(what's so funny bout) peace, love & understanding?

NY Times has another good(ish)* darfur article. Strange to say about something that even makes up regular episodes of ER but we do need constant reminding of the bonfire that is Sudan.

Someone sometime recently somewhere (ok it was that 'Empire' bloke Niall Ferguson wrote in the Daily Mail - I know I know, it was someone else's, I promise) wrote about how economic instability, the ending of empire & ethnic inequality where the fuel for genocide. I'd agree with that. He then went on to talk about the Middle East. Neocon numbskull. Sub-Saharan Africa has unfortunately got it all going on already. I suspect the middle east is going to be a whole NEW kind of fuck up.



* I say good, & I mean thought provoking. Article correctly points out that the rebels in Darfur are not saintly victims & actually are combatants in their own right. It rather neglects or misrepresents some of the reasons they fight - i.e. marginalisation and exploitation by central government, as well as local power. Yes, this is a politically driven war. Duh. Which ones aren't?

meltdown

The government are in real trouble & its hard to give a shit as, too be honest, they bought it all on themselves...

... it is interesting though to read the real sense of panic from lefty commentators. Speaking as a lefty wannabe commentator I can empathise. Cameron is making ground at a rate of knots. He has no detailed policies but he is pegging the party colours to a number of more progessive masts & this is having an effect - on the political landscape, on the party & maybe ultimately on the country.

Interesting though: if there was one thing we really *needed* Thatcher for it was to face down the unions, which were abusing their power in the 70s. Now I think we really *need* a party capable of facing down big business. We would take several leaps forward if we did a handful of key things to control & limit business power and influence & channel the undoubted energiesof the private sector more into social goods.

And frankly neither mainstream party convinces. Labour are terrified of looking anti-business. Conservatives just don't have the instincts. Even now as Cameron talks a good talk on CSR they just don't have the track record or the will power seemingly to follow it through. It would be interesting if they got into government on this platfom because I'm fairly convinced they would fail to deliver on a lot of these issues & they would be in the situation where they would have to weigh up whether looking useless or annoying boardroom chums was the devil they preferred to the unpalatable briny blue.

Hilary Benn for DPM

... you heard it here 1st.

"Mr prime minister, can I buy you dinner?"

Guess who.

Then try to avoid committing suicide with the horror of it all.

apathy, apathy, they've all got it apathy

Yes, I know that's an awful title.

Got caught up watching This Week last night. Somehow even Andrew Neil's unctuous smarming can't put me off a political analysis show. It's an addiction.

Intriguingly opposing theses were advanced by stephen fry & the editor of cosmo. SF arguing that we have the politicians we deserve & cosmo bashing 'shouty men in suits'. Have to say I'm with Steve - if you really want to moan about UK politics then do any one of the 1,000 things you can do to change it.

On a seperate note - Milburn!? My god.

blair's last days

Rumblings at the Grauniad.

Well let's face it, the sharks are circling. I'm liking how the Steve Bell cartoons have flashed back to the last days of thatcher. Don't care if the parallels work or not but it all adds to the the end of the empire ethos.