The Bishop of Rochester, cabbie no. 1867 Dr Nazir-Ali, has caused a row by claiming that unspecified areas of Britain are no-go areas for people of different faiths.

Speaking as someone who lived in Bethnal Green for three years, in the most Muslim bit of the third most Muslim constituency in the UK, I can report that I was able to be a white Christian, and indeed get married in a Christian church, without being physically attacked or racially abused at any stage. This is not something that all Muslims can say. You were saying something about no-go areas, your Grace?

Nazir-Ali’s real complaint, as his interview in the Telegraph makes clear, is that the state is not privileging the established church enough. So, to be clear, religious extremism is wrong but imposing the beliefs of imams church leaders on an unwilling population is the only solution. Glad we’ve got that sorted.

Didn’t watch it myself, but the bloggertarians are going to hate the Queen’s Christmas message, in which she said “people should share responsibility to help those less fortunate than themselves.”

The Conservatives are complaining that Whitehall departments spend too much money at Christmas. The total five-year spend of Whitehall departments on Christmas parties, decorations and cards was £461,000, which works out at a

shocking

twenty pence per civil servant per year. This

extravagance

– almost enough for one bite of a Marks and Spencer Mince Pie – will doubtless

outrage hard-working families

, at least those who aren’t repelled by the unseasonal stench of cant and hypocrisy.

It’s a great day today, as the borders between even more European countries evaporate. I wonder how long it will be before we Brits (and Irish) see sense?

If you want a representation of why the American healthcare system is so, so broken, head on over to givewell.com, where you can buy a Visa-brand healthcare giftcard, handy for all those occasions where getting life-saving treatment has to be preceded by handing over cold, hard cash.

I remember attending a lecture in the late ’90s at the Institute of Economic Affairs that was saying how we should move to an American healthcare model. It seemed weird then – it seems positively crazy now.

Via MeFi