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Diary

Douglas Murray

Wednesday, 25th July 2007

I am registered as a voter in Ealing-Southall and have a problem...

I am registered as a voter in Ealing-Southall and have a problem. Though a member of the party, I could not vote Conservative. The candidate put up by ‘David Cameron’s Conservatives’ had been a Conservative for a matter of hours and been parachuted in over any number of dedicated, and equally ethnic, party workers. I might have reined in my objections if it hadn’t been for the earlier elevation of Sayeeda Warsi to the shadow Cabinet and the Lords. After a recent run-in with her on the BBC’s Question Time she attacked me for referring to Islamic terrorists. I thought she only minded me identifying terrorists with Islam, but — like the new Home Secretary — it turned out she minded me identifying terrorists with terrorism. And she refused, on air, to condemn the killing of our troops in Iraq. That was enough to drive me from the fold, and emails from our troops since the programme reinforce my feelings. I couldn’t abstain, though I didn’t much like the other candidates. I decided I must vote on a point of principle, and found myself ticking the box for Labour — perhaps the only voter to go over to Labour because of the Iraq war.

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Imagine the terror of the Chinese officials

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Mark Leonard, Britain’s pre-eminent analyst of modern China, says the Olympic genie is out of the bottle. The prospect of global scrutiny has actually increased repression as the authorities try to stamp out dissent. But digital technology is impossible to police

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For all the latest on the Glasgow East by-election, visit Coffee House