Innocence or guilt

Like Clive, I obviously have no knowledge of Ray Lewis' innocence or guilt. But having watched him give three live interviews in a row yesterday, two under very tough questioning, if he is guilty he is also the most accomplished, brazen and convincing liar I have ever seen.

UPDATE: Looks like it's the latter. Astonishing.

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Winning when losing

I love Ben Mcintyre's columns. They're always so different. Today's, on Abba, is a real treat:

Waterloo, for example, won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, even though it refers to a military victory that only the British care about. “My my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender.”

One Abbaologist has suggested, tongue-in-cheek, that this is “clearly an attempt to recontextualise 19th-century European geopolitics. Napoleon had so subverted the principles of the French Revolution that for most Frenchmen his defeat was the only way civilisation could be saved.” I feel like I win when I lose. How typically French.

BTW, his biography of Agent Zigzag is a classic. I'd put it in the same class as Bernard Wasserstein's simply wonderful Secret Lives of Trebitsch Lincoln. Anyone who hasn't read that should drop everything now and make good that ommission.

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Annoying the Taliban

Nothing against the woman. I just don't understand what she's done to merit an OBE.

That said, Fraser's point is quite persuasive:

It was once put to me that Kylie embodies everything the Taliban hate and has done more to raise morale in this country far more most of those with OBE after their name. All hail.

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My encounter with Baroness Tonge

Re my post below, I don't think I've told this story before.

A few months after Baroness Tonge had been sacked as a front-bencher by Charles Kennedy for her remarks about Palestinian murderers, I was on a radio programme. The Baroness was one of the other particpants. I was looking forward to the programme, as I wanted to take her to task for her views.

Before the programme there was a dinner for the guests. I was unsure about breaking bread with her - I would no more wish to socialise with her than I would with anyone else who thinks I am part of a conspiracy to run the world and destroy non-Jews. But I figured it would be impolite to my hosts to refuse to come, so I went along.

Almost immediately the issue of her sacking arose. The host shared his sorrow at her removal, and...

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Tonge rattling

Baroness Tonge of JewsRunTheWorld is at it again. She has already offered her Protocols of the Elders of Zion-like view that:

The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the Western world, its financial grips. I think they have probably got a certain grip on our party.

Last night in the Lords she offered this further thought:

I am beginning to understand the power of the Israel lobby, active here as well as in the USA, with AIPAC, the Friends of Israel and the Board of Deputies. They take vindictive actions against people who oppose and criticise the lobby, getting them removed from positions that they hold and preventing them from speaking—even on unrelated subjects in my case. I understand their methods. I have many examples. They make constant accusations

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