alfa.org.uk

Pakistan cartoon violence spreads. This headline gives me images of crowds of Pakistanis all fighting Tom’n'Jerry style - using ACME dynamite and the like :-)

There’s been a lot in the news about Google’s decision to provide “search” technology to China. I think there are two URLs that really sum up the issue:

http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen

http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen

Quite, quite terrifying.

The BBC is reporting that Hamas had been invited to form a government by Mahmoud Abbas. This is all highly ironic.

The Americans spent years while Yasser Arafat was President trying to wrest power away from him and into the hands of the Palestinian parliament, which at the time was weak compared to the powerful president.

They succeeded eventually, and by the time of Arafat’s death the parliament had much greater powers than it had had previously.

However, now the situation is reversed. Mahmoud Abbas is the moderate President which America wants to deal with, and the parliament is controlled by Hamas, whose stated main aim is the destruction of Israel. Maybe America wishes they’d never pushed for the increase in power of the parliament.

America has claimed that the ballot box is a panacea - “give the people a vote and freedom will triumph”. Well, the Palestinians have had their vote, and America doesn’t like the outcome.

How are they going to respond?

There’s a typically brilliant article on Bruce Schneier’s website about the reporting of terrorism in mainstream media. It includes this gem:

“One of the things I routinely tell people is that if it’s in the news, don’t worry about it. By definition, “news” means that it hardly ever happens. If a risk is in the news, then it’s probably not worth worrying about. When something is no longer reported — automobile deaths, domestic violence — when it’s so common that it’s not news, then you should start worrying.”

Hear hear.

A few random thoughts on election day:

1. I wonder how many people noticed that the BBC used Radiohead’s Electioneering as the background music to one of their news items the other day.
2. I see the BBC have a helpful Guide To Voting on their website today. I wonder how many people there are that are a) stupid enough to not know how to vote, and b) intelligent enough to know how to use a computer and the internet.

I voted before work, for what it’s worth. Frankly, the chances of Labour losing Southampton Test (Alan Whitehead, majority 11,207) are remote at best. However, as I was looking at my ballot paper to double-check I hadn’t accidentally voted for UKIP I had an idea…

At the moment, ballot papers have a list of candidates on the left-hand side, and a row of boxes on the right. You place an ‘X’ next to the candidate of your choice. This is far too simplistic.

What I want is a list of candidates on the left-hand side, and a list of the parties on the right, in a random order. To vote for a candidate you have to draw a line, correctly connecting their name to the name of their party.

That’d sort things out (well, that and proportional representation).

A passionate final speech from Brian Sedgemore MP.

How on earth did a Labour Government get to the point of creating what was described in the House of Lords hearing as a “gulag” at Belmarsh? I remind my hon. Friends that a gulag is a black hole into which people are forcibly directed without hope of ever getting out. Despite savage criticisms by nine Law Lords in 250 paragraphs, all of which I have read and understood, about the creation of the gulag, I have heard not one word of apology from the Prime Minister or the Home Secretary. Worse, I have heard no word of apology from those Back Benchers who voted to establish the gulag.

Have we all, individually and collectively, no shame? I suppose that once one has shown contempt for liberty by voting against it in the Lobby, it becomes easier to do it a second time and after that, a third time. Thus even Members of Parliament who claim to believe in human rights vote to destroy them.

… I will mention the two who have been with me, in Opposition and in government in the same jobs every step of the way.

Gordon and John, the one a personal friend for 20 years and the best chancellor this country has ever had and the other the strongest, most loyal deputy any leader could ever wish for.

What’s the old phrase? “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”, isn’t it? ;-)

I’ve always liked Andrew Marr.

I used to know someone who fancied him though. That’s just weird.

One of the more coherent pieces of writing about how Western foreign policies of the last 100 years produced Al Quaeda, and what the movement’s overall objectives are.