the brilliantly leaping gazelle

Shitting cock! There’s so much happening that I want to post about and it just adds and adds. For one there’s comparing the Brexit party ‘contract’ with the government’s own assessment of what a ‘no deal’ Brexit would entail, contained in its ‘Yellowhammer’ document. I might have to merge that with post with one about the Conservative manifesto, and it’s pleasingly re-assuring promise that all we have to do to ‘Get Brexit Done’ is vote Conservative, and compare that with comments by Ivan Rogers – until recently our top civil service wonk at the EU – on the likelihood of that happening.

Then there’s one on opinion polls, their skewing of the election narrative in the media because of the bandwagon effect. And another about whilst there are strict rules on traditional forms of political advertising – billboards, pamphlets, etc – and television adverts, online it’s free for all. Not to mention the W.H.O report on climate change which to my utter surprise, contained dire warnings if drastic action isn’t taken.

By tomorrow all these will have been pushed further down my to-post list because of another thing in this election campaign, in much the same way Jacob Rees-Mogg and his comments about the Grenfell tragedy seem to have slipped off the news agenda.

But instead I want to post about three events that may on the face of it seem wholly unrelated, but to me are not. But then, I am brain damaged, so…..

Birmingham anti-LGBT school protests: judge makes ban permanent

A high court judge has permanently banned activists against LGBT equality lessons from demonstrating outside a Birmingham primary school.

Protesters went head to head with a local authority during the five-day trial to stop protests outside Anderton Park school. The school, in the Sparkhill area of the city, has become the focus of a long campaign to halt LGBT equality messages being taught in the classroom.

Most of the protesters have been of Muslim faith and some have stood regularly outside the school chanting “Let kids be kids” and carrying placards with the message: “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

Following the five-day hearing in October, the high court judge Justice Mark Warby reserved his judgment until a later date. On Tuesday, he announced the verdict, saying an exclusion zone surrounding the school would remain in place permanently banning protesters from gathering outside the school.

Warby said protesters had grossly misrepresented what was being taught at the school and caused a significant adverse reaction to children, teachers and local residents.

Wait, was he seriously suggesting that protesters had deliberately misrepresented what was being taught to inflame the situation ? Claiming that teachings in a book written over 2,000 years ago thereby confers upon them some unquestionable moral authority in today’s society is so absurd as to be laughable. Actually any book written over 2,000 years ago is a product of its times and certainly not be used as an instruction on how to lives one’s life. I mean, we don’t use medieval medical treatments like blood letting, , now do we? And is it only me that finds it highly ironic that lesson’s about tolerance are being protested against by a religion who seek tolerance for themselves and their faith?

And then was this today as well,

Chief rabbi attacks Labour anti-Semitism record

The chief rabbi has strongly criticised Labour, claiming the party is not doing enough to root out anti-Jewish racism – and asked people to “vote with their conscience” in the general election.

 In the Times, Ephraim Mirvis said “a new poison – sanctioned from the very top – has taken root” in the party.

Which was followed up by this, as the BBC reported,

Here’s the council’s formal response to the chief rabbi’s criticism of Labour.

“As a faith community, we commonly are threatened by Islamophobia. This an issue that is particularly acute in the Conservative Party who have approached Islamophobia with denial, dismissal and deceit,” it said.

British Muslims – whilst from the most disadvantaged communities and rarely allowed a voice in the public space – will listen to the chief rabbi and agree on the importance of voting with their conscience.”

And then for good measure, another peddler of fairy stories, added his ha’panny worth,

Justin Welby backs chief rabbi after Labour antisemitism remarks

The archbishop of Canterbury has in effect backed the chief rabbi’s comments on the Labour leadership’s record on antisemitism with a tweet highlighting the “deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews”.

 

This kind of solidarity between faith groups, supporting each other and seeing an alleged intolerance toward on one faith group somehow symptomatic of a wider societal problem of intolerance generally that affects them all is a new, and to an atheist like me, deeply worrying phenomena. Remember the outrage over ‘The Satanic Verses’? I don’t recall there being any concerted effort by other faiths to join in, seeing an attack on one as an attack on all. Same with ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’ – which I must say I thoroughly enjoyed – where was the solidarity there? Just because a lot of people believe in something, it doesn’t then give their beliefs legitimacy. Lots of people believe the earth is flat, or that U.F.O’s exist, or that Elvis is alive as well, does that make it true?

There was going to be a third thing but this post is too long as it is, so I’ll post it tomorrow. Unless of course something else catches my eye….