The Spectator

Rod for our backs Sir: Each week, Rod Liddle’s column reminds me of the little girl of whom it was written that she hiked up her skirt to show she wasn’t wearing knickers. In the absence of a parent, or in Mr Liddle’s case an editor, one can only look away in embarrassment. So usually I have a quick look at the first paragraph and turn the page. Last week (Liddle Britain, 12 July) he compared a fat woman with ‘26 Ethiopians, if you put them in a blender, added some bleach’ etc… and her food with ‘an approximation of Shami Chakrabarti’s face’. I glanced at his last sentence in which Mr Liddle suggested fat people should be kicked. I suppose this includes Winston Churchill.

A pariah writes Sir: I dealt for 30 years with hundreds of Muslims, at first in Mr Doyle’s organisation, so I am not ‘ignorant’ of Islam (as he claims, Letters, 5 July), which seeks to conquer this world, not the next, politically. If he disagrees, he should consult Islam’s most ‘moderate’ authorities like Yusuf Qaradawi, all of whom boast that (as Doyle writes I noted), ‘Islam... is trying to take over the globe.’ As one could not be a Muslim absent this goal, the distinction Ms McCartney draws between ‘fundamentalist’ and moderate Muslims is absurd: history shows what all Muslims endorse. As I wrote: ‘After his [Mohammed’s] death in 632, Muslim armies poured out of the Arabian peninsula...

Cummins unstuck Sir: Rod Liddle (Liddle Britain, 28 June) is mistaken to suggest that only Guardian journalists objected to articles published in the Sunday Telegraph under the pseudonym Will Cummins. My Sunday Telegraph colleague Alasdair Palmer and I (both of whom have written frequently to attack Islamic fundamentalism and Islamist terrorism) protested strongly about them at the time, in the office and — in my own case — in print. The main reason for our disquiet was that Mr Cummins had not, as Mr Liddle argues, ‘made it clear that his beef was with the ideology, not the people’. In fact he did the opposite, energetically denigrating all Muslims as one identikit, menacing group.

Some highlights of the week on Spectator.co.uk: George Osborne wants your questions. Maurice Gerard reports on the aftermath of the presidential election in Zimbabwe. Fraser Nelson says that Ken Clarke has watered down the West Lothian Answer , and congratulates Kylie on her OBE. James Forsyth thinks Ed Balls has failed the laugh test, and gives his take on the waterboarding debate. Peter Hoskin observes how Gordon Brown is turning to the Blairites, and wonders whether Alistair Darling is set to axe the 2p rise in fuel duty. Stephen Pollard describes his encounter with a TV producer. Melanie Phillips gives her thoughts on the BNP. Clive Davis tracks the Ray Lewis business. Trading Floor wishes we had a Department for Bad Ideas.

We've added a new linking button to Coffee House - one which takes you through to the latest CoffeeHousers' Wall.  It's about halfway down on the right of any Coffee House page.  Should make it easier to head over to the Wall, and have your say on the week's events. Alternatively, you can find this week's CoffeeHousers' Wall here.

This week's CoffeeHousers' Wall is here. Head over there to have your say on the week's events and to let us know what you'd like to see on Coffee House.

This week's CoffeeHousers' Wall is here. Head over there to have your say on the week's events and to let us know what you'd like to see on Coffee House.

... hare are some posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Maurice Gerard reports on race relations from inside Zimbabwe. Fraser Nelson analyses the "meltdown" that Gordon Brown could face in Scotland, and claims that Wendy Alexander was not up to the job. Peter Hoskin marks Robert Mugabe's disgraceful victory in Zimbabwe's presidential election, and outlines where CoffeeHousers think it all went wrong for Brown. And Clive Davis gives his thoughts on gun legislation in the US.