Iraqi employees: suddenly they’re everywhere. On the front of the Times. In its leader. On the main news. On BBC Radio 5 Live. In Ming Campbell’s talking points. In Gordon Brown’s inbox. Even here. You might almost think there was some sort of campaign going on. Now, there’s more; video. There’s also a useful sidebar…
Read More Roll Bandwagons, Roll!British withdrawal from southern Iraq is now in the foreseeable future, with the concentration at Basra Air Station, the impending closure of Basra Palace PJCC, and the departure of the first 500 troops. Therefore, it is high time to consider the fate of Iraqis who took our side during the occupation. Denmark, whose government originally…
Read More Resist the betrayalIn case you’re wondering what the fuss is about, the Daily Hell is trying to get Owen Barder fired from the DFID for saying rude things about George Bush and Margaret Thatcher and nice things about Neil Kinnock. Rather, they’re trying to get him fired for quoting rude things about George Bush, not erasing a…
Read More Slightly less intemperate responseAlexander Harrowell asserts copyright over any and all content on this site. It may be reproduced with his permission, which will under no circumstances be granted to any Associated or Daily Mail & General Trust publication, ever. Further, the operator of the weblog “UK Daily Pundit” is hereby refused permission to link to or quote…
Read More Special notice to Associated Newspapers, DMGT staff“Whoever dared paint markings on a plane’s wing was a swine,” said one of Pierre Clostermann’s comrades the night of the 8th of May, 1945. Latest reports from Sudan suggest you can do pretty well painting them out, too. The Sudanese government has been caught using various Antonov-26 aircraft to bomb villages in Darfur, having…
Read More Desert ViktoryFrom my hometown newspaper’s 75 years ago column, last week: There was the most hilarious party in Ilkley on Saturday night. It was described as a “poverty party” and a gathering of about 20 people assembled in a well-known house with their shabbiest garments, sat about on orange boxes and chairs without backs, with tallow…
Read More I’ve been to a marvellous party..The next big miscarriage of justice makes it to the BBC. Great. But this is impressively dishonest from Jim Gamble, former supercop and head of the Home Office’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre: He also defended the record of the operation and told the Radio 4 programme that more than 90% of the individuals…
Read More Jim Gamble: no integrity at allEveryone’s vexed (h/t to Dan Hardie) about the spankin’ new city academy in Peterborough that, courtesy of Perkins Engines, will be offering education with a total ban on “unstructured play”. It’s the most expensive state school ever built at £46.4 million, but hey! Perkins put up all of £2 million out of that, always assuming…
Read More Libraries gave us powerSo Lord Browne is gay. Who knew? Well, I did, simply because people have googled and hit this site at a rate of 20 a day since March, 2004. Think digital privacy doesn’t matter? Think again. But let’s ask another question. Back in 2005, BP killed a dozen workers at its Texas City refinery, in…
Read More MoralityAll you need to know about Gordon Brown is contained in this story in the Financial Times. Specifically, this response to criticism of his decision to fund the 2% tax cut for basic rate income tax payers by extending the basic rate downwards: The Conservatives argue, of course, that the complex set of income tax…
Read More Gordon Brown: no better