Only then do we get into the layer who are sceptical and willing to question the rhetoric.

The job that needs doing is to work with each of these layers of opinion, in reverse order.

Worse is the media coverage which reinforces the views of racists and make it a lot easier for their views to gather momentum. Half the battle is, after all, having a receptive audience. So being softened by the myth-makers at the Sun, Express, Mail and others is manna for them.

These papers have to be taken on directly by a growing number of concerned bloggers, veteran anti-racist groups, the Trade Union movement (lets rule out Boris Johnson in London and the government nationally). Muslims wilfully misrepresented are to be encouraged to take legal action for defamation. eg Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam who won significant damages last week for being portrayed as a mysognist.

Another layer of action is with local journalists who act as stringers for the national press – their generally innocent stories are being turned into hate-pieces. They need to reminded and supported in their craft as ’seekers and chroniclers of the truth’, such that they maintain a say in what becomes of their original reports.

I am reluctant to write-off that particular indvidual in Peter Oborne’s program as a bigot – mentally weakened by the media, kept ignorant by the government and embittered by his lot perhaps.

Writing off people hardens their position.

Probably exactly the same number as are likely to vote BNP in the first place. I am dismissing him as a bigot because that is exactly what he was. I can only find a ComRes opinion poll, where BNP support seems to be nationally about 2 – 3%.

http://www.comres.co.uk/systems/file_download.aspx?pg=352&ver=2

Or am I missing something here?

Still, it was right to go in, I believe and topple the fascist regime. Terrible botch ups from there on. At least now the Iraqis have something to look forward to. Al-Qaeda are moving out. They are not wanted. Hopefully, I can come back in 10 years to PP, and say I told you so.

Time will tell…But yes apologies this is OT!

How appropriate a response. Tells me all I need to know tbh. You must have some pretty low benchmarks for defining something a “success story”. Anyway, lets not get OT here.

Good points Refresh, I too wonder how many of the native population would be congratulating this individual for “breaking free from the confines of political correctness”.

Stoke is a hotbed for the BNP, and the Councillor in question would have been delighted to hear their own message being played back to him. Their work is being reinforced by the message from the media, some mainstream politicians. And of course shenanigans of the blogging sites like Harry’s Place.

To dismiss the individual who made the comment as a bigot is a mistake for the simple reason that he has been lost to us and the recognisable version of ‘British Values’.

Whereas those generating and reinforcing the message are snakes without any abiding virtue.

So the battle that Sunny has voiced is the correct one. Its taken a good while getting here but he did get here and in the end that is what I have been waiting for.

Back to the cockroach comment, the question is how much of the population of Stoke would be patting that citizen on the back for ’speaking up’.

As for the politicians, pundits and bloggers, how many will be getting nervous about their role?

That’s funny.

Indeed. Marvin (#89), there is a growing consensus among historians that the Iraq War is one of the worst blunders in foreign policy in recent years. It’s nothing to be proud of. And this is 2008, not 2005 – debating about whether it was a good idea is pointless. As for “No blood for Oil!”… you should see that Panorama documentary about the missing billions. It tells you who got the oil contracts in Kurdistan… care to guess?

LOL?

Sunny has reassessed his direction after Ken’s and Labour’s defeat in the elections. Surprisingly he has lurched further to the left. I think this is a mistake. When your politics become sidelined by the general consensus the last thing you want to do is isolate yourselves by lurching off centre. You run the risk of becoming irrelevant. Much like the Tories were for the past 10 years. They kept lurching to the Right. People just weren’t interested.

Idiots who actually still have the temerity to say they agreed with Blair should be immediately air lifted and parachuted into Iraq to witness the poverty, prostitution and violence that ensued and destroyed so many lives.

That’s funny. I think all those who would rather the Iraqi populace be under the Saddam terror regime, should go to Iraq and explain to the Iraqi people why they would have not toppled the Baathist terror regime, and would have allowed a genocidal dictator, that gassed 200,000, to remain in power.

Iraq is slowly becoming a success story. I think ALL who stenuously opposed the Iraqi intervention to watch some of the BBC footage interviewing Iraqis.

Al-Qeada are moving out. Soldiers want to leave Iraq. Because they are BORED. They want to go to Afghanistan.

Any success in Iraq is seemingly out of the question for those obsessed and partly deluded with those pithy slogans such as “No blood for Oil! Bush worlds no.1 terrorist!” bla bla bla.

“I admire Sunnys new direction.”

If that doesn’t make Sunny break out in a cold sweat then I don’t know what will. Heh.

Just joking Random Guy.

- are illegal foreign interventions that kill hundreds of thousands in return for privatisation and oil in the interests of our populace?

Idiots who actually still have the temerity to say they agreed with Blair should be immediately air lifted and parachuted into Iraq to witness the poverty, prostitution and violence that ensued and destroyed so many lives. And yes, that does go both ways. Only, the innocent population of one side has been terrorised far out of proportion than the other.

Honestly I think “good” will eventually lead the world to its own self destruction cause everyone is so worried about what everyone else is doing instead of themselves.

A French acquaintance of my wife was telling me his opinion of Muslims in this country. He said proudly – “in France, there is more integration and therefore less racism. Before I could interrupt him and say: “No you stupid frog, this country is far more tolerant than France will ever hope to be”, he said something quite amazing: “For instance, half the English population is racist against Indians and Pakistanis”. Then he looks at me carefully, and says – “People look at you and think you are Pakistani, and therefore…”. I interrupted him. I don’t need to know

I don’t agree with his assessment of race relations in France, but he was right about a large proportion of the English population, lthough I wouldn’t like to hazard a percentage like he has. Being white though, his English friends and acquaintances probably speak entirely freely with him, and so you can only imagine by extrapolating from there what white people say about us behind our backs. Many people just mistake English politeness (not saying things to your face) as an absence of racism.

Nevertheless, the narrative is cast, and ‘Asians’ are officially the virus and bacteria in the system; we must get ready for the medicine.

Sunny, recently, only acknowledges that Muslims can feel threatened. People threatened by Islamists (do I really need to remind people of 7/7?) are not acknowledged. Their narrative is pure bigotry it seems.

How many people have died in Islamophobic attacks in the past 5 years?

How man people have died in kuffarophobic attacks in the past 5 years? At least 52. Not through want of trying I might add.

So, in Sunny’s new post-Ken Livingstone narrative, Muslims are the real victims from Islamophobia (even though, actually they are not, at all). And the media are being vicious ….. by focusing their narrative on Islamist bigots…. And yet Sunny is fully justified in focusing on white racist bigots… Because, like, they are the real enemy, not Islamist bigots who are literally plotting to blow up people.

This doesn’t sound like a very progressive policy Sunny. Don’t forget we already have the pinnacle of the Islamophobic paranoia narrative with http://www.islamophobia-watch.com/

Perhaps you could become a guest writer, why not email Bob Pitt?

Wonk.

“But I feel you are engaging in the same type of sensationalism as the Sun, which you often criticise.

… So, why highlight the extreme if it is an exception? Because it sells. But you should not be under the illusion that you are solving this problem.

You will never reason with extremists: racist whites and Islamic radicals. But you case reason with moderates who are trap between both narratives and offer a third narrative. One that begins by acknowledging that both sides have a reason to feel threatened even if unjustified – without accusing anyone of bigotry – and start a dialogue based on what people have in common. After all, isn’t that what communities should focus on?”

Amen.

‘We had to destroy the village in order to save it’.

First, before firing a weapon, you first need to consider whether the effects of that weapon are likely to constitute progress towards achieving your goal.

Secondly, if it turns out your goal _is_ the kind of thing best served by weapons of a high level of indiscriminate destruction, it becomes time to question your goals.

Sensationalism, distortion, taking the worst and claiming it is the norm, feeding paranoia, inciting hatred, are all deadly weapons. They have probably killed more people than all but a few types of military hardware.

If you choose to deploy them you better be damn sure you know what you are doing.

Digging furiously for evidence to butress a narrative is intellecutally dishonest to yourself. Logical/truthful people look at the evidence and then come to a conclusion based on the totality of the evidence. Ideolgues come to a conclusion and then looks for the tiniest bit of evidence to support their conclusion/narrative.

“A French acquaintance of my wife was telling me his opinion of Muslims in this country. He said proudly – “in France, there is more integration and therefore less racism. Before I could interrupt him and say: “No you stupid frog, this country is far more tolerant than France will ever hope to be”.”

I would agree France is less tolerant and multicultural (e.g. banning headscarves) than Britain is, though I would also say that French muslims are more integrated than British muslims. No good deed goes unpunished eh?