Knowing what’s coming doesn’t necessarily ease the pain. Watching a bomb as it hurtles from ‘way up in the skies into your living-room doesn’t mean it’s any less shattering when it hits. This week has been a long time coming. Today in Westminster will separate the boys from the men and the girls from the […]
Tag Archives | Jeremy Corbyn
Did you say it wasn’t Russia? How dare you! Booooh!
Sometimes, when I hear the words that come from the mouths of respected public figures, I want to put my head in my hands and weep. Because they either haven’t a grasp on what constitutes logical argument, or they do have a grasp and choose to ignore it. Yesterday in the House of Commons was […]
Chilcot speaks out: MPs tremble
Not so long ago I was the focus of widespread anger (and abuse) for suggesting that the Boys’ Brigade might have a military element to it. More recently Jeremy Corbyn was hauled over the coals for saying that, as Jews should not be held responsible for the actions of Israel, Muslims should not be held […]
That Corbyn: he’s an embarrassment
One of the nastiest features to emerge from the BREXIT bomb-shell – and God knows there are enough contenders – is the blood-lust within the Labour Party. Ever since Jeremy Corbyn was elected and BREXIT was a fairly distant speck, the British Labour Party MPs have been scratching their heads to come up with a […]
High drama in high places
Sometimes – in fact almost always- disastrous political events make edge-of-seat TV viewing. I remember Watergate and the slow political death of Nixon. I was living in Canada at the time and night after night, the American network channels came on with yet another jaw-dropping development as the tide of deceit and brutality grew higher and […]
Sport and politics don’t mix? Ask them in Iceland
Is there a link between politics and sport? Ask a silly question. The NI soccer team singing their national anthem gives you an answer to that one. If that’s not enough, think Belfast Celtic, think Linfield, think a Night in November. But this morning I’m not actually thinking of the local link. I’m thinking […]
I read the news today – Oh boy…
What was it the media have been telling us for the past couple of weeks? Yes, of course – bombing Syria is a great idea and Hilary Benn is a demi-god. But apart from that? Well done, Virginia. That the by-election in Oldham would be the first real test of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the […]
On supporting violence to achieve political ends
They say Tony Benn wept in the Visitors’ Gallery of the House of Commons as he watched his son Hilary make his maiden speech as an MP. Had he been alive last night, he would surely have wept again, this time from shame rather than pride. By all accounts Benn’s speech was the speech […]
The quick way to settle differences
Good news: there’s not as much violence around as there was. That’s on the domestic level and the international level. For example, violent crime in 2014 in the US was down 4.4% – the lowest since 1948. In the UK the drop was even more striking : 10%. Various reasons are given for this. Some […]
Faslane: the place where insanity and cost meet
Picture by Thiago Isvamsinsk I remember in the early sixties, we asked our old History teacher if he thought there’d be a war between the US and the USSR. “Well” he said “there’s never in history been a huge stock-piling of weapons between two sides without those weapons eventually being used”. Mercifully he was wrong, […]