Rome

Yesterday, had it not been Easter Monday, and had I not been out for a long lunch with friends, I should have been celebrating the 2,767th birthday of Italy's capital city, said by legend to have been founded on 21st April, 753BC.

Still a great place.

Right and Wrong

I have probably mentioned that I knew the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in a previous life and think very highly of him.

I cannot, however, leave unchallenged the tripe he has spouted about homosexuality in the Daily Telegraph (is this the only newspaper which covers religious matters?). He says, and I paraphrase, that much as he would like to recognise gay marriage he can't because the Africans wouldn't like it.

Sorry, Justin, but we expect you to know. The reason people have been leaving the Church of England in hordes over the past few decades is that it doesn't appear to believe in anything. For those of us who drift in and out of religion, and it is most of us, it is like going for a swim from a ship with a loose anchor: you never know where it will be when you want to get back on.

The job of the Archbishop of Canterbury is to know whether, in the sight of God, gay marriage is acceptable or unacceptable. If acceptable it would be quite wrong to deny homosexuals marriage in Church, ie in the sight of God.

If he thinks homosexual marriage is the right thing then, it being an important topic, he should advise those who refuse it that they are leaving the Church.

If it is wrong, he should be prepared to upset the liberals and say it is wrong, or leave his job if he can't.

If he blubbers that he thinks it is OK but that some others don't, people will think him soaking wet and ignore everything else he says.

People are entitled to be told by the Church what is right and what is wrong, and entitled to a Church which commits itself to these principles.

Get a grip, Justin!

Christian?

It seems that fifty-five people have signed a letter to the Daily Telegraph complaining about David Cameron's statement that Britain is a Christian country.

They are incorrect.

Most countries - America and France are the best known for this - have in their constitution provision for the separation of Church and state. Nothing wrong with that, it's just that it isn't the case in Britain. The Head of State is head of the Church, Christian bishops, but no Buddhists, Muslims, Jews or Jainists, sit as of right in the upper house.

Unlike most countries but like, say, Pakistan or Israel, Britain has an established religion, and this is not dependent on the number of people in Church on  any given day.

Where we differ from so many other countries with established religions is that we welcome people of other faiths and protect their rights. This doesn't mean Britain has changed religion. It hasn't.

Unhelpful

This blog salutes Dr. Kari Poikolainen, an alcohol expert, formerly of the World Health Organisation, for his recent report on recommended drinking levels.

He says that drinking only becomes harmful at more than 13 units a day, equivalent to about a litre of wine.

The guidelines from the National Health Service are for 3-4 units for a man, so Dr. Poikolainen is coming in at three or four times the recommendation.

Naturally the busybodies are furious. Julia Manning, of the think tank 2020 Health describes it as 'an unhelpful contribution to the debate'.

Incidentally I love this use of the word 'unhelpful', meaning 'differing from what I say and therefore to be banned or ignored'.

2020 Health is funded by the Government, and Ms Manning is hardly likely to jeopardise her salary by saying 'Oh, sorry, I've been talking complete cock all along'.

I personally found Dr. Poikolainen's report very helpful.

Holy War

I think I have mentioned before in these pages that Iraq was a Shia Moslem country run by a cabal of Sunnis, whereas Syria is a Sunni Moslem country run by a cabal of Shias. A great deal of unpleasantness could have been avoided if they had simply swapped leaderships.

Of course the Syrian conflict is still going on, kept out of the press by Ukraine, a lost Malaysian Airlines flight and a sunk Korean Ferry. We learn of Abdullah Deghayes, 18, of Brighton, who went out to Syria and was killed.

Now, usually when we hear of British Moslems going to war it is against us: some sort of jihad they have got up, but this is a purely Islamic thing: one set of Moslems fighting another. Of course our rather gung-ho Foreign Secretary, William Hague, would have got us involved if he could have, but Parliament, for once, put a stop to it.

So it is no different, really, from our fathers and grandfathers going to fight in the Spanish civil war: if that is what they want to do, fine. Around 400 British nationals have gone to fight in Syria. Around 20 have died.

It's just a bit depressing that, despite being British, they see themselves primarily as foreign.

Mystery

I've been away on holiday to Sicily, a land of strange contrasts. I've written about it in The Commentator, an internet magazine you should read (it's free!).

As I write, a frantic search is still going on for the disappeared Malaysian Airlines jet in the Indian Ocean.

Why? There is no chance of finding anyone alive after all this time. We (and why does it include the British?) seem to be devoting far more resources to it than we did to the Air France flight which disappeared a few years ago.

There is a lot of speculation on the internet, as always, but even people like myself who reject conspiracy theories are beginning to feel that there is something we haven't been told.

Marvin

Incredible - well incredible for me anyway - but yesterday it was 30 years since Marvin Gaye died.

He was shot, aged 44, by his own father.

Gaye led a difficult life, but he could do this:

France

I don't follow football, but as an example of life management it repays inspection. When a team is doing badly, the trick is not to fire the players, but the manager, the guy responsible for the strategy.

In France, François Hollande, responsble for the strategy of injecting more socialism into the country (the State takes up 57% of the economy), and for borrowing more and more money, has been found out by the electorate. He is the most unpopular President ever and has taken the biggest drubbing ever seen in the Fifth Republic.

So what happened? He sacked the Prime Minister whom he had appointed.

It would be like the bottom ranking team sacking the ball boys.

Earth Hour

Bugger, I missed it. I was watching, on a device which used electricity, Jeremy Clarkson and his friends drive smoky diesel lorries through Burma.

Most entertaining it was, too. Better than turning the lights off, anyway.

I reported on this a few years back when the Environment Minister of British Colmbia lit candles all over his residence and set the cat on fire. That's a carbon pawprint, if you like.

Earth Hour is not for people who are worried about the planet but for people who want to look as if they are. Almost no electricity is saved and it may be that the sudden surge in use at the end of the hour means the event might cause more to be used.

If you think that not using electricity will save the planet, don't use any. You'll be happy. But don't tell us about it. Keep it to yourself.

Virtue is its own reward.

The clocks change

Don't get me started on this, it's bad for my blood pressure. I am remaining on GMT and suggest you do too.

Cock a snook at the State. Say 'I am a free person and know what the time is without being told, wrongly, by a bureaucrat I am paying to do so.'

Keep saying this until you are sane.

The Scottish Pound

We are still hearing a lot of nonsense about a possibly independent Scotland and its currency.

'Walking out of the UK means walking out of the UK pound' George Osborne is reported to have said. I haven't read what he actually said, because I can't be bothered, but he should take care that reportage of his speeches does not come out as utter drivel or loose thinking.

Of course Scotland can keep the pound: it just keeps printing out its Scottish pound notes and fixes their rate at 1:1 to the British £. At present the Bank of England holds £1 for every Scottish £ printed. Also it stands by Scottish Banks as lender of last resort. It is these two things which would change, unless we had a currency union.

As to allowing a currency union in return for Scotland permitting our nuclear weapons at Faslane, the suggestion is risible. Why would we want our nukes in a foreign country? Put them in Portsmouth which already has the skilled workforce and traditions to cope.

Scotland would be very unwise either to seek a currency union or simply to adopt the UK£ as its currency because it would result in it being overvalued and causing a recession, such as we see in Southern Europe today, which has had a vastly overvalued currency (the €) for years, caused by political will rather than economic sense. Thousands of Scottish jobs would be lost.

Let's adopt a simple policy. If they go, they go. They can adopt the Japanese yen as their currency for all I care but they get no help when the plan fails.

Cats

The news that cats may be giving TB to humans is disturbing.

When we thought that badgers were spreading TB - even if only to cattle - we had a cull.

The question is whether they should be shot, or gassed in their suburban homes.

The government must act swiftly.

The way we live now

I don't know what you made of the news that aborted embryos in NHS hospitals are thrust into the furnace in order to heat the hospital as part of an energy saving scheme. Perhaps you sighed and reflected that this is the sort of world we have created for ourselves.

For me, and perhaps for many, the idea that this is part of a waste to energy scheme lends it a particular horror, I don't know why.

I suppose there will have to be some enquiry, which won't change anything except in that it will make some people feel better about it.

What I can't listen to, however, is people saying that it shows lack of respect for human remains. These are unborn people whom we as a society have decided to kill because they are inconvenient.

Now that is lack of respect.

Europe

Tomorrow Nigel Farage, head of UKIP and Nick Clegg, head of the Liberal Democrats, will debate Europe. For myself, I don't believe it will be an earth shattering event: the parties are so far apart there can be no synthesis, only an individual restating of existing positions. I suppose the major outcome will be the damage it does to the Tories.

Anyhow, just in time for this event Business for Britain, a Group campaigning for European reform, has come up with some rather interesting research.

Since 1996 Britain has voted against proposals in the Council of Ministers 55 times, but on each occasion that proposal has gone on to become European Law. Our vote has counted for nothing, not even once.

The other shocking aspect to this is that we have only voted 'No' 55 times. There have been a damned sight more than 55 damaging proposals in the last 18 years.

Forward, Nigel.

Dealing with foreigners

It appears that Gennady Timchenko, a Russian oligarch, sold his share in the oil trading company Gunvor the day before the US put him on its blacklist. Naturally the list had been leaked.

The swine. The utter swine. This is the problem with blacklisting Johnny Foreigner, he just doesn't play by the rules. Timchenko should have left his billions where they were and taken it like a man.

But no. He weaselled out.

Shocking.

Ummmm....is there any chance of the West behaving sensibly on Ukraine, admitting we instigated the trouble by supporting a mob which staged an illegal coup against the country's properly elected government, and just letting it go before we suffer any further embarrassment?

Probably not.

St. Patrick's Day

The referendum

I smiled when I read that various Western leaders have described the referendum in the Crimea as 'illegal'.What does the properly elected Ukrainian Head of State say? Given the fact that he is currently in Russia I expect he says 'yes' to it, making it ....er....not illegal.

Of course Britain is allowing a referendum on whether Scotland should remain in the UK, even though the Scots are not ethnically different from their countrymen, do not speak a different language and have much deeper ties to the Union than Crimea has to Ukraine.

And I saw the European Union had condemned it, too. I think President Putin will be giggling here. He will remember that Ireland, having had a referendum, was sent back to the polls twice, because it got the wrong answer, and that when France and Holland voted in referenda against the new constitution, it was changed into a treaty, so there wouldn't be another vote.

Putin hasn't tried any of that in Crimea, he's too honest.

This has been hypocrisy taken to a shocking extent, and we're as bad as the rest of them.

Oxfam

I remember going on a sponsored walk for Oxfam - it must have been a good forty years ago - and I have donated modestly in the years since.

You feel safe giving to Oxfam: its proper name is or was the Oxford Campaign for Famine Relief and you know exactly what it does.

No you don't.

There was a recent case with an actress Scarlett Johanssen who as well as being an Ambassador for Oxfam was in an advert for Sodastream, which is made in ISRAEL. Oxfam had decided to enter the Arab / Israeli dispute on the side of the Palestinian Arabs (I don't know whether Hamas or Fatah) and in the ensuing row Ms Johanssen, to her credit, severed all ties with Oxfam.

Note that Oxfam's involvement in the West Bank was nothing to do with famine relief. It was purely political, the managers taking the money donated by honest folk for the relief of hunger and applying it towards their own political aims. It doesn't matter which side you take yourself, this diversion of funds should outrage you.

Now we read that Oxfam has decided to give its views on the gap between rich and poor - not in Africa, where it is extreme and identifiable as a cause of hunger, but in Britain. It has announced, pompously, that the five richest families in Britain have wealth equivalent to that of the poorest 20%. This is not a complaint that the poorest 20% are suffering from famine (they're not) just that they have perceived a sin (rich people tend to be rich and poor people tend to be poor). They have got involved, as in their Middle East caper, with politics, pure and simple, and using your money to do it.

Personally I shall never donate to Oxfam again.

Tony Benn

Tony Benn has died aged 88, denying a bed in an NHS hospital to someone, unlike him, who couldn't afford to go private.

You will find three sorts of obituaries of him: those from a dwindling few who think he was often right; some from the right of the political spectrum who think he was wrong about everything but one of those originals who spoke his mind which is a good thing (like Stalin, I suppose). The third, and there is a particularly ghastly version of this by Mary Wakefield in the Spectator, falls for his innate charm. Wakefield, whom he clearly twisted round his little finger, thought his philosophy was a belief in the inherent goodness of man.

There's clearly quite a lot that needs to be put right here.

In the '60s and '70s my father, the son of working class parents, was, like a lot of managers then, trying to understand what was going on with the working man, whom he had begun by regarding as his own type. In fact the British worker was the same, it was just that a new politics had entered the workplace and disruption, largely for disruption's sake, was its aim. It was the era of lightning strikes, intimidation and bullying, and Benn pushed this programme as hard as he could.

Benn, by contrast, the son of a cabinet minister, wealthy publisher and viscount, had never had any understanding of the working man and didn't until the day he died: there was a leitmotif of patronisation, which even came out in Mary Wakefield's panegyric where he described a couple of his visits to poor areas (Get me, I'm hanging out with the sans culottes). For Benn, the British workers were Karl Marx's useful idiots, catalysts he could put to use in his political melting pot. Most of them, those who weren't his acolytes, hated him.

And he uses in his act the familiar socialist props. He explained to Wakefield, as if to a child, that Hitler and Mussolini nationalised the banks. He doesn't say that he has been trying all these years to put into practice the policies of Hitler and Mussolini, or, of course, that his policies would leave the British Citizen with as much freedom as the Germans and Italians in the 1930s. He must have looked so cuddly as he was saying it.

Benn opposed the European Union, which you may think a good thing, but he did so because he thought it might stop him from imposing an even worse system on us.

Tony Benn was almost an exclusively bad thing for Britain, and worse because he dressed up his illiberal beliefs as daring candour.

De mortuis.... of the dead let us speak nothing but the truth.

I yield to no one....

It seems that the Boy Band One Direction are encouraging their fans - which consist largely of randy 14 year old girls - to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer demanding he maintain foreign aid and and tighten up on tax avoidance.

Now, I am all in favour of getting kids involved in politics and naturally yield to no one in my admiration for One Direction's .... I think espièglerie is the word .... but this is a tricky one. Doubtless Harry Stiles and the other children have a firm grasp of macroeconomics but in Italy, for example, the new Prime Minister, a trendy leftie, has just realised that the way to get more jobs for people is to cut taxes. But if you publicly encourage tax cuts you lose that smug, one world fair trade image which is so important in the music business: look at Bono.

Probably best to stick to the day job, lads.