Firstly – sorry, I didn’t see that you’d replied.

“there are loads of carrots and sticks that can be used on this, i presume you’re not expecting me to outline an entire social policy strategy on a blog.”

No, I was merely interested. Obviously, various tactics could be employed in reducing bigotry.

“you mean am i, a jew”

Nope, I don’t judge the views of a debater by their religion/ethnicity.

“the answer is well, no, not especially.”

In that case, I retract the statement and am sorry. In my, admittedly limited, experience there is only one ‘minority religion’ that commentators accuse of “yell[ing] and scream[ing] and demand[ing] that everyone not upset them”.

Incidentally, how did the leafleting go?

Ben

“The trouble with this approach is that first of all you lose the bbc (which you might quite like to do, of course).”

It would be one of the first things to be privatised under my rule.

“Second of all it immediately runs into the objection that the NHS wastes all sorts of money on non-medical costs such as accountants, HR and marketing.”

I think that is a different point though, as I don’t agree with NHS waste either.

“Rumbold, i’m astonished at you. a blog is free, downloadable software, the only cost is the time you spend writing and a negligible administrative overhead. live music requires a venue (£) security (£) musicians (£) equipment (£) rehearsal space (£) all of which require the participation of paid professionals, apart from the actual musicians, except when you expect professional musicians to be included.”

I needed to develop my point. Blogs don’t receive any government funding, nor has there been calls for it, nor do they need it. People blog because they enjoy it. But, if the government suddenly decided to subsidise blogging, then threatened to withdraw the funding twenty years later, there would be an unroar about the “death of blogging”, because bloggers would have got used to suckling on the taxpayers’ teat, and would know no other way. I accept that there are more costs with live music, but you are let to convince me why the taxpayer should subsidise music.

No, you’ve reiterated your support an element of her message.

ok then – i find munira mirza’s critique of the current situation convincing. i find your critique of her article at all convincing.

Do you really want to align your debating skills with Melchett’s?

better a “lapdog to a slip of a girl” than a…..git.

Possibly, but what would this community activism entail? If you are referring to charitable work then the insitutions would not be taxed anyway.

there are loads of carrots and sticks that can be used on this, i presume you’re not expecting me to outline an entire social policy strategy on a blog.

I have to admit that I’ve seen little reason to adopt [the] view [that] “anti-racism” has become tainted by association.

look at some of the coverage of the UN durban anti-racism conference, or indeed at any campus anti-racist activism and you’ll see what i mean.

Then again, the comment does seem to be weighted rather heavily against one particular minority religion, doesn’t it.

you mean am i, a jew, singling out muslims? the answer is well, no, not especially. neither am i flinching from pointing out that it is customary for ethno-religious minorities to try and contribute as well as complain. we are no exception to this rule, the difference being is that we are generally held up as the paradigm of a well-integrated, productive minority, but of course, we have been here for 400 years, so it has taken some time. on the other hand, i like “christian voice” about as much as you probably do and find their contention that they are entitled to particular indulgence especially unconvincing.

Far better that than the Royal Opera House – Glyndebourne has shown that it is perfectly possible for a wholly private operation to produce opera of the very highest quality.
And far far far far far better that than the ****ing Olympics!

*claps loudly*

as for everyone screaming about what boris may or may not think about rise, it should hardly be his biggest priority. the guy’s only been in the job a month or so, for feck’s sake. post #67 says it better than me. however, i think he should give his press secretary or whoever preps him for press conferences a kick up the bum for not prepping him well enough.

and as for boris’s cronyism, all this seems to amount to so far is kicking out a lot of ken’s cronies and replacing them with his own – but this doesn’t seem excessive to me at least not so far. i do take the point, though i would suggest at least waiting for some evidence of the *effect* before condemning everything wholesale.

@billericaydicky:

Don’t tell me like Mike Rosen, another Hackney Trot and children’s poet lauriet, or Prof Stone you have become a self hating Jew. One of the greatest things that has sustained Jewish people is the ability to mock themselves, and in doing so those who oppressesd them.

i don’t think anyone could describe me as “self-hating”, or resembling mike rosen in any way, shape or form. however, in terms of humour, the jewish stereotypes that the likes of jackie mason, for example, draw upon, together with the examples you’ve given (apart from the 4% one, which made me snort) are approximately as amusing to me as “where am dat warty melon massa boss” would be to say, darcus howe, or a “bud bud” accent to pretty much anyone here. obviously some people find this sort of thing amusing, but i’m not one of them.

b’shalom

bananabrain

Very quickly..

- His administation gives substantial funds to the Rise festival, and therefore he has a responsibility towards it.
- It was an intervention from his administration that removed the anti-racism message from Rise. He had not only taken no part in this, but wasn’t actually aware of it.
- The decision had already been announced, and debated, in the press/blogosphere.
- Munira Mirza, his cultural adviser, had written a column on it.
- When questioned, he contradicted the actions of his own administration, saying that an anti-racism message at Rise “sounds fine to me”.
- It adds further strength to the “empty vessel” accusation made during the Mayor’s Question Time.

“I’ll drop the LOL! in future”

Sorry, it’s a personal phobia. Sit in a sixth-form common room and count the lols.

“At least we’re on the same side wrt the Olympics.”

We are indeed. A vindication for pessimism.

Respectfully,

Ben

You’re saying: Boris didn’t know about the Rise change.
How terrible.

I’m saying: so what?

I’ll drop the LOL! in future – but that paragraph did actually make me laugh!

At least we’re on the same side wrt the Olympics.

Ben

Well, at least – unlike Boris – you could find the bloody thing.

“How many London voters are worried by the change in theme of an event of which they have almost certainly never heard?”

Bring back those goalposts when you’re done with them.

Respectfully,

Ben

d) The sourcing of the (additional) £300 million is a matter for the Mayor but the Mayor has confirmed that it will not be found from either an increase in the Council Tax precept or an increase in Fares. The Mayor is examining a range of approaches for meeting the £300 million.

LOL!

How many London voters are worried by the change in theme of an event of which they have almost certainly never heard?
This may be of concern to students (sorry!) but not to many others.
I suspect most people, if told Boris wasn’t bothered about it, would either be indifferent or say “good”.

Respectfully,

Ben

It’s up, but technological dyslexia won’t allow me to do anything with it. Grab somebody with interweb knowledge – they might know.

“In four years time Boris is going to be re-elected with a thumping majority and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. Why? Because people like him.”

There are reasons to hold scepticism about your apparent psychic powers.

“Ben – is Boris supposed to be involved in the design or even the approval of a music festival poster?”

It’s the entire theme of the festival that has been changed, not merely the poster. And yes, he should be aware of it.

“Like sorting out who really *will* pay for the inevitable Olympics overspend. A minor detail which Ken rather carelessly forgot to nail down on his way to Olympic glory.”

I have no kind words for Ken’s treatment of the London Olympics – or, indeed, his support for their existence – but Boris is certainly no better. In a recent Radio London interview he said that he doubted the existence of an important – though flawed – Memorandum of Understanding, which was freely available on the internet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/19/london.boris

Respectfully,

Ben

I suspect most voters – who will never have heard of Rise in the first place – would rather that he was doing something else.

Like sorting out who really *will* pay for the inevitable Olympics overspend. A minor detail which Ken rather carelessly forgot to nail down on his way to Olympic glory. He’s already admitted he knew the “budget” was a lie, hasn’t he?

It was Ken’s apparent obsession with that kind of thing (Rise) – together with the unattractive people whom he put in charge of running it – which put a lot of people off him wasn’t it?

This sounds like something a student would say.

But if you can’t see how inviting a group which supports the Cuban monarchy might put some people off, say those who actually grew up under eastern european communism…

How does that make you feel, Sunny?

Because proper tea is theft.

Don’t tell me like Mike Rosen, another Hackney Trot and children’s poet lauriet, or Prof Stone you have become a self hating Jew. One of the greatest things that has sustained Jewish people is the ability to mock themselves, and in doing so those who oppressesd them.

As soon as I saw your post I rushed upstairs to the library, I was only on the second floor at the time, to get my copy of the ” World’s best Jewish Jokes” and yours is in it! Already!

Did you hear about the Jewish kamikazi pilot? He crashed his plane into a scrap yard!

How do you know when an American Jewish Princess has an orgasm. She drops her nail file!

Two Jews are in front of the firing squad. They are offered blindfolds. One refuses it with a curse. The other says, ” Ssh! Don’t make trouble!”

The maths teacher points to the back of the class and asks young Abie ” What’s four per cent?”
Abie shakes his head and replies “Your right, what’s four per cent?”

And now folks it’s time for the pub, but before I go a somewhat sophisticated Irish joke!

Somewhere during the sixties down the Cromwell Rd in West London two Culshies ( thats West of Ireland men to yous ijits) were digging a trench.

A Texan,straight off the plane,looks down the hole and says ” Where I come from we have to work to one millioneth of an inch”. Paddy looks up and says, ” Ah sure you’d never get a job here, we have to be spot on”

I,ll be talkin to yis agin in the mornin. Leon, all quiet with you son!

In any case, Boris has nothing to do with this debate. The whole furore came as a complete surprise to him*.

*http://www.boriswatch.co.uk/2008/06/19/man-of-detail-asks-bbc-london-two-months-too-late/

Oh, but he does. The right wingers just have more respectable sounding organisations.

There was a good piece by Adam Bienkov here:
http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/2008/06/09/boris-johnsons-cronies-to-the-rescue-of-cronyism/

Read it and weep. But you probably won’t, because they don’t sound like ’socialist action’, which has hilariously become the biggest undercover operation since the Red Army.

And the BorisWatch.co.uk guys, linked above, are great too.

“The astonishing moment came when Boris was asked, some time in the past few days I assume, about the erasure of the anti-racism message from the Rise festival. His response?

“Are you sure? Er-ah, of course, it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be great, whatever happens will be great.”

The reporter then put it to him that the statement, that we don’t need an anti-racist theme, was meant to reflect his views about communities and diversity. He looked mystified throughout, and replied:

“Well, er, that’s, those are your words, not mine. I, it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be wonderful.”

So he hadn’t instructed anyone that that should be removed – we shouldn’t change the theme of it?

“I haven’t… I haven’t… I certainly haven’t seen anything to that effect, and I’m sure it’s going to be a wonderful festival.”

So he wouldn’t have a problem with it continuing its anti-racist theme, given that that was what its history had been, this summer festival?

“Yeah, sounds fine to me.”"

No, but then I was referring to religious activities in Britain – as I assumed you and Bananabrain were.

Respectfully,

Ben