A bacon sarnie and a cup of tea

The whole blogosphere knows by now that Denmark's largest newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published twelve mildy funny cartoons of Mohammed which in turn prompted Denmarks muslim community to go beserk and issue death threats left right and centre. We expect nothing less of course. The cartoons were intended to represent & celebrate free speech, according to the newschief. The newspaper was eventually forced to issue a quasi apology when distortions of the cartoons started popping up everywhere which probably made inoffensive parodies into dodgier shit stirring versions. The editor did however make it quite clear that the original cartoons were ‘sober’ eg implying get OVER it. It also all sounded slightly tongue in cheek to me when he started his quasi apology by calling them ‘honourable citizens’.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen refused to meet with ambassadors from eleven Muslim countries pushing for apologies, saying,

“F**k off - this is a matter of..”

(well almost!…)

“This is a matter of principle. I won’t meet with them because it is so crystal clear what principles Danish democracy is built upon that there is no reason to do so.” He added: “I will never accept that respect for a religious stance leads to the curtailment of criticism, humour and satire in the press.”

OK so you can very well argue that the editor shouldn’t really have apologised - but I do feel encouraged by what I feel is an overall nordic retort of “whatever!” & “Aww, there, there now piss off” to all this fuss.

And on that note the Religious Hatred Bill here in the UK supported by the likes of the Muslim Council of GB & pumped up as in some way aiding the fight against terrorism by curtailing your right to, lets say, publish cartoons parodying Mohammed or criticise Islam, was defeated tonight.

Ministers lose religious bill bid

A revised bill which now cites the need for a clear threat to incite religious hatred and does not simply rely on you taking the piss or criticising a religeon - was passed instead. The islamofacsists are normally pretty clear with their threats - so if undercover journos do the jobs they're supposed to do (and have done) with those p.i.t.a cloak and dagger imams …..

Anyway, buy Danish bacon for your sarnies and as you tuck in read this and smile:

"There has been an England, and a people who have called themselves the English, continuously since at least 937, when King Alfred's grandsons defeated a Northumbrian coalition, including Danes and Scots, in the battle of Brunanburh. The county or shire - a term now made familiar to hundreds of millions of cinema-goers as the bucolic homeland of the hobbits - is one of the oldest continuous units of territorial self-government in the world. What people call "the law of the land', that is, English common law, was there already when the Normans came, and still survives. From Magna Carta in 1215 to the English revolutions of the 17th century, the human and civil rights - including individual property rights - that would come to be seen as characteristic of "western civ" advanced furthest and fastest in England. The English parliament was the mother of parliaments. These things are true. They distinguish Britain, and especially England, from continental countries shaped by the legacy of Napoleonic administration, devastating wars on their own territory, and successive occupations. It is not a mere chimera that generations of continental Europeans, from Montesquieu to Jean Monnet, and generations of Americans have admired. The legacies of these things live on, in what British people say and do every day. --- Timothy Garton Ash"

Then read Mondays Lone Voice from where I pinched the above (and the pic) and try not to choke!


(Hat tip Lone Voice & Rottweiler Puppy)