Woof!

French Practice

I'm so ashamed.

Pure elctioneering. Short term gain for long term pain.

And as for this:

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, the leader of the Local Government Association, which represents councils, said the suspension of the planned strikes would come as a "relief" to both sides and the public.

But he made clear that he would be unhappy with any deal that would lead to higher council tax bills.

Er, so where will the money come from then Sandy? Are we planting orchards of magic money trees? Wouldn't the public, however stupid you may think they are, prefer to see an end to public sector feather bedding?

Godwin's law trumps RAF objector

Barring a turn of events so bizarre that even my Barolo inspired addled mind cannot contemplate, Dr Kendall-Smith will be convicted at a court martial of failure to comply with a lawful order.

Oliver Kamm refers to the case and repeats the following exchange:

"As early as 2004 I regarded the United States to be on par with Nazi Germany as regards its activities in the Gulf," Kendall-Smith told the court amid a series of bitter exchanges with prosecutor David Perry.
Perry asked: "Are you saying the U.S. is the moral equivalent of the Third Reich?"

Kendall-Smith replied: "That's correct."

Godwin's law anyone?

Update To the surprise of no one, except perhaps the loon himself, he's going dahn.

A Knight's work

A bizarre car crash of a column from Sir Simon Jenkins. One can only assume he's sat awkwardly recently and his sword has become lodged somewhere unpleasant.

He writes:

"One country in the region that has retained some political pluralism is Iran. It has shown bursts of democratic activity and, importantly, has experienced internal regime change. If ever there was a nation not to drive to the extreme it is Iran. If ever there was a powerful state to reassure and befriend rather than abuse and threaten, it is Iran. If ever there was a regime not to goad into seeking nuclear weapons it is Iran. Yet that is precisely what British and American policy is doing. It is completely nuts."

Heaven forfend that we should "drive [them] to the extreme", it must have been a different Mr Ahmadinejad who denied the holocaust and called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map. Nothing extreme there.

If anyone has any lotion or suitable gel for Sir Simon to help ease that sword out of the passage whence it is lodged please send them to me and I will forward them to the distressed knight.

Fancy Flights

This story gets unwrapped once a year, and sure as eggs is one step away from being banned 'cos they're from birds innit', here it is again.

The usual hackneyed canards will be trotted out, no doubt ignoring overall useage of previous Goverments, and the fact that the Blairs no longer use the flight for holidays.

What the stories don't tell, is how much would it cost to charter a commercial plane for the same trips. Long haul flights are usually chartered and some of the cost is offset by selling places to the travelling journos, but even so, a dedicated flight for Royalty and Government use would surely make some sense. After all, I certainly don't want to travel on a commercial flight which carries senior Government members or Royalty - I don't especially want my plane to be more of a terrorist target than it already is.

But does this mean that Charles Clarke won't be allowed to use the plane?

Beardies bad - official

It's not like it was in the days of Biggles and Ginger. The RAF wouldn't be what it is today if it hadn't been for handlebar moustaches, but the Pakistani Air Force isn't so keen on facial hair, at least not the beardy type.

Seymour [insert joke here]

David Aaronovitch on Seymour Hersh and the not unreasonable need for Governments to engage in contingency planning.

The problem here is that we simply have to take Hersh and his judgment on trust. This is awkward, because he’s done a lot of good stuff in his career, and some pretty bad stuff. And there’s no way at all of knowing which this is. It just seems a pity that with so much at stake, not even his “formers” are prepared to speak on the record.

Leaving aside for a moment the fact that I find it impossible to hear Hersh's name without actually hearing the name Seymour Butts, DA is right to question Hersh's pronouncements. This article is a case in point.

There are two Hershes, really. Seymour M. is the byline. He navigates readers through the byzantine world of America’s overlapping national-security bureaucracies, and his stories form what Hersh has taken to calling an “alternative history” of the Bush administration since September 11, 2001.

Then there’s Sy. He’s the public speaker, the pundit. On the podium, Sy is willing to tell a story that’s not quite right, in order to convey a Larger Truth. “Sometimes I change events, dates, and places in a certain way to protect people,” Hersh told me. “I can’t fudge what I write. But I can certainly fudge what I say.”

And this is before we get into what he said, or or didn't say or intended to say about Abu Ghraib.

To panic or not to panic...

What do you mean there's no panic over bird flu. Don't you people read the papers? Panic goddamit.

Hat Tip

AA saluting is back, but sadly for one day only.

It originated at the start of the last century as drivers started to run foul of police speed traps in which officers used a stopwatch to calculate whether or not a car was going too fast. Even then it was illegal to warn motorists about speed traps, but the AA advised its members to stop if a patrolman failed to salute, and the driver would then be given information about "road conditions" ahead. The "crisp, sharp salute" will be used today by patrols when they attend a breakdown, rather than as a matter of course for all passing AA members.

I rather like the idea. Promoting the respect agenda. Knighthoods all round.

Cheese eating surrender monkeys

French Government 0, Rioters and Hooligans 2.

"French President Jacques Chirac has announced that the new youth employment law that sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests will be scrapped."

(H/T Strange Politics for the pic)

Mr Brown spends a penny - or two

Mr Brown is striding the world, in a statesman like way. Can't think why. And as ever, with each stride, billions of pounds fall out of his back pocket. Or will they?

"Gordon Brown will launch a $15bn crusade to end the "scandal" of the 100 million children worldwide who are denied the chance to go to school.

He will commit Britain to spend $1.5bn (£860m) a year on Third World education in a 10-year spending programme that fulfils one of the commitments to aid made at the G8 summit in Gleneagles last year.

Mr Brown, who arrives in Mozambique this morning, will ask the world's richest nations to "keep their promises" from the summit and commit $8.5bn a year to fund a drive to give every child the right to a free education within a decade."

All very interesting. A lot of talk of "pledges" and "commitment" but it's still not clear whether this money is being spent - or whether it is conditional on others spending as well. If the former it's the dumbest thing ever. A tiny amount of money which will just disappear down an enormous black hole. If the latter, it will be a cold place in hell before the money is ever spent.