The Ministry reports on some Tories’ bright idea, a website where people who don’t want to be contacted by canvassers can “sign up” to be taken off their lists. The man behin it, Tory councillor Jeremy Kite, turns up in comments to defend himself. A clue: it seems not to have declared that Tory canvassers…
Read More Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite25 years ago, there was a war on, too. Everyone knows the story – fascist dictator invades forgotten colony in middle of nowhere, stalwart soldiery and jolly Jack Tar kick him out, patriotic rejoicing, vague guilt, and kajillions of words of editorialising ever since. The Falklands War remains an event that badly needs good history,…
Read More Myths of the Falklands: Number 1, CommandSo last week’s mobile-phones-kill-bees screamer front page was bad enough. They ignored all the countervailing evidence and picked out a tiny uncontrolled study carried out in someone’s spare time that neither mentioned the condition they were interested in, nor even attempted to measure how much RF energy they were using. This Sunday, they were at…
Read More The National Inquirer, now fortified with Patrick CockburnWhat would you think if I told you the police had accused 5,000 British citizens of a really unpleasant, despicable crime, the sort of thing where just being questioned is the kind of news that could destroy your family, career, and psyche, that some 39 of them had committed suicide as a result, but quite…
Read More The Next Big Miscarriage of JusticeLast Friday, the Guardian reported that servicemen on leave from Iraq were spending their time camping in a queue at RAF Coltishall in the hope of buying the houses their families lived in before they were sold to the public. It’s another fine achievement of Michael Portillo’s 1996 deal to flog the entire MOD housing…
Read More All the atrocities, and how to take advantageThe Sindy has been getting a lot of blogosphere points for this article, which alleges that a mysterious ailment of bees is caused by “radiation” from mobile phone networks. Nowhere is it mentioned that an identical, and unexplained, condition has been documented as early as 1896, before the invention of radio and a hell of…
Read More The Rays from Outer Space Strike Canary WharfI do not care whether or not the sailors from Cornwall profit by selling their stories. Michael Portillo thinks that it is the worst misfortune to befall the Navy since the Falklands. I disagree strongly. Which ships have sunk? Who is dead? Let’s not be snarky and mention Portillo’s term as Defence Secretary, one that…
Read More I Don’t CareThis tale of Google Earth being used to monitor violence in Darfur, as well as this, raises an interesting point. In his memoirs, Richard Holbrooke tells of how the Bosnian War parties were hugely impressed by the mapping software running on computers the US State Department brought to the conference – they could pull up…
Read More Diplomacy by visualisationSo what did happen with the Ronald Reagan after all? Well, she just called in Pearl Harbour on her way back to the Coast. War Iran a with be will not there. New readers arriving from Making Light/Electrolite are advised to use the “Iran” tag and this AFOE post with real war plans an stuff!
Read More Iran Non-War WatchSomeone decides to rake through the Elf-Aquitaine embers, with the result that 42 persons are sent for by the judge. Including a whole slew of politicians – carrier-grade rightwing thug Charles Pasqua, crooked prefect for the Var Jean-Charles Marchiani, professional president’s son Jean-Christophe “Papa M’a Dit” Mitterand, and slightly surprisingly, Mitterand’s right hand man and…
Read More More updates from the crime beat