Labour's censorship of free speech

Yesterday during Jack Straw's speech a 82 year old man heckled him, he was dragged by Labour Party stewards towards the exit and thrown out, a person who tried standing up for him was also ejected. The 82 yearold man called Wilfred was charged under the Terrorism Act, how inhuman and undemocratic, it does not mean that over the Iraq issue you try to stop debate.

The country needs to accept that the Labour Conference is very stage managed and they do not allow any dissenting voices to be heard. It is a sad indignity of the labour party that this goes on, despite the leadership apologising, it still goes on.

The Labour party should be ashamed of its self.

Last night's programme on the role of god in politics was very good, I thought I performed well under the spotlight and from the intial feedback I think I did well. Thank you for all your kind words over the past few months.

Urgent WATCH BBC 2 TONIGHT @ 7PM 28/09/05

I will be on BBC Two tonight 28/09/2005 at 7pm, the programme is about God and the Politicians.

God and the Politicians
Wed 28 Sep, 7:00 pm - 7:50 pm 50mins
David Aaronovitch investigates fears that religion has staked too great a claim on the political agenda. Are politicians pandering to faith groups? Are the faithful muscling in on the politicians' patch? Should abortion be a party political issue? Is there such a thing as the Muslim vote? Combining modern political analysis with three thousand years of theology, this programme assesses whether ancient faiths and modern politics are a match made in Heaven, or destined to clash. Alistair Campbell stopped a journalist asking the Prime Minister about faith with the words, 'We don't do God'. But more and more politicians are doing God, and more major faiths are happy to see religion back on the public agenda. Faith leaders Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Chief Rabbi, the Bishop of Southwark, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Muslim leader Sir Iqbal Sacranie argue the place of religion in politics along with Tony Benn, Ann Widdecombe MP, Home Office Minister Paul Goggins MP, MORI pollster Sir Robert Worcester and philosopher Professor AC Grayling. Has God entered the ballot box? This programme tries to find out. [S]Let me have your comments

Muslim Unity Convention 2005 Press Conference

 

Muslim Unity Convention Press Conference

 

Muslim Unity Convention 2005  

This is me addressing the world press at the recent Muslim Unity Convention held at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, UK on August 7th.
I am joined on the panel from left to right by Dr Jamal Badawi, Shaykh Muhammad bin Yahya Al Ninowy, Sidi Muhammad Umar, Dr Zakir Naik, Shaykh Abdullah Hakeem Quick.  

Blair's speech

I have been listening to Tony Blair's speech at the Labour conference in Brighton. I have to say it was the most pathetic nonsense I have heard him make at a conference. He attacked the Lib Dems on various issues - I realised that he attacked us because he realises the threat we pose. Remember you cannot defeat terrorism without protecting civil liberties and the great value of justice.

Labour seem to have fallen into the trap of clamping down on freedom to protect security. I am proud to be a member of the Liberal Democrats who will not compromise on Civil Liberties and freedom. This still means we have to deal with the menace of terrorism and defeat this by re affirming opur rights and values.

what are your views, let me know

Lib Dem Conference debrief

I have to say as a first time delegate to the Lib Dem conference in Blackpool i made a huge impact. I lost count of the media interviews I did, i spoke at the Conference three times. The best performance was at the Ethnic Minority Parliamentary candidates motion, this motion was defeated but according to all my performance was excellent.

Charles Kennedy's speech was the best he has ever done, well done.

Thank you to Simon Hughes, the party president who as always is great!!! Thank you to the Manchester teams, Paul Rowen MP, Rochdale and Rob from BBC Worldwide your company and help on my final speech was great and we can stand proud of the impaact we all made.

Speak soon to all

Lib Dem Conference debrief

I have to say as a first time delegate to the Lib Dem conference in Blackpool i made a huge impact. I lost count of the media interviews I did, i spoke at the Conference three times. The best performance was at the Ethnic Minority Parliamentary candidates motion, this motion was defeated but according to all my performance was excellent.

Charles Kennedy's speech was the best he has ever done, well done.

Thank you to Simon Hughes, the party president who as always is great!!! Thank you to the Manchester teams, Paul Rowen MP, Rochdale and Rob from BBC Worldwide your company and help on my final speech was great and we can stand proud of the impaact we all made.

Speak soon to all

Conference update

It has been a very interesting conference, yesterday I had meetings with Charles Kennedy MP, Simon Hughes MP, and a host of Lib Dem spokesman. The Lib Dem today have announced that they will oppose the government on two key parts of the anti terror legislation. Mark Oaten MP the Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary used my statement about the 7/7 bombers being british and that is why the attack on Asylum seekers and foreigners will fail.

Yesterday I went to the Indian Ambassador's reception and really enjoyed my chat with the High Commisioner.

speak soon

Making Impact at the Lib Dem Conference

As you know this is the first of many blogs live from the Lib Dem Conference happening in Blackpool. I have today done two interviews with Sky News and BBC News on Trevor Phillips comments on multi Culturalism, I have to say it is not a failure and we are living in a multi faith and multi cultural society, it is succeeding and will continue to succeed.

Secondly there will be a motion on Ethnic Minority Parliamentary candidate selection, I am please to say there is a motion to have at least one Ethnic Minority candidate in the selection process.

I have had meetings with Charles Kennedy MP, Paul Rowen MP, Paul Holmes MP, Nick Clegg MP, John Thourso MP, Tom Brady MP, Mark Oaten MP, David Laws MP, Gender Taskforce. I am hoping to have further meetings with MPs and seniotr party officials throughout today.

Speak soon

Blackpool is a serious opportunity to change

The Lib Dem Conference is an opportunity for the party to celebrate it's successes but importantly set the ground rules for the path ahead. Under Charles Kennedy's leadership the party has gone from strength to strength, what happened over Iraq and the position we took was from a principled basis and we have been proven right.

i will report soon on the conference, comments welcomed as always

When will the Jewish community reach out?

I invited the Jewish community representatives to the recent Muslim Unity Convention, they attended and listened to the speeches of some outspoken guests like Yvonne Ridley. She made a blistering attack on Israel and the Government's policy of oppresion towards Palestinian people. They in returned said that we the Ramadhan Foundation used the Jeiwsh representatives to launch an attack on Jews, this is far from the truth.

Whilst I do not subscribe to some of her views I believe she is right in highlighting the oppression that is carried out in the name of fighting terrorism and extremism, for example how can making 100s of innoncent people homeless due to the fact that a sucide bomber was from their house or block be fighting terrorism.

Israel and it's supporters need to recognise that if you wish to attack all those that criticise Israeli policy as Anti Jew is counter productive and will enable those that try to divide us more successful.

Let's wake up to the oppresion that is carried out in the Middle East, not just by Israel but also Arab countries that have a horrendous Human Rights Policy. Why is the world not speaking out against this oppresion.

I recently had to write to the Jewish Telegraph who launched an attack on me and the Ramadhan Foundation for allowing Yvonne Ridley to make her comments, I mean where is the Freedom of speech in this case, she never advocates violence.

I support the right of people to have freedom of speech, let those in the Jewish Community campaigning to restrict this great British Value proceed with caution.

End of Summer

As we are coming to end of the summer I think it is important for us to pause and reflect on the events of the past few weeks. Muslims in the UK have demonstrated great strength and resilence to the attacks on our community. We in the UK will prevail overt these acts and we need to look to the future.

We need to protect our civil liberties as these were gained over 100s of years,

comments are welcomed

speak soon