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In the wake of the court case between Ryanair and the European Commission, one thing seems to have evaded public attention. Part of the controversial subsidy paid by the government of Wallonie to the much-loved Irish airline was supposedly to fund “pilot training”. Funny that. Ryanair are infamous in the trade for a variety of…

In the case of a man who murdered a school teacher and stored her corpse in a unity he hired at a Big Yellow Self-Storage branch in Brighton, a court has handed down a sentence of life imprisonment. The victim’s family are apparently demanding strict controls on porn sites after the revelation that the killer…

Ungodly Politics has an interesting post concerning George W. Bush and the problems of being the only candidate in the election – it’s not as easy as you think! According to updated figures from the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office, which only today posted a final figure on the total number of ballots cast,…

The Commons debate on Hutton has been halted by a group of protestors who call themselves Oxford Citizens for Truth. They moved into the public gallery and chanted “no more whitewash!” until the Speaker suspended parliament for 10 minutes. Hardly surprising on the same day the Independent made itself the first paper to go back…

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, chief scientist of the Pakistani nuclear programme, has made a plea for mercy on national television after being accused of illegally supplying other countries, especially Libya, Iran and possibly even North Korea with advice and even detailed designs for nuclear equipment. AQK is a Pakistani hero, who worked in the 1970s…

As we’re all going to have another inquiry into the intelligence assessments about Iraq, I thought I’d record my feelings as they happened and make some predictions based (I hope) on reason. “The prime minister has announced that there will be a new inquiry into intelligence failures..” (Emotion: Relief/Schadenfreude) “The inquiry will consist of Privy…

We welcome Daniel’s Corner to the exponentially growing blogroll

Apparently our Home Secretary now wants another Terrorism Act that would permit secret trials without juries and with a reduced standard of proof. Supposedly he’d even like to keep the evidence secret from the defence. So – exactly what has happened lately that requires this vast new power grab? Isn’t it the case that the…

I gather from the newspapers that Lord Brocket is one of the people currently taking part in “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!”, as well as John Lydon – John Lydon? John Lydon? This reminds me of something. Now, my lord’s only claim to celebrity is that he is a convict, having done…

The Ranter has been nominated for the Guardian Best Political Blog award! This has caused a hits avalanche and a wave of comments – after all, our Technorati link cosmos page has gone from 10 inbound links to 15 since Saturday (inbound links) and the hit counter is giving off steam. After all, on the…