The Yorkshire Ranter

Washington Post story on conditions in Abu Ghraibh and the internal politics of the Military Police there. “”Detainee care appears to have been made up as the operations developed with reliance on, and guidance from, junior members of the unit who had civilian corrections experience,” Taguba later found. Those members included Staff Sgt. Ivan L.…

I’m not sure I really expressed myself accurately in the last post, so here goes again. I’m beginning to suspect that in the last few years our political systems have been polluted by the possibilities of the networked world. Not that “it’s all the fault of the media” – it’s the fault of politicians. It…

The torrent of filth didn’t stop all week. I didn’t blog – I’m sorry – really because I couldn’t see any useful angle to cover. Torture’s evil. I’m ashamed. That was about it – it’s not very original, is it? Best to wait and let the pressure build….until it has to get out. We have…

The Guardian reported yesterday that the Government wants to introduce an identity card for everyone involved in education. This would carry a Unique Learner Number and a wide variety of information: “such information as a person’s qualifications, course aims, employment situation and possibly income details.” Income details? It gets worse: “The most sophisticated system would…

The Yorkshire Ranter is the only Google result for “the law of goats”. I’m not sure what the nameless netizen from New Zealand was after when they punched that one in, but it nailed my remark that some business types had “all the respect for the law of goats”. I hope they weren’t too disappointed.

So, the US staff sergeant accused of sitting on a prisoner’s head whilst masturbating at a camera has had his lawyer tell the world that he “had not had the opportunity to read the Geneva Conventions before being put on guard duty”. So that makes it all right then? I’m meant to believe that he…

Lord Browne, the head of Britain’s biggest company BP, and the oilman’s oilman has said that his firm has given up on Iraq as an investment. Link Apparently, he believes that the lack of a sovereign and legitimate Iraqi government and the small matter of guerrilla war means that “It’s not obvious to me that…

Frank Maloney, well-known boxing promoter and UKIP candidate for Mayor of London (Doesn’t the sheer crappy populism of that make, as Simon Hoggart put it, your teeth fur over?) has got into trouble by ranting at gay people. He declared that he would not be campaigning in Camden because there were “too many” of them,…

It is reported that a student at New York University spent the last eight months sleeping in the basement of the library at his college because, despite working four jobs and drawing a scholarship, he couldn’t afford hall fees. Students have, of course, a reputation for catlike powers of sleep, and with the best will…

British Spin reports that Hartlepool’s citizens are about to embark on no less than eight opportunities to exercise their civil rights in the next two years. That makes four elections a year – just think of all the leaflets! and tea! and shameless lust for power! Just for added value, they’ll involve Peter Mandelson and…