Emphasis on safety and security provokes ‘scaremongering’ claim The British Government is considering introducing a national ID card to prevent terrorism and identity theft. The announcement in yesterday’s Queen’s speech has provoked accusations that the Government is scaremongering in the run up to the May general election.

Whether ID cards are a useful way of countering terrorism and fraud is one question. Whether they are an infringement of civil liberties is another. But opposition parties accusing the Government of using scare tactics in an election which Labour is almost guaranteed to win seems a bit pointless. Surely the Tories and the Lib Dems should be finding more creative ways of attacking the Government.

Watching Tory Leader Michael Howard being demolished by Jeremy Paxman on the BBC’s Newsnight programme yesterday was utterly depressing. Will the Tories ever recover from their 97 collapse? Will the Lib Dems ever look like a realistic opposition? Or will we be faced with fewer and fewer people voting Labour every four or five years?

Perhaps the answer is for one of the opposition parties to do something radical.

I interviewed Joe Trippi the other day. He was the man behind the failed Howard Dean presidential bid. Trippi is an inspirational speaker and a passionate web devotee. He believes that only by putting power in the hands of the electorate can an outsider galvanize enough support to mount a credible challenge to the establishment. Of course, Trippi did it online.

When the Dean campaign began, Dean had 432 known supporters. Thirteen months later, that figure had jumped to 650,000. In one year he came from nowhere to become the most credible candidate to challenge Kerry and Edwards–until he finally shot himself in the foot with his infamous scream in Iowa.

The Tories have to move way out to the right in order to be more right wing than Labour. And the Lib Dems don’t stand a chance clinging on to the policies which made Labour unelectable for so many years during the 1980s and 1990s. But either of these parties could capitalize on the huge sense of disillusionment among the British elecorate if they offered a new way (much like New Labour in 97). That way would have to be an end to “top-down”, “we-know-best” politics and the beginning of a more open era of Government — the very thing New Labour promised but failed to deliver.

Telegraph | News | Dolphins ‘save’ swimmers from shark attack I love stories like this. Animal stories are great. But nothing beats “Animals Save Humans!”

Okay, okay. So I changed the title of the blog! Why?

Well, I had toyed with calling this site Englilshman in New York from the get go but something held me back. Now, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that (a) I need a name which sums up who, what and where I am instantly (pdberger just wasn’t doing it for me) and (b) Every post so far has been filed under the title EINY, which must mean something!

More later…

Corky the Kosher Clown – presented by Newgrounds.com I know Colin Powell is doing his best for peace in the Middle East…but I think Corky the Clown has a better chance than any departing Secretary of State! (When you get to the site, click on Watch This Movie.)

Muslims Slay Teen For Breaking Ramadan Fast – By Joseph Grant Swank I came across this wonderful anti-Islamic article on Bushcountry.org by accident but I intend to visit the site religiously from now on.

In his zealous rant about a report from Iran, which said that a teenage boy died after being whipped for breaking the Ramadan fast, Pastor Joseph Grant Swank Jr. laments Islam as a “murdering religion”. Liberal Muslims who defend Islam, he says, “have not studied Islam in its demonic theological context as well as its practical killing mode.”

True, Grant Swank’s Judeo-Christian values do not come close to allowing the state to lash people to death for contravening religious law. Instead, he looks forward to the day when the Lord wil do his dirty work for him, as he illustrates in an October article on homosexuality:

“These times can be extremely frightening — not only from international killers seeking to do us all in, but from those in our midst who flaunt their sin as if it’s today’s righteousness. In due time, the divine wrath will slice through it all — with a fury.”

A look back at some of Grant Swank’s previous Op-Ed’s unearth more caring, sharing Christian values, such as the astounding insight on October 9 that the 2004 Kerry v Bush election shows that “the forces of light against darkness are at their height. Michael the Archangel is pitting holiness strength against Lucifer and the demons of hell.”

God Grant Swank the gift to continue, that I may revel in his words daily!