European Political News

The vocal lobbying of Catholic leaders in Scotland over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill has undoubtedly raised the hackles of many commentators concerning the place of organised religion in public life – specifically the political arena. As a result, the demanding task of creating a durable public discourse for discussing ethics and understanding science has been reduced to voter management and angry counter-assertion.

Which is why cricket is so great? It's one of the only games in the world where you have sufficient time to wander round a field thinking 'why am I doing this?'

Looking back through an old diary I was surprised to discover that my life sometimes runs more in sync with the cadences of the Church’s liturgical calendar than those around me might imagine. In particular, and without any great consciousness about it, I have ended up finishing off and contributing to two books on Easter-related themes in the months of March and April. Right now I’m tidying up an overdue manuscript for Darton Longman and Todd called Threatened with Resurrection, examining the true cost and vocation of peacemaking in the Christian tradition. A couple of years ago I co-edited Consuming Passion, which looked at the way in which the doctrine of the Cross can be abused to excuse or even institutionalise retributive theology and ideas of messianic violence. Neither of these books is exactly controversy free, but they are unlikely to get me drummed out of any ecclesiastical club (because I studiously avoid the gold-studded membership cards) and also because, well, not many people know or care what I think! You need to be someone like the former Anglican Bishop of Durham, Dr David Jenkins, to make those kinds of waves - and with the cultural climate around religion growing both more hostile and more disinterested all at the same time, even that’s getting a bit difficult. Every so often someone repeats the old canard that Dr Jenkins, now retired but never retiring, “doesn’t believe in the resurrection” (he most certainly does, though not in the simplistic way it is usually affirmed or dismissed) or that he “said it was a conjuring trick with bones” (his point was precisely the opposite - namely that the kind of life God offers is not reducible to magic but is about a thoroughgoing transformation in and beyond the material world as we think we know it.) The whole ‘Durham saga’ was over 20 years ago but won’t quite stay buried. Ironic. This year, Easter controversy is thin on the ground so far. There isn’t even a tacky Channel 4 documentary ‘proving’ that the bones of Jesus have been found underneath a pub in Walthamstow. What we have instead is some relatively polite jousting about historical details in the BBC’s dramatisation of The Passion, an altogether less blood-lusting rendition than Mel Gibson’s film noir. It began on 16 March and ends on Easter Sunday. (more…)

I’ve solved this problem. Let us make them follow the precedent of the Ministerial Code of Practice (pdf) introduced by the Blair-Brown government. And the ultimate authority for deciding whether the blogger broke the code should - following this Ministerial precedent - be the blogger themselves. And for any breach, an apology should suffice as remedy. Sorted. That’ll keep our Civil Service Ethical and Sleaze Free. Tags: gordon brown, tony blair, civil serf, ministerial code of ethics, guidelines for ministers, sleaze Previous in series

Yaaay! or Grooooccchhhh! depending on your attitude. Here. Here’s what it is about: Welcome to the Church Times blog. A ‘blog’, for those mystified by the term, is widely regarded as ‘a website where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order’ (Wikipedia). The Church Times blog will be written and drawn by Dave Walker and will feature cartoons, commentary and links. The RSS feed is here. It should also (unless Dave Walker has lost his touch) be both engaging and amusing. I like the cups of coffee on the bloggeration machine. Worth tracking, as it may end up being used for breaking News Stories, as a complement to the website and reaching a different audience. Wordpress it ain’t - rather they are displaying creative use of their website-management system - but the only real problem I can see is that on individual article pages (example) the RSS icon you see in the header actually leads to the News RSS feed not the Blog RSS feed. That requires fixing or there will be some confused people out there. [Update 17:15 pm] Dave Walker confirms that this has now been worked around by adding an extra RSS icon in the blog header bar. A couple of hours since I mentioned it - not a bad response time. You do get a link to the RSS feed on summary pages, however. (Cartoon credit: Cartoonchurch.com) Tags: church times, blog, dave walker

Tom Watson has picked up on my proposed Guidelines for Civil Servants: Matt Wardman has a different take on the issue. Hes saying theres no need for any guidelines. For Matt, the civil service code will suffice. Id be interested to know if current blogging civil servants think that code provides the clarity you need to blog sensibly without fear that youre doing something wrong. I’m arguing for a strongly minimalist approach: 99.9% of Civil Servants are sensible and professional people of integrity. Civil Serf is an exception in not behaving professionally. Exception control for the 0.1% in this case should be by disciplinary action of the 0.1% under the Civil Service Code, not by creating guidelines for the 99.9%. Blogging guidelines are only an unnecessary result of a need to be seen to take dynamic action. A multiplication of guidelines like rabbits will only serve to generate more boundary quarrels, and waste more time in argument about whether the letter of the guidelines has been breached or not. And then there will have to be a review of the guidelines to identify the weak points. And a policy commission to evaluate the results. And then there will be even more guidelines. And they will have to be put under version control, and distributed to all the Intranets etc etc etc sod it go to 5 and continue in circles. In summary - Ockhams Razor just shredded the guidelines. Or the need for them. Just follow the Civil Service Code. And there is a further debate going on in the comments. Involving blogging Civil Servants themselves is an excellent - nay essential - idea. (more…) Previous in series

There are 7 ways I can think of to blog about your employer: Don’t Persuade them to let you. Be anonymous, but not anonymous enough. Ask, and risk a “no”. Be anonymous and notorious. Do it as part of your job. Employ yourself. In this article I describe each option, and my assessment of the pros and cons - where they occur. If you do blog about your employer, any option (except number one) should make your life more “interesting”, for a time at least. (more…) Previous in series Next in series

I reported yesterday that Gallup had just published a the results of a long-term detailed poll about attitudes and values in the Muslim World. Bearing in mind the paucity of reporting of this important survey, I have added a media log to the original article. Tags: who speaks for islam, gallup poll

Gallup has just published a the results of a long-term detailed poll about attitudes and values in the Muslim World, with some research about the recently fraught questions of Sharia Law. This is an interview looking on this morning’s Radio 4 Sunday Programme looking at a poll just done by the Gallup Organisation’s Centre for Muslim Studies. The interview is with Dalia Mogahed, the Centre’s Executive Director, and is about 4 minutes long. Download audio file (20080224-sunday-sharia-law-muslim-world-gallup-poll.mp3) The interview opens with Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali - correctly - refusing to be silenced in the public debate. All views deserve to be heard. The Poll - entitled “Who Speaks for Islam” - involved 50,000 interviews in 35 countries: The result is Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, based on six years of research and more than 50,000 interviews representing 1.3 billion Muslims who reside in more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have sizable Muslim populations. Representing more than 90% of the world’s Muslim community, it makes this poll the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind. … What the data reveal and the authors illuminate may surprise you: * Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable. * Large majorities of Muslims would guarantee free speech if it were up to them to write a new constitution AND they say religious leaders should have no direct role in drafting that constitution. * Muslims around the world say that what they LEAST admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values — the same answers that Americans themselves give when asked this question. * When asked about their dreams for the future, Muslims say they want better jobs and security, not conflict and violence. * Muslims say the most important thing Westerners can do to improve relations with their societies is to change their negative views toward Muslims and respect Islam. Lots of food for thought there for an intelligent and open debate, even if we disagree with some of the conclusions. Press Reports came there none? However, I may have gone blind, but I don’t think I have yet seen any reports on this huge polling exercise in the British Press - just a couple of blog reports and a couple of items in European papers. The British papers are, however, reporting on the Bishop’s assertion (Telegraph, BBC) - even the regional press (Peterborough Today). I find it quite painful that the only British outlet I have seen reporting this is the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (with a book review copied from Middle East Online) - who are hardly mainstream. I hope I’m wrong on this point. If anyone can help with finding British reports - or if you are a blogger and write one - I’ll include any reports you can point out in the article and link back to your blog from the Wardman Wire article. Tags: gallup, who speaks for islam, dilia mogahead, who speaks for islam

I have just spotted that the Egyptian Sandmonkey blog has been back for some time (since August - and may have gone again). Blogrolled, regardless. It was the Sandmonkey who provided a key piece of evidence that the “Motoons” controversy (which has just resurfaced) was - basically - a put up job, and the resulting demonstrations, deaths, embassy burnings and general outrage was essentially down to troublemaking. The Sandmonkey, whose blog is summarised like this: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off. Support the Neo-con American Right-wing Zionist Christian Imperialist Conspiracy in the Middle-east! provided photographs of seven of the Mohammed Cartoons appearing in an Egyptian Newspaper (El Fagr) fully six weeks before the first delegation of Danish Imams visited the Middle East to stir up protest - with very little reaction by comparison. It is notable that there was no campaign mounted to boycott Egypt at the time ! I have been wondering whether to take part in the move to republish the cartoon (of Mohammed with a Bomb in his turban) as a statement of solidarity with the cartoonist who had been the subject of a murder plot. Some may call that statement of solidarity provocative; in my opinion the best way to protect freedom of debate is to debate freely. And it struck me - the picture has been on this blog since last June, as part of an article which was my paean for the Sandmonkey blog when it closed down then. So, if you’re going to be offended by a photograph of a cartoon of Mohammed with a Bomb in his Turban (which I take to refer to the image of Islam projected by terror movements), appearing in a popular Arabic Newspaper in the largest Arab country in the world as an illustration for an article criticizing the cartoons which caused no widespread protests (before various people started fomenting trouble six weeks later) - then don’t click the link; otherwise do. This is the link to the article about the Sandmonkey blog. Tags: egyptian sandmonkey, el fagr, motoons, mohammed cartoons