Salut!

Posting removed

This posting has now been removed. It dealt with alleged attacks in Belmarsh jail on Andy Coulson. Serious doubt has now been raised about the accuracy of the report that originated at the International Business Times website and was repeated and commented on elsewhere online.

My posting covered other ground that did not depend on the veracity of the report but the only proper course, certainly for now, is to mothball the whole piece.

Apologies if tweets or other sources directed you here only for that particular cupboard to be bare ...

Israel's bloody war is a gift to its enemies

My old boss Max Hastings wrote a superb piece in the Daily Mail the other day, reaffirming his admiration for Israel but deploring the grotesque propaganda ammunition Netanyahu's government has handed violent Islamists everywhere. But anger at Israel's actions runs far deeper. Look beyond the evil characters chanting "death to Jews" (France) or "gas the Jews" (Germany); even those who support (or accept) Israel's right to exist are aghast. This is how I summarised European responses for The National*, with short extracts from the Hastings column ...

Minding our language: a skiing scholar saw words on a slippery slope

The inspiration for the second edition of my new monthly column on words for The National* was Sir Arnold Lunn. He came from a distinguished family. His father, Henry, was a Methodist minister, founder of the big British travel firm that became Lunn Poly and an early champion of winter sports. Arnold became a revered figure in international skiing and also invented a new word, phrop, for comments where the true meaning is the opposite of the words spoken or written.

In 2003, according to a skimpy entry at Wikipedia, a subsequent owner of Lunn Poly - the German travel group TUI - promised it had no intention of dropping the name. A year later, the name was dropped in favour of the supposed "powerbrand" Thomson. A phrop, or just common-or-garden corporate economy with the truth? You judge. Here's the column ...

Myriam Bourhail, superstudent: 'talent is talent'

Here is a great little story* that speaks for itself. I am glad I overcame an inclination to adopt a heavier tone in this introduction ....

The daughter of an immigrant Moroccan factory worker has been named France’s top high school student after scoring the highest marks in this summer’s baccalauréat examinations.

What would Voltaire have said about the jail sentence on Anne-Sophie Leclère?

In answer to my own headline, I fancy he woud have said quite a lot ...

It is perhaps no secret what I think of the Le Pen dynasty, the Front National and all other racists and fascists.

How French and British Muslims go from opposing Islamists to waging Jihad

Damascus as experienced in happier times

After the double-page project I undertook for The National, Abu Dhabi on the foreign fighters of the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts, some attempt at analysis seemed obligatory. These are my thoughts; I am happy to be challenged ...

Photos du weekend: Le Lavandou

This posting is aimed without apology at the English-speaking people who, increasingly or so it seems, head for the southern French resort of Le Lavandou, roughly midway between Toulon and Saint-Tropez, between Marseille and Nice.

New to NYC: waking up in a city that never sleeps

The extended Salut! empire always does its bit to encourage young writers. Occasionally, it offers a helping hand to older ones, too. Here's Bill Taylor, my old pal from local newspaper and folk club days in the North East, with some charming reminiscences of being Down and Out in NYC. That's Bill above, with Lesley, the Pennsylvania lass who became Mrs Taylor, pictured early in his American adventure ...

And if western Muslims drawn to foreign battlefields go home ...

It hits us in the face most weeks, a latest round of media reports about this or that western Muslim, usually young, who has been lured to the conflicts in Syria or Iraq, often on the side of the most extreme of fighting groups with reputations for bloodthirsty atrocities.

Grade A sisters from Manchester last week, student brothers from Cardiff (one of whom now boasts about British fears of him returning with his 'new skills'), a lycéenne of just 15 from Avignon, a man who had burst free from the no-job, no-hope grip of the Parisian banlieue to get a good job. Some of their backgrounds make a mockery of the classic assumption that only unintelligent small-time crooks - radicalised in jail - are attracted.

The National, Abu Dhabi* asked me to present half a dozen case studies. They can be seen at this link - http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/interactive-faces-of-foreign-fighters-in-syria-iraq. And this is how I introduced the package ...

When did northern beer stop being best?

I was brought up on the idea that northern beer was best. Anything from down south was guaranteed to be effete and tasteless, if not fizzy and impure. It would certainly be undrinkable.

If honest, I'd admit to having been more of a wine man for many years now.