BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Tour diary: Blair in Middle East: "the prime minister's appetite for Manichean rhetoric is growing.
In his view, the world is divided between the forces of democracy and modernisation and the forces of reaction and extremism. It's a black and white, good versus evil vision that inspires equal amounts of wonder and ridicule."
Wednesday, 20 December 2006
Monday, 18 December 2006
Times raises spectre of a Watergate for Blair
It's speculative, but it sadly has the ring of truth.
No 10 investigated for perversion of justice - Britain - Times Online: "“It has been noted that when the Watergate scandal forced President Nixon to resign, it was the cover-up, not the burglary, that brought him down. What these people should remember is that they are not dealing with a parliamentary inquiry; this is a criminal investigation and anyone failing to co-operate is participating in a criminal offence.”"
No 10 investigated for perversion of justice - Britain - Times Online: "“It has been noted that when the Watergate scandal forced President Nixon to resign, it was the cover-up, not the burglary, that brought him down. What these people should remember is that they are not dealing with a parliamentary inquiry; this is a criminal investigation and anyone failing to co-operate is participating in a criminal offence.”"
Thursday, 14 December 2006
Blair questioned in honours probe
BBC NEWS | News Front Page: "Prime Minister Tony Blair has been interviewed by police investigating allegations of cash for honours."
Good. Hope that they are staying serious - because on the face of it he looks as though he has a case to answer.
Nick Robinson gives the spin that because he wasn't under caution, it is unlikely he will ever be charged.
Nick Robinson BBC blog
"That is a key point - because if the police had any suspicion that Tony Blair might in the end have charges brought against him, they would be under a legal obligation to caution him (i.e. to read out the traditional caution that anything that he said might be used in evidence against him)."
I hope this doesn't mean the cops are going to be soft on him.
Full marks still to Angus McNeil MP for getting this out in the open, so far as it is already anyway.
Good. Hope that they are staying serious - because on the face of it he looks as though he has a case to answer.
Nick Robinson gives the spin that because he wasn't under caution, it is unlikely he will ever be charged.
Nick Robinson BBC blog
"That is a key point - because if the police had any suspicion that Tony Blair might in the end have charges brought against him, they would be under a legal obligation to caution him (i.e. to read out the traditional caution that anything that he said might be used in evidence against him)."
I hope this doesn't mean the cops are going to be soft on him.
Full marks still to Angus McNeil MP for getting this out in the open, so far as it is already anyway.
Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Blair legacy: destruction of Labour
The legacy: the complete destruction of the Labour Party!
Blair supports plan to weaken unions' grip on party, MPs told | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics: "Downing Street insisted last night that no recommendations have yet been made by the Phillips inquiry. But according to some critical sources inside the Labour party, Sir Hayden is openly touting these plans with Downing Street backing."
Blair supports plan to weaken unions' grip on party, MPs told | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics: "Downing Street insisted last night that no recommendations have yet been made by the Phillips inquiry. But according to some critical sources inside the Labour party, Sir Hayden is openly touting these plans with Downing Street backing."
Friday, 8 December 2006
Arab Strap, ABC, Glasgow, Monday 4 December 2006
Published in the Morning Star
(Friday 08 December 2006)
(Friday 08 December 2006)
That's how it ends
LIVE: Arab Strap
ABC, Glasgow
SO, the Arab Strap farewell tour ends here at the Glasgow ABC. There are quite a few plump guys with beards in for the last-ever gig and you get the feeling that Arab Strap - aka Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton - know their audience.
The recorded intro is a radio report describing how the band once shocked the citizens of their hometown Falkirk. It features a local burgher, who claims: "There's two ways to get on in showbiz. One is to be outrageous, the other is to have talent and, obviously, they have nothing of the latter."
Then they're off - beat, beat, beat, beat. If people were expecting post-folk, as Arab Strap are often labelled, they are to be disappointed, at least not until close to the encores.
With drums, bass and second guitar, this "last Arab Strap band" whip up a hefty rock show. Well, it would be, if it wasn't for the fact that Moffat is singing his Scots vernacular poems of shiftless ordinariness in a deep, almost tuneless voice somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Irvine Welsh.
It's low key - literally - even though he looks like a pop Pavarotti, plump, bearded and wiping sweat from his body with a cloth wrapped around his wrist.
They scoot pretty much through the recent Ten Years of Tears retrospective/retirement album.
Among the "old songs," Moffat introduces Gilded, which stated some variously fulfilled ambitions: "We did make the cover of the NME, though we've never had any hits, as such, and I've never snorted coke off a supermodel's tits - much though I'd like to."
There Is No Ending, the closing song from the final album The Last Romance, is the cue for thanks to their record label, Chemikal Underground, to cheers. As the gig reaches its peak, balloons fall from above and the punters pop them.
Then, The First Big Weekend returns from 1996 like Groundhog Day, at the end of the Arab Strap adventure. "Went out for the weekend and it lasted forever..."
Their first encores are an acoustic minigig. In the second encore, it's finally just the two of them again, Moffat and Middleton.
Moffat dedicates Packs of Three to his mother. The audience sings along to the better-known bawdy bits. Nice boys, eh?
And there they go, the bearded laddies. Talented, but outrageous no longer. Laconic, not demonic. Ironic, certainly. Iconic? Maybe - in a downbeat, low-key, indie kind of a way.
Subscribe to the Morning Star online
For peace and socialism - the only socialist daily paper in the English language
A consultant writes: anti-PFI letter in Herald
from The Herald letters page, Friday 8 Dec, a letter by a hospital consultant on why PFI is rubbish, and is destroying the NHS:
FOR students of the NHS in Scotland the renascent arguments over PFI are disappointingly familiar. The decision to finance Edinburgh Royal and the Lanarkshire hospitals by a PFI was taken before the Scottish Parliament was reconvened, by the Scottish Health Ministry in Westminster. Sam Galbraith, an old Labour Minister and surprisingly a former NHS doctor, drove this decision through against widespread contrary opinion. A contemporary series of articles in the British Medical Journal comprehensively destroyed any argument for PFI and predicted widespread financial harm to other NHS services as PFI costs rose disproportionately. The present situation was clearly foreseen, but ignored by the Labour government first in London and later in Holyrood. It must be clear where the blame lies.
The present Scottish Executive are "encouraged" to continue with PFI by the Labour government in London, despite the process in England being widely discredited and leading to the present financial catastrophe facing the NHS in England, leading eventually to full privatisation. It may be that the only way to resist the advance of PFI and privatisation in the NHSiS is to decouple the Scottish Executive from the malign influences of the UK Labour Party and government.
It is unfortunate that the people of Lanarkshire are suffering the consequences of PFI, but not all of the present concerns over A&E provision in the county are consequences of that process. Fifteen years ago it was apparent that Law and Hairmyres Hospitals had to be replaced. A sensible and financially affordable option of a new large Lanarkshire hospital was proposed on a site at or near Strathclyde Park, close to major roads and at the "sick centre" of Lanarkshire. This hospital would have been able to support all acute clinical services, a large and modern A&E department and could have been a major centre of excellence. But the politicians, public and press local to the old hospitals could not be persuaded to give up "their" hospitals and the health board gave in to such local pressure, and under orders from Galbraith and the Treasury chose two PFI hospitals on the the wrong sites with unsustainable clinical services.
Within three years of opening, Hairmyres Hospital has lost several major surgical specialities to Wishaw, and one Lanarkshire hospital may be closed. No excuses of the effect of the European Working Time Directive, changes in junior doctors' hours and training, lack of staff, etc, can be sustained as all of these processess were known and their effects predicted from the mid-nineties. The public and politicians, and their appointed health board, are all culpable in the decisions which have led to the present situation. Medical advice was ignored and no analyses of future developments were made or considered. No real thought was given to anything beyond very short-term electoral gratification.
As Professor Allyson Pollock and colleagues have illustrated, the people and politicians of Lanarkshire will have to live and possibly die with the consequences of their decisions for the next 30 years, after which who knows? The NHS will not own either of the two Lanarkshire hospitals after paying £41m annually. PFI is not a mortgage. The argument from politicians that the NHS will be free to give up these then out-of-date hospitals and go elsewhere is incredible. Which of us would pay a mortgage and not expect to own our house at the end of the term?
What can be learned from this debacle? Local politicians cannot be trusted with the hard decisions about the facilities for the provision of health care. The public must try not to be seduced by hysterical stories of "death in the ambulance", but must try to understand the whole picture of emergency and elective health care.
I know many do but their voices are often drowned out. Professor David Kerr has recently expressed disappointment that when the crunch comes public and politicians will not listen to reasoned argument from professionals whom they trust with their lives, but whom they do not trust when those professionals plan the bigger picture. Many of the public and press are blinded by scare stories about A&E, and can be mobilised by these but seem unwilling to consider future healthcare provision in total.
If we in Scotland cannot face up to the realities of the provision of health-care in the 21st century we are destined to see the privatisation and breakdown of the NHS as we have known it, and all of us will be the poorer.
Gavin R Tait, FRCSG, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock
FOR students of the NHS in Scotland the renascent arguments over PFI are disappointingly familiar. The decision to finance Edinburgh Royal and the Lanarkshire hospitals by a PFI was taken before the Scottish Parliament was reconvened, by the Scottish Health Ministry in Westminster. Sam Galbraith, an old Labour Minister and surprisingly a former NHS doctor, drove this decision through against widespread contrary opinion. A contemporary series of articles in the British Medical Journal comprehensively destroyed any argument for PFI and predicted widespread financial harm to other NHS services as PFI costs rose disproportionately. The present situation was clearly foreseen, but ignored by the Labour government first in London and later in Holyrood. It must be clear where the blame lies.
The present Scottish Executive are "encouraged" to continue with PFI by the Labour government in London, despite the process in England being widely discredited and leading to the present financial catastrophe facing the NHS in England, leading eventually to full privatisation. It may be that the only way to resist the advance of PFI and privatisation in the NHSiS is to decouple the Scottish Executive from the malign influences of the UK Labour Party and government.
It is unfortunate that the people of Lanarkshire are suffering the consequences of PFI, but not all of the present concerns over A&E provision in the county are consequences of that process. Fifteen years ago it was apparent that Law and Hairmyres Hospitals had to be replaced. A sensible and financially affordable option of a new large Lanarkshire hospital was proposed on a site at or near Strathclyde Park, close to major roads and at the "sick centre" of Lanarkshire. This hospital would have been able to support all acute clinical services, a large and modern A&E department and could have been a major centre of excellence. But the politicians, public and press local to the old hospitals could not be persuaded to give up "their" hospitals and the health board gave in to such local pressure, and under orders from Galbraith and the Treasury chose two PFI hospitals on the the wrong sites with unsustainable clinical services.
Within three years of opening, Hairmyres Hospital has lost several major surgical specialities to Wishaw, and one Lanarkshire hospital may be closed. No excuses of the effect of the European Working Time Directive, changes in junior doctors' hours and training, lack of staff, etc, can be sustained as all of these processess were known and their effects predicted from the mid-nineties. The public and politicians, and their appointed health board, are all culpable in the decisions which have led to the present situation. Medical advice was ignored and no analyses of future developments were made or considered. No real thought was given to anything beyond very short-term electoral gratification.
As Professor Allyson Pollock and colleagues have illustrated, the people and politicians of Lanarkshire will have to live and possibly die with the consequences of their decisions for the next 30 years, after which who knows? The NHS will not own either of the two Lanarkshire hospitals after paying £41m annually. PFI is not a mortgage. The argument from politicians that the NHS will be free to give up these then out-of-date hospitals and go elsewhere is incredible. Which of us would pay a mortgage and not expect to own our house at the end of the term?
What can be learned from this debacle? Local politicians cannot be trusted with the hard decisions about the facilities for the provision of health care. The public must try not to be seduced by hysterical stories of "death in the ambulance", but must try to understand the whole picture of emergency and elective health care.
I know many do but their voices are often drowned out. Professor David Kerr has recently expressed disappointment that when the crunch comes public and politicians will not listen to reasoned argument from professionals whom they trust with their lives, but whom they do not trust when those professionals plan the bigger picture. Many of the public and press are blinded by scare stories about A&E, and can be mobilised by these but seem unwilling to consider future healthcare provision in total.
If we in Scotland cannot face up to the realities of the provision of health-care in the 21st century we are destined to see the privatisation and breakdown of the NHS as we have known it, and all of us will be the poorer.
Gavin R Tait, FRCSG, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock
Thursday, 7 December 2006
"I'm with stupid"
Bush and Blair to respond to ISG report | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics
I keep having to pinch myself to believe that this stuff is real. The leaders of the world. The leader of my party.
Wednesday, 6 December 2006
Arab Strap, ABC, 4 December
Went to see Arab Strap on Monday with Liam and Neil. I'd promised the Morning Star a review, this is what I sent in.
REVIEW:
Arab Strap, ABC, Glasgow
Monday, December 4, 2006
By Malcolm Burns
So, the Arab Strap farewell tour ends here at the Glasgow ABC. There's quite a few plump guys with beards in for the last ever gig. You get the feeling Arab Strap - aka Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton - know their audience.
The recorded intro is a radio report describing how the band once shocked the citizens of their hometown, Falkirk. It features a local burgher who claims: "There's two ways to get on in showbiz, one is to be outrageous, the other is to have talent, and obviously they have nothing of the latter."
Then they're off: beat beat beat beat - rock. If you were expecting post-folk, as they are often labelled, you didn't get it (almost till the encores). With drums, bass and second guitar, this "last Arab Strap band" whip up a hefty rock show. Well, it would be, if it wasn't for the fact that Moffat is singing his Scots vernacular poems of shiftless ordinariness in a deep, almost tuneless voice, somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Irvine Welsh. It's low key - literally - even though he looks like a pop Pavarotti, plump, bearded and wiping sweat with a cloth wrapped around his wrist.
They scoot pretty much through the recent Ten Years of Tears retrospective/retirement album.
Among the "old songs", Moffat introduces Gilded, which stated some variously fulfilled ambitions: "We did make the cover of the NME, though we've never had any hits, as such, and I've never snorted coke off a supermodel's tits - much though I'd like to."
There Is No Ending, closing song from the final album The Last Romance, is a cue for thanks to their record label, Chemikal Underground - to cheers. As the gig reaches its peak, balloons fall from above and the punters pop them.
And then The First Big Weekend returns from 1996 like Groundhog Day at the end of the Arab Strap adventure. "Went out for the weekend and it lasted forever..."
Their first encores are an acoustic mini gig. In the second encore, it's finally just the two of them again, Aidan and Malcolm.
Moffat dedicates Packs of Three to his mother. The audience sings along to the better known bawdy bits. Nice boys, eh?
And there they go, the bearded laddies. Talented, but not, any longer, outrageous. Laconic, not demonic. Ironic, certainly. Iconic? Maybe... in a downbeat, low key, indie kind of a way.
ends
408 words
web links:
Arab Strap site:
www.arabstrap.co.uk
Chemikal Underground
www.chemikal.co.uk
Article by Aidan Moffat in Sunday Herald
www.sundayherald.com
"I suppose you have to get it out of your system when you're young but it doesn't take long to realise that good manners and kindness are the way forward."
"We never did become the kind of rock stars we'd read about, but I would genuinely rather mean a lot to a little that a little to a lot, and at least we have the sense to split up while we still sound good."
REVIEW:
Arab Strap, ABC, Glasgow
Monday, December 4, 2006
By Malcolm Burns
So, the Arab Strap farewell tour ends here at the Glasgow ABC. There's quite a few plump guys with beards in for the last ever gig. You get the feeling Arab Strap - aka Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton - know their audience.
The recorded intro is a radio report describing how the band once shocked the citizens of their hometown, Falkirk. It features a local burgher who claims: "There's two ways to get on in showbiz, one is to be outrageous, the other is to have talent, and obviously they have nothing of the latter."
Then they're off: beat beat beat beat - rock. If you were expecting post-folk, as they are often labelled, you didn't get it (almost till the encores). With drums, bass and second guitar, this "last Arab Strap band" whip up a hefty rock show. Well, it would be, if it wasn't for the fact that Moffat is singing his Scots vernacular poems of shiftless ordinariness in a deep, almost tuneless voice, somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Irvine Welsh. It's low key - literally - even though he looks like a pop Pavarotti, plump, bearded and wiping sweat with a cloth wrapped around his wrist.
They scoot pretty much through the recent Ten Years of Tears retrospective/retirement album.
Among the "old songs", Moffat introduces Gilded, which stated some variously fulfilled ambitions: "We did make the cover of the NME, though we've never had any hits, as such, and I've never snorted coke off a supermodel's tits - much though I'd like to."
There Is No Ending, closing song from the final album The Last Romance, is a cue for thanks to their record label, Chemikal Underground - to cheers. As the gig reaches its peak, balloons fall from above and the punters pop them.
And then The First Big Weekend returns from 1996 like Groundhog Day at the end of the Arab Strap adventure. "Went out for the weekend and it lasted forever..."
Their first encores are an acoustic mini gig. In the second encore, it's finally just the two of them again, Aidan and Malcolm.
Moffat dedicates Packs of Three to his mother. The audience sings along to the better known bawdy bits. Nice boys, eh?
And there they go, the bearded laddies. Talented, but not, any longer, outrageous. Laconic, not demonic. Ironic, certainly. Iconic? Maybe... in a downbeat, low key, indie kind of a way.
ends
408 words
web links:
Arab Strap site:
www.arabstrap.co.uk
Chemikal Underground
www.chemikal.co.uk
Article by Aidan Moffat in Sunday Herald
www.sundayherald.com
"I suppose you have to get it out of your system when you're young but it doesn't take long to realise that good manners and kindness are the way forward."
"We never did become the kind of rock stars we'd read about, but I would genuinely rather mean a lot to a little that a little to a lot, and at least we have the sense to split up while we still sound good."
Monday, 4 December 2006
Whose interest is served?
In bed with Russophobes | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited: "In the absence of genuine evidence of Russian state involvement in the killings of Litvinenko and Politkovskaya, we should be wary about jumping on a bandwagon orchestrated by the people who bought death and destruction to the streets of Baghdad, and whose aim is to neuter any counterweight to the most powerful empire ever seen."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
