As the furore over Mumbai resolves into Indian rage towards Pakistan, it is worth taking a step back to look at what the tensions between these countries are about. Traditional explanations centre around partition, and about the holy status of Kashmir in the Hindu imaginary as a place of heaven, portrayed as a form of [...]
Monthly Archives: November 2008
RBS, HBOS, B+B, Northern Rock all owe us a huge debt. Give them a hard time.
November 30, 2008 – 1:42 pm
By John J Kelly
I made a rare visit to my bank last week, and was reminded why. I needed to send £62.00 to Switzerland. After a lot of wasteful form filling, I was charged £20.00 for this ’service’, which will take 4 working days to process. The exchange rate is likely to operate on a [...]
Send in the snatch squads
November 28, 2008 – 9:50 am
Last week the government claimed that ‘over 80%’ of sex workers were slaves, a claim hotly denied by the English Collective of Prostitutes. Harriet Harman, Deputy PM, spoke on Woman’s Hour urging Womens’ Institute (WI) members to report newspapers carrying escort advertisements, since the oriental and East European escorts on offer may be the victims of trafficking. [...]
The wonder of Woolies is that it hasn't been nationalised
November 27, 2008 – 1:56 am
The latest nightmare recession headline is that Woolworths is about to go bankrupt (again) with the loss of more than 30,000 jobs and 860 store closures across Britain. Have the government thought this one through? Where are we going to spend the windfall cash bonanza that Gordon and his elves have earmarked to save the [...]
Climate change is too important to be left to politicians
November 26, 2008 – 6:24 pm
Every now and again (actually most times) The Economist says something I wanted to say, better than I could. This week, the free market bible points out that posturing aside, the current UK government’s record on implementing effective climate change legislation leaves much to be desired. A new initiative, spearheaded by climate change Czar Adair Turner [...]
Stop the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the US
November 25, 2008 – 11:56 pm
Thus is not normally a campaigning website, but please sign this petition on behalf of Gary McKinnon. The UK government and House of Lords have done nothing to protect a UK citizen’s rights. If it weren’t deadly serious, it would be risible, and is a horrible reminder of the nightmare slide into totalitarianism of the [...]
Set tasers to stun, Jacqui
November 24, 2008 – 10:53 pm
My earlier advice about recruiting Pikey police has clearly fallen on deaf ears. The nation was stunned – not literally, yet – by today’s news from our own Sarah Palin, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, that 10,000 tasers would be issued and 30,000 police trained in their use. Amnesty International report that 300 people have died [...]
That BNP members list in full – and why it's wrong to use it
November 24, 2008 – 9:47 pm
It would not be fair to publish the names of all 13,500 (far) right-thinking folk whose names were leaked by a disgruntled former British National Party sorehead last week. I’m actually feeling sorry for them. I might send them a seasonal card – White Christmas, perhaps? Then again, perhaps I won’t, but you can. The [...]
The spoils of famine
November 24, 2008 – 8:42 pm
Thanks to Jack Roberts of Big Idea and the Herald Sun for pointing out that Saint Bob Geldof charged $100,000 to speak in Australia recently about ‘the tragedy of world famine.’ Guests weren’t told that it was a paid gig, by no means the first, for Geldof, friend of the man who has done [...]