Gary Monro’s blog

I didn’t realise this - nobody told me - but, according to The Australian, they have.

ITALY has banned Islamic burqas under tough terrorism laws that provide two-year jail terms and E2000 ($3200) fines for anyone caught covering their face in a public place.

The counter-terrorism package, passed by Italy’s parliament yesterday, doubles the existing penalty for wearing a burqa or chador — traditional robes worn by Muslim women to cover their faces — or full-faced helmets or balaclavas in public.

Police can extract DNA samples without a suspect’s consent, detain them for 24 hours without a lawyer present, and deport foreigners suspected of terrorism under the new legislation. Soldiers involved in counter-terrorism have been given the same stop-and-search powers.

Fitting that the land that sired Mussolini should ban a mode of dress that covers up just a tad more than the average nun’s attire. Will the Italians - respectful Catholics one and all - also ban clothes so scanty they are considered by many to be indecent?

Don’t hold you breath.

As I said, Ken Clarke’s conversion to Euro-realism should be seen in the context of his desire to be Conservative Party leader. Playing on the nano-second attention span of the average British voter he believes that if he pretends he’s gone all anti, free-born Englishmen the country over will vote for him.

Bugger it, he’s probably right.

Anyway, The Business reckons Ken’s having us all on. It has heard our Ken make negative noses about the single European currency and reckons he’s having us on. And it pulls no punches about it either:

kapow !

Mr Clarke’s words were anything but a step down from his long-held europhile views. Everybody knows that, had Mr Clarke been Prime Minister at the time, he would have shoehorned Great Britain into the single currency by now and signed up enthusiastically to the European Constitution, which even the French and Dutch have rejected. Indeed Mr Clarke’s constant refrain until last week was that Britain had done neither because Prime Minister Tony Blair had failed to show sufficient euro enthusiasm and leadership.

booof !

Mr Clarke’s pseudo-confession is no more than a grudging nod to reality. Even supporters of the single currency, like Mr Blair, admit that there is no chance of Britain joining it for the foreseeable future (though, undaunted, Mr Clarke raised the possibility of British entry in 10 years time, presumably, in his dream world, towards the end of the first term of a Clarke government).

thwack!

The fact that other European countries, for their own reasons, have also turned against the EU has refuted the myth that only Little Englanders or xenophobes oppose the EU. The euro-establishment in all three mainstream British political parties, which used to hold such sway over public opinion, has now lost all credibility with voters.

Full article can be read by clicking -> (more…)

This beauty is Hammasa Kohistani and she came to our shores from Uzbekistan. Her parents are actually Afghani but fled the fighting there before she was born. She beat 40 entrants to be crowned this year’s Miss England. I couldn’t care less actually that she’s Muslim or foreign - and I care even less about who won Miss England. I’m reporting on this just so I can brighten up the blog with her picture. So the rest of this post will be gibberish.

From the BBC:

The brunette, who speaks six languages including Russian and Persian, was selected from 40 contestants.

“When they announced that I had won I thought I had misheard. I hoped they hadn’t, but it took a second to sink in.”

Asked about her feelings at being the first Muslim Miss England, she said: “I’m making history and I’m very happy. Hopefully I won’t be the last.”

The favourite for the title was also a Muslim - Sarah Mendly. Some of her community’s elders were less than impressed:

Hashim Sulaiman, of the Liverpool Islamic Institute, said: “There is no way a Muslim girl should be playing any part in this competition, because it is unlawful. The ladies in that contest are always very scantily dressed and the only part of the body that should be on display are the face, the hands and the feet.

“I would like this girl to withdraw from the contest immediately. I do not know what she was thinking in entering in the first place and I do not know what her parents were thinking when they allowed her to do so.”

And there were other Muslim entrants: Dilay Topuzoglu, 19, and Sonia Hassanien, 21. I have some sympathy for Muslim detractors; this kind of contest rewards women for the most superficial of qualities. But it’s the tackiness of the whole thing that gives it all an air of, well, sadness. Miss Kohistani’s ambition is to travel the world. Miss Mendly’s ambitions are listed as “living life to the fullest” - although she hopes to use her fame to become a peace ambassador between Britain and Iraq. How? I wonder… It would probably be kinder not to ask her that.

And the prizes reveal the real cheapness of the whole thing. According to the Miss England site the winner receives: an online portfolio from Model HQ - worth £120; a photo shoot worth a grand and a year’s membership of an LA Fitness gym. Woo hoo…