I’m not going to get involved in this debate about the effectiveness of aid that’s broken out since hairy Bob assumed the stump and started making pronouncements. It’s a classic of misdirection.

Because, you see, while folk are arguing about whether the money goes to kiddies or kleptocrats, the Geldof-Curtis Central Leadership Group are planning a coup. Read More

…specifically to Mongolia, where the International Herald Tribune finds a modern tragedy of the commons and offers some clues to the intriguing questions: whose horde was it anyway? And exactly how right wing was Genghis Khan? Read More

But first, some zen propaganda:

US military commanders are planning to pull back their troops from Iraq’s towns and cities and redeploy them in four giant bases in a strategy they say is a prelude to eventual withdrawal.

Eventually, we all withdraw. In the light of the eventual heat death of the universe, nothing is permanent. There is only the way. That alone remains… Read More

Now that the government has made it a priority to introduce the law against incitement to religious hatred, the time has come to consider whether Osama Bin Laden is right.

I don’t mean right in a blowback, arab-streety kind of way. I mean specifically and exactly right. I mean that his policies and actions, and those inspired by him, correctly interpret the will of God in every particular and that we should not only change our attitudes to 9/11 but fervently hope for another revelation of a similar kind.

And in the light of the proposed legislation, I believe that we are not only morally bidden to consider whether Osama bin Laden was right, but also legally obliged to do so. Read More

Question of the day: Labour Party or Donner Party? Read More

When the Tories announced that they were going to go for hi-tech Machiavellian psephology, some witches brew of rightwing populism and computerised number crunching, an ominous shiver went around the anorakorati, convinced as they tend to be by the example of the Republicans in the US that this is an unstoppable formula.

I wasn’t so sure. It sounded like a classic example of people using technology to solve their problems for them, rather than applying technology to the solutions they’ve worked out. Claiming to be able to pull a victory out of the Voter Vault is exactly the same as claiming to be able to pull a victory out of your arse. Read More

Now that everyone’s sleeping the sleep of the satisfied political anorak I might as well pitch in with a few words about the significance of it all, at least when viewed through the wrong end of an empty bottle of…but that joke’s getting old.

So. Were you still up for Oona? Read More

Good afternoon, campers. It’s Jamie off Blood & Treasure here, posting at the kind invitation of the management who would additionally like to inform you that there’s dirt for dinner and you’re not invited. Anyway, here’s a little adress dedicated to all you pseuds out there.

Reasons for Shiraz quaffers to vote against Labour: one and two.

Okay, Shiraz quaffers, so you gave in to the bullying and put your cross by the natural party of permanent government. You had no choice, you were told: they owned your vote. The fact that you had it to exercise was simply a privilege and exercising it the wrong way would simply be an act of ingratitude. So you went along. Read More