http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3135384.ece

The appointment of an evangelical Christian with controversial views on
homosexuality to the human rights watchdog chaired by Trevor Phillips
has led to a furore among campaigners who claim his opinions make him
ineligible for the job.

Secular groups have asked for the removal of the Rev Joel Edwards, a
vocal campaigner against legislation banning discrimination against the
gay community, from the post of commissioner of the Equality and Human
Rights Commission (EHRC).

Mr Edwards, the general director of the Evangelical Alliance since 1997,
has said Christians did not want to find themselves "coerced" by law
into aiding promotion of homosexuality.

The National Secular Society claimed the appointment of Mr Edwards would
damage the reputation of the commission and raised questions about its
objectivity. Terry Sanderson, the society's president, said: "This
appointment must be reversed immediately. Mr Edwards comes to the job
with a pre-formed agenda that is based on a literalist reading of the
Bible.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article3135377.ece

A City high-flyer who worked on an innovative Islamic policy for a
leading British insurer has brought a claim for racism against the
company after he was welcomed to the office as "Guantanamo detainee
948".

Anwar Khan, 24, who shares his name with a Afghan man held by the
Americans at the Cuban naval base since 2002, says that he was greeted
on 18 September by a colleague with the words: "So they have released
you from Guantanamo Bay."

When Mr Khan logged on to his computer, he opened an email with a link
to the Wikipedia page for detainee 948.

Mr Khan, from central London, has now begun grievance proceedings
against the Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) insurance company after what he
describes as one of the most distressing episodes in his life.

The case is the latest to involve allegations of racism at work in which
Asian men and women have complained that they have been racially
victimised since Britain and America launched the "war on terror".

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/24287/Now-smoking-may-be-banned-in-your-home

HEALTH officials are considering plans to stop people smoking in their
own home.

Critics last night said the scheme was a sign of the “nanny state gone
mad”.

Anti-smoking groups made the proposals in a conference last week, saying
that smokers who have young children are exposing them to deadly fumes.

Similar laws already exist in California, and experts from the US state
said such a move was vital here, too.

But yesterday the idea was blasted as “ludicrous”.

Simon Clark of smokers’ rights group Forest accused health chiefs of
going too far.

He said: “Calling for smoking to be banned from British family homes is
ludicrous. This is a prime example of Labour’s nanny state.

“The vast majority of parents who smoke are fully aware of the dangers
inherent in passive smoking and take precautions to protect their
children.

“What are we going to have, the smoking police going round in
smoke-detector vans?”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/06/ntv206.xml

Calling someone "a poof" is not always offensive, the television
regulator has ruled.

Ofcom issued the statement in response to complaints about the use of
the word in the last series of Big Brother.

More than 200 viewers complained to the regulator in June after Channel
4 decided not to evict Laura Williams after she twice called one of her
housemates "a poof".

By contrast, it ordered Emily Parr to leave the reality show after she
directed a racist comment to a black housemate.

Viewers complained that the word "poof" was just as offensive as the
word "n*****".

Ofcom rejected the complaints, saying "poof" was often used in an
''affectionate or self-deprecating way" among the gay community.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2821254.ece

Gordon Brown’s slogan “British jobs for British workers” amounts to
“employment apartheid”, a senior Labour MP said last night.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said that
Britain’s treaty obligations meant the pledge could not be met and that
it was “a false attempt to answer to right-wing propaganda”.

Mr Vaz, a former Europe Minister, set out his criticisms during a
Commons debate on immigration policy. “I worry about this statement,” he
said. “It lacks credible arguments and some have suggested that it
appears to amount to little more than employment apartheid.

“It assumes that foreign workers are somehow stealing jobs from UK
workers, an idea for which there is absolutely no evidence.

“It also raises the question — how do you ensure jobs are going to
British people and what do you classify as British?”

Mr Vaz continued: “Hopes are falsely raised whenever ‘British jobs’ are
mentioned. Every position that is filled will require justification and
an account kept of how many British jobs there are.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2821115.ece

Two suspected jihadi recruiters were arrested in dawn raids yesterday
over their alleged involvement in a Europe-wide network enlisting young
men to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ali Ben Zidane Chehidi, 34, and Mohamed Salah Ben Hamadi Khemiri, 53,
both Tunisians, were detained at their homes in London and Manchester.
The swoop was part of a coordinated operation led by Italian
antiterrorist police aimed at breaking up a sophisticated recruitment
organisation. Some 20 suspects, mostly of North African origin, were
picked up in further raids in Italy, France and Portugal.

Mr Chehidi was arrested in Purley, South London, by officers from
Scotland Yard’s extradition unit assisted by Counter Terrorism Command.
Another team from the extradition squad, backed up by antiterrorist
officers from Greater Manchester Police, detained Mr Khemiri in the
Cheetham Hill area of Manchester.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=492125&in_page_id...=

A children's nursery worker was arrested yesterday as police smashed an
alleged network of North African terrorist cells which recruited suicide
bombers.

Tunisian Ali Ben Zidane Chehidi, 34, was taken from the South London
home where he lived with his wife, a nursery nurse, and their
eight-month-old son.

He was one of 17 Algerians and Tunisians detained across Europe in an
anti-terrorism operation led by Italian authorities.

Police in Italy said they had seized poisons, remote detonation devices
for explosives and manuals on guerilla warfare.

Chehidi and another Tunisian, Mohamed Salah Ben Hamadi Khemiri, 53, a
married father of three from Manchester, were the only British arrests.

Italian officers believe the detainees have been setting up 'jihadi'
militant cells which recruited and assisted would-be suicide bombers in
Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chehidi and Khemiri were arrested over allegations that they forged
documents to help recruits enter Italy illegally.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3132462.ece

David Cameron faced embarrassment after Tory activists produced leaflets
making lurid predictions about the scale of immigration to Britain and
claiming that newcomers jumped hospital waiting-lists.

They were distributed in the same West Midlands borough where the
Conservative parliamentary candidate Nigel Hastilow was forced to resign
after insisting that Enoch Powell was right on immigration.

Labour said the language used proved that grassroots members continued
to whip up hostility to immigrants in defiance of Mr Cameron’s promises
to root out racist attitudes.

The newsletter, which was sent out in Dudley, details how the Government
had “lost all control of immigration and asylum”.

It cites a forecast by Migrationwatch, the right-wing thinktank, which
claims 7.2 million immigrants will come to Britain in the next 20 years.

Under the headline “NHS queue jumping” it quotes a newspaper report that
patients who cannot speak English are sent to the front of the
outpatients queue, meaning that at busy times English speakers are
“shunted back”.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23419786-details/Cameron%%20accuses%%...

David Cameron has accused the PM of using the language of the BNP, after
Gordon Brown unveiled plans to force immigrants to be more "British".

Talking about one of Mr Brown's slogans - "British jobs for British
workers" - Mr Cameron said the PM knew it was illegal under EU law.

Speaking in the Commons this afternoon, Mr Cameron - to furious
barracking from Labour - added: "I did a bit more research to find out
where he got his slogans from.

"Here's one he borrowed off the National Front. Here's another one he
borrowed off the British National Party. Where was his moral compass
when he was doing that?"

After weeks of being behind in the polls, the Prime Minister had sought
to present himself in his first Queen's Speech as the man with the
long-term answers to voters' concerns about immigration, housing,
education and terrorism.

Among the new measures was a Citizenship and Immigration Bill which will
set out the duties of foreigners to learn English and sign up to British
values before being allowed into the country.

http://www.messengernewspapers.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1778137.0.woodheys_park_protest...

Can I ask for all to read the above URL and if possible add your
comments and thoughts to the ones already shown. Without going into
politics big changes are afoot in Trafford with reductions across the
board on spending. Both Walton and Woodheys park are well looked
after.
Woodheys park was a considerable trouble spot which with a lot of hard
work and dedication by the freind's group and trafford council has been
turned round.

Now the council are saying job done and are looking to pull the
spending and reduce manning hours for the staff. The savings appear to
be minimal and the consequences of their actions in regard to this
could be devastating to the local community which has improved
considerably over the past few years in no small part to a stable
environment built around the local park and its facilities.

Thank you for looking and your comments would be useful.

--
www.freightaid.co.uk
www.bigkrazysplace.com