Security has been stepped up in the UK, but everywhere else it's business as usual

Since the alleged terror plot against the airlines was foiled nearly a week ago, security has been stepped up at UK airports and heavy restrictions are likely to remain for the forseeable future. The question is, what difference will it make? In the rest of Europe, nothing has changed. What's to stop a Jihadist (there are plenty of them in the rest of Europe) from boarding a flight leaving Paris or Amsterdam to the US or the UK? The rest of Europe's airports are being remarkably complacent.

Anti-semitic jokes at the Edinburgh festival

Don't even think about making anti-Muslim or anti-Asian jokes, but if you want to let off some steam, it seems that anti-semitic jokes are now acceptable. Read this piece by the writer of Ali G. Very disturbing.

Using the "F" word

On the fantasy world of the political left, "fascist" is still considered to be the exclusive preserve of white skinheads, members of ethnic minorities cannot be fascist as they are oppressed. So when both John Reid and George W Bush used the "F" word to describe Islamic fundamentalists, there were predictable howls of protest.

There is an excellent article by Janet Daley relating to this in the Daily Telegraph.

Is the ceasefire in Lebanon a victory for Hezbollah?

Everyone from the BBC to the Israelis seem to accept that the ceasefire taking place in Lebanon is a victory for Hezbollah. But not necessarily. By dragging out the fighting for weeks, Israel has ended up with a ceasefire that is far more on its terms. Southern Lebanon must now be free of all militias, which will make it harder for Hezbollah to launch its rockets against Israel. It may well put the spolight on Hezbollah. After all, if Lebanon is supposed to be a peaceful democratic state (at least that is how much of the world's media has painted it), why does Hezbollah need to operate a state within a state?

Time to introduce profiling

As security returns to normal at Britain's Airports, will Britain's population begin to accept the need for profiling as a way of preventing terror in the skies? It is something that has long been practiced by El Al, and El Al has a reputation for being the world's safest airline.

But judging by the comments made on Newsnight by Tarique Ghaffur, Britain has a long way to go. Britain's most senior Muslim policeman argued on the programme that we have created a new offence of "travelling whilst being Asian". It's a poor argument. If an African Community Centre was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan, would you target blacks for questioning? Common sense continues to take a back seat to political correctness.

The predictable response to the alleged terror attacks

As expected, the response of many of Britain's Muslims to the foiled terror attacks on US airlines has been to blame the Government.

It seems that whatever Britain's security forces do, they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Because the last anti-terror raid carried out by the Police was an embarrassing failure, many Muslims are inclined to believe the current situation has been fabricated to divert attention away from what is happening in Lebanon (see Nick Cohen in the Observer). And even if the alleged terror attacks result in convictions, those same critics will blame them on UK foreign policy. On Saturday, an open letter signed by three Muslim MPs, three peers and 38 community groups implied that Britains foreign policy has made it vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

It seems that many of Britain's Muslims are at best in denial, and at worse intent on blackmail. As Kim Howells recently put it:

"I have no doubt that there are many issues which incite people to loath government policies but not to strap explosives to themselves and go out and murder innocent people.

"There is no way of rationalising that.

"I think it is very, very dangerous when people who call themselves community leaders make some assumption that somehow that there's a rational connection between these two things."

Britain's home secretary, John Reid has also weighed in:

"it was a dreadful misjudgement if they believe that the foreign policy of this country should be shaped in part or in whole under the threat of terrorist activity".

"No government worth its salt would stay in power in my view, and no government worth its salt, would be supported by the British people if our foreign policy or any other aspect of policy was being dictated by terrorists.

"That is not the British way, it is antithetical to our very central values. We decide things in this country by democracy, not under the threat of terrorism."

Our elected government needs to spend a little less time taking lessons from these "community leaders" and a little more time reminding them that 9/11 happened before the invasion in Afghanistan and long before the war in Iraq.