The Exile

Once again middle class types are trying to sow discord. The latest is my old mate Norman Geras, who had these amusing things to say about me some time ago. I must be honest and say that I take it as a tribute when middle class filth attack me - it shows that I am doing something right with my life. There is a saying on the left that you can tell when you are doing the right thing because the bosses' newspapers start screaming abuse at you. The blogworld is clearly the same, so getting my leg nibbled by one of these creatures is something that I take pride in. I would be very fucking worried if any two-legged cockroach ever praised me, that's for sure.

Norm's trick is to look for anti-semitism everywhere - if you have read the link above, you can see that he did it with me. Now he's doing it to the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frias. Clearly some bloke living on his uppers in Mexico is not in the same category as one of the men who is currently overseeing the destruction of capitalism in a whole country, but that's not the point. I consider myself honoured that I have received the same smear tactic as Chaves Frias

This is what the Venezuelan President said, first in Spanish and then my translation:

El mundo tiene para todos, pues, pero resulta que unas minorias, los descendientes de los mismos que crucificaron a Cristo, los descendientes de los mismos que echaron a Bolivar de aqui y tambien lo crucificaron a su manera en Santa Marta, alla en Colombia. Una minoria se adeuño de la riquezas del mundo. . .

The world has enough for everyone, but it turns out that some minorities, the descendents of those who crucified Christ, the descendents of those who turfed Bolivar out of here and who then crucified him, in a way, up in Santa Marta, over in Colombia. A minority that are the owners of all the riches in the world. . .

Now, it should be obvious to anyone who isn't a complete cunt that the Jews did not kill Simon Bolivar. Chavez Frias was talking about two revolutionaries who were killed by the ruling classes of their respective societies. Earlier in his speech, on page 16 to be exact, he had spoken of the "true Christ" who was the "first socialist of our era . . . and that is why he was crucified."

So why is Norm playing this trick? My feeling is that the middle class filth are scared. They can sense that defeat for the odious system that has given them so many baubles is coming. From Iraq to Venezuala, via France, the peoples of the world are slowly but surely giving globalised capitalism a serious shagging, and types like Norm will do anything to hold onto the pathetic little scraps that their bosses have tossed them. Thus the whinge that Chavez Frias is anti-semitic is just a ploy. Chavez Frias is taxing the middle class vermin into the ground: that is what these creatures are afraid of - that we might get the same idea.

What that world will look like when this is all over I have no idea. I will just be so pleased to see the denizens of Hale Barnes, Bramhall and Withington - all scumbag zones in Manchester - reduced to the level where they have to send their daughters out to suck dick on the streets. What we build after that is up to us. Again, using Manchester as an example, the future belongs to Ancoats, Miles Platting and Moss Side. At least we shall have the chance to get our factories open again, and we can ensure that our children do not have to suffer the insolence that we had to endure as the scum of England pissed on us.

Update: It will be noted that Geras has backtracked on his posting and is now trying to wriggle his way out of the charge of anti-Semitism. He hasn't linked to this posting, which must mean that he hasn't read it. If he had read it and had declined to link that would make him an ignorant cunt, wouldn't it?

I shall be away from Mexico from today, the 30th December, to the end of January 2006. Have a great New Year and let's hope that 2006 is the year that sees the final defeat for imperialism.

Updating this blog is going to be very difficult next month. The house where I am staying in London does not have the internet so I will rely on internet cafes and the like. I shall try to update on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but I can't promise anything like the service that as been provided since the blog began.

I have already written the postings for the first week of January, and a provisional listing looks like this:

Monday, 2nd January: Man of the Year (If I can find an internet cafe that is open on a bank holiday.)
Wednesday, 4th January: 'Monger of the Month. (Held over in case changes have to be made, due to the last minute offerings of another idiot.)
Friday, 6th January: December's Gloat.

From the second week in January, it really is a case of wait and see what happens.I have pretty much been out of the UK since 1992, so spending a month in London will give me a chance to look at things with an outsider's eye. I shall try and post my thoughts on what has changed in the UK during January, but that is not a promise, as I have many things to do.

Following on from my recent comments about guerrilla war, I see that the cull in Afghanistan reached 99 for the year 2005. Not a lot, you might think, and certainly that is what the hand-shandyists for war will tell you. A total of 259 dead and a few million dollars down the toilet is not going to force the Americans to leave that country.

However, that is not the point of guerrilla warfare. The point is to keep the war going. The Americans lost 48 troops in 2002 and the same number in 2003. By 2004 it had climbed to 52 and last year it reached 98. So the trend is upwards and the war shows no signs of ending.

The Americans have occupied Afghanistan for just over four years. Are they up for another four years? How about 40 years?

This is how such wars are won. Eventually the conventional side decides that it has had enough and it takes its troops home. The guerrillas come out of the mountains and occupy the cities. Collaborators get the chop. Victory goes the the side that lasts the longest, and that is almost always the guerrillas.

This is insanity: as of the 1st January 2006 the British police will get sweeping new powers of arrest. Basically, as things stand, the police are only supposed to arrest for offences that carry a five year prison term. That will change next month when the police will have the power to arrest for pretty anything and everything.

The problem is that if you give the police more powers they will abuse them: it's in the nature of the creatures that seek this type of work. When Walter Wolfgang, 82, was ejected from the Labour Party's conference earlier this year, he was then prevented from returning by the police who cited the Terrorism Act to him. This is what the police are like. They are recruited from the ultra-conformist section of the working class and they just love giving grief to the rest of us.

It is not as if the police do not have enough powere to harrass and irritate people as it is. These new measures are akin to sticking a club on the end of a cruise missile. Why has NewLab done it? Probably to garner a few nasty votes from a few nasty people who live in the nastier suburbs. People who should be voting Tory, in other words.

As with so much that NewLab has done, I feel like weeping.

Juan Cole attacks what he calls "ten myths about Iraq". The only one that I take issue with is this:

3. The guerrillas are winning the war against US forces. The guerrillas are really no more than mosquitos to US forces. The casualties they have inflicted on the US military, of over 2000 dead and some 15,000 wounded, are deeply regrettable and no one should make light of them. But this level of insurgency could never defeat the US military in the field.

Nadim Abou Rabeh, a former marine of Lebanese descent, has claimed that the official version of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's capture was a fabrication. He was actually taken on the 12th December 2003 and not the day after as the Americans officially claim.

The president was actually living in a small house, and not a hole in the ground. Furthermore, when the American unit arrived, the President helped mount a fierce resistence that led to the death of one marine. He only surrendered when the American unit, which contained eight Arabic speakers, shouted to him that further resistence was futile.

I have no idea if this story is true or not, but clearly it would be in the interests of the aggressors to present their enemy as cowering in a hole, instead of blasting away with a weapon at his country's enemies.

It is now Christmas Eve and time for a short posting on the differences between Christmas in the UK and here in Mexico.

Tonight in the UK the pubs and clubs will be heaving with late night revelry. On Christmas Day people will eat their meal in the early afternoon, and probably watch the Queens Address at 3.00pm. Then they will nod off until bed-time, because everything is closed, so there is nowhere to go even if you wanted to go out.

Mexico is very different. The Christmas meal is eaten on the night of the 24th. By 6.00pm tonight, just about everywhere will have closed, including the bars and cantinas. The large family groups will be gathering and the men will be gettng seriously plastered while the women prepare the meal. Most will eat at midnight, but that is too late for us as the children will have fallen asleep, so we eat at about 9.00pm. I try and keep everything as English as possible, apart from the ludicrous eating hour. We will have turkey and imported Christmas Pudding as always.

Christmas Day here is rather like Boxing Day in the UK. People go to visit family members , just as they will in the UK on the 26th. Even after all these years I still find Christmas a strange experience over here!

Well, I suspect that the kids will have plans for me tommorow, so blogging may be light or non-existant. I wish all of you a very merry Christmas, and I will be back on Boxing Day with more postings.

President-Elect Evo Morales of Bolivia met the outgoing President Eduardo Rodriguez to discuss the handover of power yesterday. However, the new President faces a problem with the USA even before taking office. Put simply, what happened to Bolivia's air-defence missiles?

The country had 28 or 30 Chinese built HN-SA hand-held anti-aircraft missiles that seem to have vanished from the military's arsenal. By all accounts they were stolen by the American Embassy with the conivence of Bolivian military officers, during May or June of this year. It is reported that they were taken aboard an unmarked C-130 transport aircraft and removed from the country.

When Evo Morales first made these allegations last month, the Bolivian army claimed that the missiles had been disposed of as part of an "annual disposal of obsolete equipment," and the army also claimed that the weapons were still in the country. However, army reports which were released this month show that the missiles, which cost Bolivia about £1,000,000, were well-maintained and had ten more years of service left in them.

At this point I fully expect some idiotic hand-shandyist for war to write in and tell me that 30 missiles will not protect anyone from the American armed forces. Don't bother, lads, because I know this. Besides, it's not the point.

The point is that the theft proves that the United States has pretty thoroughly infiltrated the Bolivian army. Should a future President Morales act against America's interests, and he has already said that he will, then the Americans can remove him as they have done so many before him. They would not need to send in the marines, they could set the scene as they did in Chile and then leave it to the locals to do their dirty work for them.

Ths is where thirty missiles will come in handy because when the Chilean traitors attacked La Moneda, the presidential palace on the 11th September 1973, all they faced was a small presidential guard armed only with light weapons. The air force could bomb the building at will, and President Salvadore Allende Gossens was forced to commit suicide rather than surrender.

Think what thirty anti-aircraft missiles could have achieved in Santiago that day! They could have bought time for the President to leave the palace and rally his forces elsewhere. A coup that succeeded would have become a civil war that the left could have won.

Just the act of buying time might have led to the collapse of the coup as it did in Venezuela in 2002. During those chaotic days, President Hugo Chavez Frias was able to write a letter which he gave to a private soldier. This man then smuggled it out and faxed copies around the country. Thousands of photocopies were made of it and they were then distributed in working class districts. It helpled galvanize the government's supporters and led to the collapse of the coup, but it would not have happened had Chavez Frias not managed to buy some time.

So, Morales has two problems. The first is that he cannot trust the army and the second is that the weaponry that might allow him precious time to avoid the antics of coup-mongers has been sold off to the people who will most likely be behind any coup. At the very least President Morales needs a guard that he can trust, and one that is armed with the best light weaponry that his country can afford. Let us hope that his first act will be to quietly send some trusted young men to Cuba for a spot of training.

Yesterday's carol service went off without a hitch, as the police kept a low profile.

Photographs and a report are here, and Rachel from North London has added her comments here. She makes the point that even though the police chose to present the event as a service, it was actually a demonstration that breached the law.

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? In the comments to this essay, a lady named Susanna came along and told me that I needed a feed. A certain Comandante Gringo told her that I had a feed. Did this mean that I was full? I had no idea what either of them was blathering about.

People, I was born in the days when radio was called wireless. A wireless was a large, heavy box, often made out of Bakerlight, that sat in the corner of the living room. It had valves inside and took about two minutes to warm up. I was four years old in 1960 when we got our first TV set. It could receive two channels. That was all that broadcast in the UK in those days.

The computer that I am using to generate text on at the moment is not a box with electronics inside. It is a magical device that is powered by angels and demons. I feel that I should sacrifice a small animal to it, otherwise it may stop working.

Now then, I have created two feeds and put the links to them up on the right hand side of the main page - they are just below my usual links. One is Atom and the other is RSS. I have no idea whatsoever what they do, nor I do not know which gods have to be placated to make them work.

However, they are there, so use them at your own risk and do not come running to me if the dark forces inside them try to steal away your souls.

A New Zealand street hoarding, that illustrates the importance of fashionable underwear.

Cheers: The Evil Sign Post

And guess what happened? Saddam ...Osama bin Laden changed his behaviour. He began to change how he communicated. We're at war. And we must protect America's secrets.

Well, what's the difference? Osama, Saddam: real men who helped defend Texas from the evil Vietcong all those years ago don't quibble. They just split the difference and aim for the towel.

There will be a carol service tonight, the 21st December, in Parliament Square, London, starting at 6.00pm. All are welcome.

Please note that if you attend this carol service, it will classify as a spontaneous demonstration (of faith, hope, joy and/or religious tolerance) and there is a possibility that you will be cautioned or arrested under Section 132 of the Serious and Organised Crimes and Police Act 2005.

This act was basically introduced to get rid of Brian Haw, who has been living and protesting in the square since June 2001. It failed, because the Blairites managed to draft the thing badly, and Brian Haw is still giving grief to them on a daily basis. However, it has been used to convict other protesters, such as Maya Evans, 25, who was convicted for reading out the names of the British victims of Blair's war against Iraq. Remember, make sure that you are in a crowd if you want to protest in Blair's Britain, these days.

This blog has now reached number 24 in the politics section of Blog Top Sites. A total of 618 blogs are listed under that heading. The previous high point was number 45, but then we fell back quite a bit.

Thanks to all the new readers who have come this way, and let's hope that you stick around.

The story is told that during the Vietnam War the American actress Jane Fonda was due to address the Tribune Group of Labour MPs at the House of Commons. Dennis Skinner was the man who had to meet her and he was cooling his heels in St. Stephen's Entrance, with no actress in sight. Somebody suggested that perhaps she might have gone to St. Stephen's Tavern, a nearby watering hole, so Skinner set off to look for her in there.

He asked one of the barmen if Jane Fonda had been in, and the barman replied, "No, she usually sits in the corner with her milk stout, but she hasn't been in today. Now get out of here you drunken northern git before I have the law on you."

This posting is part of my collection of political tales, some of which are older even than me.

Evo Morales has claimed victory in yesterday's Bolivian elections. It is possible that he has reached the magic 50% figure, as with half the actual votes counted, the local radio has him on just over 50%.

If no candidate gets over half the votes cast, then the matter will be decided by the Congress. The good news for the left is that the main rightist contender, Jorge Quiroga, has already conceeded defeat and has offered his congratulations to Morales. The third placed candidate, Samuel Doria Medina, has announced that if it comes to a congressional vote, his people will support whichever candidate came first in the popular vote.

Evo Morales is the man who had the quite wonderful campaign slogan of "Long live coca: death to the Yankees". Again, the question has to be asked, would the Americans have allowed Evo Morales to become president had they not been tied down in Iraq?

I shouldn't do this because it's too easy, but playing with Eric is one of the joys of blogging. He's just announced that Bob Hawk, the former Prime Minister of the Dominion of Australia has died. Hawke is actually alive and kicking, but the lad Eric wanted to post a comment about Malaysia, and the death of Hawke's socialism, but he just can't write very well. Could I make any of this up? I think not.

My favourite recent posting from the lad is the one where he calls for "the removal and replacement of Mugabe". Do you think that I should tell the silly sod that Zimbabwe is sort of land-locked? Thus to remove her leader would mean fighting at least one other country that borders her. I don't see that one as a goer, myself, but if it gives young Eric something to wank over, who am I to argue? God knows but Iraq hasn't exactly gone as the hand-shandyists wanted, has it? All the more reason to start a regional war in Southern Africa, seems to be the lad's reasoning.

I love the "replacement" bit, though. Replace Mugabe with whom, I ask myself? Then, quick as a flash, the answer hit me: the Grand Old Man himself, Ian Douglas Smith is still alive! Of course, the bloody kaffirs are incapable of running their own affairs, so what finer choice could there be to lead them than the man who once said "we have the happiest Africans in the world"? Eric obviously wants to make them even happier.

I feel that this is 1977 all over again, and I'm sitting in a bar watching the end of that night's TV. The music swells - the Ode to Joy comes over the airwaves - and the voices sing, sing, sing:

Rise, O voices of Rhodesia.
God may we thy bounty share
Give us strength to face all danger and,
where challenge is, to dare.
Guide us, Lord, to wise decision,
ever of thy grace aware.
Oh, let our hearts beat bravely always,
for this land within thy care.

For some strange reason all these tossers in general - to say nothing of Eric in particular - remind me of a fool I knew many years ago. He was a Brummie and a fair typical representative of the city that is basically a pile on England's arsehole. When he wasn't going on about the great socialist tomorrow he would bend your ear with a moan about how his differentials were being eroded.

Now, if you are a wanker for war, go off at this point and introduce yourself to your father and ask him to tell you what I am on about. (He'll need a moment to recover from the shock at having an unknown son. Not to worry, just remind him that your mother was the one who looked wonderful after about five pints; that should jog his memory.) For the rest of you, this bollocks involved the percentage difference that skilled working men got in relation to semi-skilled and unskilled workers. It was a load of old wank in other words, but very important to Brummies.

The point is that come 1979 and this git went off and voted for Thatcher. There was no depth to his ideology, no real sense of the class hatred that is at the root of socialism. I suspect that the same is true of these wankers for war. They mouth off about socialism but they are no more a part of the tribe of labour than the Brummie git already mentioned.

Still, so long as they are around, good sport can be had by all. . .

Paul Bremmer called them deadenders, and later they became anti-Iraqi forces. Now that have become nationalists, according to the Chimp's man in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad. Not only that, but the American Commander in Iraq, General George Casey, has announced that the war "will not be settled on the battlefield".

Astute readers will notice that the Chimp recently announced his National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, in which he said that he would not accept "anything less than complete victory" in the country. At the same time, the GOP's attack dogs have been set loose on various Democrat types who are basically saying the same as America's generals and diplomats.

So what's going on? The most likely explanation is that the Chimp is preparing a Vietnam exit from Iraq. The aim would be to negotiate an exit that leaves America's puppets in charge for long enough so that the Chimp can claim his victory. When it all goes pear-shaped a year later, well, that would be the fault of the worthless ragheads, who we all know are crap on the battlefield.

So, if you are a wanker for war and you read this, will you please get with the new programme? Please start talking about nationalists and not deadenders, and at the same time admit that negotiations with said nationalists have begun. Please also stand by to consume the rather large shit sandwich that will be served up to you on the day the Iraqi nationalists march into Baghdad.

A dozen luxery hotels have been closed to tourists until July of next year to allow an estimated six million people from across Latin-America and the Carribean to receive free eye surgery. Most suffer from cataracts or other conditions that can easily be treated, if the patient has the money. That is the rub in these neoliberal times. . .

Cuba provides the medical facilities and Venezuela the petro-dollars to pay for it all. The plan was launched in July of this year following an agreement between Presidents Catsto Ruz and Chavez Frias, and planeloads of patients have been arriving since then. The taking over of the hotels means that yet more can be treated next year.

Cuba has one doctor for every 170 people. In the UK the figure is one for every 250.

They are known as category four recruits, which means that they are as thick as pig shit. Until last year the army only recruited 2% a year of these knuckle-draggers, but that was raised to 4% last year because, well, anyone who had even half a brain didn't fancy getting it shot off in Baghdad and the knuckle-draggers were all that was left.

In October of this year, fully 12% of the new recruits came from this category four level. The army will not say what November's total was, but claims that the total will be just 4% by the end of the fiscal year.

Just so you know. . .

None of the warmongers has mentioned this fact, so I think that I shall. The Americans have been losing troops over the past couple of days. At first glance that is nothing new, but we need to remember that Iraq has been under lock-down for the elections. No civilian traffic has been allowed on the roads, with the result that the cities look pretty deserted.

The last time this was done back in January the Americans could relax as none of their soldiers were injured. This time the casualty figures have continued to mount during the election period. Not only that, but on Thursday as the polls opened, the guerrillas even managed to launch a mortar attack on the Green Zone.

All together now: this is a cakewalk, victory is just around the corner and the Iraqis really love having foreign troops kicking them around.

The American ambassador to Canada said earlier this week that Candian politicians should tone down their anti-American rhetoric during the Canadian election campaign. The reply from the Prime Minister, Paul Martin, came swiftly: "I am not going to be dictated to as to the subjects that I should raise. The dispute with the United States demands leadership at the national level in Canada, even if that leadership happens to rankle some in the U.S."

The opposition Conservative leader Stepen Harper added: "I think Canadians have to make their judgment on that and I don't think foreign ambassadors should be expressing their views or intervening in an election".

I just get the felling that the whole of the rest of the Americas has decided that there is little that the USA can do to them, thanks to Iraq and Iraqi heroism, so they might as well tell the Americans what they really think about them. Basically, whatever Washington's policy is, the rest of us are against it. What can America do about this? America can do fuck all, because its army is bogged down in Iraq.

With a campaign slogan of "Causachun coca, wanuchun Yanquis" (Long live coca, death to the Yankees), Evo Morales is running ahead of his rivals in the race for the Bolivian presidency. In 2002 the American ambassador criticised him, only to see Morales' support triple. This time the Americans are keeping their heads down and their fingers crossed in the hope that something will turn up to stop the Morales juggernaut.

If elected Morales is expected to ally Bolivia with Venezuela and Cuba in opposition to America's plans for the region.

Just two days ago I commented on Britain's involvement in the CIA's Torture R Us business, and remarked that just when you thought that things couldn't get any worse, the Blairites managed to prove you wrong. Guess what? They've done it again.

It now emerges that four men who were held without charge at Belmont Prison for four years, were never once even questioned during the whole time that they were banged up.

To make matters even worse, if that were possible, the legislation that allowed the Blair regime to hold the three Algerians and one Palestinian has been struck down by the Law Lords and the men were released. So then, is a sadistic game of cat and mouse, the regime went after them on immigration charges and now wants to deport them. While this drags on the men are under virtual house arrest, and anybody who wishes to visit them at their homes must submit his name and address along with a photograph to the Home Office.

Words have failed me at this point.

I notice that one of the things that the hand-shandyists for war like doing is attacking Islam. Somebody will usually rise to the bait and make a comparison with Christianity, and a sarcastic comment will then be posted about Catholic suicide bombers or something else equally silly. The people who write nonsense like this are people who live, by and large, in reformed countries where religion has ceased to have much of a hold on the public mind.

We British tend to think of religion, if we think of it at all, as something that happens on Sundays. On that day the dwindling bands of Anglicans and Methodists go to worship, but even they devote the rest of the week to mammon. This is not the way that life works in non-western societies. There religion is everywhere and in everything that people do. It is a kind of magic that is used to ward off the evils that afflict mankind.

Traditionally this is the way that religions operated. When a Roman citizen had to cross the sea - something that Romans didn't do unless they absolutely had to - it was common to cut a deal with the god Neptune, who controlled the salt waters of the World. The deal basically was that if Neptune would allow the person to pass through his realm, then the grateful individual would erect a shrine or sacrifice an animal to this all powerful god on his return. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours was the way the Romans viewed their religion.

The papists are pretty much the same. Go into just about any small shop in Mexico and you will see the image of a man astride a horse. This is St. Mathew the Horseman, and his job is to protect businesses. Basically, if you want your new business to succeed to put up a little shrine to him, complete with his image, a candle burning beneath it and some flowers. He likes flowers, does Mat.

Some years ago I had a shop which I was forced to close owing to poor sales. Quite a few people told me in all seriousness that this was due to my failure to appease St. Mathew the Horseman. As with Neptune all those years ago, religion is a kind of magic. If you perform the correct ritual to the correct god - or saint for the Papists - then you will get the correct result.

If you need something a bit more up close and personal then you can go to the Sonora market in Mexico City and buy just about anything. Do you want someone dead? A black candle in a glass jar that comes complete with its own spell can be yours for a few coppers. You have to say the prayer to Jesus himself, and the person who sells you the candle will remind you that such a powerful being can only be invoked for truly serious matters: so don't use it on your next-door neighbour just because he pissed on your rose bushes. For him you can get black salt that should be sprinkled over the entrances to your property. By calling St. Peter and mentioning your neighbour's name, you will ensure that he will never darken your threshold again.

Natural phenomena are, of course, wholly God made, and human beings can do nothing about such things. Thus when an earthquake hits - and the Valley of Mexico gets them about once a month - the only thing to do is dart outside the house, fall to your knees, rattle your rosary beads, and pray for deliverence. Leading on from this, few people complain about tap water that is undrinkable and periodic outbreaks of cholora. They just take the view that this is the way God wants things.

The clergy are very powerful. In 1968 a group of factory workers travelled to their homes from Mexico City. A local priest convinced himself that they were wicked Communists and he incited his flock to kill them. This Red Dawn or rojo amanecer was made into a film, and those of you who read Spanish can google it if they wish.

In the South of Mexico, near the border with Guatemala, there are regular pogroms of Protestants. You can tell the villages that have converted to Protestantism by the fact that everybody is clean, and the children are fewer in number and much better fed than their Papist counterparts. Protestant villages also tend to have armed guards at night, just to be ready for the next Papist attack.

The big cities, of course, are safe for all creeds and none, but that is only because of a bloody civil war that was fought in the 1920s. The secular government was actually losing the conflict until they hit on the bright idea of introducing priests to tall trees and short ropes. Today that secular elite still governs the country, but everyone knows that underneath the mask of modernity the same old mass of semi-literate primitives will do their religious leaders bidding if asked. Both the state and the church are aware that they are treading on thin ice, and both sides tread carefully.

Now, thinking back to what we have discussed above, can someone please tell me the difference between Mohamadism and Popery? Not the theology, the difference in popular attitudes, because for the life of me, I cannot see any difference at all.

Primitive peoples believe in primitive things. That is just a truism that really should not need debating. The fact that Papists in the USA do not kill Protestants is neither here nor there. By using the USA as an example all a writer does is show his ignorance of the big, wide world that exists beyond the west.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, just when you thought that Blair and his boys couldn't sink any lower, they manage to suprise you. Not only was the UK used to carry America's torture victims around, it is likely that CIA flights are still using the UK's airports to do it.

As if that wasn't bad enough, a former UK student was actually interrogated by MI6 officers in Pakistan, and then handed over the the Americans who took him to their torture centre at Guantanamo Bay.

This regime is composed of people who are lower than cockroaches in the order of things.

Two things have just been announced that lead me to believe that Blair will be out sooner rather than later. The first is that the regime's plans to send some 4,000 soldiers to Afghanistan now seem to be under review, as they say. The wheeze involved sending these troops along with the new Apache helicopters that the governent bought from the Americans. Now it looks as if only 1,000 may go, using British-built Lynx helicopters; and even that seems far from certain. It may be that even Blair has now realised that people in the UK have no interest in the nasty civil war that is going on in Afghanistan and are worried about further British casualties.

To makes matters even more interesting, a second front has now opened up and this has led to the regime scrapping its plans to reform welfare payments. The idea was to subject the sick to means tested benefit, but this wheeze has now been dropped owing to back-bench pressure. The simple truth is that about a quarter of the Paliamentary Labour Party are now out to get the pretty boy and the Blairites knew that this measure was not going to pass.

Afghanistan and welfare reform: put the two together and here is a regime that is not longer in control of events. It looks increasingly like the last days of the Callaghan and Major eras when ministers were reduced to whistling in the dark in the hope that something would turn up.

Neil Clark points out that the Territorial Army is short of 7,000 recruits. It seems they are losing about 600 men a month, but deny that this has anything to do with Iraq. . .

So why don't the hand-shandyists for war pop along to their local TA office and sign up? They would not be sent to Baghdad, they may not even leave the UK, bt they would be doing their bit for Blair, his simian master in Washington and the glorious cause of NeoConservatism. I think that this idea is wonderful!

It's not as if any of them are old buggers, either. They are young fellows in the late 20s and early 30s. That's older than I was when Rhodesian Special Branch invited me in for a little chat, but they are still young enough to tote a rifle. My father was 35 when the Second World War ended and he got demobbed, so there is no excuse for these hand-shandyists for war not to rush to the colours.

Unless they lack the bottle, of course.

One of the nice things about blogging is that you can put forward an idea that doesn't really amount to a full blown argument, just to see how it looks. An idea has been bubbling around in my head for a day or so and I'm going to try it out here. The idea that I have is that the warmongers have stopped trying to argue that the war against Iraq can be won and instead have switched to looking for scapegoats to explain why it was lost.

Let's take Harry's Place, one of the main sites of hand shandyism for war. Two postings in particular have caught my attention. The first was about Cindy Sheehan, the American mother who s clearly still grieving for her dead son. The posting itself is a fairly typical 'monger offering, taking as it does the standard 'monger line that Mrs. Sheehan should basically shut the fuck up and cheer on the Chimp. The second posting is rather more confused. It tries to link Howard Dean, Tony Benn and George Galloway, but it just doesn't manage it very well.

What I think these two posting are about is laying the groundwork for post-bellum recriminations in the USA. These are the guilty men, the people who prevented America's glorious army from fully subjugating the sand-niggers. If you read the comments, especially to the first posting, that conclusion becomes more plausible. The way the 'mongers howl at anyone who objects to their neat little fantasies is quite amazing. I am pleased to report that I was one of those who got to enjoy a good 'monger howling, but others had it as well. Yes, well it was good fun, but that is not the point, is it?

With these thought in mind, I went off to see if anyone else had any similar ideas kicking around in their heads. It took me all of five minutes to discover one Richard Reeves who argued that the Chimp was the worse president in American history. The response from 'mongers was highly entertaining and basically consisted of repeating the line that if the war against Iraq was lost, then it was lost by people such as Mr. Reeves.

To a certain extent this is very much an American debate, and if looking for scapegoats keeps them happy then who am I to object? On the other hand, I quite like the idea that some 'monger will point to my work and tell himself that your truly is partly responsible for America's lost adventure. Dear reader, you have no idea how entertaining that thought is.

When I was a child just about every old man that I knew had served in the Great War. Both my grandfathers had fought, but they had died many years before I saw the light of day. Now there are just eleven British veterans left alive.

There is a plan being mooted to honour the last of them with a state funeral, but the old soldiers don't seem too keen on the idea. One said that he "tried not to think about" things like that. Good for him.

The irritating thing about this is that if the plan goes ahead, then we shall be faced with the sight of Tories and others of their class shedding crocodile tears for the last veteran. This man was once promised homes fit for heroes and all he got was the dole. His grandsons saw their way of life destroyed by the same scum who will stand to attention as his coffin passes by.

Excuse me while I vomit.