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A Fistful of Euros Well, it finally happened. Letter number 25 arrived a day after IDS demanded that the plotters move by Wednesday. (not that he had any way of preventing them from writing in after Wednesday, but let that pass) Now we will all have the free entertainment of a Tory election. They aren’t…

BBC NEWS | Business | Crash victims cheer rail overhaul Well, it’s finally happened – Network Rail has renationalised (well, I’m going to admit it even if the government won’t) all maintenance of the railways. The workers’ flag is deepest red… How odd, anyway. Like Christmas coming early for a lot of people. Puts the…

A Fistful of Euros has this article on the slow progress and near-zero profile of the European intergovernmental conference that is currently struggling to agree the final text of the EU’s new constitution. According to another blogger quoted by Fistful, EuroSavant, a tougher and more power-political approach to the Constitution might have been more effective…

George W. Bush or Chimpanzee? Highly amusing link

Ha’aretz story “The Rafah operation, named “Root Canal,” has been underway for 10 days. It involves large numbers of infantry, armor and engineering troops, backed up by attack helicopters. So far the operation has been only partially successful.Three tunnels have been found and demolished. But there is reason to believe that there are many more…

But on the other hand The next crisis bubbles steadily away. How long before a new disaster? I seem to recall saying that having an entirely vacuous brawl with Iraq would take attention and resources off al-Qa’ida and the stabilisation of Afghanistan, and it looks like I was right.

Some good-ish news at last Well, at least an edging back towards sanity. After all, why does North Korea want nuclear missiles? Because of fear. Address the fear and we can address the missiles. Further, recalling George Kennan’s long telegram on the USSR mentioned yesterday, an insecure and repressive state needs to find enemies to…

What really infuriates me about the Tories at the moment is that they are such an abject cluster fuck that no-one is paying any attention to the poisonous cancer of a government we are afflicted with. So the Highways Agency are planning for the possibility of sections of the motorway network jamming to such a…

As the shit storm about Iain Duncan Smith’s wife being paid by the state to be his secretary, after the tax payer was already shelling out £121,000 a year for his salary as leader of the Opposition and he had the services of the party machine to answer his phone calls, brews up, a very…

So – you don’t think this bulletin board posting might be a plant? “Long live China! Long live the Chinese people! ! Long live the Chinese Communist Party! ! ! Long live the Chinese nation! ! ! !”