“A spectacle more than an analysis.”

Talking of Oliver Kamm, he has posted on the Newsnight “Allies on Trial” show. The writer and broadcaster William Shawcross, having declined to participate, wrote to Mr Kamm, who continues the story thus: William explained that, while he would be happy to be part of an investigation or discussion, he would not take part in a form of entertainment. I am glad to set down his reasoning, with his permission. … Continue reading

Bloggers run Britain!

Adloyada had her first stint as a guest blogger for Today yesterday, where the subject for discussion was whether the media runs Britain. Oliver Kamm has discussed – and dismissed – the idea that “money” runs Britain, and Tim Ireland says it ain’t the EU either. Kudos to the Beeb for this initiative, and for being ready to ask bloggers who were critics of the organisation. And before anyone says, … Continue reading

Fish in a barrel

I know, I know – the PLO are merely activists for change, just like B-BBCers. I never knew that Marwan Barghouti was one too: “The rebel list is headed by a jailed activist, Marwan Barghouti, under the new name al-Mustaqbal (the Future)… Barghouti is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison over militant attacks.” [emphasis added] Mr Barghouti is a rather forceful “activist”: “He was convicted on May 20, … Continue reading

Google forever

The BBC interviews two ex-US servicemen. Unsurprisingly, they both have problems with the way that George Bush has run the war. They are: “Captain Jonathan Powers served for a year in Iraq in the early stages of the war. After returning he founded War Kids Relief, a charity that rebuilds orphanages in Iraq. Garrett Reppenhagen was a sniper. He served in Iraq for a year and returned home about four … Continue reading

Democracy in action

Well, B-BBC inches closer to 1 million hits. Everyone’s pissed off with the Newsnight showtrial. Well, inspired by Tim Blair*, why don’t all you crazy-kid RWDBs vote on BBC Online on: “Do you believe the allies have breached the convention on the methods and means of warfare? Do you believe the allies have breached the convention on torture and refugees?” Vote here. *The Australian Greens were very upset about this … Continue reading

1,000 words

David Hicks, the soon-to-be-British Taleban, looks kind of sweet and gullible in the BBC photo, doesn’t he? This page has the usual archive picture we see in Australia (scroll down) (and The Age is a Fairfax paper – Fairfax is the Australian equivalent of an infernal hybrid of The Guardian, The Independent and the NYT, so it would hardly be worried about being too soft on the terrorist). Click through … Continue reading

And still they come

They’re still at it on Sydney: “The fighting then spread to other parts of the city, injuring more than 30 people, including police officers. The violence continued on Monday night, apparently in retaliation, despite calls for calm and ethnic tolerance by Prime Minister John Howard and other senior figures.” Quite wrong – the white on Lebanese attacks had ended by about mid-afternoon on Sunday. By Sunday evening, the violence was … Continue reading

It was all a waste of time

…it appears, as those Kurds who had the temerity to stand up to one of the 20th century’s great mass killers apparently set up a one-party state: “But while Kurdish officials say that democracy has flourished in their semi-autonomous region since splitting off from Saddam Hussein’s central government in 1992, there is only one way considered acceptable to vote here.” Sounds just like more of the same, doesn’t it? However, … Continue reading