Harry's Place

Put aside half an hour or so, and treat yourself to Nick Cohen’s magesterial survey-cum-polemic on our law of Libel.
The case that turned the English libel law from a local scandal into a global cause célèbre was brought by Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi banker, against the New York author Rachel Ehrenfeld. Her book [...]

A top piece in Haaretz:
The Toronto Declaration was ostensibly a protest against a festival decision to honor Tel Aviv and its centenary celebrations. But the neo-Socialist Realism text of the open letter went far beyond that. It denounced TIFF for failing to publicly note, for example, that “Tel Aviv is built on destroyed Palestinian villages.” [...]

Finally some badly needed fighting talk from senior Labour figures ahead of its conference. In the Observer Chancellor Alistair Darling compares the party to a gutless football side where the team have allowed their heads to drop well before the final whistle. “We don’t look as if we have got fire in our bellies. We [...]

Tom Gallagher’s book, The Illusion of Freedom: Scotland Under Nationalism was published in both paperback and hardback by Hurst and Co in London last Thursday. Following a series of guest posts exploring controversial features of the SNP’s time in government, he now reflects on what motivated him to write the book as well as discussing [...]

Scott Ritter is wary of the political hype over Iran’s hidden nuclear plans:
The facility in question, said to be located on a secret Iranian military installation outside of the holy city of Qom and capable of housing up to 3,000 centrifuges used to enrich uranium, had been monitored by the intelligence services of the US [...]

The BBC are at this very moment interviewing an employee of Press TV on Radio 5 Live, who is suggesting that the concerns about Iran’s nuclear aspirations are spin to strengthen Obama’s position and who is arguing against sanctions. The interview is being conducted as though the journalist is a objective uninvolved commentator.
The BBC are [...]

Nothing British About the BNP have uncovered a real corker here:

Why has he chosen to represent Britain as a beaker of piss?
What a div.

This is a cross post by Dave Rich from the CST Blog

Harry’s Place has posted an amusing exchange of emails, from a Comment Is Free thread, in which a reader tries to pin down Anas al-Tikriti on his claim that several leading Hamas figures view the Hamas charter as “incorrect, inappropriate, inaccurate and certainly unfit [...]

From Hope Not Hate

Richard Barnbrook – the BNP’s third highest elected official – has been exposed fabricating three murders in a high profile BNP campaign. He has been found guilty of bringing both the Greater London Authority and the Barking and Dagenham Council into disrepute – his lies show the depths the BNP are willing [...]

This is a guest post by Dave Rushmore

I don’t know if any of you read Anas AlTikriti’s recent apologia for Hamas in the Guardian, in which he sought to whitewash the politics of that organisation, for the benefit of sensitive liberal souls.
Anas AlTikriti 21 Sept 09 5:52pm
“To all those who have quoted items from the [...]