Book review: ‘Murder on the Central Committee’ by Manuel Vazquez Montalban
IF YOU are a fan of detective fiction, I can thoroughly recommend Manuel Vazquez Montalban’s pacy 1981 work Murder on the Central Committee. I won’t give away too much of the plot, which centres on the stabbing of the head of the Spanish Communist Party central committee when the lights suddenly go out at a [...]
Damian Green arrest: wrong, but not unprecedented
STALINESQUE; reminiscent of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe; smacks of a police state; unprecedented; heavy-handed. Leading figures in the Conservative Party have been quick to slam last night’s arrest of opposition frontbencher Damian Green, who is suspected of leaking sensitive government documents to national newspapers. Nine counter-terrorism officers searched his offices in the House of Commons and [...]
The Daily Telegraph evaluates Labour economic policy
THERE are times when the Daily Telegraph comes across as little more than an oversized Conservative propaganda flyer, hell bent on pumping out simplistic agitprop slogans for the benefit of the more reason-resistant sections of the Middle England petit bourgeoisie. This morning’s edition is a case in point. Here are a selection of headlines from [...]
There’s more to social democracy than a 45p tax band
AN UNNAMED ‘senior Labour figure’ – presumably one of the half a dozen or so perennial Blairite malcontents that makes up the list of the usual suspects these days – is aghast at the idea that the very wealthy should pay a higher rate of tax than the rest of us. ‘£150,000 may seem a [...]
Pre-Budget Report: the case for a 45p tax band
SOAKING the rich it ain’t; Labour’s decision to introduce a 45% tax rate for those earning £150,000 a year or more is largely symbolic, as many commentators are already busily pointing out. But sometimes – in times like now, for instance – symbolism is important in politics. According to preliminary calculations, the move will hit [...]
Dave Osler joins the Labour Representation Committee
Yes, this is me handing over the cheque to join the LRC at last week’s conference, courtesy of John McDonnell’s mobile phone and somehow now on YouTube. If I’m looking sheepish, that’s because I am still slightly worried about being part of an outfit that incorporates the ultra-Stalinist New Communist Party and a bunch of [...]
The relative decline of the US
THE ONLY surprising thing about the reception accorded to the Global Trends 2025 report is that anybody is at all surprised at its findings. The National Intelligence Council’s argument that the US is in relative decline will hardly come as a shock to anybody who reads books on international relations or the world economy. British-born [...]
The slow death of secrecy
IF YOU are in the business of finding out and publishing things that somebody in a position of influence wants kept quiet – and that’s a business all good journalists should try to be in – then these are heady times. Secrecy, official and otherwise, is being undermined as never before. It actually used to [...]
Sex for sale: prostitution, the market and the state
PROSTITUTION is still half-jokingly celebrated as the world’s oldest profession; in reality, it is not a profession of any description. Nobody in their right mind would willingly see their sister or their daughter go on the game. But it hardly follows logically from that elementary proposition that prostitution should therefore be outlawed. The question of [...]
Somali piracy and the Sirius Star tanker hijack
PIRACY is one of the specialist subjects I cover as a journalist, and the news that a Somali gang has captured Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, laden with crude oil equivalent to a quarter of the daily output of the world’s number one producer, is making the headlines in many major news outlets right now. Viewers [...]
