When did Britain start following France?

In a post the other day, I was knuckle rapped for saying I was shocked when I read the Alain Finkielkraut interrogation-confession. Why are you shocked? Don't you know that a once free France is now dead? I was asked by my Flares colleague, David Thomson. Other countries, perhaps your own, are not far behind he added.

Well, I'm still shocked. This time it is by the news that the British government would ask one of its prisoners described by a Spanish judge as al-Qaeda's ambassador in Europe to plead on behalf of the four "Christian" "peace" activists kidnapped in Iraq. Or is it really on behalf of the British government and its desire to save face, to show that it can work with Muslims to bring non-violent solutions to our conflicts?

But how are the Brits saving any face for the cause of non-violence with this shameless pleading with terrorists over the lives of four people whose hatred of Israel and the west, and whose general disregard for reality, led them to become hostages and pawns in a struggle against the west in the first place? In all the pleading that is now ongoing, western voices on behalf of the kidnapped are almost caricaturing, in their utter sincerity, the "Christian pacifism" of the kidnap victims' own gnostic caricature of Christianity and peace.

Need we not make some sacrifices to reality and refuse to give terrorist kidnappers any sustenance for their dangerous egos?

Melanie Phillips has two good posts up on "Dreamworld Britain" In the first we are told about the new "Conservative" party leader, a so-called "libertarian" with a fondness for political correctness:

yes, the old Tories are a deeply unattractive bunch. So maybe the country will indeed be thus charmed by this Lord of the Rings hero Frodo Cameron and his Samwise Osborne — who reportedly watched Tony Blair give birth to New Labour in the 1990s and decided then and there that the Conservative party needed similarly to tear itself up by the roots — as they set out on their journey to throw the ring of Conservatism into the fires of Mordor.

So stand by for (almost) all-women Tory candidates’ short-lists (according to the BBC’s excellent Nick Robinson this morning), and almost certainly support for the whole multicultural, libertine, victim culture lifestyle — and who knows, maybe a dash of exciting, trendy drug legalisation too, just to be in touch with ‘Britain as it now is’.

In the second post, Melanie reports on Carol Gould's report of a "Global Peace and Unity Conference", sponsored by, among others, London's Metropolitan Police, at which all manner of hatred from western leftists and Islamist celebrities was given voice.

Carol:

What was interesting was the repeated theme by a string of sheikhs from across the globe that the leaders of Arab nations were a weak, spineless bunch of puppets of the Americans who did not have the guts to stand up to Israel and the United States. This theme caused tremendous excitement in the crowd, as if a global Intifadah might just start in this London arena.

Melanie:

Not surprisingly, Carol describes herself as being in a state of shock after this event. Her account needs to be brought to the widest possible public attention. The people participating in this hate-fest need to be exposed for the racist hate-mongers that they are. Her account should be shown to the government and to the Attorney-General with a view to possible prosecution for incitement to violence. Did I say prosecution? Fat chance! The Metropolitan Police was actually sponsoring this event. Someone should be asking it, as a matter of urgency, what the hell it thinks it is doing.

Living in Britain at present is like living in a dream world. Things are happening, trends are running and a particular logic has taken hold which are all driving the country towards an unspeakable future. Yet no-one talks about it, no-one acknowledges it and whenever the plain facts are blurted out by a brave and clear-eyed person like Carol Gould people’s eyes glaze over, they shuffle their feet and look the other way.

Perhaps Carol should not have been shocked. Perhaps this event reflects a phenomenon integral to Islam, the pattern recognized centuries ago by the historian, Ibn Khaldun: the perennial tendancy in Muslim society to replace decadent leaders in the seats of power with fresh blood and defenders of the faith who come in from the cold deserts with their tribesmen, lop off the heads of the corrupt Islamic world, and settle down to rule in the name of the true law, that is until they in turn become corrupted by power and are replaced in the endless cycle of resentments that, it may seem, have yet to find more liberal ways of transcending themselves.