Saeed just sent this piece from Middle East Eye on oil and gas aspects of the Syrian horror. It’s one-sidedly silent on the designs of the west, and speaks of Russia’s “imbalanced reactions” to having one of its planes shot … Read More »
Yup, Syria again. Hate to be a bore but there are worse things. Like conducting air strikes, in my name and yours, on yet another Muslim country based on a narrative so far-fetched in its fairy tale reductionism that those … Read More »
A few days before the December 2 Syria airstrikes vote I wrote to my MP, one Nick Clegg, to ask how he would vote. My email and his office’s reply are reproduced in full below. While I got an answer … Read More »
It is naive but depressingly common to think Saddam, Gaddafi and Assad came under western fire for being brutal. (Look at the evidence for god’s sake! From Riyadh to Apartheid Pretoria, since when did Wall or Threadneedle Street baulk at … Read More »
Benn’s Syria speech hailed as one of the finest in the Commons since WWII, screamed the Daily Mail in its kicker for an Andrew Pierce piece whose following line ran: Bookmakers have installed him as favourite to succeed Jeremy Corbyn. … Read More »
On one level – the parliamentary balance of forces – it made no difference to the outcome. Had every Labour MP opposed, and Tory rebels tripled, there’d still be RAF fighters over Syria today. We can’t know the thoughts of … Read More »
The Matthew Parris column in the Times yesterday – yup, Rupert’s Times – was headed, The Bombs-Away Brigade are on Autopilot. Its kicker ran thus: “Amazingly, Corbyn is right. The hawks just want to join a scrap with their mates … Read More »
My friend Sue Beardon alerted me to this FB post of November 17 by Greg Afinogenov, a Muscovite living in Boston MA: I’m so sick of seeing the endless debate about “if you care about Paris you don’t care about … Read More »
Last night Channel 4 screened a documentary on Isis recruitment of British Muslim women. A young woman calling herself Aisha spends a year engaging Islamists, graduating from Twitter and FB through text and phone call to live meetings. She’s in … Read More »