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Ed: I haven't been able to find any other critics of Michael Ashcroft's financial arrangements in sympathy with Ashcroft must go! (Friday, March 5. 2010). Yet there's this attack on rather different lines from former Conservative Party Chairman and Cabinet Minister, Lord (Norman) Tebbit taken from his blog;

Whether the Conservative Party – sorry, Cameron’s Conservatives – win, lose or draw the forthcoming election, the praise or blame should go to Lord Ashcroft.



Ashcroft is an exceptionally able businessman and an exceptionally able organiser. He is by nature a Conservative and he has a deep sense that he should use his wealth to counter the vast wealth and power of the trades unions which back the Labour Party.

It did not take him long to see that to form a Conservative administration the party had to win a hundred or more critical seats. The dead safe 10,000 plus majority seats on either side will not change sides in anything but a political earthquake, so Ashcroft saw no sense in deploying scarce resources in them and he took charge of the campaign to win the critical marginal seats.

He has long been hooked on opinion polls and focus groups as marketing tools. Selling toothpaste or Conservative candidates is then just a matter of identifying which customers who bought another brand last time around and asking them what would make them switch brands.

In the critical seats that was pretty clear. There are a lot of voters who were dazzled by Blair’s NuLab agenda of 1997 who are disillusioned by his failure to deliver what they voted for. All that was needed, said the Ashcroft analysis, was to make David Cameron “the heir to Blair”, the man who would deliver the “change” and “modernization” they had voted for in 1997. The Conservative Party had to be “detoxified”’from its “nasty past”. The dinosaurs and “Turnip Taliban” demonised and thrust aside by young people with no political past and no ties. The sort of people you see in TV advertisements for deodorants.

That analysis of how to persuade a few hundreds of thousands of former NuLab and Lib Dem voters to change sides in the critical seats has dominated the repositioning of the Conservative Party on to the centre ground. It has been far more powerful than any ideas coming from Steve Hilton, David Willetts or Mr Coulson.

It might well deliver a greater victory to Mr Cameron than the closing gap in the polls would suggest, by delivering a bigger swing in the seats we need to take from NuLab and Lib Dems and Michael Ashcroft will be a hero. But if it turns too many Tory voters towards UKIP or stay-at-homes who can see little difference between the parties and little reason to vote in 2010 for the Nulab agenda they voted against in 1997, David Cameron will go down to defeat at the hands of the worst government for over a century.

Either way, it will be the Ashcroft strategy that should be given the credit or the blame.

Putting politicans in charge of businesses is proverbially a risky business. We shall see if the converse is true. The great hoo-hah over whether a non-dom should be barred from politics here, or whether Ashcroft was economical with the truth or whether Hague and Cameron should have made a closer inspection of the mouth of this gift horse, is another matter.

Asked for his assessment of the 1789 French Revolution, the Chinese Premier, Chou En-lai ( Zhou Enlai) is remembered for his reply, "Too early to say."

Whatever you think of the French Revolution, you should accept that it marks an important watershed in European and, indeed, world history. Before the French Revolution, we had the medieval world, the Renaissance and the Reformation. After the Revolution we have the Modern World.

The French Revolution inspired many in other European countries who hoped for a better society. It inspired the European Revolutions of 1848 and, in the same year, it inspired Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to write their Communist Manifesto. It inspired the Paris Commune, the Russian Revolution and the Communist movement as a whole, a form of government which, until recently, ruled one third of the earth's entire population.

The Revolution was the product of a stream of European thought which may be said to begin with the Dutch Jewish philosopher, Baruch Spinoza (1632-77). The book Deuteronomy records the death of Moses (in its final Chapter 34). Spinoza doubted whether the Prophet could be considered the author of Deuteronomy and the other books of the Torah attributed to Moses as the "Books of Moses". For this and other controversial opinions, the Jews of Amsterdam excommunicated Spinoza and banned him from the synagogue.

Enlightenment thinkers attacked monarchy, hierarchy and the Established Christian faith. In their place they offered republicanism, equality, secularism and religious scepticism, leading to atheism. The most important Enlightenment thinkers in France were Voltaire (1694-1778) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78). Voltaire ctiticised the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church and its persecution of French Protestants (Huguenots). His works use many times the expressions l'infame and écrasez l'infame (wipe out the infamy), with which watchword he is identified. Rousseau's most famous work is The Social Contract (1764) where Rousseau conceives the project of rebuilding an entire society from the ground up.

The Enlightenment led to a softening in religious tensions, promoted by the society of the Freemasons, where all believers in God could meet on equal terms. Freemasonry was introduced into England ( or perhaps revived) by James VI of Scotland (1566-1625) who acquired the English throne in 1603. Freemasonry spread rapidly in Europe, even as far east as Russia. The Austrian Emeror, Joseph II (1741-90), for example, became very friendly towards Freemasonry. Joseph abolished or softened all restrictions and penalties against Jews, Protestants and other non-Catholics. Under Joseph, the Masonic lodges of Vienna were filled with the rich, powerful and famous- including, for example, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91).

The American Revolution may have been a Scots Irish enterprise (see The Declaration of Independence and the Scots Irish Part 1, Thursday, March 4. 2010) - but it was also a Masonic enterprise. Influenced by Enlightenment principles, almost all of the American leaders were Masons. The Masons had deeply penetrated Irish society as well.

The French Revolution did not come out of nothing. The reaction to the Revolution, in the English-speaking world, can be personalised in the works of two men. Arguing for the Revolution is Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Paine supported, first, the American Revoltion and then the French Revolution, writing in its support his Rights of Man (1791). Arguing against the Revolution was the Irish statesman, Edmund Burke (1729-97).

The Irish-born Burke became enormously influential within the Whig Party in Britain. Burke encouraged the American colonists and indeed led the Whig support in Parliament for their cause, which developed into a war of independence.

The Whig mindset was favourably disposed toward the French revolutionaries and Burke initially did not condemn the events in France. Burke quickly changed his mind and in November 1790 published his Reflections on the Revolution in France. Quite unlike the Americans, Burke found that the French were overthrowing the foundations of their society. He predicted, correctly, that the French would go on to execute both their King and their Queen (the Austrian Marie Antoinette, known in Paris as "the Austrian bitch"). He predicted, again correctly, that order would only be resored by a military dictatorship under a 'strong man' (Napoleon was to fill that role). But perhaps even Burke could not forsee the Terror under Robespierre, with the execution on suspicion of thousands through the revolutionary Madame Guillotine , the destruction with more thousands of dead of France's second city, Lyon, for its Girondist sympathies which the Jacobins regarded as treachery, and the legacy to Europe of a generation of war.

Burke insisted that Britain's first national priority must be to destroy the French revolution and the principles it espoused. Burke was lucky to die in 1797, the year before the French virus would spread to his native Ireland in three separate spasms.

The Irish Rebels knew their Burke. The rebels in County Antrim carried a banner with the motto "The swinish multitude", a phrase used by Burke to describe the French revolutionaries in his Reflections. More on Ireland next time.

Blog links

Who is a Jew? - by Felix Posen, Tuesday, December 22. 2009

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Αα Ββ Γγ Δδ Εε Ζζ Ηη Θθ Ιι Κκ Λλ Μμ Νν Ξξ Οο Ππ Ρρ Σσς Ττ Υυ Φφ Χχ Ψψ Ωω ᾲ ᾴ ῂ ῄ ὶ ί ῦ ώ ύ

To be continued

James Palmer is the grandson of our correspondent Rudolf Fischer and lives in Beijing. James is the author of an acclaimed biography of Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg (1886-1921) entitled The Bloody White Baron (2009) - see below. The Baron's life was the subect of the feature film Wild Boar.

The currenrt issue of Harper's Magazine includes an interview with Palmer where the author claims that the Baron was "vital" in part of Mongolia, "Outer Mongolia", developing as an independent state. Palmer is quoted as saying -

Russian rule meant horrendous slaughter and oppression in Mongolia, but the Mongolians always maintained their nominal autonomy. The Chinese, on the other hand, wanted to absorb and settle Mongolia, as they did to Inner Mongolia. The Mongolians are, according to Chinese nationalism, one of the “five peoples of China,” something which most Mongolians–like Tibetans and Uighur–would vigorously contest. They’d be in the same position as Xinjiang or Tibet now, watching Han settlers pour into their lands, and any attempts at revising nationalism or independence would be ruthlessly crushed.

Most Mongolians live in Inner Mongolia, part of China. Today Han Chinese form a large majority and Mongolians have been reduced to a small minority. Yet Mongolians still control Outer Mongolia.

Palmer doesn't mention the Manchurians who today have lost their huge country to the Han as well. Today the ethnic Manchurians number less than 100,000.

Blog Links

More on the Baron, Saturday, August 16. 2008

Bloody White Baron, Tuesday, March 25. 2008

Link

Harper's Magazine interview March 4, 2010

Psalm 78 (New International Version)

A maskil of Asaph. [a]

1 O my people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter hidden things, things from of old-

3 what we have heard and known,
what our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.

5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our forefathers
to teach their children,

6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.

7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.

8 They would not be like their forefathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him.

9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned back on the day of battle;

10 they did not keep God's covenant
and refused to live by his law.

11 They forgot what he had done,
the wonders he had shown them.

12 He did miracles in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea and led them through;
he made the water stand firm like a wall.

Today I listened to a self-identified "working-class" speaker complain about the titles used a few decades ago by representatives of "Big House Unionism". Those titles included military ones, such as those used by Captain Terence O'Neill and Major James Chichester-Clark (who both became Unionist Prime Ministers in the 1960s). The speaker mentioned unidentified "Lords" as well, but I don't think he was thinking of Lord Blease and Lord (Gerry) Fitt.

This prompted me to think of Enoch Powell, who became a Unionist Westminster MP in the 1970s. On the outbreak of the Second World War, Powell left his university teaching job in Australia to volunteer for the British Army as a Private. During the War he was promoted rapidly to become a Brigadier, the youngest in the Army. Yet with the war's end Powell left soldiering and never used his military title in civilian life.

David Niven too left Hollywood behind to volunteer as a Private (see Ashcroft must go! - Friday, March 5. 2010). He ended the War as a Lieutenant-Colonel but did not use his military title as a civilian. Both Niven and Powell bore clipped military moustaches.

My father was fond of relating how Captain Terence O'Neill entered the war as a Captain, and ended the War as a Captain. In Jack Quan RIP, Wednesday, February 28. 2007, I mentioned Jack Quan's link with O'Neill where I wrote -

In the 1960s Jack had been in change of the US office in New York of the Northern Ireland Government and was able to tell me an interesting story. In 1969 Terence O'Neill resigned as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland after a bruising spell in that post which had seen political turmoil and violence spill on our streets.

Wanting to find somewhere quiet to recuperate, away from politics, O'Neill chose New York where Quan acted as his host for some weeks and got to know O'Neill rather well. He discovered that on leaving the Army, he was looking around for something to do and discovered that he wasn't particularly well-qualified for anything. It was suggested to O'Neill that he should 'go into politics' and so he inherited the safe Stormont seat of Bannside - so safe, in fact, that he was elected unopposed.

Jack was formerly keen on mountaineering and lent me from his bookshelves Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet (1953) - later made into a film. Shortly afterwards I found a girl on the London Tube reading the book in the very same edition. Bt this act Jack stimulated my interest in Tibet, so that I joined the Free Tibet Campaign - see The Lost World of Tibet, Tuesday, April 22. 2008. Jack was born a Presbyterian then ended his days as an Anglican, the reverse spiritual pilgrimage to mine.

In previous blogs (see below) I have discussed the murder that took place at the Tara Guesthouse 5 minutes walk away from where I live. Originally the defendant, James William McCoy, intended to plead 'Not Guilty' but, as the trial was about to start, he changed his plea, no doubt on advice from his defence QC (paid for I imagine from the public purse), to one of 'Guilty'.

In January the judge pronounced that there was only one sentence that he could give, one of Life Imprisonment. Yet before he would set the "minimum tariff" the judge would consider the pleas of various mitigating factors set before him by McCoy's lawyer. In reponse to my blog a reader called Jennifer Browne commented;-

Let's all get drunk like McCoy and find a helpless pensioner and murder him in cold blood.

Billy Spence - murder victim

A mental disorder my ass, this was calculated, premeditated murder. The drunk McCoy had sketched this house many times previously armed with a knife and knew fully what he was doing. On the night he was brutalised Mr Spence happened to catch the murderer in his home.

[McCoy] wasn't so drunk that he could lift a knife and precisely stick it into Mr Spence's chest several times and furthermore lift heavy objects and crush his head. I would imagine if he was that drunk this would have rendered his reactions worthless.

The only mental disorder that this man has is that he is a perverted, mindless killer. I should hope he rots in jail but as our system has showed many times before he will probably be out in 12 years to do the same to some other poor unfortunate pensioner. Life should mean life and not 12 years.

McCoy's friend Emma may think that drink fuelled this man's appetite for murder, but wake up and smell the coffee, or in your case the whiskey. It only served to help him get over his nerves to murder - this man had every intention of pulling a knife no matter who got in his way. A savage but cowardly little man.

As Jennifer Browne predicted and feared, the judge has set McCoy's tariff at 12 and a half years. The local newspaper reports that the victim's sister told a reporter that the murder and the subsequent legal proceedings had left her numb. The newspaper adds -

"A 'Paranoid' killer, who stabbed and beat a Bangor guesthouse owner to death 'in a frenzied attack' while high on a cocktail of drink and drugs, has been jailed for life ..."

McCoy admitted murder as well as "the aggravated burglary... of the guesthouse on the night of the killing and burgling it two weeks beforehand". The victim died from multiple stab wounds and violent blows to the head. CCTV footage at the scene showed a knife-wielding, bare-chested man in the premises at 11.45 pm. The man was clearly identifiable as McCoy.

One of the 10 Commandments is You shall not murder (Exodus 20:13 for example). The Hebrew word is retzach, which would appear to cover crimes rather broader than what we include as "murder" - including, for example, King David's sending his loyal general Uriah into the front line to be killed in battle, with the proximate cause David's lust for Uriah's wife, Bathsheba.

The Bible specifies, in several places, death as the just punishment for murder or retzach. Christians, too, have since the earliest days of the faith accepted this rule. Certainly this was the practice for most if not all of the states of Christendom for the period when Christianity was accepted as the moral base for the law.

Today we live in an age when the forces of secularism have made vast strides. Christian doctrine is no longer accepted as the dominating influence on, or justification for, the secular law. Capital punishment no longer exists as the standard punishment for murder in Western Europe. Although death may still remain on the statute book as the punishment for High Treason, there are few such trials nowadays. Christians must accept that we live in a largely secular state and "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's".

Nonetheless, capital punishment remains the moral and proper punishment for murder; and McCoy in particular fully deserves death in return for his crime, even if our society lets him off with a lighter sentence.

Links

Murder at Tara, Tuesday, January 19. 2010

Murder in the suburbs, Wednesday, July 2. 2008

David Niven (1910-83) was an actor who achieved film stardom. Niven's career in Hollywood began in the 1930s, but on the outbreak of the Second World War he left Tinseltown to join the British Army. He ended the War as a Lieutenant-Colonel, but then he returned to Hollywood where he would from then on take starring roles only. On Niven's wartime contribution, Winston Churchill remarked "Young man, you did a fine thing to give up your film career to fight for your country. Mark you, had you not done so − it would have been despicable."

Niven played a large number of "British" or more precisely "English" roles in Hollywood, not unremunerated, and towards the end of his career Niven began to feel that he had done much to promote the country in the US. He hankered after a handle to his name, such as that enjoyed by Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Michael Redgrave. Discreet soundings were made, but a question was returned "Did Niven pay tax to the UK Exchequer?" Unless he was a UK taxpayer, he could not be considered for an honour. The film star went away saddened, for he, a US resident, had ceased paying UK tax many years ago.

When you think about it, this is only right. Why should any country hand out gongs to a person who does not contribute in money terms to the running of the country? A freeloaded, in fact, and not commited to the welfare of the country in the clearest way. To become a "Member" of my church, you must contribute money regularly (attending services is, of course, open to all without any financial obligation). I'm sure that the same is true of most organisations.

Political parties cannot operate without money, and political parties have traditionally rewarded large donors with honours. Harold Wilson had his "Lord Gannex" and, under Lloyd George, the sale of honours became a thriving business. After this experience the sale of a honour became a criminal offence.

Lord Ashcroft. Michael Ashcroft was a son of a colonial officer who spent time in British Honduras, a sliver of mainland Central America acquired by the British Empire "in a fit of absence of mind". Ashcroft entered business and, when British Honduras achieved independence under the name of Belize in 1981, he saw the opportunity that the territory offered as a tax haven and business base.

Ashcroft became exceedingly wealthy, a billionaire. Other billionaire may seek to acquire a football club as a gegaw or a string of racehorses, but Michael Ashcroft chose politics. He became Treasurer of the Conservative Party in which, no doubt, he rendered the Party good services. He conceived the idea of a Peerage as a reward and William Hague, then Leader of the Party, lobbied for this honour. On the question of his tax status, Ashcroft gave Hague a written assurance that he would become a "permanent UK resident" (which carries the obligation to pay UK tax on all his income).

Nonetheless, Ashcroft came to an agreement with the Electoral Commission that, in order to receive a pererage, he need only become a "full-time resident" (though still a foreign Belizean alien), with the implication that he would pay tax on his UK income (probably negligible) and none at all on his foreign, Belizean income. Ashcroft failed to inform Hague of the change.

Lord Turnbull, former Head of the Civil Service, has stated that it was William Hague's duty, as Ashcroft's sponsor, to ensure that the now Lord Ashcroft fulfilled his obligations to the British public on tax status. William Hague, on the other hand, has contested that he was not in the habit of asking people how they paid tax.

Tax status stood, nonetheless, at the heart of the matter. Lord Ashcroft is guilty of, at the least being "economical with the vérité" (as Alan Clark put it). Yet it goes further. Tony Blair was counted guilty of misleading the British public in the buildup to the Iraq war. In my opinion, Ashcroft stands equally guilty of misleading his closest political colleagues and, through them, Conservative Party members and the British public as a whole.

Sadly, David Cameron, too, is guilty of not scotching this scandal quickly once its outlines became evident to him. It has been embarrassing to see Conservative spokesmen able to offer only a "but they (the Labour and Liberal parties) do it too" to defend the indefensible. A friend has opined "Lord Ashcroft is doing his best to see that Labour wins the next General Election".

To become a Peer of the Realm is no little matter. It is to become part of the nation's legislature, with many perks including expenses and access to the powerful. Cameron must now, as a minimum, remove Ashcroft from his position as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. Other Deputy Chairman have been sacked. If Ashcroft refuses to go quietly, that he should suffer that fate as well. This may be inconvenient or embarrassment for the party, but it is a political imperative as the General Election nears.

Ideally, Lord Ashcroft should take steps to return to the Exchequer the back taxes which he in all conscience owes the British people.

Links

William Hague 'failed to ensure Lord Ashcroft honoured tax commitment' Times March 4, 2010

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Αα Ββ Γγ Δδ Εε Ζζ Ηη Θθ Ιι Κκ Λλ Μμ Νν Ξξ Οο Ππ Ρρ Σσς Ττ Υυ Φφ Χχ Ψψ Ωω ᾲ ᾴ ῂ ῄ ὶ ί ῦ ώ ύ

Recently I met the local author and historian Dr Alister John McReynolds; and I've been reading Dr McReynolds' book Legacy: the Scots Irish in America ( Ambassador, Belfast and South Carolina, 2009). This isn't a complete history of the Scots Irish (or Scotch-Irish) in America, rather it focuses on just a few aspects. One of these aspects is the Scots Irish influence on the movement for American independence, and on the formation of the Declaration of Independence in particular.

McReynolds opens his Chapter entitled THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE WITH three quotations which illustrate how the conflict was seen through British Establishment eyes (page 31);-

"We have lost America through the Irish" - Lord Mountjoy, House of Commons

"I hear that our American cousin has run off with a Scots Irish parson." Horace Walpole, British Prime Minister

" Call this war whatever you may, only call it not an American rebellion: it is nothing more than a Scots Irish Presbyterian Rebellion" - British officer writing in 1778.

The final quotation rang a bell. In fact it came from a "Hessian", or German, officer in British pay. The British recruited many German troops for the American struggle - the King was a Hanoverian and the ruler of the state of Hanover in North Germany. Quite a number of these German troops ended up settling in what became the United States. The tradition of employing German troops continued into the Napoleonic Wars, and the King's German Legion saw action in the Battle of Waterloo.

Yet I had some doubts about the remaining two quotations. From Wikipedia I learnt firstly that Charles Blount (1563-1606), 8th Baron Mountjoy, was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1600 and sucessfully concluded the war against the Ulster Rebellion led by Hugh O'Neill. On his death the Mountjoy baronetcy became extinct. So there shouldn't have been a Lord Mountjoy around to speak of the American Revolution in the House of Commons or anywhere else. 'Mountjoy', by the way, was the name given to the village in Co Tyrone now called Coalisland.

Secondly, Horace Walpole (1717-97) was the author of The Castle of Otranto, the first Gothic novel, a major literary figure and he lived at the correct time. Horace Walpole became an MP and then a member of the House of Lords, but he was never Prime Minister. His father, on the other hand, was Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745), who is recognised as the first de facto Prime Minister of Great Britain, serving in this role from 1730 to 1742 (the formal name for the office was a later development). Sir Robert Walpole had nothing to do with the American Revolution.

Putting these objections to the author, he replied with this information;-

Horace Walpole~youngest son of Robert Walpole, mp 1741-1768~later 4th Earl of Orford~title died with him in 1797.

Luke Gardiner, 1st Viscount Mountjoy, Irish House of Commons 1773-1789.

Wikipedia tells me that Luke Gardiner (1745–1798) was an Irish landowner and politician who in 1795 was raised Viscount Mountjoy in the Peerage of Ireland. Earlier (1773–1789) Gardiner had been a Member of the Irish Parliament for the County of Dublin. I imagine that the remark was made in the Irish House of Commons while Gardiner was still a commoner.

So it was Horace Walpole who scorned the Americans and the Scots Irish, most likely in one of his Letters, on which Walpole's literary reputation largely rests.

To be continued

Last Saturday I posted the names of none Ulster Unionist nominees who had been endorsed by the Conservative/Ulster Unionist Committee to stand as "Conservatives and Unionists" candidates in the coming General Election. They were -

· East Belfast- Trevor Ringland
· Newry and Armagh- Danny Kennedy MLA
· West Tyrone- Cllr Ross Hussey
· West Belfast- Bill Manwaring
· Strangford- Mike Nesbitt
· Mid Ulster- Sandra Overend
· Lagan Valley- Daphne Trimble
· Upper Bann- Harry Hamilton
· South Down- John McCallister MLA

One friend has recorded his shock at this list of names. "Where are the Conservative candidates?" he asks. "Will the Joint Committee approve only Ulster Unionists?"

In addition the Ulster Unionist Party has released the names of a further 8 of its nominees for all the remaining constituencies apart from North Down. These are -

. North Antrim-Robin Swann
. South Antrim-Adrian Watson
. East Antrim-Rodney McCune
. North Belfast-Fred Cobain
. South Belfast-Paula Bradshaw
. Fermanagh & South Tyrone-Tom Eliot
. Foyle-David Harding
. East Londonderry-Lesley McAuley

Jeff Peel has led a vigorous discussion in Deadwood and Down on February 25th in his Dairy. Jeff describes the list approved by the Joint-Committee as "the same-old, same-old sash-wearing deadwood". Peel describes the process as "the effective closure of the Conservative Party in Northern Ireland".

No less a figure than Cllr Ian Parsley (the Conservative nominee in North Down) has rebutted Peel's views -

"... all the UUP nominees have pledged to be fully fledged Conservative MPs if elected – so they are Conservatives. Many would have joined the Conservative Party directly had that been a serious electoral option in Northern Ireland. Your implication that selected candidates such as Trevor Ringland, Mike Nesbitt and Harry Hamilton are “backwoodsmen” smacks of someone who himself does not know what it is like to live in this society. As for their remaining nominees: Lesley Macauley would have struggled to join the Conservatives since the association in East Londonderry folded; Paula Bradshaw directs a charity whose work has brought the largest regeneration project in the history of Northern Ireland into one of its most deprived areas; Fred Cobain is supposed to be left-leaning but has signed up to and consistently defended the Conservative link in conflict-ravaged and communally divided North Belfast. The fact all these people have signed up to be fully fledged Conservative MPs if elected is a credit to David Cameron’s work as party leader and Owen Paterson’s work on his behalf in Northern Ireland."

Needless to say, we shall follow the future decisions of the Joint Committee with keen interest.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

1. IRAQ – 'Terror campaign' against Mosul Christians in run-up to elections

Several Christians have been killed in Mosul as campaigning for parliamentary elections this weekend gathers pace.

Iraqi Christians have appealed to Release's contacts for prayer following a spate of fatal shootings and kidnappings in and around this troubled northern city as the nation prepares to go to the polls on March 7.

On February 16, Zayia Thomas, an engineering student from Mosul University, was shot dead in the al-Tahir district of Mosul. Fellow student, Ramsin Shmael, 22, was injured in the same attack. The following day, 20-year-old student teacher Wissam Georges was killed. And two shopkeepers – Fatukhi Munir and Rayan Salem Elias – were also reported murdered. Reuters news agency reports that eight Christians were killed in Mosul in less than a fortnight last month.

Meanwhile, one Christian was abducted on February 13 and two others on February 16, according to advocacy group Middle East Concern. While kidnappings are quite common in Iraq, Christians have been specifically targeted by extremists who appear determined to drive believers out of cities such as Mosul.

Some sources say Iraqi Christians are interpreting these attacks as an attempt to dissuade them from voting on Sunday. Many Christian leaders are urging their community to stand firm, exercise their right to vote and secure more seats in Parliament. Five of the 325 seats in Iraqi's Council of Representatives are ringfenced for Iraqi Christians.

(Sources: Agence France Presse, AsiaNews, Assyrian International News Agency, CNA, International Christian Concern, Middle East Concern, Reuters)

2. NIGERIA – Eight churches destroyed in unprovoked assault on Christians

A mob burnt down eight churches and several Christian shops – apparently to vent their frustration over the unrelated death of a Muslim tractor driver.

The attack on Christian properties in Kazaure city, Jigawa state, followed news that a Muslim had died after allegedly being chased and assaulted by police for a traffic offence.

A mob which had gathered around a Kazaure police station to protest against the man's death on February 21 was chased away by police. Furious, the mob allegedly took out their frustration on an easy target: nearby churches and Christian businesses.

Human rights group International Christian Concern reports that tensions between Muslims and Christians in Kazaure have been high since clashes in Jos, Plateau state, in January, when more than 300 people died (Prayer Alert, February 2, 2010).

The Emir of Kazaure, state officials and police authorities have condemned the attack on the Christian community in this northern Sharia state.

(Sources: BBC, International Christian Concern)

3. IRAN – Senior Assyrian pastor detained in spate of arrests

A senior evangelical pastor is among a number of Christians detained in Iran in recent weeks.

Rev Wilson Issavi, leader of the Assyrian Evangelical Church in Karmanshah, has not been seen since state security officers arrested him near Isfahan on February 2. The pastor was seized at the home of a married couple who were also arrested, along with another female visitor. The wife of the host has since been released but the other three Christians remain in detention at an undisclosed location.

Rev Issavi's church, described as one of the last surviving historic church buildings in Iran, was closed in January, when officials also raided Rev Issavi's home. Iran's Christian minority is traditionally Assyrian or Armenian.

More recently, on February 16, a Christian couple, who were raised as Muslims, were arrested in the city of Karaj. The woman has been freed but her husband remains in detention, reportedly accused of proselytising.

Seven Christians with a Muslim background were arrested in Shiraz, south-west Iran, on January 11. Two of the seven have been released on bail – but the remaining five remain in custody. Middle East Concern reports that these five detainees have been offered bail but that bail has been set at a prohibitively high level – almost £20,000 each.

Two Christians in the northern city of Rasht, who are reportedly associates of the Shiraz detainees, have been held since their arrests in October and January respectively.

Three believers raised as Muslims are still in Tehran's Evin prison after being arrested near Tehran at Christmas. They were initially released but rearrested in early January.

(Sources: Assist News Service, Farsi Christian News Network, Middle East Concern, Operation World)

4. PAKISTAN – Call for talks and tolerance after Christian colony attacked

Christian leaders in Karachi have initiated peace talks with local Muslims after an armed mob went on the rampage through a Christian community.

About 150 armed men raided a Christian settlement in the Pahar Ganj area on February 21, beating Christians, shooting at their homes and destroying their property over the course of two hours. Two churches – St Mary Church of Pakistan and the Interdenominational Calvary Church – were attacked and damaged.

'Seeing (the mob) approach the church, I closed the main gate,' local Christian Ashraf Pervaiz told UCA News. 'But they jumped over the gate... and opened fire on the church. I tried to stop them but they kept beating me with sticks and weapons.'

The raid was reportedly triggered by a row between a Muslim grocer and local Christians. A Christian boy was reportedly injured when the grocer hit him with an iron weight – after the boy picked up some of his fruit. A group of Christians nearby intervened to stop the child being hurt further – which apparently provoked the raid on their colony.

UCA News reports that Christian leaders have begun talks with local Muslims 'aimed at forming a joint committee and preventing similar attacks in future'. More than 200 Muslims and Christians met in Calvary Church the day after the raid to discuss what had happened.

(Source: UCA News)

NEWS UPDATE:
In our last Prayer Alert (February 16, 2010), we asked for prayer for Gulinuer, wife of Uyghur pastor Alimjan Yimit in Xinjiang, China. We reported that Gulinuer had made a video message asking Christians to pray for her family and for Alimjan's release (Ed: see Persecution, by Release International, Wednesday, February 17. 2010). We wish to clarify that it was not Gulinuer herself who posted this video online. In fact, she had simply sent her message to church leaders elsewhere in China by mailing it on a CD-Rom. Sources close to Gulinuer say that she was not therefore trying to defy or protest against the Chinese authorities – and we regret any implication in our original story that this was the case.

The next Prayer Alert issue will be on March 16, 2010.

If you account the Winter months as December, January and February - as I do - then today is the first day of Spring. Indeed today has a more benign feel to it with sunshine. Yet the old saw has it "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb" so that we could feel the fang of Winter before long.

Yet the First of March has an additional significance for me as my mother's bithday. She was Mary Elizabeth O'Fee OBE (1920-1994). I've written about her in

Emotion, Thursday, March 1. 2007, (in which I gave the text of the local newspaper's report of the address at her funeral given by Dean Hamilton Leckey) and

Memories of my mother, Thursday, March 1. 2007.

In February 2010 the Impala Publications blog received 75,856 unique visits, an average of 2,709 visits per day, rounded to 2.7 thousand. That compares with 2.6 thousand in January 2009, and 2.5 thousand in February 2009.

Site traffic 2010 (2009 in brackets)
daily average in thousand Unique Visits

January 2.6 (2.5)
February 2.7 (2.5)
March (2.2)

April (2.8.)
May (1.5)
June (1.7)

July (1.7)
August (2.6)
September (2.0)

October (2.3)
November (2.4)
December (2.2)

Link

Site traffic in January 2010, Monday, February 1. 2010