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Butthurt barrister threatens Charlie Hebdo with Int. Criminal Court for Aylan Kurdi toons

Posted on by Jimmy Nicholls
Je Suis Charlie, January 2015 by Thierry Ehrmann

Censorship fans lined up to condemn French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for a set of cartoons mocking the West’s response to the ongoing migration crisis.

Peter Herbert, chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, threatened to take the magazine to the International Criminal Court over two cartoons featuring Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian toddler whose corpse was photographed after it washed onto the shores of Turkey.

Whilst Herbert has an OBE it clearly is unrelated to services in understanding the meaning of cartoons, since both of the Charlie Hebdo pieces in question attack the West rather than the migrants.

Charlie Hebdo Aylan Kurdi cartoons

Source: Charlie Hebdo via Blazing Cat Fur

The image on the left roughly reads: “The proof that Europe is Christian. Christians walk on water. Muslim children sink.”

This references several Eastern European leaders who have opposed refugees because they are Muslim, the east of the continent being more homogenous than the likes of France, Germany or Britain.

The image on the right roughly reads: “So near the goal.” And the billboard reads: “Promotion! Two children’s meals for the price of one.”

Far from attacking Kurdi or the Syrian refugees, this is intended to attack Western consumerism in the face of refugees’ suffering, Charlie Hebdo being staffed by a number of committed socialists.

Maajid Nawaz, founding chair of anti-extremist group the Quilliam Foundation, wrote on Facebook:

“Fellow Muslims, please, if you don’t get satire just ask someone before assuming an intelligent left-wing satirical magazine isn’t satire. Taste is always in the eye of the beholder. But these cartoons are a damning indictment on our anti-refugee sentiment.”

This didn’t stop a number of ignoramuses misinterpreting the cartoon, in turn vindicating the work of Charlie Hebdo, which has attacked everything from Catholicism to sexism to the West to Islam, the latter of which resulted in a gun attack on the magazine’s Paris office in January, killing many of the most prominent cartoonists.

Image Credit – Je Suis Charlie, January 2015 by Thierry Ehrmann

Podcast

Podcast Ep. 14: Refugees Welcome, Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn and Queen Lizzie’s Record Reign

Posted on by The Podcast
TRD Ep 14 collage, Solidarity with Refugees; Jeremy Corbyn; Queen Elizabeth

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Refugees, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Queen Elizabeth II are the subjects of this week’s podcast of mildly informed and moderately offensive political discussion.

Following on from Saturday’s Solidarity with Refugees march in London, the Right Dishonourable discuss our thoughts on the emerging refugee crisis in Europe and Britain’s response to it.

We then turn their attention to the revolution in the Labour party as Jeremy Corbyn wins the leadership, Tom Watson the deputy leadership and Sadiq Khan the ticket to run for London mayor.

Rounding off, we discuss Lizzie Windsor’s impressive ability to remain alive in the most advanced age of medicine in human history, as well as why Jimmy would like to dethrone her and why Jazza remains a staunch supporter.

Image Credits – Solidarity with Refugees, September 2015; Jeremy Corbyn at Stop the War, February 2007 by David Martyn Hunt; Queen Elizabeth, June 2006 by Michael Gwyther-Jones. Editing by the Right Dishonourable

Blog

Tony Abbott loses Aussie premiership in Liberal party ousting

Posted on by Jimmy Nicholls
Tony Abbott caricature by DonkeyHotey

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott is to resign the premiership of Australia after he was ousted as Liberal leader following an internal party coup.

Malcolm Turnbull, former communications minister in Abbott’s cabinet, beat former prime minister 54 votes to 44 in a ballot over leadership of the Liberals, Australia’s centre-right party, on Monday.

Turnbull had challenged Abbott to the ballot following prime minister’s questions, in the culmination to months of squabbling within the party and damning opinion polls for the Liberal leader.

Julie Bishop, the deputy leader of the Liberals, will remain on as deputy following a similar vote.

Explaining his decision to challenge the (now former) prime minister before the vote, Turnbull said:

“It is clear enough that the government is not successful in providing the economic leadership that we need. It is not the fault of individual ministers, ultimately the prime minister has not been capable of providing the economic leadership our nation needs; he has not been capable of providing the economic confidence that business needs.”

He went on the attack the opposition and Australian Labor leader Bill Shorten for his opposition to the Chinese-Australia free trade agreement, which Shorten had described as a “dud deal”.

Taking to Twitter to attack Turnbull’s coup, the Labor press team said that Australia did not need “another out of touch, arrogant, Liberal leader.”

The Abbott coup marks the second time in less than four years that an Australian prime minister has been ousted in an internal party squabble, former Labor prime minister Julia Gillard having been deposed by Kevin Rudd in 2013, who subsequently lost a general election to Abbott later that year.

In mocking tributes to Abbott Australians took to Twitter to post pictures of onions, a reference to cricketer Phillip Hughes – whose death during a game last year led to people posting pictures of cricket bats online – and a picture of Abbott from earlier this year eating a raw onion.

Image Credit – Tony Abbott caricature by DonkeyHotey

Blog

Trouble looms for Hillary Clinton coronation as Bernie Sanders leapfrogs Democrat frontrunner

Posted on by Jimmy Nicholls
Democrat presidential candidates, August 2015 by DonkeyHotey

Socialist Bernie Sanders is weakening the iron grip of Hillary Clinton on the Democratic presidential candidacy as data showed him proving more population than her in New Hampshire and Iowa.

YouGov polling for American broadcaster CBS had Sanders 22 points ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire and ten points ahead in Iowa for preferred Democratic candidate, with both states being early to vote in Democratic primaries to decide who will take the party’s ticket to run for the White House.

Democratic presidential candidate polling early states by YouGov

Consolingly for Clinton, who at a 44 percent polling average is still well ahead of Sanders nationally, her lead was retained in South Carolina, which YouGov noted had a “significant minority population” among Democratic voters compared to the other two states.

Yet even there her position appears to be threatened by vice president Joe Biden, who is polling strongly despite equivocation over whether he will actually run for the top job in the United States.

On the Republican side of things Donald “the Trumpster” Trump is still merrily chugging ahead of his more sophisticated opponents in New Hampshire and South Carolina, but has been overtaken by neurosurgeon Ben Carson, another outsider candidate.

Republican presidential candidates in early states by YouGov, September 2015

Trump’s campaign is proving to be one of the most disruptive in postwar American politics, pushing aside mainstream Republican politicians including Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, all of whom have been viewed as more likely prospects to enter the White House.

Whilst many commentators are continuing to dismiss Trump’s campaign, insisting Republicans will opt for a more sensible choice closer to the November 2016 polling day, outsiders are shaking up politics throughout democracies in Europe.

Only on Saturday, hard leftist Jeremy Corbyn emerged from obscurity to take the Labour leadership in Britain, whilst Marine Le Pen’s Front National in France and Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza in Greece have already rewritten political norms in their respective countries.

YouGov’s polling is based on thousands of online interviews with registered voters across the states involved, with respondents weighted to be representative of the overall voter demographic, more details of which can be found here.

Image Credit – Democrat presidential candidates, August 2015 by DonkeyHotey

Blog

Unions prepare for squabble with Tories over anti-strike Trade Union Bill

Posted on by Jimmy Nicholls
End Austerity Now Protest, June 2015 by John Servante

British unions are preparing for a political battle with the Tories on Monday as the Commons begins to debate a controversial bill that could limit workers’ ability to strike.

Provisions from the Trade Union Bill will demand higher voting thresholds from unions before a strike, reduce unions’ ability to picket and allow use of agency staff to cover strikes.

Under the plans half of ballot-holders must vote in a poll for it to be valid, and 40 percent of eligible voters must back a strike in “key health, education, fire, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning sectors” before such action can go ahead.

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, a club for unions, will tell its annual conference on Monday:

“If an employer believed we couldn’t strike, they wouldn’t bother to bargain. We wouldn’t have safe workplaces, we wouldn’t have paid holidays and we wouldn’t have equal pay.”

She will add:

“Nobody would deny that strikes can be inconvenient. But when it comes to a threat to the fundamental right to strike, the public are with us. Because that’s exactly what this government is doing. Attacking the very principle of the right to strike.”

Her comments were backed up by a number of trade unionist leaders, including Unite’s Len McCluskey and PCS’s Mark Serwotka, both of whom have threatened union action to rebut the Trade Union Bill.

“We have the ability to stop austerity in its tracks, to topple this government and to ensure we get a fairer society,” Serwotka told the Telegraph, the unionist having been controversially barred from voting in the Labour leadership contest over infiltration fears.

Tensions between unionists and the Tories are at a peak after the general election returned a surprise majority the Conservatives, who now lack the taming influence of the Liberal Democrats.

Evidence for this emerged as Vince Cable, former Lib Dem business secretary and Twickenham MP, who told the BBC last week:

“I worry now that the Tories are off the leash they can purse their ideological agenda and will do a lot of harm. They are very political. They see the trade unions and the Labour party as the enemy and the question is how do you weaken them? That is the starting point.”

Over the last few years London has been disrupted by Tube strikes that temporarily closed the underground rail service, the latest taking place in July.

However recent research from Oxford University has suggested that commuters found better ways to get to work after being forced to change their routes in a strike in February 2014, paradoxically benefiting the economy and transport system.

Defending the Trade Union Bill, employment minister Nick Boles said:

“Working people need to know they can get on with their lives without unjustified disruption. These modernising reforms will ensure strikes only happen as a result of a clear, positive and recent decision by those entitled to vote.”

Image Credit – End Austerity Now Protest, June 2015