Oh, and let’s not forget Leetle Teetch Sarkozy, pictured in the same article warmly welcoming Gadaffi to the G20 summit. Absolutely no truth whatsoever in the crazy rumours put about by the desperate sex-crazed dictator (Gaddafi, not Sarkozy) that someone put funny money into the 2007 French election campaign.

Here's Gaddafi with his mate Berlosconi and one of his 40 virgin female bodyguards - 39 if Silvio had anything to do with it

Gaddafi may have had a head start in the race for the hotly-contested title of most bonkers, loathsome and sociopathic oil-glutted dictator in the Middle East, but he was arguably given a leg up when Ronald Reagan bombed his tent in 1987 and killed his wife, kids and relatives in a vintage example of liberal intervention. Since that time, he took every opportunity to piss off ‘The West’, supporting terrorists of all stripes and persuasions, the nuttier the better. Funny he would react like that.

The rank hypocrisy of his ‘rehabilitation’ has already been discussed in my 2009 article (Oil, money, BP, fear that it might come out in the wash that Libya was at best a bit part player at best in the Lockerbie outrage plus the fact that he was a psychopathic loony). Since he was canonised by Tony Blair Gaddafi may have stopped supporting terrorist groups targeting western interests but he murderously arsed around in Africa with impunity. Moreover, the current Tsunami of cant surrounding the reasons for bombing democracy from 35,000 feet into Libya stands violently at odds with the blind eye shown to last week’s incursion by Saudi soldiers into Bahrain, killing rebels (not freedom fighters?) opposed to the weak-chinned Sheikh presiding over western interests in that boozy  Gulf bastion of R+R and general jiggery-pokery. Complicated? Not really. File under SNAFU (Situation Normal. All Fucked Up).

John J Kelly.

This yellow cake uranium is proof itself that Iraq was the right decision, Hattie, you treacherous hagwitch

Dave was backed by the big money Illuminati. Ed won because the big unions decided that genug was genug in the face of overwhelming evidence, if any more were needed, that New Labour meant old Conservative, with the added ingredient of unquestioning Atlanticism – hence The Economist’s ringing endorsement – unthinking globalisation – ditto the FT’s Martin Wolf’s enthusiasm – lickspittle obeisance to Big Usury. The shrieks of protest from the Guardianistas at the very idea that ANYONE could think that ANYTHING associated with THE UNIONS had any merit whatsoever underlines just how far English politics have drifted to the centre right.

Ed Miliband and his brother, Schnorbits, in happier times

I’m not convinced about Ed, who looks too much like Bernie Winters and sounds too adenoidal to be taken seriously. Though his speech to Conference was workmanlike and it was brave to admit that the murderous and incompetent invasion of  Iraq was ‘a mistake’, he is still an uninspiring figure who went to the same primary school as Boris Johnson, Oxford and, after all, comes from the same gene pool as Banana Boy. He is a devoted environmentalist, however, who seems genuinely committed to repositioning Labour as an alternative to the muddy centre-right – perfect for attracting disillusioned Lib-Dems and securing at least a coalition when the current government implodes as the (partly necessary) cuts cause widespread misery and introduce the possibility, if not the actuality, of civil unrest.

Still, it’s not all bad news. Banana Boy has taken his bat home, after having been caught on camera castigating the awful Harriet Harman for applauding brother Ed’s apology over Iraq (‘why are you clapping? You voted to go to war’). David Milliband’s wife was apparently ‘furious’ that David didn’t get the job (why should we care?) and we shouldn’t forget that he waged a snide and, at times, decidedly unfraternal campaign against Ed, whom, by contrast, kept his dignity.

So, the verdict of Thus, for what it’s worth, is good riddance to Banana Boy and good luck to Ed, who will need it. None of the candidates were up to much, but then again, the government itself isn’t exactly stellar. Ed needs to distance himself from the Blairites, the Brownites, especially Ed Balls, and learn to be constructively confrontational. The middle classes aren’t the only game in town, and though Ed is one of them, his best chance is to concede the need for deficit reduction but ruthlessly expose ideologically-motivated policies which the Tories are finding it increasingly difficult to resist putting into play.

John J Kelly

The Dearing Report, commissioned in 1996 under Tory PM ‘Sir’ John Major (who achieved only 3 O levels, didn’t go to university but won an election with the greatest margin in electoral history, published in 1997, recommended charging students 25% of their tuition costs. Newly-elected Labour ‘reluctantly’ introduced means-tested fees, claiming it as a Tory initiative. In 2003, a Labour-commissioned White Paper proposed that universities could charge students top-up tuition fees capped at £3000. In November of the same year, Tony Blair (educated free at St John’s College, Oxford) pontificated in the Queen’s Speech:

“A bill will be introduced to enable more young people to benefit from higher education. Up-front tuition fees will be abolished for all full-time students and a new Office For Fair Access will assist those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Universities will be placed on a sound financial footing.”

Professor Jugears, Chairman of the I'm Alright Jack Club

On the very same day, Norwich North MP Ian Gibson (yes, him Thus passim) tabled a motion on ‘top up fees’ signed by 185 MPs. Earlier that year, Tory Leader Iain Duncan Smith (Sandhurst, no university) pledged that Tories would abolish fees, to Labour claims (audacious even by the standards of spin at that time) that this would ‘disadvantage’ poorer students and cost 6500 academic jobs. On January 27, 2004, Education Secretary Charles Clarke (coincidentally MP for Norwich South  - educated free at King’s College, Cambridge) introduced the Higher Education Bill on the very same day as the Hutton Inquiry into circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly. Amid the muck and bullets, having bought off Labour rebels with last-minute concessions and support from right wing Tories, the bill was passed with a majority of only 5, the closest Blair came to defeat thus far. At a stroke, Professor Jugears and his cronies undermined the 1944 Butler Education Act, which had safeguarded the rights to a free education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels for 60 years. If they had tried the same trick on the NHS, another (rightful) sacred cow, there would have been bloodshed, but the bill was enacted on the premise that “Universities exist to enable the British economy and society to deal with the challenges posed by the increasingly rapid process of global change” (Charles Clarke).

Herein endeth the history lesson. As a product of the Butler Act – a poor kid lucky enough to get a great free education leading to Oxford, Manchester (and the school of hard knocks) – I despise the foul cant about ‘engineering social mobility’ belching from the arse of ‘five jobs’ Alan Milburn (Lancaster University), and the rest of his Blairite bastard squad, shameless elitist social climbers who have burnt the ladder behind them. It is an obscene insult to the intelligence to claim that career success in the professions is a direct result of the networks created at elite schools and universities. Of course it is, and always was. Blair’s clique was notoriously stacked with fellow lawyers, Oxbridge room mates, Scottish Public School kiltlifters, Trotskyite student union bores and a fat bloke who used to be a ship’s shop steward to appease the unions. Cameron’s Notting Hill Haw Haws reek of Eton, Oxbridge, Bristol. It’s debatable whether you could ever stop the tendency of elites to form, or whether it is ethical or even sensible to do so, but you certainly don’t go about it by erecting financial barriers to entry to higher education for ‘the less well-off.’ During Labour’s tenure, the percentage of middle class students has risen, as has the number of debt-burdened graduates.

The crisis in education funding is as much a product of the overweaning burden of administration, the 1992 (Tory) elevation of polytechnics to university status and the bewildering number of ‘new’ universities that nobody has heard of, whose qualifications are commensurately worthless but which increased the intake and number of academic posts. Bothering kids at primary and secondary level with endless tests, grade inflation, league tables burying teachers under mountains of target-inspired assessment programmes and whipping parents into a frenzy of fear that their kids will be ‘left behind’ are unforgivable and premeditated crimes of social engineering. Give us back our Butler Act, you lying hypocrites. And stop sniggering, Cameron. We hear you’re thinking of privatising state secondary schools. Have you learned nothing? What kind of education did you have, boy? Oh, Eton and Oxbridge.

John J Kelly

Tony says Gordon must go and I agree, says fat Charlie

Last Sunday BBC political commentator Andrew Marr asked Gordon Brown whether he would consider stepping down as PM if it were the majority view of the Labour Party that it would be in its interests for him to do so. Characteristically, Brown replied “No.” He had a job to do, cleaning up Parliament and saving the economy. Today, his options are somewhat more limited. Twice-disgraced and tainted by the expenses scandal, ‘Lord’ Mandelson is Deputy Prime Minister in all but title. His job is to save what’s left of the Blair Reich. Olympics Minister (yes, that’s her job), the stupid but thick-skinned and loyal Blairite Tessa Jowell has rejoined the cabinet, in another move designed to show that there is no room for corruption in the Brown government.

In a last throw of the dice, Vinny Jones might gain a peerage and join the Cabinet

Tessa was an enthusiastic proponent of the murky and barmy Blair supercasino scheme. Her ‘estranged’ husband, David Mills, may serve 4.5 years in an Italian gaol (see comment below) for abetting Blair’s friend, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, in corruptly abstracting and offshoring Fininvest assets. She apparently didn’t notice that he paid off their £340,000 mortgage with a bribe, claiming she was too busy to notice. Mr Mills, a friend of Formula One supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, also allegedly facilitated the notorious £1 million loan to New Labour early in the Blair First Reich, which saw tobacco advertising on racing cars exempted from the ban on sports promotion. Who will be next to rejoin this cabinet of fools and fouls – Vinny Jones, perhaps?

This morning it was ‘revealed’ in the Murdoch press that Peter Mandelson had exchanged emails questioning Brown’s leadership credentials with none other than ‘psycho’ Derek Draper (Thus passim). Ahead of grisly European Parliament election results, Charlie Falconer, Blair’s ex-flatmate, lawyer, ex-Lord Chancellor and New Labour Illuminatus, pronounced that it might be in the best interests of the party for Gordon to vacate 10 Downing St. Tessa Jowell followed through with the observation that Gordon loved the party so much that he would always step down rather than damage its prospects. Characteristically, Brown nixed this twitter with a defiant speech to activists repeating that he he had no intention of stepping down. So there you have it. Open war. Brown’s staunch allies (Mr and Mrs Balls, Fagin McDarling and the cleaning lady) are menaced by Blair’s Orcs, who have risen from the dead and are now pissing out from inside the big tent.

Brown will step down. It is even conceivable that Mandelson will try to take the reins ‘on a temporary basis’ while a leadership squabble takes place (Thus passim). Never mind the polls, the bookies are offering a measly 6/5 on Brown leaving office. A general election is inevitable, which Thus predicts the Tories will win with a majority of between 240 and 280 seats. Labour will possibly fall to third place behind the Lib Dems. Having lost control of all the UK county councils – while Tory Boris Johnson rules the GLC –  a blue Reich will descend, too comprehensive by half for democracy or even for sound decision-taking by the Tories – look what happened after the Labour landslide.

That’s all she wrote, except to repeat that in order to avoid the Blair/Brown problem, Cameron needs to ditch George Osborne if he expects to have any chance of tackling the inherited economic nightmare. Ken Clarke would make a good war Chancellor. That much said, today’s ‘email evidence’ confirms that hapless toff Osborne told the truth when he claimed that Mandelson, then an EU Commissioner, had ‘poured poison into his ear’ about Gordon Brown aboard Deripaska’s yacht last year, where he and Mandy were guests at James Murdoch’s birthday bash. The Murdoch press chose to spin against Osborne on that occasion. Today they put the boot into Brown. Time to write the memoirs, Gordon. Make them brief. Nobody will read them.

John J Kelly

In the frozen North of England they have a primitive Easter custom. Armed police kick down doors, hurl you to the ground, lock you up for days, pretend you are a terrorist, then deport you. This was not in the John Moores University prospectus.

Thus followers will not be surprised to hear of the release without charge of all the dastardly terrorists who were plotting to blow up Manchester’s Arndale Centre and other key installations over Easter. We predicted the outcome on April 10. Two of the Pakistani students were cleared more or less immediately and it was announced today, Budget Day no less – a good day to bury bad news under even worse news – that the remaining 9 had been handed over to UK Border and immigration officials. No bomb factory was discovered. In fact, despite having 28 days to winkle the truth out of them, no evidence was found, apart from a few happy snaps of Manchester’s biggest shopping mall and other amazing cultural high spots, 1 (one) email and, allegedly, some ‘subversive’ telephone calls. The photos may well have been taken as memories of their time in the North West, to wow the folks back in the Hindu Kush or wherever, like students do, but this is probably a ludicrously far-fetched theory. It’s much more likely that they were Al Qaeda, Smersh or even the debbil himself – ask Tony Blair, God’s avenger – he knows. Let’s hope they got some snaps of shiny boots, batons and their mates being held in stress positions for extended periods to take back to the foothills of Peshawar Province, where they could hardly be blamed for turning into powerful Taleban recruiting tools. (They were recruited to Liverpool John Moores University by an official university representative in Peshawar and were allowed into the country by UK Borders and Immigration authorities. Hello?)

As reported in our earlier piece, this malarky coincided with the need to divert attention from Jacqui Smith’s expenses shenanigans, the sad case of the death of Ian Tomlinson at the G20 demonstration, after a truncheon accidentally hit the back of his legs and he was unfortunately smashed to the ground by a masked and unidentified member of the Special Patrol Group – sorry, Territorial Support Unit. The same Jacqui Smith might also have been somewhat concerned that the arrest of Damian Green, the Tory shadow minister who had come into possession of leaks relating to hopeless lies and obfuscation of Home Office immigration figures (Thus passim), was about to be exposed as misuse of anti-terror laws to smear political opponents.

Meanwhile, Bob Quick, Assistant Commissioner and head of the Anti-Terror squad, who coincidentally was also heading up the enquiry into the Green arrest, was exposed as a numbnuts for revealing details of the North West terror plot outside Downing Street, and supposedly bringing forward the timing of the ‘swoop’. No doubt dark forces will spin that this gave the ‘terrorists’ time to cover their tracks etc. It could equally be the case that Bob Quick deliberately displayed his memo, that there was never really a terror plot and that this sad scenario follows the all-too-familiar pattern established with the Man United bombers (Thus passim), Forest Gate (massive raid, man shot, absolutely no link to terrorists whatsoever), the Galloway Gaza Convoy arrests (ditto) and, indeed, the whole curious case of terror ‘supergrass’ Hassan Butt. North West MP and Borders and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas, a sad case of mistaken identity card if ever there was one, shrieked on Channel Four News ‘We’ve got them’ on the night of the arrests. Meanwhile,Paul Fahy, Manchester Chief of Police, confidently assured Manchester shoppers the night following the ‘swoop’ that they had nothing to fear. Given that the students were proven not to pose a threat, he could only state this if he was certain that there was no plot in the first place.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Of the government, silly.

John J Kelly

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance - oh, alright, you can take a quick look - it's probably all made up anyway

Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, Metropolitan Police anti-terror ‘supremo’ ‘promptly’ resigned yesterday after he was photographed outside 10 Downing St clutching a top secret document listing UK Al Qaeda suspects atop a sheaf of papers. “YOU CAN’T QUIT QUICKER THAN A THICK QUICK QUITTER” screamed the Sun, referencing the cheery advertising slogan of KwikFit, a tyres and exhaust (muffler) depot. But Thus readers know that his resignation, far from timely, is long overdue. On December 22, 2008 Thus Passim: bob-be-nimble-bob-be-quick-resign-from-the-enquiry-now/ detailed how Assistant Commissioner Quick was leading the investigation into Home Office leaks which saw an outrageous and probably illegal raid of the office of Tory MP Damien Green under the auspices of the government, who openly accused the Tory Front Bench of colluding in efforts to compromise national security. We questioned whether it was appropriate for Quick to head up this enquiry – into himself. Needless to add, the ‘investigation’ continues. More worryingly, Thus reported that had compromised the security of his own family and his own force by running a wedding car hire business under his wife’s name from his home, boasting in local newspaper advertisements: “Cars . . with former police officers at the wheel.”

Loadsamoney! Taser lady Jacqui Smith can't stand all this whingeing about executive perks. She pays her mortgage, subsidises her sister's house, employs her hubby and buys his TV porn, all on a miserable Cabinet Minister's salary. What's your problem, losers?

Had PC Quick done the honourable thing at that time, the alleged security services raids on UK ‘terrorist cells’ in Manchester and elsewhere which the spin doctors are now predictably calling ‘a real and present Al Qaeda threat to Britain’ would not have been allegedly compromised. He was gifted at the time with the full support of Home Secretary ‘Taser’ Jacqui Smith (Thus passim) herself deeply implicated in the politically-motivated raid on the Tories. Subsequently Ms. Smith herself was revealed to have ‘misinterpreted’ the rules on MPs’ expenses, having used her ‘second home’ allowance to pay the mortgage on her (first home) family residence while staying at her sister’s London house. It was also revealed that Ms Smith’s husband (employed at taxpayer expense as her constituency secretary) had bought subscriptions to porn movies which the Home Secretary had submitted as expense claims.

Cloying statements of regret and gratitude from Ms. Smith for Bob Quick’s sterling work in saving the country from (unspecified) perils float on a reeking sea of cant. Video footage which shows that 47 year old father of nine, Ian Tomlinson, who died of a heart attack at the recent G20 protests, was not only an innocent bystander posing no threat and taking no part in the protests, but was savagely assaulted by a masked riot police officer surrounded by colleagues, who were not ‘showered by bottles and stones’ and who did not identify themselves after the incident, indicates the dangerous levels of unaccountability into which ‘Fortress Britain’ has descended. The ‘investigation’ into what looks very much like criminal assault resulting in death will be held by another division of the Metropolitan Police. We all know the conclusions, so why bother?

Jacqui Smith should resign, not least for her abuse of the public purse, but also for promoting, sponsoring and endorsing Quick’s former worrying behaviour in running a second business, albeit in his wife’s name, using police credentials as its calling card. Predictably, the Establishment has attempted to spin away from this latest descent into Third World farce by listing the tireless work in which the police and security services are engaged to keep the Al Qaeda threat at bay. But whilst we marvel in admiration at their efforts, let’s not forget the last time we heard about a major terror threat emanating from Manchester. On 19 April, 2004, 400 police raided several homes and held 8 Asian men, a woman and a 16 year old boy on suspicion of engineering a plot to blow up Old Trafford stadium and cause mass carnage. The evidence was a block purchase of tickets by a ‘group of Asians.’ The headlines in the (Murdoch-owned) Sun, at that time a partisan supporter of Tony Blair, read: “EXCLUSIVE: MAN UTD SUICIDE BLASTS FOILED.” There was absolutely no substance to the plot. Their only crime was supporting Manchester United (not yet indictable). They received no apology. Neither did those accused of the equally fantastic, unfounded ‘Ricin plot.’ Today’s Daily Telegraph cites ‘M15 sources’ in stating that thousands of shoppers were targeted over Easter. Despite the release without charge of one of the ten Pakistani students arrested and no discovery of a bomb factory or explosives of any description so far, Phil Woolas, the gaffe-prone northern Immigration Minister whose particular fetish is identity cards, declared brashly on Channel Four news: ‘We got them.’ Manchester police have now declared the ‘target zones’ safe for Easter shopping after all, so Woolas must be right. There appears to be some confusion amongst these high level sources, however. Some reports claim the Pakistani students were Taliban, others Al Qaeda. Britain, and the US, are certainly ‘at war’ with both, but Taliban activity so far afield would be very rare, if not unique. Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Kashmiri group allegedly behind the Mumbai attacks would seem the more likely candidates if any, especially since a couple of the nitwits behind the failed 21/7 London suicide bombings were allegedly members. Two of the suspects travelled to Pakistan last year, but then again, they are Pakistani. Two come from Peshawar, a hotbed of terrorism, but then again Liverpool John Moores University, where they study, actually has a student recruitment agency in Peshawar. But I’m merely speculating, unlike our brilliant police and security services, who have saved the day yet again.

It would be cynical to see this latest ‘Al Qaeda terror threat’ outbreak as an attempt to spin the beleaguered UK government and its incompetent Home Secretary out of the more prosaic clear and present danger resulting from an objective enquiry into her personal affairs, abuse of police power for political gain and the unlawful killing of an innocent man (two, if you count Juan Charles de Menezes). It would probably be unfair to equate the uptick of fearmongering with the tactics of Tony Blair in 2005, who announced, on BBC Radio Woman’s Hour of all places: “What they [the security services] say is that you have got to give us powers in between mere surveillance of these people – there are several hundred of them in this country who we believe are engaged in plotting or trying to commit terrorist acts – you have got to give us power in between just surveying them and being sure enough to prosecute them beyond reasonable doubt. There are people out there who are determined to destroy our way of life and there is no point in us being naïve about it.” In the year following the introduction of the 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act, despite the ‘several hundred identified terrorist operatives,’ only 17 people were convicted, but the government diverted attention away from a far more destructive force – Gordon Brown’s bulimic public spending surge, designed to disguise the Tsunami of the swelling bubble economy. 

Al Qaeda, whoever or whatever they may be, needs to do nothing at all. The UK government’s off-the-leash attack dogs are acting as the provisional wing of the public relations department of Terrorism Inc. They need new handlers.

John J Kelly

Pop artist Patrick Hughes used to hand people an exquisite calling card inscribed with the single phrase: ‘Why are you telling me this?’ I’ve been trying very hard to understand why anyone feels the need to bother strangers with random jibber-jabber, and how this has become a global phenomenon. Trying to fathom the Zeitgeist, I joined Twitter, but frankly couldn’t make beak nor tail of it. The first thing it asks is ‘ what are you doing right now?’ My immediate reaction was: ‘depends who’s asking.’ I probably should have stopped there, but in a spirit of uncharacteristic bonhomie replied that I was ‘thinking about revolution, and how to start one.’ Nobody seemed interested. I tried again, wondering if ‘the CIA, Mossad and M16 ‘Twittered.’ I now have seven followers. One is Barack Obama. Last time I looked, he was following 368,000 Twits. If he’s spending his time reading messages in the ether about someone’s plans to meet their friend Sandra for a lary hen night, thinly-veiled PR plants such as: ‘Buying tickets to see the great film, Watchmen,’ or ‘drinking Lucozade’ I think we have the answer as to the outcome of the current global crisis.

Oo-ee chirpy chirpy cheep cheep, chirpy chirpy cheep cheep chirp (repeat)

“Things Can Only Get Better” by D:Ream was the sinister and emetic anthem of Blair’s New Labour, fittingly a middle-of-the road song from a made-up pop group. Things most certainly didn’t get better for the huddled masses in Iraq, who got their arses tweeted out of existence by people they’d never harmed and didn’t even know. They didn’t get better for the workers – they never did, really. They didn’t improve for the middle classes, who saw their real disposable incomes fall by up to 30% in the US and UK. They did get better for Tony, Cherie, a bunch of warmongering liars, private equity spivs, arms dealers, some Jocks who ruined our financial system and people who sell surveillance systems. I’m not a natural optimist, and don’t join in with football chants or the national anthem. I didn’t cry when Elton John crooned ‘Candle in the Wind’ in a ridiculous wig at Di’s funeral. I’m not a natural Twit. My loss, I know. Another Scottish pop group, actually called ‘Middle of the Road,’ penned one of the most vapid hits of all time: ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep,‘ whose non-sequitur lyrics can be viewed as a surrealist comment on the emptiness of existence (‘where’s your momma gone – far, far away’) or as absolute bollocks. Either interpretation will suffice, if you think about it, which I know is a deeply unfashionable pursuit. It spent 34 weeks in the international charts then disappeared like Boo.com.

Fair play to Twitter and all the Twits. My partner in crime, Daniel Taghioff, started Twittering a week ago at my behest and has amassed a following of thousands. His tweets are sensible, pithy and occasionally witty. But I’m with Patrick Hughes. I don’t know why you’re telling me this.

John J Kelly

President George W. Bush in a final press conference on Monday 12 January, 2009 acknowledged he made some mistakes in the White House, but most Americans – at least for now – are a lot more critical than that. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say Bush is one of the five worst presidents in U.S. history, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just six percent (6%) say he was one of the five best, and 34% place him somewhere in between. 

Republicans aren’t much help to the retiring 62-year-old Grand Old Party (GOP) president. While predictably 81% of Democrats rate Bush as one of the five worst presidents, so do 20% of Republicans. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans (65%) put Bush in the somewhere-in-between category, while only 11% say he was one of the five best chief executives.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 62% rate Bush as one of the five worst presidents, 31% somewhere in between and two percent (2%) one of the five best. In August 2008, a month before Wall Street’s financial problems began hitting the front pages, 41% of Americans said Bush will go down in history as the worst U.S. president ever, but 50% disagreed.

A plurality (41%) say Bush will be best remembered for the war in Iraq, followed by 16% who say his response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and 14% for the economy. Six percent (6%) list the response to Hurricane Katrina and two percent (2%) his role in trying to achieve peace in the Middle East.

For 51% of Democrats, the Iraq war is the chief element of Bush’s legacy, a view shared by 42% of unaffiliateds and just 26% of Republicans. Similar numbers of Republicans give equal weight to his response to 9/11 and his handling of the war on terror. Democrats and those unaffiliated with a major party are more than twice as likely as Republicans to rate the economy as what Bush will be best remembered for.

Even for the accomplishment on which Bush prides himself most, fighting terrorism to keep the country safe from further attacks, he comes up short. “All these [political] debates will matter not if there is another attack on the homeland,” he said in his valedictory press conference. But while 38% say Bush has made America safer, 47% disagree and the rest are not sure. In the first survey on war on terror issues this year, 48% said the United States is safer today than it was before the September 11 terrorist attacks, while 36% disagreed. Only 26% of adults, however, believe America will be a safer place by the end of Barack Obama’s first year as president. While Bush has the distinction of being part of one of only two father-son presidential teams, he suffers in comparison with his dad, President George H.W. Bush, who served from 1989 to 1993. Just 11% say the current occupant of the White House is a better president than his father was, while 56% feel the opposite way. Twenty-five percent (25%) rate the two men about the same.

For December, the final full month of his presidency, 13% of American adults said they Strongly Approved of the way Bush performed his job as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapproved. As for his own political party, 77% say Bush hurt the Republicans, while eight percent (8%) say he helped them and the same number (8%) think his presidency had no impact. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Republicans say he hurt the party, while 14% say he helped it. Seventeen percent (17%) say he had no impact, and 13% are undecided.

Eighty-nine percent (89%) of Democrats and 82% of those not affiliated with either party say Bush hurt the GOP. 

The emetic value of his ennoblement of Tony Blair cannot be overlooked, however. Watch out for the wink at the cringeworthy conclusion to his unintentionally ironic valediction (‘this man believes in freedom’) of his grinning hopfrog.

Vengeful sky, Sunday 11 January, Gaza.

Tony Blair has come back from yet another much-needed holiday and New Year at his multi-million pound country seat, formerly owned by that other consummate actor, Sir John Geilgud, to go through the motions with beacon of democracy, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, earning his corn with insights such as: ”I am hopeful we can put an agreement together but it’s going to have to be worked on very hard and it’s got to be credible.” Amazing. We all thought an agreement that was knocked together and was entirely incredible would have done the trick, Tony. His sudden frenzy of diplomacy may be connected to criticism from various quarters, including the Telegraph and Sunday Times that he and the ‘Quartet’ have been remarkable for their absence since hostilities commenced (as pointed out by Thus on 27 December 2008). His headquarters – a floor of the appropriately named American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, which he rarely visits, are maintained at a cost of £700,000 per year, allegedly funded by none other than the UN Development Programme. Meanwhile, the world’s most lucrative after-dinner speaker (who’d listen to him before dinner?) will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W Bush as a reward for his unwavering toadying during the Iraq farrago, for the WMD Yellow Cake jape that helped start same, for the jumper he knitted for W and for walking like a cowboy during and after their meetings. Tommy Franks, Dick Cheney, Kissinger, Rumsfeld and other apocalypse jockeys have also received this prized gong. Who says war crime doesn’t pay?

38 more people died in Gaza on Sunday 11 January, 2008. As predicted, in what Israel terms as the 'final phase' or 'endgame' reservists are trundling into Gaza to have a crack at the shocked and awed locals. The body count is now 900 with 4100 wounded and rising. Seven Palestinians, including two women and two children, were killed this morning. 1500 should be just enough to secure another Intifada. Foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who told the world there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza then went on to cement one, said on Israeli army radio "I am not going to negotiate with Hamas and don't need them to sign anything for me. What they said is meaningless." So that's alright then. In other words, massacre away.

The world has largely tut-tutted as it watched the economic siege of Gaza move to ‘shock and awe’ air raids and now to ground troop massacres in a grotesque echo of Iraq. Whether Livni, Barak or Netanyahu, the odds have shortened on Israel’s chances of forcing the real ‘endgame’ – attacking Iran on the pretext of thwarting its nuclear ambitions, using the 20,000 weapons of mass destruction helpfully supplied by the US last year. Only a lunatic or a nihilist would see this as positive for peace in the Middle East or for enhancing Israeli security, but the evidence of this continued barbarity shows that there are plenty of these around. Not that anyone cares any more, but strictly for the record, here are some highlights from the Fourth Geneva Convention:

Civilians are not to be subject to attack. This includes direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks against areas in which civilians are present.

There is to be no destruction of property unless justified by military necessity.

Civilians must not be subject to outrages upon personal dignity.

Civilians must not be subject to collective punishment and reprisals.

Civilians must not receive differential treatment based on race, religion, nationality, or political allegiance.

Warring parties must not use or develop biological or chemical weapons and must not allow children under 15 to participate in hostilities or to be recruited into the armed forces.

The last part of the Convention relates directly to the alleged activities of Hamas: “The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.” (Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, August 12, 1949, 6 U.S.T. 3516, 75 U.N.T.S. 287, art. 28). Tony, you’re a lawyer (and your wife is a human rights lawyer). Advise your Israeli Neocon friends that they might be breaking the law, and while you’re at it, please turn yourself in to the ICC. A whip round at Bilderberg will provide sufficient funds for Cherie to defend you (and make sure you get off) then someone can make a film about it.  Strike that last part, someone already has.

John J Kelly

On December 4 2008 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the practice of holding  DNA samples of more than 1 million UK citizens, some as young as 10 years old, who have no criminal record but who have been investigated in the course of police enquiries, is contrary to Article 8. Britain is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, a prerequisite of EU membership. This landmark ruling, a setback for the UK government’s Identity Card project (Thus passim), amongst other ambitious schemes to roll forward the barriers of the state, was sixth item on early editions of BBC Radio 4 news, (UK national radio) but is shooting up the ranks and has set the blogosphere alight. UK Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith (Thus passim), is disappointed by the ruling and has announced that the DNA of innocent people will remain on file for the time being. Why are we not surprised?

We can expect several high profile examples of the arrest and conviction a person with no previous criminal record but whose DNA is held on the database in the very near future, no doubt first or second on the running order of the national news.

Speaking of European Courts, Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune (IHT) published an important opinion piece on the International Criminal Court (ICC) .  A Court for a New America calls for the US to join the Hague-based Tribunal court, set up to indict and try war criminals, dictators and abusers of state power. Strangely, George Bush and Dick Cheney were vehemently opposed to the ICC. Cheney called it a ‘kangaroo court’- unlike Guantanamo. Obama should take up where Bill Clinton left off and give it the legitimacy of US approval and participation. Following that, the ICC could indict Tony Blair, Bush, Cheney, Bremer, Rumsfeld and various others for their role in prosecuting aggressive warfare in Iraq in violation of the Geneva Convention and International Law. We know that won’t happen, of course, and naturally the US wouldn’t join if it meant that any of these fine fellows were to be subjected to unsavoury scrutiny, but it would help if the world’s most vigorous defender of western values subscribed to a court designed to uphold those very values.