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Category: Britain

Britain USA 

Is Jacob Rees-Mogg being Trumped?

Melanie

Is Jacob Rees-Mogg being turned into the Donald Trump of the Conservative party? Clearly, there could hardly be a greater contrast between the two men in terms of personality, character and demeanour. Rees-Mogg is almost beyond caricature as the very essence of old-fashioned gentlemanly behaviour, self-restraint and thoughtful intellect; Donald Trump is… well, Donald Trump. Just like Trump, however, Rees-Mogg has been transformed very fast from a joke figure on the fringes of politics to a front-runner for the leadership of the Conservative party and to become the next Prime…

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The Ascent of Woman

Melanie

On this centenary of the law giving British women limited voting rights for the first time in a general election, you may be interested to know that in 2004 I published a book, The Ascent of Woman, which was about the ideas behind the great campaign for the women’s suffrage. It’s a fascinating story, because the struggle for the women’s vote was bound up with other seismic changes in British society and social reforms all reflecting the overriding preoccupation with elevating human potential. You can buy The Ascent of Woman…

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Britain 

Would the suffragettes have said #MeToo?

Melanie

What would Emmeline Pankhurst or Millicent Fawcett have said to the film star Uma Thurman? Thurman has claimed that the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual harassment, assault and rape by multiple women, made unwanted, degrading and “unpleasant” sexual advances towards her at the Savoy hotel and in Paris. Mr Weinstein says he made an “awkward pass” at her but there was no physical contact. Today marks the anniversary of the law giving women the first (limited) rights to vote in a general election, following the…

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Guardian Angel

Melanie

I’m delighted to tell you that my personal and political memoir, Guardian Angel, is published today. Through the prism of my often painful struggle to separate from both my political and biological families, I tell the story of the onslaught against British national identity and the values of the western nation – which provoked in turn the popular uprising which expressed itself in Britain as the vote for Brexit and in America as the election of President Donald J Trump. Britain’s former Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, has written about…

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Britain Israel 

Cowardice allows Muslim extremism to thrive

Melanie

What’s the point of creating a commission to counter extremism when the government itself won’t deal with it? What’s the point of Prevent if attitudes which help form a continuum of beliefs feeding into extremism and terrorism are being inculcated in state-run schools? The reason for this abdication of responsibility is cowardice. The government is too frightened to deal with those who either promote or wink at non-violent Islamic extremism. Why is it so frightened? Because its deepest fear is that such groups or individuals may have a critical mass…

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Britain 

The danger of Brexit just melting away

Melanie

The Conservative party is clearly having a collective audition for Hamlet – it knows it must strike the fatal blow, but can’t summon up the reserves of courage and character to do so. The Brexiteers, we are told, have finally lost patience with the Prime Minister Theresa May. Finally! What took them so long? Apparently they swallowed a number of compromises, such as the proposed transition period, in the belief that Mrs May would keep faith with the British people and take Britain out of EU control. Not “soft” or…

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de-radicalisation Britain USA 

Trump, Brexit and diaspora Jews

Melanie

The passionate Knesset speech by Vice President Mike Pence, endorsing the Jews’ miraculous return to Israel and Jerusalem, vividly illustrated how the tectonic plates in world politics have now moved. For Pence, of course, it was personal. As a biblically faithful Christian, he doesn’t just believe deeply in Jewish redemption in the land of Israel. He also understands that America itself rests upon the values of the Hebrew Bible. The significance of the speech, however, lay not with Pence but with President Donald Trump. For Trump may not have the…

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Britain 

What’s the problem with the new head of anti-extremism ? She’s too anti-extremism..

Melanie

The British government has appointed a lead commissioner for the new Commission for Countering Extremism. She is Sara Khan, a British Muslim human rights activist and the chief executive of Inspire, an organisation she founded in 2008 to fight extremism and gender inequality. The decision to set up this commission followed the Manchester bombing, one of five terror attacks in Britain in 2017. The commission’s remit is to identify and challenge all forms of extremism, advise ministers on anti-extremist policies and promote “pluralistic British values”. Sara Khan has a track…

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Britain 

A rare sighting

Melanie

Quick, get out the binoculars! There’s been a sighting of a rare phenomenon – a Remainer acknowledging reality! Ok, the former conservative Treasury minister Lord O’Neill still says Britain would do better if it remained in the EU. But he told The Times (£): “I certainly wouldn’t have thought the UK economy would be as robust as it currently seems. That is because some parts of the country, led by the North West [of England], are actually doing way better than people seem to realise or appreciate. As well as…

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Britain Israel 

Palestinianism is over. Someone please tell the British

Melanie

Apparently insulted by repeated slights from Britain’s political class and populace, President Donald Trump has decided to cancel his proposed visit there. Desperate to rescue the all-important post-Brexit US trade deal that might now be in jeopardy, Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking to “clear the air” with the president at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week. Good luck with that one. Mrs. May herself has contributed to the hysteria about Trump’s fitness for office by publicly condemning some of his tweets. Rather more to the point, however,…

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