Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Breaking News: Blair gets it

Tony Blair has said this morning that it is “up to the individual to look after themselves”. Mr Blair has been an MP since 1983, he’s been leader of the Labour Party since 1994 and he’s been Prime Minister since 1997. That’s 23 years in active politics, with nine as Prime Minister. And now he gets it.

The question is now, with the penny having dropped, will Tony Blair spend his last couple of months as Prime Minister undoing the nine years of statist illiberal social meddling that he has presided over?

Will he bollocks.

Posted by Ben at 10:19 am | | Comments

The UN is dangerously naïve

The UN are looking for a “quick fix” to the conflict between Hezbollah (a terrorist organisation committed destroying Jews and the Jewish state) and Israel. This is ridiculous. The problem throughout the last few years, indeed the last few decades, is that a series of quick fixes have stopped or averted conflict at the expense of addressing the root causes. Do the UN want to solve this problem, or do they just want to hide it?

The UN has condemned Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s attacks as “disproportionate”. Since when has proportionate force resolved a conflict? Disproportionate force, by definition, means one side wins and hence the conflict ends. Proportionate force means that violence is perpetual, a zero sum game, extending misery and suffering as far as possible, which is what the Hezbollah would-be martyrs want. Is the UN knowingly delivering Hezbollah strategy?

It’s at times like this that I really struggle to see any value in the UN. It should be the world authority that everyone looks to and respects, it isn’t and that’s because when it comes down to it it’s staffed by idiots, led by idiots and seems to develop and deliver policies dreamed up by naive idiots in a university debating society.

Posted by Ben at 9:34 am | | Comments

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Freedom of speech

Via syntaxfree.org, I found this quote from the Singaporean Government, referring partially to a blogger who had had his site shut down, and possibly been arrested, for criticising the aforementioned political group.

It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government. (...) If a columnist presents himself as a non-political observer, while exploiting his access to the mass media to undermine the government’s standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics.

That's really thoroughly disgusting. While we spend a lot of time bashing America for a million different reasons, it's worth keeping in mind that there is more freedom there than in some of the world's emerging superpowers. Singapore and America are bastions (bastia?) of political freedom compared to China, for example, and while there was some suspicion around the vote for Mr Bush, at least the other party got to stand, and at least the people got to vote for him.

This is really a note for me, I think, rather than the opening of a discussion (though feel free to ofer opinion). I sometimes forget how fortunate I am to live where I do. And I think in my mind this reinforces my opposition to ID cards, 'terrorist suspects' (or fraud suspects, or whoever the government likes) being extradicted without trial and detained indefinitely without charge, and all the other things that our glorious leaders are pushing through at the moment, while we're arguing over where John Prescott is going to end up, and who is going to win Big Fucking Brother.

Posted by Matt at 12:50 pm | | Comments

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Disgusted of Tooting

I have a friend in Lebanon at the moment. He was specifically in Beirut, until a few days ago. He's found the embassy and is ready for the evacuation (which I've just learned will probably be sea-based).

I signed on to AOL a momnet ago, and was given the headline news. Two headlines were illustrated with pictures. One 'Israel accused of using illegal weapons' (an odd concept. If you kill someone deliberately, the purpose of most military weapons, does it matter how you do it?), and the other was 'Big Brother housemates suspect Jane of being a mole'.

I would like Israel to direct their illegal weapons to the Big Brother house.

Posted by Matt at 7:51 pm | | Comments

Thursday, July 13, 2006

The Fall Guy, the Loans Ranger and the Dupes of Hazard

Prescott’s been lined up to be the muck that the other bad news is buried under. Timing is everything, but the straw that breaks the camel’s back will be leaked to the media just before the really juicy stuff about Levy and Blair selling peerages appears. The media rats will feast on the boated corpse that lies rotting in wait. This makes Prezza the Fall Guy.

Sleazy Levy has been arrested and bailed. He may make a run for it to Israel (a path well trodden by ennobled crooks before him – you’re welcome back any time Dame Shirley), or he may brazen it out. It depends on how much shit is still to come. Informed opinion is that there’s a lot. If Blair is interviewed under caution, the Loans Ranger is likely to be on Silver and away like a shot.

So who are the Dupes of Hazzard? I’m tempted so say it’s you and me, but I think the real dupes here are the media. They’ve been suckling at the Downing Street teat for so long that they can no longer be weaned. This story broke months ago, but it’s taken the arrest of a Labour Peer, Blair’s personal fundraiser, friend, tennis partner and Envoy to the Middle East (which he remains, by the way) to wake them from there dependent stupor.

Will our media ever bite the hand that feeds it? New Labour’s soviet-isation of the media has been a masterstroke. If you control the information, you control the story. Our current lobby are junkies, utterly dependent on tit-bits thrown by Number Ten. Look what happened to Gilligan when he stepped out of line and used a non-approved source.

It’s only down to people like Guido, that the facts of this story and the hideous perspective on a government that has prostituted its morality that they provide have remained evident. If it were down to the shysters that claim to be fair and balanced reporters this shame would have been left unreported.

Posted by Ben at 7:41 pm | | Comments

Friday, July 07, 2006

A year on

Oh, for Christ's sake. Every paper is strewn with messages from Al-Qaeda, stories of victims of last year's attacks, photos of blown up buses. Well done, British media, you've put another nail in the coffin of freedom.

Firstly, the more coverage we give this thing, even a year later, and the more coverage we give the pathetic rantings of a loosely connected group of madmen, the more the terrorists can feel like they've won. Are we giving them that feeling to stop them from doing more? Does anyone think they'll decide 'Oh, we won that one, let's hang up our AK47s and start a knitting club'? No, the more they feel like they've done something, the more they'll keep trying to do it again. And while it is always tragic for people closely related to those who were killed or injured, more people die of meningitis in the UK every year than died from those bombs. And we give meningicoccal virues practically no column inches.

Secondly, the more we play this up, the more the stupid people who make up most of our electorate will believe there is something to fear. And the more the Government can get away with. ID cards have been pushed through in the last year, with some opposition but casual indifference from the majority.

So, serious conclusion: Give it a break. It was a long time ago, and we're still at the same risk now as we were, which, individually, is minimal.

Stupid conclusion: The Government did it themselves, to help push through unpopular legislation. The media is buying the Al-Qaeda story completely. Osama Bin Laden is an actor hired by the American Government. 9/11 (I refuse to call the tube bombings 7/7. If they'd happened a day later, I'd have called them 8/7 just to confuse the Americans though.) was orchestrated by the Bush Administration as an excuse for the War on Terror, to bring democratisation to the world, and Saddam Hussein (who is, of course, not the leader of Al-Qaeda) is just seriously misunderstood.

Posted by Matt at 9:19 am | | Comments