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The Dawkins Delusion
"Alister McGrath dismantles the argument that science should lead to atheism, and demonstrates instead that Dawkins has abandoned his much-cherished rationality to embrace an embittered manifesto of dogmatic atheist fundamentalism."
( Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project)
Over the last six months we have been bombarded with Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion as the BBC, Guardian, Independent and their equivalents have seized upon the bestselling book as literal scientific proof that God is merely a projected human fantasy.
Alister McGrath, an eminent scientist himself, demolishes Dawkins work in the most comprehensive way. At times the exposure is almost embarrassing as the phony science Dawkins uses to justify his pet hatred of religion is scrupulously destroyed.
Hugs For Hugo
As maggots are drawn to corpses, so is George Galloway MP drawn to rotten regimes. In today's Guardian, the object of his affection is Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who Gorgeous George believes is striking a mighty blow against NeoCon domination.
So much, so unsurprising. Chavez is the latest darling of the media left. Galloway claims that Chavez is a hero in the Arab world, but his global impact is negligible. His regime is very far from the worst Galloway has praised. Frankly, it would be difficult to care about Chavez, were it not for the numerous EURSOC readers from Venezuela who write to thank us for having a go at his idiotic fans on the luvvie left.
But there is something new in the opinion column. Check out the first paragraph. Galloway speaks of how Dick Cheney came close to "the reality of Afghan resistance to foreign occupation." Resistance, in Galloway-speak, is always admirable, cf the Iraqi resistance, the Palestinian resistance, the resistance of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon. We have nothing to add on whether or not the British MP also admires the attempted assassination of the Vice President of the United States.
Much has been said in recent months about how some on the hard left have joined with fascist Islamists to create an anti-Western alliance: Galloway's RESPECT party is the most visible and successful example of this troubling phenomenon. But this must be the first example of Galloway showing admiration for the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Big Brother Britain
Two versions of Britain's surveillance society from different ends of the political spectrum. In the Guardian, Steve Boggan writes of a "chilling assault on our privacy", warning that Britons risk being tracked from birth to death. Boggan is concerned with the threat to civil liberties posed by government snooping.
France: Antisemitic Acts On Rise
A Jewish group claims that anti-Semitic aggression rose strongly in France in 2006, including a rise of 45 percent in violent incidents.
The Representative Council of Jewish Institutes in France (Crif) said that the torture and murder of young Jewish Parisian Ilan Halimi at the beginning of 2006 was followed by a sharp rise in violence against Jews, which it interprets as copycat attacks.
The Parti Socialiste At Prayer
Someone (presumably long ago) said that the Church of England was "the Conservative Party at prayer." If that was ever so, it's fair to say that the Césars - the French equivalent of the Oscars ceremony - gathers the Parti Socialiste to prayer.
The annual ritual is the closest France's luvvies get to a cult gathering. Whether or not there's any magic left is debatable. Your correspondent has watched six ceremonies, and a familiar routine has emerged, as sacred to the left-leaning cultural elite as the stations of the cross are to any medieval pilgrim.
First and foremost, the top awards rarely go to any film that substantial numbers of people bother going to see. It's not that France has a shortage of popular films: Carry On-style comedies like Les Bronzées III regularly top the box office charts, while even serious home-grown fare like Les Indigenes can put 3.1 million bums on seats. While Les Indigenes was awarded for best original screenplay, the biggest gong, the "best film" award, went to a French adaptation of Lady Chatterly's Lover, which only 200,000 people have seen.
It's a familiar pattern.
Trouble Brewing For Ahmadinejad?
Iran's Holocaust-denying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be strutting his stuff on the world stage, but at home his popularity is sinking fast.
A catastrophic election; rumours he enjoyed a dancing girls extravaganza while visiting the Asian Games (even though his regime has led an unprecedented crackdown on women failing to observe strict dress codes); International condemnation for his extremist views. Added to this, on his watch the economy has floundered and unemployment remains stubbornly high. House prices are increasingly beyond the reach of the ordinary Iranians he claims to represent.
Now, the real power in Iran - the mullahs - are beginning to shift their allegiances. The BBC has a round-up.
Raise Taxes Or The Kid Gets It
EURSOC is used to Europhiles firing off chilling warnings about the dangers of not integrating more closely with the EU, but this one takes the biscuit:
"...if British politicians persist with US-style taxation and refuse to embrace Europe as the future of Britain,news of children killing each other will continue to bombard us. It is nothing less than a choice of civilisation."
It's British-based French writer Agnès Poirier, usually found setting herself up as the target of abuse on the Guardian's Comment Is Free pages, but today she's to be found in the Independent, one of those strange websites that doesn't let readers have a go at its wittering columnists.
Mme Poirier's schtick is that France is better than Britain; more specifically, that the France of her childhood is better than the Britain of today. She is far from being the only person in Britain (or, for that matter, France) to believe that the blue-remembered hills of their infancy held more promise and pleasure than the grim reality of the present. However, as France broods on its economic decline while Britain flashes the bling of its new wealth, she performs a useful reminder that not everything that glisters in Blair's Britain is gold - and not every French citizen is convinced that the scales are weighed heavily in the UK's favour.
The Party's Over?
UK Independence Party faces bankruptcy; judge rules "impermissible donations" of £367,697 must be paid back
The UKIP's leadership has described the ruling, handed down by the Electoral Commission, as "wholly disproportionate." Party Chairman John Whittaker said that the party is guilty of nothing more than "a simple clerical error which could have been easily rectified had it been known."
The UKIP claims that the anti-EU party's major donor, businessman Alan Bown, was not on the Electoral Register between December 2004 and January 2006. Under the The 2000 Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, parties are forbidden from taken money from people or organisations not registered in the UK.
Israel In The EU?
Three quarters of Israelis would like to see Israel join the European Union.
According to a poll carried out for Germany's Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung organisation, this surprising figure is down to a variety of factors, including a new found closeness between Germany and Israel. 32 percent of Israelis describe themselves as "strongly favourable" to the idea of joining the EU: Only 17 percent opposed joining.
67 of Israelis have a favourable opinion of Germany, the poll shows, perhaps demonstrating the KAS institute's work to improve German-Israeli relations has been successful. Germany ranks as Israel's favourite EU nation after Britain, which has an 80 percent approval rating. France ranks as the least favourite European nation - 61 per cent of Israelis dislike France, with Jacques Chirac ranking as the most unpopular leader.
Quote Of The Day
"What do you expect if you put Trotskyites in parliament? This is the least that could happen."
Massimo D'Alema, Italy's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, quoted in the Independent after hard-left votes forced PM Romano Prodi's resignation.
Time For Tea
You've loved Guido's Tory Totty. Now check out another peculiarly English vice: Totty with Tea. An entire website dedicated to beautiful women drinking tea.
Don't miss its wild child sister site, Women with Wine.
And for those of you with a more military bent, here's a blog dedicated to the beauties of the Israel Defence Force.
Genius School
If you want to be a genius, go to Budapest and visit Laszlo Polgar. An eccentric citizen of Hungary, he says: "Geniuses are made, not born".
An expert in the theory of chess, he taught his daughters to play the game ten hours per day. Now, his youngest, Judit, is ranked as the 13th in the world, and is considered as the best female chess player in modern times.
In Britain, for example, there is a different idea: brain power is innate, not taught.
A World Without America
There is a delusion out there that without the influence of the US, the world would be a family of Denmarks sharing the love under the benevolent gaze of the United Nations. Online TV channel 18 Doughty Street puts the record straight with its YouTube-topping video "A World Without America."
Egyptian Blogger Jailed
Blogger gets four years for "insulting Islam and President" - own father calls for his execution
Alexandria , Egypt: 22 year old Abdel Kareem Soliman was today sentenced to four years in prison for criticising the nation's leading Islamic academic institution, al-Azhar university, and for describing president President Hosni Mubarak as a dictator.
Harry, England and St George
Prince Harry to serve in Iraq
Thousands of British troops are leaving Iraq, but one very prominent tank commander is going in. The Ministry of Defence announced today that Prince Harry's Blues and Royals regiment will be deployed in Iraq near the southern port of Basra.
Harry, 22, is believed to be set to command a troop of 12 men and four light reconnaissance vehicles in May or June this year.
Italy: Prodi Quits
Italian PM resigns following vote on US base, Afghanistan
Romano Prodi, Italian Prime Minister and former lead contact for the KGB in Europe president of the European Commission, has tendered his resignation following a defeat in parliament.
He has served only ten months in office since defeating centre-right PM Silvio Berlusconi in a knife-edge election last year.
Prodi's resignation came after a motion to expand a US military base in Vicenza and extend the stay of Italian troops in Afghanistan was defeated.
The left-wing coalition Prodi has led looked shakier than Britney Spears after a night on the tiles since the outset. In order to assemble a narrow majority in Italy's senate, Prodi has had to rope in all shades of leftist opinion, from liberal Christians to hard-left unreformed Communists. His programme, which was designed to make timid steps towards economic liberalisation while re-aligning Italy with Europe's mainstream Social Democratic movement, was threatened at every step by quarrelling coalition partners. Such is the way of Italian politics. However, up to last night, it seemed that the left preferred to grudgingly follow Prodi's lead, as long as it meant keeping their despised opponent Berlusconi from power.
School's Out (Along With Swimming, Art, RE...)
Muslim Council of Britain on "un-Islamic activity" in schools
A Muslim community group has published a list of recommendations for changes in British schools to better reflect the needs of Muslim schoolchildren. The list includes recommendations for uniforms for sporting activity (including a "requirement" that girls should wear the headscarf when taking part in games) and a ban on drawing the human figure in art class.
The Muslim Council of Britain paper also recommended that mixed-gender physical education classes, including swimming and dance lessons, should end. It also suggests that while all children should learn about Islam in religious education classes, Muslim parents should be allowed to withdraw their children from lessons discussing Christianity.
9-11 Compared To Dresden Bombing
France's far-right leader causes storm with dismissal of terror attack
Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France's National Front party, is no stranger to controversy. Best known in the United States for coming second in France's 2002 presidential election and for dismissing the Holocaust as "a detail of history", he turns his attention this week to the September 11 terror attacks and the Iraq War.
In an interview with French Catholic newspaper La Croix, Le Pen described the September 11 terror attacks as "an incident" and added that the total of "3,000 dead... is how many die in Iraq in a month and far less than the deaths in the Marseille or Dresden bombings at the end of the Second World War."
On Multiculturalism
A couple of essays on Multiculturalism and its failures. The first, from French thinker Pascal Bruckner (via No Pasaran. full text here, also available in French.
Bruckner attacks the Western fetishisation of relativism and recent condemnation by liberal writers of Muslim dissident Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It's all astonishingly quotable: Here is a key paragraph:
"Anglo-Saxon multiculturalism is perhaps nothing other than a legal apartheid, accompanied - as is so often the case - by the saccarine cajolery of the rich who explain to the poor that money doesn't guarantee happiness. We bear the burdens of liberty, of self-invention, of sexual equality; you have the joys of archaism, of abuse as ancestral custom, of sacred prescriptions, forced marriage, the headscarf and polygamy. The members of these minorities are put under a preservation order, protected from the fanaticism of the Enlightenment and the 'calamities' of progress."
The second, by historian Francis Fukuyama, appeared in Prospect Magazine earlier this month.
Iraq: Blair Announces Troops Cut
British presence reduced from 7,100 to 5,500 in spring; more to return home in summer
Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that the number of British troops in Iraq will be reduced by 1,600. Just over 5000 troops will stay in Iraq until 2008 to assist in the handover of security duties to Iraqi forces.
Most British troops are based in southern Iraq, in and around the city of Basra. Shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq, this region was viewed as relatively safe and British troops wore caps rather than armoured helmets; The security situation later deteriorated as unrest spread throughout the country.
132 British soldiers have died in Iraq since the invasion in 2003.
Unhappy Birthday
Robert Mugabe makes it to 83. Ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe can count themselves lucky if they live half as long
Today, Zimbabwe's president Mugabe celebrates his 83rd birthday. The leader plans a birthday celebration, where selected children will come to greet the president and enjoy what is, by Zimbabwean terms, an enormously extravagant party.
British papers report that the party will cost around £30,000 in real terms: Not an excessive sum for a head of state's celebration. In Zimbabwe terms, however, it is difficult to tell. One quoted figure is 30 million Zimbabwe dollars, but as the inflation rate of 1600 percent makes many household essentials double in price overnight. The average Zimbabwean worker needs to toil two months to be able to pay for enough maize to feed his family for a month. By the time those two months are up, however, it's likely that the price of maize will have become even more inaccessible.
Mugabe is lucky to reach such an advanced age. Doctors report he is still healthy and sprightly. If only the same could be said for his fellow citizens.
Zimbabwe now has the lowest life expectancy ratings in the world.
Sister Morphine
New medical research has indicated that if you have a 'chronic cough', the answer is morphine.
As many doctors have suspected for a long time, the opiate drug, morphine, is effective in easing long-standing coughs.
Until now, there was no hard evidence. But after an intensive study of patients with an 'intractable cough' doctors at Britain's Hull University have published their findings in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
They found evidence that patients responded quickly to morphine treatment.
London Gets Third World Aid
London. Europe's wealthiest city. The world's financial capital. Home of hedge funds and Russian billionaires, oil sheikhs and Hollywood stars. Boasting some of the earth's most expensive real estate and attracting immigrants from the richest and poorest nations on the globe, London is enjoying an incredible economic and cultural renaissance.
So why, then, is its public transport being funded with aid from one of Latin America's most poverty-stricken countries?
US Gearing Up Iran Strike?
News frenzy surrounds build-up in Gulf, plans for strikes on Iran nuclear facilities
The BBC is getting awfully excited by what it describes as "contingency plans" the US has drawn up for airstrikes against Iran.
According to the Beeb's security correspondent, any US strike on Iran would seek to take out not only the nation's nuclear programme, but also its air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command & control centres.
The Beeb adds that the US continues to deny plans to attack Iran, even as Tehran's nuclear programme - widely believed to be geared towards developing nuclear weapons within the next decade - approaches "industrial level."
Clear evidence that Iran has a nuclear bomb or a devastating attack on US forces in Iraq that can be directly traced back to Tehran would serve as "triggers" for the US strike.
So where's the story: Is the US itching to flatten Iran's military machine, or is the BBC just - gasp - speculating on the what-ifs?
EU Democracy: A Good Idea?
EU Constitution back on agenda - MEPs still on the fiddle
Those Eurocrats. To use an old Irish expression, you couldn't be wise to them.
First comes confirmation that the EU Constitution is on its way back, in slimmed down form. Federasts pondered how to change the document and push it through without provoking the new round of ratification votes that would be required for a revised document - and, more importantly, avoid trying to sell the French and the Dutch the treaty in referenda.
One bright spark hit on the idea of taking an eraser rather than a pencil to the document, MEP Daniel Hannan reports in the Telegraph. The treaty, shorn of excessive phrasing and clauses judged to be unnecessary, will not require approval by the people: Indeed, a conference of all 27 national heads of government is being called next month in order to pass the new-look constitution.
British ministers have already dismissed calls for a referendum on the new document.
This is all happening terribly quickly. But then, that's the idea.
News Round-Up: 9-11 Nutters
Monbiot spikes Moonbats; Ambulance-chasing in London
This isn't something you expect to read on EURSOC everyday: What a great piece by George Monbiot.
Monbiot, best-known for championing ecolo-leftist views which contributed the term Moonbat to the blogosphere, wrote a commentary last week on how the recent trend for 9-11 conspiracy theories was, to put it politely, misguided. His article was the subject of hundreds of readers comments on the Guardian, many of which condemned him as a traitor to the left, a dupe of George W Bush and a sell-out.
Watching You, Watching Everyone
Privacy body condemns huge number of email and phone taps
European nations appear to be trying to outdo one another in a bid to become the west's most surveillance-obsessed societies. Last week, we reported on how the Germans and Dutch were planning new limits on email and mobile phone use. Today, however, the Times reveals that Big Brother Britain is leading the way, with intelligence and law enforcement bodies making a whopping 439,000 requests to probe phone calls and emails in just over a year.
Dozens Dead In India Train Bomb
'Friendship Express' between India and Pakistan hit by attack; 65 dead
Islamist militants are suspected to be behind the terror attack on a passenger train travelling between Delhi and Lahore which left 65 dead.
Both Indian and Pakistani leaders acknowledge that the bombing was carried out by terrorists intent on blocking the "peace process" between the two nations, but stress that the attack will not deter them from their efforts.
It is reported that Islamist groups Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are thought to be behind the bombing. Both groups have been responsible for shigh-profile attacks in Delhi and Mumbai.
From The Blogs
MEPs still smoking, British government swindled on laptops
The EU Referendum Blog notes that freeloading MEPs are still living the high life, despite legislating to make life miserable for the rest of us. Picking up on a story in the Times, it reports that members of the European Parliament have reversed a ban on smoking in parliament buildings, a mere 43 days after the ban was introduced.
"The first time I ever visited the building in Brussels, way back in 1996, the first thing to greet visitors was a reception clerk sitting under a "no smoking" sign, with a cigarette on the go", Richard recalls, so there's no surprise that the ban was overturned.
The Times reports that MEPs and staff outraged by the ban started a campaign of "protest smoking", lighting up even more and in more places than usual.
The Economist also has a piece on Eurocrats' "Do as I say, not as I do" culture. How long before they demand their own traffic lanes?
Next: The world's most expensive laptops.
Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
With all the fuss over frontrunners Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal, one could be forgiven for ignoring the scraps continuing on the fringes of French political life. The far-right's Jean-Marie Le Pen's prospective performance is a "known unknown", but what about his counterparts on the extreme left?
Trotskyite Arlette Laguiller has been a regular fixture for six presidential elections. Revolutionary Communist Olivier Besancenot is running in his second - he'll have just turned 33 in the first round. Marie-George Buffet is running too, and trying to reverse the Communist Party's inexorable decline in votes (if not influence). Throw in a couple of minor candidates, including anti-globalisation campaigner José Bové, and the far left looks like a crowded field.
Just how does one stand out in this market? Well, in 2006, Marie-George Buffet had the bright idea of holding a convention to chose a "joint candidate" for the far-left. The Communists organised the event; students of international Communism will not be surprised to learn that the Communist candidate won the nomination. Buffet's rivals walked out; lacking the means to carry out the traditional Communist strategy of liquidating her opponents, Buffet now has to run against them.
A look at the campaign posters covering the walls of east Paris gives some idea of how the far-left's candidates are trying to brand themselves in the electoral marketplace.
The best route, it seems, is to act as a wrecker for Ségolène Royal's candidacy.
Tightening The Net
Google caves into China - again. Meanwhile, some European Union countries propose even tougher monitoring of internet and email use
Google has removed a graphic which purports to show the trail of debris left by last month's anti-satellite missile test, in an apparent bow to Chinese demands for censorship of the Internet.
The graphic, produced by three researchers at MIT, tracks debris from the targeted weather satellite to give an idea of the missile's, and thus China's capacity for surface to space attacks: "We find that not only can China threaten low-Earth orbit satellites but, by mounting the same interceptor on one of its rockets capable of lofting a satellite into geostationary orbit, all of the U.S. communications satellites.", said one of the researchers.
Google, previously criticised for complying with China's demands for software-based censorship, removed the image from its search.
You'd think you would be safe from that kind of state interference in freedom-loving Europe, wouldn't you? Well, if the governments of some European nations have their way, you'd be wrong.
Germany's Ministry of Justice is proposing laws that would make it illegal to create email accounts with fake information - thus ruling out pseudonymous accounts.
Four-Figure Inflation
Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe breaks all the wrong records
Zimbabwe has achieved an unenviable world record in the sometimes obscure world of economic statistics. It's the country with the world's highest rate of inflation.
Base-level figures from Zimbabwe's Central Statistics Office announce that the inflation rate is 1,593.6 per cent as of January. On a month-to-month basis, inflation is increasing by 45.4 per cent.
Even in its most recent economic crisis, Argentina could not get close to this level. Bolivia, not renowned for serious central bank management, is a model of prudent fiscal organisation in comparison.
Zimbabwe also has a phenomenal record of unemployment. The latest figures, according to the BBC, estimate that that the level of those without jobs throughout the country is nearly 80 per cent.
EU Eyes Swiss Tax Law
The European Commission has fired a warning to Switzerland over "tax breaks" offered to the increasing number of companies who locate their head offices there.
Google, Kraft and IBM are just three of the big companies to have opened offices in Switzerland, taking advantage of laws which grant exemptions from tax on profits earned abroad.
Switzerland argues that there is no agreement on tax harmonisation between the EU and Switzerland, so no agreements are being broken. The Commission claims that not only do the Swiss have "privileged access" to the EU market, but that the low tax regime offered by cantons like Zug breaches a 1972 agreement promising that Switzerland would not offer unfair competition in the shape of subsidies.
First of all, it is rich for the EU to accuse others of using state aid to distort the market: The EU has been unable to prevent its own members from bailing out failing companies. Interference between states and their national champions is endemic. The Common Agricultural Policy, moreover, may be the biggest and most unfair subsidy of them all.
Second, as the EU Referendum blog points out, the complaint is not about unfair subsidies, but about tax competition (something Ségolène Royal has promised to stamp out should she win the French election this spring).
If the European Commission wants to prevent companies moving their business to Switzerland, it can call for Europe's borders to close. It can make it illegal for companies to move their offices outside the EU while continuing to trade their. Drastic? Ridiculous? Draconian? Maybe: But demanding that countries outside the union change their laws to suit the demands of high-tax Europe amounts to economic imperialism.
News Round-Up: Fast Track
France's high-speed train breaks another record, Royal gets an unexpected boost, Pakistan Muslims avoid vaccines and EURSOC is delighted by a colourful Aussie expression
France's high speed TGV train has broken its own record, according to tabloid newspaper Le Parisien. The paper reports that the train à grande vitesse hit 553km/h (344mph) on part of the new Paris-Strasbourg run on Tuesday. This comes a couple of months before an "official" attempt to break the TGV's 515.3km/h record, set in 1990.
The millions of passengers (EURSOC included) who are looking forward to using the Paris-Strasbourg TGV Est when it opens in June won't reach those speeds, however. The "civilian" line travels at a more sedate 320 km/h.
Like, Totally helping Royal
Still in France, Ségolène Royal might be trailing in the opinion polls, but she may have found a boost from an unexpected quarter. Thierry Desmarest, the outgoing chief of France's oil giant Total, has had a go at Royal for plotting a rise in company taxes.
Fleet Street On Gin Lane
The UNICEF report on children's wellbeing in rich countries is still hogging the headlines in Britain. The report's authors (led by founder of far left journal New Internationalist Peter Adamson) conclude that on British and US children are worse off in terms of healthcare, poverty, education and "risk-taking activity" than anywhere else in the west.
For the cartoonists on the Guardian and the Telegraph, this is an excuse to revisit Hogarth's scene of poverty and degeneracy, Gin Lane. In the Telegraph, Garland has Britannia slumped on her steps, her baby falling from her arms. The same scene features in Martin Rowson's more elaborate cartoon in the Guardian, except Rowson adds a gang of spectral hoodies outside a McDonald's restaurant and a ghastly undead Margaret Thatcher.
Which kind of shows where the report is coming from. While it is always interesting to see the most conservative and most left-leaning quality newspapers united on a single issue, only the Guardian's cartoonist appears to see the angle the UNICEF report is coming from.
The Age Of Lead
"Assassination" plots against Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi revealed
Two men, both affiliated to an extremist political grouping, one known to be something of a religious maniac, are found with one of Britain's largest ever hauls of chemicals that could be used to create bombs. A bomb making manual, air rifles and "nuclear protection suits" (sic) are also discovered on their property.
An entry in one of the men's diary reads: "Thought for the day - the easiest way to save the country is to assassinate Tony Blair and when (John) Prescott takes over shoot that fucker as well."
Meanwhile in Italy, 15 suspected terrorists are arrested on suspicion of planning to attack a television station, a newspaper and the nation's biggest oil company. They are also believed to have planned to murder government advisors and - most shocking of all - to have planned to kidnap and possibly assassinate former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Why aren't these stories plastered all over the front pages? Less than a month ago, Britain was gripped by the news that a group of terror sympathisers planned to murder a British soldier. Last summer was dominated by hysteria - as yet unsubstantiated - surrounding claims that up to a dozen jumbo jets were about to be blown out of the sky with explosives smuggled in shampoo bottles and baby milk cans.
If Muslims were behind the above plots, we can't help but believe that the papers would be whipping up a frenzy of speculation. But they're not: The men in court in Britain on explosives charges are affiliated to the far-right British National Party. The fifteen Italians are thought to be members of the Red Brigades, far left extremists who terrorised Italy in the 1970s.
Street Level
Paris, Monday.
See anything interesting on the way to work this morning? Email it to us at eursoc--at--noos.fr and we'll publish.
Space Spuds
The ever-clever Chinese have developed yet a new idea: Let's grow potatoes in the sky.
In honour of St Valentine's day, scientists in Shanghai have created seeds for a sweet purple potato which has been cultivated on a space mission.
The vegetable seeds have been named Purple Orchard III by scientists.
This new type of food has been launched and organised by a manned space mission, Schenzhou VI.
EU Memo: We Can't Stop Iran Bomb
An internal "reflection paper" circulated to all 27 national governments concludes that Iran will be able to enrich enough uranium to build a nuclear bomb - and that there is little the west can do to prevent it.
It adds that European pressure to engage Iran on its appalling human rights record have failed miserably: The Iranians have cancelled meetings with the Human Rights dialogue since 2004.
The FT has the major details of the document, which was produced by EU foreign policy boss Javier Solana's office.
The document's major finding is that the international diplomatic effort has failed to hold back Iran's quest for the weapons: Tehran's lack of technical expertise has been responsible for the slow progress towards the bomb, rather than the efforts of the UN or the International Atomic Energy Agency.
This is a further blow for the EU's UK-France-German trio, who set out to lead international diplomatic pressure to sway Tehran from building nuclear weapons. The US made it clear that it would go along with the EU-3's proposals: But now the EU itself reports that this path has failed.
The paper, if its findings are accepted in Europe's capitals, severely limits diplomatic space for manoeuvre.
Talking To Terrorists
Give 'em what they want, claims Guardian hack
Extraordinary column in the Guardian's Comment is Free slot today. Peter Preston discusses the breakdown of the ETA ceasefire in Spain, laying the blame for the resurgence of terrorism... firmly at the feet of Spain's democratically-elected Socialist government.
Eh? Preston's angle is that it isn't enough to commence talks with terrorists: You have to give them what they want, as well. Otherwise, presumably, they are justified in planting huge bombs, like the one that destroyed a carpark in Madrid Airport in December, when two people died. ETA described the murders as "collateral damage" and blamed the authorities for not reacting to a bomb warning.
The Socialist government, led by PM José Luis Rodríguez "Zappo" Zapatero, promptly called off talks. The ceasefire, and the policy of jaw-jaw, which the government had invested such political capital in, was over.
Ségo's Five Year Plan
Socialist Party candidate lays out her manifesto - finally
Well, in the end there were few surprises. Before a cheering audience of 20,000 Ségorrhoids yesterday afternoon, Ségolène Royal unveiled a 100-point plan to remake France in her image should she be elected president this spring.
There was an oblique reference to Tony Blair's cry of "Education, education, education". Royal said that for her, "Education, again education, always education" was at the heart of everything she does. But there was little that was Blairite about her proposals.
Royal had previously come in for criticism from party elders for delaying the release of "concrete" proposals to take on centre-right opponent Nicolas Sarkozy, not least following Sarko's recent surge in the polls. However, she countered that she was merely winding up "the listening phase" of her campaign. She claims to have listened to the views of 700,000 French citizens and 130,000 internaut visitors to her website, and says that her plans for the presidency reflect the aspirations of the real people of France.
Maybe so, but as far-right opponent Jean-Marie Le Pen chuckled after the speech, it seems Mme Royal spent most of the time conferring with "her constituency of civil servants and public sector workers without explaining where the money will come from."
When Elephants Fly?
If only buyers were as interested as aviation geeks
The world's largest passenger airliner, constructed at the Airbus French-German consortium, in Toulouse, in south-west France, seems to be havng a further few problems taking off the ground.
To explain in plain terms, the finally-fully equipped Airbus A380 made its maiden flight this week. All went well. And there were cheers on the tarmac, and champagne for all concerned.
The only problem is that the plane is designed to carry 853 passengers. And a bigger sister, under construction, is being built to accommodate 1,000 people.
This plane is so large it makes a Boeing 747 look like a mini-bus.
The Battle For Africa
We missed this timely, profound and chilling piece by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in last Monday's Telegraph, but it is worth revisiting today.
Evans-Pritchard reports on the rise of China in Africa and its implications for the United States, Europe, the environment and, of course, the Africans themselves.
Chinese president Hu Jintao is on a 12 day tour of China, culminating in a visit to the "pariah regime of Sudan" - "Sharia-law zealots accused of instigating genocide in Darfur, and practising slavery against Christians," Evans-Pritchard writes. It's a natural continuation of Beijing's African policy: 48 African leaders were feted in China last autumn and promised $5bn worth of new investment.
It's all about the oil, of course - and the uranium, platinum, chromium, cobalt, and copper. And the gas, and minerals. And even the arable land.
China doesn't care who it does business with: Marxists in Angola, the bloodthirsty Sharia fanatics of Sudan, monstrous hoodlums like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. Evans-Pritchard writes that Beijing effectively props up dictators with soft loans and the promise of "non-intervention" clauses - a tyrant's fantasy.
But China is far from being the first to support vile regimes in order to claim natural resources.
Spot The Ball
More football. Many of EURSOC's British readers were snowed in yesterday, while the cold snap continues across the pond in the United States and Canada.
But the tough guys of Belfast's Glentoran and Linfield FC wouldn't let a spot of snow get in the way of a game. Here's a video of highlights from the 1995 Boxing Day match between the two Ulster sides: Stick with it until half way through, when the orange ball bursts and is replaced, bizarrely, with a white ball. Or is that an invisible ball?
QPR-China Friendly Ends In Brawl
You'd think a friendly between London's Queens Park Rangers and the Chinese national football team would be an innocuous enough fixture... not yesterday's, though, where a series of off-the-ball incidents ended the match in a full-scale brawl.
Look closely at the opening seconds, though. Is that Conservative MP Boris Johnson in a QPR strip? We later see this player wading in to the melee. Regular Boris-watchers will remember that their hero has "previous" when it comes to football violence. In a friendly last year, he got away with an horrendous flying tackle on unsuspecting German player Maurizio Gaudino:
Language Gap
French trade unions launch a rearguard action to ban the use of English in the workplace, while their fellow citizens in the EU capital fight to make French the legal language of the EU
Sometimes even the most ardent francophile has to throw up his hands and admit, yes, the French can be downright weird. One of the strangest things about them - or, rather, their public figures and representatives - is their obsession with the status of their language. Yes, it is difficult for a proud and formerly imperial nation to admit that its crowning glory is receding. But this is French we're talking about, not Cornish or Scots Gaelic. French is not in danger of dying out.
However, it is not the language's demise is what worries the bureaucrats and busybodies who are in the news this week. Instead, what seems to horrify some of the latest batch of militant francophones is the prospect that their language might change through the influence of outside forces: Once again, the state is required to come to the rescue.
Comment: No Way, Ségo
It will be a cold night in hell before Ms Ségolène Royal becomes president of France.
She is a bright and intelligent person. But her opponent, Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy, is a clever chap. And no fool either. Above all, he is a professional politician.
Ms Royal is charming. And that is an advantage. However, she lacks the nous and experience to become a head of state.
Ms Royal is doing her best. And that is to her credit. But she knows, deep down, that she is fighting a losing battle. Most of her supporters are down-and-out folk, hoping for a bigger state hand-out from a socialist president. Half of them can't get out of their beds to go to the polling booth.
Sadly, they will be disappointed when the big day arrives.
Managing Change
New York Times publisher believes goal is to manage transition from print to media; says paper might not exist in five years
Speaking to Haaretz yesterday, owner chairman and publisher of the New York Times Arthur Sulzberger said he didn't know if the paper edition would be around five years from now, and what's more, he doesn't care.
"The Internet is a wonderful place to be, and we're leading there," he told the reporter. He noted that the NY Times' online readership of 1.5 million a day outstrips readers of its print edition.
"Sulzberger says the New York Times is on a journey that will conclude the day the company decides to stop printing the paper," Haaretz reports.
EU Wants To Jail Polluters
EU Commission hopes public sentiment on environment will allow power grab on international law
The European Commission is seeking Europe-wide legislation and sentencing powers against individuals and companies found guilty of committing crimes against the environment.
According to the Independent, nine new laws are on the table, including "illegal treatment or shipment of waste, discharge of dangerous substances into the air, soil or ground or unlawful possession of protected wild plants and animals. Other crimes would include causing drastic deterioration of a protected habitat and unlawful trade in ozone-depleting substances."
Several countries, including Britain, have expressed unease over the proposals, which could see the introduction of one to ten-year jail terms and fines of up to €1.5 million for "green crimes" committed anywhere in Europe. However, commissioner for justice and home affairs Franco Frattini believes that polls indicating rising public concern over environmental degradation can be translated into new powers for the EU.
You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to imagine that there must be teams of EU lawyers and federalists watching the polls, awaiting the "tipping point" in public sentiment when the suggestion that some issues might be better dealt with on an EU-wide level can be safely mooted.
The terrorist threat was one; immigration is another. Now it's the environment. What next?
Cartoon Trial: Sarkozy Intervenes
Interior minister steps into row over Mohammed cartoons; rival Ségolène Royal lurches to the left
France's centre-right presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has thrown his weight behind satirical magazine Charlie Hébdo, currently on trial in Paris for "defamation" following its publication last year of the Danish cartoons of Mohammed.
Three Muslim groups are suing the magazine for "public insults against a group of people because of their religion" and "a plan of provocation aimed against the Islamic community."
Sarkozy's letter, which was read out in court yesterday, said that while he was a favourite target of the newspaper's satirical cartoonists, he "preferred an excess of caricatures to an absence of caricatures." He added that he supported the magazine's case as part of a "long tradition of French satire" and that people "should have the freedom to laugh at anything."
Muslim groups reacted angrily to his intervention.
Quote Of The Day
"I'm just waiting for the editorial in the Daily Mail which explains how, at this time of great stress to the Motoring Community, it is important for us not so much to condemn, but to understand the terrible pressures which must have driven a car driver to come to believe that he (or she) had no alternatives but to attempt maim, at random, four employees. I wonder if we'll see calls for the Government to end the spiral of violence, by talking urgently to the representatives of the Motoring Community with a view to seeing how their justifiable demand to discontinue the Congestion Charge can be met.
"And I'm waiting for a spokesman for the AA to theorise that, in fact, the letter bombs were sent by the Government, in a false flag operation, as a cover for installing more speed cameras."
David T on Harry's Place, taking a wry look at the recent spate of letter bomb attacks on the vehicle licensing offices, the company running the billing system for Britain's speed cameras and a company linked to London's congestion charge.
French Resistance Goes Up In Smoke
France's new anti-smoking taskforce
As of last week, a legion of 175,000 'cigarette police' have been deployed in France to fine citizens having a fag in a 'public place'. Offenders who smoke in what is defined as an enclosed space face a penalty of 68 euros (£46).
The overall situation on the law and its application is, however, slightly confused. So far, it is understood that smokers may puff away in designated areas in cafes, bars and restaurants. But the authorities have not made it fully clear that this smoking amnesty, or period of grace, expires at midnight on the 31 December 2007.
According to France's TF1 TV channel, there are some doubts as to the legal basis of this interdiction. To make it as clear as possible, the smoking order is a government decree or "ministerial circular", not an act of parliament.
One might say it is truly a case of smoke and mirrors.
Burger Kings
How a Frenchman made McDonalds the biggest meal in France
In Oak Brook, Illinois, there is an almost unknown but important institution: The University of McDonald's.
This slightly-modest, green-grass campus was created by the founder of the McDonald's chain of restaurants, Ray Kroc. He built his prototype eatery in the late 1950s in a suburb of Los Angeles, California. In fact, there is even talk of designation of the restaurant as a classified national monument.
It is there still today, and is almost a shrine to the first fat-or-fast-food restaurant in the world.
UK, Ireland Top EU Crime League
Well it is nice to know we are good at something. Britain and Ireland have been identified as Europe's crime hotspots by an EU crime and safety survey. You are more likely to fall victim to the ten most common crimes in Britain than anywhere else in the EU, with the exception of Ireland.
Britain is Europe's most burgled nation and its people are the most likely to be assaulted. Car theft, robbery and pickpocketing are also above EU average levels. However, the UK is much lower down the list for consumer fraud and bribery of officials: The survey also found that Brits are not unduly worried about crime and safety.
The survey lists Ireland and Britain at the top of the table for crime, followed by Estonia, the Netherlands and Denmark. Interesting. According to the 2007 Index of Economic Freedom, Britain and Ireland are the EU's most economically free countries (at six and seven on the list). Tiny Luxembourg is eighth, but the next most economically free EU nations are Estonia (12), Denmark (13) and the Netherlands (14). (Finland, one of Europe's most crime-free nations according to the survey, was next at 16th).
Now EURSOC sees itself as relatively liberal economically, but someone is going to look at these figures and ask, "are they related?" and it may as well be us.
In the immortal words of Team America: World Police could it be a case that "Freedom isn't free, there's a hefty f***in' fee?"
Size Zero
Political role models show worrying tendencies
A debate has broken out across Europe about how to deal with the recently discovered but growing phenomena of ‘size zero’ brains among the political classes.
Evolutionary psychologists believe that the self-degenerating disorder, known as ‘shrinking politico brain syndrome’ (or SPBS) comes as a result of over dependence on PR and spin in an effort to mirror the people on TVs Big-Brother.
Out Of Time
Is it just us or is the Times re-designed website horrendously slow? EURSOC has tried on Safari, Firefox and IE 7 but it is taking ages to load.
I suspect Mr Murdoch will be holding a purge over the next few days.
"None Of The Above"
The disconnect between voters and their representatives is getting wider, according to a poll in today's Daily Telegraph. Over a quarter of voters interviewed said they would look outside the three major parties in the next general election, while over two thirds of all voters do not feel that their views are being represented by the political parties.
Voters say that not only is it no longer clear what particular parties stand for, there is little to choose between Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats: Two-thirds of voters supporting one of the big three claim that the parties are "much of a muchness." Among voters the Telegraph describes as "disaffected", the figure rises to over three-quarters.
The Telegraph concludes that the left-right divide in British politics has been replaced by the split between the people and the political class.
So, is Britain ready for a new political alternative?
New Thinking On Iran
The IHT picks up on the idea, first mooted by EURSOC last week, that Jacques Chirac's comments on Iran were the first public admission by a western leader that the world was going to have to live with an Iranian bomb.
The newspaper quotes arms experts who agree that the west is failing to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon. There does not seem to be the willpower for a full-scale attack on Iran; pinpoint airstrikes by either the US or Israel might not stop a programme which is believed to be widely dispersed and buried deeply.
Additionally, UN security council vetoes from Russia and China, who have their own reasons for protecting Iran, will make certain that any sanctions the UN can come up with will be minor and unlikely to stall the Iranian nuclear programme.
Israel's innovative policy of assassinating leading Iranian nuclear scientists might give some of Tehran's bomb builders the jitters. However, the death of bomb physicist Ardeshire Hassanpour takes a "great man" approach to weapons technology, which these days is more likely to have its labour shared among numerous technicians and departments.
Britain Faces Wave Of Attacks On Jews
Anti-Semitic violence in Britain reached its highest level for two decades, according to an authoritative study published in the Daily Mail this morning.
In 2006, close to 600 anti-Semitic assaults, incidents of vandalism, cases of abuse and threats made against Jewish individuals and institutions were reported to the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity. According to the newspaper, the most intense wave came in the summer following Israel's attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. A disproportionate number of the attackers came from ethnic minorities: Fewer than half of those whose backgrounds were known were white, while over a third were of "Arab or Asian" extraction.
The office of mayor Ken Livingstone questioned the figures, saying that while all racist attacks are unacceptable, "the level of racist attacks on black, Asian and Arab people in London is significantly higher than the level of anti-Semitic incidents."
A Question Of Sport
If you thought actors would be better keeping their political views to themselves, spare a thought for the French, where even footballers chime in with their opinions on the elections. This week, world cup star Lilian Thuram accused centre-right presidential contender Nicholas Sarkozy of holding racist views.
Born in the French overseas department of Guadaloupe, the footballer is a campaigner for the youth in the estates, and was scathingly critical of what he described as interior minister Sarkozy's "violent language" towards the youngsters (Sarkozy had described troublemakers as "hoodlums" and promised to take a water cannon to clean up the estates after a child was killed in gang crossfire).
Thuram made a further point against Sarkozy last year, when he invited several dozen illegal immigrant families who had been squatting in a gymnasium awaiting expulsion to a France football game.
Thuram claims he met Sarkozy after the riots that gripped French housing estates in autumn 2005. According to the star, Sarkozy told him "it's the blacks and the Arabs who create the problems in the suburbs." Thuram claims Sarkozy has "a racial vision" of problems and people.
Sarkozy's people deny the claim. Indeed, one is inclined to sympathise with the interior minister here: Accusations of racism have become the most serious charge that can be levelled against public figures - see the Big Brother hysteria in Britain as a case in point. It is an easy criticism to make, especially when makes it about a meeting that was not filmed or recorded in any way. It is a difficult slur to remove, too.
Attributing unlikely quotes that cannot be verified to your rivals? Not very sporting, Mr Thuram.
Thing is, Sarkozy is no Jade Goody. It beggars belief to imagine a politician, especially one as shrewd as Sarkozy, expressing the old line that blacks and Arabs cause all the trouble - especially when he was talking to a black man!
Thuram is a declared supporter of Ségolène Royal's candidacy. It is interesting to see that in her camp, it is not only Mme Royal who has caught a dose of foot-in-mouth disease.
Is Chirac For Real?
President Jacques Chirac is having a hard time over his view that it would be no big deal if Iran got its hands on a nuclear weapon or two. This laid-back approach to Tehran's aggressive policy towards Israel is said to represent a break with the US and EU3 line that Iran should never be allowed to build nuclear weapons, and the president has since been forced to withdraw his remarks.
It's true, too, that he may have been tired and emotional when discussing his views with American and French reporters on Monday. French authorities have been quick to blame US papers for using Chirac's 'blunders' to stir up anti-French feeling. Socialist MPs have attacked Chirac too, with rich irony as their presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has also expressed eccentric views on Iran in recent weeks.
Left-leaning French newspaper Le Monde has warned that no-one will take France seriously after his flipping. But will they? Is Chirac breaking the western consensus, or is he venturing into territory every government is aware of, but is afraid to discuss: How to deal with a nuclear Iran?
