Zimbabwe Sanctions. South Africa has called for sanctions to end. I agree. Sanctions prop up the tyrannies they are designed to hurt. They deprive the ordinary people and create the opportunity for the despot in charge to bribe cronies with luxuries. The way to get rid of such regimes is to empower the people through […]
Chilean Earthquake Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out once again to the victims of natural disaster, this time Chile. A much more advanced country than the last victim, Haiti, with vastly better infrastructure and a rehearsed emergency plan. I fear we may not yet know the full extent of the damage and loss of […]
Opinion Polls Well, well! The Tory lead is down to 2%. The bullying allegations have played in Brown’s favour. If this happened on polling day Cameron would be defeated. Parliament would be hung, but the Tories would not be the largest party. This blog thinks this is a good moment to take stock of the […]
Tory Health An eminent consultant, once Tony Blair’s adviser on health reforms, has joined the Tory health team as an adviser to be if they come to power. I have three observations. The first is the doctors should have nothing to do with sorting out the problems in the health service, because they are the […]
Economic Recovery The result for economic growth for the final quarter of 2009 has been eased up from 0.1 to 0.3. This is better than expected. It is, nevertheless, not good. Economists and commentators expect recovery to be slow and bumpy and quite a long road. I am sure they are right. Unfortunately, as this blog loses […]
Torture In modern civilised culture torture has no place. Neither does wrapping oneself in explosives as a fast track to heaven, killing and maiming innocent civilians in the process, including women and children. To discover who is plotting and planning, intelligence services step over the line. To gain recognition or some other political ambition frustrated […]
Brown and Blair According to the Guardian further tit bits from that book are to tell of a blazing row between Blair and Brown with the F word flying over Blair’s refusal to stand down early in 2006. This led to the failed coup attempt later in the year. Apparently Brown accused Blair of ruining […]
Bank Bonuses This morning state ownwd RBS announced a handsome muti- billion pound loss, yet plans to pay £1.5 billion in bonusses to people it ‘cannot afford to lose.’ This ammounts to commercial blackmail. The government, which is boss on our behalf, should say no. This is an outstanding opportunity for Cameron and Osborne to […]
Forces of Hell Alistair Darling recalls how everyone, both in government and in opposition, briefed against him after he warned the country that we were entering the worst recession in modern times. I thought he had a bit of a twinkle in his eye when he recalled the experience in a T.V interview, but in […]
President Karzai Reports are coming in to the effect that President Karzai has ‘issued a decree’ giving himself the power to appoint all the members of the election watchdog which will monitor the integrity of the coming elections in Afghanistan. This does not sound good. It is very bad for the credibility of this government […]