There is no country on Earth I hate more than Singapore, and no people on Earth I hate more than Singapore’s western apologists. If you don’t think Singapore is a vile barbaric shithole, then I query your mental health.

Even if you think it’s OK to silence dissenters with lawsuits, deny state benefits to people who support your opponents, and rig courts in favour of the government, then I defy you to justify this. No, go on, fucking try and justify that. I fucking dare you.

The Japanese had the right idea regarding Singapore. It’s merely a shame that it didn’t get left in its post-1945 state (this rant was set off by Jarndyce‘s more reasoned and measured take on the same country. And yes, I know there are plenty of places that are worse than Singapore. However, nobody suggests the West has anything to learn from Zimbabwe or Somalia…)

Anthony Wells has some bad news and some good news. Bad news: 3% of Brits believe in vampires. 71% believe in ‘the soul’. And 40% of British women believe that one can contact the dead. Good news: at least only 29% of us believe in the Devil (I mean, fucking hell: even vampires are more plausible…)

Talk of ‘Englishness’ as a cultural identity annoys me, particularly when it’s used to justify strengthening ‘England’ as an administrative region, and even more particularly when it’s used to lobby for an English parliament. I’ve finally managed to put my finger on why.

Many bits of the administrative region called England – London, Cornwall, Yorkshire, Newcastle-and-surroundings, Manchester-and-surroundings, Scouseland-and-surroundings and Cumbria, for starters – all have regional identities that are far stronger than any ‘English’ identity.

Now, there *is* a common identity shared by people in rural areas in the southeastern, southcentral and midlandish bits of the administrative region of England. This is the one focused on killing foxes, hating the French, resenting clever people, drinking real ale, attending village fetes, ogling old maids on bicycles, etc.

This generally gets classed as ‘Englishness’, because it doesn’t have a real name – but it isn’t. There are far more people in the administrative region called England who loathe this concept of ‘Englishness’ than there are people who follow it. As a result, an English Parliament would be a pointless waste of time and money. It wouldn’t help the rural-southerners who want it, because they’re in a small-ish minority. And none of the other groups in it have any more in common with each other than they do with the Scots or the Welsh.

Instead, let’s set up proper regional parliaments, with serious powers on the level of the Scottish Executive. Let’s have a Cornish one, a Merseyside one, a Greater Manchester one, a Lancashire-and-Cumberland one and a Yorkshire one. Let’s give the Welsh a proper parliament rather than a rubber-stamping body. Let’s put the London Assembly properly in charge of Greater London. And let the industrial Midlands do whatever they like, too.

The Little Ing-er-lund-ers could have a Rural Southern Not London parliament of their own, too. For all I care, they can use it to bring back birching for anyone who measures things in centimetres, while abolishing public transport and speed cameras, and legalising hunting the French with hounds. As long as the fuckers don’t have any say in what happens in the administrative region called England’s civilised bits…

"It does strike me from time to time how much the sainted G-WOT is a kind of civil war within the global conservative movement. Maybe this is partly why secular parts of the world have had such difficulty getting a purchase on the meaning of the whole thing. There’s a kind of understanding between enemies that they don’t share." – Jamie B&T nails it beautifully.

Scott Campbell points out that "the Washington Times commentary pages now feature as regular columnists Mark Steyn, Thomas Sowell, Michelle Malkin and Larry Kudlow."

I know the Washington Times is something of a joke newspaper, but… Christ… that’s a level of ultra-right pro-torture lunacy (MS, MM) and mindless economic idiocy (LK) at which even NRO would balk. The paper has *one* columnist with any integrity, and even he’s about as paleoconservative as it gets…

Scott also mentions a "very important Tech Central Station interview". Unless anyone can come up with a better suggestion in the comments, this is the official SBBS Oxymoron of the Week.

15 years for a bit of dodgy accounting? Christ, some people (rightly) serve less than that for murder.

Side note to anyone who lost money in the dotcom/telecoms slump: good, you idiot, hope you suffer. Can’t we change the law so that white-collar crimes only count if they impact on people *other than* greedy idiots who fail to spot an investment bubble after it’s been reported in every newspaper and magazine for the previous 18 months?

Weird thing: group Britblog Perfect.co.uk has either turned itself into a satire site, or has recruited a drooling TechCentralStation-esque loon as a contributor. Hopefully, it’s the former.

I’ve linked to Marc at USS Neverdock before. If you’ve been paying attention you’ll be fully aware that he’s a thick, bigoted idiot who would, if there were any justice, be deported from the UK and replaced with a family of Muslims. Preferably ones who speak a really strange language, eat really spicy food, and really don’t like the way the Yanks keep slaughtering their co-religionists.

Read this post about how Evil Left-wing Antiwar types staged a horrible protest at a US soldier’s funeral. Then note the photographis indicating that the protest was actually organised by the Westboro Baptist Church. Then watch the stupid sod getting destroyed 200 times over in the comments section. Re-fucking-sult! (nb Atrios may have had some involvement in the comment-a-lanche…)

Hopefully, this will shame Marc into giving up blogging. Or, if the world were more ideal than I believe it to be, into reevaluating his beliefs.

Dear The Right Wing,

Please can you make your mind up on whether France is a dhimmified nation, destroyed by excessive immigration and multiculturalism and shortly to be ruled by throat-slitting mullahs, or whether it’s a sterling example to Brits of how to avoid That Sort Of Thing?

Alternatively, you could stop whining about how The Sky Is Falling In every time you see a brown face or hear a strange language.

Fuck it, I’m a realist. Just sort the first one out, OK?

Kind regards,

John B

If the BNP are too poncy and public school for your liking, now you can vote for the National Alliance. W00t, etc.