Posted 3:51 AM by Paul
The V Word

Vietnam. The historical comparisons are now being made not by crazed crypto commies and "I told you so" liberals but by ex-Republican Presidential candidate John McCain. He was a POW for 5 years and tortured by the Viet Cong, so it will be hard to pass him off as a pacifist. McCain says that although things are not as bad as Nam there is a gap between what the administration is saying is happening and what is actually happening on the ground. The famed Credibility Gap.

In some ways the situation is not as bad as Vietnam. The bombers and snipers are well armed but they are not funded by a competing super power. They have no navy and no airforce - which makes you wonder how they were going to deliver the famed WOMDs targeted on Chipping Sodbury.

However, in some ways the situation is much much worse. The Viet Cong could not call on a constituency of 1 billion co-religionists, some of whom are convinced that a short cut to eternal life is a quick death in a car bomb driving out the infidel from the sacred lands of Iraq.

Bush employed an interesting rhetorical device claiming that the upsurge in murderous violence was due to the success the "coalition" was having . Mmmmm....nice try. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw assured us that their were no paralels between Iraq and Vietnam because the "vast majority" of "ordinary Iraqis" supported the coalition forces. Clearly he has set up some focus groups. Or maybe they invited him round for tea. Since the young Jack Straw was a studnet radical opposed to the Vietnam he will be aware that identical claims were made by LBJ and Nixon.

Which reminds me, I am am just re-reading 1984. Anyone for Double Think? Sorry. Got to go. There is someone at the door. It's the Thought Police.

Posted 3:33 AM by Paul
Conservative Party Explodes

Americans Conservatives may be puzzled to read that our UK Conservative Party is about to sack its leader and plunge itself into turmoil once again. Just at the point that Labour are in difficulty over Iraq, taxation and health care. The Conservatives have become a bit of a national joke. One of the BBC radio stations ran a text and e-mail vote asking who should be their next leader. They did not read my suggestion out on air but here it is.

"Tony Blair is already the leader of the Conservative Party. After all he believes in invading foreign countries, privatisation, individualism not collectivism, low taxes, strong law and order and close ties the Republican Party. The Conservatives should just ask Labour to formalise the arrangement by offering a £2m transfer fee."

But there is a serious point. If the nominally Conservative Party falls apart in a country, that does not mean that Conservatism simply disappears. It finds another vehicle. I guess they will just join Labour and fund Blair's faction of it.

As for the party of Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, the dustbin of history beckons. It could happen. As Judge Falcone said on being asked if the Mafia would ever cease to exist.

" It is a human institution. History has shown us that all human institutions wither and die eventually."

He was blown up three days later.

Posted 8:23 AM by Paul
Goodbye Concord - Bonjour Concorde?

Concord took its last commercial flight yesterday. Three planes touched down within minutes of each other. Two excursion flights fulls of excited competition winners were followed finally by the last flight packed with captains of industry and celebrities including Joan Collins - the quintessential jet setter.

Millions of words have already been written about the end of the super sonic era and this symbol of national pride capped I think by the comment from John Cochrane the original Concord test pilot:

"From now on progress goes sideways or backwards."

A number of reasons have been given for the cancellation of the Concord passenger service including the collapse in demand following September 11th. The terrible crash just after the plane took off from Charles de Gaulle airport killing everyone on board also did not help matters, despite the suggestion that the disaster was caused by debris on the runway, not faults in the aircraft.

All this said, even the most enthusiastic Atlanticist would have to concede that consecutive US governments did not help matters. The plane was banned from flying supersonic over the States and for a time was prohibited from landing at several Eastern seaboard airports - because of "noise". Concorde was a very noisy airplane. But less noisy than the US fighter jets, which regularly shatter the peace and quiet of rural Norfolk and for that matter rural America.

In fact, the bans and restrictions were about maintaining US aeronautical supremacy by making life difficult for the UK and France. Later Boeing announced that they would no longer manufacture the spare parts for Concord. This means that the plane would have had its certificate of air-worthiness revoked next month anyway.

"Now guys come on! Throw us a bone here! We are never going to challenge you. Just give us a break. won't you? What about the Special Relationship?"

But no. Concord is gone; the death hastened if not caused by US protectionism and non-tariff trade barriers.

If makes you wonder about the real value of the Special Relationship. A relationship so special, that tariffs on imported UK steel imposed to garner votes in Pennsylvania create unemployment in Yorkshire. More and more the relationship is looking like that between master and servant. Of course, the loyal butler gets invited into the Den for a Bourbon on the rocks after a long day's work. He even gets to loosen his tie and be on first name terms with the master for an hour or so before returning to his duties.

Traditionally, the British are soft on the USA and highly critical of France. Amazing then that the only two truly world class feats of engineering we have been involved in in the last 40 years - Concord and the Channel Tunnel - have been a partnership with the French. Maybe it is time to apologise for the rubbishing we gave them over them not joining the invasion of Iraq and re-commence the Entente Cordiale.

Posted 6:09 AM by Paul
Blair Heart Trouble - A Doctor Writes

As soon as I heard that Blair has suffered heart palpitations I e-mailed the BBC medical report to a cardiologist friend in Madrid to ask for his opinion. Needless to say I didn't take what No. 10 said at face value. Below is the Doctor's prognosis:

La taquicardia supraventricular en gneral (si es aislada y no existe cardiopatia estructural de base) es benigna y solo propuce sensacion de palpitaciones. Si le han realizado una cardioversion "electrica" probablemente se trate de una fibrilacion auricular y hay que descartar 1?) patologia estructural subyacente 2?) predisponenetes (hipertiroidosmo, anemia, STRESS, etc) y en principio tbn es benigna. Lo que pasa es que con lo que "el pobre tiene encima" podra ser recurrente y entonces es mas problematico de tratar porque podria implicar necesidad de anticoagulacion
Cuidarlo!

Roughly translated - No problems - he should get over it - but with all the problems he has on his head there could be a recurrence in which case he would need anti-coagulants.

Posted 2:27 PM by Paul
Ashes Scattered - Carpe Diem

I went back to Sheffield last week to meet up with my brothers John and David and sister Dianne for the scattering of mum's ashes.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but it has been a grim summer for our family. Dianne's fiance died of a rare kidney disease which sets the antibodies against each other a few weeks before mum.

It had started as stomach pains and ended with the collapse of his kidneys. We thought he had pulled thorugh and they might have a few more years together but it wasn't be be. He had a relapse a few days after proposing to Dianne. They were to be wed on the 25th of this month. He was 72 which in the olden days was a reasonable age to die but we all expected him to live for at least another 10 years. He was a fit thin man who played golf, only had the occasional cigar and did not drink heavily. The last time I saw him was at a family meal at a Chinese restaurant where we both commented on the fact that mum looked tired and worn out. I never expected him to die before her.

Through July and August Dianne was running from one hospital to another. It was hell for her. Mum went into her final decline 3 days after Dianne buried the love of her life. We didn't tell mum. So, any hurt I am feeling is as nothing compared to my older sister.

So we scattered mums ashes in a plot where 35 years earlier she had scattered dad's. Mum's ashes felt gritty. I has always thought that human ashes would be like the remains of wood after a fierce fire. Light to the touch and almost silky. But I knew she wasn't there anymore. Her soul had flown. The 23 Psalm and then John and Dave gave a last oration. The final tears and we parted company from mum for the very very very last time. The weather had turned cold as if to usher in the new phase of our lives. Mum had gone and so had the sun. We went for a walk in a park where we had all played together and mum and dad had bought us ice creams. I was the youngest at 47 but we all wanted to hold on to that last bit of our childhood. We didn't want to say good bye.

So. I got back home to London and the bossom of my family. This was a relief. Heather has been my rock througout the sadness and the kids are always a joy.

Time to concentrate on the future, but I still find myself moving towards the phone to ring mum and tell her how the kids are.

Posted 4:26 AM by Paul
American Volatility

Michael Moore has a new book coming out called "Dude, Where's My Country?" and the newspapers over here are full of it. It is sure to follow "Stupid White Men" up the best sellers list. This is good news as it proves my not very original theory that there are a whole lot more Americans who reject the World According to Bush Jr. than you would think if all you did was watch Fox News.

It also proves that there is a market for an alternative voice even if that voice is hectoring, boring and at times inaccurate. I admire Moore's energy and bravery, but he is not a great writer and in many instances he is simply plain wrong. For an example, turn to the chapter entitled "Idiot Nation" in SWM in which you will see a neat table called "Presidential Clip and Carry - List of Leaders of 50 Largest Countries - in order of country's size."

It's part of a very funny indictment of Bush's lack of any understanding of the world outside Texas and Washington. But the table is wrong. It is littered with basic mistakes. Ukraine (230,000 square miles) and the Congo (910,000 square miles ) are listed as being smaller than Italy (120,000 square miles ). A small error but if you are criticising your enemies for having a cavalier attitude to the truth, you have to get this kind of thing right.

I read a few excerpts of Moore's new book which is being serialised in the liberal leaning Guardian newspaper. It followed the format and style of SWM and after a while I put it down due to its patronising tone.

Reading Moore is like being locked in room with a junior high school student who has just found out 35 years too late that US Forces dropped Agent Orange defoliant on Vietnam and thought that this was hot news. The tone of his writing in the parts of the new book that I have read is also very whiney. It seems that every other paragraph is headed

" Did you know that the Bush adminstration...?"

Well the truth is that millions of Americans do know that the US Adminstration is not telling them the truth, but the question they would fire back to his critics is:

" I know what you think but what would you do if you were in power today?"

Moore's style of condescending preaching is what drives so many people into the arms of Right-wing ultra-conservatives. At least Regan never treated the voters like naughty schoolkids. Ronnie may have presided over an economy that saw millions of them lose their jobs but he didn't patronise them. In fact he flattered them.

Saying that the trouble with the USA is that millions of people are not as witty and insightful as Michael Moore, is not a tactic designed to attract widespread approval. In the UK we also have to be very careful when we blame the ills of the world on "stupid Americans". Americans are no more stupid than any other nation. It is just that their stupidty, when it occurs, has far greater consequences than, say, the stupidity of the Belgians.

The UK also has its fair quota of the terminally misinformed. During the Falklands War in 1982 a majority of the respondents to a newspaper poll thought that the Falklands were off the coast of Scotland. Margaret Thatcher thought that we could have our ships off the coast of the islands in 3 days when in fact in takes three weeks. I studied briefly at university with a Spanish man who refused point-blank to believe than Jesus was a Jew.
I recently watched BBC TV politics panel show in which a New Labour appointee claimed that our weakness in not confronting Saddam after the end of the Gulf War had led to the gassing of Kurds at Hallabjah. In fact the gas attacks happened several years before the Gulf War. There was no cause and effect. His statement (either based on knowing deceit or ignorance) was not challenged by the moderator, other panelists or the studio audience. No - the UK has more than its own share of liars, scoundrels and useful idiots.

On the plus, side Moore gives hope to millions of Progressive Americans who hitherto believed that they were alone. For that we should be thankful and maybe I should stop my own whineing. I will never win an Oscar or sell 10 million books.

And one last thing: I am proud to come from a left wing tradition that includes some the traditions of Liberal England. However, in the USA Liberal means weak. The Americans may vote for universal socialised medicine, but they will never vote for something they see as effete and un-virile. US Liberals need to start calling themselves Progressive to latch on to a great American tradition of perpetual modernisation - eyes on the far horizons etc.

Maybe what the US needs is anti Big-Business left wing Southerner who believes that the rich should pay more to help those lower down the ladder climb a few rungs, but who also eats squirrel, shoots bears and listens to C&W.