Freedom and democracy must be defended
Times’ columnist Oliver Kamm backs Tony Blair’s call for Britain to maintain an interventionist foreign policy.
The greatest threat from US policy towards the world is not an excess of intervention but that there is too little of it, too late. There are few issues in international affairs that would not benefit from greater US involvement. [...]
Why failure is still not an option
At Kennedy Space Center in Florida a tee-shirt is on sale, bearing the legend “Failure is not an option”. The phrase dates from the time of Apollo XIII, when the staff of Mission Control at Houston refused to countenance the possibility that they might not bring their astronauts home alive. That was in another era, [...]
David Ervine
The sudden death of David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, has drawn tributes from across the political spectrum in Ulster, from Sinn Fein to the DUP, from Tony Blair and from Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. All of which is quite remarkable for a former paramilitary with the Ulster Volunteer [...]
Natalie Solent on Saddam, Mussolini and, er, Blair
An interesting piece from Natalie Solent compares the treatment of Saddam Hussein in his final moments with that dished out to Mussolini, who was hung from a lamppost alongside his mistress Clara Petacci, after having been shot by Communist partisans. One of the differences between Saddam’s end and that of Mussolini was that the [...]
Saddam’s Execution
It has to be said that even though Saddam Hussein was clearly one of the most evil men of the twentieth century, he nevertheless went to his death bravely and with dignity. This latter quality, at least, eluded some of those in attendance at the execution, as the whole world now knows. [...]
Land of the Free
Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance has put out a press release with the following helpful warning for gay smokers:
We note with some amusement that in Tony Blair’s New Britain, a man may sodomise a schoolboy in a public lavatory, and the police must look the other way; but if he gives [...]