Bad News

When the pictures from Oslo first started appearing on the news nobody was sure what had happened. It was unclear if this was a terrorist attack or an accident like a gas explosion. As soon as it became clear that it wasn’t an accident but a terrorist attack the finger pointing began. Most of the fingers were pointing towards radical Islam and the Jihadist movement. I suppose in the current geopolitical climate it was inevitable that this would be the case.

Not long after the news from Oslo broke we started getting the reports of a shooting incident on an island called Utoeya several miles north of the city. Again there was confusion as it wasn’t known if the two incidents were related. As we now know the two incidents were related and the news broke that the culprit had pale skin and blonde hair. This didn’t seem to fit with our image of an Islamic extremist but many extremists are converts so the fingers were still pointing towards Jihadists. Eventually, we got the news that this attack was carried out in the name of neo-conservative far-right politics.

Anders Behring Breivik, who carried out the attacks, is now known to be a racist obsessed with far-right politics and linked to far-right organisations, websites and parties like the EDL, Nordisk and the FrP. He believes he is fighting a war against the “Islamisation” of Europe and the introduction of sharia. He wrote a 1,500 page manifesto about his preparation for the attack and his anti-Islamic beliefs. He described himself on Facebook as being a conservative Christian. Breivik believes Norway’s governing Labour party has to be punished for encouraging multiculturalism, allowing immigration and funding Islamic organisations. The young people on Utoeya Island were members of the Labour party’s youth wing and the car bomb in Oslo was aimed at government buildings. In reality this wasn’t an attack on the Norwegian Labour party it was an attack on democracy and freedom. It was an attack on moderate politics and tolerance.

Over the last 10 years our security services have concentrated almost exclusively on Islamic extremist groups and this has allowed other non-Islamic extremist groups to grow and operate undetected. Many of these groups are from the radical far-right movement that has grown steadily in Europe since the fall of Communism. The growth of internet use and social networking has given the far-right a new unregulated platform to spread its lies and deceit. They attract young people who feel disaffected and ignored by the political classes. We can’t ignore this situation any longer.

The EDL marches in England attract large numbers of young people who aren’t genuinely part of the far-right. They are people who are frightened, misinformed and confused about immigration and their national identity. The far-right scum who lead the EDL recognise this and seduce them with lies while hiding the full extent of their fascist ideology. The liberal left here in the UK has been far too quick to shout “racist” at anyone who has taken an anti-immigration line. That is the wrong way to deal with the situation and it has led to a growth in support for the likes of the EDL and the BNP. We need to embark on a new open discourse where confused moderate people can raise their concerns about immigration and multiculturalism without the fear of being shouted down as a racist. If you stifle debate people feel they have no voice and when people feel they have no voice they tend to start using their fists instead.

The other big news this week was the tragic death of Amy Winehouse. She has joined the forever 27 club. I always felt sorry for Amy and I think some questions need to be asked of her record company, promoters and management. Why would they let her go out on stage in Serbia when she was so out of it she couldn’t walk let alone sing? Some people are also saying her record company was putting too much pressure on her to produce a third album when she should have been concentrating on her health.

Amy really was an amazing talent who more than lived up to the hype. Her two albums were superb examples of smokey melancholic Jazz and soul. I know she was her own worst enemy but addiction is a cruel master. The poor girl just couldn’t break out of the cycle of drink and drugs that eventually killed her. RIP Amy Winehouse