Chris Bonnor wants Australian boys to be more like girls. In 1997 he was a principal of a boys’ school in Sydney when he gave an influential speech on the issue of boys and education.

The gist of the speech was that the world of work had changed. Male skills were no longer required and therefore boys would need to learn to “cross gender boundaries” to succeed in life. According to Bonnor “gender is something that is socially constructed” which meant it was his school’s “core business to reconstruct boys”.

READ MORE...

“The plan I came up with was to invite theatres across the country to read the play and discuss it afterwards, to have a debate so there was more understanding about the whole issue.  I was proceeding with these plans until last night, when I received a request from the author.”

Neal Foster, actor-manager, Birmingham Stage Company.

That request from Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, the author of the play, Bezhti, was made from hiding because of death threats against her by fellow Sikhs.  They, fearing that Neal Foster’s defence of liberal values might result again in their religious sensibilities being offended, then called him on the phone.

“They said I would be shot if I continued with plans to stage the play,” he said. “I have taken them seriously.”

READ MORE...

It is maintained that a society is free only when dissenting minorities have room to throw their weight around. As a matter of fact, a dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority; what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.

Eric Hoffer, Reflection on the Human Condition

Thanks to Kevin Michael Grace, back from an entirely untoward absence.

“Sadly, community leaders have been unable to guarantee to us that there will be no repeat of the illegal and violent activities we witnessed on Saturday. It is now clear that we cannot guarantee the safety of our audiences. Very reluctantly, therefore, we have decided to end the current run of the play purely on safety grounds.”

Stuart Rogers, executive director, Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

“We congratulate the theatre for making its decision after we exercised our democratic rights to protest. There are no winners and no losers. The end result is that commonsense has prevailed.”

Kim Kirpaljit Kaur Brom, spokesman for the Sikh protesters.

And the question left behind amid the bricks and broken glass:  Will a longer exposure of Sikhs to British law and the British way of doing things make the slightest difference to the way they do things?

Naturally, the issue is being spoken of purely as one of free expression, thus proving that we do not possess the freedom of expression requisite to do full justice to it.

READ MORE...

OK, let’s get it over with.  It can’t be a surprise anyway.  So, here goes.  I am that perennially dissatisfied, lip-pursing, inflexible animal, that teeth-grinding, curtain-twitching, unwilling observer of the willingly self-destructive, that moral fish out of water, that antique … a social conservative.  Variously known as a behaviour fascist, authority freak, anal retention expert, fun Hun and all-round intolerant bastard.

There.  Now I’ve said it.  Doesn’t feel any better though.  Whoever said confession is good for the soul, or whichever Viennese doktor said whatever Viennese doktors used to say on such horizontally confidential matters, was l-y-i-n-g.

READ MORE...

I stand in no danger of falling foul of any religious hate speech law.  It would be entirely invidious of me, as the father of a twelve year girl, to attempt to put into words my opinion of Iranian justice or Sharia and the nature and worth of the religious “judges” - I cannot call them men - who dispense it.

Speed the day when they will receive the same quality of justice for their crimes, which are many and which are real.

Helmut Schmidt was a leader of the left-liberal SPD and Chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1982. He recently gave an interview to a Hamburg newspaper in which he spoke freely about his attitudes to Turkey joining the EU.

He told the newspaper that though he supported favourable trade deals for Turkey, he opposed Turkish membership of the EU. Why? His answer was as follows:

READ MORE...

My recent piece, No native voices, kicked off with a hat-tip to John Ray for a link to a Charles Bremner article in The Times.  Now Mark Richardson has posted a link to the same article.

Bremner drew attention to the remarkable law passing through the French lower house, prohibiting “defaming a person or a group of persons on account of their sex or their sexual orientation.” The punishment is a prison sentence of up to six months or a £15,000 fine.

READ MORE...