Jim Sutton

5yrs ago - true then, even truer now.

Nick Timothy and Nigel Farage are right, and Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer are wrong. Small groups of people, of whatever religion, praying in public places is fine. And as a Christian country we should allow a special privilege for churches to lead services in our national spaces, like the Palm Sunday celebration that happens in Trafalgar Square. What we don't want is mass ritual observances intended to claim the civic realm for another religion, or assert the domination of another culture over our own Christian traditions. What happens in our national spaces is not neutral. People use Trafalgar Square, for celebrations and demonstrations, to make a point about the kind of country they want us to be. The Palm Sunday pageant reminds us of who we are - not as individuals (many or most of us don't identify as Christians at all) but as a national community, with the roots of our institutions in the ground of the Bible and our most solemn communal moments, from coronations to funerals, mediated through the liturgies of the Church. A mass Adhan held there, or in any town square, is making a different point: that Britain is not a Christian country, and that - inshallah - one day it shall be Muslim. This is unacceptable to the British public and indeed incompatible with our constitution. As ever with these debates, the issue is partly one of kind and partly one of degree. There is an issue with Islam itself as a religion which in most interpretations does not admit of pluralism or freedom of conscience, and therefore is inherently aggrandising, including over territory. But with a bit of confidence and a bit of toleration we could handle that - if it were not for the issue of degree. It is the scale of Islam in Britain, and the ambition of its leaders for greater scale, that makes the problem. The numbers of people who assembled for the adhan in Trafalgar Square, clearly and openly claiming the territory for a faith with no connection (indeed, with strong doctrinal disagreement) with the model of Western liberal democracy that Britain has developed and exported to the world - that is the problem. The numbers, whether everyone there understood it this way or not (and I suspect many did), convey an explicit threat to the foundations of our country. Being relaxed about other people's religion is a good thing, a very British thing. I don't mind modern druids dancing around Stonehenge in my constituency (arguably, though the historicity is tenuous, they have a claim to the place). I don't mind small groups of Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims demonstrating the reality of Britain's religious toleration by worshiping in Trafalgar Square. But let's not kid ourselves about this adhan, or pretend that we're just seeing another harmless expression of Britain's religious diversity. We are seeing an abuse of liberalism, led by people who are not themselves liberal; or - let us imagine they are acting in good faith - who are themselves deceived about what they are doing. It should not happen again. And it would be good to hear the Church of England say so.

Starmer at #PMQs wasn’t only time I had to straight-talk to try and get a straight answer this week. I asked 2 Defence Ministers if they will order British-built Typhoons. Didn’t want to answer question & deployed Starmer waffle technique. Labour take the public for fools 😡

They're still giving money to Stonewall so don't give them yours.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 Islamist terrorist attacks, my former boss Margaret Thatcher wrote: "We have harboured those who hated us, tolerated those who threatened us and indulged those who weakened us." How right she was, and her words ring true today, especially in the UK.

@MrStevenMoore @denbypottery A shame, but the VC needs to cough up.

In 1809 Joseph Bourne found some clay in Derbyshire and began to make pots. He prospered and the name of “Bourne Denby” became famous. The very same clay still make @denbypottery today. Isn’t that alone worth saving? Sustainable since 1809. #savedenby

We need your help to #SaveDenby! We are sad to share that we may be forced to close and a British institution could be lost. We need your help: 1. Share this post 2. Sign the government petition 3. Buy Denby 4. Visit us at the Pottery Village Read more: denbypottery.com/pages/save-den…

Exclusive: Britain's civil service ethics chief twice offered to officially question Lord Mandelson over his links to Jeffrey Epstein but was rebuffed by No10. Darren Tierney approached senior No10 staff in late 2024 and offered to conduct formal interviews before the decision.

Stages of life

From 2008 to 2015, Antarctic sea ice was running at record highs. Then the system flipped. By 2017, sea ice had hit record lows. A new study explains why. A cold surface layer in the southern ocean had been gradually thinning since 2005, while warmer deep water was slowly rising closer to the surface. Then in 2015, strong winds mixed that heat upward, disrupting the ocean structure and rapidly reducing sea ice. The paper concludes the decline was a "result of atmospheric forcing" and "ultimately triggered by strong winds in 2015." It was a natural, wind-driven event, in other words (not a CO2 melt story), and one today's climate models fail to reproduce, according to the authors. Looking at the latest data, another swing may be playing out. Sea ice is surging in 2026, with extent currently higher than in the early 1980s.

Duty Free (19th March 1984). Amy finally discovers the truth about David and Linda.

@sharrond62 🎯

Yeap… pretty right 👏🏻

Speaking about the deep contradictions in human nature, Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada said: “Some people dream of having a swimming pool at home, while those who have one barely use it. Those who have lost a loved one feel a profound sense of loss, while others often complain about the relatives still in their lives. Those without a partner long for one, while those who have a partner often fail to appreciate them. The hungry would give anything for a meal, while the full complain about the taste of their food. Those without a car dream of owning one, while those who have a car are always looking for a better one. The key to happiness is gratitude—to truly see and value what we already have, and to understand that somewhere, someone would give everything for what we take for granted.”

We should boycott Red Nose Day.

Finding out that Keir Starmer and Lord Mandelson visited Palantir's offices in Washington off the record. We're told it wasn't a "meeting." Interesting. The same Lord Mandelson (Starmer's personal choice as US Ambassador) who was friends with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Thanks for all the messages and comments following yesterdays #PMQs People clearly see through the pre-scripted nonsense from Starmer, and it appears you were as annoyed by it as I was. The official 📸 from yesterday captures my frustration at his disrespect to the House well ⬇️

This is insane. 25-year-old men should never be allowed to box with teenage girls and to withdraw a course for girls after a mother complains about that very basic lack of safeguarding shows how badly gender ideology has rotted some charity sector brains.

.@SadiqKhan taking part in a mass public act of Islamic prayer in the heart of the British capital is deeply divisive. This domineering show of religious authority should not be tolerated.

Too many are too polite to say this. But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions. And given their explicit repudiation of Christianity they certainly do not belong in our churches and cathedrals. I am not suggesting everybody at Trafalgar Square last night is an Islamist. But the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook. Trafalgar Square belongs to all of us. It is a national memorial to our independence and our salvation. Last night was not like a televised football match or a St Patrick’s Day celebration. It was an act of domination and therefore division. It shouldn’t happen again.

The wilful misunderstanding in this post says everything about the people behind the “Islamophobia” definition. The point is not that Sikhs have danced on Trafalgar Square. Or that the Passion Play has been hosted there. Neither is the point that Muslims gathered on Trafalgar Square. The point is that mass ritual prayer in public - in this case next to a church - is an act of domination. So is the public call of the Adhan, which explicitly denies other religions including Christianity. That is the difference. And yet neither Dominic - nor the Labour MPs who were instructed by No10 to attack me last night - will engage with the substance. Instead he claims he knows my personal views when we haven’t talked, and incorrectly describes me as a spokesman for the Free Speech Union. People like Dominic can’t work out why the ideological world they built is falling apart. They never pause to wonder if perhaps they might have got things very badly wrong.