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No doubt Harold Pinter will be sad that his favourite masss murderer and communist/national socialist despot has snuffed it but my guess is that they will be celebrating in the streets in Croatia, much of Bosnia and in more the rational circles in Serbia. Good riddence to bad rubbish. March 11th, 2006 | 39 comments - (Comments are closed)
 We are still wresting with configuring the anti-spam defences and some other work on the blog will be continuing for a few days yet in all likelihood, so apologies in advance if things are a bit slow or if the comment system is a bit tetchy at times. We will have things running more smoothly as soon as we can. Because of all the processes going on (such as batch republishing 108,000 comments and over 7,000 articles), the site may run rather slow today. March 11th, 2006 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
It has it all – from aeroplanes that look like they are crashing to exciting political rallies – wouldn’t YOU rather go to North Korea? Update: The official DPRK website hates our links for some obscure reason. So, in the interests of spreading the happy holiday message, please copy and paste this URL into the appropriate spot… http://www.korea-dpr.com/kfa2006/kfadelegation05.wmv March 10th, 2006 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
“We have paid dearly for idealizing the state. There is no virtue in denying the law of gravity, and there should be no virtue in denying the limitations of government. Good intentions are no excuse for perpetual failure and growing oppression. The more we glorify government, the more liberties we will lose. Freedom is largely a choice between allowing people to follow their own interests or forcing them to follow the interests of politicians, bureaucrats, politicians and campaign contributors.” James Bovard, “Lost Rights”, cataloguing the destruction of liberties in the USA during the Clinton years. The message applies everywhere and at any time, of course. March 10th, 2006 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
There are moves afoot to ban the burqa in the Netherlands on the basis that they are oppressive to women and in the words of Geert Wilders, a Dutch member of parliament…
Which is quite curious logic because if he believes in equal rights, does that not include the right to wear what you damn well please without it having to be politically approved by the state? Will other forms of clothing be banned in order to make this an ‘equal right’? Moreover it sets a horrific president: does that mean ‘offensive’ clothing can be banned, such as, say, a mini-skirt that some Muslims with sexual hang-ups find offensive? This proposal is a dreadful idea with only one thing to recommend it, and that with proviso is does not actually pass into law. The notion of making Muslim fundamentalists (and I would argue that anyone wearing a burqa is a fundamentalist) feel that they are not accepted and that even toleration of them is hanging in the balance is not such a bad message to send. Yet this is nevertheless an appalling notion for the state to decide what people can wear. A vastly better idea would be to just scale back the welfare state which brough many of these people to Europe and most importantly return the abridged property rights and freedom of association and dis-association to individuals to deal with who they please and freely (but peaceably) express themselves without fear of prosecution for ‘discrimination’. That way, if enough individuals decide that not make people who wear burqas welcome into their places of business, the problem of state supported non-assimilation would quickly disappear. If people really do not care, then that too is the ‘voice of the people’. Either way, the state has no business enforcing dress codes. Provide some real social motivation to assimilate and adopt western norms of behaviour. If some un-assimilated Muslims find that notion offensive and choose to leave for some nation which is more accepting of dark ages mores. Either way the problem is reduced. March 10th, 2006 | 236 comments - (Comments are closed)
As our regular readers will have noticed, we have been ‘off the air’ whilst we under went a major site upgrade under the hood. There still may be a few bugs to stamp on but things will soon return to normal. March 10th, 2006 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
March 9th, 2006 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
There is a lot of stuff about Dubai at the moment. The issue of Dubai Ports’ purchase of P&O and the reaction by certain American Democrat and Republican politicians is a massive story Stateside, though it has not registered much in the UK, unless you are a reader of the business sections. There is a smell of protectionism in the air in Europe too, with a number of European states scratching each other’s eyes out about merger and acquisitions involving banks and utilities. Plus ca change.. Dubai is now a major story on a number of fronts. The BBC recently ran a series of programmes about the incredible amount of construction happening there and the local magnates and immigrants who are driving the economy forward. A vast artificial archipelago of homes and estates has been built into the Gulf. Dubai is also a major business and media centre, a place where a lot of sporting and cultural events goes on. Dubai is also becoming one of the major venues for business conferences in areas such as finance. So it seems to me that even with all the reservations one might have about that part of the world and the islamist threats not far away, Dubai’s vibrancy is a sort of Good Thing. The place has, potentially, the capacity to exert the same impact on parts of the Middle East as Hong Kong did on mainland China. Perhaps it is all a bubble and will go up in smoke, as the Eyeores out there might think, but on the whole I am optimistic. Let’s face it, pessimism is a sort of cop-out. May the meme of liberty spread out from its borders and confound the naysayers. Meanwhile, this man is doing something highly admirable. March 8th, 2006 | 75 comments - (Comments are closed)
March 8th, 2006 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
Melody Bartlett is deputy editor of the CBI’s magazine Business Voice, unpicking government’s relationship with big business. She writes at The Business Editors blog:
That this shocks someone who works for the CBI – and someone who explores on a daily basis the state of government’s relationship with commerce – is rather more shocking to me than Ms Bartlett’s own complaint. March 8th, 2006 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
JURIST lays out the planned outline of the latest attempt to revive the European Constitution. In tandem with the actions of Chirac to publicise EU actions that demonstrate a defence against socialisation, the leaders of France and Germany wish to revise the first two chapters and submit these revised parts of the Constitution to referenda in France and the Netherlands.The third chapter would be ratified by the respective Parliaments of the two countries.
This plan will be taken up by the German Presidency of the European Union in 2007. Just imagine the pressure on a British Prime Minister when twenty four have ratified and we have not. No doubt the Liberal Democrats and Europhiles will construct some face-saving routine that allows the politicians to avoid holding a referendum here. Separate referenda for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: vote for the Constitution to save the Union? March 7th, 2006 | 33 comments - (Comments are closed)
Well, this does not come as a great surprise, to be honest:
I do not know to what extent this decline has been caused by the decline in the number of adults watching movies, as has been reported in various parts, or the increasing refusal of ordinary people to sit watching preening showbiz types mouth platitudes while receiving their gongs. Probably some combination of the two, I think. The film industry is fracturing, partly I think because of technologies that mean you can watch great films in the comfort of home in tremendous quality. A friend of mine recently bought a high definition big screen television for just over one thousand pounds and the quality was magnificent. And there were no annoying chatty couples sitting behind me, bad air conditioning and annoying preliminary announcements and adverts. March 7th, 2006 | 29 comments - (Comments are closed)
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