It is ironic how a nation of local-minded islanders – such as the British – so often complain the freedom of speech among its European counterparts, yet it so often goes on to readily suppress the freedom of expression. This month has been a perfect example of that phenomenon. Whilst London wags its finger at Moscow for the alleged role of the Kremlin in the death of a Chechen war reporter, Anna Politkovskaya, the BNP staged a party conference in Blackpool, heavily suppressed by leftist elements in society. While Politkovskaya lies dead in an early grave for voicing unfashionable concerns on Russian actions in Chechnya territories, I wonder – hypothetically speaking – just how many people in the UK would have looked sadly upon the unexpected murder of the BNP leader for voicing similarly unfashionable concerns in Blackpool? Not many. Perhaps foreign rebels are infinitely more attractive that the rebels on one’s own doorstep.

In a few hours, France 24 is being launched on the internet, to be followed tomorrow with the launch of its two television channels. France 24 is the new state-funded news channel that is to bring "the French viewpoint" to the world and intends to challenge CNN and BBC World. The website will be trilingual from the start, in English, French and Arabic. On television there will be two parallel channels, one in English and one in French. Arabic and Spanish broadcasts are planned for the future. The new station is the brainchild of French president Jacques Chirac. Frustrated by the dominance of CNN and other "Anglo-Saxon" media on matters that influence world opinion, Chirac announced his plans during his election campaign of 2002.

Two months ago when Muslims planned to build a mosque in Windsor, white hooligans decided they had had enough. They attacked Muslims in the streets and tried to burn down a milk factory owned by a local Muslim. Ye olde English fighting spirit. Despicable. Not very subtle, either. Typically Anglo-Saxon behaviour, as the French would say. From a people genetically infused with the extermination impulse, as Ralph Peters would argue.

Next January Portugal is holding a referendum on abortion. The governing Socialists will ask the people the same question that the last Socialist government asked in 1998. Then people gave the wrong answer. Hence they are being asked again whether they want to loosen the abortion law. Portugal has a strict abortion regulation, resembling Poland’s. Both countries are thoroughly Christian. In both countries abortion is forbidden. A woman can only have her foetus killed in the first months of pregnancy if the conception is the result of rape or if the pregnancy endangers the mother’s health or when the foetus is malformed.

A quote from Keith Johnson in The Wall Street Journal, 4 December 2006

[Spain’s Prime Minister] Zapatero, a self-described “red” and pacifist, is pushing a new historical reading of the Spanish Civil War that includes literally rubbing Gen. Franco’s name off the map. As part of a proposed new “law of historical memory,” Mr. Zapatero wants towns across Spain to erase all vestiges of Franco – from street names to statues. […] As he pushes for a new reading of that period, Mr. Zapatero is unleashing an army of ghosts that had been dormant for decades […] The bill and the broader issues surrounding the Civil War have come to dominate many corners of contemporary political debate. Recently, on a prime-time TV show, Mr. Zapatero’s top spokesman and a senior official from the Popular Party angrily debated government policies from 70 years ago.

A quote from European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso welcoming Finland’s ratification of the EU Constitution, 5 December 2006

This is a very good signal [...] It shows that our project is still alive.

A quote from Christopher Booker in a column censored by The Sunday Torygraph, 3 December 2006

As David Cameron ends his first year as leader of the Opposition, there are clear signs that the greatest gamble in modern British politics has not come off. The little group of ex-public schoolboys who last year hi-jacked the Conservative Party have seemed to gamble on just one strategy. List everything the Party used to stand for – low taxes, the family, rolling back the power of the state, encouraging business, upholding our defences, curbing criminals, common sense – then go for the opposite. [...] What many voters sadly begin to conclude is that Dave and his cronies seem so hopelessly ill-equipped to take on the serious business of government that, if we have to choose between one gang of PR merchants and another, better stick with the devil we know.

Is the European Union in crisis? Can an institution that is stealthily, slowly and gradually usurping the powers of European national parliaments be in crisis? Over half of Belgian legislation no longer emanates from Belgium’s elected parliamentarians but from the unelected bureaucrats of the European Commission. In 2000 the Belgian federal Parliament voted a total of 185 bills, of which 58 (31.3%) where European directives converted into Belgian bills. The number of directives converted into bills rises every year. In 2005, 191 bills were voted of which 99 (51.8%) were European directives converted into Belgian bills.

Is Islam compatible with democracy? This is a question I address elsewhere. We also have to ask ourselves, however, whether the conditions needed for a properly functioning democratic system are currently present even in the West. I’m not always sure about that. In a functioning democratic state, the state passes laws in accordance with the wishes of the people, and also strives to uphold these laws. In Western Europe in particular, the state does neither, as most laws are passed by unelected EU bureaucrats and not elected national parliaments, and as the streets are increasingly ruled by gangs and criminals.

If you’ve ever wanted to know what a Divine Liturgy with a Pope and a Patriarch looks like, my photoset of this week’s is now available. There have only been three of these in the past thousand years, so it’s a rare thing indeed.

The final batch of Istanbul photographs are now available in three sets. First, a set of all the photographs of the Hagia Sophia. Second, a set of photographs of the old Church of the Holy Savior at Chora, one of the most remarkable surviving examples of Byzantine art. Finally, a set of photographs from the Askeri Müze -- the military museum of Turkey.