Wardman Wire Magazine

You are browsing the archives of 2007 November.

I’ve had emails from three people who claim to be - and who almost certainly are- Iraqi former employees of the British Government. All three say that they and their former colleagues are still at risk of death for their ‘collaboration’.
 We’ll call the first man Employee One. He worked for the British for three years: ‘I started in [...]

A nasty shock when this appeared as a Google advert in my right hand sidebar:

Leaving aside the eminently forgettable service name that falls neatly into the middle of the triangle formed by Diageo, Consignia (do you remember the “vanishing down the plughole” logo), and a nursery rhyme engraved in my memory along the lines of “The Big Ship Sales on the …”, it may be a good service (apparently they do “Professional Networking”). I’m not allowed to click on Google ads on my own blog, so I’m not about to find out. If anyone likes it, do comment!

On a different note, there’s a new Welsh blog that gets the bit between its teeth in Welsh politics called “Miss Wagstaffe presents…”, and goes for the detail. In a Welsh Assembly Government that may turn out to always be a set of rotating coalitions, it may be that bloggers can be a force to keep politicians’ behaviour at least vaguely transparent.

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): A copy of the “Briefing memorandum” codenamed ‘Blackbird’ and put together by “Merrill Lynch, Citi and the Blackstone Group” for the sale of Northern Rock was apparently leaked to the Financial Times. An injuction was placed on it to prevent its publication. Thanks to Guido Fawks, who has a good post [...]

This morning a commenter called Thevets (thank-you Thevets - if you have a blog let me know for a credit) has drawn my attention to the fact that Schillings Lawyer’s, who acted for Alisher Usmanov in shutting down critical discussion without addressing the questions raised, have appended their name to a letter in the Guardian yesterday calling for attacks upon free expression in Pakistan to stop. The letter includes this paragraph:

Independent media and journalists have been the target of sweeping press censorship and attack. Peaceful and legitimate meetings held by civil society groups and activists seeking to resist these unconstitutional measures have been broken up by the police.

General Musharraf’s actions are arbitrary and unconstitutional. He has bypassed Pakistan’s own legal protections to ensure that no one is deprived of their right to life and protect its citizens’ human rights and fundamental freedoms. An independent legal profession and judiciary such as we have in the UK are vital in ensuring the accountability of the state. For example, when the UK government argued that it was acceptable to use evidence obtained through torture, lawyers able to operate independently and free from fear were able to challenge them in the courts.

I have 3 points to make here.

This article is a map of which parties control the different local authorities in Wales, which includes a key to the different areas. This uses an outline map from Wikipedia.

This is based on the 2004 Local Election results from the BBC. I have followed the obvious colours used by the BBC, except that No Overall Control is White. Grey is an Independent majority.

Here is the JPEG version (80k) - click through for the full sized version (600 pixels wide):

What would Latex Salmond the Great Pretender do if the Shetland Isles declared UDI and took all their oil with them?

After all, the Faro Islands detached from Norway and remained as part of the Notdic Council 1814.

And Greenland obtained Home Rule in 1978, while “remaining a small Independent country in the EU”. Later, they left.

I wish this was a story about Alex Salmond restarting cross-border raids into Northumberland in response to the damage and depredations made on Scotland by Hengist and Horsa in around 480 AD (*).

Unfortunately it is far more routine.

More wheels are coming off Mr Salmond’s wagon of goodies promised at the Election. The promise to freeze council tax looks like having a cruel collision with reality. From the Herald via the BBC:

The Scotsman carries the results of a survey of local authorities which found a freeze on council taxes will cost the Scottish Government more than £100m - nearly 50% more than the original estimate.