So I’ve been spending some time browsing a selection of bloggers; chiefly libertarians and members of the hawkish left, but also, and even - God help me - Melanie Phillips, who is often much funnier than she intends to be (Imminent death of civilisation predicted! film at eleven!).

Probably not so funny if you’re a British Muslim, though. Given Phillips’ (I think correct) understanding of antisemitism as a conceptual schema (deicide + blood libel + “rootless cosmopolitanism” + “dual loyalties” + Israel as sole instigator and perpetuator of entire Arab-Israeli conflict + whatever you’re having) rather than a simple visceral antipathy towards Jews, it’s a pity that she has such a blind spot about Islamophobia, a similar set of routines that Phillips herself rehearses frequently.

A certain ruthlessness in prosecuting instances of antisemitism is to be applauded, I think, but one ought then to be careful about complaining that equivalent ruthlessness towards Islamophobic utterances amounts to an attempt to “silence criticism of Islam”. Much of the muck that gets slung at Muslims is no more legitimate criticism of Islam than the blood libel is legitimate criticism of Judaism. Phillips’ tremulous anxiety about the moral and political integrity of Christian Europe draws her repeatedly into unpleasant scapegoating of - well, guess who?

So according to Phillips, it’s perfectly OK to bulldoze Palestinian houses (and dreadfully wrong, the absolute last straw, the total nadir of moral dereliction etc. to protest the sale to Israel of equipment intended for this purpose) because they’re all suicide bombers anyway, just look at that woman who tried to blow herself up in that hospital, savages the lot of them…at which point I find myself backing away from the browser, wide-eyed, with palms upraised…

Changing the subject somewhat, it’s amazing the number of people out there who still take Chris Woodhead seriously. Nothing spoils a good argument in favour of reducing state control over education for me like seeing a link to one of Woodhead’s books nearby. As if Woodhead hadn’t enjoyed a long and profitable career as chief state hatchet-man in education…