Blog posts

I can’t say I’ve ever had much respect for any Murdoch publication or news network. News Corporation is just far too sinister a name. But today has, perhaps, been the day in which I’ve most reviled the corporation and its powerbase. It might well have been this utter mangling of the Hutton report (transcribed here) which set it off [thanks Joff and Martin, for those links]. Or I guess it could have been this rather less incendiary, rather more revealing piece in the Washington Post. ...

I’m not sure there are words for this. Why had we not heard they were there?

We probably should have known better than to rely on Nick Brown. It has been clear all along that there’s more than convictions driving his position, but I think we all believe he’d stand firm. His publicly stated reasons for voting with the government tonight are clearly nonsense (the measures he say swayed him were introduced last week) and the halls of westminster were filled with talk of what sort of Blair-Gordon-Nick deal had driven these changes. ...

It’s always nice to know that your local parliamentary representative respects you. That they will take your serious questions seriously, and explain to you why they’re taking the stands they’re taking. I guess that’s why I was somewhat taken aback to receive an email from Jane Griffiths MP (Reading East) this morning containing just two words (aside from quoted material): What nonsense She was responding to an email I had sent asking what I considered a perfectly legitimate question about manifestos. I had asked whether they were supposed to tell us what legislation a government would bring in during the parliamentary session to which they applied. I may have made a passing comment that if the line she and Blair are taking [“the manifesto only applies to things which take effect during this parliament” (I paraphrase)] is the case then they could write whatever they liked in their manifesto and introduce entirely contrary legislation with some sort of time-delay. ...

“Today started out just like any other day I can remember lately, I was thrown out the window”

I’ve been following the Kilroy-debacle fairly reluctantly. The debate on Question Time last night piqued my interest a little, but seemed entirely based on a belief that the BBC had some sort of obligation to give the man airtime. I wonder if the same amount of fuss will be made in the US about CBS’ refusal to show MoveOn’s anti-Bush ad? Sadly, I fear not. For those who haven’t been following, MoveOn ran a contest to produce a 30 second advertisement about the failings of the Bush junta regime. The intention was to show the winner during that climax of US corporate sporting excess, the Superbowl. Not so now, it would appear. ...

In the absence of a viable opposition, and in the face of an incredibly unpopular policy, surely it’s no surprise that labour rebels would try and persuade other people to support their rebellion. Isn’t that what politicians do?

As my move to the US comes closer, Kari and I have been working through our CD collections to eliminate duplicates. As a result we have a few for sale. Let us know if you’re interested.

It’s good to know that the US administration is keeping close tabs on me. Two days before I headed stateside, the alert level was raised to Orange [the second-highest level, as we were repeatedly informed]. Today, as I arrived back in the UK, it returned to Yellow. Time to heave a sigh of relief for the threat of James has passed. Or something like that. Given that the alert level was still at Orange at the time, I was a little puzzled to find that no photo ID was needed in order to board my flight from Chicago to Cincinnati. Perhaps Homeland Security need reminding that the most devastating terrorist attacks in US history occurred as a result of the hijacking of domestic flights? ...

The capture of Saddam Hussein is, as has already been stated many times this morning, a surprising development. Not quite what I expected to hear of as I sat down with my cereal to browse the morning’s news. It’s probably good news, too. Whether it will lead to a cessation of hostilities remains to be seen. It is certainly a slightly more plausible reason to declare the war over than we have previously been offered, but Hussein was not the lone commander of remaining forces and a country under occupation is unlikely to roll over entirely, particularly when supplies of its most common natural resource are being rationed to its own people. ...