Harry's Place

Remember how Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for US senator from Kentucky, called President Obama’s criticism of BP for the massive Gulf oil leak “un-American”?
Now Obama has been criticized for being being in bed with Big Oil (including BP) by Paul’s fellow Republican Sarah Palin.

I think that there is perhaps a hesitancy to — I [...]

Chomsky famously defended the neo Nazi Holocaust denier, Robert Faurisson, by describing him as “a relatively apolitical liberal of some sort”. He did so, despite the fact that Faurisson’s drift into extremism and racism was no secret, and had been explained to him by Pierre Vidal-Naquet.
Now, Chomsky has found himself in another pickle. Asharq Al-Awsat [...]

Since Ken Livingstone has come up on the blog, along with the “if not Ken, then who…” argument, it is pleasing to note that Oona King is challenging Livingstone to be named the Labour mayoral candidate.
There is a sort of poetic justice if the person defeated by Galloway five years ago went on to [...]

What better way to start a voyage than a round of rousing pro-terrorist and antisemitic chanting?
Intifada, intifada, intifada!
Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews! The army of Mohammed will return!
Mohammed crushed the Jews of Khaybar, killed their leaders, took the widowed wife of one leader as his own, and degraded the survivors of the battle. Today [...]

If I were to be asked what books sum up the ethos of Harry’s Place, I would say that they include Paul Berman’s 2003 book, Terror and Liberalism and Nick Cohen’s 2007 book, What’s Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way. There are of course other books that would suit, and I cannot speak for all [...]

Melanie Phillips is not impressed with the decision to give anonymity to rape defendants. She thinks both women and men should have no anonymity. She is also concerned that rape has been redefined by “feminist hysteria”.
And if women were held publicly to account for the claims they make, the number of those false accusations would [...]

Ken Livingstone has defamed Martin Bright in a particularly stupid and nasty way on Press TV. Martin Bright appears only to be asking for a withdrawal of the slur, and an apology. There is no suggestion that Martin Bright plans to sue, as well he might. If he did, it is likely that Livingstone would [...]

Canada was the most informed country on Rwanda before the genocide, but the information never landed on the right desk.
Months before the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a steady stream of detailed messages about the killings of Tutsis arrived in Ottawa from Canadian diplomats stationed not only in Rwanda but also Kenya and Tanzania.
Never-before-seen documents obtained by [...]

This is a cross-post from journalist Ted Jeory’s new blog about politics in East London

I first met Rushanara Ali, Labour’s new MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, three years ago when she was campaigning to become the party’s parliamentary candidate for the constituency. I was at the East London Advertiser at the time and we [...]

In the course of a Guardian article about Christopher Hitchens and his new memoir, Decca Aitkenhead writes:
When the invasion of Iraq was first debated, one couldn’t fail to notice the preponderance of left-wing men of a certain age who came out in support of the war. Radicals as adults, but often from conservative backgrounds, now [...]