"Ten-year-old girls are ready for marriage, according to Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric.
Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, the country's grand mufti, told Al Hayat newspaper that those saying ten or 12-year-old girls are too young to marry are being 'unfair' to them." Daily Mail

Here's another instance of the seemingly overwhelming evidence that the world would be a better place if a great many of its clerics were to be exiled to some distant island and left there to rot. It's not enough that we have a Pope who believes in purging the world of homosexual men and women, we have a senior Muslim cleric who believes in taking away the childhood of young girls and forcing them into marriage at the age of ten. Civilised people call this statutory rape. Is it not obvious that the world would be a kinder, more reasonable, happier place if we set aside the religions that have so long disfigured it?

thank heavens for the BBC

Every week BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a phone-in programme called 'Any Answers', which allows listeners to respond to the panel-show 'Any Questions', which features politicians and other prominent people airing their views on topical subjects. 'Any Answers' was dominated by Israel and its depravity in Gaza. For the 20 minutes of the programme I heard, one listener or e-mailer after another condemned unreservedly Israeli's brutal suppression of the Palestinian people. They talked of the occupation of Palestinian lands, the settlements and the daily humiliation of Palestinians in their own lands that they have occupied for millenia. They spoke of the awful power of the US Jewish lobby, which dominates lobbying in the States and is responsible for making Israel the superpower it undoubtedly is. They wondered how Obama could possibly be free from this lobby. They spoke of the perfect right of Iran to act as a balance to Israel in the Middle East. They pointed out that Iran has not made a point of invading its neighbours or bombing other countries. Israel and the US have a long history of invading and bombing whoever they feel like. As superpowers they can value their security beyond the lives and rights of others, so they do. They can bomb a country simply for their own security needs.

I could go on, for this programme, which is committed to broadcasting a balanced range of views, threw up many fascinating perspectives, not one of which condoned Israeli brutality.

I have tried repeatedly to understand Israel and my latest theory, for what it is worth, is that it is comparable with the abuser of children (for which read the 300 or 400 children it has killed in Gaza). Abusers are frequently people who have themselves been abused. The Jews were more abused than most other races in history, but now they have themselves become the abuser. Their behaviour has awful parallels with the Nazis, a point amplifed by a senior Vatican spokeman who compared Gaza with a concentration camp: the people there are denied jobs, movement, basic supplies, their houses are raised to the ground, UN compounds supplying water, etc. are deliberately targeted. In what way was this spokesman wrong to say what he did?

Israel is a country we should all condemn. It is barbaric, cruel, imperialistic, intolerant, self-righteous, messianic. We should also condemn America for creating this monster.

the astonishing stupidity of motorists

The road on which I live has cars parked on both sides: the houses are terraced so there are no drives. Recently, Dublin parking officials banned people from part-parking on the pavement, so the road has become very narrow for cars passing through. As I approach the road last night, I noticed the headlights of two cars coming in the opposite direction, so I pulled into the kerb to let them pass. Another motorist coming round the corner came up behind me and starting blasting her horn. Unmoved, I held my ground, so the idiot overtook me and almost collided with the oncoming cars. It took them several minutes to find room to pass each other and she had to back up. Horns were heard ...

I never cease to be astonished at the impatience, crass stupidity, and selfishness of people when they get behind the wheel. This one was classic case. If she had waited just thirty seconds we would all have passed through without a hitch. (I notice she drove into the housing estate on our road, so she could well be local.)

Israel and a chink of light

Israel aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets on areas of Gaza near the Egyptian boarder, telling ordinary Palestinians to leave their homes as they were about to destroy them. More refugees, though quite where they're supposed to go nobody knows. A school is destroyed and thirty people killed because its grounds were once used by a mortar team from Hamas (we can see a video of it on youtube, accompanied by mind-boggling Israeli propaganda). No doubt if terrorists used Westminster Abbey grounds to attack the Houses of Parliament the RAF would raise it to the ground, plus any unfortunate people within.

We are past expecting civilised conduct from Israel.

The chink of light is Obama. I know we all have great hopes of him after the vengeful, self-interested, militaristic policies of his born-again-Christian predecessor, but on Israel I had the impression from his election website that he favoured the country and planned to pour huge sums of money into it. Fortunately, the latest information is that he intends to open lines to Hamas, though not through direct diplomatic channels. If this is indeed true it is welcome. Israel is incapable of rational or intelligent thought where its security is concerned, but in the end it is only by talking and negotiation that the future of the Middle East can be settled. This is how Britain ended the so-called Troubles in Northern Ireland. Not by laying waste to Irish towns and villages, occupying southern Irish land, building settlements, laying siege to Donegal, humiliating Irish people on their way to work, imprisoning politicians, etc.

Tomorrow the people of Dublin have a chance to voice their protest against the genocide in Gaza. I do hope the march is well attended. It starts at 1.00 p.m. at the Central Bank in the centre of Dublin. It will end at the Israeli Embassy (122 Pembroke Broad, D4). There are similar actions throughout Ireland this week.

new Ryanair scam

I arrived at Gatwick today to fly Ryanair FR117 to Dublin. I queued at the desk and prepared to check in. Imagine my shock when, for the first time in thirty-five years of air travel, I was told I would have to pay £10 for checking in. They informed me this was evident in the small print of my Internet booking form, but I hadn't seen it. Given that it signals a major change, I think Ryanair is up to its old tricks of tacking on charges and not making it too obvious to the beleaguered customer until it's too late. This view was confirmed by a large queue of people at the Servisair desk parting with £10 for the same outrageous scam.

No wonder Ryanair is a byword in devious charging. Please, please don't let them get Aer Lingus, an airline with some vestiges of decency left.