mockney piers

ha ha. whoops. Let England Shake, the nwe PJ Harvey plopped through my door last night. Only our Polly could do an album about the First World War and a)not make it a pompous exercise, and b)make it utterly beguiling and beautiful. Only had two listens through, but could be her best for a little while. Whilst I thought White Chalk was a stunning album, it was just to cold to, well, to warm to. I reckon this will demand some close listening but I'm warming to it already. Jah, I hope you treated yourelf to this for your birthday!

I wouldn't say it's ruled by Muslim extremists. It is ruled by traditionalists which is a very different thing. The problem is that the the moderates and liberal reformers had been in charge and the conservatives thought they could use the zeal and demagoguery of Ahmedinajad to unite the conservative/rural/religious vote. Thing is the reason he won was a protest vote aimed at the economic mismanagement, and his power brokers seriously underestimated what Ahm' was capable of politically. The comparisons with Hitler here are more convincing as he loses and fixes the election and used intimidation and violence to quell the protests. The theocrats are scared because he marshalled the power of the Basij and revolutionary guards which are supposed to be totally subordinate to them. So a ruthless nutter holds the presidency, the moderates have been kicked out and the conservatives hold power. Extremism is the wrong label though.

I'm pretty sure those selfsame Iranian protesters think that they kicked off the whole movement rather their current protests happening as a result of other freedom movements. We have no clue what is going to happen in Egypt. So far the figuerhead for a civilian autocracy almost entirely composed of military folk, enabled as much by the army as by the secret police, has stepped down in favour of a blatant military rule making vague noises about constitutional reform. Good luck to them I say but regimes where the state and the military are effectively one havent got a great record in rescinding power (see more countries than you can shake a stick at). Iran may yet have the best chance of genuine democracy, but it's not going to happen there without serious bloodshed. The army and revolutionary guard are tools of the state rather than the state an expression of the military. There are real power plays going on in the complex make-up of the state, which may just give enough room for manoevre for a popular movement to take hold. They've done it before when overthrowing the US puppet regime, and this time there's no Saddam to invade and ensure that the coup by the mullahs can consolidate. So best of luck to the Iranians too, god knows they'll need it.

I've actually heard that some russian ships go disguised as merchant shipscarrying rich businessmen so they can have a pop at pirates with lots of fun weaponry. Nutters, no wonder the pirates avoid them. I heard of similar 'adventure' weekends by German business types on the Croat lines during the the Bosnian conflagrations. There are seriously screwed up people in this world!!

Not true. There is a US/ethiopian backed federal government attempting to restore constitutional rule to the country. It currently governs much of Mogadishu and other territories in Somalia but the are many factions in charge of other parts of the country, the split Islamist movements in the south, traditional warlords in the north. It is along way away from being a vaguely normal country, so not sure what the government can do, especially with much of the piracy emanating from the north where they have no say at all.

Nicely summed up by: see also Parker etc.

Most West Ham fans are ambivalent too to be fair. I'm not sure what to think. May have a better idea after a day at the olympics I guess. Still, be nice to be rid of those awful plastic hammers on the side of the west stand. How, ...just...who...how...?!?

I'm pretty sure the only people who ever try to convert me are jehovas witnesses. But they're lovely old dears and I do so like a nice chat on a sunday morning, and they've yet to declare me their enemy. I will however keep an eye on them for you and if there's any funny business I'm writing to my MP to get them put away.

not really a game but the google search page is good for a chuckle today. It must be Jules Vernes' birthday or somesuch, but instead of the usual pictographed google, today we have a fully functioning submarine. Coool.

Yep, rather dodgy. Everything I've read or heard tells me that the military would rather have not touched Iraq with a bargepole. You only need to see how post invasion they hunkered down and handed Basra over to the bandits and militias (not our proudest moment) to see just how little they wanted to be there so our politicians could bleat on about shoulders. This was Blair's war pure and simple, it really doesn't need to be more complicated than that. Anyway, we digress.

Iffy history. Roman empire and people within itm hrived during a period including and 200 odd years beyond Constantine. Downfall (in the west) was down to military (really, read beauracratic) overstretch coupled with loss of revenue Fromm north Africa, but many generations past that, which was in many ways high point of empire.

Percent of GDP looks reasonable, but per capita is relatively high. I've two issues. 1. We spend it badly. Far too many expensive projects we don't need, particularly when we immediately mothball the results. 2. The empire was a long time ago, we really don't need to throw our orb about any more, let's try not doing it for once. Military is there for defence after all. Countries like Spain, god, even ireland still manage to contribute to the good things in the world that the armies do without doing too much of those bad things, not a bad model to follow, and frankly cheaper, and sort MM, I know you're biased in favour of submarines, but trident, big fat waste of cash that makes the world worse rather than better. Hmm, that's more than two issues.

Aaah, good to have you back quids, banging that irrelevant drum. Amazed you didnt bring class into it, athough it's the strong middle class and cultural industriousness and onus on education that serves Chile so well. Not having drug production (for the US) and smuggling (to the US) issues, and having been historically relatively free from the cancerous influence of the Monroe doctrine in latin America, it's been better poised to do well. Argentina should be likewise if it didn't have so many kleptocrats in charge squandering it's immense wealth. Not everything has to be viewed through the Milton vs Keynes lens you know.

DOubt it's any good, but to get into the spirit... http://www.everythingusb.com/gun_computer_mouse_13770.html

play the percentages...Man U

They sell individual programme broadcast rights to channels around the world, hence why iplayer is limited to It's a very important revenue stream for the beeb.

Only in a Julian dicks for canvey island type fashion though.

Steve Potts

Private eye have a pretty good summary of why this is a rubbish idea. Private buyers make money off trees planted and cared for out of the public purse and are then eligible for grants for their stewardship that quickly render any windfall into a rapid loss. Meanwhile fences up and more and more of our heritage is denied us. This is what happened at the last sell off and I see nothing new in the proposals that render this time round any different.

An interesting (if very personal) take on events in Egypt in one of the blogs I occasionally read http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2011/01/mubarak-and-me.html

Here you go LM

Lucky us Europeans have a history totally free of internecine war, civil war, revolution, dictatorship, bloodshed, repression and general mayhem.

Policy dictated by talking gorillas. It's original thinking I'll grant you. "let them eat nothing" were you Marie Antoinette's evil twin in a past life?

After? Musharraf staged a coup. The army IS the state there, it doesnt need any US encouragement. The us closeness can probably be explained by all those modern planes and tanks pakistan's receiving. Not a great deal of use in a war on terror, but rather useful in a war with India, hence why Obama had to do so much fawning in his recent visit there[india]. They are interesting times in N. Africa (they're not Arabs btw and oil isn't really an issue as point out by H). Corruption and lack of freedom is, fingers crossed that Tunisia form something which returns political freedom to it's people, and it looks like there might be a velvet revolution in the offing there. Egypt looks a more dangerous situation, there are more volatile strands there including Islamist movements (islamism was born there), tensions between the Coptic minority and Islamic majority and a government prepared to use repressive force. Don't hold your breathe over Algeria. Political freedom and democracy was crushed by a coup and the army showed a particularly viciously cynicism, including a willingness to murder journalists, opposition and civilians alike during the brutal civil war there which has thankfully quietened down. I'm not sure if anyone is willing to look into that abyss again just yet. "best way of running these countries" ha ha, you sound like a foreign office mandarin circa 1850, could you be any more patronising ;-)

Ooh, just spotted this Wow, very revealing indeed. You've just elevated your position to that of dogmatic religious zealot, and thus negated any possibility of rational argument. Oh dear.