It is now an archive for my newspaper and magazine pieces. My blog can now be read at: www.spectator.co.uk/stephenpollard
Politics, economics and culture from the master. Unmissable.
Melanie Phillips home page
Melanie Phillips' peerless blog. Read, and learn.
Daniel Finkelstein's Times Comment Central
A daily must-read.
Tim Worstall
Lots of interesting nibbles - and a ruthless swatter of economic gibberish.
Harry's Place
Must-read left of centre blog from writers who understand the threat to the West.
Clive Davis
Always interesting selection of culture and politics, from an Anglo-American bent.
Samizdata
Libertarian blog, packed every day.
Norm's blog
The thoroughly sensible thoughts of renowned left-wing academic Norman Geras, Professor of Government at Manchester. And cricket, too.
Public Interest
Peter Briffa's inimitable take on The Yazzmonster and other assorted demons.
Reform
The public sector reform group; their website is an invaluable source of data and ideas.
Centre for the New Europe
The leading European public policy think tank.
Developed by:
| February | 15 |
| 2007 |
I'm sure I'm not alone in deciding that life is too short to respond to the claims of every crank who gets in touch. Whenever I write about the Middle East, for instance, I receive at least one email pointing out that the Holocaust never happened.
The 'demand' of Neil Clark that I produce evidence to support the label 'genocidal butcher' for Slobodan Milosevic is in similar vein, and thus something I would usually ignore. But Oliver Kamm has a relevant post, to which I point you.
If the proposed new EU law making genocide denial a crime comes into effect, I can see no reason why Mr Clark should not be prosecuted. His denial not only of Milosevic's guilt but, indeed, of the genocide itself is something which he trumpets. However, I would find myself in the odd position of believing that he should not have been imprisoned in the first place. As I wrote at the time of the antisemite David Irving's imprisonment:
[F]or all the manifest ways in which Austria has a shameful post-war political history, making Holocaust denial a crime is wrong both in practice and in principle.
It is wrong in practise because, far from helping to deal with the legacy of the single greatest crime in human history, it sweeps it under the carpet, allows it to fester, and makes false martyrs out of the most repellent human beings.
And it is wrong in principle because it goes against the very fabric of Western civilisation and liberty that people can be imprisoned for expressing a view, however vile that view may be.
It would ill behove anyone who defends the right of the Danish newspapers to publish cartoons mocking Mohammed then to defend the idea of Holocaust denial being a crime. Free speech is not absolute - I cannot call a certain politician a thieving liar, for instance, without the evidence to back up the statement - but it ought to be a guiding principle of our societies.
(It is important to separate out the expression of a view which might be - and, in Irving's case, is - used by violent thugs to justify their behaviour, from those times when the expression of the view is itself an incitement to violence or other criminal behaviour. In the former case, allowing such an expression is the concomitant of liberty; in the latter it is properly dealt with through the courts.)
So for all that genocide deniers such as Irving and Clark must be exposed for their historical innacuracies, their liberty to put forward such lies is an essential part of our liberty.
MessageSpace
Ive posted this on Clarks blog, but sadly he does not like posts that do not fit into his paragram, so for the record here it is.
>>Milosevic's 'genocide' was well and truly laid bare on BBC4 last night.
Its was planned, and it was systematic. From what i saw the case against Milosevic was made by Milsoevic himself.
GUILTY as charged.
I understand that Mr. Clark is currently being referred to as "Eleanor" in certain circles because of some supposed resemblance to Eleanor Roosevelt. Aside from being a most terrible insult to the wonderful Mrs. Roosevelt, I really don't see the resemblance myself. Personally, I think he looks rather like a really quite deranged gardener my family used to employ. So perhaps Mr. Clark needs help but not of the sort a prison usually offers?
To be fair, my girlfriend thinks that Mr. Pollard looks like an exceedingly cute and very elegant teddy bear. So perhaps Mr. P. really needs to be put on permanent display at Hamleys, and hey, "Pollard of Regent Street" does have quite a snappy ring to it. Certainly snappier than "Clark of Broadmoor".
Sorry about this, But Clarke is not posting my repay to him at the moment, so ill once again post it here.
-------------------------------
Lets see now...kosavas killed in Kosovo, rounded up, executed, buried, dug up and found in a river in Serbia.
Orders given in code in telephone conversations between high ranking Milosevic aids and himself.
The list goes on, esp his links with the scorpians BUT its is pointless as you are living in a Paragram, for you the truth is some how negotiable.
This is what the truth is, Milosevic and the rest of the National Socialist Serbian elite, used systematic killing to drive fear into other ethnic groups, so they fled (3 million did) and gave up territory to Serbs. (Yes the Serbs suffered too, But that does not excuse the use of genocide to drive out and/or kill an ethnic group)
War is when one side or both, seeks to conquer or submit to its will by the use of force, this was not war.
This (war) was not the political intentions of the National Socialist Serbs. This was the use of fear thru murder, and its very scale says that by objective truth it is inconceivable that it was not orchestrated with direct or indirect orders from Belgrade.
Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
Contents
Guilty as charged.
Posting my comments here seems to insure he publishes them on his own blog, so if you don't mind?
>>The indictment was not split!!
SO come on put your real cards on the table. what are you saying?
Are you saying Milosevic was not guilty as there was NO genocide?
Or there was a Genocide as Milosevic had nothing to do with it?
1, Fact 1, There was a genocide, here it is again "Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;"
(and No I am not bothered what the post-modernist, Neo-Marxists have to say at the Observer, and No I don't buy any newspaper before you start!)
I have served on a jury, and I have acquitted, I know what you are looking for when looking for truth.
You are looking for the story that best explains the facts (btw Facts are value-free, just like science should be)
You are not going to get a piece of paper or a video with Milosevic brandishing a gun or signing a piece of paper saying, "Go and kill as many Kosovan Muslims as you need to frighten the others away", and even If you did you would not accept it (and neither would I, as it would probably be fabricated)
SO fact 2, It was planned (intercepts and evidence in court, best explains the language used on those intercepts)
SO who has the capacity to plan? the arms, the means, the logistics, the timing? the place? a few paramilitary,s on a bender? a few bent angry police men? or locals wanting a few extra fields from their neighbours?
I think the diary of the chief of security gave the game away. It was planned in Milosevic,s office. So if it was planned there don't you think he would have known about it? and if it was a few renegades, he would have acted to stop them?
Its called Linear thinking! and that leads to the only conclusion. GUILTY.
My grandfather was one of the first troops to reach Bergen Belsen concentration camp.He paid for it all the rest of his life, in alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling addiction, family breakdown and night terrors. I promised him that I would not turn my face to evil (thats if you can believe in evil in your post-modernist pinter world)...you should learn to do the same.
I pity you.
Pollard is cute? No, he is just fat.
Question: What happens when genocide is unproven?
Answer: It is re-defined.
A massacre becomes genocide. Not only that, where is the proof that Milosevic gave orders to wipe out any Muslims? And while we are at it, where are the speeches denouncing the Muslims as unter-menschen, etc.?
One has the impression that Pollard's credibility was coming under strain and that he phoned his friend Ollie (who automatically turned to his hero MAH) for some hard evidence of Milosevic''s "genocide". Perhaps it also shows that Pollard had probably not really thought it through until now. Too bad it all depends on flimsy arguments and a semantic pirouette.
And this terrible news just in:
The ICJ has ruled that Serbia is NOT guilty of genocide in Bosnia. The clever amongst you will realise that this implies that Milosevic has been exonerated.
That evil Serb bastard. He cheats justice again!!! Let's dig up his corpse and drag it through the streets.
With condolences to the professional anti-Serb brigades.