The Yorkshire Ranter

Back in January, during the great aviation security flap, I blogged that the flakiness of the arrangements for sky marshals on flights from Europe perhaps suggested that some officials were hoping to accept the scheme but let it fail. It now appears that the US is rowing back on the idea: US ditches effort to…

I’ve been reading Supping with the Devils, Hugo Young’s collected columns, recently. It is sad and astonishing how often he got it exactly right. I am going to ask readers of this blog to guess when each of these major statements were made: 1. ” In the end, it’s a question of how you define…

I don’t think this story has been covered much in the UK, which is a great pity as not only is it good, it is also a fine piece of Ealingesque British farce. Imagine. The former director of the CIA, James Woolsey, snooping around a college in Swansea trying to prove that one of its…

As is now well reported, our MPs recently voted to spend £2 million on building a huge glass wall across the House of Commons, in order to protect them from putative terrorists ensconced in the public gallery. Or perhaps from the justified fury of the citizens, but let that pass. Apparently, this is to protect…

Apparently some people in Washington, DC call their favourite Iraqi, Ahmed Chalabi, “the greatest Arab since Mohammed”. (Link via Talking Points Memo) Mind you, it’s not a front that is going to last, as apparently the Pentagon is going to cut off the old fraud’s monthly $340,000 subsidy. I wonder if they will also take…

The courts have ruled in a groundbreaking decision that a man who can only be named as “DB”, who has been detained without trial or even a reason in the Home Office since 2001, must be released from his duties immediately on the grounds that his ordeal has caused him to develop a psychosis. Sources…

Airport Screeners Do Poorly, Panel Told (washingtonpost.com) Apparently, the TSA’s security screeners miss 2 out of every 10 prohibited items sent through their checkpoints in a test. According to the Post, there was no difference between state-run and private security. Which is no surprise when they hire the kind of people who stick their heads…

Right – is the Ranter now showing normally?

So – it’s official. We are to have a referendum on the European Constitution. And – of course – we are going to vote No. What happens next, no-one is very sure of. This depresses me deeply. After all this time, says Blair, we are going to have the grand showdown argument to whack the…