UK army officer upbeat about Basra
The returning commander of British forces in southern Iraq has claimed that life in the port city of Basra is booming, with house prices soaring, restaurants opening and a wave of immigration of oil-rich Arabs from other Gulf states. The optimistic picture painted by Major General Barney White-Spunner is... [continued]
Basra, Iran... It all comes down to oil 
US acts hawkish over Georgia
US military transport planes began arriving in the Georgian capital of Tblisi yesterday as the White House accused Russian forces of continuing military operations against the Caucusus state in a bid to weaken Mikhail Saakashvili's regime. Russian army units, acting in breach of the terms of the ceasefire brokered... [continued]
Return to the Cold War for John McCain
UK youth drug use soars
The scale of the drug problem in the UK has been revealed as figures released yesterday showed that more than 1,200 children aged under 15 were hospitalised last year for taking illegal substances, almost half as many more as a decade ago. The figure for young adults aged 16-24... [continued]
Whites will be US minority by 2042
Whites are to become a minority in the US by 2042, according to the US Census Bureau, with people describing themselves as Hispanics, Asian, black or Native American increasing from a third now to 54 per cent by 2050. The wave of immigration, which will mirror the rapid influx... [continued]
Dead couple ‘involved in scam’
Two Chinese graudates found murdered in their flat in Newcastle last weekend may have been killed due to their involvement in an internet sports betting ring, police in the north-east are claiming. Zhen Xing Yang and his girlfriend Xi Zhou, both 25, were discovered in their flat in the... [continued]
Eurozone on brink of recession
The European economy is just one quarter away from entering a recession, after figures reoleased yesterday for the three months to June showed a contraction of 0.2 per cent across the 15-country Eurozone. A drop in exports, allied to a strong euro, has curbed groth across the continent, and... [continued]
Gold falls below $800 an ounce
The dollar's recent strengthening in value continued yesterday, as commodities continued to slide, reflecting a general feeling that investment is drying up across all spheres of economic activity. Gold, traditionally the haven of investors in troubled economic times, fell below $800 an ounce for the first time in eight... [continued]
After the six day war
Once again, writes Gerard Baker, the Europeans, and their friends in the pusillanimous wing of the US Left, have demonstrated that, when it come to those postmodern Olympian sports of synchronised self-loathing, team hand-wringing and lightweight posturing, they know how to sweep gold, silver and bronze. As the argument goes, the US and Europe had already laid the moral framework for Russia's invasion by our own acts of aggression in the past decade. It ought not to be necessary to point out the differences between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Mr Saakashvili's Georgia, but for those blinded by moral relativism, here goes - Georgia did not invade its neighbours or use chemical weapons on their people. Georgia did not torture and murder hundreds of thousands of its own citizens. Gerard Baker The Times
Full article: Georgia: Europe wins a gold medal for defeatism
Cyber attack casts new light on Georgia invasion
The historical parallels are stark: Russia's war on Georgia echoes events in Finland in 1939, Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, says Mikheil Saakashvili. Perhaps this is why so many eastern European countries, which suffered under Soviet occupation, have voiced their support for us. Russia's leaders see us as a threat because Georgia is a free country whose people have elected to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community. Since our democratic government came to power after the 2003 Rose revolution, Russia has used economic embargoes and closed borders to isolate us, and has illegally deported thousands of Georgians. It has tried to destabilise us politically with the help of criminal oligarchs. It has tried to freeze us into submission by blowing up vital gas pipelines in midwinter. When all that failed to shake the Georgian people's resolve, Russia invaded. Mikheil Saakashvili The Guardian
Full article: Moscow can't be trusted
Alexander Cockburn: Georgia's loss in John McCain's gain
Prince Charles and the Indian poor
Prince Charles would argue that he is motivated by a concern for humanity – and I don't doubt his sincerity or passion, says Dominic Lawson. Still, it was shocking to hear this multi-millionaire Gloucestershire organic farmer denouncing India's "Green Revolution" – the plant-breeding precursor to GM pioneered by Norman Borlaug. It was these techniques that saved millions in the sub-continent from the famines which slaughtered so many of their ancestors, and for which Borlaug received a Nobel Prize. I can do no better than quote Professor Borlaug's remarks about those who denounced his work as destructive of traditional methods: "They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 50 years, they'd be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things."
Dominic Lawson The Independent
Full article: The Prince is entitled to his views – but not his ignorance
Calls to evacuate the North
Policy Exchange – "David Cameron's favourite think tank" made the recommendation that northerners living in such towns as Scunthorpe, Sunderland, Bradford, Hull and Liverpool should move south to suburban strongholds such as Surbiton, notes Michael Brown. Local newspapers all over the North have been making hay. Hopefully Mr Cameron might tell Policy Exchange that to win power he has to win seats in the North. They might also be told that even northerners have votes. The trouble with all this is that it risks reviving the gossip that Mr Cameron seemed to have laid to rest – about the metropolitan set that surrounds him and his supposedly elitist background. One can imagine politically bankrupt Labour MPs using this as the last throw of the dice to save a few hundred votes in keenly contested constituencies.
Michael Brown The Independent
Full article: Forget friends like these, David
Nordic conformity
In Scandinavia, writes Madeleine Bunting, consumerism is a direct challenge to the ingrained self-restraint of countries whose grinding peasant poverty is only at a couple of generations' remove. As the author Andrew Brown points out, credit cards were only allowed in the late-90s. Such restriction on personal freedom was regarded as legitimate to achieve general social wellbeing. Central is the concept of jäntelagen, adds Brown, defined as the "Scandinavian code of egalitarian conformity which absolutely forbids anyone to feel superior to their neighbours". It's an astonishing contrast to the UK where increasingly it can seem that superiority - and the struggle to achieve it - is the dominant social currency of every type of human interaction, from the rat race of corporate bankers to the knife crime of inner cities. Madeleine Bunting The Guardian
Full article: We may admire the Nordic way, but don't try to import it
In Brief
Byelection dilemma
Delaying a byelection goes against current Labour instincts about such matters, which are haunted by the loss of Brent East to the Liberal Democrats in 2003. Going early maximises your own control, minimises your own weaknesses, denies your opponents time, and, if you lose, it gets the bad news out of the way. Martin Kettle The Guardian
Full article: Go early and take the hit - or go late and risk a knockout?
The Mole: MP's death is another nightmare for Brown
Anti-education
During my daughter's last two years at school there has been no room for open-minded inquiry, the excitement of the unexpected discovery or serendipitous connection. Instead she can recite how many marks each question is worth and what arguments she needs to spew out in order to score them.
Anne Perkins The Guardian
Full article: A-levels: elitism for everyone
The cost of Cymraeg
Even though the most die-hard Welsh conversationalists can get by in English, visitors to the website of the British Transport Police can choose between the two languages, as if some difficulty exists. There is an option to click on English and another for Cymraeg. It is interesting to consider what coppers consider money well spent. Martin Samuel The Times
Full article: Police plan won't win the community shield
The best TV show ever made
The Wire is the best, most moving, often funniest and most constantly surprising show ever made, and you know something unusual has been achieved when your sympathies are entirely engaged with a heroin-addicted police informant or a violent murderer who makes his living robbing and killing drug dealers. There is nothing like it in the world. Philip Hensher The Independent
Full article: What scandal lurks behind 'The Wire'?
The Wire: when TV goes underground
Fatness and fulfilment
Those who lead us, who are in the public eye and are generally admired and followed – who lead satisfying lives, in other words – are rarely, if ever, obese. It is those who are further down the social scale who are likely to be overweight. Fatness is an expression of low-grade alienation, a lack of fulfilment and power. Terence Blacker The Independent
Full article: How to make obese people feel a bit better
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