UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (pictured above) yesterday fought for his political life as he delivered the keynote leadership speech at the New Labour party conference. In a lengthy address, the PM tried to hammer home the message that he was the right man to lead Britain through the current economic crisis and that only Labour would take the right decisions to support hard-working families. He also unveiled plans to scrap prescription charges for cancer patients and give elderly people help to stay in their homes and escape the costs of going into care. Promising “a new settlement for new times”, he told delegates that his vision (he’s going on about his bloody “vision” again) of a “fair society” was “a cause worth fighting for.”...

I think this shows some positive progress, but we need to be cautious and try and avoid a significant deteriation of relations with...

Britain’s education system will become increasingly fragmented if faith schools (a symbol above) use new powers to discriminate on religious grounds when hiring headteachers and support staff, campaigners warned yesterday. The Government says the change in the law, which comes into force on Monday, is intended to help schools choose staff who will offer “pastoral support” to pupils. The amendment to the Education and Inspections Act 2006 also allows voluntary-controlled and foundation schools to demand that a headteacher adheres to a specific faith. A campaign group called Accord, to be launched at the start of the new term on Monday, wants Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, to prevent state-funded faith schools from discriminating by selecting students and pupils...

Whether it be in the guise of neo-conservatism or liberal 'best intentions' the nature of intervention in military terms is a volatile and hotly disputed topic. Over at Baronsville Peter Munce assesses the pros and cons of our current political climate while postulating on setting criteria for intervention in the future.The UK and the isolationist and appeasement policy of Neville Chamberlain in dealing with Adolf Hitler in the in 1930s will always to some extent entrench the view that an isolationist policy will fail with catastrophic consequences. There is no doubt in my mind that there certainly are conflicts and situations that will arise that will require an intervention by the United Kingdom, but who defines the criteria and who scrutinises the subsequent actions? I take a sceptical...

The UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband (pictured above), yesterday said Russia must not start a new cold war and he accused Moscow of trying to redraw the map of Europe in the wake of the war in Georgia. Miliband was speaking in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine which, like Georgia, wants to join NATO. The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, yesterday defied the West by recognising as independent the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, presumably as a prelude to their eventual annexation by Russia. “The Georgia crisis has provided a rude awakening,” Miliband said in a speech to students. “The sight of Russian tanks in a neighbouring country on the 40th anniversary of the crushing of the Prague spring has shown that the temptations of power politics...

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev has recognised unilateral declarations of independence by both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, some 15 years after the republics broke away from Georgia. Very clearly it is a deplorable thing when the internationally recognised territorial integrity of a state is disregarded. The dismemberment of a state, or the attempted dismemberment of a state, cannot be applauded.However, whilst two wrongs do not make a right, it has been pointed out several times on this site that Kosovo formed a precedent which would encourage separatist regions to declare independence, and, specifically in the cases of several frozen conflicts in the former Soviet Union, would encourage Russia to respond by affording recognition of its own. Saakishvili’s attempt to bombard South...

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown ( pictured above ) yesterday hailed UK troops fighting the Taliban as ‘true heroes’. On a flying visit to the Army’s main base in Afghanistan, Gormless Gord said their achievements in the war zone surpassed those of Britain’s medal-winning Olympians. The Premier then pledged an extra £120 million to help rebuild the battle-scarred country . Well if Gord thinks the lads are that worthy of praise , why doesn’t he take that £120 million and instead of giving it to a bunch of corrupt tribal leaders in Afghanistan, spend it on decent equipment, wages and accommodation for our troops ?   And Gordon faced embarrassment on his tour of Afghanistan, when the country’s president joked about his leadership troubles. After his...

As all regular readers will already be well aware, we absolutely abhor all war. However, we have to admit that the recent South Ossetia related spats twixt Russia and Georgia may, in the grand scheme of several recent politico-military 'sorties', not be all bad news. For the wider world, that is. A great deal of distracting drivel regarding the return of an East-West 'cold war,' is...

A former burger bar worker who became the leading figure in a “worldwide conspiracy” to kill non-Muslims was sentenced to 12 years in prison yesterday. Aabid Khan ( pictured above ), who spent years building up a computer store of extremist material, became a “key player” in radicalising others, a London court heard. Those influenced by Khan, known as Del Boy to his contacts, included schoolboy Muhammad Munshi, who became Britain’s youngest convicted terrorist on Monday . After a three-month trial at London’s Blackfriars crown court, Khan, 23, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, was found guilty of three counts of possessing articles for a purpose connected with terrorism. His cousin and right-hand man, Sultan Muhammad, 23, of Manningham, West Yorkshire,...

Thank God, and I was wondering where this was all going to lead. That said, it is not over yet and the fact that Russian troops are still in South Ossetia as peacekeepers is...

Home Latest YouGov Poll - Brown hits rock bottom. Maybe. See analysis here ‘The American Thinker’ - the perfect wrong war - Interesting, with some useful commentary ‘The Australian’ asks: “Is The USA’s commitment to new NATO members as strong as it should be?” ‘The Moscow Times’ on the way forward Comment at end 17th August, 2008 Preface: I am not yet convinced about the rights and wrongs of the Georgia/Russia conflict. How COULD I be?  I am a semi-ignorant political watcher like most of the other internet ‘experts’. But I am willing to learn, willing to trust our western leaders and willing to admit I retain a slight suspicion regarding the Russian government. Some sleight of hand, given its behaviour in recent years,...

It was reported yesterday that “the majority” of Britain’s combat forces ( above )  will be withdrawn from Iraq by next spring. Senior defence sources have said that only ‘a few hundred’ will be left to finish training Iraqi forces. Security conditions have reportedly “improved markedly” in the southern city of Basra - largely thanks to an Iraqi and US drive to oust hostile militias earlier this year after UK forces withdrew from the city. Senior commanders now hope the British mission can be wound down . Oh yeah ? We’ll  believe it when we see it . And even if the Americans DO agree to such a withdrawal, the troops won’t be coming home any time soon - in fact they’ll be going on a very short journey - straight to Helmand...

Three Things we can do on the Georgian CrisisWhile there's plenty of blame to go round, who is to blame for starting the war between Georgia and Russia is now irrelevant. Georgian forces have been utterly defeated and Russian forces are in control in Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.They were always committing as many war crimes as the Georgians - now the Russians and their Ossetian, Chechen, Abkhazian and other militias are the only ones committing these crimes (1), (2), (3). Russian claims to be withdrawing their forces also seem to be empty (4).The same Russian troops and pro-Russian Chechen militia-men who tortured, stole, murdered and raped their way across Chechnya for a decade, when Chechnya attempted to declare independence from the Russian Federation, are now burning Georgian...

And of course Act I was Iraq, wasn’t it? We said there would be permanent consequences, and Mad Vlad duly decided to invade Georgia because the precedent was set in 2003. George W Bush decimated the international order by invading a sovereign (albeit belligerent) nation, which posed no threat to the outside world, yet was admittedly butchering its own people. We didn’t like the idea of invading Iraq then because resolving totalitarian behaviour in such a simplistic fashion never works; particularly when done in a purely maverick fashion, it sets the wrong example for the wrong people to follow. Of course the principal reason for invading Iraq was never WMD, it was strategic. The neocons in charge in Washington wanted to send out a message a) that they could reshape a region...

I should have said we should favour the weaker side as their civilians are likely to make up most of the victims of any conflictI've made a mistake in saying the EU should stay entirely neutral in the conflict between Georgia and Russia.I still suspect President Saakashvili of Georgia wanted this conflict, thinking it might bring enough pressure on Russia from the EU and US to get Russian troops to leave South Ossetia and Abkhazia and allow him to fulfill his election pledge to re-unify Georgia, despite the majority of the populations of South Ossetia and Abkhazia never having wanted to be part of Georgia - and fearing a repeat of the ethnic cleansing carried out by both sides in the 1992 civil war.I still suspect the Bush administration has fuelled the conflict by encouraging Saakashvili...

As Russian tanks ( above ) trundled into Georgia’s disputed regions yesterday, in Moscow Russia’s Foreign Minister said the world “can forget about any talk regarding Georgia’s territorial integrity”. This statement from Comrade ( sorry ) Mr Sergey Lavrov came while President Dmitri Medvedev ( presumably after receiving detailed instructions from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ) was in the Kremlin meeting the leaders of Georgia’s two breakaway provinces  -  a clear sign that Moscow might absorb or annex these regions. The Russian  refusal to withdraw its military and the meeting in Moscow seemed to kill an EU-sponsored ceasefire which was designed to end a week’s fighting.  ”Forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial...

Prime Minister Putin - the real organ grinder in Russia - may be ruing the day he decided to show off the might of the Russian Armed Forces. The disproportionate response from Moscow in Georgia has revealed their hand to the world. No-one is in any doubt as to Russia's intentions for its other neighbours. Empire Builder Putin has a Soviet mentality when it comes to foreign policy, but still wants to Russia to sit on the top table at G8 summits. He thinks he can do what he likes and still enjoy massive foreign investment.  Poland is quite rightly worried about his intentions and have signed a deal with the US to base 10 missile interceptors as part of the US defence shield. My prediction is Poland has merely starting the ball rolling. There are many other countries who feel at risk...

Nations don't die or grieve - People Do - so why kill and die for empty words?What the fighting in Georgia comes down to is a struggle between competing nationalisms. Russian nationalists believe this war shows Russia is a 'Great Power' again, it's past 'humiliations' put behind it, just as American nationalists believed the 1991 Iraq war had 'exorcised the ghost of Vietnam'. Saakashvili as a Georgian nationalist hoped to reassert Georgian 'sovereignty' and 'national unity' by reintegrating the secessionist region of South Ossetia into Georgia.At the end of the day though all these 'nations' , 'sovereignties',prides and humiliations are just abstract ideas compounded by primitive instincts. No nation ever suffered the agony of physical pain that actual wounded and dying people do.No...

On the northern side of the dual carriageway leading from Brussels towards Zaventem Airport there’s an enormous no-mans land. A billboard resplendent with an artist’s impression dotted with light, glass and smiling people announces this is to be the site of the new NATO Headquarters, due to be opening in 2012. Rather optimistic one would have thought - there is no way the builiding is going to be constructed without the concrete barriers, razor