World

The MPs’ expenses scandal has been a devastating distracttion. It has been an essential process. But it is a distraction all the same. How many times have commentators now said the country is now facing a political crisis to match the economic crisis? This is not the whole story. The economic situation means that people’s anger about the venal behaviour of their MPs is intensified to the point of  fury. But the MPs’ scandal is just a sideshow to the main problem, which is a serious political vacuum at the top of British politics. No one is now listening to Gordon Brown any more. His position has become absurd. He can’t seriously expect us to believe he will deliver on constitutional

Responding to today’s Telegraph story which quotes Major-General Antonio Taguba as saying that the unreleased interrogation photos show “torture, abuse, rape and every indecency” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had this to say: “I want to speak generally about some reports I’ve witnessed over the past few years in the British media. And in some ways, I’m surprised it filtered down,” Gibbs began. “Let’s just say if I wanted to look up – if I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champion’s League cup, I might open up a British newspaper. If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful

This just in from the Lone Star State: Mayor quits job for gay illegal immigrant he loves Thank god he loves him. Me, I love Texas. Read the story too, if only for the great comparison to Wallis Simpson in the intro. [Hat-tip: Democracy in America]

More on today’s Obama and Cheney speeches in due course, but first another bout: Dick Cheney vs David Petraeus. Cheney argued today that: If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field. And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don’t stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for – our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they

The great thing about Washington is its variety. Sometimes it’s the Republicans who infuriate you and sometimes it’s the Democrats whose bone-headed nitwittery is singularly depressing. Today it’s Harry Reid’s turn to annoy: “QUESTION: If the United States — if the United States thinks that these people should be held, why shouldn’t they be held in the United States? Why shouldn’t the U.S. take those risks, the attendant risk of holding them, since it’s the one that says they should be held? REID: I think there’s a general feeling, as I’ve already said, that the American people, and certainly the Senate, overwhelmingly doesn’t want terrorists to be released in the

John Huntsman’s decision to accept Obama’s invitation to serve as the US Ambassador to Beijing is, as James suggested, interesting given the recent rise in Huntsman stock. The advantages for Obama are several: firstly, and most obviously (if also most grubbily) he removes a potential 2012 opponent from the fray. Secondly, picking someone like Huntsman who not only has diplomatic experience (as ambassador to Singapore and, more importantly, as Deputy US Trade Representative) but also speaks Mandarin tells the Chinese that Obama appreciates their importance and is determined to take their relationship seriously. How could he not, you might ask, and there’d be something in that. But consider that such

I’m sure that there’s a Deep and Significant Meaning to this that helps explain something about the Irish economic landscape these past dozen years. It’s like an episode from An Irish Onion or something.: A “BILLIONAIRE” businessman linked with a string of high-profile potential investments has been identified as a sweet-shop owner based in rural Co Kilkenny. Stuart Pearson (25), a native of Co Wicklow, lives in a rented house in the village of Goresbridge and operates the shop at a rented premises in the nearby town of Graiguenamanagh. Over the past year, there have been claims in national and regional media that he was the head of a major investment company

There was a crazy puff piece for the Endless War on Drugs on the BBC News tonight in which the reporter, Mark Easton, was handed a story by the Serious Organised Crime Agency full of dramatic pictres and supposedly encouraging figures. Coincidentally, this appeared the day before Soca releases its annual report and at a time when the government is said to be keen on overhauling the agency. Fancy that. According to the BBC, however, the international cocaine industry is “in retreat” and prices are rising while the purity of cocaine bought on the street has “plumeted”. Well, perhaps. But the weakness of the pound is the most likely explanation

Dick Cheney is quite a piece of work. I confess that back in 2000 I thought Bush did well in choosing Cheney to be his Vice-President. After all, the neophyte President-to-be could use some sage advice from a Washington veteran. And, yes, I enjoyed seeing Cheney cuff Joe Lieberman during their Vice-Presidential debate. That sanctimonious prig from Connecticut deserved it. But there are limits and it is remarkable that much of the conservative movement thinks it wise to seek advice from a man who left office with an approval rating of 13%. Still, these things are what they are. But that’s little excuse for Cheney’s brazen, chutzpah-crammed performance on a

So tomorrow’s Telegraph has the full gruesome details of parliamentary expenses. This is terribly embarrassing for the Cabinet and would have been no more than that in different times. But the problem is that the government has now become synonymous in the public imagination (or at least the media’s imagination) with the wider collapse of political morality. In the case of most members of the Cabinet this is certainly not the case – and the release of these details certainly doesn’t prove it. But it doesn’t matter in the wider scheme of things because the country has turned against this government. Nothing they can do is right even when it