Liberal Burblings

Archive for January, 2007

Conservative Home reports that “Cameron’s hesitation on Catholic adoption row imperils his faith-based social action agenda”. It reminds us that David Davies has already stated that he will vote “against the attempts by the Government to force the Catholic Church to consider placing the very vulnerable children in its care with gay couples.” (That is an interesting way of phrasing the point).

Conservative Home goes on to pinpoint David Cameron’s dilemma:

At the heart of Mr Cameron’s ‘social responsibility agenda’ is a belief that faith-based groups can do a better job at welfare than the state. But a big part of the reason for the efficacy of faith-based groups is the religious ethos that drives them. If Government insists that faith-based groups adopt an ethos that it less authentic to their traditions (and more like that of government departments) the faith-based projects will decide that they had better remain independent of government. There is a deep and unresolved tension between David Cameron saying that he wants public policy to encourage more faith-based social action but then hesitating to support the freedom of faith-based groups to behave authentically.

Of course, it is always possible that David Cameron simply votes for equality. He’ll then have to do a rapid re-think of his “social responsibility agenda” and possibly also defect to the Liberal Democrats.

It is always nice to immerse oneself mindlessly in ITV dramas. My favourite is Midsomer Murders closely followed by Taggart and Heartbeat. Dear old Midsomer seems to go from strength to strength, year after year. The last two have been superb. Taggart too, continues to thrill. And I won’t have a word said against Heartbeat.

Judge John Deed on the BBC has been an absolute corker of a programme. However, I think this series should be the last. It is getting very repetitive. These are the scenarios which get repeated over and over again ad nauseam:

• John Deed defies the authorities and looks as though he will self-immolate himself, but at the last moment he wriggles out of the problem and emerges as a hero.
• John Deed and Jo Mills have a terrific row
• John Deed and Jo Mills make up with a terrific snog
• John Deed and Jo Mills look as though they will get into trouble for sleeping together while working on the same case (surely this poor horse has been flogged sufficiently?)
• John Deed and Jo Mills get away with it
• Donald Sinden comes in like a Werther’s original grandfather and snorts and grunts his way to help John Deed in the end, despite initial reluctance
• The Home Secretary proves that he is very snotty (again) and, for some reason, lasts in office much longer than any Home Secretary since Peel the younger (check that Peel the younger actually was Home Secretary – Ed…and shurely it is “Pitt the Younger” anway?)

I am sorry, but there are only so many times flesh and blood can sit through these repetitive plotlines.

Roger Simon at Politico reports that Hillary Clinton ducked a question about Iraq at an Iowa face-to-face meeting with voters. She didn’t mention Iraq once, but mentioned ethanol twice:

Seeing John Reid and Tony Blair at the moment is like observing two drowning men, who take in turns to go under the water (which often appears brown in colour).

This week, John Reid has been well and truly under the liquids, struggling to hold his breath. This Sunday, however, the Lord Chief Justice has pulled him up from under the water, by the scruff of the neck, to allow him to gasp some precious cubic metres of air. The Observer reports:

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers said the Home Secretary had not sought to instruct judges to stop imposing prison sentences on offenders. In a statement, he described Reid’s advice on sentencing as a ‘helpful summary of the present situation’.

Meanwhile, our other deluge-defying drownee, A.Blair, has been enjoying a week of welcome fresh air. However, today he swops places with Reid, and is back under the briny. The Old Bill apparently have possession of an allegedly curious hand-written note from him about the loans- for-peerages scenario. And the Electoral Commission is calling for the whole thing to go to court. Sounds like it will rumble on for years. I suspect Houdini Tony will get to the surface for a quick blast of oxygen somehow.

I am delighted to see that Alex Wilcock is on exceptionally good form at the moment, particularly on the subject of religion and equality. I cheerfully accept his description of me as a “long-suffering Anglican”. In fact, I rather like it!

In case I overdid making my previous posting on this subject “Vicar-proof” (able to be read by my local vicar without spoiling his tea), I would reiterate that I fully support the “Sexual Orientation Regulations” going through at the moment – unamended. I do not support any form of opt-out for religious groups either related to adoption or bed and breakfast accommodation or anything else. I would support some form of tapered phase-in of these regulations, but only over a matter of months. I do, however, have great sympathy for the Roman Catholic brethren, as they struggle through this one.

I was and am a passionate supporter of openly gay Very Rev. Dr. Jeffrey John, now (I am very pleased to say) Anglican Dean of St Albans. I wrote letters of support for his elevation to Bishop of Reading to him, the Bishop of Oxford (at the time, Richard Harries), my local priest, my local newspaper and the Daily Telegraph (both published). Rather quietly, Dr John entered into a civil partnership with his long-term partner last August.

You might wonder then, why am I still an Anglican? Good question. Well, I tend to separate “faith”, which is God-made, from “religion”, which is man-made. I also define the “church” as the people who follow Christ, not the buildings and/or apparatus of the establishment of the church. (I would like to see the Church of England dis-established.) But I am mainly still an Anglican because I believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, first and foremost. Try as I might, I can find not a single recorded utterance from Jesus that would lead me and my church to be anything than totally open, loving and outstandingly compassionate and treat with utter equality everybody including gays and lesbians. There are so many examples in the gospels of Jesus treating the down-trodden in life with outstanding love, that it is just mind-blowing. There are, of course, many “down-trodden” groups in society today, but one of the first that springs to mind, without intending to be patronising, are gays and lesbians.

Throughout the Jeffrey John “controversy”, I read and heard descriptions that the Church of England was in “turmoil”. In fact, nothing could be further from the case in the down-to-earth community of the church. We carried on virtually unaffected. And quite rightly so.

As I said at the time, there is no nicer place in the world to have a disagreement with someone than in the Church of England. So “long-suffering Anglican” it is and will continue to be, then!

By the way, David Cameron has been very quiet on the subject of gay adoption, as reported by The Daily.

Fantastic news! The President of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, can cure Aids! Ben Goldacre reports in the Guardian:

“The cure is a day’s treatment” he says: “asthma, five minutes”. HIV and Aids cases can be treated on Thursdays, and within three days the person should be tested again. “I can tell you that he/she will be negative.”

Job done!

All is not what it seems, however:

Gambian bloggers have described the president – the president! – marching triumphantly into hospitals and leaving patients vomiting and in agony. It’s hard to tell what the treatments involve, but Jammeh explains his patients are not allowed to eat seafood or peppers, and “they should be kept at a place that has adequate toilets facilities, because they can be going to toilet every five minutes.” The official news source meanwhile – in a country where journalists have been imprisoned and shot dead in unexplained circumstances – reported that the president’s curative power left doctors and nurses “mesmerised and stunned”.

Ah!

I have somewhat made light of this story. However, on this subject it is worth reading the blogger, Ousman Ceesay, who is Gambian and covers issues in his homeland, on “Home of the Mandinmories“. (I have just added this blog to my blogroll because it is so good). He articulates the tragic side to this farcical story:

The lunacy of Yahya Jammeh has no boundaries. The man is delusional and running the Gambia into the ground in the process. What kind of a prank is this fool pulling on Gambians? He will run to any dingy institution to get a title. Obviously being called doctor has gotten to his head. He is literally practicing some kind of voodo on patients admitted at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

My brother taught physics at Gambia High School (now Gambia Senior Secondary school) for several years. We spent a couple of weeks with him when I was a teenager. The President of the country then was Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, who led the country from its independence in 1970 until he unwisely decided to go on holiday to London in 1994, triggering a coup which deposed him.

When in The Gambia, on New Year’s Eve we gathered at the former BOAC club and were “honoured” by a visit from the President just before midnight.

The Gambia is a wonderful country, mainly because of its absolutely joyous people, who, by and large, are dreadfully poor. There was also an extraordinary sort of pirate radio station, broadcast on the ship left over from Radio Caroline South. It was called, I think, Radio Syd.

Many congratulations, by the way, to the journalist who wrote the Guardian article about this, Ben Goldacre. He won the Royal Statistical Society’s inaugural award for statistical excellence in journalism last week. It is marvellous that there are still journalists so highly regarded by such an honourable institution.