More random thoughts for the weekend
An old friend, an inexplicably obsessive cricket fanatic, has just telephoned in a state of high excitement about the collapse today of the fourth Test match between England and Pakistan. My first thought was...
Author: Brian
Shoot them first, pardon them afterwards
The Defence Secretary has emerged from obscurity to pardon WWI soldiers executed for cowardice. This suggests a need to identify other figures from the past who suffered punishments now regarded as unjust and who should similarly be pardoned now [More >>>]
The aircraft bomb plot and Iraq: a fine pair of slanders
The foiling of the UK terrorists’ plot to bomb aeroplanes in mid-air between Britain and the US (still cautiously referred to in the Guardian and elsewhere as the “alleged” plot) has prompted the emergence...
Kamm on Lebanon: full marks
Oliver Kamm’s article (Guardian 18 Aug 06) makes the right points on Lebanon, however controversially. First post in Windows Live Writer [More >>>]
Diary and pictures of a Swan Hellenic Cruise
As promised, or threatened, in a recent Ephems post about the impending demise of the Swan Hellenic cruise line, I have now put a not-too-serious diary of our first and last Swan Hellenic experience...
Hezbollah vs. Israel: who won? No-one, yet
Whether Israel or Hezbollah has been victorious in the last few weeks’ conflict will depend on how much of UN Security Council resolution 1701 is eventually implemented. Either way, Lebanon is the loser [More >>>]
Bibi on proportionality
Israeli opposition leader Bibi Netanyahu wipes the floor with a BBC interviewer on proportionality [More >>>]
More Jottings (with additions of 13 Aug 06)
Still paying our wartime debts to Uncle Sam, and other recent items [More >>>]
Farewell to Swan Hellenic and superior cruising
The impending demise of the up-market, culture-vultures’ formerly British cruise-line, Swan Hellenic, at the hands of its philistine American owner, Carnival Corp., deserves a regretful obituary. But it was always a smug middle-class affair [More >>>]
Israel and that ‘immediate cease-fire’: Bush and Blair are right, for once
Bush and Blair are right about Israel and the demands for an immediate cease-fire. The humanitarian clamour for an instant end to the fighting is misconceived, however widespread. The Israeli response to constant low-grade aggression may yet open up an opportunity for some kind of interim and provisional settlement, but only if Israel is allowed time to build up pressure on Hezbollah to sue for peace. [More >>>]