As the judicial review of the proposed extradition of Gary McKinnon continues, his ever-growing band of supporters claim that the 43 year old should not be extradited on human rights grounds. Not only are they fighting a losing battle, Mr McKinnon should be extradited.
Mr McKinnon has become something of a cause celebre for the right [...]
Filed under: clarepoliticsnews, democracy, terrorism on January 11th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Creative Commons licensed photograph courtesy of Flickr user michaelramallah.
The recent sit-in at the Cambridge University Law Faculty excited a range of emotions: passion and devotion to their cause on the behalf of the protestors, leading to an exhausted fatigue as the conflict reached its climax, to the evident curiosity and frustration of many of us [...]
Filed under: arabisraeliconflict, democracy on January 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
…this guy would be dead by now. Of course, if Bush were Saddam, he’d never have tried his luck. But he knew his action would be interpreted as an act of political dissent — in a country where dissent is now allowed. He may serve a jail term, but it seems far more likely that [...]
Filed under: afghanistan, al qaeda, clarepoliticsnews, democracy, humanrights, ideas, iraq, jonathanbirch, society, uspolitics on December 15th, 2008 | No Comments »
The polls were right all along — America has elected Barack Obama, and proved itself not to be a hateful, bigoted nation. I hope anyone who secretly expected a racist “Bradley effect” to propel John McCain to the White House is now hanging their head in shame: McCain won an honest 47% and bowed out [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, republican, uspolitics on November 5th, 2008 | No Comments »
Photograph courtesy of Flickr user shazam791.
Of all the bizarre and interesting features of the 2008 US presidential election, here’s one you may not have noticed: it’s the first time both tickets have been topped by a serving senator. It guarantees that America’s 44th president will be the third to assume the job from a Senate [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, johnmccain, jonathanbirch, uspolitics on October 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
Why did Hillary Clinton win New Hampshire? One answer is, perhaps, that the polls were wrong all along. Hillary is the candidate registered Democrat voters are embarrassed to admit they support, but support her they do. Barack Obama is the media darling; Hillary is the prosaic, sensible, tactical choice. She does not win votes with [...]
Filed under: barackobama, democracy, election2008, hillaryclinton, uspolitics on January 15th, 2008 | 8 Comments »
It’s a terrible day for Pakistan, a terrible day for democracy, and a terrible day for Islam. This is just one more reminder of an obvious fact: a vast, vast majority of the victims of Islamic extremist terrorism are Muslims. In nearly every case the casualties are Muslims, and the people having their democracy [...]
Filed under: democracy, jonathanbirch, religion on December 27th, 2007 | No Comments »
I don’t recall why I’m on the Cambridge University “Hands Off Venezuela” Society mailing list. Perhaps, if any of them read this post, I’ll get taken off it. But in the meantime I’m enjoying their collective apoplexy over an astonishing memorandum between a US embassy official and the CIA. The absence of any actual scans [...]
Filed under: democracy, foreignpolicy, jonathanbirch on November 30th, 2007 | 2 Comments »
It is in the ‘national interest’, Mr. Brown thundered as he addressed the House of Commons over his decision not to hold a referendum on the new EU treaty. As the Conservatives waved their arms and cried high treason, Brown prudently shuffled out of the chamber and quietly headed back to Number Ten.
How could [...]
Filed under: andrewnoakes, democracy, directdemocracy, eu, europe, gordonbrown on November 15th, 2007 | 1 Comment »
We are entering a very interesting time in British politics – aren’t we? That’s the statement that seems to be on lips of many politicos at the moment. Blair’s marathon premiership is coming to a close and a shake-up in British politics approaches. Brown versus Cameron, ‘clunking fist’ versus ‘New Conservatism’, question marks over the [...]
Filed under: democracy, electoralreform, history, ukpolitics on May 21st, 2007 | 3 Comments »
