"The reason I didn't want it mentioned, Jim,"
It appears to be an unavoidable part of the debate
I watched with growing anger Question Time last night - particularly the lady who started on "we must start facing the facts about Muslim terrorism"
It really is time that somebody started to debate the likely causes of the growth of terrorism rather than making it an aspect of culture

I was taken with this piece while I was away

Irish Times, yesterday

NIGHTMARE SCENARIO FOR EUROPEAN ELECTIONS IS CLEARLY ON CARDS
A victory for a far-right candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker could prompt a major political crisis

With elections to the European Parlia¬ment looming in May 2019, the plenary this week in Stras¬bourg, the beginning of the last session before MEPs face the people, was inevitably dominat¬ed by a determination to make the place appear relevant, energetic and sensitive to popular concerns.
But underlying much of the discussions was the recurring theme of the seemingly irresistible electoral rise of the populist, nationalist right and the neo-fascist far-right.
That reality was confirmed by the success of the Sweden Democrats last weekend, although the gains made by the party were less dramatic than predicted.
Parliament’s fightback was reflected in a first for MEPs; the move to invoke against Hungary the EU’s article 7
disciplinary procedure to deal with member states who stray from European values and the rule of law. It saw the country’s defiant and combative prime minister, Viktor Orbán, come to Strasbourg to engage with MEPs in person.
As MEPs voted yesterday by a substantial majority to invoke article 7, what was clear was the depth of anger at both Orbán’s determination, in the name of Christian purity, to keep out migrants, and his attacks on freedom of the press, NGOs, educational rights and democratic values.

SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT
That is the case even within the centre-right European Peo¬ple’s Party (EPP), where the membership of Orbán’s Fidesz party is a cause of serious embarrassment.
The party’s expulsion from the EPP is now believed
inevitable. Manfred Weber, the EPP’s group leader and Spitzenkandidat (candidate for the European Commission presidency), warned that “We expect the Hungarian govern¬ment to make a move towards their EU partners ... Funda¬mental values must be respect¬ed by all.”
The EPP’s reluctance so far to deal robustly with the Hungarian problem is in no small measure a function of the political landscape emerging for the European Parliament elections and notably the growth of the right.
The Spitzenkandidat system, under which European Parliament party groups name their lead candidate for the commission job and then expect reluctant national leaders to forsake their own prerogative to endorse the candidate who emerges with the largest vote, is a natural fit for the EPP as the parliament’s largest force.
But with the emergence of Emmanuel Macron in France eclipsing its French mem- ber-party, Les Républicains, the loss of the Hungarian bloc could also squeeze the party
electorally and jeopardise its position, not to mention Weber’s ambitions.
Indeed a nightmare Spitzen¬kandidat scenario is being widely touted - that a cross-Eu- rope alliance of the nationalist and far-right parties around their own Spitzenkandidat could, with a fair wind, pass out the EPP and other parties to present European leaders with a Eurosceptic commission president nominee.

"COALITION
Some suggest that a candidate best able to carry that flag for the right would be Italy’s deputy prime minister and interior minister, Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Liga anti-immigrant party, which is in coalition with the Five Star Movement.
Salvini clearly has a Europe¬an vocation and, observers suggest, could easily be prevailed on to stand. He recently met Orbán to discuss a joint anti-immigrant front and claimed they were “walking down the same path”. He then signed up in Brussels to join “the Movement”, the organisa¬tion that former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon hopes will provide a forum for Europe’s divided far-right.
An expanded populist representation in the parlia¬ment will make building legislative alliances more difficult and would promise a turbulent term. But a victory for their Spitzenkandidat nomination, whether Salvini or another, would certainly prompt a major political crisis. Such a candidate would prove completely unacceptable to European leaders, who would certainly find another candi¬date for the commission job.
The parliament has pledged, however, that it will not ratify any commission president who does not emerge from the Spitzenkandidat system. How a centre-right/left majority of MEPs, which will certainly emerge from the elections, will execute a U-turn to block a Salvini-like commission candidacy will be interesting.

IMPASSIONED APPEAL
This week in Strasbourg also saw an impassioned appeal from the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to “progres¬sive” parties to form a common platform for the elections. Tsipras said it “will be more than just one more election, it will be a combat on the basis of principles and values”, with pro-EU forces squaring off against “extreme neoliberal¬ism and far-right populism”.
“We should not let Europe slide back into the past.”
His call is unlikely to be heeded."

Before the Little Brits make this a 'European' issue, yesterday it emerged that Jewish Leaders have CONDEMN MAY FOR BACKING FASCIST ORBAN
Let's see if the Tories hold an enquiry into antisemitism !!

I had a blazing argument with MacColl and Charles Parker once when I suggested that, after the Holocaust, the Wester nations would never let it happen again
It seems to be I was wrong
Jim