Well I've searched the interweb high and low for evidence of his claims and all I can find is a picture of a single western middle aged man showing him the love he clearly craves:
28 February 2011
Gaddafi claims his people love him
Libyan dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi has told the BBC that all his people love him and there are no demonstrations in Tripoli.
Well I've searched the interweb high and low for evidence of his claims and all I can find is a picture of a single western middle aged man showing him the love he clearly craves:
Well I've searched the interweb high and low for evidence of his claims and all I can find is a picture of a single western middle aged man showing him the love he clearly craves:
The wonders of Irish democracy
On Saturday I briefly managed to watch a bit of the Irish election count courtesy of RTE and BBC Parliament. And what a joy it was too.
For a start it had none of the ridiculous computer graphic metaphors or useless celebrity comment so beloved of the BBC in recent elections (unfortunately occuring under the watch of Craig Oliver - now No10's chief spin doctor). And secondly the reports from the counts had a supercharged intensity that UK counts just don't have (even in the marginals).
Because in Ireland ultimately every seat is marginal and every preference counts all the parties and candidates have something to play for (at least at the start) and it's where the transfers go that is the most fascinating.
The party of 'Dev' - possibly one of the most odious politicians to infest the British Isles - got the drubbing it probably deserved decades ago. Whether Fianna Fail can come back must be in doubt given Irish voters were more happy to transfer to a rag bag of trots, crooks and terrorist sympathisers than to their traditional party of government.
Fina Gael have an almost equally murky history but with a slightly more heroic figure of Michael Collins in their past. And despite their leader's Enda Kenny's realistic assessment of the country's outlook today I still can't get away from the feeling that Ireland's political and economic problems are unlikely to be solved by another party that harks back to the struggle to free their country from the British imperial yolk in the dying days of the last majority Liberal government in the UK.
But regardless of Ireland's long term future they certainly can teach us how to run properly democratic and engaging elections. And I now see why Labour are running scared of political reform, because they like Fianna Fail were just as toxic in 2010. The fact they got away with holding two thirds of their seats - rather than a quarter - is due to our outdated and unfit voting system. An STV election in the UK in 2010 would have seen Labour getting the drubbing it deserved. It held dozens of seats on a mere plurality vote with the electorate unsure how best to use its only vote to unseat them.
STV would have exposed their true weakness to a wider audience - just as it did for that other political dinosaur on the other side of the Irish Sea.
For a start it had none of the ridiculous computer graphic metaphors or useless celebrity comment so beloved of the BBC in recent elections (unfortunately occuring under the watch of Craig Oliver - now No10's chief spin doctor). And secondly the reports from the counts had a supercharged intensity that UK counts just don't have (even in the marginals).
Because in Ireland ultimately every seat is marginal and every preference counts all the parties and candidates have something to play for (at least at the start) and it's where the transfers go that is the most fascinating.
The party of 'Dev' - possibly one of the most odious politicians to infest the British Isles - got the drubbing it probably deserved decades ago. Whether Fianna Fail can come back must be in doubt given Irish voters were more happy to transfer to a rag bag of trots, crooks and terrorist sympathisers than to their traditional party of government.
Fina Gael have an almost equally murky history but with a slightly more heroic figure of Michael Collins in their past. And despite their leader's Enda Kenny's realistic assessment of the country's outlook today I still can't get away from the feeling that Ireland's political and economic problems are unlikely to be solved by another party that harks back to the struggle to free their country from the British imperial yolk in the dying days of the last majority Liberal government in the UK.
But regardless of Ireland's long term future they certainly can teach us how to run properly democratic and engaging elections. And I now see why Labour are running scared of political reform, because they like Fianna Fail were just as toxic in 2010. The fact they got away with holding two thirds of their seats - rather than a quarter - is due to our outdated and unfit voting system. An STV election in the UK in 2010 would have seen Labour getting the drubbing it deserved. It held dozens of seats on a mere plurality vote with the electorate unsure how best to use its only vote to unseat them.
STV would have exposed their true weakness to a wider audience - just as it did for that other political dinosaur on the other side of the Irish Sea.
26 February 2011
24 February 2011
Peter Hain claims 'nobody cosied up' to Gaddafi
So he says on tonight's Question Time
So if this was the case it would be unlikely there would be any evidence of a UK Labour politician warmly embracing said brutal dictator or indeed selling him lots of weapons.
So if this was the case it would be unlikely there would be any evidence of a UK Labour politician warmly embracing said brutal dictator or indeed selling him lots of weapons.
23 February 2011
22 February 2011
Labour's smear of Miriam Clegg shows their panic over Blair and Gaddafi
A Labour MEP has written to Nick Clegg trying to implicate Miriam González Durántez in lobbying on behalf of the Gadaffi government.
It's pure Labour smear - straight from their playbook. I have a copy of the official advice from Labour called 'Beating the Liberals - lessons from Lambeth'. In it it gives Labour campaigners the following advice:
"Find one flaw and smear them all. Go negative until swamped by complaints. Then do it again."
Labour know that if the revolution in Libya is successful then the likelihood is that official documents over the roles of Blair and Brown in the rapprochement of the odious Gaddafi, oil deals and the Magrahi release will come out.
The smear is a simple distraction from the big picture that shames Labour and one that they are clearly achingly embarrassed by. Which is why I'm reproducing it again.
It's pure Labour smear - straight from their playbook. I have a copy of the official advice from Labour called 'Beating the Liberals - lessons from Lambeth'. In it it gives Labour campaigners the following advice:
"Find one flaw and smear them all. Go negative until swamped by complaints. Then do it again."
Labour know that if the revolution in Libya is successful then the likelihood is that official documents over the roles of Blair and Brown in the rapprochement of the odious Gaddafi, oil deals and the Magrahi release will come out.
The smear is a simple distraction from the big picture that shames Labour and one that they are clearly achingly embarrassed by. Which is why I'm reproducing it again.
Playgrounds are not a children's right
An interesting if somewhat lighthearted story was covered by the beeb this morning. It involves a 10 year old boy's campaign for a playground in his village of Barton on the Sea.
He seems to have upset the mainly elderly villagers who not unnaturally point out the village has a meadow repleat with stream and trees.
Now I'm fully aware of the attraction of the swings for small boys, being the proud owner of three such scamps, but they are equally (if not more) happy running around, getting wet and climbing trees. As a convinced urban dweller I find it somewhat incongruous that swings are a necessary part of growing up in rural areas.
But what annoyed me most was 10 year old Ellis telling the BBC that 'playgrounds were a children's right'. They're not and never have been. They're not even an essential part of growing up.
Sadly I fear 13 years of Labour's conflation of rights, responsibilities, entitlements and access to services has left young people with little sense of perspective and unrealistic expectations about what can and should reasonably be provided to them by the state.
He seems to have upset the mainly elderly villagers who not unnaturally point out the village has a meadow repleat with stream and trees.
Now I'm fully aware of the attraction of the swings for small boys, being the proud owner of three such scamps, but they are equally (if not more) happy running around, getting wet and climbing trees. As a convinced urban dweller I find it somewhat incongruous that swings are a necessary part of growing up in rural areas.
But what annoyed me most was 10 year old Ellis telling the BBC that 'playgrounds were a children's right'. They're not and never have been. They're not even an essential part of growing up.
Sadly I fear 13 years of Labour's conflation of rights, responsibilities, entitlements and access to services has left young people with little sense of perspective and unrealistic expectations about what can and should reasonably be provided to them by the state.
21 February 2011
A reminder of Labour's ethical foreign policy...
As usual Cicero sums up perfectly.
And contrition is clearly not in Labour's lexicon. Having seen Douglas Alexander on Newsnight, his argument consisted of 'George W told us to do it', 'war on terror' and 'balistic missiles'. Robin Cook will be birling in his grave.
18 February 2011
Today is a good day for liberals
Lots of good liberal things happened in the last 24 hours - all of which have been highlighted elsewhere by bigger and better bloggers than me. And my view is that there's not much point in simply aping someone else's view. So I'm happy to leave the grown up stuff to the others (some of whom you can catch on my favourites over here --->)
Tonight I'm sticking to celebrating with a good tune with some lyrics that sound vaguely appropriate...
Mike Flowers Pops cover
Tonight I'm sticking to celebrating with a good tune with some lyrics that sound vaguely appropriate...
Mike Flowers Pops cover
15 February 2011
Some questions for Linda Jack (and Richard Grayson)...
Linda Jack is a high profile Lib Dem blogger and former PPC. She is one of eight quislings led by former think tank chief Richard Grayson who have agreed to help Labour write their new policies (the party having junked everything it stood for last May).
The policy review is being run by the egregious Liam Byrne - the man who sarcastically left a note to his successor as Chief Secretary to the Treasury saying 'sorry, there is no more money.'
Linda has a background in teaching and youth work and proudly proclaims on her blog that she is 'motivated by injustice of any kind'. She justifies her reasons for collaborating with Labour's Byrne led policy review as follows: 'if I can influence ANYONE who has the potential to change things for the better and improve the life chances of our children and young people I WILL DO SO - end of!!!!!'
This aim to influence obviously includes Byrne - who crawled out of a sewer and scraped to victory in the Hodge Hill by-election in 2004 after one of the most disgracefully 'Woolasesque' negative anti Lib Dem campaigns ever.
Byrne's campaign described teenagers as 'yobs' and 'louts' and attacked the Lib Dems for (and I am not making this up) 'not taking any action until they've committed a crime'.
Link
But not content with criminalising innocent teenagers for just being young, Byrne was sure asylum seekers needed to be picked on as well.
He issued a leaflet attacking the Lib Dems on asylum seekers. He claimed the Lib Dems had plans to give handouts to 'failed' asylum seekers on the simple justification that the party had voted against the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. An act that withdrew benefits from families, made provisions for detention (no doubt including children), finger printing and other kneejerk right-wing victimisation of people seeking sanctuary.
Just in case you think his campaign couldn't get much lower, he issued a leaflet implying the Lib Dem candidate, Nicola Davies, had given up and calling for her to 'stay and fight'. It is of course an electoral offence going back to Victorian times to issue a false statement about the withdrawal of another candidate and one suspects if Davies had the gumption of Elwyn Watkins, Byrne may well have faced the same fate as his soulmate Woolas.
If you can bear it - a selection of Byrne's 'progressive' leaflets can be found here.
The delightfully monikered 'Lindylooz' claims she isn't in bed with Labour - she's just sitting on it
Well I wouldn't darken his doorstep - let alone sit on his bed.
The Grayson eight - including Jack - need to get real. They are being hoodwinked by some of the nastiest operators in UK politics. If they want to engage with centre left pluralists - there are plenty in think tanks like the IPPR who have the ear of the Labour leadership. There is no need to engage directly with the likes of Byrne.
Unless you are setting out to deliberately embarrass the party.
The policy review is being run by the egregious Liam Byrne - the man who sarcastically left a note to his successor as Chief Secretary to the Treasury saying 'sorry, there is no more money.'
Linda has a background in teaching and youth work and proudly proclaims on her blog that she is 'motivated by injustice of any kind'. She justifies her reasons for collaborating with Labour's Byrne led policy review as follows: 'if I can influence ANYONE who has the potential to change things for the better and improve the life chances of our children and young people I WILL DO SO - end of!!!!!'
This aim to influence obviously includes Byrne - who crawled out of a sewer and scraped to victory in the Hodge Hill by-election in 2004 after one of the most disgracefully 'Woolasesque' negative anti Lib Dem campaigns ever.
Byrne's campaign described teenagers as 'yobs' and 'louts' and attacked the Lib Dems for (and I am not making this up) 'not taking any action until they've committed a crime'.
Link
But not content with criminalising innocent teenagers for just being young, Byrne was sure asylum seekers needed to be picked on as well.
He issued a leaflet attacking the Lib Dems on asylum seekers. He claimed the Lib Dems had plans to give handouts to 'failed' asylum seekers on the simple justification that the party had voted against the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. An act that withdrew benefits from families, made provisions for detention (no doubt including children), finger printing and other kneejerk right-wing victimisation of people seeking sanctuary.
Just in case you think his campaign couldn't get much lower, he issued a leaflet implying the Lib Dem candidate, Nicola Davies, had given up and calling for her to 'stay and fight'. It is of course an electoral offence going back to Victorian times to issue a false statement about the withdrawal of another candidate and one suspects if Davies had the gumption of Elwyn Watkins, Byrne may well have faced the same fate as his soulmate Woolas.
If you can bear it - a selection of Byrne's 'progressive' leaflets can be found here.
The delightfully monikered 'Lindylooz' claims she isn't in bed with Labour - she's just sitting on it
Well I wouldn't darken his doorstep - let alone sit on his bed.
The Grayson eight - including Jack - need to get real. They are being hoodwinked by some of the nastiest operators in UK politics. If they want to engage with centre left pluralists - there are plenty in think tanks like the IPPR who have the ear of the Labour leadership. There is no need to engage directly with the likes of Byrne.
Unless you are setting out to deliberately embarrass the party.
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