Alexei Sayle: I hate Blair more than Thatcher
There’s only one objective criterion you really use to rate a comedian. Does he or she make you laugh, or not? On that basis, I have always been ready to forgive Alexei Sayle his politics, in either their pro-Albanian Maoist or repentant former tankie variants. And given this remark in an interview with the Daily [...]
Venezuela: banking on the revolution
The Financial Times today reports on how the banking sector is faring in ‘revolutionary’ Venezuela. The headline tells you much of what you need to know: Venezuelan bankers get rich from Chávez’s revolution Bankers traditionally face firing squads in times of revolution. But in Venezuela, they are having a party. Dirán Sarkissián, president of the [...]
We are not all Hezbollah
Interesting insight from international relations consultancy stratfor.com [subscription required, and more than worth it], in an article that pointed out how easily British intelligence was able to round up the alleged airline bomb plotters: ‘The vanguard of militant Islamism appears to have passed from Sunni/Wahhabi al Qaeda to Shiite Iran and Hezbollah. It is Iran [...]
Scottish Socialist Party: majority statement
Tommy Sheridan and his supporters have this to say on developments in the Scottish Socialist Party in the wake of his dramatic libel trial victory. For the record, the developments of the past few weeks have caused me to revise my earlier assessment. As far as I can judge thinks from London, I now tend [...]
Ruth Kelly vs religious extremism
New Labour has unveiled the identity of its chosen supremo in the struggle against religious extremism. Ladies and gentlemen, will you big it up for … Ruth Kelly. Such an appointment defies satire. Ms K, after all, is a member of the far right Catholic sect Opus Dei, founded by a sympathiser of Franco’s fascist [...]
Remember kids …
If you use blogger.com, back up your template. Otherwise, it could get corrupted, like mine did today. As a result, I’ve lost a set of links it took months to build up, and all the comments made in Haloscan, too. Bookmark It
Castro: cult of personality
If there has been a military coup in Cuba – as Christopher Hitchens and others maintain – then military coups are not as much fun as they appear to be in newsreel footage. As I mentioned in my last post, I did see a number of troops in the main tourist area last weekend. Since [...]
Update from Havana
Things are getting heavier here. Last night I saw troops on the streets of Habana Vieja. Granted, they were unarmed. But they were in uniform, and conspicuous by their numbers. I think most of the population got the message. Despite the media black-out, increasing numbers of Cubans have heard the rumour that FC has diet. [...]
Havana: all quiet on the streets
For the last three weeks, I have been relying on the Cuban media for information. No foreign newspapers are available anywhere at any price, and my internet access has been sporadic. For all I know, there could have been a small nuclear war somewhere, without me hearing a thing about it. So thanks to the [...]
