answers, something that goes against the ethics of public school education. These are some of them: "These fundamentalists represent a small percentage of the population of Islam, so we must be careful not to label or assume.", "To win [the war on terror] we need to raise the standard of living in areas of squalor" and "'start seeing Muslims' and avoid racial profiling".

The part about Islamic culture and empires is also rife with factual errors ad distortions for such a short documents.

A MUM TOLD THE MEDIA

The mother of a student who had to fill in these answers in the worksheet was deeply outraged over them, so much so that she contacted WJYZ-TV, a Fox affiliate, denouncing this educational abomination.

"If you are going to do it, let’s do it right," she said. "I really feel there is a spin on this."

The statement that most upset the mother, who wished to remain anonymous, is: "Most Muslims' faith is stronger than the average Christian."

She called the school to see if it teaches Christianity as much as Islam, but didn't receive any answer. Her son told her they skimmed Christianity in class.

"YOU CAN'T TEACH CHRISTIANITY IN SCHOOL, BUT YOU CAN FORCE-FEED OUR KIDS ISLAM"

Another parent had in October expressed outrage over his daughter’s Islam-related school assignment.

Kevin Wood, an Iraq veteran who presumably had had ample opportunity to see the "religion of peace" in action, was upset to discover a teacher had asked his daughter to write a three-page essay about Islam’s Five Pillars, Mecca and Mohammed.

"I don’t agree with it," Wood told Fox News. "I said you can’t study God or Christianity in school; you have atheists suing schools for saying God and the Pledge [of Allegiance], and not being able to say prayers before football games … but we can force-feed our kids Islam.”

For that he was banned from his daughter’s high school.

UKIP Is Better but Is No Solution

Yesterday the UK Independence Party (UKIP) has gained its second seat in Britain's House of Commons, the lower House of Parliament, with Mark Reckless elected in the Rochester and Strood constituency, in Kent. The victory was obtained through a comfortable, though not dramatic, majority of 2,930 votes over the Conservative runner-up Kelly Tolhurst, a majority which many say may easily be lost again at the May 2015 general election for the UK Parliament.

This, and especially UKIP's first Member of Parliament, Douglas Carswell, elected on 9 October 2014 in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, with a landslide of 60% of the vote, are historical events.

Both seats were won in by-elections necessitated when Mr Carswell and Mr Reckless, already MPs for those constituencies for the Conservative Party, defected to UKIP and left their seats, which they later regained with their new party.

For good or for bad, UKIP, for all its limitations, is changing the British political landscape forever.

Its limitations are a lack of long-term clarity about the objectives the party wants to achieve. "What does it stand for?" is a different question from "Whom does it stand for?".

The answer to the latter is obvious: the great number of British people of middle and working classes who have seen their country transformed beyond recognition in the relatively short time of a few decades, in the most evident way by unrestricted immigration with concomitant multiculturalism and Islamisation, but also in a less macroscopic way by other cultural developments introduced by the New Left, like same-sex marriage, sexualisation of children and what the press calls "political correctness gone mad".

In short, socio-communist agenda goals tacitly or overtly accepted and promoted by the misnamed Conservative Party as well as the most obvious culprits, Labour and LibDems.

The people who are worried by all these recent phenomena and even more scared by the main political parties' inaction at best and collusion at worst regarding them are absolutely right. What they don't necessarily have, after many years of media's and education system's propaganda, is a clear idea of what caused them and where to start if we want to stop, let alone reverse, these momentum-gathering trends.

To know that is the job of politicians. Hence, the question "what to stand for" needs to be answered. It's not enough to be against the EU, mass immigration and the LibLabCon.

Here the UKIP represents vast numbers of the electorate even too well. Like them, it senses the problems but doesn't grasp the solution.

Irish statesman and political thinker Edmund Burke (1729–1797), himself an MP in the House of Commons for many years, made an important distinction between representatives and delegates.

In his famous Speech to the Electors at Bristol at the Conclusion of the Poll of 1774, he explained that delegates exclusively carry out the instructions of those who elected them, therefore only reflecting the views and wishes of their constituents.

Representatives, on the other hands, are trustees. Voters have entrusted them to act in their best interest, which doesn't necessarily coincide with what the voters want. Moreover, the representative makes choices on the basis of the common interest, and not just of those who elected him. He considers his constituents' views but doesn't have to abide by their wishes. He follows his conscience. The representative, thus, having knowledge and experience that his constituents generally lack, uses his judgement to form an opinion on what's in the public interest, and acts accordingly.

MPs, Burke said, should be representatives and not delegates.

So, in Bristol he proclaimed (The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Volume I, London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854, pp. 446–8):

... it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion....

You choose a member, indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not member of Bristol, but he is a member of Parliament. [Emphasis added]

In these days of rampant populism it's important to realise that the old clique of politicians, in Britain as elsewhere in the West, hasn't acted wrongly so much because it's gone against people's will as because it's gone against people's interest.

In fact, in many cases the political class has given people what they wanted - an unsustainable welfare state - in its own interest, which was to get elected, but has gone against their interest by creating an unprecedented national debt of astronomic proportions that may bankrupt the state and will burden future generations.

UKIP doesn't seem to be different from the other parties in this respect. It doesn't like to tell people uncomfortable truths, as can be seen by the compromises it has already started making, for example by promising that millions of European immigrants can remain in Britain after an EU exit, by its soft stance on Islam, and similar.

UKIP wants to appear politically correct.

Its policies are fluid, constantly changed. Its representatives are often caught saying things against party policy. When put under scrutiny, they often don't know what to say.

All this is not unique to them, but can be found in other parties. But that's exactly it. Where is the difference? Where is a long-term plan for effective change? If UKIP knew the answer, it wouldn't have remained for a very long time without a manifesto, including during the 2014 European elections campaign.

In the end, leaving the European Union is not the ultimate solution. What will UKIP change after that? What about the Third World immigrants, who are an immensely greater problem than Bulgarians and Romanians? What about Islamisation of Britain? What about the erosion of Christian values? The ideological dominance of the Left?

UKIP is a breath of fresh air in the stagnant political situation of the UK, but air, though essential, is not the only necessity of life.

Black Pete, Symbol of Dutch Resistance against Invaders, Wins

Saturday, in the Dutch historical city of Gouda, the police arrested no fewer than 90 people, protesting both for and against the "Black Pete" blackface character appearing at a children's party marking the beginning of the traditional pre-Christmas, gift-giving festival of Saint Nicholas.

"Sixty people were arrested for demonstrating in unauthorised areas, and 30 for disturbing the peace" said police spokeswoman Yvette Verboon.

You may wonder what could happen during a festive gathering, held to celebrate the arrival of St. Nicholas, to cause such a law-and-order turmoil.

It's our old friend political correctness at work, with attendant accusations of racism. The word "black" means all the difference in the world. We'll have to abolish it from our vocabulary, we cannot use it any more without provoking mayhem.

Not even children and, as in this Dutch case, their events are immune from the PC clutches, as we know from the over 30,000 nursery toddlers and school children labelled racist or homophobic over minor squabbles in one single year in the UK, where schools are forced to report un-PC words used by kids to education authorities, which keep a register of "incidents". These records can remain on file, and schools will provide future employers or universities with them as a pupil's reference, with the potential to blight a child for life.

Back in Gouda, thousands of parents and their young children - some with their faces painted black - gathered in the the city's market square where the celebration was taking place to welcome the national arrival of Sinterklaas (St Nicholas) and his black-faced helpers on a white horse.

A TRADITION WHICH DIVIDES A NATION

According to Christmas folklore in Holland and Belgium, Black Pete (Zwarte Piet in Dutch) is the jolly companion of Saint Nicholas, who climbs down chimneys to help him deliver presents to kids.

The character has a long history. The Dutch celebrate the Sinterklaas festival during a period that culminates on Saint Nicholas Day, 5 December. The beginning of the festivities coincides with St Nicholas' arrival by boat accompanied by Black Pete, or rather hundreds of Black Petes packing the flotilla following the saint’s vessel. St Nicholas then rides a white horse through the streets, escorted by the Black Petes amusing children as they hand out sweets and treats to them.

It's a fun, joyous time for kids and adults, seen as the highlight of the year.

Dutch cities take it in turn to host the start of the annual festival. This year, the national event of Saint Nicholas' arrival aboard a steamboat from Spain kicked off in Gouda on 15 November, broadcast live on Dutch national television and looked forward to by children.

The actors and revellers portraying the Black Pete character are white people who traditionally paint their faces black, sport frizzy hair, golden earrings, large red lips and gaudy, bright-coloured Medieval costumes.

Across the Netherlands, celebrations in which Saint Nicholas comes to town surrounded by Black Petes have been attacked by "anti-racism" campaigners. The critics, including a group called "Zwarte Piet is Racism", claim that Pete is a racist stereotype from the colonial era, and "liberal" politicians have called for the character to be abolished.

This antagonism has led to an increasingly acrimonious polarisation of the Dutch society, because the overwhelming majority of the country supports Black Pete. A poll showed that more than 90% of the Dutch reject the idea that Black Pete is racist and would not change his appearance.

And, in a population of less than 17 million, over 2 million people signed a Facebook petition last year, calling on Black Pete's appearance to remain the same.

While the Facebook page "The Dutch 'Black Pete' tradition is racism" has a risible number of 198 "Likes", the Facebook page "Pietitie" in Pete's support has 2,012,438 "Likes". It says: "Don't let the Netherlands' most beautiful tradition disappear."

This FB page is Holland's most popular ever.

Kudos to the Dutch. Make no mistake. This is not just to maintain a nice tradition and a children's festival, important as it is. This is a movement to resist invaders who try to impose their ways and wills on the colonised Europeans.

The Dutch say Black Pete is harmless fun, an integral part of Dutch culture that is now under fire from outsiders. As Dutchman Marco put it: "This is how I celebrate, how my grandmother and grandfather and parents celebrated, and I don't think it's racist."

The Dutch Freedom Party, with its leader Geert Wilders, has proposed legislation that would enshrine Pete's black colour in law.

Martin Bosma, the Freedom Party's culture spokesman, said: "Ministers and mayors are working to give this loyal helper another colour. That must not happen. Our culture should not be damaged from on high. This law must protect Black Pete."

Belgium, where Black Pete is also a popular character and the same pre-Christmas celebrations take place in many cities, faces similar problems.

Human rights activist Maria Hengeveld, who writes for the Africa is a Country website, claimed: "In general, attacks on Zwarte Piet are widely interpreted as attacks on (white) Dutchness and threats to (white) children's right to jovially celebrate their 'cultural heritage'". She went on to argue that politicians, lawmakers and big businesses "are sensitive to public feeling" on the issue. As an example, Albert Heijn, Holland's largest supermarket chain, went back on its promise to ban Black Pete from its stores after a huge public outcry.

Even the country’s Prime Minister Mark Rutte, probably sensing that the electorate wouldn't be pleased with anything different, has backed the side that favours Black Pete.

VICTORY FOR BLACK PETE

This shows what a united, determined nation can do. Some meddling from the UN was revoked:

The [Facebook] page, attracting over a million likes in just one day, followed a letter from the UN's human rights body announcing an investigation and warning the Dutch that the [Black Pete] character is a "racist stereotype".

Marc Jacobs, a Belgian Unesco representative, the UN's cultural organisation, has denied that the Jamaican who signed the letter, was authorised to do so.

"She's just a consultant who abused the name of the UN to bring their own agenda to the media. All the hoopla that Shepherd has caused with her letter is nothing more than a bad move in the game of pressure groups in the Netherlands," he told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.

The letter, on headed, official UN high commission for human rights paper, was sent to the Dutch government expressing concerns over the tradition and accusing the authorities of failing to react to complaints of racial discrimination.

Verene Shepherd, who said she was the chairwoman of a UN investigation into the Sinterklaas festival earlier this week called on the Dutch to ban Black Pete.

And last week the highest administrative court in the Netherlands, the Council of State, overturned the ruling of a lower court which had called Black Pete "a negative stereotype" that "infringes on the European treaty of human rights".

The Council of State refused to rule on whether the character was racist.

SCUFFLES IN GOUDA

The procession in Gouda was marred by scuffles, whether between the occasion's supporters and protesters, some of whom were wearing T-shirts saying "Black Pete is racist", or between protesters and police is not clear. Probably both, because the protesters did not remain in their cages, the only place suitable for them.

The Dutch police were forced to make dozens of arrests because protesters moved to the centre of the Medieval city, where the festival was taking place, to demonstrate, instead of staying in designated protest areas outside Gouda's market square. When they were asked to leave the square, they refused and the police took the necessary measures.

Public prosecutor spokesman Wouter Bos said all those held for demonstrating in the wrong place were anti-Black-Pete protesters and they would be fined 220 euros each. Not much of a punishment.

Some children got mixed up in the trouble, and Gouda mayor Milo Schoenmaker said the atmosphere had been "vicious". "It's a pity that adults from outside the city felt the need to demonstrate among the children at the end of the procession," he told the national news agency ANP.

The Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte joined the debate, supporting the controversial ceremony: "Everyone can talk about Black Pete's colour. But we should not disturb a children's party in this way" he told broadcaster NOS. The clashes made him “deeply, deeply sad”, he said.

For the first time, in an attempt to mollify the critics, the mayor introduced other coloured Petes, like "Cheese Petes" with yellow faces, "Stroopwafel Petes" with striped, light brown faces resembling a Dutch biscuit of the same name, and "Clown Petes" with white faces.

This didn't placate demonstrators and made many people angry.


CONCLUSION

"Black Peter is black," said the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. "We cannot do much to change that."

Well said. Aren't tradition and national folklore values to respect a bit more, and the hypersensitivities of minorities, who are after all uninvited guests to the Netherlands treated with great generosity, a bit less? Why should the Dutch, as well as the rest of white Westerners, be the only ones expected to make sacrifices of their identity?