In a representative democracy with a first past the post system you elect one person as your representative as say MP or councillor. One often hears things like, "Women are under-represented' meaning there are fewer women than men elected. But your representative is there as a human being representing you as a human being. Men may represent women. The imbalance is not a sign of male chauvinism but of the problems peculiar to women in standing as representatives like the time taken up by duties caring for the family. Similarly to say various ethnicities or religions are under-represented assumes wrongly that only a person of a given ethnicity or religion can represent people with those backgrounds. But that is not the way it works. However, when the mix among the representatives differs widely from the mix in the constituency there may be a problem.
I had a look at Ealing Council. I have not as yet looked up the statistics for Eaing's ethnic and religious diversities but there are very diverse populations. From a quick personal survey of the councillors listed in Around Ealing, I estimate 28 out of 69 are British Asian, 41 are white British or Irish.
The estimated religious mix is 8 Muslim, 8 Sikh 11 Hindu and the rest 42 Christian or other religion or none. I do not see any great imbalances here except in a few wards including my own, Perivale,where all three councillors are British Asian with two Muslim and one Hindu. Those diversities or lack them are not a mirror of the Perivale population. Should one be concerned? BTW 23 out of 69 councillors are female.
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
The irony of IS attacking Paris
In the West we have a concept of religion and state which is not found in Muslim thought. Islam they will say is not a religion, something about private belief. It is a comprehensive philosophy of life where the religious and the political are in no way separate. The islamic garment is a seamless robe. So, France is to IS a part of the western crusader enemy. Western and Christian are synonyms in IS thinking. So here is the irony. France is perhaps the most secular, least Christian country in the public square in the whole of Europe. Its revolution was not only against the monarchical, aristocratic regime, but also fiercely anti-clerical. So this most secular of states is the prime target for IS which sees it as a crusader regime. Also it would appear that those who think that abolishing all religion would lead to a better world have no comprehension that Islam is not a mere religion.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Court Ruling on Environment – the New Religion
CCFON reports,'A court ruling, giving an executive the right to sue his employer on the basis thahe was unfairly dismissed for his ‘green views’ has been criticised by the Christian Legal Centre.
In a controversial decision, the judge ruled that ‘environmentalism’ had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, Barrister and Director of CLC said: “When a society loses her cultural Christian heritage she loses her anchors in the law and we end up with social, moral and legal chaos with any and every view competing in the public and legal square for a place.
“This decision has a real irony about it: whilst the Court seems to be simply extending the definition of what is regarded as ‘religion', implying that what is basically a scientific experiment should be respected as much as the historic, community-enhancing and establishment-linked main stream religion, the very same judiciary are failing spectacularly, month by month, in safeguarding the fundamental religious rights of Christians.”
Tim Nicholson, 42 and from Oxford, had told a previous court hearing that his views were so strong that he refused to travel by air and had renovated his house to be environmentally-friendly.
In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change… is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations". The ruling could open the door for employees to sue their companies for failing to account for their green lifestyles, such as providing recycling facilities or offering low-carbon travel.
John Bowers QC, representing Mr Nicholson’s employers, had argued that adherence to climate change theory was "a scientific view rather than a philosophical one", because "philosophy deals with matters that are not capable of scientific proof."
That argument has now been dismissed by Mr Justice Burton, who last year ruled that the environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore was political and partisan.
The decision allows the Employment Tribunal to go ahead, but more importantly, sets a precedent for how environmental beliefs are regarded in English law.
Mr Nicholson hailed the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruling as "a victory for common sense" but stressed climate change was "not a new religion".
He said: "I believe man-made climate change is the most important issue of our time and nothing should stand in the way of diverting this catastrophe.
"This philosophical belief that is based on scientific evidence has now been given the same protection in law as faith-based religious belief.
"Belief in man-made climate change is not a new religion, it is a philosophical belief that reflects my moral and ethical values and is underlined by the overwhelming scientific evidence."
The grounds for Mr Nicholson's case stem from changes to employment law made by Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General, in the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003. The regulations effectively broaden the protection to cover not just religious beliefs or those "similar" to religious beliefs, but philosophical beliefs as well.
On 4 November 2009, Lord Warner spoke in a House of Lords debate referrring to the case. He said:
"This is a major change of ruling by the courts and the BBC might like to ponder that ruling when considering its [religious] programming arrangements. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response."
Andrea Minichiello Williams added: “At a time when the Government is playing politics with religion, society should be able to look to the Courts for balanced, carefully thought-out judgments, not more political correctness”.'
For a long time global warming has been reported as a strong belief, an article of modern faith. Now it is confermed as a new religion. I remain an unbeliever. Life is cyclical in matters of climate.
In a controversial decision, the judge ruled that ‘environmentalism’ had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, Barrister and Director of CLC said: “When a society loses her cultural Christian heritage she loses her anchors in the law and we end up with social, moral and legal chaos with any and every view competing in the public and legal square for a place.
“This decision has a real irony about it: whilst the Court seems to be simply extending the definition of what is regarded as ‘religion', implying that what is basically a scientific experiment should be respected as much as the historic, community-enhancing and establishment-linked main stream religion, the very same judiciary are failing spectacularly, month by month, in safeguarding the fundamental religious rights of Christians.”
Tim Nicholson, 42 and from Oxford, had told a previous court hearing that his views were so strong that he refused to travel by air and had renovated his house to be environmentally-friendly.
In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change… is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations". The ruling could open the door for employees to sue their companies for failing to account for their green lifestyles, such as providing recycling facilities or offering low-carbon travel.
John Bowers QC, representing Mr Nicholson’s employers, had argued that adherence to climate change theory was "a scientific view rather than a philosophical one", because "philosophy deals with matters that are not capable of scientific proof."
That argument has now been dismissed by Mr Justice Burton, who last year ruled that the environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore was political and partisan.
The decision allows the Employment Tribunal to go ahead, but more importantly, sets a precedent for how environmental beliefs are regarded in English law.
Mr Nicholson hailed the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruling as "a victory for common sense" but stressed climate change was "not a new religion".
He said: "I believe man-made climate change is the most important issue of our time and nothing should stand in the way of diverting this catastrophe.
"This philosophical belief that is based on scientific evidence has now been given the same protection in law as faith-based religious belief.
"Belief in man-made climate change is not a new religion, it is a philosophical belief that reflects my moral and ethical values and is underlined by the overwhelming scientific evidence."
The grounds for Mr Nicholson's case stem from changes to employment law made by Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General, in the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003. The regulations effectively broaden the protection to cover not just religious beliefs or those "similar" to religious beliefs, but philosophical beliefs as well.
On 4 November 2009, Lord Warner spoke in a House of Lords debate referrring to the case. He said:
"This is a major change of ruling by the courts and the BBC might like to ponder that ruling when considering its [religious] programming arrangements. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response."
Andrea Minichiello Williams added: “At a time when the Government is playing politics with religion, society should be able to look to the Courts for balanced, carefully thought-out judgments, not more political correctness”.'
For a long time global warming has been reported as a strong belief, an article of modern faith. Now it is confermed as a new religion. I remain an unbeliever. Life is cyclical in matters of climate.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Religion - christiansquoting.org.uk
Don't need a new religion, haven't used the old one up yet.
I am, therefore, of opinion that men ought, (after they have examined with unbiased judgments every system of religion, and chosen one system, on their own authority, for themselves,) to avow their opinions and defend them with boldness.-- John Adams Diary Mar. 7, 1756; 'Works' II, p8
Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky, but the stars are there, and will reappear. --Carlyle
One sees a trend in our political and legal cultures toward treating religious beliefs as arbitrary and unimportant, a trend supported by a rhetoric that implies that there is something wrong with religious devotion. -- Stephen L. Carter, _The Culture of Disbelief_, 1993
...religion is the only firm foothold of all power; that cast loose or depraved, no government can be stable; for when was there ever obedience when religion did not teach it? - Charles I to Queen Henrietta Maria in Jemes Barbary, Puritan and Cavalier, p.174
It is rather ridiculous to ask a man just about to be boiled in a pot and eaten, at a purely religious feast, why he does not regard all religions as equally friendly and fraternal. G K Chesterton _The Everlasting Man_, 1925
Americans increasingly prefer to be described as "spiritual," rather than "religious." There is a telling difference here: the word "religion" comes from the Latin word religiari, for "binding," and that's the last thing we want our faith to do to us. - BreakPoint with Charles Colson Commentary #011109 - 11/09/2001
Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but live for it. --Caleb C. Colton
There is in me, as there is in men everwhere to-day, a hunger for a positive faith that will..."satisfy the soul of the saint without disgusting the intellect of the scholar". Though neither a saint nor a scholar, I have this hunger because I belong to this generation and this is the modern religious hunger. There is something in me that holds me fascinated at a street corner listening to a Salvation Army exhorter, despite my inner revolt against his inadequate conception of life and religion. --Glenn Frank, 1923
If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it?--Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
[By the end of the '70s, many people] hungered for religion's sweets, but rejected religion's discipline; wanted its help in trouble, but not he strictures that might have kept them out of trouble; expected its ecstasy, but rejected its ethics; demanded salvation, but rejected the harsh, antique dichotomy of right and wrong. --David Frum, _How We Got Here: The 70s--The Decade That Brought You Modern Life, For Better or Worse_
Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.- Mahatma Gandhi
Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning. - William H. Gates III
This life is just a testing ground. It's not a popular view, I know. People will.say that I'm sort of a mindless robot who's using religion as a crutch to get through life. Well, I'm not a mindless robot, but I am using [religion] as a crutch to get through life. ~Mel Gibson
And then there was another question. I had met Christ, but what kind of a Christian had I become? Was I a Protestant, or a Catholic? I avoided that question like the plague. I just didn't know, and I didn't dare ask. Years later when we were living in Geneva, my son was born and I had to register his birth. As I filled in the forms I came to the question 'Protestant ou Catholic'? I replied 'Chrétien' &endash; 'Christian'. 'But,' said the Registrar, 'that doesn't exist &endash; the computer won't accept it!' I went to my Pastor, who explained about Henry VIII and the birth of the Protestant movement. But I couldn't reconcile any of that with what I read in the Bible! After three days of arguing with the Registrar, the deadline approached and she gave in. 'Look, Monsieur Gidoomal, I've created a separate box here - it's marked "Chrétien" and we've even changed the computer programme!'- Ram Gidoomal "Karma, Politics and the Holy Spirit" - A Review of the CPA's Future, Address to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Group, Saturday June 19th 2004 Friends House, Euston
Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion. James Harrington (1611-1677)
Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion. - Falsely attributed to L. Ronald Hubbard say his followers, however see http://dlindsay.best.vwh.net/scientology/start.a.religion.faq for other evidence.
The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have been flown for religious ideals. -William James
The very strength and facility of the pessimists' case at once poses us a problem. If the universe is so bad, or even half so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator? Men are fools, perhaps; but hardly so foolish as that. The direct inference from black to white, from evil flower to virtuous root, from senseless work to a workman infinitely wise, staggers belief. The spectacle of the universe as revealed by experience can never have been the ground of religion: it must have always been something in spite of which religion, acquired from a different source, was held.... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Problem of Pain
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt. Niccolo Machiavelli
As the observance of divine institutions is the cause of the greatness of republics, so the disregard of them produces their ruin; for where the fear of God is wanting, there the country will come to ruin, unless it be sustained the fear of the prince, which temporarily supply the want of religion.
Machiavelli, _Discourses_, 1519
Since I have known God in a saving manner, painting, poetry, and music have had charms unknown to me before. I have either received what I suppose is a taste for them, or religion has refined my mind, and made it susceptible of new impressions from the sublime and beautiful. O, how religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those pleasures which keep so many from God by their being a source of pride! -- Henry Martyn
Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. - Karl Marx
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children are smart. H. L. Mencken
To be political is to be religious, i.e. to acknowledge a god as the source of ultimate authority over the nation.The kingdom of God grows by means of the preaching of the gospel. Nonetheless, the object of this war is the conquest of 'nations', as Christ made clear in his Great Commission. Stephen Perks ,'Christianity As A Political Faith' 'Christianity & Society', April 2004
There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.-- Anna Sewell (1820-1878): "Black Beauty," 1877.
Whenever a man talks loudly against religion,-always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions which have got the better of his creed.--- Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy.
Religion holds the solution to all problems of human relationship, whether they are between parents and children or nation and nation. Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God. A. J. Toynbee
I am, therefore, of opinion that men ought, (after they have examined with unbiased judgments every system of religion, and chosen one system, on their own authority, for themselves,) to avow their opinions and defend them with boldness.-- John Adams Diary Mar. 7, 1756; 'Works' II, p8
Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky, but the stars are there, and will reappear. --Carlyle
One sees a trend in our political and legal cultures toward treating religious beliefs as arbitrary and unimportant, a trend supported by a rhetoric that implies that there is something wrong with religious devotion. -- Stephen L. Carter, _The Culture of Disbelief_, 1993
...religion is the only firm foothold of all power; that cast loose or depraved, no government can be stable; for when was there ever obedience when religion did not teach it? - Charles I to Queen Henrietta Maria in Jemes Barbary, Puritan and Cavalier, p.174
It is rather ridiculous to ask a man just about to be boiled in a pot and eaten, at a purely religious feast, why he does not regard all religions as equally friendly and fraternal. G K Chesterton _The Everlasting Man_, 1925
Americans increasingly prefer to be described as "spiritual," rather than "religious." There is a telling difference here: the word "religion" comes from the Latin word religiari, for "binding," and that's the last thing we want our faith to do to us. - BreakPoint with Charles Colson Commentary #011109 - 11/09/2001
Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but live for it. --Caleb C. Colton
There is in me, as there is in men everwhere to-day, a hunger for a positive faith that will..."satisfy the soul of the saint without disgusting the intellect of the scholar". Though neither a saint nor a scholar, I have this hunger because I belong to this generation and this is the modern religious hunger. There is something in me that holds me fascinated at a street corner listening to a Salvation Army exhorter, despite my inner revolt against his inadequate conception of life and religion. --Glenn Frank, 1923
If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it?--Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
[By the end of the '70s, many people] hungered for religion's sweets, but rejected religion's discipline; wanted its help in trouble, but not he strictures that might have kept them out of trouble; expected its ecstasy, but rejected its ethics; demanded salvation, but rejected the harsh, antique dichotomy of right and wrong. --David Frum, _How We Got Here: The 70s--The Decade That Brought You Modern Life, For Better or Worse_
Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.- Mahatma Gandhi
Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning. - William H. Gates III
This life is just a testing ground. It's not a popular view, I know. People will.say that I'm sort of a mindless robot who's using religion as a crutch to get through life. Well, I'm not a mindless robot, but I am using [religion] as a crutch to get through life. ~Mel Gibson
And then there was another question. I had met Christ, but what kind of a Christian had I become? Was I a Protestant, or a Catholic? I avoided that question like the plague. I just didn't know, and I didn't dare ask. Years later when we were living in Geneva, my son was born and I had to register his birth. As I filled in the forms I came to the question 'Protestant ou Catholic'? I replied 'Chrétien' &endash; 'Christian'. 'But,' said the Registrar, 'that doesn't exist &endash; the computer won't accept it!' I went to my Pastor, who explained about Henry VIII and the birth of the Protestant movement. But I couldn't reconcile any of that with what I read in the Bible! After three days of arguing with the Registrar, the deadline approached and she gave in. 'Look, Monsieur Gidoomal, I've created a separate box here - it's marked "Chrétien" and we've even changed the computer programme!'- Ram Gidoomal "Karma, Politics and the Holy Spirit" - A Review of the CPA's Future, Address to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Group, Saturday June 19th 2004 Friends House, Euston
Every man, either to his terror or consolation, has some sense of religion. James Harrington (1611-1677)
Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion. - Falsely attributed to L. Ronald Hubbard say his followers, however see http://dlindsay.best.vwh.net/scientology/start.a.religion.faq for other evidence.
The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have been flown for religious ideals. -William James
The very strength and facility of the pessimists' case at once poses us a problem. If the universe is so bad, or even half so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator? Men are fools, perhaps; but hardly so foolish as that. The direct inference from black to white, from evil flower to virtuous root, from senseless work to a workman infinitely wise, staggers belief. The spectacle of the universe as revealed by experience can never have been the ground of religion: it must have always been something in spite of which religion, acquired from a different source, was held.... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Problem of Pain
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt. Niccolo Machiavelli
As the observance of divine institutions is the cause of the greatness of republics, so the disregard of them produces their ruin; for where the fear of God is wanting, there the country will come to ruin, unless it be sustained the fear of the prince, which temporarily supply the want of religion.
Machiavelli, _Discourses_, 1519
Since I have known God in a saving manner, painting, poetry, and music have had charms unknown to me before. I have either received what I suppose is a taste for them, or religion has refined my mind, and made it susceptible of new impressions from the sublime and beautiful. O, how religion secures the heightened enjoyment of those pleasures which keep so many from God by their being a source of pride! -- Henry Martyn
Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. - Karl Marx
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children are smart. H. L. Mencken
To be political is to be religious, i.e. to acknowledge a god as the source of ultimate authority over the nation.The kingdom of God grows by means of the preaching of the gospel. Nonetheless, the object of this war is the conquest of 'nations', as Christ made clear in his Great Commission. Stephen Perks ,'Christianity As A Political Faith' 'Christianity & Society', April 2004
There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham.-- Anna Sewell (1820-1878): "Black Beauty," 1877.
Whenever a man talks loudly against religion,-always suspect that it is not his reason, but his passions which have got the better of his creed.--- Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy.
Religion holds the solution to all problems of human relationship, whether they are between parents and children or nation and nation. Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God. A. J. Toynbee
Sunday, August 17, 2008
It feels like Christians are being discriminated against
..... the multiculturalizing of the law has given rise to a steady stream of conflicting judgments that appear to display bias against traditional British culture. To give but one example, last year, Lydia Playfoot, 16, lost her high court battle to be allowed to wear, at school, a Christian chastity ring, which she viewed as emblematic of her faith, and her commitment – as a Christian – to refrain from pre-marital sex. Recently Sarika Singh, 14, won her high court case to be allowed to wear a silver bangle, at her school, as part of her Sikh faith. Miss Playfoot’s told the BBC, after losing her case, “At my school Muslims are allowed to wear headscarves and other faiths can wear bangles and other types of jewelry and it feels like Christians are being discriminated against.” And this sense of discrimination by the authorities is becoming widespread among the indigenous population of Britain.-A. Millar Fractured Society: The UK, the Relativity of Law, and a New Bill of Rightsr , 2008-08-15 http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3461
Friday, April 20, 2007
Thought for the day on BBC Radio 4's Today programme
The humanist moaners are at it again wanting a slot for their non-religion. Sadly in discussing this the supposedly Christian spokesman from Ekklesia failed to point out the obvious. 99.99% of BBC output is from a secular humanist perspective.
I agree that this slot need reforming. Firstly there is only one regular speaker who consistently hits the mark., Anne Atkins. Joel Edwards and Elaine Storkey disappoint. The rest of the professed Christians are pretty liberal. The chief rabbi is good from the Jewish voice. Lionel Blue is better as a teller of funny stories than anything to do with faith. As for the rest there is gross over-representation of non-Christian religions. These are small minorities in our population. England is constitutionally Christian. It is time the BBC realised it.
I agree that this slot need reforming. Firstly there is only one regular speaker who consistently hits the mark., Anne Atkins. Joel Edwards and Elaine Storkey disappoint. The rest of the professed Christians are pretty liberal. The chief rabbi is good from the Jewish voice. Lionel Blue is better as a teller of funny stories than anything to do with faith. As for the rest there is gross over-representation of non-Christian religions. These are small minorities in our population. England is constitutionally Christian. It is time the BBC realised it.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Can you trust the Grauniad?
"More people in Britain think religion causes harm than believe it does good, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows that an overwhelming majority see religion as a cause of division and tension - greatly outnumbering the smaller majority who also believe that it can be a force for good." - so says the liberal newspaper. But can you trust journalists who cannot even use the words majority and minority correctly? If one is to take their polling seriously one needs to know what questions were asked. We are not told. Asking about generic religion is a generalisation too far. The Guardian may not know there is such diversity as to render generalisation worthless.
This evening I saw the hard copy. Still no complete list of questions. We did though have a typically Guardian leader with secularism the chosen solution for our problems. This is simply unconstitutional in our country and contradicted by a later editorial praising the West Yorkshire town of Saltaire. Saltaire is not what it is because of Hockney, but because of Titus Salt, a Congregationalist philanthropic mill owner. No secularism there but some Christian paternalism.
This evening I saw the hard copy. Still no complete list of questions. We did though have a typically Guardian leader with secularism the chosen solution for our problems. This is simply unconstitutional in our country and contradicted by a later editorial praising the West Yorkshire town of Saltaire. Saltaire is not what it is because of Hockney, but because of Titus Salt, a Congregationalist philanthropic mill owner. No secularism there but some Christian paternalism.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Books read in March (7)
1. Hunter Davies' Lists: An Intriguing Collection of Facts and Figures
by Hunter Davies
A great collection of trivia which could serve as a good sourcebook for quiz masters. Fun to read and to tax your friends with . Find out when the bra was invented. Enjoy last words and strange epitaphs.
One small criticism. Some of the items will date quickly so read now.
2. Earthly Powers: The Conflict Between Religion and Politics from the French Revolution to the Great War
by Michael Burleigh
A fine history of religion in Europe from the horrors of th French Revolution to those of the trenches of the first World War and its influence on politics, particularly the rise of nationalism.
He writes well and with great breadth of learning. You need to have a dictionary to hand. He is no bland academic pretending to an objective neutrality. He is scathingly critical of received Marxist views of history.
He concentrates on the big players, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and Italy. Presumably he sees these as the significant participants. This I believe leads to one glaring omission, The Netherlands, and the Protestants there who gave the best critique of the Enligtenment and the revolution it produced. Groen van Prinsterer and Abraham Kuyper are never mentioned. Their Anti-Revolutionary Party whose ground breaking alliance with the Catholics led to Kuyper becoming Prime Minister is ignored. Yet the influence of Kuyper continues today beyong his home country. By contrast Burleigh tells us about many people seemingly forgotten by all.
One final minor quibble. Describing English dissenters as going form being sects to churches sounds to me like Anglican prejudice unless the author thinks that sects grow into churches when they enlarge.
But this is a superb history to impove one's understanding of European history.
3. Disraeli by Edgar Feuchtwanger
The first book I read in this series was on Oliver Cromwell. There the book was dealing with a man whose reputation has always been a matter of controversy for he bestrides the history of his age like a colossus.
Disraeli is one of the two great Prime Minister's of the Victorian age but he is no Cromwell. If anything he remains in the shadow of his nemesis, Gladstone. As well as being of different parties, they were me of great contrasts in terms of origins as well as principles. This book is more of a short biography rather than an analysis of a controverted reputation.
Having read this biography,one may conclude that Dizzy's one guiding principle was his own career.He had been baptised in infancy but his adherance to Christianity seems to be one of convenience. If he had stayed with his origins he could not have been an MP let alone become PM. he had to fight anti-semitic prejudice so his rise is remarkable. He did not have the education or family finances of Gladstone. He did not have his passion for Christian faith either. His espousal of the low church and Evangelicals seems to be more an oppostion to Gladsone's Tractarianism more than principle. So in the rest of life, Dizzy seems the supreme political pragmatist, wheeling and dealing to keep solvent and rise up to the top of the slippery pole.
He started out as a novelist. As a writer he is certainly a better seller than the turgid and prolix Gladstone whose writng was theological rather than fiction. As a speaker he does not have the Grand Old Man's reputation but he was certainly a telling debater.
He married for money but enjoyed a happy union with a wife who could be embarrassing. He certainly had a happy relationship with his queen. Flattery he laid on with a trowel making her Empress of India.
A remarkable man. A great Victorian and perhaps the first really pragmatic politician.
4. The Great Plague in London in 1665 by Walter George Bell
In 1665 London probably has a population of half a million. It is likely that 20% perished in the plague. That is deaths equivalent to over three times the population of England's second leargest city of the time, Norwich. The rich fled with king and court. Ordinary people stayed and died at the rate of up to 1000 a week. Insanitary conditions and total ignorance of the cause of plague helped it spread. The heroes were the ministers recently ejected from the Church of England who steyed to care for the sufferers.
This is an horritic account of times hard to imagine in their tregedy. Lots of figures and not really a gripping read . This was worse than the blitz, pandemic flu or AIDS.
5. Cassell's Humorous Quotations - Nigel Rees
Qutations are my hobby as you can see at http://www.christiansquoting.org.uk
This is the best book of humorous quotations I have come across., much better than Oxford's offerring. Rees is well known from Quote Unquote and a lot from that programme finds its way here in both the quotes and the footnotes. I have never come across a quotations book with such an overload of food and quote disease. The notes are often many times longer than the quotes. That is actually helpful as the history of a quote is ofter given in detail. Most highl recommended.
6. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
I really enjoyed this account of a family that by Afghan standards seems well to do. What hit me was the devastation that the country has suffered and the totally male dominated family life portrayed.
It is not without a certain appeal to a male of chauvinistic patriarchal tendencies, but who would want to be an Afghan woman?
They suffered most terribly under the Taliban but still their life is portrayed as one without anything a Western person would recognise as freedom, especially in the most important thing in a woman's
life, the choice of a husband. Young girls are married off to old men as second or third wives, often for mercenary motivation. Male honour is everything. Woe betide the girl who does not show the
bloody proof of her viginity on the wedding night. Death may result from sexual impropriety. No going out unless covered head to toe and accompanied by a male relative. Women valued only for
child bearing and caring for the men's demands. An older first wife is not treated equitably by her husband.
Here the head of the house is king. No-one crosses him. If they do they are shunned or punished. The concepts of mercy or forgiveness seem foreign to the bookseller. His treatment of the carpenter
who steals from him is brutal. His family seem to fear, never love him.
I hope to visit friends in Kabul this year. I trust I will find some happier Afghan families.
This book is well written but saddening. One feels for what unchallenged Islam has done in this society.
7. The Age of Empire, 1875-1914 ~E.J. Hobsbawm
The third in this series by the Marxist historian. He is not a gripping writer of history.
by Hunter Davies
A great collection of trivia which could serve as a good sourcebook for quiz masters. Fun to read and to tax your friends with . Find out when the bra was invented. Enjoy last words and strange epitaphs.
One small criticism. Some of the items will date quickly so read now.
2. Earthly Powers: The Conflict Between Religion and Politics from the French Revolution to the Great War
by Michael Burleigh
A fine history of religion in Europe from the horrors of th French Revolution to those of the trenches of the first World War and its influence on politics, particularly the rise of nationalism.
He writes well and with great breadth of learning. You need to have a dictionary to hand. He is no bland academic pretending to an objective neutrality. He is scathingly critical of received Marxist views of history.
He concentrates on the big players, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and Italy. Presumably he sees these as the significant participants. This I believe leads to one glaring omission, The Netherlands, and the Protestants there who gave the best critique of the Enligtenment and the revolution it produced. Groen van Prinsterer and Abraham Kuyper are never mentioned. Their Anti-Revolutionary Party whose ground breaking alliance with the Catholics led to Kuyper becoming Prime Minister is ignored. Yet the influence of Kuyper continues today beyong his home country. By contrast Burleigh tells us about many people seemingly forgotten by all.
One final minor quibble. Describing English dissenters as going form being sects to churches sounds to me like Anglican prejudice unless the author thinks that sects grow into churches when they enlarge.
But this is a superb history to impove one's understanding of European history.
3. Disraeli by Edgar Feuchtwanger
The first book I read in this series was on Oliver Cromwell. There the book was dealing with a man whose reputation has always been a matter of controversy for he bestrides the history of his age like a colossus.
Disraeli is one of the two great Prime Minister's of the Victorian age but he is no Cromwell. If anything he remains in the shadow of his nemesis, Gladstone. As well as being of different parties, they were me of great contrasts in terms of origins as well as principles. This book is more of a short biography rather than an analysis of a controverted reputation.
Having read this biography,one may conclude that Dizzy's one guiding principle was his own career.He had been baptised in infancy but his adherance to Christianity seems to be one of convenience. If he had stayed with his origins he could not have been an MP let alone become PM. he had to fight anti-semitic prejudice so his rise is remarkable. He did not have the education or family finances of Gladstone. He did not have his passion for Christian faith either. His espousal of the low church and Evangelicals seems to be more an oppostion to Gladsone's Tractarianism more than principle. So in the rest of life, Dizzy seems the supreme political pragmatist, wheeling and dealing to keep solvent and rise up to the top of the slippery pole.
He started out as a novelist. As a writer he is certainly a better seller than the turgid and prolix Gladstone whose writng was theological rather than fiction. As a speaker he does not have the Grand Old Man's reputation but he was certainly a telling debater.
He married for money but enjoyed a happy union with a wife who could be embarrassing. He certainly had a happy relationship with his queen. Flattery he laid on with a trowel making her Empress of India.
A remarkable man. A great Victorian and perhaps the first really pragmatic politician.
4. The Great Plague in London in 1665 by Walter George Bell
In 1665 London probably has a population of half a million. It is likely that 20% perished in the plague. That is deaths equivalent to over three times the population of England's second leargest city of the time, Norwich. The rich fled with king and court. Ordinary people stayed and died at the rate of up to 1000 a week. Insanitary conditions and total ignorance of the cause of plague helped it spread. The heroes were the ministers recently ejected from the Church of England who steyed to care for the sufferers.
This is an horritic account of times hard to imagine in their tregedy. Lots of figures and not really a gripping read . This was worse than the blitz, pandemic flu or AIDS.
5. Cassell's Humorous Quotations - Nigel Rees
Qutations are my hobby as you can see at http://www.christiansquoting.org.uk
This is the best book of humorous quotations I have come across., much better than Oxford's offerring. Rees is well known from Quote Unquote and a lot from that programme finds its way here in both the quotes and the footnotes. I have never come across a quotations book with such an overload of food and quote disease. The notes are often many times longer than the quotes. That is actually helpful as the history of a quote is ofter given in detail. Most highl recommended.
6. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
I really enjoyed this account of a family that by Afghan standards seems well to do. What hit me was the devastation that the country has suffered and the totally male dominated family life portrayed.
It is not without a certain appeal to a male of chauvinistic patriarchal tendencies, but who would want to be an Afghan woman?
They suffered most terribly under the Taliban but still their life is portrayed as one without anything a Western person would recognise as freedom, especially in the most important thing in a woman's
life, the choice of a husband. Young girls are married off to old men as second or third wives, often for mercenary motivation. Male honour is everything. Woe betide the girl who does not show the
bloody proof of her viginity on the wedding night. Death may result from sexual impropriety. No going out unless covered head to toe and accompanied by a male relative. Women valued only for
child bearing and caring for the men's demands. An older first wife is not treated equitably by her husband.
Here the head of the house is king. No-one crosses him. If they do they are shunned or punished. The concepts of mercy or forgiveness seem foreign to the bookseller. His treatment of the carpenter
who steals from him is brutal. His family seem to fear, never love him.
I hope to visit friends in Kabul this year. I trust I will find some happier Afghan families.
This book is well written but saddening. One feels for what unchallenged Islam has done in this society.
7. The Age of Empire, 1875-1914 ~E.J. Hobsbawm
The third in this series by the Marxist historian. He is not a gripping writer of history.
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