<< Jul 2009 Michael Jackson was killed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to distract attention from Iran Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 - 12:58 am
The above headline is why I love the internet.
A brilliantly bonkers (spoof) rumour is doing the rounds in the wilder shores of the world-wide web, namely that Michael Jackson was killed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to distract attention from Iran.
Think about it, the "King of Pop"'s death was perfectly timed for the wobbling Iranian regime. Just as reports of its post-election clampdown were provoking howls of protest in the West, and pushing the previously hesitant President Obama to say was "appalled and outraged", Jacko's death sucked media attention from Iran to Bel Air. Even more tellingly, "Michael Jackson RIP" replaced "#iranelection" at the top of Twitter's trending topics, effectively killing off the last hopes of a revolution. The "Shot heard 'round the world" Sunday, June 28th, 2009 - 6:49 pm
Today, as we all know, is the anniversary of the assassination Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo by the young Bosnian nationalist Gavrilo Princip.
This became the justification for events that led to the Great War of 1914-1918.
This was the single most catastrophic event to befall Europe, since the Bubonic Plague of the 14th century.
Strangely enough, there were huge ramifications, an end to empires, the greater emancipation of women, and of course the rise of the Labour Party.
It also puts me in mind of Henry Allingham who celebrated his 113th birthday a few weeks back. Mr Allingham is the oldest ever surviving member of any of the British Armed Forces and the oldest surviving veteran of the Great War. And on the occasion of the first ever Armed Forces Day, our thoughts go to him and all those who served the nation. Sto Lat Krzysztof Saturday, June 27th, 2009 - 10:43 am
Today would have been Krzysztof Kieślowski's 68th birthday had he lived.
The Polish film director directed one of my favourite films as part of his Dekalog series, namely "Krótki film o zabijaniu" or "A Short Film About Killing".
This is as good a film as you'll ever get about the pointlessness and immorality of the death penalty.
A brutal and seemingly motiveless murder brings together a drifter, a cruel taxi driver, and an idealistic lawyer. What's great about the film is that none of the characters are particularly likeable, but the horrors of state-sanctioned murder are laid out bare.
An eye for an eye will eventually leave us all blind, to paraphrase Gandhi. Is it only two years ago? Saturday, June 27th, 2009 - 9:38 am
It's two years now that Gordon Brown has been PM.
Tony Blair resigned two years ago, it seems like a lifetime. Also Ich bin ein Berliner! Saturday, June 27th, 2009 - 8:30 am
I forgot to say that yesterday was the anniverasry of Jack Kennedy's famous speech from the balcony of Rathaus Schöneberg in Berlin, when he said,
"Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner'... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner!'"
Who would have thought that a quarter of a century later, The Wall would have fallen, and that we'd have the privilege of living in a United Europe, where never the spectre of war will haunt us?
I echo JFK's words in saying, "Civis Europaeus sum". The Stonewall Riots-40 years on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 - 8:21 am
Today is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that took place in Greenwich Village in New York.
This event marked the beginning of the Gay Liberation Movement.
Last week-end I had the huge honour of opening Calderdale's first Pride event, at the Piece Hall, the sun shone, there were hundreds of people, dozens of stalls and loads of cabaret acts.
It was brilliant.
I believe that there has been a revolution in attitudes towards gays and lesbians, and that a majority of the public want them to share identical rights to everyone else.
According to a Times poll, 61% of the public want gay couples to be able to marry just like the rest of the population, not just have civil partnerships.
Half believe that gay couples should have equal adoption rights.
But perhaps the most surprising discovery is that more than half of the public want children to be taught in school that gay relationships are of equal value to marriage.
Overall, nearly 70% of the public back "full equal rights" for gay men and lesbians.
I couldn't agree more. Anna Akhmatova Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 - 8:19 am
Today is the 120th anniversary of the poet Anna Akhmatova's birth, and a quatrain from her beautiful work "Requiem" come to mind, as I think of what's going on in Iran.
No foreign sky protected me,
no stranger's wing shielded my face.
I stand as witness to the common lot,
survivor of that time, that place. John Bercow... Who he? Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 - 1:55 am
So after three rounds of voting we now have the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons.
He's promised to be a new broom. Hmm we'll wait and see. All I knew about him was that he claimed nearly £1,000 for the cost of hiring an accountant to complete his tax return, which is odd given that MPs' expenses are tax-free.
The last Liberal to become Speaker, 80 years back, was John Henry Whitley MP for Halifax, which is coincidentally where Calderdale Council, of which I am Deputy Mayor, sits. Iran's Election Fraud Monday, June 22nd, 2009 - 11:50 pm
Interesting paper by Chatham House and the University of St Andrews analysing the voting figures in this month's Iranian Presidential Elections.
Comparing this and the previous elections of 2005, the team come up with some fascinating observations:
* In two conservative provinces, Mazandaran and Yazd, a turnout of more than 100% was recorded.
* If Ahmadinejad’s victory was primarily caused by the increase in voter turnout, one would expect the data to show that the provinces where there was the greatest 'swing' in support towards Ahmadinejad would also be the provinces with the greatest increase in voter turnout. This is not the case.
* In a third of all provinces, the official results would require that Ahmadinejad took not only all former conservative voters, all former centrist voters, and all new voters, but up to 44% of former reformist voters, despite a decade of conflict between these two groups.
* In 2005, as in 2001 and 1997, conservative candidates, and Ahmadinejad in particular, were markedly unpopular in rural areas.
That the countryside always votes conservative is a myth. The claim that this year Ahmadinejad swept the board in provinces that are more rural flies in the face of these trends.
So whichever way you play it the election was STOLEN!
Last week saw the death of two great men and influential thinkers who had a great influence on me.
The first was Ralf Dahrendorf, whose book Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society (1959) argued that Marx defined class too narrowly, rather that power was at the root of differences in class, and so, society could be split up into "order takers" and "order givers".
He was emphatic that basic civil rights, including equality before the law and freedom of expression, must be given constitutional legitimacy. He further argued that peope had a right to ive free from insecurity, that they had education, and that their incomes must not be allowed to fall below a certain level.
Ralf was a member of the German Free Democrats (Liberals), but was ennobled and sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
The second ight to go out, was Peter Townsend, a campaigner for social justice who co-founded the Child Poverty Action Group, and, after the Thalidomide scandal in 1973, co-founded the Disability Alliance.
He was a world-renowned academic and a leading campaigner for social justice. His colossal book, Poverty in the United Kingdom (1979), took 10 years to write and ran to more than 1,200 pages. It is still a classic reference on poverty, which I still use at Bradford University.
May they both rest in peace. Tories... Modest as ever Monday, June 22nd, 2009 - 1:39 am
Oh dear, David (call me Dave) Cameron, presses his front bench to give up as many of their extra-Parliamentary activities and interests as possible, or at least to declare how much they get paid for them, just to show that the Tories are no longer the "Nasty Party".
They're not all posh nobs you know. Yes, some of them have the moats of their second homes cleaned at the public's expense. Yes, some of them spent £1,645 on a floating duck house in their garden pond. Yes, half the front-bench went to private schools. Yes, some of them had jolly japes up at Oxford, a few were members of the Bullingdon Club (think Bertie Wooster, but without the wit, charm, likeability, and certainly not Jeeves).
But apart from that, honest, they're just like you and me.
Along comes the MP for Windsor, or at least his chief of staff, who fires off an e-mail to a magazine for having the temerity to paint his boss as some sort of a pauper, according to the Independent.
"Would you mind taking on board one correction?" wrote Russell Walters. "You say he is worth £13m but this is a significant understatement. Earlier this decade he sold one company... of which his share was £13m, but ... his actual worth is somewhere between £50m and £100m".
I'm glad that's cleared up then.
Ah, plus ça change, plus c'est pareil. Commons Speaker odds at Ladbrokes Monday, June 22nd, 2009 - 12:55 am
The Guardian had a lovely snippet about the odds on the candidates vying to become the next Speaker.
Now I have no faith in using a bookie to predict the outcome, as all it does is tell you how much money people are willing to gamble.
However, what I found most fascinating was that apparently there is 1 Lib Dem, two Labour, two conservative, and FIVE Tories.
Are the days of David Cameron's party numbered? Are they heading for a massive split between the soi disant "reformers" and the good old-fashioned regressives?
I think we should be told.
Commons Speaker odds at Ladbrokes:
2/1 Margaret Beckett, 66, Labour
3/1 John Bercow, 46, Conservative
3/1 Sir George Young, 67, Conservative
8/1 Ann Widdecombe, 61, Tory
10/1 Sir Alan Beith, 66, Lib Democrat
25/1 Sir Alan Haselhurst, 71, Tory
33/1 Parmjit Dhanda, 37, Labour
33/1 Richard Shepherd, 66, Tory
33/1 Sir Patrick Cormack, 70, Tory
40/1 Sir Michael Lord, 70, Tory World's funniest airport names Friday, June 19th, 2009 - 12:10 am
Great story from today's Independent
The weirdest:
Batman Airport (BAL) Turkey
Deadhorse Airport (SCC), USA
Eek Airport (EEK), USA
Moron Airport (OZP), Spain
Ogle Airport (OGL), Guyana
Useless Loop Airport (USL), Australia
The rudest (warning - language may offend):
Brest Airport (BES), France
Fak Fak Airport (FKQ), Indonesia
Fort Dix Airport (WRI), USA
Fukui Airport (FKJ), Japan
Pratt Airport (PTT), USA
Shafter Airport (MIT), USA
The scariest...
Asbestos Hill Airport (YAF), Canada
Crooked Island Airport (CRI), Canada
Danger Bay Airport (DGB), USA
Deception Airport (YGY), Canada
Mafia Airport (MFA), Tanzania
Rifle Airport (IRD), USA
And finally, a little fun with IATA Airport Codes:
BOG – Bogotá Airport, Colombia
BUM – Butler Airport, USA
DIK – Dickinson Airport, USA
DOH – Doha Airport, Qatar
FAT – Fresno Yosemite Airport, USA
KOK – Kokkola Airport, Finland
NOB – Nosara Beach Airport, Costa Rica
PEE – Perm Airport, Russia
POO – Pocos De Caldas Airport, Brazil
SEX – Sembach Airport, Germany Disgusting news from Belfast Thursday, June 18th, 2009 - 11:25 pm
How tragic to see the hunted faces of the 100 Romanians being chased out of their homes in Belfast, by gangs of hooligans.
What was doubly horrible was that it was obvious that these people were Roma and so visibly dark-skinned.
You would have thought that this level of racist xenophobia would be nigh on impossible in a place that is coming out of its own long nightmarish period of "The Troubles".
The positive thing we can take is that nearly everyone else has come out in support of the Roma, the main political parties, the churches, and ordinary decent folk.
There is no room for this sort of thuggery in today's society. Waterloo! I was defeated, you won the war! Thursday, June 18th, 2009 - 10:25 pm
Apart from providing the title for the greatest ever Eurovision Song Contest winners Abba, thirty five years ago, today is the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.
On this day in 1815, the French under Napoleon and Marshall Ney were defeated by a coalition, including Prussians under Blücher and an Anglo-Allied army under Wellington. It was to be Napoleon's last, and put an end to his rule as the French Emperor.
It was decisive inasmuch as it ended the series of wars that had convulsed Europe for more than 25 years, and ushered in almost half a century of peace in Europe; no major conflict was to occur until the Crimean War.
It was one of The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World wrote Sir Edward Creasy in 1851.
More interestingly, it was the subject of a thought-provoking essay by Trevelyan entitled "If Napoleon had Won the Battle of Waterloo", where he argued that Europe would have experienced a period of stability, but England would have undergone a domestic upheaval.
Makes you think. Iran Football Thursday, June 18th, 2009 - 8:31 am
It was heartening to see fans, and at least half the Iranian national football team, protest during the World Cup qualifier against South Korea last night.
The players wore green wristbands, and the crowd carried "Down with the Dictator" banners.
Pity about the result of the match though, Iran drew 1-1, so will not proceed to South Africa next year.
On a positive note, at least the government won't be able to claim credit for the team's success. Fall of the House of (Kitty) Ussher Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 - 9:39 pm
Sad to see that the Burnley MP, Kitty Ussher has resigned as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, following tax-avoidance of some £17k.
Tends not to send a great message for the rest of the country if the Treasury is not shouldering its own responsibilities.
Good news for our candidate Cllr Gordon Birtwistle who has a real chance of retaking the seat for the first time since Philip Morrell won it for the Liberals in December 1910.
Good luck Gordon. News from across the pond Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 - 9:37 pm
Good to see President Obama extending benefits to the same-sex partners of federal government workers.
What a refreshing change after Bush's regressive conservatism. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 - 4:21 pm
Today is the anniversary of the Soweto Uprising in 1976.
On the morning of the 16th, thousands of black students walked from their schools to Orlando Stadium for a rally to peacefully protest against having to learn through the medium of Afrikaans rather than English in school.
The students began the march only to find out that police had barricaded the road along their intended route. The crowd of some 10,000 students began to sing and waving placards saying, "If we must do Afrikaans, Vorster must do Zulu".
The Police tried to disperse the students using dogs and tear gas and eventually they fired shots into the crowd, and pandemonium broke out.
The first person to be shot was Hastings Ndlovu, followed by 12-year-old Hector Pieterson. The photo of his body became a symbol of police brutality.
The rioting continued and 23 people, died on the first day in Soweto.
This was one of the seminal moments in my political education and led me to join the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and the Young Liberals which was led by the young Peter Hain (!). Iran Update Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 - 11:59 am
It seems that at least seven people have been killed near a rally in Tehran. Foreign media have been banned from covering the protests following the deaths. The Guardian Council has promised to hold a recount of disputed votes from the presidential election.
There have been huge demonstrations in support of Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the capital. Happy Bloomsday Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 - 9:49 am
Congrats to Brian Friel on being awarded the Ulysses Medal at UCD, on Bloomsday.
16 June was when James Joyce first went out with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle (cracking name) in Ringsend.
Bloomsday is a celebration of Joyce's life and works, and folk all round Dublin relive the events in the novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in 1904.
The name derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses, after whom Gene Wilder's character in Mel Brooks's "The Producers" was named. Today in Iran Monday, June 15th, 2009 - 10:03 pm
The "defeated" Presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has called for the presidential election results to be annulled. However, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has merely ordered an inquiry into claims of electoral fraud.
This is not good enough, for tens of thousands of protestors who gathered in Tehran, defying a government ban on protests.
There has been news that at least one person has been killed and many wounded during clashes between police and protesters in the capital. We want a "Public" enquiry on Iraq Monday, June 15th, 2009 - 5:07 pm
Gordon Brown's announcement that an independent inquiry into the country's role in the Iraq War will be held in private, is just not good enough.
We Lib Dems want, demand an full open public enquiry. We are not alone in this the overwhelming majority of the public demands it and more poignantly so do the families of the 179 sevice personnel who've lost their lives there.
Iraq has been a terrible "adventure", horribly wrong and catastrphic for the Iraqi people, hundreds of thousands of whom have died and been injured, and millions made homeless or become refugees.
We Lib Dems were the ONLY major party against the war, and I fought Keighley in 2005 on a policy of withdrawal.
We need that full and open public enquiry now. Iran Elections Sunday, June 14th, 2009 - 4:17 pm
News has reached me from friends in Iran, that nigh on 200 people have been arrested following the government's heavy-handed clampdown on opposition supporters.
This is totally unacceptable.
The issue must not fade from international view. Bibi boobs Sunday, June 14th, 2009 - 4:05 pm
First the good news, Israeli PM Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu has said that he can visualise a Palestinian state, this is a first by an Israeli leader, EVER. Hooray.
Now the bad news, only if it has no army or control of its airspace.
Furthermore, he supports continual development of settlements in occupied West Bank.
So one step forward and two steps back.
We Lib Dems support Nick Clegg's call to and end to arming Israel.
We have long supported the Two-State Solution, namely for Israel to revert to its "internationally recognised" pre-1967 borders.
This may be unwelcome to some, but we have Israel's long-term interest at heart, as well as wanting justice for the Palestinian people. Iran election results seem highly fishy! Saturday, June 13th, 2009 - 1:13 pm
The official Iranian News Agency has declared that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been overwhelmingly re-elected President.
The leading challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi is demanding a recount.
Doesn't seem right! Los Angeles, Cannes, Venice... Bradford? Friday, June 12th, 2009 - 1:19 pm
Brilliant news that Bradford, yes that one, has just been nominated the world's first City of Film.
UNESCO has judged it more worthy than Los Angeles, Cannes, and Venice.
Bradford now joins Edinburgh (City of Literature) and Glasgow (City of Music) as part of Unesco's Creative Cities Network.
Congratulations to all involved especially the National Media Museum, the most visited museum outside London, and one of my favourites over the past quarter century. Iranian Elections Friday, June 12th, 2009 - 8:12 am
The polls have opened and voting has started for the presidential election in Iran, there seems to be a real anticipation that Ahmadinejad will lose to Mousavi. I'm voting Liberal Democrat in the Euro Elections Thursday, June 4th, 2009 - 7:37 am
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