The New Statesman outdoes itself in silliness

Apologies for the few days of silence, which had to do with technical problems. The next few postings will deal with the Geert Wilders press conference on Friday, March 5 and media reactions to it.

First off, let us have a look at a particularly silly and unpleasant blog by Sholto Byrnes in the New Statesman. Mr Byrnes and his colleague on the Independent, who he quotes, has no real arguments so his posting consists of insults and sarcasm thrown at Mr Wilders (who, let us remember, cannot wander round the streets of any Dutch or British town freely, unlike, we must assume Mr Byrnes) and at Lord Pearson of Rannoch.

The title of the piece tells you all you need to know about Mr Byrnes's attitude and, presumably, that of the New Statesman: "Geert Wilders and the welcome silence of the majority". This attitude is, precisely, the problem with the whole debate (or lack of) about mass immigration, Islamism and the introduction of such things as Sharia law, which is alien to European thinking and culture. In particular, it ought to be alien to left-wing journalists, what with attitudes to women and gays. But none of this bothers Mr Byrnes - he thinks it is enough to thrown insults around the place:

It is precisely when people hear what Wilders has to say that they can draw the conclusion that he is crude and loathsome. Or in the case of his host, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, just plain silly. Here is Lord P's sage contribution to the debate: "To get these subjects discussed you have to sometimes be a little bit naughty, you have to sometimes say things like 'ban the burka'."

Oddly enough, Mr Byrnes is wrong about his conclusions. One gets the feeling that he has not been paying enough attention. Mr Wilders's visit has attracted a good deal of media attention and if Mr Byrnes could pay attention to anything going on outside his own little world, he would know that Mr Wilders's party is doing very well in the Netherlands. But that is another country and Mr Byrnes does not consider it to be of any interest.

Furthermore, the 200 or perhaps fewer demonstrators share Mr Byrnes's lack of interest in anything outside their own little world - they were protesting against the BNP and the EDL (English Defence League) neither of which organizations was there. Rent-a-mob had not heard of other countries either.

Do try to read the comments on the posting. Mr Byrnes's readers do not seem to agree with him. What is the world coming to?