Harry's Place

Saturday July 25 is a global day of action in solidarity with the people of Iran.
Check out the list of participating cities and join one of the demonstrations if you can.

Leaving aside the rather silly controversy described in the report, well done to the voters of Silverton, Oregon, for being live-and-let-live enough to elect a transgendered mayor.
Embedded video from CNN Video

This is the first part of a three-part article on Mehdi Hasan, senior editor (politics) of the New Statesman, by Harry’s Place guest writer Channel 4 Insider.
Since its foundation in 1913, the New Statesman’s journalism been marked by its rationalism, a consistent concern for the underdog and a healthy scepticism for all forms of authority [...]

This is a guest post by Shiraz Maher, and is cross posted from his Standpoint blog
The government has announced it will be conducting a major review into ‘Prevent’, one of the pillars of its overall counter-terrorism strategy known as ‘Contest’. The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will be setting up a Committee [...]

This is a guest post by Dave Rich of the CST, and also appears on their blog.
The antisemitic incident figures released by CST today, which show an unprecedented number of racist incidents against British Jews in the first half of this year, should make everybody concerned with fighting racism and antisemitism pause for thought. The [...]

Grim result for Labour in Norwich North:
Chloe Smith (Con) 13,591 (39.5%)
Chris Ostrowski (Lab) 6,243
April Pond (LD) 4,803 (13.97%)
Glenn Tingle (UKIP) 4,068 (11.83%)
Rupert Read (Green) 3,350 (9.74%)
Craig Murray (Ind) 953 (2.77%)
Robert West (BNP) 941 (2.74%)
The good news:

At least Labour was saved from the indignity of third place.

At least the nutters did badly. Comparatively speaking at least.

UKIP [...]

“‘The evil spirits are telling you what’s wrong is right,” he says. “ A demon could take hold at any point in life. ‘There are some who speak but we know this is the demon. The demon can speak through anybody.”
This is the view of the Rev John Ogbe-Ogbeide, a pentecostal preacher in London, and one [...]

Over at iEngage Inayat Bunglawala’s outfit (the ersatz Engage) they have a complaint:
Dominic Cavendish reviews Hanif Kureishi’s play ‘The Black Album’ in the Telegraph. Writing about a scene in the play which depicts Muslims burning a copy of the Satanic Verses, Cavendish remarks, ‘in the most disturbing scene we see a copy of The Satanic [...]

Oh, and while we are on the subject of Rabbis, police chases, and stereotypes, let’s have a snippet of one of my favourite films of all time, Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob.

This is a guest post by Ben
The Conservative Party has changed, hasn’t it?
It has a leader who, for the first time in many years, understands the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people and who has had the balls to firmly shut the right of his party up.
Compare Brown (or “one-eyed McBroon”, as Tory bloggers understandably [...]