I stopped supporting them when they shamed themselves with their treatment of Gita Sahgal. Looks like empty headed multiculturalism invaded this organisation, long, long ago.

I went to a CofE boarding school, the Christian ethos was exactly what I required when I was a kid. I was still able to be a practising Muslim, but being within a compassionate Christian atmosphere made the whole experience more enjoyable. Good luck getting normal state schools to teach Christianity (or indeed any religion) effectively, much rests on the knowledge of the teacher. At my brother's school, RE was taught by the PE teacher ordering kids to copy out of a textbook. There should be a Christian ethos in every state school, school assemblies should have prayers and hymns and religious holiday's should be explored. It's not imposing religion, it's bring principles back into the classroom.

Is the vote conducted by secret ballot?

One has to wonder if we'd be treated to such generous pledges if the Tories had won an out-right majority?

The South Park episode was top-notch. We must not let a few loud-mouths censor the freedom to express opinions on religion. Although, I'm worried about the safety of the producers of the show ..

The irony of it is that he's quite convincing when he LOOKS DIRECTLY AT THE CAMERA.

The public hate brown and the posters shows his failings. Simple and it works. Good job.

Hear, hear! As a YBF Grad myself, I can only commend the great work that YBF does. The left have The Fabians (yuck), pretty much every University student union in this country that indoctrinate young people into the left. But YBF is there to promote conservative principles and help empower young people into leadership - nothing wrong with that at all.

Good to see some American's still value freedom. Obama's 'softly-softly' approach will do little to curb Iranian ambitions to go nuclear and economic sanctions are useless on a rogue state like Iran. The only language the Iranian's understand is that of force, it looks like some sort of tactical strike on their nuclear plants looks like a real possibility.

The ticking time-bomb you describe hasn't happened yet. In that case, if you had to sacrifice one life for the betterment of a thousand. Then yes, moral absolutism aside, to torture that person, I guess, would be permissible. Until then however, I'm against it.

Laveen, the judges called the treatment 'cruel, degrading and inhuman' - surely what other definition would you want? If you agree to what the American's did then why stop there? Shall we bring back the rack? Foot-whipping? Knee-capping? Why stop there? No. When you indulge in acts of torture you not only break International Law but you make a statement which is much worse to the enemy. You tell your enemy that whatever deprivations they are capable of, you'll happily match them. Simple moral codes are the hallmark of a civilised society.

Hear, Hear!

Excellent article and your point is well made. I'm shocked at the crassness of Con Coughlin's words. Does he even know what freedom means? Torture of any kind is not the business of a civilised state to indulge in, it makes us no better than the enemy and acts as a great recruitment tool to those who's hearts and minds we are trying to win over. Coughlin should stop getting ideas from Jack Bauer and start living up to the ideals of a liberal democracy.

Super news. A Tory Muslim MP is a long time coming.

Quite right Tim. It also bothers me when people say that Blair/Bush did not go through the UN with Iraq. Yes they did, in fact they went along with the UN more than they needed too. Saddam Hussain had defied every UN resolution put to him, why was he going to listen to an institution as feeble as the UN? Dictators understand one thing, and that's force.