Tessa [Jowell’s] speech was so electric that the main course, which had already been kept waiting for an hour, started to overheat and caused the fire alarms to go off and, consequently, a full evacuation of Shoreditch Town Hall, where the dinner was held.
Ken Livingstone recently went on a trip to Venezuela, to sign a major oil deal with his favourite democrat - President Chavez. Well, he would have done, if Chavez hadn’t played him for a fool, courting him assiduously until he was offered a trip to London and a headline grabbing oil deal, then dropping Ken like a stone, the minute he was no longer useful.
Mr Livingstone said the cost of the trip was “modest”.
The mayor and four officials stopped in Cuba, at a cost of about £20,000, including £16,991 in flight tickets.
When Mr Livingstone’s plans to go to Venezuela fell through, the four officials carried on at a cost of nearly £16,000, including £12,948 on flights.
Ouch. That’s a lot of money to spend for the London taxpayer to spend on Ken’s humiliation.
It’s really tempting, as one of those taxpayers, to say that I consider the money well spent. But instead, I’m wondering whether its time I set myself up in the travel agency business.
Bill Gertz, who breaks the news, thinks its all a bit embarrassing for the US, particularly for the hopes of closer co-operation between the US and Chinese militaries:
The submarine encounter with the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships also is an embarrassment to the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, who is engaged in an ambitious military exchange program with China aimed at improving relations between the two nations’ militaries.
I can’t really see why, though. The whole point of a submarine is to travel undetected. If anything, the Chinese Navy have done their American counterparts a favour, by demonstrating just how vulnerable carrier groups can be to comparatively puny submarines - even the diesel ones that everyone seem to write off these days.
Moving on, the Iowa Voice has posted some background information. Of particular interest to British readers might be the news that an Argentine submarine - the San Luis - managed to successfully tail the British carrier fleet during the Falklands War. Only faulty wiring in the San Luis’ missile systems saved them from what could have been a catastrophic suprise attack.
Insular, patriotic and fiercely independent, they have usually subcontracted their monarchy to foreigners. After being conquered by Saxons, Vikings and French, they offered the crown successively to Welsh, Scots and, ad infinitum, Germans. They made only two requirements, fecundity and the right religion. They were constantly let down on both scores.
These days, we seem to be developing a bit of a fetish for Scottish Prime Ministers.
PC Alexander Omar Basha, who is attached to the force’s Diplomatic Protection Group, objected to being posted to protect Israel’s embassy in central London from possible terrorist attack because he disagreed with the country’s bombing of Lebanon. The officer had reportedly attended a recent anti-war protest.
Most commenters are - rightly - upset because he’s been allowed to pick and choose what parts of his job he does based on his political beliefs, rather than demonstrate the political impartiality that is required of a police officer.
But I thought I’d add one more thought to the mix. Has PC Basha considered what the role of an embassy actually is? It’s too facilitate talking - negotiation rather than war. We encourage the presence of the embassies of our enemies, so that we can try to talk our way out of crises - even occasionally while fighting rages around.
If we all followed the logic of PC Basha’s actions, we’d remove all protections from embassies of those countries with whom we disagreed. They’d then either be attacked, or live in fear being attacked. And, if they had any sense, they’d pack up and go home.
MPA member Peter Herbert said the row was a “ridiculous fuss about nothing” and attacked Sir Ian [Blair - head of the Met Police] over an “unwise judgement” on opting so quickly for a review.
“From a security point of view, the Met would be seriously criticised if this guy has relatives in Lebanon and his picture was used around the world to demonstrate the irony about having a Muslim defending the Israeli embassy in the UK.”
Has Peter Herbert not noticed that 40% of the people of Lebanon are, in fact, Christians? Would he also advocate preserving the Met’s reputation by preventing Christian police officers from protecting the Israeli embassy?
Officials say the move will make the force more efficient, as it seeks to secure Afghanistan for reconstruction.
Some 10,000 US troops have come under the command of Gen David Richards from the UK.
The addition of US troops brings the total number of troops under Nato command in Afghanistan to about 31,000.
This is good news, and represents a major step forward for NATO. A successful mission in Afghanistan (which is still not guaranteed) will boost the organisation’s credibility.
The cynic in me does wonder, though, just how effectively a British general will be able to ‘command’ US troops in practice. I’m sure many of NATO’s member states will be watching with interest to see how well the US adapts to putting such a large number of its troops - who are currently engaged in combat missions - under the command of a foreign general.
When a British Major criticised the air support he was receiving in Afghanistan - “utterly, utterly useless” - it unleashed the predictable response from analysts of condemning the treasury, and questioning whether Britain should really be in Afghanistan at all.
“The aircraft that we have are awesome, but they are too awesome, they are too fast, too high speed. The older technology, the A-10, is far better than the new technology, Antenori said.
And concludes:
[I]f the kinds of failed state/ peacemaking conflict represented by Afghanistan are indeed a future norm, the same Western militaries that are rethinking their wheeled patrol vehicles may also wish to rethink the balance and composition of their air assets. In order to provide the support required by their troops on the ground, “new” items like “Bronco” type forward air control aircraft (currently under US consideration) at the low end, purpose-built aircraft like the A-10 or lighter options like options like the Brazilian Super Tucano et. al., and even light gunship aircraft may be necessary, in order to handle forward observation and light precision attack roles properly.
The Treasury won’t like it - buying a whole new set of planes is going to cost money. But it’s something that needs to be done. We need to accept that a great deal of the missions undertaken by British troops over the next couple of decades will involve ground combat against insurgents. They are not - usually - going to require Top Gun style dogfights against highly skilled Soviet pilots.
While the Harrier and Eurofighter are able to play both air combat and ground support roles, they are expert in one, and amateur in the other. Far, far better for the British government to invest in two experts.
Bloomberg news agency reported that she said “Well, that’s a lie” when she heard the chancellor saying it had been a privilege to work with Tony Blair.
ITV apparently reported much the same story. Cherie has now denied saying anything but, presumably, someone somewhere has the tape…
The No2ID folks have just run this advert in the press. Too cowardly to actually say the ‘H’ word in the advert, they’ve drawn a barcode moustache on Tony Blair’s face.
The do grudgingly admit that Blair isn’t Hitler on their website, but not many people will see that - instead, they’ll see the full page picture of Blair in their paper with a funny barcode moustache and they’ll think - ‘oh my God - Tony Blair looks just like Hitler’.
Godwin’s law is more usually applied to blog comment threads that have grown so entrenched that people have abandoned debate in favour of insults, and have run so low on insults that the only option that remains open to them is to compare their opponent to Hitler:
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
So, lets just quickly recap the state of political debate in our mighty country:
Hitler thought ID cards were great.
Tony Blair thinks ID cards are great.
Hitler killed millions of people.
Tony Blair… um, didn’t kill millions of people.
But, whatever. Tony Blair’s just like Hitler.
I tell you what, the government sure didn’t waste their money when they paid for me to read for a degree in politics.
POLICE have agreed to consult a panel of Muslim leaders before mounting counter-terrorist raids or arrests. Members of the panel will offer their assessment of whether information police have on a suspect is too flimsy and will also consider the consequences on community relations of a raid.
Now, perhaps I’m missing the point here, but shouldn’t the police be able to figure out whether the evidence they have warrants a raid all by themselves?
And, if the police are so uncertain of the evidence on which they choose to make their raids that they feel the need to get reassurance from the community - well, they probably shouldn’t really be considering the raid in the first place.
Britain is to get a brand new internet tv station covering news and politics. 18 Doughty Street - which will broadcast for four hours each evening - promises to “break the mould” . Here’s the trailer:
Having just watched the trailer myself, I must admit, I found it difficult to muster much enthusiasm. Dull, but worthy, was my immediate reaction.
I would be happy to see a new non-mainstream tv news channel, though, so I am keen to see how it develops. And, yes, I’ll happily eat my words if I turn out to be yet another cynic with a blog.
Simon Hughes, the Lib Dems’ president, prefaced Mr Yavlinsky’s speech by claiming that the undemocratic political system in Russia was not “enlightened enough” to embrace liberalism.
But a point of principle was in tow, namely the role of parties destined to stay in opposition rather than having much chance of forming a government.
The Russian liberals stand even less chance of that than their UK counterparts in the near future.
But at least the Lib Dems are taking the time to reach out to other similar parties across the globe, in both democratic and non-democratic countries. They have an active and committed International Department (Full disclosure - I was once interview for and subsequently not offered a job there. Swines.), which works to promote both liberalism and democracy across the globe.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair goes around expressing his disapproval of Vladimir Putin by giving him bear-hugs.
If I once thought the regional news on S4C or BBC Wales was parochial, I now stand corrected as to what that word actually means.
[…] we had the story of a small lorry which got stuck when crossing a makeshift bridge over a ditch, the ditch in question being about a metre wide and six inches deep. An interview with the driver was of particular benefit to the viewers.
In this particular case, he supports Morocco, who annexed Western Sahara in 1976.
“I am for Morocco’s position (on the Sahara issue), and I always have been”, he said, stressing he is against “the balkanisation of the Arab region”.
“We should not balkanise the Arab region … I am against the partition of Morocco,” added the British deputy, affirming that “there is no room for small entities”.
A while back it looked as if the Saharawi people might get their homeland back. But then the Moroccans discovered oil.
A bit of a media sandstorm seems to have blown up over a video called Is This the Way to Al-Jazeera, which features BBC staff dressed as Osama Bin-Laden, singing a version of Is This the Way to Amarillo.
The tape was shown only at a private party but someone, described only as a BBC insider, thought that it was necessary to leak the tape, claiming it would be “offensive” to Muslims.
Call me a cynic, but that’s the most gratuitous excuse I’ve heard in quite some time. Let’s just take a closer look at the logic of leaking this tape:
This was a video that was to be shown only at one person’s leaving party.
It would have been seen by a hundred people at most, of whom probably no more than 10 (at the outside) would have been Muslim.
This insider is worried that Muslim’s will be offended.
So, in order to prevent this offence, he releases the tape to a global audience of approximately 1 billion Muslims.
What? Does this insider have no brain cells at all?
I simply can’t believe that the person who leaked this tape was motivated by a desire to protect sensibilities of Muslims. Their motivations, surely, must have been more sinister than that - either an attempt to discredit one of their work colleagues, or the BBC as a whole.
To wrap it up in an attempt to protect Muslims from offence is a disgrace.
Cyclists in busy urban areas may have to sound a bell almost continually as they cycle along under government plans to force them not only to have bicycle bells fitted, but to use them to warn pedestrians of their approach.
I was going to use this post as an excuse to point out that pedestrians who get run over by bikes should have bloody well looked before they stepped into the road, and to pose the sarcastic question - how long until someone gets fined for noise pollution after ringing their bell constantly?
But instead, I was reminded of David Prowse, a true giant of a man. If there were more people like him around today, there wouldn’t be any need for such stupid legislation.
David Prowse, for those of you not in the know, was the very tall man in the Darth Vader suit in the first three Star Wars films. His greatest role, however, was the Green Cross Code man, who taught a generation of British schoolchildren how to cross the road without getting squashed.
I’ve never been squashed while crossing the road, so I can confirm that the Green Cross Code Man’s advice really does work.
Anyway, enough of spuriously trying to link this to cycling. I’m not really interested in making a point about cycling. I want to reminisce.
You see, I had the very great honour to meet David Prowse once - he came to my school when I was about eight years old. As you can imagine, to my eight year old eyes, he was by far the tallest thing I’d ever seen. (Although, if pressed, I probably would have admitted that he did look a bit silly in a green and white suit). I was far too shy to ask for his autograph, but I do remember him telling me very nicely how to cross the road correctly.
That was nothing compared to the highlight of the day, though. We were allowed to go outside, and gawk at his car. And what a car it was!
Prowse was the owner of a very shiny, very low-slung red Porsche, a vision of futuristic metallic coolness the like of which had certainly never been seen before in dull old Bridgwater. And, to top it all, his license plate was DARTH 1.
Upon mature reflection, I’ve no idea how a man so tall managed to get into a car so small, but that will have to just remain one of the great unsolved mysteries of my life. To the eight year old me, David Prowse was a God. And, true to my god, I always (well, occasionally) stopped, looked and listened before I ran out into the road.
Despite all this, I can completely understand why George Lucas chose to get James Earl Jones to do a voiceover of Darth’s voice. You see, I got to hear him talk when he taught me to cross the road.
For a frighteningly tall giant of a man, David Prowse speaks with a remarkably soft Bristolian burr. And, with the very greatest of respect, hearing Darth Vader utter the immortal words…
Nirj Deva represents South East England in the European Parliament. But it looks like he’s decided Europe isn’t big enough for him - he wants to be boss of the world. Or, at least, UN Secretary General.
Sadly, though, the balls up over whether Fiji had officially nominated him does seem to imply that he’s not a particularly good at managing his public image, and neither is he particularly diplomatic. In fact, it looks like, in true British tradition, he’s a bit of a bungler.
The confusion over whether British MEP Nirj Deva has received a formal nomination from the government of Fiji continues. His campaign maintains that the July 18th letter from Foreign Minister Kaliopate Tavola trumps the recent letter from Ambassador Isikia Savua, which stated that any report of a nomination by Fiji was “to be disregarded.”
[…] The President of the Security Council is attempting to resolve the confusion, but the Devas campaign does not appear to be helping in that regard. Inquiries from campaign observers are met with accusatory and sarcastic remarks anonymously or from an unnamed person, often twisting provisions of the UN Charter or official communiques to defend their position.
Oh well - it’s only another decade until Britain’s next shot at installing ‘our man in New York’ comes around.
Gordon Brown is Labour’s Richard Nixon. That is not to suggest for an instant that he is a crook — far from it — but he has Nixon’s combination of immense political talent and utter clumsiness. The buttoned-up suit, the mouth slightly agape, the physical awkwardness, the alarming smile which seems to appear from nowhere as if a button marked “smile” has been pressed in his head, the nocturnal brooding on imaginary grievances encouraged by a group of chippy cronies — Brown, like Nixon, suffers from a kind of political Asperger’s syndrome. Intellectually brilliant, he sometimes seems socially barely functional: a little bit . . . odd.
BRITAIN agreed to provide an extra 800 troops to allied forces fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan but later withdrew the offer, Nato officials disclosed last week.
Lieutenant General David Richards, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, planned to use the 800-man force as troubleshooters, sending them into any area where fighting broke out.
However, John Reid, then the defence secretary, was so angry at the reluctance of other Nato countries to supply troops that the offer was retracted.
Yes, Britain’s NATO allies should be doing more to help, and should certainly be providing more troops to support the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
But, given the difficult situation that British troops are finding themselves in at the moment, holding back reinforcements in order to prove a political point to one’s NATO allies is nothing more than negligence on the part of the British government.
Ben Paarman turned up at Luton airport for a flight to Berlin. Having forgotten to remove toiletries from his hand luggage, he was hauled over for further inspection, and two books were discovered. A German novel passed without comment, but Murder in Samarkand, Craig Murray’s memoir of his incident-strewn stint as British ambassador to Uzbekistan, didn’t. “‘Is that about terrorism?’ asked the lady that examined my onboard luggage,” wrote Paarman on neweurasia.net, a collection of blogs by and about Central Asians. “‘Humm, well, it contains mentions of that, but it’s about your former ambassador to Uzbekistan and more about diplomacy,’ I replied politely. ‘Does it have al-Qaeda in it?’ I looked a bit confused. ‘Well, I have to check this with my manager, the rest of your stuff is fine, though.’” The manager arrived, asked Paarman where he got the book (Waterstone’s, Islington), then pronounced: “I am afraid you cannot take this onboard, Sir.” The book was duly confiscated.
Apparently the book, which the Foreign Office tried to prevent Craig Murray from publishing, has been confiscated a couple of times at British Airports recently. Murray, with his unerring eye for self publicity, is claiming that it is now British policy to seize every copy of the book it can copies of the book at airports, and is planning to seek a High Court injunction on the grounds that his (or perhaps the reader’s?) human rights have been curtailed.
Oddly, the Guardian article mentions that Paarman wrote about the incident on his blog- neweurasia. I’ve just had a quick look, and couldn’t find anything, but Ben’s a reputable guy, so I’m sure the article’s around there somewhere. (Update 9/11/06: I’ve just found Ben’s blog post, over on neweurasia’s Uzbekistan blog. Now why on earth didn’t I think of looking there in the first place?).
Whatever, seizing books from passengers is an alarming precedent, which does absolutely nothing to make the skies a safer place. The practice deserves to be exposed and ended as soon as possible.
Update (11/9/06): Post amended at Craig’s request to correct my error - see comments.
Ken Livingstone recently went on a trip to Venezuela, to sign a major oil deal with his favourite democrat - President Chavez. Well, he would have done, if Chavez hadn’t played him for a fool, courting him assiduously until he was offered a trip to London and a headline grabbing oil deal, then dropping Ken like a stone, the minute he was no longer useful.
The Washington Post reports that a Chinese submarine was spotted tailing a US aircraft carrier battler group last month, just off Okinawa. 
The No2ID folks have just run this advert in the press. Too cowardly to actually say the ‘H’ word in the advert, they’ve drawn a barcode moustache on Tony Blair’s face.
