….actually, not true. For once, I listened without fidgeting and kicking the seatback of the person in front. Except during the breaks, over breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, in the bar, walking on the beach, on the bus, where I talked too much – I blame the coffee – listened and enjoyed the company of a [...]
Category Archives: citizens’ rights
Thus was wrong about Methadrone, sort of, uh, I guess
June 24, 2010 – 11:51 am
Actually I quite like smoking and all the things advertised on this poster so it shows how messed up I am and how tricky and pointless it is to pontificate about this sort of malarky. A couple of posts back Thus got on an uncharacteristically high horse about the dangers of Methadrone. My comments were [...]
New Labour gambles on turkeys not voting for Christmas in May
March 30, 2010 – 2:39 pm
The UK media have been scratching their pointy heads of late as the opinion poll gap between New Labour and the Tories has closed to indicate at best a hung parliament. Despite looming and actual strikes, a record budget deficit with no prospect of recovery, real and impending tax rises, unemployment levels at a 30 [...]
Methadrone IS dangerous. Knock it on the head right now
March 29, 2010 – 12:12 pm
Shilly-shallying about what to do about Chinese designer ‘plant food’ drug Methadrone/Mephedrone/MCat is another unwelcome example of how New Labour’s passive/aggressive approach towards protecting citizens’ rights does the reverse. It’s enough to drive a man to spliff. Last October, former NL drug czar, the (perhaps) aptly named Professor David Nutt resigned/was sacked from the Advisory Council [...]
Carry on up the Khyber – Karzai's lead narrows (like we said it would)
August 25, 2009 – 9:08 pm
“If Karzai’s warlord cronies have over-egged the firnee and their boy romps home with an incredible margin, Iran-style riots are almost inevitable. On the other hand, if he narrowly wins, it will be more difficult for the opposition forces to cry foul. Given that he achieved only 54 per cent in 2004, the ‘ideal’ result [...]
Update: Abdullah and Karzai accused of Afghan election fraud
August 23, 2009 – 8:48 pm
This morning, in a cynical volte face, Abdullah Abdullah, the leading challenger to incumbent, President Karzai, declared that the Afghan election was rigged, having previously declared himself the winner. Earlier speculation that the two candidates identified by a Free and Fair Elections spokesman as responsible for widespread intimidation and ballot-rigging in the Afghan election (Thus passim) [...]
Afghan elections declared free but not fair by EU fudgepackers
August 23, 2009 – 11:54 am
While resisting the temptation to say ‘we told you so’ (Thus passim) – it is glaringly evident that, as predicted, the Afghan elections were neither free nor fair. Except that by an extraordinary contortion of logic and semantics, the EU monitors have declared that they were ‘generally fair but not free.’ Well, thanks for putting [...]
Pay attention, class. This is an important revision course on UK student tuition fees
July 26, 2009 – 11:21 pm
Both Labour and Tories are backing plans to more than double student tuition fees to £7000 within four years. Labour shamelessly abandoned its 2001 election manifesto promise that ‘it will not introduce top-up fees and has legislated against them’ – then introduced them in 2004. The Dearing Report, commissioned in 1996 under Tory PM ‘Sir’ [...]
Is this civil rights 2.0?
July 25, 2009 – 10:08 am
India just de-criminalised gay sex. That is a staggering fact, because it affects the sense of sexual freedom of 1 in every 6 human beings. Despite the fact that many of the laws currently being challenged date from colonial occupation, many in India identify this reform with dark forces of westernisation and globalisation rather than [...]