Brian Sedgemore, who is retiring from Parliament at the next election, will be sorely missed. His speech during the recent debate on the Government’s proposals for the prevention of terrorism, is a model of passion and clarity. Here is an extract: However, our debate here tonight is a grim reminder Read more…
The UK Government has launched a new website to provide information about IT security. This suggests a somewhat strange idea of what Government is for. The private sector does this sort of thing pretty well – there are lots of websites providing useful and free information about viruses, and there Read more…
Today is my birthday: I am 38. Which is the same age as Carlos Lopes was on April 20th, 1985, when he set the world marathon record of 2h7m12 s. It all just goes on getting better. So far.
The existing powers of imprisonment without trial lapse on March 14. Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, apparently intends to introduce new counter-terrorism legislation to replace them. (The existing laws were heavily criticised by the law lords.) The proposals will give the Home Secretary the power to order that a terror Read more…
Take a trip down memory lane. Mobile PC has compiled a list of the top 100 gadgets of all time. See if you can guess what number one is going to be. (It is obvious to anyone who lives in San Francisco.)
You may not have noticed the footer on every page of this website which allows the use of the content of the site under the creative commons licence. The Creative Commons organisation has announced today that the number of sites linked to one of their licences now exceeds 5 million. Read more…
Steven M Walt – academic dean and Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University – has a long, balanced article in the current edition Boston Review about US Foreign Policy. He concludes: What is needed instead is greater confidence in America’s fundamental Read more…
I tried hard not to comment on the debate about Ken Livingstone’s remarks; but if the Prime Minister thinks it is important enough to express an opinion, I suppose it is open season. First, some facts. Livingstone did not say that Mr Finegold was "behaving like" a concentration camp guard, Read more…
President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo died last weekend. He was Africa’s longest serving leader, taking power in a military coup in 1967 (the year I was born). Eyadema was one of Africa’s strongmen. For twenty years, political parties were banned; and when elections were allowed from 1991, there was electoral Read more…
There is an interesting story on the BBC magazine about a man who has cancelled his broadband because it was too addictive. Sit down to work. Ten minutes in, the new mail icon tempts me from the bottom of the screen. I’ll just check. Nothing like a few juicy new Read more…