Harry's Place

Having given the Socialist Workers Party’s Paul Foot a platform for his invitation to an SWP sponsored rally with George Galloway “topping the bill”, today the Guardian has space for an obviously pre-written piece by Galloway himself promoting his new political movement which he says will contest the European elections in June.
I will now seek [...]

Just a little note to mark a couple of statistical milestones.
Since the site moved over to this address at the end of June, we have now had over 50,000 visits. That is tiny compared to some of the big American blogs but shows a steadily growing readership.
Just as, if not more, importantly we have now [...]

The Guardian reports on a spat between Fox News and Fox Entertainment show The Simpsons.
An episode of The Simpsons was to feature a spoof ticker like the one on the bottom of the screen on Fox News. Matt Groening, the creater of The Simpsons, explained that Fox News got wind of the send-up and threatened [...]

George Galloway has tonight launched ‘a new political movement’ based on the anti-war coalition to stand against Labour in every European seat next June.
Mr Galloway said: “I am launching a unity coalition which will seek to unite the left, the peace movement, the anti-war cause, the Muslim community in Britain, progressive people of all parties [...]

So, to no great surprise, IDS has lost his confidence vote and there will now be an election for a new leader of the Conservative Party.
I hated it in the 1980’s when Tories used to lecture the Labour Party about what their policies should be and who they should choose as leader. And while it [...]

It’s one of those stop-yourself-from-screwing-the-Guardian-up-into-a-little-ball-and-throwing-it-out-of-the-train-window days.
First up there is Paul Foot who, for some reason, is given space to promote an SWP-backed meeting:
If all the people who have written to the Guardian in the last six years to protest at the pusillanimous posturing of New Labour turned up tonight at London’s Friends Meeting House they [...]

For the second year in a row, an Arab TV channel is marking Ramadan by broadcasting a multi-part series depicting the Jews’ secret scheme for world domination. This one was produced in Syria and is being shown on Hizbullah’s Al-Manar satellite channel from Lebanon.

Reader Clive, a member of the left-wing group the Alliance for Workers Liberty, points out an article of his on the anti-war movement. It is well worth a read if you are interested in the ‘thinking wing’ of the anti-war movement.
Although I obviously don’t agree with the AWL’s opposition to the war, it has to [...]

Doctor Dalrymple lets us have his thoughts on asylum-seekers in todays Times.
Contrary to much prejudice, they do not want to sponge off the state: most asylum-seekers seem to me avid for work. I have met many desperate for a job, although forbidden one by the state, and none who, once working, wish to give up. [...]

The recent turmoil in Bolivia- in which the elected president was forced to resign and flee the country- should be setting off more alarms in Washington than it probably is.
Writing in the Washington Post, economist Jeffrey Sachs says US policy toward impoverished Latin American countries like Bolivia- which are struggling to establish stable democracies- is [...]