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Time For Putin
Time Magazine has named Russia's President Vladimir Putin as its "Person of the Year" for 2007.
It's a controversial choice: Even Time's managing editor Richard Stengel admits that Putin "is not a good guy." But it's beyond doubt that the combative Russian leader, set to step down as President in 2008, has done "extraordinary things."
Europe In Action
On December 12th, members of the European Parliament gathered in Strasbourg to celebrate the signing of the "Charter of Fundamental Rights." A small group of Eurosceptic MEPs decided to use this orgy of self-congratulation to make a point about the European Reform Treaty, which had just been signed by heads of government.
They protested that the Treaty was merely a rehash of the EU Constitution, which had been rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. Governments had refused voters a say on the revised Treaty. Protesters held banners calling for a referendum and chanted slogans as the vast majority of MEPs applauded the Treaty's signing.
Here's a video of the protest:
Just days after this video was posted on YouTube, it was mysteriously removed.
This Britain
Further evidence that Britain has gone from Victorian prudishness to licentiousness bordering on depravity in a matter of years: The Times' weblog has an article on £70 butt plugs.
Another story to warm your cockles (or raise your blood pressure) in these cold winter evenings is the news that in some areas, Britain's traditional Christmas Midnight Mass is being held early to avoid drunken revellers storming churches during worship.
Indecent Proposal?
Has Sarko asked Carla Bruni to marry him? Say it ain't so!
Mothers, eh. Where would we be without their wisdom and indiscretion? Only yesterday, President Nicolas Sarkozy's maman weighed into the media frenzy surrounding her son's relationship with former supermodel Carla Bruni, claiming she was a nice enough lass but that she'd had it with brides. No more weddings, Nico, she warned.
And now La Bruni's mother has hit back with her view: Not only is the French President besotted with his new girlfriend's feline charms, but he has asked her to marry him - just two months after his divorce from Cécilia.
Has Sarkozy gone mad?
Airbrushed From History
Old habits die hard, especially if you're a German Communist.
Hardline leftist MEP Sahra Wagenknecht was snapped in a restaurant by a colleague, tucking into a plate of lobster in a Strasbourg restaurant.
Not wishing her voters to see her enjoying a "rich man's dish", Frau Wagenknecht dispatched a lackey to the office of the photographer, who is also a member of the Left Party.
The President And The Supermodel?
Is President Nicolas Sarkozy really dating supermodel-turned-singer/songwriter Carla Bruni, formerly Mick Jagger's squeeze?
Got to hand it to the man if he is.
Cross Words
There has been some interesting debate related to last week's post about a Turkish lawyer who planned to sue Inter Milan football club for wearing a strip offensive to Muslim sensibilities.
Fighting Big Brother
EURSOC has argued for some time that the British government has been equipping itself with the means to create a police state. The removal of ancient freedoms, the unprecedented level and surveillance and the introduction of new forms of hate speech laws may not, taken individually, plunge us into a 1984 nightmare. The current government under Gordon "McBean" Brown is more clownish than sinister. However, since worrying systems of control and thought crimes have been put into place, it is increasingly possible for some future leader to "flick the switch"
Dawkins: "I'm A Cultural Christian"
Scourge of religion and the religious Richard Dawkins says he may be an atheist, but remains culturally Christian:
"This is historically a Christian country. I'm a cultural Christian in the same way many of my friends call themselves cultural Jews or cultural Muslims."
Moscow Culture Club
The repressive government of Vladimir Putin has ordered the British Council to close its offices in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. The deadline is: before Christmas. The office in the capital, Moscow, will be allowed to remain open for the moment.
Radio Free Europe?
A multinational group of broadcasters has joined forces to create a "European Radio Project" funded by the European Commission. Broadcasters such as Germany's Deutsche Welle and Radio France Internationale will produce "informative radio programmes on EU affairs" including daily hard news shows, weekly "magazine" features and coverage of big EU events.
The European Commission insists that the 16 broadcasters will have "full editorial independence" over their programmes: The Commission will subsidise their broadcasts to the tune of €5.8 million a year.
Fan Sues Over "Crusader" Strip
A Turkish lawyer has lodged a complaint with UEFA, European football's governing body, after Italian side Inter Milan played his team wearing strips he claimed were offensive to Muslim sensibilities.
Brown's Army Blues
Britain's Ministry of Defence (MOD) has a wish list.
The Sea Lords at the Admiralty want two new XXL-size aircraft carriers complete with American F-18s. Admiralty House also wants to maintain or expand other elements of the Royal Navy's surface fleet. And add new advanced nuclear-powered submarines. (Seven is the preference).
A Nation Once Again
Remember how the European Constitution was stripped of its constitutional symbolism to take into account British objections? Trappings of nationhood such as the EU flag, national anthem, motto and so on were dropped and federalists admitted they would happily make do with a modest "Reform Treaty?"
Well, the blighters have managed to sneaked them in again. The EU Referendum Blog has spotted the "52nd Declaration" on the Final Act (pdf) which says that 16 EU nations "declare that the flag with a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background, the anthem based on the "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, the motto "United in diversity", the euro as the currency of the European Union and Europe Day on 9 May will for them continue as symbols to express the sense of community of the people in the European Union and their allegiance to it."
Paper Chase
Can anyone tell us why the sentencing of Conrad Black merits front page coverage in every British broadsheet (with the preposterous Independent leading the charge, above)?
Certainly, Black's punishment is a story. But on this scale? Bigger than the appointment of Russia's next leader? One truth of media is that journalists are self-regarding buggers, obsessed with stories about their industry. Another is that they loathe their proprietors, and work themselves into a frenzy of self-righteousness whenever an opportunity arises to see a newspaper publisher upended.
Guantanamo Four "Coming Home"
The government has fought long and hard to secure the release of four British "residents" from Guantanamo Bay. It worked, and now the four are due back in the UK, where a warm media welcome and lucrative speaking tours doubtless await. Except the four have no real connection with the UK.
Big Clubs Spoiling The Beautiful Game?
In the world of English football, the glamour is confined to the Premiership, if you consider footballers buying Aston Martins with a week's wages and "roasting" drunken teens glamourous. The passion, however, is increasingly found in the lower divisions, now labouring under a succession of bizarre and confusing advertiser-driven names.
This tradition of grass roots football is discovering there's a widening gap between the gilt and glitz of the Premiership and the mucky fields of the Championship, or League One, or whatever the geniuses behind lower level football call their divisions now.
Rod Liddle writes on how this often unbridgeable divide is killing English clubs.
It's A Sadness
Depression is considered by many - laymen and psychiatrists and family doctors - as the most prevalent 'illness' of this century.
Standing Up To Mugabe
We've known for a while that our favourite clergyman John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, is a man of principle. We didn't realise he was such a showman, too!
During an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, the Archbishop tore off his dog collar and cut it into pieces, claiming he wouldn't wear it again until Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is "gone."
Here's the clip:
The Iowa Caucuses
EURSOC's US correspondent Chris Timmers has the latest from the US Presidential Election build-up.
Well, well. Isn't it amazing that the more things change the more they...well, change.
Former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee is surging to the top in Republican polls in the Iowa caucuses. His new found support is laid to his connection to religious Americans, especially conservative Christians. In the Iowa Caucus, scheduled for early Jan 08, Mike Huckabee has leapt ahead of Mitt Romney by a greater than 2 to 1 margin of 39 to 17 percent approval rating. Simultaneously, Barak Obama has moved ahead of Hillary Clinton by a 35 to 29 voter approval in the same caucus. What's going on here?
Quote Of The Day II
"With every passing week, Muslim sensibilities seem to become more delicate. Your average “community spokesman” sounds like Mary Whitehouse after sitting through a Derek Jarman film. What a load of old women they are. Still, they’ve got the measure of the BBC."
Damien Thompson on the BBC's latest grovelling apology to Muslims.
Quote Of The Day
"The consistent failure to immobilise criminals properly has been a wicked and sanctimonious betrayal of the working class by middle-class intellectuals, who have dressed up a refusal to spend tax money on the preservation of law and order, especially in poor areas, as compassion and understanding for the working class. It is true that most criminals are working class; but it is also true that most victims, always much more numerous than criminals, are working class. By indulging in anti-prison propaganda, middle-class intellectuals have demonstrated what they really thought deep down about the working class: that is it inherently and ex officio criminal."
- Theodore Dalrymple, "Finally, an admission that prison does work", The Times
One Dead In Explosion In Central Paris
One person has been killed and five others wounded following an explosion at a law office on Paris's boulevard Malesherbes. It is believed the explosion was caused by a parcel bomb. An advocate and his secretary are among the most seriously injured.
President Nicolas Sarkozy had a practice in the building in the 1980s. It is also the headquarters of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation.
Bah Humbug At The Beeb
How about a little parity of esteem?
Christians have greeted news that this year's Christmas Special from the BBC will feature washed-up soap stars and a "glamour model" acting out scenes from the nativity less with not so much dismay but weary resignation at the predictability of the broadcaster's religious output.
2007's Christmas story shifts the action to Liverpool, where asylum seekers Joseph and Mary face a crackdown on immigration by paranoid minister Herodia. You can probably fill in the rest yourself, to be honest, though devotees of sacred music will doubtless look forward to the prospect of the 300-strong cast wandering the streets of Liverpool singing Beatles songs.
Chinese Takeaway
George Smiley would not be pleased. The renowned British fictional spymaster would have been appalled at the recent success of spies from China.
Mohammed Moves Molehill
The Times has a story on a British children's author who has renamed a mole he called Mohammed to avoid a backlash from Muslim fundamentalists.
Big Mouth Struck Before
"England is not England in any real sense of the world. It has been internationalised, and that's screechingly evident wherever you look around the country. The English people are not strong enough to defend their sense of history. Patriotism doesn't really matter any more. So I think England has died."
Morrissey, in a 1992 interview, quoted by The Independent.
US Intelligence Delivers Iran Shock
A breathing space, not a holiday from history
Feel any safer this morning? According to the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), you should do. The report, compiled from work by sixteen intelligence agencies, concludes that Iran had a nuclear weapons programme up until 2003, when it was halted "primarily in response to international pressure."
"Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons programme suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005," the report said.
Iran, which has insisted it has been working on civilian power all along, has welcomed the report.
Quote Of The Day
"When you warn people about the dangers of climate change, they call you a saint. When you explain what needs to be done to stop it, they call you a communist."
George Monbiot in the Guardian.
The Great British Dissident
Morrissey, Burchill and Amis
Morrissey, who faced accusations of racism following an interview with music paper the NME, has his say in an exclusive post on the Guardian's site.
Even though the former Smiths singer gets some good lines, one can't help but feel there is something disturbing about a grown man being so passionate about a magazine aimed at bedwetting teenagers. Perhaps Morrissey should have let his legal counsel do the talking for him - or he should have saved his breath for court, where his one-liners could have been up there with his hero's "He was a particularly plain boy -unfortunately ugly - I pitied him for it."
Morrissey mentions that other great English dissenter, Julie Burchill.
Fever Pitch Federalism
Yet another example of the EU leaping on a solution when the problem hasn't been fully considered. Last week, the EU's justice chief Franco Frattini called for a Europe-wide police force to tackle football violence.
The force - set up within Interpol - could be up and running by next year's Euro 2008 Tournament.
His declaration was backed enthusiastically by UEFA President Michel Platini, who had earlier demanded the creation of a pan-European police to deal with other football-related problems: corruption, money-laundering and illegal gambling, as well as hooliganism and racism.
"Football, as I have said before, cannot deal with this problem alone" said the former French international, "We need the political will from all EU countries to combat this problem."
Chavez Loses Constitutional Vote
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's plans to "rule until 2050" were came unstuck yesterday as his country voted to reject his proposed new constitution.
Chavez loyalists were celebrating victory in the streets before polls closed, but as the results came in, it became clear that the leader of the oil-rich nation, who hoped the referendum would install a "permanent Socialist revolution" in the country, faced his first defeat. Voters rejected the treaty 51-49: Disappointed Chavistas left the streets of the nation's capital Caracas as the opposition - a coalition of student groups and small opposition parties - took over the party.
Belgium: Coalition Talks Collapse
It's not looking good for Belgium. Six months without a government, and on Saturday talks to form a coalition government collapsed
Yves Leterme, the Dutch-speaking Christian Democrat gave up his mandate to lead a government.
Kidnaps And Extraditions
Wonder if any legal-minded readers can shed some light on this one?
According to a report in the Sunday Times, "A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it."
Sarkozy And The Banlieue
A quiet weekend in the French banlieue following last month's rioting. President Nicolas Sarkozy seems to have been lucky this time. Rather than spark a several weeks worth of violence throughout France, the death of two boys whose motorcycle collided with a police car provoked "merely" several days of savage violence in the neighbourhood where the accident occurred.
Sometimes, as a leader, luck is all you need. The lull in violence has allowed some British newspapers to reflect on the rioting and its causes: To read some papers, you'd think those burning schools, libraries and businesses in the impoverished estates of Villiers-le-Bel were engaged in a children's crusade against social injustice.
BBC Man Praises "Good Natured" Calls For Slaughter
Following Friday prayers in Khartoum, a crowd of savages poured from a mosque, some brandishing swords, calling for the death of English teacher Gillian Gibbons, currently serving part of a 15 day sentence for allowing a child to name a Teddy Bear Mohammed.
Luckily the BBC had a man on the scene to report on this display of barbarity: Check out the sound clip: It beggars belief.
There's Life In The Old Girl Yet...
Matthew Parris shares a drink with Lady Thatcher:
"Lunch was exceptionally good, and my friend and I, with conversation of our own to pursue, wouldn't have dreamt of staring at the table commanded by the Baroness, in striking green. But then the head waiter glided over and said: “Lady Thatcher would like to send you a glass of champagne.”
