Round-up

1. A leaked letter from the Home Office outlines how the so-called "credit crunch" in Britain will lead to people becoming poorer, which in turn will fuel resentment of immigrants as job competition stiffens. The letter states: "There is a risk of a downturn increasing the appeal of far-right extremism and racism, which presents a threat as there is evidence that grievances based on experiencing racism are one of the factors that can lead to people becoming terrorists."

Really? And what terrorists might these be, exactly?

2. RAW Watch - Here is a piece of Palestinian propaganda posted at Media Matters: "Racism is Alive and Well in Israel."

3. Check out this truly lazy news article at the Telegraph. Even the headline is misleading.

A Cambridge academic, George Steiner, 79, said he believed racism was inherent in everyone and that racial tolerance was merely skin deep. "It's very easy to sit here, in this room, and say 'racism is horrible'," he said from his house in Cambridge, where he has been Extraordinary Fellow at Churchill College since 1969. "But ask me the same thing if a Jamaican family moved next door with six children and they play reggae and rock music all day. Or if an estate agent comes to my house and tells me that because a Jamaican family has moved next door the value of my property has fallen through the floor. Ask me then!"

The playwright and critic Bonnie Greer labelled him a "cranky old man", while Muslim groups accused him of "offensive and lazy" racist generalisations.

Actually, Mr. Steiner didn't make any "generalisations" at all; he simply used a hypothetical example to illustrate his point that sometimes people may have valid grievances against people of other races, and that someone's being Jamaican, for example, shouldn't make them immune to criticism or reproach.