Culture wars Archives | Page 6 of 16

The New Jersey terror attack

December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, New Jersey, terror

The shooting attack on the kosher grocery store in New Jersey in which three Jews were murdered after a police officer was gunned down was a terrorist atrocity directed at Jews. New Jersey officials have confirmed that Jews were the target of the shooters who specifically selected the kosher store for attack. The incident began at a cemetery where a police officer was shot dead by two people, subsequently identified as 47-year-old David Anderson and 50-year-old Francine Graham, whom the officer had recognised as connected to a murder. Surveillance footage…

Britain Culture wars

The “all must have prizes” culture refuses to die

December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 MelanieAll Must Have Prizes, education, Turner prize

With the announcement of who had won the Turner prize, I experienced a distinct sense of déjà vu. The four nominees asked the judges to make the award collectively to all of them, “in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity”. This was widely scorned as a ludicrous prizes-for-all approach, as if this was a new phenomenon. But in 1996 I published a book entitled All Must Have Prizes, which was about precisely this attitude. Far from being a new development, it was an important contributor to the progressive destruction…

Britain Culture wars

The sickening reality of Labour party Jew-hatred

December 6, 2019December 8, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, Labour party

The Jewish Labour Movement’s submission to the inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission into Labour party antisemitism has been leaked. The document, which shows in detail how Labour has become institutionally antisemitic, has been described by the party grandee Lord Falconer as “utterly damning”. The document, linked here, needs to be read in its entirety to grasp the full horror of the depravity and derangement over Israel and the Jewish people with which the Labour party has been consumed. But here are some extracts: … Antisemitic abuse is…

Culture wars

The triple lock of western Jew-hatred

December 6, 2019December 6, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, Ephraim Mirvis, Islamophobia, Labour party

In France, which is experiencing another surge of anti-Jewish attacks, the lower house of parliament has approved a draft resolution that calls hatred of Israel a form of antisemitism. In Britain, after the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, made an unprecedented intervention into the general election campaign warning that “a new poison” of antisemitism “sanctioned from the top” had “taken root in the Labour Party,” support for Labour actually increased. In four out of five opinion polls taken over the following few days, the party’s rating rose by between two and…

Britain Culture wars

The Chief Rabbi’s intervention in Britain’s general election

November 26, 2019November 26, 2019 Melanie

Much of the reaction to the Chief Rabbi’s dramatic and unprecedented intervention in Britain’s general election campaign has proved the truth and importance of what he has said. In a comment piece in The Times (£) today, Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis writes: “The Jewish community has watched with incredulity as supporters of the Labour leadership have hounded parliamentarians, members and even staff out of the party for challenging anti-Jewish racism. Even as they received threats, the response of the Labour leadership was utterly inadequate. “We have endured quibbling and prevarication over…

Britain Culture wars

Communism thrives in our moral vacuum

November 12, 2019 MelanieCommunism, Labour party, universities

One of the many unsettling aspects of this general election concerns the extremism of Jeremy Corbyn and his cadre of ideological soulmates who are in control of the Labour Party. They have rightly been described as unreconstructed Marxists, Trotskyites, Leninists and even Stalinists who, if they came to power, would destroy Britain’s economy, leave it defenceless against its enemies and undermine freedom and democracy. This has created a Stop Corbyn movement, with many voters reportedly planning to shelve their normal party allegiance — or support for a clean Brexit —…

Britain Culture wars

National identity is the key to life and liberty

November 12, 2019 Melaniebrexit, David Miliband, liberalism, national identity

The former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, now head of the International Rescue Committee, last month delivered the Sir Martin Gilbert lecture at Highgate synagogue. Under the title “Brexit and the anti-liberal moment”, he argued that Brexit was both cause and symptom of the destruction of the “liberal democratic idea”. First, cards on the table. I am a staunch, clean-break Brexiteer. I nevertheless respect many who voted Remain in the 2016 referendum out of their anxiety about the costs of leaving the EU which, although I disagree with them, is…

Culture wars USA

Illiberal liberalism and the onslaught on western values

November 8, 2019 Melanieadoption, Christians, liberalism, William Barr

In the never-ending uproar over U.S. President Donald Trump, his administration’s recent move to lift a ban on traditional Christian adoption agencies went relatively unremarked. Under President Barack Obama, child-welfare agencies were refused federal grants if they wouldn’t place children for adoption with same-sex couples. Last week, the White House reversed that ruling on the grounds that such agencies would no longer be forced “to choose between helping children and their faith.” This followed a notable speech last month at the University of Notre Dame law school by U.S. Attorney…

Britain Culture wars

Brexit, nationhood and the Jewish question

November 1, 2019November 1, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, brexit, jews, nationalism

In Britain, the crisis so long dreaded by many British Jews is finally upon them. The general election that has been called for December raises the possibility that hard-left Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn might come to power. The election was made inevitable by political paralysis over Brexit, with the Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson effectively held hostage by a parliament dominated by Remainer MPs determined to prevent the United Kingdom from making a clean break with the European Union. This Brexit election is being described as the most important…

Culture wars Videos

The fight to the death over Brexit and western culture

October 27, 2019October 27, 2019 Melanieantisemitism, brexit, Peter Whittle

I was very pleased to appear on the internet show So What you’re Saying is… with Peter Whittle, director of the New Culture Forum in London. We discussed at some length Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and what the 2016 Brexit vote told us about Britain. I suggested there was now unprecedented confusion created by, on the one hand, Bojo’s heroic resistance to the Remainer coup against Brexit, democracy and the British people and, on the other, the fact that his deal wasn’t really Brexit at all. We also discussed antisemitism…