AN OUTSIDE VIEW

POLICE sniffer dogs trained to spot terrorists at railway stations in Britain may no longer come into contact with Muslim passengers – after complaints that it is against the suspects’ religion. This should be exploited. Teams of dog handlers with unusually friendly dogs, eg Spaniels, Poodles and Corgis, could be posted in all railway stations. The dogs would be trained to wag their tails and approach people and lick them. Bins full of dog biscuits would be placed at the entrances to every platform, and passengers would have to feed the dogs by letting them take the biscuits out of their hands, and then pat them on the head, tickle them behind the ears and be licked. I think these dog-welcoming teams would be very popular with the British public.

The public are complaining about the near-total shutdown of Britain's railways over the holiday period. It is an inconvenience, but allows Network Rail to carry out major projects in one go which would otherwise take months and cost a lot more. It takes a lot of time to bring equipment to the site and clear up afterwards, so this makes sense. People would complain even more if the system was allowed to fall to pieces. Congratulations to the people who have given up their holiday period to do this essential work.

Consider a country with nine million inhabitants and a stable population ie it just replaces itself. Now imagine a million arrivals with a slowly growing population, say 1% a year. After 50 years there will be 1.6 million of the immigrant group. If the growth rate is 2% a year, the figure will be 2.6 million descendants; at a 3% rate, it will be over 4.2 million, the original number having doubled after 25 years. Descendants of immigrants will then make up one-third of the total population. People in charge of immigration policies need to be aware of this. Decisions made today will completely transform the society within half a century. What kind of a future to we want for our grandchildren?

The key flaw in the argument for Västlänken is that Göteborg C is a terminal and consequently dysfunctional. This needs to be looked at in proportion. Göteborg C occupies a larger area than London Waterloo, also a terminus. Waterloo has only four tracks running into it, and the line is in fact only four tracks all the way from Basingstoke, about 60 km away, carrying both long-distance and commuter services. The approach to the station, on a viaduct, cannot be widened as there are buildings on both sides. The length of the platforms, mostly 180 metres, means that trains have only 8 cars, and remember that these are only 20 metres long ie 8 x 20 metres. Yet the station successfully handles 96 million passengers a year. Göteborg C also has the advantage of six approach tracks. So any suggestion that Göteborg C, possibly with some enlargement, cannot handle all the traffic that is likely to use it with the next 50 years is ludicrous. At present there are only about 20 arriva...

A court ruling has stated that in future charity shops in Sweden must charge value added tax (MOMS at 25%) on all the goods they sell. In Britain, charity shops enjoy valuable property tax concessions with the result that in some shopping streets, there is almost nothing apart from charity shops. The case was brought by the tax authorities, using the argument is that it gives them an unfair trading advantage. These charity shops in Sweden already enjoy the services of a free workforce provided under a system of workfare. Now they claim there will be a wave of closures as a result of the ruling. This looks like a bad move; by any standards, MOMS is a disastrous tax. But look again. The tax privileges enjoyed by these charities has made it almost impossible to earn a livelihood selling second-hand clothes, books, household goods and furniture, a once-flourishing business sector dealing in items that were not of sufficient quality or age to be considered as antiques. The tax is not ...

EMMAUS purports to be a welfare organisation to help the needy. In reality it has been captured by anti-Semites and is headed up by a Moslem - hence this display in the window of one of its shops in Gothenburg. The problem is not the olive oil but the map in the background. Where is Israel? Since no Jews are allowed to live in the Palestine Authority area, it can be assumed that they would not be allowed to live in the one-state "Free Palestine" shown on the map, which includes the whole of the area from the Jordan to the sea. So where would the Jews go? Presumably there would be another six million slaughtered, though the Christians and Druze who live in Israel would go the same way shortly after. In the window is a list of companies who are supposed to be boycotted. The one I shall boycott will be Emmaus, and I would advise anyone opposed to genocide to do the same.

The speech by Israel's ambassador at the UN General Assembly is a cogent overview of modern Israeli history. November 24, 2014. I stand before the world as a proud representative of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. I stand tall before you knowing that truth and morality are on my side. And yet, I stand here knowing that today in this Assembly, truth will be turned on its head and morality cast aside. The fact of the matter is that when members of the international community speak about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a fog descends to cloud all logic and moral clarity. The result isn’t realpolitik, its surreal politik. The world’s unrelenting focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an injustice to tens of millions of victims of tyranny and terrorism in the Middle East. As we speak, Yazidis, Bahai, Kurds, Christians and Muslims are being executed and expelled by radical extremists at a rate of 1,000 people per month. How many resolutions did you pass last week...