Pope stuff

This is story from a couple of days about a 'media attack' on The Pope ago caught my eye:

"The treatment of the Pope over the child sex-scandal bedevilling the Catholic Church was compared last night to the Holocaust.

Father Raniero Cantalamessa, Pope Benedict's personal preacher, made the claim during a Good Friday address at St Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican. He said, as the Pope sat listening, that the attacks on the Pope and the Church were comparable to the persecution suffered by the Jews who "know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence" and are thus "quick to recognise the recurring symptoms"

Apparently the figure concerned has now had to apologize, unsurprisingly, but I think he expected that.

I think what's actually going here is that Father Raniero Cantalamessa was pointing a clear finger at where he sees the problem coming from.

" Secret tape reveals Tory backing for ban on gays"

Just some news from the Guardian/Observer that caught my eye today.

"The Tories were embroiled in a furious row over lesbian and gay rightson Saturday after the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, was secretly taped suggesting that people who ran bed and breakfasts in their homes should "have the right" to turn away homosexual couples.

The comments, made by Grayling last week to a leading centre-right thinktank, drew an angry response from gay groups and other parties, which said they were evidence that senior figures in David Cameron's party still tolerate prejudice"

At the heart of this issue lies the most fundamental and precious principle we have and that is the right of association. To tamper with this right, to force people together is the most grotesque and stupid attack on the very fabric of what makes a society tolerable at all. The Conservative Party, especially as we approach an election, should be championing that right and being open about protecting it.

No one should be forced to associate with people they don't want to. It needs no explanation, no annotation. No apology. It's a given.

Who is this 'modern' multicultural society actually for ? Is it bringing dignity to anyone, or is it making a ridiculous mockery of everyone ? While we all watch this elephant in the living room no one is supposed to talk about.

Presumably The Guardian/Observer think they have 'discovered' some way to attack the Tories in the lead up to the election but actually have done is shone the light on a slice of reality.

And this problem of creating a kind of ethno-sexual smog of 'tolerance' and 'diversity' is something at some point that, I'm sorry to say, is going to have to be sharply corrected into the reality it needs to be in, rather than the completely grotesque and painfully stupid one it is today.

An Importany Story: Rod Liddle

This was a very important story which I didn't see until today.

Spectator columnist Rod Liddle has become the first blogger to be censured by the Press Complaints Commission.

Spectator columnist Rod Liddle has become the first blogger to be censured by the Press Complaints Commission.

On the Spectator's website, Mr Liddle wrote that the "overwhelming majority" of London's violent crime was carried out by young, African-Caribbean men.

But the PCC ruled the former BBC Radio 4 Today editor's words breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of its code.

It said the "significant ruling" showed publications' websites would be held to the same standards as print editions.

A reader had complained after the article was published in December 2009.
Mr Liddle had written that "the overwhelming majority of street crime, knife crime, gun crime, robbery and crimes of sexual violence in London is carried out by young men from the African-Caribbean community".

Liddle is a very experience journalist of course.

Happy Easter

To all!

J