The use of force

  Mark Urban, BBC correspondent, writing in his book about SAS operations in Iraq: “…in a UK context, for example, there are obvious political and legal reasons why the SAS could not have adopted a similar strategy against the Irish Republicans in the 1980’s. While applying Iraqi levels of force to the Irish counter-terrorism scene … Read more

Earthquake in Afghanistan

It was reported today that the Taleban had taken over another area of Afghanistan – Takhar province, which lies on the border with Tajikistan. Almost as an aside, the report mentioned that the district had been hit by an earthquake earlier in the week. The quake was 7.5 magnitude, and at least 300 people died, … Read more

What I read today…

“Capitalism has always been progressive, something Voltaire noticed in the London Stock Exchange of the 18th century, where he saw Christians, Jews and Muslims trading together.” Ed West. Evening Standard Sorry Ed, capitalists trading together is not progressive. All that tells you is that capitalists stick together. They are a class, and as such they … Read more

MP’s expenses

A Tory MP has resigned from the Parliamentary watchdog which checks on MP’s expenses – because of his expenses. Geoffrey Cox is MP for Torridge and West Devon. What caught my attention about this story was not the failure to declare income in the register of interests. He forgot. He missed the deadline. Whatever the … Read more

The spy who bugged me

It comes as no surprise to anyone that the British security services serve a higher master than the elected government of the day. Now the judiciary have ruled that it is not illegal for MI5 or MI6 to intercept the emails, correspondence or phone calls of MP’s. The decision was made by the Investigatory Powers … Read more