Oh dear. My post below appears to have caused offence to the chap I met, and he has taken me to task for it. (I'm away from my pc at the moment and can't link but it's at samizdata: http://www.samizdata.net/blog/ )

First, I'm sorry - I really wasn't intending to be rude, only to make a point about how small talk can be rather odd sometimes. And I'm sorry for not recognising him.

I'm also taken to task for writing 'sent from Blackberry' at the bottom. Oh dear! The techie chaps here only yesterday came up with a means of posting direct by email, and I forgot that my Blackberry emails all have such a signature.

Apparently this makes me pompous. Well, maybe I am. But all it really says is that my techie skills leave something to be desired.

(And guess what: there'll be a similar signature after this post because I haven't got a clue how to remove it!)

Sent via BlackBerry

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Queues are for proles

I'm writing this at Heathrow thanks to the wonders of technology. A few moments ago I was standing in the 'fast' (yeah, right!) bag drop queue when a chap greeted me by name, with the air of a long lost friend.

I have a good memory for faces and names and was certain I had never set eyes on him before. It turns out that he has read articles by me, and recognised me.

'What are you doing here?', he asked. Hmmm. Bag drop queue. Heathrow. It's a tough one to work out.

'I wouldn't have expected to see you in a queue', he remarked.

If only. Punditry has many privileges. But avoiding queues isn't one of them!

Sent via BlackBerry

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I is an idiot

We exchanged contracts yesterday for an eye-watering sum of money on a new house. Talk about one being born every day. What we should have done is have a kip on Hampstead Heath.

(via James Forsyth)

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Kouchner's appointment and the Iraq war

Oliver Kamm has an interesting post here about Bernard Kouchner's position on the Iraq war. Bizarrely, it has been reported that he was an advocate of war. Actually, it's not that bizarre given that the report of Kouchner's views is by one Neil Clark, for whom the word idiot was clearly coined.

I was an advocate of the war. I remain of the view that it was the right thing to do. I say that merely to give context to the rest of this post. In the run up to the war, just before it started but in that period when it was clearly imminent, I chaired a conference in Vienna (nothing to do with politics or foreign affairs - it was a gathering of heart surgeons). The keynote speaker at that conference was Bernard Kouchner, wearing his hats as a former French health minister and founder of MSF. His speech, on human rights, healthcare, and the obligations owed by those with power to alleviate the suffering of those without it, was utterly compelling. He was scheduled to speak for 45 minutes. After well over 90 minutes he drew breath; no one in the hall was eager for him to stop.

Afterwards, I was lucky enough to have dinner with him. As an advocate of military action I was used to having to defend my position in an almost entirely hostile Europe. But neither before or since was my view subjected to a more rigorous or piercing cross-examination than it was by M Kouchner, who had the table eating out of his hands like the commanding figure he is. He spent the entire dinner arguing - passionately - against the war, in private as in public.

But his position on Saddam was unambiguous: the man was an evil and dangerous dictator and had to be removed. My difference with him was that I did not - do not, still - think there was any other way beyond military action. Unlike some opponents of the war. however, Kouchner's opposition included not an ounce of knee-jerk anti-Western or anti-Americanism. It was based on a legitimate, albeit in my view wrong, calculation about the best way to bring about the removal of Saddam.

Kouchner's appointment is far from perfect from some points of view - he is a fanatical Eurofederalist, for instance. But in terms of bringing France back into the fold of decent, moral and humanitarian foreign policy, it is a wondrous move. 

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The Shrum curse watch

Daniel Finkelstein rightly highlights the importance of Bob Shrum:

Shrum is a close adviser to our Prime Minister Designate, Gordon Brown. Guido Fawkes has tales of him addressing Brown's think tank, but that's nopt the half of it. he is a long-standing ally and strategist for the Chancellor.

Coming soon to a Labour election campaign near you: disaster. Soon, that is, but not - for the Conservatives - soon enough.

On Wednesday, a man called Bob Shrum announced his retirement. Unless you have an obsessive interest in the minutiae of American politics, it is unlikely that you will have heard of Mr Shrum. He is one of the most renowned speechwriters and political consultants in the business, having worked on eight presidential campaigns. That alone is a record.

His reputation is legendary - so much so that, at the start of each US presidential campaign, the Democrat candidates are said to take part in an informal 'Shrum primary', competing to become his client. The latest winner of that race was John Kerry, who beat John Edwards and Dick Gephardt for his services and brought in Mr Shrum as his closest adviser for last year�s election. Indeed, the only two recent campaigns in which his services were not used were those of 1992 and 1996.

Mr Shrum's advice comes at a price: he is said to have earned around $5 million for his role on Senator Kerry's campaign. But the more pertinent cost is not financial. It is that hiring Mr Shrum for a presidential race means that you guarantee - stone cold, nailed on, utterly certain - that you lose.

The two campaigns in which Mr Shrum and his advice were spurned were won by Bill Clinton, who had no time for him. His eight campaigns, beginning with Edmund Muskie and George McGovern and ending with Al Gore and John Kerry, produced a 100 per cent record of failure. Eight from eight, as they put it in America. As the polls refused to budge in Mr Kerry's favour last year, one of his aides suggested that his staff wear T-shirts with the slogan 'Reverse the Curse' over a picture of Mr Shrum.

He made at least one critical misjudgment last year. He told Mr Kerry to go easy on George Bush: all out attack on a wartime President would be a mistake. The Kerry campaign was thus lacklustre from the very start. Oppose the President! But, er, why? The Democratic candidate and his campaign began to spark into life only after Mr Clinton rang, from his hospital room before heart surgery, to criticise Mr Shrum's advice and urge Mr Kerry to take the gloves off. 

There are many reasons why Gordon Brown will prove an electoral disaster for Labour. Bob Shrum's advice, if heeded, is surely one of them.

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Welcome to each other

Jew killer meets all round killer. I think this is what is known as a meeting of minds.

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An apology is long overdue

I can't feel that sorry for Liverpool FC or its fans after last night's loss. The Heysel stadium riot took place 27 years ago, when Liverpool fans charged Juventus fans, causing a crush and the death of 39 people. As a result of the Liverpool fans' behaviour, all English clubs were indefinitely banned from European football, a ban which was only lifted after five years (and eight years for Liverpool).

Not once in those 27 years has Liverpool apologised to those English teams which missed out on European competition. Not once. So my sadness at Liverpool's loss is, to say the least, mild.

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Not mine

The Times has this story about Britain' first transgender mayor, Jenny Bailey. She tells us that: "People can take me as a role model if they want."

Actually, I'll pass on that offer.

It set me pondering, though. Why is it always - at least it seems that way - male to female sex changes, and never female to male? (No doubt someone will correct me and supply figures showing no such phenomenon.)

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Music blogs

I'd like to give a plug to a couple of music sites which I look at regularly. Jessica Duchen's classical music blog does just what it says on the tin - it's regularly updated with good links and thoughts.

I'm also slightly addicted to a really quite bonkers site, Opera Chic:

I'm a young American woman in Milan...and you're not. I go to La Scala a lot...and you don't.

And providing that link gives me an excuse to post this picture of Anna Netrebko.

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Hurrah for the cuts!

Hurrah for NHS cuts! The Times reports today that some PCTs are, because of financial crises (they're not 'cuts' at all but it makes for an arresting headline) having to cut back on funding for homeopathic treatments:

More than half of the primary care trusts (PCTs) in England are now refusing to pay for homoeopathy or severely restricting access a year after The Times revealed that 13 senior doctors had urged them to fund only therapies that were backed up by scientific evidence.

Figures obtained by Les Rose, one of the doctors, and The Times under the Freedom of Information Act show that at least 86 of the 147 trusts have either stopped sending patients to the four homoeopathic hospitals, or are introducing strict measures to limit referrals. Another 40 trusts have yet to provide data. More than 20 have taken action since receiving a letter organised a year ago today by Professor Michael Baum, a cancer specialist at University College London, which argued that “unproven or disproved treatments” such as homoeopathy and reflexology ought not to be available free to patients.

If it takes NHS financial crises to stop taxpayers' money being thrown away on treating people with water - which is no more and no less what homeopathy is - then bring 'em on.

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