The Politics of Dancing

Curious this obsession by the regressive left with International Law, indeed what one might call the fetishizing of, what is often in truth little more than the Russian and Chinese veto on the UN Security Council. Now the clique who head up the Stop the War (sic) Coalition do not of course view the rule of law as a sacred principle, being ‘leftists’ how could they? Would they denounce Trade Unionists for breaking anti trade union laws, or refugees for entering the country illegally? [1] Of course they would not and would have a strong moral case for supporting defiance of such laws. Civil disobedience having a long and respectable tradition on the left. Still there is a strong case to be made for supporting the concept of International Law, even if in practice its implementation proves flawed, inconsistent and unjust. Some rules being better than none at all. Though one only has to examine the existing framework of international law to see its innate conservatism and that it prot...

I suppose that 44 years represents a substantial enough period between television adaptations of Tolstoy’s literary masterpiece. These adaptations, which it has now become critically de-rigueur to giggle at, is what the BBC does best. [1]   However, Jack Pullman’s 1972 adaptation set the bar extremely high, and even after 44 years, it is still available on DVD, casts a very long shadow. Given its length War & Peace lends itself far better to TV adaptation than to film, with the action comfortably moulded into six to nine episodes. Attempts to bring it to the big screen have been abysmal. At this point, as parliamentarians are obliged to point out, I must declare an interest. I read War and Peace when I was sixteen, and read it whilst watching The Pullman adaptation, thus for me Alan Dobie will always be Andrey Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, Morag Hood, Natasha Rostova and Anthony Hopkins Pierre Bezhuhov. Reading the book was one of the great literary moments of my life. So...

The Regressive Left and the Death of Satire Did you hear the one about.....   The motion before a ‘left wing’ conference proposing that Daesh be recognised as a legitimate anti-imperialist resistance movement? What about George Galloway, the Bernard Manning of the far left, attending an ‘anti-war’[sic] protest at the same time as tweeting support for the indiscriminate bombing being conducted by Putin in Syria? No, that one past you by, then what about ‘anti-war’ website that compared Daesh Jihadi fighters to members of the International Brigades, or the one about the Paris massacres being about France reaping the fruits of its imperialism? Admittedly the last was a particularly sick joke, though when it came to the slaughter of Charlie Hebdo staff no comment was too cruel or brutal for the ranks of the regressive left, indeed the sickest joke of all was the voice of self styled ‘progressive liberals’ providing apologia for the murder of cartoonists and the literal slaughter ...

What Value a Dead Syrian Child What is the current market value of an atrocity in Syria? The answer to this question depends of course on who committed it. Let me illustrate the point by highlighting the [fictional] case of Leila. Leila is a pretty, precocious seven-year-old Syrian girl. She is well liked and has shown a particular aptitude for mathematics, her teacher sees a bright future for her. Leila is dancing in the playground when a bomb destroys her school killing her and all the other children in the playground. First reports indicate that the school was destroyed in a coalition airstrike, the target being a nearby ISIS/Daesh training camp. There is much derision from the ant-war left when coalition sources say that they are investigating the incident and if there have been civilian casualties express deep regret. Leila, whose name and background are provided by her grieving parents, becomes a cause celebre for Stop the War and the anti-war [sic] movement. A pict...

  Coloured lights and candlelight are minor additions to any room, add a little tinsel and the room is transformed into a grotto. The celebration of light and of bright and shiny things speaks to something very deep in the psyche, something primitive even atavistic.  We feel a thrill as the light plays with shadows, glinting off tinsel, sometimes quivering, hit by a sudden draft, sometimes standing erect as guards outside the Winter Palace. Christmas is many things and long before it was subsumed into Christianity a mid-winter festival was a time to keep the gloom at bay with fire and dancing and chanting. Despite all the accumulated Christian symbolism Christmas still speaks to our pagan spirit. This year the darkness has felt more oppressive, beginning and ending as it has with mass murder in Paris. A year characterised by slaughter, and, when it came to the nature of the threat we face, by denial, deceit and dissembling. The bodies of the dead in the offices of...

'In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.' George Orwell To be political and on Twitter the day after the vote to extend air-strikes into Syria was to be greeted by a wave of hyperbole, sanctimonious finger pointing certainty, grotesque distortions and downright lies. A display of self-righteous hyperbole that would make a Free Presbyterian fire and brimstone preacher blush. You would have thought that Parliament had voted for a re-run of Dresden as the responsibility for mass slaughter was laid at the feet of MP’s who had supported the extension . This whipped up to a level that at times can only be characterized as hysteria.   Apologies to every innocent Syrian from everyone in Britain who has brain cells left. If there was an answer, it wasn't genocide #SyriaVote — pricey (@amyis_drunk) December 3, 2015     Hysteria moreover by people, who it is worth noting, could not even bother to protest outside the Syria...

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. First a reality check, we are already hitting Daesh from the air, what parliament is voting on today is merely extending air operations from Iraq to Syria. Daesh is already being attacked from the air in Syria by a coalition including Jordan, France and the United States. There is also the continued indiscriminate bombing by Assad now joined by the Russians. Whatever parliament decides today that bombing will continue. Should the House of Commons agree the RAF will represent a very small component of those forces striking Daesh in Syria. Our contribution will make a difference, but not a very significant one . Parliament is not voting on whether to ‘go to war’ or whether to fight Daesh or not, that decision has already been made. The importance of the vote today has taken on an importance out of all proportion to reality. Jeremy Corbyn Speaks at So Called Stop the War Rally. That said doing nothing...