[new puritan]

Ed's got a new book out. Sounds good.

In a similar vein is Ed West's The Diversity Illusion, which at least has the benefit of being a more brazen and breezily written polemic. It is, however, even more flawed, both in its often-daft analysis and sweeping approach to facts. To pluck a few at random, the author insists that most Tory voters still agree with Enoch Powell, millions of Britons would question the right to contraception, and young Muslims are radicalised by dealing with white liberal academics.

West's arguments are repeatedly undermined by reality. For instance, he points to three London boroughs to prove that diversity undermines education; in fact, London schools have improved so rapidly in the past 10 years – a period of unprecedented immigration – that even children in the capital's poorest boroughs now do better than the average pupil elsewhere in the country. And to say that aside from food, little innovation has arisen from immigration shows only wilful blindness to both cultural and economic reality. Sadly, such is the myopic vision of misanthropes who live in fear of their country.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/ap ... art-review" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

So 3 boroughs rather than 32, eh? See what he did there.

[youngian]

Tedious provocation. Might as well change his name to Fred, that'd get a reaction and be just as clever.

Or Adam; "Holy batshit"

Guess who Britain's greatest foe was.... Edward Heath!

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwes ... eatest-foe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rubbish about "foreign power" and all that. Ted Heath, unlike Edward West, actually took part in a proper war against one.

Ironic the Tory right have complained about some less than reverential tributes to Thatcher when her predecessor still brings them out in the red mist 40 years on.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, shows they're totally incapable of doing "on the one hand, on the other". Heath tried to do a lot of the same stuff, but didn't want mass employment, and had an oil shock, not an oil boost.

Thatcher never left the EC, did she? Signed the Single European Act to take us further in and all.

[The Weeping Angel]

Yes and in the 75 referendum wearing what I can only describe as a jumper

[Tubby Isaacs]

Excellent. Ed doesn't have a Telegraph blog any more. Doesn't sound like he left for another job either.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwes ... ince-500bc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Typically nasty pseudo-intellectual post.

The idea of evolutionary conservatism is to build a society that is as just, progressive, wealthy and happy as is possible within the boundaries of human nature.

Evolution explains why people are unwilling to pool their resources with people unlike them, why men who are not expected to be providers will become hyper-masculine, why poor people are more hostile to welfare claimants than the rich are, why we’re more scared of terrorists and paedophiles than car drivers, and why things like the gender gap will never be eliminated (though social forces can reduce it).

Trying to make anything better is just "against human nature", and associated with "Marx".

[Tubby Isaacs]

My mistake- he's now Deputy Editor and blogger at the Catholic Herald.

He's so far not yet written about the revelation that the police were bugging Duane Brooks, but doubtless he'll get round to it soon. This is the sort of high level insight he provided on crime/race etc. As if the "liberal" outrage was just because the suspects were white, not because the police investigation had been shit because the victim was black.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwes ... on_report/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ten years on, young black men are dead because of the Macpherson report

Get big issues right like this, and you can expect to be promoted.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Came across this nasty bit of shit on another board. I can't face reading the original, but apparently it's on the Spectator.

lots of the cities that compete for this honour are certified Crap Towns. Dover? Stoke-on-Trent?...These are not cities of culture, unless you mean culture in the loosest sense, as in ‘gang culture’ or possibly the culture that grows at the back of the fridge

Fuck off.

[ezinra]

In reality the ideal for British social cohesion would be for lots of Muslims (and Hindus and Sikhs) to become atheists, agnostics or very wishy-washy Anglicans. That we can’t admit this is at the heart of the integration problem facing an unbelieving society.

It's remarkable that someone can get paid to write this sort of thing. "After much serious thinking, I have decided that it would benefit me enormously if everyone else stopped insisting on being themselves and became just like me, only a bit less so."

It's not racist enough for the Speccie Army though:

crosscop • 12 hours ago

Actually, Ed, the ideal for British social cohesion would be for them all to go back to their ancestral Asian homelands and let us stay here unhindered by their presence in our European one. It's all about belonging - and they do not belong here.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Aren't his fans lovely?

We seem to manage all right where I live. What does he think happens? Tear ups next to the booze in Tesco?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ed West ‏@edwest 37m37 minutes ago
If British people wanted to pressure their gvnt to take more Syrians, one way might be to pledge to put one up

Isn't he lovely?

Perhaps he and his pals can pay for free schools and all.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Not heard from him for a while on here- he's actually said some sensible things over the years- but he's reverting to type here.

[The Weeping Angel]

I must have missed them.

[Tubby Isaacs]

We're all going to miss them now. He's gone private on Twitter. Looks like he did this after making an arse of himself.