Back in 2003, just as the march to war was at its height, Clare Short told Tony Blair that her conscience wouldn't allow her to serve in the same Cabinet as him. All it took was the offer of another Government post and Ms Short had a sudden change of heart and stayed put and no amount of twisting, turning or heart rendering justifications could make her look anything other than a complete hypocrite.
By contrast, Robin Cook's decision to march out of Blair's Cabinet in protest and into the sunlit uplands of the moral high ground was surveyed with admiration.
Now former Bush mouthpiece, Scott McClellan, derides the Iraq War as "not necessary," and has decided that "Waging an unnecessary war is a grave mistake."
"When words I uttered, believing them to be true, were exposed as false, I was constrained by my duties and loyalty to the president and unable to comment," he said. Welcome to the party Scott and to think all it took was a massive book deal.
Not for you an eloquent demolition job on the Presidents position at the time, much rather continue to pump out the propaganda your boss handed to you to read although, as you yourself state, your loyalty to your President, despite your supposed reservations, over-rode any of those overpowering feelings of remorse you have been miraculously struck with now.
If you felt that what you were saying at the time was such a grave mistake, why wait until 4 years later and safely out of the way before uttering any opposition to them?
Your chance of making any impact on public opinion and helping to prevent an 'unnecessary war' was when you had a live worldwide audience and plenty of opportunities to voice your opinion or refuse to be complicit in a potential genocide if you felt this strongly about matters.
The harsh truth is that you are a seedy opportunist with the integrity of a used car salesman who liked being in the spotlight, being well paid and being the mouthpiece justifying your boss's actions more than you cared about your country bombing Iraq.
You may make a few dollars from your grubby book deal but that just makes you the worst type of coward and a utter hypocrite with a few extra dollars.
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
John McCain Hits Lefts Buttons
Clever old John McCain. I watched him today as he gave a speech at the University of Denver and the guy hit two hot button issues for the left and came away leaving more than few lefty eyebrows raised.
First up was the Environment which he promised to make it his number one priority and he has long been a champion of cleaning up the Environment.
Secondly admonished past Republicans and Democrats on their efforts to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons. He said: "If you look back over the past two decades, I don't think any of us, Republican or Democrat, can take much satisfaction in what we've accomplished to control nuclear proliferation." He then set out his plan to reduce Americas Nuclear capability to its absolute minimum, and cancelling the development of nuclear "bunker-busting" bombs and working with Russia and China to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
"Today, we deploy thousands of nuclear warheads. It is my hope to move as rapidly as possible to a significantly smaller force."
Over to you Obama because on two of the most leftwing issued you can find, McCain is stealing your ground.
All the credit to McCain because this will lose him votes from the more hardline right wingers but he is either putting his principles above the more rewarding perception of being a typical neo-conservative Republican and he should be applauded for that or he is making an excellent play of cutting Obama's legs from under him.
Over to you Obama.
First up was the Environment which he promised to make it his number one priority and he has long been a champion of cleaning up the Environment.
Secondly admonished past Republicans and Democrats on their efforts to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons. He said: "If you look back over the past two decades, I don't think any of us, Republican or Democrat, can take much satisfaction in what we've accomplished to control nuclear proliferation." He then set out his plan to reduce Americas Nuclear capability to its absolute minimum, and cancelling the development of nuclear "bunker-busting" bombs and working with Russia and China to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
"Today, we deploy thousands of nuclear warheads. It is my hope to move as rapidly as possible to a significantly smaller force."
Over to you Obama because on two of the most leftwing issued you can find, McCain is stealing your ground.
All the credit to McCain because this will lose him votes from the more hardline right wingers but he is either putting his principles above the more rewarding perception of being a typical neo-conservative Republican and he should be applauded for that or he is making an excellent play of cutting Obama's legs from under him.
Over to you Obama.
Brits Doing American Accents, And Failing.
Being the arrogant bunch of twits we are, us British tend to slaughter anyone else attempting our accent. Poor old Dick Van Dyke is still held as the high watermark for Grievous Bodily Harm on our accent when he set it on fire, put it out with a jet of his own special water and then spread rumours about its mother's promiscuity as Bert the Chimney Sweep in Mary Poppins.
Kevin Costner's go at speaking Blighty in Robin Hood was awful and even the actress who played Daphne in Fraser just sounded weird and she's English while David Boreanaz's stab at Irish in Angel sucked more than his vampire character ever could.
To balance things up, the Radio Times have got stuck into Brits attempting American accents and failing dismally with Michelle Ryan winning the honour for her portrayal of the Bionic Women, which has now been cancelled.
Other bad yank accents included Eddie Izzard in The Richies, Annie Friel in Pushing Daisies and Hugh Laurie in House.
Even to my English ears Michelle Ryan's American accent was rubbish but i was impressed by Hugh Laurie in House especially when his normal accent is so quintessentially English.
I haven't seen Izzard or Friel so can't comment on what they do to the American accent but Michelle, you will now always be known as the Dick Van Dyke of American accents which is actually better than being remembered for being Zoe Slater in Eastenders.
Come to think of it your cockney accent wasn't that hot then either.
Kevin Costner's go at speaking Blighty in Robin Hood was awful and even the actress who played Daphne in Fraser just sounded weird and she's English while David Boreanaz's stab at Irish in Angel sucked more than his vampire character ever could.
To balance things up, the Radio Times have got stuck into Brits attempting American accents and failing dismally with Michelle Ryan winning the honour for her portrayal of the Bionic Women, which has now been cancelled.
Other bad yank accents included Eddie Izzard in The Richies, Annie Friel in Pushing Daisies and Hugh Laurie in House.
Even to my English ears Michelle Ryan's American accent was rubbish but i was impressed by Hugh Laurie in House especially when his normal accent is so quintessentially English.
I haven't seen Izzard or Friel so can't comment on what they do to the American accent but Michelle, you will now always be known as the Dick Van Dyke of American accents which is actually better than being remembered for being Zoe Slater in Eastenders.
Come to think of it your cockney accent wasn't that hot then either.
Egg On All Our Faces
Boy, am i embarrassed. For the past five years i have been crazily under the impression that when the US president landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a navy jet against a backdrop of a huge sign bearing the legend "Mission Accomplished" he meant the war in Iraq.
Maybe if i had paid more attention when he said that "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," and "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror" i would of realised that what he was actually talking about was the USS Abraham Lincoln itself.
Luckily we have the White House spokeswoman Dana Perino to clear up what we didn't see or hear what we thought we heard.
"The president wasn't referring to the Iraq war as such. Instead, he was congratulating just that "particular" crew on having accomplished its "particular" 10-month mission" she explained before saying that the President was aware that the banner was no specific enough to get this message across.
Glad that's all cleared up and just in time to hear Ms. Perino explain how when Bush said when he discussed invading Iraq with God, he actually meant Barney the Presidents Dog, but his autocue was upside down.
Maybe if i had paid more attention when he said that "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," and "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror" i would of realised that what he was actually talking about was the USS Abraham Lincoln itself.
Luckily we have the White House spokeswoman Dana Perino to clear up what we didn't see or hear what we thought we heard.
"The president wasn't referring to the Iraq war as such. Instead, he was congratulating just that "particular" crew on having accomplished its "particular" 10-month mission" she explained before saying that the President was aware that the banner was no specific enough to get this message across.
Glad that's all cleared up and just in time to hear Ms. Perino explain how when Bush said when he discussed invading Iraq with God, he actually meant Barney the Presidents Dog, but his autocue was upside down.
Monday, 26 May 2008
Rescued Divers Not Making Many Friends
Seven helicopters, three planes and six boats managed to rescue two divers who had gone missing on the Great Barrier Reef on Friday.
How the couple, both experienced divers, became separated from their charter boat and were rescued in an intensive air-sea search operation after floating for 19 hours is being debated.
They blame the dive crew for failing to spot them when they resurfaced 200 yards away from the boat and of being negligent in their own search for them.
The diving crew state that the pair not only ignored safety advice to stay with the diving group but they had 22 people standing on the boats roof looking for them with binoculars and there was no way they came up anywhere near the boat. A happy ending regardless of who was at fault.
Now it gets murky because within hours of being scooped from shark-infested waters, the pair had set themselves up with an agent, a tabloid deal, US and British TV interview deals and a possible book and film deal earning them an estimated £500,000.
Understandably, this has not gone down very well in Australia with Queensland's Premier, Anna Bligh, saying that the hunt for the pair had been an expensive operation and there had been an "extraordinary rescue effort gone into keeping them safe and if they are going to profit from their story, I don't think a contribution back would go astray. It would be a very welcome gesture."
As the rescue service is community funded and relies on public donations and sponsorship, you would think it is the very least they could do.
The couples agent replied to criticism by stating that "They have personal insurance polices and that the holiday company they booked the tour with was also fully covered so if there's any rescue costs to be paid, the insurance companies will pay them."
Police are investigating the incident and i don't have any problem with them making some money out of a life threatening incident but to have set yourself up with an agent and negotiate a fee for your story before your wet-suit is even dry is very tacky and ethically shaky.
There is a split of opinion over whether the couple should contribute anything to their rescue after all, the insurance will cover any costs but i think that if they are making money from this, they should be handing over a very generous donation to the people who saved their lives, and i mean a VERY generous donation.
How the couple, both experienced divers, became separated from their charter boat and were rescued in an intensive air-sea search operation after floating for 19 hours is being debated.
They blame the dive crew for failing to spot them when they resurfaced 200 yards away from the boat and of being negligent in their own search for them.
The diving crew state that the pair not only ignored safety advice to stay with the diving group but they had 22 people standing on the boats roof looking for them with binoculars and there was no way they came up anywhere near the boat. A happy ending regardless of who was at fault.
Now it gets murky because within hours of being scooped from shark-infested waters, the pair had set themselves up with an agent, a tabloid deal, US and British TV interview deals and a possible book and film deal earning them an estimated £500,000.
Understandably, this has not gone down very well in Australia with Queensland's Premier, Anna Bligh, saying that the hunt for the pair had been an expensive operation and there had been an "extraordinary rescue effort gone into keeping them safe and if they are going to profit from their story, I don't think a contribution back would go astray. It would be a very welcome gesture."
As the rescue service is community funded and relies on public donations and sponsorship, you would think it is the very least they could do.
The couples agent replied to criticism by stating that "They have personal insurance polices and that the holiday company they booked the tour with was also fully covered so if there's any rescue costs to be paid, the insurance companies will pay them."
Police are investigating the incident and i don't have any problem with them making some money out of a life threatening incident but to have set yourself up with an agent and negotiate a fee for your story before your wet-suit is even dry is very tacky and ethically shaky.
There is a split of opinion over whether the couple should contribute anything to their rescue after all, the insurance will cover any costs but i think that if they are making money from this, they should be handing over a very generous donation to the people who saved their lives, and i mean a VERY generous donation.
Sunday, 25 May 2008
McCains Pastor Problems
As politicians such as Tony Blair found out, mention God while in office and people start sniggering and thinking you have gone soft in the head but in America it is actively encouraged to name drop the big guy every chance you get but this seems to be causing a few sticky moments for two of the Presidential candidates.
First came Barack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, with his interesting take on Aids and his call for God to damn America. Now it emerges that a pastor with links to John McCain, John Hagee, who has some interesting views of his own.
Senator McCain sought the endorsement of Rev Hagee but it didn't take long to throw up remarks he had made claiming that Hitler was doing Gods work and described the Catholic Church as The Great Whore.
To his credit and aware of the damage suffered by a dithering Obama over the Rev Wright affair, Mr McCain quickly described the comments as "crazy and unacceptable".
To those of us outside of America, the rantings of a televangelist are used only to make the point about just how destructive religion can be in America, when an Arch-Bishop sticks his oar in over political matters in the UK he is patronisingly told to sit down, shut up and go back to counting his candles.
The relationship between religion and politics is fraught with danger, it can also place in the spotlight the beliefs of the candidates and as Obama and now McCain are finding out, you really can be judged by the company you keep and they would both do well to keep the God fearing community at arms length.
First came Barack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, with his interesting take on Aids and his call for God to damn America. Now it emerges that a pastor with links to John McCain, John Hagee, who has some interesting views of his own.
Senator McCain sought the endorsement of Rev Hagee but it didn't take long to throw up remarks he had made claiming that Hitler was doing Gods work and described the Catholic Church as The Great Whore.
To his credit and aware of the damage suffered by a dithering Obama over the Rev Wright affair, Mr McCain quickly described the comments as "crazy and unacceptable".
To those of us outside of America, the rantings of a televangelist are used only to make the point about just how destructive religion can be in America, when an Arch-Bishop sticks his oar in over political matters in the UK he is patronisingly told to sit down, shut up and go back to counting his candles.
The relationship between religion and politics is fraught with danger, it can also place in the spotlight the beliefs of the candidates and as Obama and now McCain are finding out, you really can be judged by the company you keep and they would both do well to keep the God fearing community at arms length.
Another Eurovision Song Contest Failure
Millwall Football Club are so disliked by everyone else that they have a song celebrating that they are so disliked by everyone. After finishing last yet again in the Eurovision song contest last night it should be Britain singing 'Nobody likes us but we don't care' because either we are so utter bobbins when it comes to writing a tune or we are just about as popular as a condom in the Vatican with our fellow Europeans.
To be fair our song was rubbish which is ironic as the singer, Andy Abraham, was a binman before wasting his career on this dross but ours was Bohemian Rhapsody compared to some of the offerings from other countries. Spain put forward a guy playing a kids plastic guitar and they trounced us and if it wasn't for San Marino and Ireland, we wouldn't have got any points whatsoever.
The reason we have a fine record of finishing bottom or close to it every year is because, and it is hard to believe i know, but we have no close friends in Europe. All the Scandinavian countries gave each other top marks as did the Balkans and former Soviet nations and of our nearest neighbours in the West, only Ireland bothered to take pity on us floundering at the bottom of the pile and chuck us eight points and San Marino threw us six.
The UK commentator Terry Wogan decided that the lack of friendship being shown to us is down to the odd illegal war or two that we have undertaken recently which the Labour MP on BBC News agreed with, stating that "I think there's actually probably a deeper story here. People across Europe are fed up with Britain's over-close relationship with the United States and the Iraq War."
Good point until you realise that Israel - who know a thing or two about starting dodgy wars and being close to America - finished 9th and geographically, they are not even in Europe.
Although there may be a grain of truth in this hypothesis, and i am as keen to blame Tony Blair for our failings as the next person, we were still left with a bad song that was not as bad as some other songs, but nevertheless everyone liked the least. We are still left wondering why, when we can turn out some great pop songs, we can't compete with Bosnia Herzegovina or Azerbaijan when it comes to writing a decent European song.
To be fair our song was rubbish which is ironic as the singer, Andy Abraham, was a binman before wasting his career on this dross but ours was Bohemian Rhapsody compared to some of the offerings from other countries. Spain put forward a guy playing a kids plastic guitar and they trounced us and if it wasn't for San Marino and Ireland, we wouldn't have got any points whatsoever.
The reason we have a fine record of finishing bottom or close to it every year is because, and it is hard to believe i know, but we have no close friends in Europe. All the Scandinavian countries gave each other top marks as did the Balkans and former Soviet nations and of our nearest neighbours in the West, only Ireland bothered to take pity on us floundering at the bottom of the pile and chuck us eight points and San Marino threw us six.
The UK commentator Terry Wogan decided that the lack of friendship being shown to us is down to the odd illegal war or two that we have undertaken recently which the Labour MP on BBC News agreed with, stating that "I think there's actually probably a deeper story here. People across Europe are fed up with Britain's over-close relationship with the United States and the Iraq War."
Good point until you realise that Israel - who know a thing or two about starting dodgy wars and being close to America - finished 9th and geographically, they are not even in Europe.
Although there may be a grain of truth in this hypothesis, and i am as keen to blame Tony Blair for our failings as the next person, we were still left with a bad song that was not as bad as some other songs, but nevertheless everyone liked the least. We are still left wondering why, when we can turn out some great pop songs, we can't compete with Bosnia Herzegovina or Azerbaijan when it comes to writing a decent European song.
Thursday, 22 May 2008
And The Most Peaceful Country Is...
Although you may not believe it when you recall Bjork bouncing the head of a journalist off the tiled floor of an airport, but Iceland is the world's most peaceful country according to the findings of the Global Peace Index Survey.
The index studied 140 countries for such indicators as military expenditure, relations with neighbouring countries, human rights, prison population and murder rates to award an overall score and ranking.
Following Iceland in top spot is Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and then Japan. Canada are 11th, Sweden 13th and then it is a long drop to 49th place for the United Kingdom and even further down the page to 97th for the USA. The five worst places to book a package tour are Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Israel.
Interestingly, the five permanent members of the UN who have the final say in the most important decisions concerning global war and peace do not come out very well from the survey.
France are the highest at 36, then the UK (49), China (67), USA (97) and Russia are inside the bottom 10 in 131st place. Maybe we should consider letting the Scandinavians run world affairs for a while.
The index studied 140 countries for such indicators as military expenditure, relations with neighbouring countries, human rights, prison population and murder rates to award an overall score and ranking.
Following Iceland in top spot is Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and then Japan. Canada are 11th, Sweden 13th and then it is a long drop to 49th place for the United Kingdom and even further down the page to 97th for the USA. The five worst places to book a package tour are Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Israel.
Interestingly, the five permanent members of the UN who have the final say in the most important decisions concerning global war and peace do not come out very well from the survey.
France are the highest at 36, then the UK (49), China (67), USA (97) and Russia are inside the bottom 10 in 131st place. Maybe we should consider letting the Scandinavians run world affairs for a while.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Gordon Brown Exit Stage Left
Government support is in freefall according to poll after poll including today's
ICM poll that shows that the Labour party is 14 points behind the Conservatives and only 5 in front of the Liberal Democrats.
With Gordon getting a kicking every way he turns the end is not so much nigh as inevitable.
So whenever the next election is, barring an unprecedented collapse of biblical proportions, we are soon to be hailing a David Cameron Conservative Government.
Cameron is the consummate right winger and a professional toff. From the exclusive Heatherdown Preparatory School (where the Queen sent her kids), on to Eton College and then Oxford where he met up with some of the people who are now in his shadow cabinet.
Straight from Oxford, Cameron joined the Conservative Party so apart from a 3 month stint as an admin assistant in Hong Kong between semesters while at Eton, the right honourable Dave has no actual work experience whatsoever.
Should it matter that the man who has only known the very best schools and has next to no experience of employment and comes from a highly privileged background, is now going to be making life changing decisions for the rest of us?
The only alternative to the depressing thought of someone who can honestly say he hasn't got a clue how 99% of us feel, is for Labour to remove Gordon, shift back towards the left and pray that they can elect somebody so far away from the Blair/Brown years that voters can see Labour are on another path. David Milliband would be my choice but if i was him i would keep my head down and wait until after the next election and the imminent removal of Gordon Brown before throwing my hat into that particular ring.
The only other option is to indulge in some of that postal vote rigging we keep hearing about. There must be a website that shows you how to go about it somewhere.
ICM poll that shows that the Labour party is 14 points behind the Conservatives and only 5 in front of the Liberal Democrats.
With Gordon getting a kicking every way he turns the end is not so much nigh as inevitable.
So whenever the next election is, barring an unprecedented collapse of biblical proportions, we are soon to be hailing a David Cameron Conservative Government.
Cameron is the consummate right winger and a professional toff. From the exclusive Heatherdown Preparatory School (where the Queen sent her kids), on to Eton College and then Oxford where he met up with some of the people who are now in his shadow cabinet.
Straight from Oxford, Cameron joined the Conservative Party so apart from a 3 month stint as an admin assistant in Hong Kong between semesters while at Eton, the right honourable Dave has no actual work experience whatsoever.
Should it matter that the man who has only known the very best schools and has next to no experience of employment and comes from a highly privileged background, is now going to be making life changing decisions for the rest of us?
The only alternative to the depressing thought of someone who can honestly say he hasn't got a clue how 99% of us feel, is for Labour to remove Gordon, shift back towards the left and pray that they can elect somebody so far away from the Blair/Brown years that voters can see Labour are on another path. David Milliband would be my choice but if i was him i would keep my head down and wait until after the next election and the imminent removal of Gordon Brown before throwing my hat into that particular ring.
The only other option is to indulge in some of that postal vote rigging we keep hearing about. There must be a website that shows you how to go about it somewhere.
The Real Problem
The cost of food have risen by 6.6% over the past year, energy price have shot up over 15% and the guy who changes the numbers at the petrol station is in danger of a heart attack. The atmosphere is dirtier than the latest Jenna Jameson DVD and we are going through the worlds resources quicker than we can replace them.
The great and the good continue to scratch their heads and wonder what can we do about it but the answer is obvious but very uncomfortable. There are just too many of us. Now this is where it gets uncomfortable because just what exactly can we do about it?
We can't order people to stop reproducing and who exactly should not be creating offspring? People who wear Hawaiian shirts i hear you say but that is a given.
The present world's population is around the 6.6 billion mark and on its current trajectory, is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050. According to the CIA's World Factbook, the world human population is increasing by 211,090 every day.
Imagine the planets resources that another third of us again will consume and that is the real problem not to mention the growing conflicts over the dwindling resources.
Our present problems are the symptom but the cause is far too uncomfortable to debate but needs to be addressed somehow. No idea how though without causing outrage somewhere.
The great and the good continue to scratch their heads and wonder what can we do about it but the answer is obvious but very uncomfortable. There are just too many of us. Now this is where it gets uncomfortable because just what exactly can we do about it?
We can't order people to stop reproducing and who exactly should not be creating offspring? People who wear Hawaiian shirts i hear you say but that is a given.
The present world's population is around the 6.6 billion mark and on its current trajectory, is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050. According to the CIA's World Factbook, the world human population is increasing by 211,090 every day.
Imagine the planets resources that another third of us again will consume and that is the real problem not to mention the growing conflicts over the dwindling resources.
Our present problems are the symptom but the cause is far too uncomfortable to debate but needs to be addressed somehow. No idea how though without causing outrage somewhere.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)