Highlights of an interview with the civil service newspaper, Whitehall and Westminster World: How did Tory supporters react? "Their reaction was appalling. Their behaviour was appalling. Not in my constituency but nationally. They were just like children. To the point where I asked myself whether it was worth carrying on. It was as if I’d […]
This open letter has been sent to the Party Chairman today: "Dear Caroline, You will be aware of the recent controversy caused by the Conservative Muslim Forum‘s response to Pauline Neville-Jones’ national security report, ‘An Unquiet World’. The CMF, which is headquartered at CCHQ and uses the party’s logo, took issue with a number of […]
This from John Redwood’s blog: "On November 5th we remember that terrorism in the name of religion is not a new problem. We should also remember how this plot was foiled. It was not intercepted through the issue of ID cards. The police or army did not spot the plotters carrying huge barrels of gunpowder […]
This morning’s Times reports that the Conservative leader will confront King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia later today about Saudi Arabia’s financial support for extremist literature that is available in British mosques: "The Conservative leader will ask the Saudi King to curb the export of fundamentalist religious ideology in books and pamphlets that advocate the suppression […]
Today’s Sunday Times: "The Foreign Office has cleared dozens of Iranians to enter British universities to study advanced nuclear physics and other subjects with the potential to be applied to weapons of mass destruction. In the past nine months about 60 Iranians have been admitted to study postgraduate courses deemed “proliferation-sensitive” by the security services. […]
The Telegraph highlights a number of recommendations from a recent report on security by the Conservative Muslim Forum. Having had a chance to look at the report (that appears to have been written last month) I fear that The Telegraph’s report is an accurate summary. I’ve also discovered other troubling recommendations. The Forum, chaired by […]
Yesterday evening some of the Conservative Party’s top donors mingled with MPs, including Iain Duncan Smith, and journalists, including the Editor of The Sun, at the inaugural Margaret Thatcher lecture – hosted by Liam Fox’s Atlantic Bridge. Before the Mayor spoke all of the reception talk was of an autumn election and people were very […]
This week’s Spectator – of which I’ve just seen an advance copy – includes an interview with Shadow Communities Affair minister, Paul Goodman MP. Mr Goodman is characterised as ‘the shadow minister for militant Islam’ by The Spectator’s James Forsyth.
Gordon Brown talks tough on terror but, as always with the Brown-Blair years, the actions are very different. Last year Ruth Kelly – to her credit – broke off relations with the Muslim Council of Britain. She criticised the MCB’s boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day. The MCB’s extremism has been well-documented by the New Statesman’s […]
That’s effectively the question being asked by Paul Goodman MP. Paul will take part in a Policy Exchange seminar this lunchtime that will discuss the recent decision of the West Midlands police to refer Channel 4 to Ofcom. The West Midlands police made the decision after they had decided not to prosecute a number of […]
One of the most interesting findings in the YouGov survey for today’s Daily Telegraph (its headline 9% Labour lead was reported here last night) is overwhelming public support for extra detention powers for the police. 74% favoured "detaining terrorist suspects without charge for as long as the police need to carry out their enquiries, provided […]
Yesterday Gordon Brown announced his initiative on border policing – an idea originally proposed by the Conservatives. After initially being welcomed by the Tories it was attacked by David Davis for excluding the police. The Independent also found a delicious quote from Labour minister Liam Byrne when the Tories first proposed the policy: "The chaos […]
Yesterday we published the headline 6% Labour lead suggested by Ipsos-MORI. Ipsos-MORI have just published some more detail of their survey of 954 adults. Answers to Questions 7 and 8 show that ‘race relations and immigration’ remains the most important issue for 23% of respondents. The same percentage agree that defence, foreign affairs and international […]
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has joined Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti in condemning a police chief’s call for "as long as it takes" detention of terror suspects. The head of the Association of Police Chief Officers Ken Jones told The Observer the head of the Association of Police Chief Officers: "We are now arguing for judicially […]
Interviewed for BBC1’s Politics Show, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague made it clear that he did not believe Iraq was to blame for the latest attempts to terrorise Britain. The attacks of 9/11 happened before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, he noted. He urged the Government to eschew confrontationalism in responding to the latest […]