Authoritarians, Monarchs and Fascists (misc)

China have canceled a big arms deal with the US because they are supplying more than six BILLION dollars worth of arms to Taiwan, according to the BBC

And I quote;

"Pentagon spokesman Maj Stewart Upton said: "China's continued politicisation of our military relationship results in missed opportunities.""

Yeah, bloody China, going round politicising stuff when it could be buying fighters instead. Come on people - stop bringing politics into everything!


Jeremy Dixon Paxman is some sort of Promethian figure, bringing his off message fire to us mere mortals from the heights of Mount Olympus.

In this particular case he uses his best Charterhouse drawl to cock a snook at the BBC, which he thinks fawns to the Royal family, which it does.

Paxo says;

"While the BBC does report royal matters pretty straightforwardly, as it should, there is still a fawning taste, a fawning sense to the tone of voice it adopts when dealing with the heir to throne and his family... They do not treat them in the way they would treat other members of the public, to which it might equally reply that they are not other members of the public."

They might well JD, they might well.


Sort of left Labour MP Jon Cruddas tells London of his worries through the pages of the Evening Standard. He thinks the far right BNP may be on the verge of winning their first European Parliamentary seat next year.

"They feed off a sense of alienation and exploit any policy vacuum. Their appeal is strongest whenever there is a sense of a scramble around limited resources. There is a real fear the credit crunch will bear down on jobs and pay, push up unemployment and intensify competition for scarce resources, and that that will create a more fertile ground for the BNP to operate in."

His answer? Vote for the party that brought you credit boom and then credit crunch. I'm not so sure that's a viable option.

Anyway the way the system works for the Euros is there will be a fight for last place - which could mean a straight up fight between the Greens and BNP. So the best anti-fascist vote is the one that denies them that last slot, ie a vote for the Greens. Via Lancaster Unity


Also two quick call outs.

In Cambridge there is a conference on October the 25th titled 'Christian faith in a world of climate change' it brings together practical action and interesting discussion about that sort-of-thing. You can check out the speakers, etc. here


Secondly there is a national demonstration (on an international day of action) on the 6th December called by the Campaign against Climate Change.

I've been to this the last few years (my 2006 report) and it's been pretty worthwhile - although last year we were rained on continuously so it was slightly less lively. Hopefully this year will be a touch more clement.