Madness Comes To Brum

A disused mansion house in Birmingham is to be converted into the local headquarters for the ‘Church’ of Scientology. That’s all we need; don’t we already have enough Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons in the area who are more than willing to stop us in the street to preach? The scientologists released a statement saying that its following in the West Midlands had apparently increased by 25% in the last ten years, but that is slightly misleading without the specific figures because an increase as little as four members to five members would count as 25%. But most disturbingly hilarious of all, one wing of the building is going to be named after the founder of scientology, the science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. That’s right, the man who plucked this ‘religion’ out of thin air used to write sci-fi – what a coincidence! I mean it’s almost as if he was able to make the whole thing up! How this six million pound building redevelopment got approval is beyond me.

Coalition MPs Are Occasionally Okay

A new campaign has been launched called ‘Feel Free To Insult Me’. Two of its main proponents are gay rights activist Peter Tatchell and Conservative MP David Davis. It simply promotes freedom of speech, even when insulting a person or group. Recently there have been a couple of disconcerting arrests: although common sense finally allowed them to be released without charge, a teenage boy was nonetheless arrested merely for holding a placard that read “Scientology is a dangerous cult”, and a student was arrested for a joke about a police officer’s horse being gay! If scientologists and homosexuals are offended by these statements, they need to grow up and chill out. So Tatchell and Davis have put their usual ideological differences aside in the hope that a law banning public insults will be repealed. Therefore, well done David Davis for resisting the traditional control freakery of the Tories. Also in the news this week, a report has been released by a ‘Conservative-supporting venture capitalist’ (now there are four words that should send chills down anybody’s spine!), encouraging reform of employment law so that ‘no-fault dismissal’ would become a great deal easier. In layman’s terms, this means employers will be able to sack an employee without having to provide a reason, thereby avoiding tribunal expenses. Thankfully, Business Secretary and Liberal Democrat MP Vince Cable has stated his opinion that there is no place in British society for this type of removal of workers’ rights. This will hopefully prevent such a draconian policy from ever reaching fruition. So also a big well done to Vince for realising that the economy is not the be all and end all of politics. But of course, Davis and Cable are exceptions; don’t ever forget that the majority of the ConDem coalition government are still very uncool.

Slightly scary scientology

Last night on a BBC Panorama documentary, many of the negative aspects of religion were demonstrated. Tommy Davis, a head figure in the scientology movement (that's right, the organisation which celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta try to convince us is A-okay), effectively stalked and intimidated a BBC journalist. Davis would participate in haranguing the interviewer if the current interviewee was known to harbour opinions which were unfavourable to scientology, attacking the journalist with a Nazi-type conversational style - interrupting and talking over his opposition, then storming away before a response could be delivered. It made Davis look like a childish control freak at best, and a dictatorial monster at worst. Other figures in the scientology movement (including celebrities) were initially willing to take part in the documentary, but then pulled out if the wrong questions were asked. I understand that media reports can never be entirely objective and that a longer documentary than half an hour to explore all of the facts in depth would have been an improvement; but there's no doubt in my mind that scientology - and certainly Tommy Davis - has anything ranging from deep insecurity issues to ideas of world domination! The only thing I would really agree with them on is that if so many people do believe in the principles of scientology (and there are many in America), then it has just as much right to call itself a religion than any other organised group of worshippers; it shouldn't really be labelled as a cult anymore. It's just a really fucked up religion!
As with all religions, the need to belong somewhere and to feel that you're special does not give anybody a 'God-given' right to tell anybody else what to do. I wouldn't dream of indiscriminately confronting a scientologist in an attempt to rip their beliefs to pieces (even though I probably could), and yet I wonder after the bizarre behaviour I saw last night whether I'll wake up tomorrow morning to find that my binbags have been raided and a strange darkened vehicle is following me!. Let's hope so, I could do with some excitement to write about in my next blog!