Greetings, Guido readers. Back in late 2005 Guardian prima columnista Polly Toynbee was urging the case for Gordon Brown to replace Tony Blair: From now on, the economy will turn upwards and there is no need for Labour to panic – yet, of course, they will. Faced with bad polls, […]
The Times has two noteworthy pieces on Georgia and its ramifications today. Bronwen Maddox weighs in on the EU’s defiant chihuahua-like stance: … even though the EU should rightly settle for the lowest common denominator on such important questions of its own identity, the proposals were weak beyond parody. “The Union […]
This article by Bruno Waterfield and the leaked EU report about the way the No campaign successfully mobilised public opinion via the Internet to bring Ireland reject the Lisbon Treaty are fascinating on many levels. Note especially the Euro-lamenting that traditional media outlets are facing many new forms of competition and therefore […]
Analysis/comment on Georgia/Russia gushes out. EU leaders meet tomorrow. Hence we have the latest UK positions as described by Foreign Secretary David Miliband and (today) Prime Minister Gordon Brown. These senior British statements are both alas inelegantly drafted. Who is preparing these texts for our leaders – and are they themselves […]
Welcome Instapundit readers. David Miliband puts forward the best available case for why the Kosovo precedent has no bearing on the Georgia case: Some argue that Russia has done nothing not previously done by Nato in Kosovo in 1999. But this comparison does not bear serious examination. Leave to one […]
Russia has responded ingeniously to the argument that its forces should leave Georgia – by redefining Georgia! Having announced that Russia recognises the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, Moscow now can say that its troops on the ground in these territories are no longer in Georgia. Howzat? As and when needed […]
Foreign Secretary David Miliband spells out the UK position on Georgia: The Georgian crisis is about more than vital issues of humanitarian need and rule of law over rule of force. It raises a fundamental issue of whether, and if so how, Russia can play a full and legitimate part […]
An interesting pair of Ambassadorial letters to newspapers have appeared in recent days. First, HM Ambassador in Poland Ric Todd wrote in July to the Polish paper Rzeczpospolita about the death in a plane accident in 1943 in Gibraltar of General Sikorski. Various Poles continue to insist that this death was suspicious, […]
Looking at the FCO website on the David Miliband Blog page is this curious list of links (presumably there to indicate Mr Miliband’s own inclinations) to non-government sites: New media and e-government Whitehall Webby Digital Dialogues Simon Dickson Stuart Bruce David Wilcox eDemocracy Update The Obvious? Emma Mulqueeny Personal South Shields Gazette […]
The words "modern management techniques" and "whelk stall" come to mind: Labour was plunged into open warfare as Gordon Brown’s allies launched a series of highly personal attacks on leadership rival David Miliband. Did ‘sources at Number 10’ and ‘Brown’s allies’ and ‘an MP close to Brown’ really say stuff […]
