They Blog For You

  One day in parliament Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab): To underline his claim that prisons are well run, will the right hon. and learned Gentleman remind the House of the precise number of prisons that are free of the use of illegal drugs? Mr Clarke: I would not like to guarantee that [...]

The news from Fukushima is dreadful. But some of the honeyed words and contrived deception persists. 'Smoke' is reported from an unknown source. No radiation measure is published. There is no smoke without fire. Here there is smoke without a radiation leak. What is burning? Spent fiercely contaminated fuel rods are [...]

It's a long time since I've written a letter to the Guardian. Their untrue reports yesterday has prompted dozens of requests for interviews from the media. They lose interest when they hear what my opinion is. The letter reads:-   "Having never expressed an opinion, privately or publicly, on the subject, I [...]

  The Guardian listed me as one of the only four MPs who are opposed to the UN decision on the 'no-fly zone.' They have been misinformed. I have made no comment either way, publicly or privately. I feel conflicted about the decision but on balance I am in favour. This is [...]

Stopping a charnel house of slaughter if Gadaffi had re-taken Benghazi is a legitimate objective for imposing a no-fly zone provided it has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council, and especially in this case if it is supported by the Arab League.   Now that that has been achieved however, [...]

Total of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 360 Wreckage, despair and tears today from the screaming nuclear nightmare of Fukushima. The bleak hopelessness of the courageous repair work is apparent. The hope today of a fresh electricity supply to power the cooling system appears to have come to nothing. Elevating the [...]

  Mayor Boris appears to be getting his way in wiping Brian Haw's peace protest from the face of Parliament Square. He has been there for ten years.  On many winter nights I have admired his fortitude as I went home to a warm bed while he continued his protest regardless [...]

                 It now appears that the armies in Middle Eastern countries determine the future of governments. Brave popular uprisings have forced governments out in Tunisia and Egypt, where the armies declined to support the incumbents. In Libya it looks as if the rebels are now losing, as the dictator seems [...]

Today the lucky members of the Public Administration Committee visited the hallowed lair of Facebook. This is the sumptuous world of numbers exploding exponentionally, of a conversation that involves a billion faces worldwide.   Chairman Bernard Jenkin led us to the plush nerve centre in the backstreets behind Oxford Street. We were welcome [...]

Total of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 356   A bad day to announce bad news. But still Defence Minister Liam Fox forced out some ‘cautious optimism.’ He always does. Our brave British soldiers have been dying for ten years, a longer period than the First World War and the Second World [...]

Not for the first time the Lockerbie narrative is being distorted out of all recognition for political ends, first by the US-UK governments in the 1990s, then by the UK Government and the Scottish Executive in 2009, and now by Cameron in his statement to the Commons yesterday.   Cameron’s line was that [...]

The 1,600 documents leaked to al-Jazeera TV and the Guardian confirm one’s worst fears and open up a nightmare of reprisals and an inexorable slide to war.   The revelations of confidential Palestinian records tell a dreadful story of a nation not only crushed by overwhelming military power, but betrayed by its [...]

Four breakdowns in the last three days all point to the same central flaw which is now endemic in British society.   Public order policing is out of control and clearly would have remained so for many years had not the undercover police spy Mark Kennedy gone native.    Phone hacking of public figures [...]

  Where are the sharp tongue barristers with their forensic barbs? Why did we not have a Michael Mansfield or a Bob Marshall Andrews cross-examining Tony Blair on the Iraq war? The powder puff questions put to him at the Chilcot Inquiry were incompetent and obsequious. It proves once again that Prime [...]

  It was just a game to them. But 349 British soldiers died. The evidence is mounting that the  2006 Helmand  incursion was the worst blunder in British military history.  A staggering new claim is that British troops were put in mortal danger to avoid future defence cuts. The Iraq Inquiry [...]

Watching the popular uprising against tyranny in Tunisia, I wonder if those "neo-Cons" who argued that the West should try to expand democracy might have been right all along? Around the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq, I read a book by Natan Sharansky [...]

It would be wrong to call the US  a sick society, but it is certainly deeply troubled.   The shooting of Congresswoman Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, amid a mounting hysteria of militaristic vitriol from a frenetically fired-up vengeful Republican Right is not an isolated act, but sadly a part of an all too frequently [...]

Total number of deaths of British soldiers in Afghanistan = 349   Retired General Dannatt tells the Telegraph readers that we must hold on in Afghanistan. Hold on to what? The Observer accurately reflects the hopelessness of our prospects of success. The total of 349 is nearly twice the total of British [...]

  Who are they kidding? Tough on crime Tories turn a blind eye to wide scale  'controlled' drug and alcohol use in all our prisons. Just testing I asked the Home Secretary last month to list all the prisons that are free of illegal drug use. She could not find one.  But [...]

Universal jurisdiction is one of those ideas that sounds marvellous.  Allowing courts in one country to claim jurisdiction outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state , regardless of nationality, means that Tyrants and Bad People can be brought to justice. Hurray!  But hang on a second. In doing so, universal jurisdiction [...]