Media Feeds

A country where parliament has a role in sentencing a journalist to death for blasphemy is hardly likely to be open to the ministrations of one of the greatest liberals in the past few decades.  Coupled with the thought of having to shore up the ailing powerbase of former oil man and Bush placeperson Karzai, I reckon Paddy's had a lucky escape this time, despite his obvious enthusiasm and qualifications for the role he was set up for.

I reckon we may as well pull our troops out of Afghanistan.  If the Afghan government doesn't think they areworking for them the last ting we want is years, perhaps decades, of bogged down forces losing British boys and girls for a country that doesn't want us there.

If "secret rescue" isn't the very definition of "moral hazard" that everyone was talking about a few months ago, I don't know what is.  Not to mention protectionism and special privilege.

Rumour has it that T Blair is looking for yet another lucrative job, this time with Zurich Insurance .

Didn't they create the Proceeds of Crime Act to stop this sort of thing, and when is someone please going to invoke it against the grubby little sh*t?

Meanwhile, another rumour has it that John Prescott has had to settle for getting Pauline to call the numbers at the Hull East constituency Labour party bingo evenings to keep him in doughnuts.

...is good publicity?  Maybe not:

"Jock bottom "

Saturday January 26, 2008
The Guardian

I never thought it would come to this, but I'm starting to feel sorry for that suddenly most benighted of species, the high school jock...He was a God.

Not any more.

Jock-stock has been terribly devalued in the last few years. ...Pity the poor jock. His day is done.

Still, good job this one is a Jock and a wonk, and a Mac user I suppose! 

So Lord "Paddy" Ashdown has apparently accepted the job as UN high representative in Kabul:

The former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, has agreed to become the United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan, a source close to negotiations on the post said today.
"Yes, he has accepted the job," the source told the Reuters news agency, speaking of an agreement between Ashdown, 66, and the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

Ashdown, a former soldier, had been seeking a strengthened mandate for the post, to become more deeply involved in coordinating efforts to combat a Taliban insurgency and guide reconstruction.

Hardly what I would choose as a retirement job.  I guess it's true what they say about old soldiers!  Good luck to him.  I disagree with our presence there, but I can't think of anyone better to try to put it right. 

It is not often that I find myself agreeing with Neil Clark, but I do, and wholeheartedly, on this point he highlights:

(From the Tehran Times )...

Islamic law prohibits production of nuclear arms: Leader
Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN - Iran’s religious leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has stated that the Islamic Republic has repeatedly said that Iran opposes the production and use of nuclear weapons in principle from an Islamic point of view. 

Of course, there'll be some of you respond "well he would say that wouldn't he" but it's something I've long bellieved - it is logically inconsistent with Islam to want to have the means to destroy God's creation so comprehensively as a nuclear weapon would.  So? you say, Pakistan has them...but Pakistan has never been ruled specifically by Islamic clerics.

I for one believe them. 

I admit it...I'm addicted to computer porn!

Whilst sales may not be huge at the moment compared with their previous albums, getting to number one in the charts with an album you first gave away for whatever someone wanted to pay for it must be counted a success. It'll be interesting to see how this affects the way the music industry promotes stuff in future, if it changes anything at all:

Radiohead have topped the US album charts with the physical release of In Rainbows, originally sold via the internet for a price chosen by fans. The album sold 122,000 copies during its first week, displacing soul singer Mary J Blige from the number one spot.

It is the band's second US chart topper following 2000's Kid A, which sold an initial 207,000 copies. Analysts say the relatively modest sales of In Rainbows were due to its earlier high profile digital release.

So much for evidence based drugs policy .  Was there any purpose at all in the government consultation late last year?

Cannabis is to be reclassified as a Class B drug after an official review this spring, The Times has learnt.

Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith are determined to reverse the decision to downgrade the drug when the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs completes its report in the next few months.

While its recommendations are not yet known, ministers are already making plain that the Home Secretary is prepared to overrule the expert body if necessary.

Reclassifying cannabis as a Class B drug will mean that anyone found in possession of the substance could face a five-year jail term and an unlimited fine rather than a police warning and confiscation of the drug. The penalty for supplying would remain the same, at a maximum 14 years in jail and unlimited fines.

And yes, I think I've given up on getting any comment from the new Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary 

I liked this .  I do hate washing up so I might be interested in this, but I wouldn't exactly call the idea an innovation.  For hundreds of years we ate off a "trencher" a piece of think bread used where we now use a plate and eaten afterwards.  And being a Yorkshire lad of course I know they've kept the idea alive with Yorkshire Pudding which are not always those dainty little gravy holders on the side of your plate:

For those who can't stand the washing up, help is at hand with one of the strangest culinary inventions in years - the bread bowl.

The firm expects to be selling naan bowls filled with chicken tikka masala in supermarkets this year

A Birmingham food firm has started making bowls and plates out of dough. The idea is that diners enjoy a soup, chilli or curry, then eat the bowl too.

David Williams, the managing director of Butt Foods, which has developed the idea, admits: "Our banks, our investors all thought we were crackers. But we've now proved them wrong."