Is here, hosted by Trixy at Is there more to life than shoes? A question which goes unanswered, at least explicitly.

It links inter alia to the most important posting former Ambassador Craig Murray has ever posted, even if he says so himself. The subject is Torture and what he says is:

… the clearest statement the government has ever made that it, as a policy, employs intelligence from torture.

"One example is the question of the use of intelligence provided to the UK by other countries. The provenance of such intelligence is often unclear – partners rarely share details of their sources. All intelligence received, whatever its source, is carefully evaluated, particularly where it is clear that it has been obtained from individuals in detention. The use of intelligence possibly derived through torture presents a very real dilemma, given our unreserved condemnation of torture and our efforts to eradicate it. Where there is intelligence that bears on threats to life, we cannot reject it out of hand. What is quite clear, however, is that information obtained as a result of torture would not be admissible as evidence in any criminal or civil proceedings in the UK. It does not matter whether the evidence was obtained here or abroad."

[See] https://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/pdf15/human-rights-2008

Does he make out the case he claims? Not really.

Why? Because as he knows perfectly well, we have to deal with cruel governments we dislike in all sorts of different ways. That’s life. How we process intelligence information we get from them is just part of that wider dilemma, albeit an unusually difficult one.

Which is the more morally revolting, or even downright ridiculous?

To pore carefully over intelligence reports from these governments which you suspect may well have come from torture, yet which look to throw light on possible terrorist attacks against British citizens whom you have a legal duty to protect?

Or to invite the senior representatives of such cruel regimes to a huge reception at UK taxpayers’ expense and gloat over how many of them show up – and then howl indignantly at the hypocrisy of everyone else who deals with them? See Craig’s account of his lavish Queen’s Birthday Party in Tashkent, pp 210-211 in his book Murder in Samarkand, paperback edition.

And so on. Sigh.

Meanwhile this BBRU linked item makes depressing reading in describing the chasm between what is being spent on state education in the UK and the results being achieved. Is it really this bad?

Anyway, the Big News for this site is that I host the Britblog Roundup next week here for the first time.

So anyone who wants to suggest links to lively British blog postings between now and this coming Saturday should send them to britblog at gmail dot com and I’ll do my best to include them.