And another thing…

I am offended by the fact that a New Labour politician thinks he can say: “Cosy, comfortable, inoffensive politics are of no interest to anyone other than LibDems.”

This from the party that brought us “sofa government” and “a pretty straight kind of guy”.

I’m amused that anybody could be offended by your soft-soaping – she must have been even more egregiously self-entitled than an MP.

One of the Dullies set up a blog to offend me once, exclusively vs me, was 3 – 4 pages long, but it was removed at my request.

Somewhere there was a site of pics associated with my adopted name for a while.

People used to say I should go, the abuse would affect me. Decent people.

In the end I retired, temporarily, a little after my main ID there was deleted by the Fed, 5 mins after I suggested that an immigrant like Journo Janet Daley should lay off the suggestion that lots of immigrants come here for NHS care. I may not have been entirely polite.

Perhaps your remarks were a little stronger than many deserve? Likely.

Standing up and opposing the Iraq war when the majority of press and public were in favour of it (remember that day?) was not “cosy comfortable inoffensive politics.” It was taking a stand and doing what was right. Maybe that is why Labour MPs are so sneery about LibDems. Jealous.

I’m all for pointing the finger, when necessary, without an undue fear of causing offence, but you are claiming bravery points for simply stating your opinion. As a politician, this is your primary function.
I’ve noticed too, that you are taking every opportunity to accuse the Lib-Dems of being responsible and measured, as a put-down, and claiming the brave reactionary ground for yourself. Has the local focus group decreed that the LD’s are your nearest rival in the next election, and no points can be gained by poking the SNP?

I do not recall anyone abusing anyone who opposed the second Iraq War at that time at any rate.

Interested in any examples.

Pretty clear that, apart from Chas Kennedy & the Lib Dems, we in the UK had no good reason to do so.

A dictator who had used WMDs on his people and neighbours has gone, democracy has a chance, and the war between opposing muslim factions has gone a way down its track.

I do recall almost endless abuse of those who support the war, and see what was said about it objectively.

Shame on the fools and liars who imagine that decent people are war criminals.

For some reason, this blog reminded me of the time I was on holiday speaking to a delightful lady. I asked her if her husband was on his way down, to be informed that she was in fact a widow. My reaction was ‘well, at least you know where he is’ – well, what could I say?

“Standing up and opposing the Iraq war when the majority of press and public”

To be fair to tom, there’s a difference between that and being a MP for the glasgow labour party.

One involves thinking for yourself, and one involves doing what you’re told.

A look at Tom’s voting record is quite indicative of the fact thats he’s a member of parliament for the glasgow labour party.

Tom
You might find this article and the tables of interest..

How Labour depends on the votes of Welfare Britain

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1226031/EXPOSED-How-Labour-depends-votes-Welfare-Britain.html#ixzz0WFPfRNDz

Pity the Labour government has done nothing about it. However Tom I was pleased you had decided not to watch Strictly Come Prancing this year . Mr & Mrs N had decidede to do the same, we just could not stand the idea of being tied into it for weeks on end. We have done the same with all these cooking competitions as well, its all very liberating as it was like slowly being drawn into some fuzzy world of control.
We are now free and are watching less television than ever before. I fully recomend it.We are going to coral evensong tonight for the first time in years.

Oh for the days when the only person to take offence was Mary Whitehouse. The worst culprits are State agencies which are determined to be offended by proxy. We have a little old lady shopped by the LA to the Police for protesting against a gay pride march; we have ASH shrieking on behalf of the small minority who want smokers wiped off the face of the earth and we have Jack Straw apologising profusely for failing to know that one Afro-Caribbean woman preferred to be called African-Caribbean.

Everyone has the right now to be offended because the Government has demanded that everyone be entitled to respect. When the right to respect is coupled with lack of personal responsibility there’s ample scope for the giving and taking of offence. The State coffers and lawyers are having a field day.

I take offence at lies, breach of promise, hypocrisy and being governed by Brussels without so much as a by your leave. Even as it preaches at the electorate about respect, this Government shows none.

Mr Harris, you are no Shazia Mirza.

Oh, you noticed? Good for you!

The suggestion that MPs who backed the Second Iraq War in Parliament and elsewhere were simply following orders is a sick joke.

Anyone with any insight at the time would have realised that there was agonising on all sides of the arguments.

Perhaps in turn I might suggest that all those who voted against the war were slaves to islamo-fascism? Just about as true as the accusation of slavish loyalty in the opposite direction.

Ach I wasn’t referring to your lippy preference, Mr Harris -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senator,_you‘re_no_Jack_Kennedy

Shazia (I own two of her lovely wee sketches) has been beaten up and is frequently insulted and threatened with harm. All you have to put up with is being ticked off by polite ladies.

Given the one-dimensional nature of political blogs, I should perhaps confirm that the two Shazia sketches I own are artworks not comedy gigs!

Re ‘the levels of incapacity benefit claimants in Glasgow’ this is something I was talking about with family in Townhead last week. Virtually everyone we know who left Glasgow for a half decent spell and came back is working (in a very wide variety of jobs), while most of those who stayed in Glasgow all their lives are out of work – and many are ill.

No single reason why – culture, habit, smoking, diet, drinking?

Incidentaly Mr Harris, can I use your space to pay a small tribute to the much-aligned Mike Watson? He used to be my mum’s MP in Glasgow Central and worked his socks off to get her the war widow’s pension she was due.

I think Tom, that your lady might be rather like the politicians who have not fiddled or flipped.

There really are people who are too sick to work. People crippled with pain, living in grinding poverty and looking forward to the day they can die and get out of it. I know this.

You are quite right to want to reduce the number of claiments, but I hope that, not only your government, but the junior staff at the DWP will remember that not everyone is a lying cheat.

I wonder, Tom, did you engage the woman further and consider why she found your remarks offensive? Have you spent much time trying to see the world through the eyes of someone who’s on incapacity benefit because they can’t work? Have you thought about whether your words add to the stigma and stereotyping which in fact make it even more difficult for people with disabilities to get back into work?

It’s all very easy to go off on a sidetrack about people being offended, but life is hard enough for people on incapacity, many of whom are struggling to survive as it is, without politicians and the media constantly belittling them.

It’s quite telling that Shazia’s manager had to fend off a tabloid journo wanting a quote from Shazia about taking offence at Prince Philip’s Patel remark. The offence that she actually hadn’t taken.

The papers have a lot to answer for regarding this taking offence mullarkey. They’re always taking an angle on stories to try and whip up rancour and misunderstanding. These things follow an agenda – for example, the PC Gawn Maaad theme that everyone has to kow-tow to minorities (which is what they were trying to steer Shirza towards). Another agenda, particularly with the Mail, is the anti-BBC one. It went into a high state of offended mode because Miranda Hart on HIGNFY had made a jokey reference (regarding Phil and the Patels) to that ‘Greek twit and his Kraut wife’. It was a tongue-in-cheek remark in a particular context, but for the Mail it was another example of the evil BBC.

Anyone can be exactly as offended as they choose to be. This is robbing us of debate and that is dangerous.

I do find it slightly hypocritical coming from a member of the party that has been spraying tax-payer readies for all sorts of ‘equality officers’ and all sorts of other non-jobs that help fuel this new offence industry.

@QZ

Spot on.I hate the calling of decent people war-criminals.

I don’t even like the calling of Tony Blair one.

However, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are in my opinion almost certainly guilty of negligent homicide.
The treatment of our armed forces over the last decade has been appalling. And not just for things that can be put down to mere inexperience.
Helicopter procurement is just one simple issue that can prove that case. It’s failures are costing lives as we speak. Let alone the wider incompetence and lack of understand New Labour have shown towards the military.

Is any of this a real shock? When folks (presumably yourself) were singing ‘things can only get better’ the military covenant was nowhere in people’s conscience. What did Tony know about deployment and counter-insurgency warfare. Looking at all the student photos of the long-haired ex-commies and CNDers that made up this glorious bunch is it a surprise. I wouldn’t want a military junta running the UK but if I heard correctly out of the hundreds of Labour MPs only one has any military experience. Perhaps that is why some felt comfortable printing up a university dissertation and printing it as evidence. Could never imagine Rory Stewart doing that.

You don’t have to be a war criminal to kill people.

Lucky for Labour the army don’t have a union like those folks that pay for their charade. This is off topic though.

Tom, politics should challenge people.

People who challenge, or are offended, should be able to explain why and back up that opinion.

If they can’t, then they should shut up.

Shazia Mirza is, in my opinion, a more ’serious’ comedian than Shappi Khorsandi, and no bad thing.

MPs, of course, can also be quick to take offence, and for similarly ridiculous reasons.

I think people who are incapacitated and on benefits do feel a bit under seige at the moment. There is a bit of a witch-hunt going on. It may well be the case that some people milk the system but everyone gets tarred with the same brush.

It’s exactly the same as MPs expenses. Most MPs have not been on the fiddle but there is an assumption that they are all guilty. I dare say a lot of MPs feel quite offended when people assume they are corrupt. They may not say it but I bet they feel it.

Roger:

If you condemn the Uk within the Allies’ efforts in Afghanistan for not providing as many helicopters as some have said they wanted (I recall Tory General Dannatt saying that you can never have enough helicopters) we can await your condemnation of those allies who have no choice but to use our hospital out there?

I am happy to condemn those other NATO members not pulling their weight. 60 years of American force and finance maintaining European peace and those thankless beggars would have you believe its all thanks to the EU. Ungrateful sods. Look at which countries do the heavy lifting. US, Britain, Canada, Australia. Real allies.

The procurement system and the general effectiveness of the MOD have been hammered. Are we a nation working at anywhere full tilt trying to provide our troops with what they need? No. Our helicopter per troop ratios are a joke compared to the Americans. Have they purchased way too many? Or we way too few. Look who they put in to run defence. This stuff is important. Surprised they didn’t try Alan Sugar.

Real leadership would have mobilised and done whatever it took, or not committed. This is not rocket science. But GB and New Labour as an organisation work to different priorities.

We have barely been on a war footing. Like I said earlier, the Military and New Labour are oil and water. The military requires trust.
Hopefully we won’t fail as we did in Southern Iraq.

Poor p poor Roger the Dodger . . .

I believe there are 29 allied fighting for freedom and against terrorism in Afghanistan, not 5.

Among the moving stories I have read of late was of the Japanese playing a role in the Middle East, coming of age as it were after WW2.

Allies work together.

Now my online dictionaries are temp kaput, but perhaps you could ask someone about that word, obviously alien to all cod/mock tories (Are you being a “libertarian”? I forget the differences between those of you who howwwwl so alike one another) ?

Helicopters, hospital – some resources are shared and sometimes pooled.

We brought the hospital, others brought more of the helicopters than we did.

They must be grateful we didn’t bring many of our whingers . . .