Taking fight to young jihadists

HOW times change. Ten years ago, the Church of England was leading calls for restraint in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it is religious leaders, like the Bishop of Leeds and now Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who are becoming perturbed by Downing Street’s delay and dither to the advance of the self-proclaimed Islamic State and a British jihadist’s apparent role in the beheading of the American journalist James Foley.

Though Lord Carey stresses that “the menacing advance of the Islamic State should not prejudice Western people against Muslim people and the Islamic faith”, he says young people prepared to fight for foreign terrorist groups should be stripped of their British passports so that cannot travel back to these shores “with the barbaric and bloodthirsty skills they have gained”.

This view is backed by David Davis, the Howden and Haltemprice MP, who has described Britain’s response as “tentative, uncertain, almost limp” before pointing out that he would have been stood accused of “treason” if he had defected to the Soviet Army at the height of the Cold War. The former Shadow Home Secretary also offered a typically robust response to those in the Government who say that passports cannot be stripped from young jihadists. “Democracies have a right to defend themselves,” he declared.

However, the pressure being exerted on the Home Office over the forfeiture of passports should not detract from a more fundamental priority namely the need to identify those impressionable young people whose minds are being poisoned by hate preachers whose views are totally incompatible with the all-encompassing values of a liberal democracy that has gone out of its way to embrace families from all faiths. Unless this recruitment can be halted, the threat posed by IS fanatics will only intensify.

Politics of envy

Cable’s call for pay transparency

IT would be disingenuous not to acknowledge the positive role played by the Liberal Democrats in helping to lift the poor out of poverty. Even Labour MPs privately admit that the decision to lift the personal tax threshold to £10,000 was an inspired one that has exposed the policy shortcomings of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s respective governments which failed to reward endeavour sufficiently.

Despite this policy and the welcome return of economic growth following the longest recession since the war, the North-South divide still remains stubbornly wide and there is still a belief that a wealthy elite are exploiting the low-paid. This is the motivation behind York-born Vince Cable’s call for tighter rules on zero hour contracts and a Lib Dem coalition commitment that will compel businesses with more than 250 staff to release the pay details of their top earner.

However, while some will concur with Mr Cable, the Business Secretary must not take the politics of envy too far. Today’s report by Lloyds Bank on exports offers a salutary warning about the fragile nature of the recovery, and how growth will only continue if there is an upsurge. As such, it is important that the word ‘entrepreneur’ is not sullied by politicians ahead of the next election.

If the welfare bill is to be reduced, and the public sector scaled back, Britain will need a new generation of innovators with the vision and drive to create the jobs of tomorrow in this country rather than taking their expertise overseas. Will Mr Cable’s proposals help or hinder this? It is a conundrum which needs to be reconciled before this plan is implemented.

Captain marvel

Sinfield rises to challenge at last

“IF at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” The wise words of the American writer W. C. Fields sprung to mind after Kevin Sinfield finally lifted the Tetley’s Challenge Cup after 15 years of heartbreak in his sport’s showcase event of the year.

This was a magical moment – rugby league’s equivalent to the ageless AP McCoy winning the Grand National after so many near-misses – which was the culmination of a lifetime of blood, sweat and tears for Sinfield and his Leeds Rhinos team-mates who were driven forward by the marauding 36-year-old Jamie Peacock.

Typically the winning captain was the first to praise the vanquished from Castleford Tigers who put up a brave fight before paying tribute to all those associated with the Rhinos. However this deserves, in time, to be remembered as the Kevin Sinfield final – the year when one of rugby league’s greatest ever ambassadors led his deliriously happy team up the famous Wembley steps in triumph.