It is unfortunate when someone you have respected becomes a turncoat. I have read a couple of books by the economist, columnist and leader of the Work Foundation, Will Hutton.
He has in the recent past been highly critical of Thatcher and Blair. These books were well argued, coherent and meticulously researched. They were not simply polemic.
Sad then to see him licking Blair's arse in the Observer yesterday, quoting himself on television when a Murdoch employee did not dispute when Hutton claimed that Blair's economic formula was beginning to pay off (Huh?). A few things to say here:
1. I am suspicious of people who quote themselves - This is simply narcissism.
2. Since when does getting a Murdoch stooge to nod in agreement, bestow any sort of credibility?
3. I would have thought that Blair's economic policies are now more than ever - seen to be unravelling - or has Hutton lost touch with reality like most of his high-earning dinner friends?

Then he went on to spout about the government's 'right' to take proactive action against 'terrorism'. This contradicts what Hutton has written in the past. Has he not re-read Orwell recently? Blair's criminal activities in the Gulf are largely responsible for inflaming the muslim ultras, or the 'bad guys' as Bush would call them - as opposed to his 'good guys' in the white stetsons. Now Blair is hell-bent on introducing a police-state to a sleep-walking and largely politically ignorant public - witness the sales figures for boorish tabloids.

On the basis of this and recent pronouncements, you can expect to see Will Hutton's knighthood (if not peerage) being confirmed very shortly. There is more than one way of skinning a cat - or paying the ferryman.

SAS soldier quits Army in disgust at 'illegal' American tactics in Iraq
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 12/03/2006)

An SAS soldier has refused to fight in Iraq and has left the Army over the "illegal" tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition forces.

After three months in Baghdad, Ben Griffin told his commander that he was no longer prepared to fight alongside American forces.

Ben Griffin
Ben Griffin told commanders that he thought the Iraq war was illegal

He said he had witnessed "dozens of illegal acts" by US troops, claiming they viewed all Iraqis as "untermenschen" - the Nazi term for races regarded as sub-human.

The decision marks the first time an SAS soldier has refused to go into combat and quit the Army on moral grounds.

It immediately brought to an end Mr Griffin's exemplary, eight-year career in which he also served with the Parachute Regiment, taking part in operations in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan.

But it will also embarrass the Government and have a potentially profound impact on cases of other soldiers who have refused to fight.

On Wednesday, the pre-trial hearing will begin into the court martial of Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force doctor who has refused to return to Iraq for a third tour of duty on the grounds that the war is illegal. Mr Griffin's allegations came as the Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, visiting Basra yesterday, admitted that Iraq was now "a mess".

Mr Griffin, 28, who spent two years with the SAS, said the American military's "gung-ho and trigger happy mentality" and tactics had completely undermined any chance of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi population. He added that many innocent civilians were arrested in night-time raids and interrogated by American soldiers, imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, or handed over to the Iraqi authorities and "most probably" tortured.

Mr Griffin eventually told SAS commanders at Hereford that he could not take part in a war which he regarded as "illegal".

He added that he now believed that the Prime Minister and the Government had repeatedly "lied" over the war's conduct.

"I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy," he said. He expected to be labelled a coward and to face a court martial and imprisonment after making what "the most difficult decision of my life" last March.

Instead, he was discharged with a testimonial describing him as a "balanced, honest, loyal and determined individual who possesses the strength of character to have the courage of his convictions".

Last night Patrick Mercer, the shadow minister for homeland security, said: "Trooper Griffin is a highly experienced soldier. This makes his decision particularly disturbing and his views and opinions must be listened to by the Government."

The MoD declined to comment.
(c) Daily Telegraph - London

 

This is Kirsty Wark.
She works for the BBC. Have you noticed the inflation of Kirsties working for the Beeb? It's getting out of hand. Could reflect the inflation of Scots as a whole in the corporation.
Kirsty is derived from Kirsten, the Scandinavian version of Christine. I wonder if I changed my name to Kirsty, could I get a job with 'Auntie'. I would like to present Newsnight Review.
Mind you, I think 'Kirsty' is a tad twee. Sort of working class Scots will middle class allusions or maybe that should be warking class. Stupid to make puns on people's names - I know. Kirsten seems more wholesome. When all is said and done, however, I am happy with David.
Is it me, or are all middle class Scots obsessed with - set mouth for very broad vowels here - vaahhwlues. You switch on the radio or TV and it's vaahhwlues this and vaahhwlues that. Kirsty Wark, John Reid (smug asshole Secretary for Defense and illegal war apologist) or the clever Jim Naughtie. Maybe it's the odd way - to my ears - that these people pronounce 'values' but I suspect they are all a bit class, sorry claaahhwse conscious.
 

Civilized country, America?

Joycean professor jailed and strip-searched in US over visa

A Dublin-born Joycean professor was handcuffed, strip-searched and locked overnight in Montgomery County Prison, Pennsylvania, after flying to the United States without properly completed visa documents, writes Seán O'Driscoll in New York
Prof John McCourt, a lecturer on Joyce at Trieste University, Italy, and author of The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, had flown to the US from Italy to take up a short-term teaching job in the University of Pennsylvania on January 7th last.
Prof McCourt said his problems began with a small mix-up in his US visa application when he flew into Philadelphia. The university said his visa documents had been sorted out, when in fact the documents only said he was eligible for a visa.
Prof McCourt said he was verbally abused by immigration officials and told he would be flown back to Italy that night. However, he claimed that after he contacted the Irish consulate in New York and his sister in Boston, he was handcuffed and put in a van with three officers and driven to Montgomery County jail, where he was strip- searched and kept overnight. He claimed yesterday he was woken up by prison guards every hour and asked his name.
The University of Pennsylvania said yesterday it is to make an official complaint to the Department of Homeland Security.
Prof McCourt said he was taken back to the airport after the overnight detention and placed in a holding cell before being escorted on to a plane to Germany. "I was taken on to the plane in handcuffs and I think the other passengers were thinking, is this guy a terrorist?"
During the flight his alarm clock went off and the woman next to him nearly jumped out the window. "It was horrible to feel like a terrorist," he said. Prof McCourt has since returned to lecture at Pennsylvania after properly completing his visa application.
Austin Gormley, of the Irish consulate in New York, said the consulate had provided assistance to Prof McCourt while he was detained. It had not been asked to lodge a complaint with US authorities.
JoAnn McCarthy, assistant vice-provost for international affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, said the college would be making an official complaint.
"Incidents like this are really having an impact on academics, students and researchers coming into the US and ultimately it affects the wellbeing of the American public," she said.
Kelly Klundt of the Department of Homeland Security said if Prof McCourt had been fined instead of jailed, he would not have been allowed to re-enter the US.© The Irish Times

Happy New Year
to my many thousands of peace-loving liberally-minded readers all over the globe.
To conservative readers - and this imcludes British New Labour supporters - who may have drifted in here accidentally, I say, grow up, get a decent education. Stop reading right-wing shite like anything owned by The Dirty Digger Murdoch. Remember, hardly anyone now admits to having voted for the mad bitch, Maggie Thatcher. The same fate awaits Bliar.

How odd?


to see in the House of Commons today, the most right-wing Home Secretary ever - Michael Howard (right) leader of the Conservatives - disagreeing with (the arrogant) Tony Blair on a human rights basis over this 90 day internment issue. He took the wind right out of the sails of Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy (left).
Maybe now the penny will drop: that the only place for the Tories to go is left of New 'Labour'!
And what does this say about Generalissimo Blair?

Murdoch - a vile monster with his soon to be fired editor Rebekkah Wade - alleged husband beater.




Murdoch's rag, the Sun is exerting its evil master's sickening influence on the British political scene again today. With a nauseating headline that refers to the Conservative Party leadership candidates as 'Dumb and Dumber' for daring to disagree with fellow neocon, Tony Blair's introduction of a totally unsubstantiated demand for 90 days holding of 'suspects' before charging them. It is only because of the said neocon's illegal invasion of Iraq and the consequent outrage of the Muslim world that Britain finds itself in this dangerous and deteriorating situation. Remember it was the land and oil-grab or of Murdoch and his megalomaniac comrades that got us into this situation in the first place. Meanwhile both Bliar (stet.) and the Dirty Digger continue to appease the Chinese dictatorship and the rights of the individual in both states begin to look not so different.
Needless to say, I am no fan of the British Conservatives, either

Yanks show usual respect for the environment and other people's country
London uses a unique system to control traffic in a busy city. It is the congestion charge and it has been succesful in reducing grdidlock and air pollution. Every car driver must pay 8 pounds ($13) per day. Of course the US Embassy has unilaterally decided not to pay it. This is typical US arrogance. - the rulers of Universe. Pass the sickbag.

The Tories really are jokers

They make me crack up! The British Conservative Party, that is.
Kenneth Clark, the cigar chomping leadership hopeful was asked today if he'd ever taken hard drugs. This is the Executive Chairman on British American Tobacco, a drugs peddler whose product is responsible for the early deaths - on conservative (oops) estimate - of 30,000 British people alone every year. He said he hadn't.
The crazy right-wingers are unsatisfied with the young pretender David Cameron's jokey reply when asked if he ever smoked pot. He brushed the question aside.
What next? Will they ask him if he ever had a wank? (' jerk-off' in American).
This lot are on a totally different planet!

Wasn't it George Bernard Shaw - that great Irishman - who said he wouldn't be interested in joining any club that would have him as a member.

Whatever - You clever and ambitious young right wingers are in the wrong party. You need to move to your natural home - New Labour.

Banville wins Booker

Great to see fellow Irishman John Banville win the Man Booker Prize for best novel of 2005. I cannot wait to read The Sea.

I read his 1989 short-listed The Book of Evidence as soon as it appeared, having followed the '80's murder case on which it was loosely based. It is one of my 3 favourite novels.
Banville was literary editor of The Irish Times for many years; a good reviewer then: indeed I have no reason to believe he hasn't improved as both reviewer and novelist since.

Booker Prize excitement
There is much chatter in literary circles right now on the imminent announcement - Monday - of the Man Booker prize winner.
Of course, it's all a lot of nonsense. How can you possibly say that any one of these books is better than the others? In the final analysis, it is bound to be a subjective judgment. That is why there are usually bitter disagreements among the judges. Of course, if you have say, the equivalent of a Mills and Boon romantic potboiler standing against a Jane Austin, it would be an easy decision; but the shortlisted works are seldom as unevenly matched as that.
For my part, I would tip either Zadie Smith's On Beauty - which gets better the more often you read it - or my fellow countryman, Sebastian Barry's (photo) A Long, Long Way to bank the cheque.

The Great British Myth

This is the one that states that the Labour Party won the general election in 1997 and has been in power ever since.

The reality is: the Tory (Conservative) Party morphed into the New Labour Party and so the United Kingdom is still run by Tories with just a different name. Margaret Thatcher morphed into Tony Blair.
This in turn accounts for the fact that the entities masquerading as Margaret Thatcher and the Tory Party appear today as zombies.

Depressing British political scene
One of the the most depressing things about living - and voting in Britain is the dreadful political environment. You have a right-wing (it's a fact) party called New Labour, that despite the self-delusion of its ever-decreasing membership has been completely hijacked by a looney imperialist called Anthony Blair - 5 wars in 6 years - how loony is that? Just because he speaks in public school (i.e, private school) RP and likes to adopt a bogus friendly 'blokey' attitude. He is one dangerous bugger. How about this for a list: Illegal invasion of Iraq, killing of innocents, wholesale reduction in human rights in the UK. Pawning off the state assets at knock down prices to a bunch of robber capitalists.

But then you consider the main opposition party: the Conservative or Tory party - even further to the right.
They are playing out a leadership election process at their annual conference. What a bunch of no-hopers. They are like children having a tantrum "It's my turn" they squeel both individually as candidates and collectively as a party. They cannot give one good reason why they might be any better than the NL crowd. But they are even further to the right than the New Labour shower. They just can't organise a piss-up in a brewery.
(Cartoon: copyright Steve Bell The Guardian)

Ronnie Barker - rest in peace.

Ronnie Barker died last night. He gave me and millions of others of all generations more laughs over the years - than anybody. His TV shows - The Two Ronnies (with Ronnie Corbett), Porridge and Open All Hours were hilarious. People loved him for his comedy and good nature. He got massive audiences on the BBC in the 70's in 80's. Ronnie retired at age 58 at the top of his popularity to run an antique shop and be among his family. He admitted to being very shy in private.
The happy well adjusted comic - almost a contradiction in terms
(Photo shows Ronnie on the left in Porridge with Richard Beckinsale)

Doing what they're good at
I see the US army are doing today what they're good at: Blowing the bejasus out other people's countries, without a care for the innocent people getting killed - of course that pornographic phrase 'collateral damage' justifies it to all those sickos who support this kind of murder in Iraq.

Nice to see that the great writer Alan Bennet turned down an 'honour' (probably a knighthood) from the Queen. In typically modest form he said he didn't want to have to wear a suit all the time. Refreshing to hear that he will not vote Labour until Blair is ditched and the rest see sense about the Iraq War. In the meantime, he is voting Liberal Democrat.
The man should be canonised!

Stop press...Labour Kills freedom of speech
How low can this cadre ( leader T Balir) who have hijacked Britain's Labour Party Go?
Some delegate (aged 85 years) a short while ago (this afternoon) at their national conference stood up to heckle the idiot Jack Straw about the lies he was at that time spouting about Britain's illegal invasion of Iraq. The labour man was silenced and removed from hall. A 35 year-old fellow delegate who attempted to help the elderly man was threatened by a police officer with anti-terrorist legislation.
This has echoes of 30's Germany.

Zadie Smith' s On Beauty


It is very hard to do justice to this complex work in a short review. For instance, I don't think the reviewers on BBC's Newsnight Review read the book properly. Think about it: they were probably handed the book a week ago and told to read it. What you got were a couple of ill-informed sound bytes from in-demand media types, who have very little time to sit in and read a sometimes difficult but rewarding book that took its author a great many hours to create. By the way, on the strength of this first programme in the new run, I think the show has 'dumbed down' quite a bit.
Better to read James Lasdun's piece in the Guardian. This review displays an appreciation of the sheer novelistic intelligence - expansive, witty and magnanimous - that irradiates the whole enterprise.
I agree with his slight quip that Sir Monty's character seems somewhat cartoonish. This is a minor quip of a very rich work.

Zadie Smith's On Beauty

I guess I am one of the few people at this stage to have read Zadie Smith's On Beauty. So I am delighted to see that Zadie was amongst those on the long list for the 2005 Booker Prize - released yesterday. It deserves to win.

Besides getting what you would expect from Smith; excellent prose, beautifully crafted plot and laugh-out-loud humour, On Beauty is truly an original work. For instance, it is the first book I have read that treats hip-hop culture seriously; It also deals with the fascinating subject of the relationship between the US and UK.

It is so much more than a campus novel. The characters are real with very 21st century problems - the action is not restricted to the ivory tower. The author has certainly caught the zeitgeist, just as she did with White Teeth in 2000 - but On Beauty is more than just a grown-up WT: it is of a different order of magnitude.

I can't go on without giving away too much.

Take it from me: On Beauty is serious shit!

It will be published in the UK in early September.

John Bolton
I am not surprised to see that Bush has got his neocon bully-boy Bolton to do the UN ambassador's job. Good day for the megalomaniacs. Bad day for the rest of us.
I wish somebody would write an honest description of US overseas campaigns since the second word war and force feed it to the dumb Americans who elect such scoundrels.
They could do worse that read a little of what Prof Noam Chomsky has to say.

My Gaad, isn't he a liberal?

Ah go back and watch your dumb-ass Fox Noos.

Hey Blair is going to stand down before the next election.

Yeh, maybe he wants to pursue his acting career in the proper arena.

What a disastrous period his period in office has been.

'He [former Tory prime minister, Ted Heath] was to the left of Tony Blair' .

Heath contemporary and former Labour minister, Tony Benn.

Robert Fisk: The Reality of This Barbaric Bombing
The Reality of This Barbaric Bombing
By Robert Fisk
The Independent UK

Friday 08 July 2005

"If you bomb our cities," Osama bin Laden said in one of his recent video tapes, "we will bomb yours." There you go, as they say. It was crystal clear Britain would be a target ever since Tony Blair decided to join George Bush's "war on terror" and his invasion of Iraq. We had, as they say, been warned. The G8 summit was obviously chosen, well in advance, as Attack Day.

And it's no use Mr Blair telling us yesterday that "they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear". "They" are not trying to destroy "what we hold dear". They are trying to get public opinion to force Blair to withdraw from Iraq, from his alliance with the United States, and from his adherence to Bush's policies in the Middle East. The Spanish paid the price for their support for Bush - and Spain's subsequent retreat from Iraq proved that the Madrid bombings achieved their objectives - while the Australians were made to suffer in Bali.

It is easy for Tony Blair to call yesterdays bombings "barbaric" - of course they were - but what were the civilian deaths of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the children torn apart by cluster bombs, the countless innocent Iraqis gunned down at American military checkpoints? When they die, it is "collateral damage"; when "we" die, it is "barbaric terrorism".

If we are fighting insurgency in Iraq, what makes us believe insurgency won't come to us? One thing is certain: if Tony Blair really believes that by "fighting terrorism" in Iraq we could more efficiently protect Britain - fight them there rather than let them come here, as Bush constantly says - this argument is no longer valid.

To time these bombs with the G8 summit, when the world was concentrating on Britain, was not a stroke of genius. You don't need a PhD to choose another Bush-Blair handshake to close down a capital city with explosives and massacre more than 30 of its citizens. The G8 summit was announced so far in advance as to give the bombers all the time they needed to prepare.

A co-ordinated system of attacks of the kind we saw yesterday would have taken months to plan - to choose safe houses, prepare explosives, identify targets, ensure security, choose the bombers, the hour, the minute, to plan the communications (mobile phones are giveaways). Co-ordination and sophisticated planning - and the usual utter ruthlessness with regard to the lives of the innocent - are characteristic of al-Qa'ida. And let us not use - as our television colleagues did yesterday - "hallmarks", a word identified with quality silver rather than base metal.

And now let us reflect on the fact that yesterday, the opening of the G8, so critical a day, so bloody a day, represented a total failure of our security services - the same intelligence "experts" who claim there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when there were none, but who utterly failed to uncover a months-long plot to kill Londoners.

Trains, planes, buses, cars, metros. Transportation appears to be the science of al-Qa'ida's dark arts. No one can search three million London commuters every day. No one can stop every tourist. Some thought the Eurostar might have been an al-Qa'ida target - be sure they have studied it - but why go for prestige when your common or garden bus and Tube train are there for the taking.

And then come the Muslims of Britain, who have long been awaiting this nightmare. Now every one of our Muslims becomes the "usual suspect", the man or woman with brown eyes, the man with the beard, the woman in the scarf, the boy with the worry beads, the girl who says she's been racially abused.

...I remember, crossing the Atlantic on 11 September 2001 - my plane turned round off Ireland when the US closed its airspace - how the aircraft purser and I toured the cabins to see if we could identify any suspicious passengers. I found about a dozen, of course, totally innocent men who had brown eyes or long beards or who looked at me with 'hostility'. And sure enough, in just a few seconds, Osama bin Laden turned nice, liberal, friendly Robert into an anti-Arab racist.
And this is part of the point of yesterday's bombings: to divide British Muslims from British non-Muslims (let us not mention the name Christians), to encourage the very kind of racism that Tony Blair claims to resent.
But here's the problem. To go on pretending that Britain's enemies want to destroy 'what we hold dear' encourages racism; what we are confronting here is a specific, direct, centralised attack on London as a result of a 'war on terror' which Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara has locked us into. Just before the US presidential elections, Bin Laden asked: 'Why do we not attack Sweden?'
Lucky Sweden. No Osama bin Laden there. And no Tony Blair."

The US invades Iraq but they will not go into London
We hear today that the US has banned its service personnel based in the UK from visiting London as it is considered a high-risk area. What - worse than Faluga?
I have travelled to work every day on the underground (metro/subway) including the day the bombs went off and the following day.
What sort of thinking is running the US these days?

London gets 2012 Olympics

I have just now returned from Trafalgar Square in London where a large crowd cheered at the news from Singapore that London has been awarded the right to host the 2012 Olympics.

There was initially a gasp from the crowd - at the unexpected result.

People wondered why the favourites, Paris did not win it.

Was it Paris' lack of organisation of the bid at the last hurdle? Was it the fear of labour strikes on the lead-up and during the event? Was is influence from the US in retaliation for France's strong stance against the invasion of Iraq? Was it the fact that they recently hosted the World [soccer] Cup?

Who knows, Habibi?

As, I reported exclusively last week, George Bush has declared that black is white. It was perhaps not a huge surprise that Tony Blair came out wholly in support of this statement.

The important question was then put:
If black is white, is the corollary of that statement also true - that is - white is black.
Bush responded thus: if it was in America's interest then he would answer in the affirmatory (sic), but if it was not in America's interest then it was wholly wrong and if it in any way damaged America's economy or its ability to defend itself he would reject it and would put the military on high-priority alert status (sic). This got hoops of applause from the president's right-wing supporters.

When the same question was put to Mr Blair. He said that he would call upon Lord Hutton to
to conduct an enquiry into the matter.

The noble lord hopes to report by 2020.

Lord Hutton is 102.

I dreamt last night that George Bush declared black was white.

A statement was then issued from Downing Street stating that the Prime Minister, Tony Blair at his last meeting with Bush had fully agreed with the leader of the free world that of course black was white . All decent people held that black was white. It was only terrorists and members of the "Old Europe" who disputed this indisputable fact.

The Conservative or Tory Party, said that they had always maintained that black was white, but they questioned why this news was not first presented to the House of Commons instead of being released from the Prime Minister's residence.

A debate was planned for a two hour BBC programme on the matter. A spokesman for the corporation expressed nervousness about getting a panelist who would put the opposing point of view.

"We have to be very careful since the Dr. David Kelly affair", he explained.

So Blair's son - fresh faced from university will be doing an internship with the Republicans in the States.

What I can't accept is the idiots in the "Labour Party" who take all this right wing guff from Blair Snr. for he is one obnoxious wanker.
I am thinking of taking an action against them under The Trade Description Act for the use of the word Labour.

Perhaps the prefix New as in New Labour is intended to mean Not Labour. I think we should be told, as Private Eye use to say.

Award for Cheesiest 'Customer Service'
This must go to Eden Spring Water in the UK: The unfortunate customer is left hanging on for ages while having to endure the bollocks about them being a member of the Bottled Water Association, how wonderful Eden is (not) and gallons of other wanky shite. Then the phone goes dead.
What a bunch of tossers!

I have just been given a copy of the manuscript of 'On Beauty' by the author, Zadie Smith. This will certainly keep me out of trouble for the next few nights. I am looking forward to re-visiting the characters first encountered when I received an early draft of the work last year.

I had a long chat with Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes at Nick Laird's book launch. What a really nice man he is. Frank was very interested in the Open University. Living in the US, he had not heard of it. He thought it great that it was open to everybody. As a student of it, I could only agree. Frank, who taught in tough schools in New York City is concerned with the lack of educational opportunities in the US for poor kids. He started working in the US as a longshoreman (see On the Waterfront), went to night school and graduated as a teacher. He told me he was just about to deliver his next book on this subject to his publisher. The only University for poor students was New York City University, which he tells me was closed some years ago.

Speaking of Zadie Smith, I am currently reading a proof copy of her husband, Nick Laird's first novel, Utterly Monkey. A stonking good read, tightly written, as only poets can write, a great caper crying out for a movie deal. A lot of the features of the protagonist seem autobiographical: the Northern Irishness, corporate city lawyer, attactive black lover, the blue SMEG refrigerator. Recommended.

I am just not going to vote Labour simply because they are not Tories. The Tories are nasty shits who trade on the politics of fear - like the Neocons in the States. But Labour under Blair has become Tory Lite, with his carte blanche promise to Bush in May 2002 to go to war in Iraq , no matter what; and much more which has must have his forebears turning in their graves. There is a lot of innocent blood on Blair's hands: and I for one will not collaborate in those crimes by voting for him on May 5.
If Labour were to sack Blair and replace him with someone who was opposed to the illegal invasion of Iraq, I would probabaly vote for them. If the Tories win the election, I will leave Britain.

Associations
Blair blur bloke bliar
Hoon swoon goon whore
Bush botch tush twat
Rice twice sago sag
bag
Straw grass wind
bag
Pasture soon

Blair could lose his seat
Nice to see that some people are thinking of putting up an anti-war celebrity to stand against Blair in his constituency of Sedgefield at the general election. This is the Martin Bell tactic, which ousted sleaze merchant Tory, Neil Hamilton in Tatton, some years ago.
Wouldn't it be just wonderful to get rid of the odious Bliar. No Tories please!

I am at present reading Who Runs this Place? by Anthony Sampson which was published last month. It is a great read about modern Britain. I find that I am in agreement with everything I have read in it so far. The democratice deficit, Blair and presidential attitude, the outrage of the invasion of Iraq, the irrelevance of the Monarchy to the government of the country -other than its facilitity for the the PM rubber stamp everything in the monarch's name, the pointless Tory party, the House of Lords etc. I suppose I have not read much that I did not know already - but I am not a quarter way through.
Sadly Mr Sampson, who I think was in his early seventies, died in December '04.: a sad loss.

Heading into this election lead-in.
Can't vote for Blair. Where do you start?
War, control freak, liar, right-wing
err,
Would be moralist, hypocrite
Hasn't said a word against the idiot Bush
and his dangerous bible-bashing
(old and new versions) crew.
Can't vote for Howard - right-wing
err
Dracula.
May vote for Kennedy's lot.
But...
For the first time in my life
I've actually considered abstention.
That is seriously bad....
Not as bad as invading Iraq,
Or polluting the fuck out of the World
Like the Americans...
Or abusing the Iraqis,
Or blowing up the Trade Center.
Or not stopping the genocide in
Sudan, Congo, Rwanda.
Just going where the oil is...
Not as bad as that.
Thank god.

Heading into Christmas holiday period. It's too long. I am reading the Bernard Shaw play Pymalion at the moment. He was groaning about the same thing about 100 years ago: too long and too comercialised.

Checkout this site!
Impeach Blair

Just back from a 2 week holiday in Egypt. Had a great time. Did all the touristy things: visited the Pyramids at Gisa, Explored Cairo, cruised the Nile, saw Aswan, Luxor and the the Valleys of the Kings and Queens; Snorkelled in the Red Sea and tried my hand again at board sailing - I was better than expected - it helps to have a low centre of gravity! The Eqyptian people are very hospitable, although the pressure for tips and mock outrage when one tries to negotiate any commercial transaction can at first be overwhelming. Suffered "upset stomach" for most of the 2 weeks, even though we thought we were being cautious about what we ate. My girlfriend has not yet recovered from this, even though we are now almost a week home. I was taking antibiotics following a dental proceedure. I think this helped my recovery. We stayed in the Cairo hotel used by Python, Michael Palin in his BBC "Round the World" programme. In fact we stayed in the very room he occupied. The staff at the Windsor were excellent, especially Front-of-House Manager, Aryan. Great assistance too from Amigo Tours - the handsome Ahmed (my girlfriend insists!) and Friday (which doesn't sound very Egyptian to me).
It was great to have the invaluable local knowledge and good humour of our new London-based Eqyptian friend, Sam.

It's a bad situation when a government apparently puts out a scare story to increase a president's position in the polls. Where is the evidence of inreased threat from militant groups? It all sounds a bit self-serving. It smacks of the WMD scare last year.
I hope Bush has better control of the government than he has of his bicycle. Somehow, I doubt it.

Absence from Blogging
It is some months now since I have blogged. In a nutshell: I was quite depressed about world affairs and particularly the doings of Bush and Blair. I felt that pondering on these issues too long would not be in the best interests of my continued good health.
This may have been a good decision. The "US-led coalition" has been involved in many dark deeds in Iraq, including the terrorism in Feluga, further terrorism shooting up a wedding party and the sytemic abuse and humiliation of "detainees", the unqualified support of the terrorist Sharon and much more- all from the folks who are there to sell "democracy" and liberty to Iraq. It would be a laugh if it weren't so tragic and so many people actually took it seriously.
Meanwhile the media in the UK has been silenced. The BBC has been whipped into place by the white-washed Hutton Report. A legal farrago of the highest degree. The Guardian seems to have lost its balls. Only the Independent, amongst the dailies has maintained a credible line throughout.Blair continues to hoodwink and lie with patrician smarm. The latest nonsense being that there will be a transfer of sovereignty to the Iraquis at the end of June. So this an an admission that the sovereignty now rests with the invaders, that is the US? This will be a bogus transfer to a puppet regime - see Vietnam, Niaragua or indeed any place where the US has exerted its hegemony. It's a long list.
It's not all gloom however. There is a possiblity that the unelected Bush will not be in the White House after November; Blair is becoming deeply unpopular in Britain for his Iraq outrage and other marks of the (thatcher) vampire.
I have just returned from a holiday in Egypt and encountered a number of Americans. Many had endured mild criticism from locals about the policies of their government. Not one of these US citizens was in favour of George Bush, and one a soldier on leave, referred apologetically to the "Invasion of a Iraq". Thank goodness for the ordinary folk of America!
If some of my comments appears a bit strong, then I will again re-iterate my position: I believe in democracy, that the perpetrators of the attacks of the 11 September 2001 must be brought to justice and that Israel has a right to exist.

Recent reading
Over the last 6 months, I have read Will Hutton's "The World We're In", Michael Moore's, "Stupid White Men" and I am currently devouring Naom Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival. America's Quest for Global Dominance." I defy any person with average intelligence and education to read these works and admit that they are not deeply concerned about where the Bush regime is taking the world. Americans should know that the world outside America is frightened by the outrageous behaviour of your government. We are normal law-abiding, peace loving people, who are shocked by a group of very dangerous people at the top of your establishment.
Perhaps we are lucky in that we are not yet assaulted by outrageous "shock-jocks", bullshit from Fox News and crazy media who accept every distortion put out by the Neo-con spin machine.
I have read other books too - including "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynn Truss, James Joyce's "Dubliners" (again), Don DeLillo's "Underworld" and "White Noise", and many British and US short stories.

Another telling post from The Baghdad Blogger
:: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 ::
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .. I am angry now .. I AM angry .. and "THEY" come and ask you "why don't you like us?" ... I will tell you why .. >>>> I was just stopped by an American check point .. they let me stand under the rain .. in the mud .. for more than 15 minutes .. a soldier pushed me in a very strong way that I nearly fell down, and the other was investigating me: Why do you have a camera in your car? haaa? !!!!!! What the hell !!! I mean !! duh ?? I have a camera? why not? then came the other americano with a smile asking me: do you film porn? !!! I heard that but I asked him: what sir? and he replied: PORN pee ooo are enn ,, ha ha ha .. (is that funny?) .. Soldiers stopping people in the EID (these are the Muslims' festival days) asking them whether they film porn and pushing them in mud .. I DON'T LIKE "THEM" .. Soldiers are not the best representatives of any culture .. Grrrh ///////////// (new paragraph) SALAAAAM?! where the peep are you? I'll change the title to WHERE IS SALAM.. call me for god's sake .. stronso
:: raed 6:59 PM [+] ::
...

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Nice one, Benjamin
Benjamin Zephaniah, the poet has publicly refused an OBE. This is one of the most principled and honourable decisions that I have heard in a long, long time. Go on - click on the link. He articulates the case against Blair and the Monarchy so well that anybody who is interested in Britain must read it. He makes a powerful argument against these awards, from a black person's perspective. I humbly support you, Mr Zephaniah 1000%.
BBC Interview (real audio)

Nice one, Hari
Hari Kunzru, the young British author has turned down a literary award sponsored by the Mail on Sunday, in protest at their published comments about migrants.
This is a noble and brave stance to take against this reactionary and revolting newspaper group [Associated Newspapers], which never hesitates to criticize refugees and asylum seekers. Mr Kunzru, whom I met some weeks ago in a Soho restaurant is included in the Best of Young British Novelists a publication by Granta in 2003 that identified the most talented writers of the decade. It includes a story, Lila.exe from his forthcoming novel, Transmission. His first novel was The Impressionist.

Take a look at this discussion on the Beeb. I think it says something about Bush and his "economic" policy.

Michael Moore
I am attending a lecture tonight by this activist/filmaker/writer . Odd thing is that I have not read any of his books yet. I have a read a lot of articles [both by him and about him] in newspapers. I guess I will purchase a copy his latest Dude, Where's my Country? . Seen him a lot on tv - seems to talk a lot sense - sadly. Must see his documentary movie - Bowling for Columbine too.
Since I have blogged here last, I have stumbled across a few conservative blogs - mainly US based. What a distinctly spooky lot they are. The arrogance, ignorance, self-righteousness, dare I say it - fascism - go on - look up its full meaning - is staggering. I think occasionally, they are well meaning people - but they really do need to "wake up and smell the coffee". They could do worse than dig out an unbiased history of the 20th Century. Read carefully the bits on totalitarianism - both of the left and the right, and the civil rights movement in the US - and while they're at it they might also dip into the histories of imperialism and slavery.

So that's it!

"The thing about the French is - they have no word for entrepreneur"
George W Bush 2002

Bill Gates and his evil empire want to take over Google, which in turn, owns Blogger
Ownership of such a dominant tool as Google, bestows on a business huge power in global information - which to date has been exercised benignly. Microsoft does not have a very benign reputation in terms of information usage and exploitation of its monopolistic position. Does this man not own and control enough already? That is the trouble with this system, people eventually become megalomaniacs and want everything. Are he and his cohorts not rich enough, for crying out loud? What's next - the air we breathe? Don't even mention Rupert shagging Murdoch and his sons. It's Monday morning and in not in form for these tossers...

I went to the Tricycle Theatre again on Friday night - this time to see Justifying War - scenes from the Hutton Enquiry.
I would say that it was what the edited highlights of the judicial enquiry into the apparent suicide of Dr David Kelly, the scientist/civil servant responsible for investigating weapons of mass destruction at the Ministry of Defense - would look like if the proceedings had been recorded. It was non-partizan.
What struck me about it was;-
1. The manner in which Foreign Minister, Jack Straw humiliated Kelly, by making a reference to his being some sort of junior in the civil service, whereas he was a very senior scientist and authority on his subject.
2. The extremely moving account of Mrs Kelly on the last few days of her husband's life and the understandable way he felt in the circumstances of a very sensitive, intelligent and modest man being suddenly cast into the media spotlight.
3. The very odd and vague testimony of Jeffrey Hoon, the Minister for Defense.
4. The power that the Blair's media advisor, Alistair Campbell had throughout (couldn't help thinking of Josef Goebbels - in an obviously much more grave situation).
5. The absence of the Blair questioning from the production.

After the play, I approached the Director, Nicholas Kent about this last point. He said that Blair didn't add anything of significance to the proceedings and to include him would just be sensationalist.
I am not so sure I agree with this. I feel that because Blair was the main instigator of Britain's going to war, his eminence gris should at least make an appearance.
Anyway, we found the production absorbing and quite moving.
Also had a pleasant drink with Joe and his good lady.

Howards [is the] End

Michael Howard is to be the next leader of the Tory party. Heheheheheheheheheheh haahahahahahah. They can not be serious!!!
This right-wing slimeball should have no place in a respectable political party, let alone as leader.
But hold on... the Conservatives are not a respectable political party. Maybe they deserve each other. The Conservatives have become such a nasty cult since Thatcher arrived - that maybe he is just what they deserve. One thing is for sure, They will never be elected as long as he is leader.
The only hope for Britain is that there is a putsch within the Labour party and their right-wing liars, Blair, Straw and Blunkett are ousted ASAP.

Sex and love
"Sex without love is a pretty meaningless experience...but as meaningless experiences go, it's pretty damn good."
Woody Allen.

It's a Joke

Egghead 1: I see they omitted "Gullible" from the new Oxford English Dictionary.

Egghead 2: Reeeeally?

Egghead 1: .................HaHaaa gotcha!

Egghead 2: bastard.

Bush can't have it both ways
Have you heard the neocons critizise the Europeans in their super-arrogant way for always having to call on the US to get them out of defense problems - like ww2, etc?
Yes, well maybe there was some justification in it.
What happens when the Europeans try to do something about it. Like TALK ABOUT setting up a Europe-wide army. The Bushshites go awol. The Europeans are accused of threatening the pre-eminance of NATO (the "North Atlantic Treaty Organisation" don't you just love the orwellian doublespeak - see also the Patriot Act). Blair, the bush stooge, says that he doesn't want to "undermine" the "special relationship". Right, a give-and-take relationship, they give and the rest of the world has to take any old imperialist crap that they chose to dish out. The last time I looked at the Globe, the Atlantic did not stretch to Afghanistan - but then most of the dumb conservatives don't know where anything is - outside of the states.

These are indeed dark days for the US. They will be looked back with the same melacholia that one reserves for the Nixon and McCarthy eras.
When will some educated democrat (small "d") emerge with a sense of America's proper role in the world and replace this dreadful un-elected regime?

Re: The Patriot Act (US)
"Patriotism - The last refuge of scroundrels"
Dr Samuel Johnson
18th Century English writer.

Mystic River
Saw this movie in the Tricycle Cinema today. What a powerful piece! The main actors Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins and Lawrence Fishburn put in very strong performances. Penn was amazing. It held my attention throughout, even though I guessed the culprit after about an hour. The Irish-American working class Boston thing was fascinating - the noirish environment, strong sense of community, thugish bully-boys - called the Savage Brothers! ( "Savage" is quite a common Irish surname).
The Tricycle is one of the better cinemas in London, but I found it difficult to catch some of the lines - I don't know whether this is because of the mega bass, the Boston accent, or the way the actors chose to articulate the words - maybe it's a combination of all three.
I do hope Hollywood is going to give us more of this grown-up entertainment.
Anyway, great direction, Mr Clint Eastwood. Can't wait for your next one!

Waiting for Concorde
Way back in '79 or '80, I sailed a dinghy from Howth, County Dublin to Port Saint Mary in the Isle of Man. This is a round-trip of about 250 nautical miles - in unpredictable and dangerours waters for an open boat. I asked a good friend, who had sailed across the Atlantic and to the Arctic a number of times and was later to work as yachtmaster in the Caribbean, to join me. This guy was Robert Fannin.
We had an exciting and enjoyable trip. We bumped into an old salt we knew - a tax exile fom Ireland who put us up for a few days. I wrote up the voyage in a light-hearted piece in an Irish yaching magazine. Rob did the illustrations - he comes from a family of artists.
I was delighted to hear his new play, Waiting for Concorde broadcast on BBC Radio 4 yesterday. I think this story is mainly about bereavement [and how the spirit "lives on"], which sadly the author experienced shortly before he penned the work.
Robert has been working hard at developing his writing over many years. I hope he goes on to achieve great success. He has a lot of talent.
Anway, when we completed the trip, I lived off the minor fame/notoriety of the voyage for some time. I remember admitting to a group "How could we fail with such an experienced blue-water sailor on board? His only comment was "I have never been so scared in all my life - as I was on that trip".

The con-man is supreme
I see a former con-man has won the Man Booker literary prize. DBC Pierre, (aka Peter Finlay) won the award with his novel Vernon God Little. The Australian, who now lives in County Leitrim, Ireland once sold a friend's house and trousered the takings. This is his first novel and he said that if he had not have written this book, he would "have ended it all".
Asked by RTE, the Irish broadcaster why he chose a quiet place like Leitrim, he said that he wanted to get partly out of the rat race. He did not mention that novelists do not pay income tax in Ireland.
Don't tell [his lordship] Jeffrey Archer - mind you, the tax code requires the work to be original and of artistic merit.

Ignorance is bliss with the Services and the Daily bigots Mail
One of the compensations of being single and male is that you can take off to a pub and and have a few beers by yourself, not worry what time you get home, get mildly or moderately pissed and just "hang out" by yourself. The problem is that you are likely to attract the attentions of one of the pub bores.
I drifted over to the "local" this afternoon to watch the the soccer results. . Sitting at the bar, I ordered a pint of Stella (Artois). I became aware of the presence of this guy, out of the corner of my eye, and said to myself, "I hope to Christ he stays where he is" ( sitting about 3 metres away).
No such luck! What does he do - but sit beside me at the bar.
Is it chicken or egg? What is it about soldiers and ex-soldiers that makes them so aggressive in conversation? He's of mixed parentage - Irish mother and English father - or is it the other way around?
Anyway - he wants to argue at every point. It's not the drink, he's perfectly sober. He makes a comment, such as the Chelsea team selection - he's a fan - I'm not. His point seems to be so laced with passion - no more than that - venom, that I just let him rant on. Then he goes on... and... on about various issues of Irish history, some of which I agree with, others I don't - the admission of which is a mistake. Then he says that he was accused of being a racist, by some LIBERAL (why do I hear the fucking Daily Mail voice here) in a the Crown Pub (Cricklewood), for using the word "darky" (about a black person), and that if he wants to use that word or "nigger", he can, and that he doesn't "necessarily" mean any offence to anybody. He then went on to criticise the EU, quoting the Daily shagging Mail.
Then he stopped, and said "you seem very quiet".
I was quiet because I was fuming, and told him that I was in full agreement with the "LIBERAL" who was offended by his truly rascist comments concerning black people. To a lesser extent I disagreed with his anti-European rant - saying that I thought he was still fighting WWII and that Europe had moved on - He was being misguided by The Mail and the rest of the fucking right-wing press, the proprietors of which had a different agenda to ordinary person and that Britain will be left behind in a great European renaissance - even Blair and Brown know this.
With that he started to climb down and said his "bark was worse than his bite".
I moved away, only to be engaged by another bore going on about West Ham United.
Maybe single is not all that wonderful....

Did you know that Orwell's real name was Blair?
Yes, the author of Animal Farm and and 1984 had the same surname as the current Prime Minister. That's where the similarity ends.
I am getting the distinct feeling of deja vue about Blair. It is quite obvious now that in many ways, Bambi sees himself as another Margaret Thatcher. And just like Thatcher his hubris will be his downfall.
Blair's statement to the Labour Party annual conference during the week that he had no reverse gear is so like Thatcher's, "the Lady is not for turning" , that he is likely to be sued for plagiarism.
Interesting too, that the sad Tories have nowhere to go but straight into the arms of the right-wing New Labour camp.
The Conservatives (Tories) are in total disarray.
The only oppostion to New Labour is provided by the Labour back benchers.
The third party - the Liberal Democats, are having to be all things to all men/women. Right-wing in a Tory marginal ( which is just about any Tory held seat), left-wing in any Labour seat (vide, Brent East). Such is the crazy world of British politics, right now.
But many think that Blair's days are numbered. He has totally screwed up, in the eyes of the British electorate, by going to war (compare Thatcher's poll-tax), and on deterioration of delivery of public services. Even Bush is furious with him for going back to the UN for the second (doomed) Iraq vote, and getting Dubya locked into the WMD issue.

Plastic Fantastic
My credit card company wrote to me during that week to say that as I was now a valued customer who was with them for all of n months, I was now entitled to a Silver card.
Great! appreciated at last. When I phoned, I was told by a pleasant sounding woman of the Manchester variety, that yes - I was now entitled to a Silver card. No strings attached, no extra charges etc.
Great, so what to I get, a higher credit limit, discount shopping? No sir, you get a card that says Silver.
"Is that all there is..." as the song goes.
Bastards... the least they might do is change their crappy on-hold music. Can they not personalise it in the Amazon manner. I hate the Beatles - I want the Stones or Bob Marley...please.
And that interest rate - you can not be serious!

Constitution is a good idea
Looks like the good folks of America are beginning to see the light as regards George Bush. A criminal inquiry is taking place about the alleged leaking of a CIA woman's name. Dubya is looking unsure of himself- the bluster is gone, and he is seen repeatedly blowing air in the manner of a child blowing out the candles on a birthday cake - a sure sign of stress. His opinion poll ratings are plumetting.
This inquiry is taking place because the business of government is controlled by a written constitution - backed by a proper legal framework.
Britain does not have a written constitution or bill of rights. There is supposed to a system of parliamentary democracy, where parliament controls the executive.
What they have is an elective dictatorship. Thatcher showed utter contempt for Parliament. Blair is even worse. He has built up Downing Street into a quasi-presidential fortress, without any meaningful controls. He communicates by leak and spin, parliament has no role in his scheme of things - presidential goverment in the South American model. This has arisen because Britain is basically a feudal state with control residing in a ludicrous system called monarchy. A Prime Minister has amazing powers of patronage - very few British people (even socialists) would not crawl to get a Knighthood (Sir Mick Jagger), or a peerage, (Lord Attenborough), and he can invoke the royal assent - a mere formality - to put through many laws. Dear old Queen Liz has no effective say in the matter.
That's why he doesn't give a toss what people think about the war and his granting of carte blanche to the Washington neo-con "crazies" (as per G. Bush snr). He is secure and nothing will unseat him now.
When will the British people get some cop-on and ditch this archaic state of affairs.
Don't hold your breath!

Norman Mailer
2 years ago, I was lucky enough to meet the great American author, Norman Mailer (OK, I'm a name dropper). I had been attending a literary award ceremony as a friend of one of the shortlisted authors. I was overwhelmed to meet the veteran writer who proved to be most friendly and amusing. His is one of the great intellects of our age.

Norman Mailer has said recently that America has now become a pre-fascist state.
This statement is referred to in John Pilger's latest television programme "Breaking the Silence". One of the interviewees in the piece, a former CIA bigwigs commented that this may be good news, as many people in the US and beyond now feel that the "pre-" can be left out.
The US does not count and is not concerned about how many innocent Iraquis have been killed in the invasion. Independent studies put this figure at 3,000-10,000. They are not Americans, so they don't count. Likewise ask your average American student how many people were killed in Vietnam and he/she will say 58,000.
There have been 71 military interventions by the US since WW2. Innocent non-Americans have been killed by US forces in these actions. Many have been carried out by proxy warlords of the US. By any definition, these warlords and guerilla groups are terrorists.

Holiday exhaustion
Returned from Greece yesterday. Back at work today. Feeling tired. Weather changed in London today - downpour in the afternoon. Sunburn turning to tan. I tried to use a high protection sunblock this year. Had to have suspect mole removed a few years ago after falling asleep under Paros sun. Reading Underworld by Don De Lillo. What a great writer! A friend has a play coming up on BBC Radio 4 soon. Hope I haven't missed it. There was a bye-election in my constituency, while I was away. Seems as though many people think the way I do - that Blair let us down in so many ways - that they overturned his party's huge majority and elected a Liberal Democrat. As the great bard (Bob Dylan) said "You don't need a weatherman to tell you how the wind blows".
Must sign off now to watch another controversial film by John Pliger.

Greetings from Rhodes
Greetings to all my friends from the beautiful Dodecanese Greek island of Rhodes. Spent 2 night in the Old Town of Rhodes. A wondrous place in the medievel style, tastefully restored. Prices have increased of course, but so has the standard of living of the average Greek. The involvement with the EU and the EURO has improved life all round. More beaches have the EU blue flag and health and safety standards have improved.
There has been a falling off in tourism from everywhere but the UK and this reflects the difficult economic times in some of the Nordic countries, Germany and France. We are now based in Pevkos [Pine Trees] in the south East of the island. Lots of swimming, sunbathing, beer drinking (Mythos - the local brew is excellent), Took a trip in a glass-bottomed boat to the historic town of Lindos, swam in Navarone bay (yes, where they made the movie) from the boat - crystal clear water. Food is good and have had no mossie stings - yet.
The guitarist, David Gilmore of Pink Floyd has houses in Pevkos and Lindos. He's the guy who donated his GBP3M to Shelter, the homeless charity. Nice one, sir - even if it can't have done your new album sales any harm!
Passed through the town of Falaraki, which has received a lot of adverse publicity in the British media recently following the death of a young man in a fight, and rumours of outrageous hedonistic activities of the part of all the young holiday-makers.
All the locals I spoke to on the island, believe this has been hugely exagerrated by the said media to sell their programmes/newspapers. Somehow, I am inclined to believe the Greeks.
That's it for now. Back Saturday 20th.
Peace and love to all
- except the dreadful US neo-conservatives and their war-mongering!

We're all Americans Now!
Gee whizz Tony Blair. This is rilly Coo-al. We're all Amuricans now. We gat coo-al coke (all varieties), McDanalds, we gat you, Mr President in yer Whide House in Downing Steet. We gat our own war - alongside our brothers from across the pond with the Iraquanians out thur in the Mid East. We gat drive thru's, we gat smoothies, we gat mega power cuts, sorry...outages, jest like in Noo Yoik - coo-al. We gat diners, we gat crap tv from Murdoch, we gat gunfights on our steets - jest like the folks in LA, we gat automobile sireens like in the States. We gat Arnie Swartzenegger, J-Lo, we gat all dat crap. We don't know where anywhere outside of our own territory is anymo' jest like Yanks. We don't need the poncy Europeans with their consciences and their stoopid Euros. We gat shrinks, SUVs, 4wheel drives. Gee, some of us even gat condos in Florida. Thanks Mr President, Tony, guy, man, far-out, motherfucker badda-bing. We gat sick-bags too... (man).

The International Criminal Court
It is clear to see why the US Administration will not accept the International Criminal Court where those charged with war crimes can be tried. One just has to consider Henry Kissinger and his illegal invasion of Cambodia, where more civilians were killed than even that following the bombing of Japan (and that's another reason) and his complicity with the bombing of Timor by Indonesia. This is only the tip of the iceberg. The US will apparently accept the Court if US citizens are exempted....er right.
Who are the terrorists?

More thoughts on Doublespeak
It is clear what Tony Blair meant by New Labour was in fact New Conservative and what their election anthem It Can Only Get Better (by D-ream) meant was, It Can Only Get Worse, and to take it a step further: When Ma Blair decided to call him Tony Blair, what she meant was Tory Blair . For there is little doubt that this party, this cabal based in Downing Steet run along presidential lines is as right-wing as anything concocted by the Major Bufton Tuftons and the white thrash Essex boys and gels of the Official Tory party.
Two examples of their laissez faire dogma will strike UK residents, this holiday weekend.
Their creation, The Office of Telecommunications - OFTEL has introduced "competition" into the Directory Equiries service. So instead of simply dialling 192 and being charged 40 pence to use the service, from today the public will have to chose between 16 services beginning each beginning with 118 ... followed by 3 further digits. The 192 service was run by BT, the new "services" will no doubt be run by pillars of the Institute of Directors, who will be either Lord this or Lady that, employing sweatshop call-centre workers in Mumbai, India on £1,250 per annum. Meanwhile research has shown that the cost of the new services to consumers is likely to increase by at least 30%.. More for mobiles/cellphones. Note too that the call will be charged on a time basis. Bear in mind that some of the new entrants have inadequate databases and funding and you can see in whose interests this farago will be run. Hint: It's not the consumer. So much for the Gordon Brown clamp down on Rip-off Britain
The other example is public transport. Blair's other creation the not for profit Network Rail formerly the non-profit making (but dividend paying and fat-cat over-remunerating) Railtrack has virtually closed down the railways for the holiday to make the railways a safe means of transport. This will put 30% more private vehicles on the roads - a situation which will make the normal gridlock seem like Silverstone on Grand Prix day. This has virtually killed the chance of the ordinary family getting away for the weekend. Won't affect Blair though, newly refreshed after his Summer Holiday at "Sir" Cliff Richard's villa in Barbados. [Cool Britannia!]

Now you, the reader might think that the person who writes this is a card-carrying member of a socialist party. I am not a member of a political party, never have been. I am a democratically-minded person who voted for Labour in the 1997 election and was delighted when they trounced the pathetic Tories. I did not vote for Labour in 2002. I feel terribly let down by this government. The final insult was the way Blair took Britain, (against the wishes of the British electorate, by lieing to that electorate and Parliament) into the illegal invasion of Iraq with the fascistic US neo-conservatives and hand Bush carte blanche to engage in any form of totalitarianism in the name of the deeply flawed logic of The War on Terror and extracting vengence for the unspeakable tragedies of Sept 11, 2001 to bolster a poorly informed US public. New Labour's gross incompetance at home, their adoption of discredited neo-conservative ideology means they should give Blair his walking papers.The consequences of outrageous adventure into Iraq are too terrible to contemplate.
I strongly recommend that persons interested in New Labour should re-read Animal Farm by George Orwell, persons interested in world domination should read 1984 by George Orwell, persons who want to know where Britain should be going, should read The World We Are In (2003) by Len Hutton and everybody should read anything they can get their hands on by John Pilger

Orwellian Doublespeak now order of the day

I heard an interesting item on the BBC news bulletin this morning.
"The Americans are considering developing mini-nukes (that is, small nuclear bombs) to blow up bunkers that may contain al-Quaeda weapons of mass destruction."
What?

The question arises: Who presents the greater danger to world peace today?
I humbly submit that the present regime in the US presents a much greater danger than a gang of ultras in the in the Middle East. The Americans will set a precedent by resorting to the horror of nuclear weapons and opening the floodgates. This is a scenario that is too frightening to contemplate.

"All governments are liars and nothing they say should be believed."
IF Stone (American).

"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices"
Voltaire (French) 1767

"Never Believe anything until it is officially denied"

Claud Cockburn (Irish)

Desist from Stereotyping

I suppose we all stereotype people. It's a kind of short-cut, a lazy way to get us through life... keep us out of trouble.
Big muscular guys with skin-head hairstyles, tattoos from neck to ankle, Doc Martin boots - we will tend to give them a wide berth at 2 am on a Sunday morning. Yet such people may be the most gentle of souls. It's just that for safety's sake we will not give them the benefit of the doubt.
Now I tend to stereotype tv presenters, especially those who may appear in the "family slot" like 5-8 pm at the week-end. I do not watch much tv, but I avoid this segment as Tony Blair avoids his constituency's rubber chicken darts nights.
One such presenter is David Dickensen, the camp (though, apparently straight - not that it matters) presenter of some antique show that crops up around this time. The guy, is not in the first flush of youth (note, ageism on my part , though I have long since been expelled from the 18-30 travel club for failure to know about the 60's - I was there...) He has this amazing tan that any Costa residing Brit would kill for, and he can jabber on about Chippendale furniture till Thomas Adam fireplaces go up in smoke.
So this bloke has a unfailing talent to send me to sleep after less than 3 minutes "viewing". I might add that I deeply resent antiques. They get in the way of all the stuff we should be designing today for today - instead of sitting around this old crap, that class-conscious Brits feel they need to clutter up their physical space - Is it any wonder they cannot cope with the 21st Century. I say physical space... I am not a phillistine. I enjoy history, dead poets, writers, objects d'art. It's just the physical space. It's so damn finite.
Anyway, looks like I got this Dickensian Dickensen geyser totally wrong. Asked in an interview what living person he most admired...(I was expecting, in my prejudice, the toxic Margaret Thatcher, or the pretzel-choking, Bush Jnr.) He only says John Pilger... John Blooddy Pilger. Are my ears playing tricks?... only the bravest, most admirable Australian, that ever struck the keys of a Remington typwriter. The ballsiest journalist living today. (I'm not Australian, by the way).
John Pilger has said recently
"The conscious nature of Tony Blair's lies and distortions over Iraq is now clear. Collectors will have their favourites. Mine is his statement in Parliament on 29th January that "we do know of links between al-Quaeda and Iraq". As the Intelligence agencies have repeatedly confirmed, there were no links and Blair would have known this. Looking back this lie sought to justify his statement, in October 2001, that there would be a "wider war" against Iraq only if there was "absolute evidence" of his complicity in 11 September. Of course there was no evidence and Blair would have known this too......"
Thank you John Pliger, and thank you Mr Dickensen.

"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq."

Paul Wolfowitz, US Deputy Defense Secretary, while visiting troops in Iraq

Faustian Pact
What is truly outrageous about the Blair Government today is that it is manipulated by the eminance gris of Rupert Murdoch. A few months before New Labour was elected in 1997, Blair was invited to attend a meeting of senior executives of Murdoch's News International, publishers in the UK of The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, News of the World and controlling interest in Sky TV.
Blair sold his soul to the evil one at that meeting. In return for Blair taking a pro-Republican, pro-Neo-Conservative, pro-business deregulation and anti-EU (especially single currencey) line, Blair would receive the full support of the Murdoch media in the UK. The rest, as they say, is history. Some of these demands may have caused Blair a little indigestion, especially the anti-Euro stance. He took some decongestant, and with Gordon Brown concocted the quasi-economic 5 tests for Euro membership, which surprise, surprise, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has recently scored the UK as a "fail".
Blair lives in daily fear of getting the thumbs down from the unspeakable one.
It was not really surprising, when Blair replaced the shambolic John Major, the first thing he did was to visit the toxic Margaret Thatcher, the very one who "de-regulated" sensible legislation that handed the Times, The Sun, Sky, etc. to RM on a plate. (It is still not possible for an equivalent situation to arise in the US.)
And what about the recent row between the Government and the BBC. Not a big surprise that the Murdoch media comes out on the side of the Government, when his low-rent organisation is likely to be the bigest beneficiary of any weakening of the public broadcaster. It is ominous therefore, that Government is making threatening noises about the future of the Governors of the BBC.

So there you have it. A person who is neither a resident nor citizen/subject of the UK, is controlling issues such as Britain invading Iraq and the future of the one world-leading institution in the UK, the BBC.
Nice democracy from the gushing & sermonising Tony Blair!

Blair was given approval to go to war against Iraq, by the UK Parliament on the basis that Sadam had weapons of Mass Destruction, which he could fire within 45 minutes. If Blair exaggerated or lied on this matter, then it is a resigning matter. Where are these WMDs?
I say he should resign and let's get a Prime Minister who is not the poodle of the most craven US Administration ever to see the light of day.

Interesting that the Bush regime plans to try unilaterally members of the Iraq regime for war crimes without recourse to the international war crimes convention - which it has not signed up to anyway. A bit rich from the country that gave us Mai Lai, (Vietnam), Hiroshima & Nagasaki, El Salvador, Somalia and the present deaths of innocents in Iraq to add to a long list. Sadam is bad, sure, but surely a Christian*, as Bush allegedly is (and Blair too), born again, or otherwise, can see the hypocisy in this position.

*And I would add any unbiased Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Rastafarian, Atheist or [fill in your own belief sytem] would come to the same conclusion.

Speaking of disingenuous, what on earth is Blair doing inviting Bush to Northern Ireland? Asked what city he knew in northern Ireland, Dubya said Dublin! What can such an ignoramus possibly contribute to a complex situation like Northern Ireland. What have the ordinary peace-loving folks of those counties done to deserve the presence of such a warmonger ( or 2 warmongers, for that matter)?
Well the thing is, it is the only place already adequately saturated by troops safe enough for the texas ranger.
Mark my words, Blair will go the same way as the dreadful Thatcher. He has become so puffed up by his treatment in the US, that he has forgotten that it is the better-informed electorate in the UK that really matters for his future.

Speaking of extreme Republican right-wingers (what an example of tautology!), as I was in my last blog, how interesting to see Richard Perle, one of the godfathers of the Party having to resign because of "a possible conflict of interest", i.e. making money out of the war. Watch out for more resignations for this little matter. The whole raison d'etre of this sordid war is money and power.
Somebody said to me the other day that Blair is a brilliant actor. This seemed to me an odd statement, at the time. However, the more I think of it, the truer it seems. Everybody says that Blair truly believes what he says, and whatever you think about his views on the War, you have got to give him the benefit of sticking to what he believes.
Well, I'm not sure about that. How could an intelligent person like the PM accept every piece of nonsense that Bush Jnr. spouts out. For one example the "The Roadmap for peace in the Middle East" [including independence for the Palestinian people]. What a cynical device that was to get countries on board for the War. Blair surely knows this is total bullshit , and doesn't stand a chance of being implemented, with Zionist power deeply "embedded" on the levers of US power, yet he tries to deceive his audience that it is a goer. Blair is as devious as any any politician, he just puts it over in a way that the great Jack Nicholson couldn't compete with. You don't get to where Blair is without pulling mucho strokes.
Meanwhile this immoral unjust war claims more lives. The Republican guard are human beings too and zapped tanks contain ordinary fathers and sons and brothers and grandsons!

The extreme Republican right-winger, Rupert Murdoch is ensuring that his rubbish UK titles are following his hardline lead on the War. The vile Sun, the overblown and much reduced Times and his medium for Gameboy enthusiasts, Sky TV, all slavishly follow Rhubarb's diktat. It's laughable to consider that when he was given approval to take over The Times, he gave a solemn undertaking not to control the editorial line.
Looking at another press baron, it is surprising that the Murdoch Lite, Tony (sorry) "Sir" Dr. (honorary) Anthony JF O'Reilly, has not thus far interfered with the Independent's admirable anti-war editorial.

Good to see that Bush did not get approval to build a pipeline through the pristine land of Alaska.
I suppose that was not about oil, either.

Article 1441 alone does not permit the US or anyone else to go to war
The US administration and its supporters (including the UK Prime Minister) claim that no further UN declarations are necessary to comply with International Law. This is untrue. It was made perfectly clear in November 2002 when 1441 was passed, and this was emphasised by the US administration as the time, that no "automaticity" would result in war or force of arms. Of course, having obtained the passing of the sanction, the Administration and its friends are conveniently forgetting this.
A further sanction is most definetly required and this was implied by UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan earlier this week.

Of course the fallback stance of the Administration and its cronies is that if the UN declines to confirm war then it is a useless and demoralised entity. In other words, if you don't agree with us we will do what we want anyway.

What they really want to do is get rid of the UN and act in a unilateral manner - just like the loonies in the militias in the redneckland of Montana or where ever it is that they hang out. Law of the jungle will ensue.

Tax cuts are good for all
I don't think so.

US Vice-President receives income from War Contractor
Dick Cheney continues to receive money from Halliburton, one of the major contactors of the so-called "War on Terror".
Although declared as "Deferred Compensation" in Mr Cheney's 2001 financial disclosure statement, it is not clear how the payments ranging from $100,000 to £1,000,000 per year are calculated.

It was announced the other day that a subsidiary of Halliburton received a defense department contract to control oil fires, if Saddam Hussein sets the well heads alight; and this will put the Group in excellent position to bid for huge contracts when Iraqi oil is rehabilitated. KBR (the subsidiary) has already benefited to the tune of $33M for building the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

Dick Cheney retains $8M of stock options in Halliburton. He has arranged to pay any profits on these options to charity.

It is reliably estimated that Halliburton has made $2.3bn. from the government contracts while Cheney was Chief Executive.

We believe that Sept 11, was an outrage and that there should be no hiding place for the perpetrators of that foul deed. We believe Saddam Hussein is a war criminal, who should be brought to justice.

We do however, suspect the motives of the Bush government and it's apparent unilateral rush to war without regard to International Law.

Sounds a bit fishy to me
Halibut? No Haliburton. What's that then?
It's the company to which the Bush regime has just announced that it has granted one of the major contracts for rebuilding Iraq.
Has Bush taken over Iraq? Not yet.
See what you mean about fish.
Who are Haliburton then?
Dick Cheney's (Vice President) "former" employer.
This war is not about oil, you know.
Right.

Candidate for New Leader of the Tory Party
Here's my suggestion for the new leader of Britain's "loyal Opposition" - Step forward Tony Blair.
It is quite clear that Blair is a Tory at heart. Didn't he steal all their policies, and one of his first guests on his appointment as PM, was the arch Tory witch, "Baroness" Thatcher? Don't even mention the War.
As soon as the Labour faithful awakens and smells the coffee, it may be too late for all of us.

Parliamentary Opposition
Everybody in Britain, right now recognises that there is no effective opposition to the New Labour government. "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition" (what a typically pompous term!) whose role is currently filled by the Conservative or Tory Party is a joke. It is quite clear that the only electable position is to the left of the New Labour, ( and let's face it that could still mean right-wing) but all theTories can do is move yet further to the right and self-destruct by internal feud.
It is also quite clear that with average membership age at 67, no modernisation move is going to get passed by this reactionary group to make it electable. So it would appear they are in melt-down.
It has been said that any opposition there is, is being provided by the Labour back-benchers, and the media. The former have some strength at present, with their constituents seething about Blair's arrogance in ignoring the electorate's opposition to supporting Bush's adventures in the Middle East; but they are also constrained by the Party's whips and the immense machine that is Blair's Downing Street, which the PM has largely turned into a White House in London, a flagrant contradiction to Britain so-called parliamentary democracy. That leaves the media.
The newspapers in Britain are overwhelmingly controlled by foreigners. The megalomaniac, Rupert Murdoch, an Australian turned US citizen and "Sir" Conrad Black, a Canadian. Both are extreme right-wingers and have agendas that are not those of ordinary British residents. Blair has made a Faustian pact with Murdoch to moderate democratic reforms to Britain's medieval "constitution" and links to Europe in return for support from the odious Sun and the overblown and rubbishy Times .
Much more here on the British media soon.

Happy Birthday, Yvonne. Your looking great and of course, you're still in a different decade of life to me. Glad we are still great friends. It was "touch and go" for a while, as you know.
Jamaicans and Irish should get on well. Although I am saddened and annoyed by stories of racism that are increasingly common from the old country these days. More about this later.
Glad also that you have taken to the blogosphere so well, hardly surprising, when you think of your kids' success in writing.
"Old media" card later
Enjoy tonight.

I'm back. I was away but now I'm here again. Stronger than ever. Leaner, fitter, raring to go. Don't hold me back. I'm a man in a hurry. A positive, cando type of guy. No time for begrudgers. Feeling empowered... Sober, steadfast, upright, no time for fools.
Great! Must have a lie down after all that.