Student protests: sorry kids, wait for the old gits
TWENTYSOMETHING blogger Laurie Penny is a self-proclaimed former burlesque dancer. And an erstwhile anorexic. So if you read somewhere that she shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die, remember that the girl has had an eventful life so far. Now Britain’s Oxbridge-educated answer to Dita von Teese has emerged as the Danny the Red of the [...]
Ivory Coast: a crisis in the making
ONE French billionaire alone dominates the economy of the Ivory Coast, I found out while on a journalistic assignment there two years ago. Not only does he control much of the cotton and cocoa plantations in the north, but he owns the railway line that brings these commodities to Abidjan, the country’s the only modern [...]
George Galloway, Tommy Sheridan: don’t fancy yours much
GEORGE Galloway may be the most famous politician in a party called Respect. But ironically, this is not a commodity that is much on offer to sexually liberated women who sleep with his mates. Thus the former MP is 100% certain that the former MSP could not have visited a swingers’ club in Manchester in [...]
The fall of Tommy Sheridan
THAT Tommy Sheridan was the most charismatic and gifted revolutionary socialist politician of recent decades is beyond serious dispute, and I always used to admire him for that. I still do, I suppose. In a period where the left failed to find a widespread hearing, he alone proved capable of building a substantial electoral base for basic [...]
Toppling the government? Sorry Vince, that’s the SWP’s job
VINCE Cable was branded a ‘Marxist’ after taking a tokenistic pop at the City in his last Lib Dem conference speech, and it seems this entirely unwarranted praise has gone to his head. Now he thinks he can bring the government down. No Winter Palaces will require storming in this instance, though. It will be [...]
Who persecutes believers? Other believers
CHRISTIANS are the religious group that suffers most from persecution on account of faith, Pope Benedict XVI argues in his message for Word Peace Day. And when it comes to perpetrating that persecution, religious fundamentalism and secularism amount to pretty much the same thing, he adds. As someone who defends religious liberty precisely on account [...]
What if Superdrug lived up to its name?
WHAT if Superdrug really did live up to its name, and you could pop in and pick up a gram of coke on the way home from work? Why not let anybody nipping into Boots to buy a hot water bottle cover and some Grecian 2000 purchase a bag of own-brand smack while they are [...]
Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly: on the social calibre of suicide bombers
BY WAY of a coda to yesterday’s post, last Saturday’s events in Stockholm and the impending anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike campaign have still left me pondering what kind of people are willing to die for a political ideal, even though their death will bring it no closer. Sue R writes in the comments [...]
Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly: on suicide bombers and hunger strikers
TAIMOUR Abdulwahab al Abdaly managed to go through with a suicide bombing in the purest possible sense of the word. He died in Stockholm on Saturday night; no one else did. Two people were injured. Then again, eight people have today been injured after the rupture of a gas pipe in a Tesco store in [...]
Thrashing royal Rollers: some public relations tips
IT IS entirely possible that the people who smashed up the royal Rolls Royce last night do not have McCann Erickson, Burson-Marsteller or Weber Shandwick on a retainer, and are largely making up their public relations strategy as they go along. And Daily Telegraph commentator Damian Thompson is clearly a man who can spot rank [...]
