Rod Liddle

A quite bizarre report from the IPPR which attempts to prove that it is not immigration which tempts people to vote BNP, but a lack of “resilience”. This fatuous word, resilience, is used more and more by government and quangos and local councils, usually to transfer blame to ordinary people for the crimes of those in authority – such as putting up with mass immigration, or being poor, or having rotten schools, or being badly educated. “Resilient” communities are simply affluent, white communities – Richmond Upon Thames, Wokingham and so on. But what a deluded report, and how weak its terms of reference.

Keep those excellent observations flowing in, please. Here’s one I found in the introduction to the Labour Manifesto, published yesterday. Gordon Brown wrote it, apparently: 'This is a Manifesto about the greater progressive change we need because of the tougher times we are living through. There are no big new spending commitments, but there is a determination for every penny to be used wisely, and, as present plans make clear, to give the maximum protection to frontline public services.' The first sentence, the one about greater progressive change, is utterly meaningless, especially the word “progressive”. In the second sentence the word “but” should be “and” and the sentence as a whole is platitudinous drivel.

Alien life-forms have been cutting holes in sheep in Shropshire with highly powered lasers and strange glowing balls of light. According to a local farmer, reported by an oddly credulous chap from the Daily Telegraph, there is a ‘corridor’ of 50 miles stretching from Shrewsbury towards the Powys border where UFOs arrive quite regularly and do weird stuff with sheep. The farmer insists that sheep have been found with perfectly circular burn holes on their foreheads, and sometimes their brains dissected. Also he has seen the UFOs and pronounced them ‘frightening’. I agree with him. Most of the UFOs I have seen have been frightening, especially those which turn up just after there’s been a lock in at the local pub.

Did you like the Guardian’s April Fool spoof of the latest Gordon Brown campaign, which featured the Prime Minister trading on his reputation for being a bully? It was quite funny, but I don’t suppose many people were taken in – which is, after all, the point of the April Fool spoof, to take people in. Good to see the same paper running with a story on April 2, though, about Cambridge University stripping the BNP leader of his Law degree because they did not wish to be associated with such a horrible little man. This was also an April Fool spoof created by one of the university’s student unions, but the Guardian swallowed it whole.

Hey, look – this is what your kids learn in school these days. Those of you who are big fans of the Juche regime of Kim Jong il in North Korea will enjoy this from the MP Diane Abbott’s website. Poor little mites, having this sort of grotesque propaganda rammed down their throats. I dunno, maybe there was another verse which went something along the lines of: Yo Diane man, she be cool Send HER kids to da private school She got da money to watch their backs She don’t want ‘em mixin’ wid blacks Back in da House she be learnin’ Not to disclose her outside earnings Etc etc This ludicrous puffed-up pantomime dame was back on The Week last night, being critical of people for having a go at MPs over expenses, lobbying and so on.

Apologies for having been absent, but I’ve not been well; immobilized for a few days to the degree that even a slight movement caused severe pain and a pitiful whining noise to be emitted, in the direction of my wife, who has a rather put-upon expression right now. Serves you right, you might be thinking, with your lifestyle, all that alcohol and cigarettes – something was going to go wrong sooner or later. Well, you’d be half right. It is a lifestyle problem. It’s the consequence of a mishap which occurred when I was using my fucking running machine, a couple of torn stomach muscles when I inadvertently hit the “sprint!” button.

I hate to say this, but there is a very good article in The G***d**n, which you can see online here. It’s by Dr Tony Sewell, a sociologist who runs charities for young black kids, and who is almost always a fount of plain speaking and common sense. He suggests that the educational under-achievement of black males is less a consequence of racism than because an astonishing proportion of them emanate from one parent families and all too rarely have a male role model at home. As a result they become “over-feminized”. Almost 60 per cent of black kids live in single parent households (almost always with mum, not dad), compared to 22 per cent for white kids.

My old mate Andrew Gilligan lacerates the BBC in this week’s magazine, for having allowed a member of the Islamic Forum of Europe onto Radio Four’s usually genteel “Any Questions”, and indeed having allowed the East London Mosque (which is run by the “extremist” IFE) to host the programme. At first sight, it is a little odd, especially if you fish around for comparisons. You can imagine the fuss, for example, if Any Questions decided to interview Nick Griffin of the BNP. But it is perhaps beyond imagining if Any Questions were to broadcast from the BNP’s headquarters, with the audience staffed full of BNP supporters and the chairman of the panel behaving with exquisite deference to Mr Griffin.