Ministry of Truth

I’ve decided today that I’m going to break the law: deliberately break the law. So here goes: I am a committed republican. I’ve nothing personal against the Queen you understand, it’s simply that I believe that the monarchy is an outdated and archaic institution which has no place […]

First up, brilliant stuff from Blood & Treasure on the latest, seemingly dumb, pronouncement from the Home Office – well worth a read especially for this… An Afro-Caribbean Englishman a Sino-Irishman and a Scots Muslim of Pakistani descent went into a pub. “That Hazel Blears

Like every one I’m obviously shocked by Robin Cook’s sudden and untimely death. His speech on resigning from government over his principled objection to the Iraq war bears re-reading several times over however, having just watched the BBC News report, which included footage of his closing remarks in […]

I think everyone would view this story with revulsion… Security forces in Israel have been sent to the town of Shfaram, where an Israeli soldier was lynched after he shot dead four Israeli Arabs on a bus… …Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the shooting a reprehensible act […]

Victor Keegan, in the Guardian, draws the inevitable parallels between Orwell’s ‘1984’ and growing support for use of surveillance technology – nothing much wrong with the article other than the inevitable and rather clichéd trotting out of Orwell yet again. However is did provoke this absurd comment from […]

There’s a first rate ruck going on over at Crooked Timber arising out Daniel having noticed that the agenda of Unite Against Terror seems to be expanding to include attacking the BBC for not editorialising its news coverage in the style of Fox News. Oddly enough, since this […]

The whole piece that follows is basically a comprehensive ‘fisking’ of an article by Anthony Browne which appeared in the Sunday Times, earlier this week, and which has been held up be several pro-war blogs as a synopsis/exemplar of their position on Islamic radicalism. All you need to […]

…then Stephen Pollard must be the happiest man on the planet. I’m certainly not alone in wondering just what the fuck this guy has to do with the Labour Party given that he makes Blair look like a raving Trot – Antonia Bance is certainly wondering the same […]

Hoon is not a name for a politician. Ok, so it lends itself nicely to the apt nickname ‘Buff’ and to the good folks of Australia (and Earls Court) it describes the kind of idiot who drill holes in the exhaust of his car to make it ‘sound […]

Via the Observer blog comes this footage of a police offiver in Palm Beach, Florida, using a taser to subdue a ‘dangerous’ criminal… … a 22 year old woman who’s been stopped for a traffic offence. (Note – requires Quicktime and sound turned on for full effect, so […]