Forget the GOATs we need GOAPs

Nicholas

I couldn't agree more but it flies in the face of the ageism and yoof kultur that is rammed down our throats by all and sundry, including the BBC. Even the Red Queen Harmon in her quest for equality and fairness ignores the marginalisation of the old and experienced. And how much of banking's crashing debacle was due to the systematic purging of the stable over 50's from middle management to be replaced by ambitious, ruthless and self-centred little oiks?

Patricia Shaw

Quite right, but thereagain its easier for somebody to make sense out of office, than in, given the awesome array of lobbies and compromises real politik necessitate.

For instance, how would Paddy have stood up to Israel Friendly Neocons in 2003 given the might of the Israeli Lobby in the UK media?

Our politicians have to tread such fine lines, thanks in part to lobby media such as the spectator, that policy and common sense rarely meet.

daniel maris

Yes, Patricia, the world would be a much safer place now if Saddam Hussein had been allowed to defy the UN,stay in power, see off sanctions, maintain his dictatorship, wreak revenge on the Kurds and the Shi'ites, finish off Kuwait, invade Saudi, develop nuclear weapons and then take on the "old enemy" of Persia once and for all in a fight to the death.

Tiberius

I think there are doubts about how many ex non-Tory politicians would work for the party in government. Ashdown did not attempt to conceal his continued visceral dislike of the party going back at least to Margaret Thatcher.

Olaf Rye

Alex, I think that you miss the point. The experience Paddy Ashdown speaks with is from his years in the services and his diplomatic activities in the Balkans. We could do with more people from a military background in Parliament, not least because they still espouse those quaint and old-fashioned values like honour and duty.

Patricia Shaw

Daniel, if propaganda's your poison,
there's plenty of space for you on the wall of Melanie Phillips, Bibi's favourite attack mongrel.

Over here we try to be a little bit more objective.

Sadam, the rise and fall, was a DC Comix Creation, from the same lobby that brought us the Neocons, Fox News and Sarah Palin.

When he and his puppeteers in the US and Israel failed to stick it to Iran - a little skirmish that cost 1 million Iranian lives by the way - those Elders of Zion had to think of a new way forward.

Just thank Moses those two useful patsies on the Iraq Enquiry are ensuring it focuses solely on the 45 minutes deceit and piss-poor post war planning, while making sure it fails to take a holistic historical view.

daniel maris

Well Patricia, thanks for letting us know where you are coming from with mention of the Elders of Zion (copyright Tsarist Secret Police, 1898).

I never made any comment on the attitude of the Western democracies to Saddam. If you want my view now, I am happy to condemn the cynical realpolitik that led us to support Saddam against Iran - which resulted in horrible slaughter. We saw the same sort of immoral policy when we supported the Khmer Rouge after they were kicked out of power.

I think realpolitik is more often than not just a very short-termist view of our interest that creates problems further down the line.

I believe in principled support for freedom and democracy throughout the world.

Of course, that thought may leave you Browned off, in view of your politics.

Fergus Pickering

Heavens, Daniel Maris, would Saddam have managed to do all that? I had no idea. I suppose it must have been those weapons of mass destruction he was hiding in the toilets that would have done the trick. Just as well Blair saved the world then and made it safe for freedom and democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan. And all the tim I thought he was an unprincipled lying toerag who'd ell his own grandmother if the price was right. You've opened my eyes.

daniel maris

Wow Fergus - all those WMD were imaginary were they? But I thought he had destroyed them. He certainly had them when he used them against Iranian armies and citizens in his own country. Hans Blix said so. Or are you saying that was all propaganda? And Saddam's greatest wish was to be considered a serious candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize?

Fergus Pickering

Daniel, surely anyone is a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize? I mean you can get it before you've actually been in office at all, can't you? Can I have it please?
Oh, and our man Save-the-world Blair didn't say that Saddam had had WMDs. He said he still had them. And he knew he didn't. But what the hell? He's wearing the white hat isn't he?