Gary Monro’s blog

David Cameron’s lack of judgement in this ‘did you take drugs when you were younger’ business is worrying.

In an unfair world if you do not deny it then you are tacitly admitting it. I would hazard a guess that the only reason he’s not saying ‘I did not take any drugs’ is because he knows the instant he does somebody who saw him do it will sell the story to the highest bidder and, for Cameron, the leadership campaign would be over.

From The Times:

“I’m allowed to have had a private life before politics, in which we make mistakes and we do things that we should not — and we are all human and we err and stray,” Mr Cameron said on ‘Question Time.

All this talk about ‘erring’ and ’straying’ and ‘mistakes made’ (a typically weedy phrase of denial, often used by MPs caught in flagrante delicto with their secretaries and prompting one to wonder how the ‘lady’ in question feels about being regarded as a ‘mistake’) just makes him look bad.

Why not admit what everybody now knows to be true, express your regrets and move on?

PS About the ’sue me’ bit in the title… You wouldn’t really, would you? I mean, I was just kidding…. I made a mistake… I erred…. I strayed…

If you live in Holland and the burka’s your kind of fashion statement then the news is all bad.

The country’s hardline Integration Minister, Rita Verdonk, known as the Iron Lady for her series of tough anti-immigration measures, told Parliament that she was going to investigate where and when the burka should be banned.

Mrs Verdonk gave warning that the “time of cosy tea-drinking” with Muslim groups had passed and that natives and immigrants should have the courage to be critical of each other. She recently cancelled a meeting with Muslim leaders who refused to shake her hand because she was a woman.

An outright ban would conflict with Holland’s religious freedom legislation. However, on grounds of public safety the garment may be banned in shops, public buildings, cinemas, train and bus stations and airports, as well as on trains and buses. Which is just about everywhere, is it not?

Elsewhere, some European towns have banned the burka locally.

Last year several Belgian towns, including Antwerp and Ghent, banned the wearing of the burka in public, and recently started issuing £100 spot fines for breaking the municipal ordinance. Several towns in Italy, including Como, have invoked legislation introduced by Mussolini that bans hiding one’s face in public to impose fines on burka-wearers. France and several regions of Germany have followed Turkey and Tunisia in banning the wearing of the hijab, which leaves the face visible, in public buildings, most controversially in schools.

And in Holland itself Utrecht City Council has decided to cut the benefits paid to women whose wearing of the burka prevents them from getting a job.

Utrecht based its decision on the Work and Social Security Act, which states that somebody receiving welfare must not do anything to prevent getting work. The city also noted that the Equality Commission, an official anti-discrimination body, backed employers who refused to give jobs to people wearing burkas, because being able to see someone’s face was an essential part of many jobs.

Personally, I’m not for banning items of clothes like the burka despite them being an ugly blot on our streets. If we’re to ban the burka I’d first like to ban the wearing of jeans that ride half-way down their chav owner’s arses to reveal their tacky Anne Summers thongs…