2 Big Stories
Wilshire to stand down amid expenses allegations
A Conservative MP accused of paying more than £100,000 of public money into his own company announced last night that he would stand down at the general election.
David Wilshire called the allegations “deeply hurtful and unjustified” and predicted he would be cleared by the Commons standards watchdog.
But in a brief statement, he said he had reluctantly decided it would not be “sensible” to seek re-election as the MP for Spelthorne.
BNP bows to pressure to admit non-white people
The far-right British National party has agreed to change its constitution to allow non-white people to join, it emerged today.
The BNP confirmed it would consider changes to its rules and membership criteria after the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched county court proceedings against the party’s leader, Nick Griffin, and two other party officials: Simon Darby and Tanya Jane Lumby.
Robin Allen QC, counsel for the commission, said Griffin had agreed to present members with a revised constitution at its general meeting next month.
(Guardian)
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
- John Ault on Downing Street petitions: ‘Resign’ has already received 72,000 signatures, but which petitions have just one?
- Charlotte Gore on why she doesn’t touch local politics. Hmm… Charlotte Gore for Focus editor, I say.
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2 Comments
• It must have been an unenviable challenge for the Israel Foreign Ministry to endeavour to try to discredit the report of the eminent South African Jurist, Judge Goldstone, who has an impeccable record in the field of human and civil rights, both at home and abroad. The first insuperable problem was that he is not only a recognized authority on international human rights legislation and convention, but he is Jewish! So the standard allegation of anti-Semitism, was impossible. They could not attack his professional record, which was impeccable. So what action could be taken in damage limitation?
• The matter has suddenly become urgent. If the world fully accepts the report, then Israel is branded a human rights violator and a perpetrator of war crime. The international community has been shocked at the allegations of gratuitous killing of hundreds of innocent children and over a hundred women in three weeks of unchecked violence, together with the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure including ‘houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals, police stations and other public buildings’.
• The Report alleges ‘an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population.’ That, the Report states, ‘could lead a competent court to find that the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, has been commited.’
• The Israeli Government is in deep trouble as the allegations become more widely known, because there are few who now believe its denials and fewer still, its continuing propaganda. And there is a palpable sense of shock as the evidence unfolds as to what transpired in those three weeks of state-sponsored killing and destruction, under the pretext of self-defence.
So, what has this to do with commenting the subject of the thread? C’mon Moderator, blue pencil all this!