David's Daily Diversions

I had hoped to just

I had hoped to just write today about our family outing to Gloucester. We had a lovely day. Maybe I will tell you about it tomorrow. But there’s just too much to say about Tower Hamlets Council and the Hot Cross Buns story.

First I want to thank Iain Murray of The Edge of England’s Sword for his comments on my stand with this story. Check out his story posted at 10:48 today. He’s harder on Tower Hamlets than I am! I also want to thank Phil Ingram at flyingchair.net for linking to it as well.

I also want to thank my web hosts for refusing to pull down my website when Tower Hamlets contacted them and had the audacity to tell them that it contained material which is contrary to British law. I believe my hosts informed them that as they are situated in the United States, Tower Hamlets could sod off.

I’ve updated the original story to include Tower Hamlets’ press release on the matter. I had so much fun with it that I have included it here for you. I hesitate to publish it, for fear that you might think I’ve somehow given in to them.

Apparently, the existence of this piece will incite racial hatred in East London. Now my traffic stats would indicate that about the only people in East London reading David's Daily Diversions are apparatchiks of the Tower Hamlets Council. Now you do the math: if it will incite racial unrest and the only people reading it are with the Council, it sounds like the Council has plenty of internal problems to sort out without harassing people like me.

As I have explained in my further story on this, I'm not removing what I have written. In the spirit of fair play, however, I am willing to append hereto the official press release from Tower Hamlets. Of course, as with any governmental statement, I reserve the right to comment upon it. So feel free to read the press release, giving it the same credibility you would give anything emanating from government sources in general and Tower Hamlets in particular:

"Response to Sunday Telegraph article, 16.3.03

"In response to the article concerning Hot Cross Buns (pg 11) in the above newspaper: Tower Hamlets Council would like to make it clear that it has never ordered schools not to serve hot cross buns at Easter. This allegation is entirely without foundation.

"In addition:
"1. Tower Hamlets Council, as the Local Education Authority, has a recommended Religious Education curriculum which encourages schools to celebrate the full range of religious festivals and to take a multi-faith approach to religion.

"2. However, the Local Education Authority is not in a position to order any school on its religious requirements for food. That is a decision to be taken by each school.

"3. The Council respects each school's choice as to whether it takes part in any marketing event regarding school catering.

"4. All schools in the borough were given the option of whether they wanted pancakes to be provided on pancake day and we supplied pancakes to all schools that requested them. We are unaware of any complaints.

"5. Tower Hamlets Council celebrates the rich cultural diversity of its community and the benefits that this brings.
"-Ends-"

First of all let's cut the crap. Paragraphs 1 and 5 are irrelevant. Nothing wrong with them, but they have no bearing on the truth or falsity of the article in the Telegraph. Of course only a Liberal Democrat-controlled council could make perfectly legitimate statement sound like they don't actually stand for anything. According to paragraph 3, the serving of hot cross buns is a marketing event??? And most of paragraph 4 is again irrelevant. Neither the Sunday Telegraph nor I suggested that schools weren't given the option to serve pancakes. But paragraph 4 seems to taint the truthfulness of paragraph 2. If the LEA is not in a position to order, what is it doing giving options?

So you decide. Which is more credible, the Sunday Telegraph or Tower Hamlets Council?