Britain Archives | Page 23 of 46 | MelaniePhillips.com

At last, persecuted Christians have a defender

December 4, 2018December 6, 2018 MelanieChristians, Islam, persecution, Prince Charles

Today, from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey, the Prince of Wales is due to plead the cause of the Christians of Syria, Iraq and elsewhere who are suffering persecution under Islamic fanaticism. He is returning to a deeply felt cause. In December last year he said he was “profoundly shocked” at the abuse of Christians in the Middle East. What is striking, however, is how little attention is paid to this issue given its scale and significance. Indeed, although the Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken out, churches have been largely…

Britain Global conflict

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: the human cost of Britain’s appeasement of Iran

November 28, 2018November 28, 2018 MelanieNazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe; Iran, UAE; Matthew Hedges

It’s wonderful that the British academic Matthew Hedges is now safely back in Britain after six months in jail in the United Arab Emirates. He faced the seemingly implausible charge of being a British spy, which both he and the British government strenuously denied, and was sentenced to life imprisonment after a farcical five-minute court hearing last week. (Since writing this, readers have questioned whether he really was just a PhD student given his previous work with defence consultancies. We cannot know, but it still seems to me implausible that…

Britain

It’s time vilified men had their MeToo moment

November 27, 2018 Melanieinjustice, men, MeToo

Of course, women are sometimes victims of sexual attack, harassment or unwanted advances. MeToo, though, has created the impression that depravity is not just widespread but innate in the male sex. This is a wild and sexually selective generalisation. Moreover, shouldn’t individual men be given the benefit of the doubt until such claims are proved? Aren’t they entitled to have such claims properly tested? This growing contempt for the presumption of innocence is not just eroding fairness and the rule of law. It has destroyed the lives of men who…

Britain

Brexiteers! Start promoting no-deal. Fast

November 23, 2018November 23, 2018 Melaniebrexit, eu, No Deal, Theresa May

Has there ever been a more hopeless, pathetic bunch of political clowns than Britain’s parliamentary Brexiteers? The people of Britain have voted to leave the EU. Theresa May’s government is poised to spit in their faces by preventing that from happening through a sleight-of-hand deal which would be Brexit in name only, leaving the UK as a “vassal” state still in thrall to Brussels. Rather than uniting behind a strategy and leader to fight this betrayal, the Brexiteers in parliament have been fighting each other like ferrets in a sack.…

Britain Israel USA

The nation as an island: the source of Israel’s resilience

November 23, 2018 Melaniebritain, Israel, nation, nationalism

At this week’s annual dinner in London of the Anglo-Israel Association, which promotes understanding of Israel in the UK, the Israeli thinker Daniel Gordis poignantly described Israel as an island surrounded by enemies. This image of Israel under siege is currently all too apposite. With Iran’s regime now entrenched through its proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, Israel now faces a genocidal enemy on three simultaneous fronts. In the face of these dangers, not to mention the recent mini-war when thousands of rockets from Gaza rained down on southern Israel,…

Britain

Brexit: no-deal is better than trashing democracy

November 20, 2018 Melaniebrexit, may, No Deal

We can now see that when Theresa May said “no-deal is better than a bad deal”, what she really meant was that no-deal was not just worse than a bad deal but was in fact her personal red line. This was singularly unfortunate, since it was obvious from the start that the EU would never agree to anything that would enable Britain to do what the Brexit vote intended it to do: become competitive and prosper. Since the EU is a protectionist cartel designed to stifle competition and freedom from…

Britain

The predictable Brexit crisis has now arrived

November 15, 2018November 15, 2018 Melaniebrexit, eu, referendum, Theresa May

Mrs May has now presented to Cabinet the Brexit deal she has negotiated with the EU. As feared, it is a proposal that would leave the UK not only remaining bound to the EU but at a far greater disadvantage than under its current terms of membership. It is therefore totally unacceptable. There were reported ructions in Cabinet. It is bound by collective responsibility, but that doesn’t mean individual Cabinet ministers have accepted the deal. Since its faults are overwhelmingly obvious to Remainers as well as Brexiteers, it is extremely…

Britain Europe

Jo Johnson’s Brexit muddle

November 9, 2018November 9, 2018 Melaniebrexit, eu, Jo Johnson, Theresa May

Currently in Los Angeles, which is coping with an enormous forest fire and the aftermath of a crazed gunman shooting dead 13 people at a suburban bar, I woke up today to the news that the transport minister and Remain supporter Jo Johnson had resigned from the government over the Brexit negotiation. In this account of why he resigned, he says one thing on which Remainers and Brexiteers will doubtless agree. This is the appalling way Theresa May has conducted the negotiation, bringing Parliament to the brink of a choice…

Britain Culture wars

Sir Roger Scruton becomes a persecuted dissident. In Britain

November 8, 2018 Melanienationalism, Sir Roger Scruton, Soros, thought crime

If there is one event that most clearly encapsulates the vicious and socially suicidal ignorance and cultural sectarianism currently rampant in British society, it is the treatment that has been meted out to Sir Roger Scruton. Sir Roger is arguably the most important British philosopher of recent years and one of the most significant in the western world. He has devoted his life and work to advancing the causes of reason, understanding and decency. As a professor of aesthetics, a lover of the countryside and a noted champion of English…

Britain

Health efforts need clean air and less drinking

November 6, 2018 Melaniehealth, NHS, prevention

The health secretary Matt Hancock has called on people to make healthier lifestyle choices, such as reducing their consumption of alcohol, sugar, salt, fat and junk food, stopping smoking and staying active. At present, some £97 billion is spent on treating disease but only £8 billion on prevention. Hancock wants to shift the balance by getting people to take more responsibility for their health. He was immediately criticised for blaming the victim. “People do not ‘choose’ obesity or diabetes or cancer,” said Simon Capewell, professor of public health and policy…