Free Republic

We all know the feeling. You glance at the diary and realise you have guests coming to stay next week, when nothing could be less convenient. They're coming from abroad, expecting to be entertained for several days and it's far too late to cancel. This is the last thing you need. So spare a thought for Tony Blair, as he scans the calendar and sighs. There are the dates, circled and unyielding: November 18 to 21 - Bush in Britain. He knows what it will mean. His guest is the most unpopular US president in living memory. The anti-war movement...

LOCAL authorities will be forced to hold referendums before imposing a council tax rise of more than twice the rate of inflation, under plans being considered by Downing Street. The move would place the problem of local government financing firmly in the hands of councillors and residents who would be faced with the stark choice of backing higher charges or cutting key services. Officials, alarmed at the ferocity of opposition to this year’s record increases, are also considering changing the structure of local government elections, forcing all councils to go to the polls every year, in line with Britain’s big...

So farewell then, Alastair. You were, in the memorable imagery of Andrew Mackinlay MP, questioning the late Dr David Kelly, a kind of fall guy. Alastair Campbell says of course that he was always going to go, but this cannot be the way that he wanted it. Tony Blair’s communications director had been doing what had to be done. His boss could stay clean but dirty work was needed, and now that the doing of it has stained Campbell’s own reputation indelibly, he has to go. He always knew this day would come; and knew, too, that after it had,...

I ONCE ate a salmon mousse that was intended for Alastair Campbell. I got food poisoning and lay in bed for a week. Yet the illness was not the worst thing about this incident. It was the crushing look of disappointment on the face of the journalist who had double-booked lunch and found that, since I had turned up first, he had to eat with me rather than Campbell. I was John Major’s director of research and we were still in power. Campbell worked for only the Leader of the Opposition. Yet already he, not me or any of my...

I pity Tony Blair. The questioning he will face on Thursday from James Dingemans QC will most likely be polite, if firm and pressing. As he is about to discover, however, something much ruder, much less purposeful and much, much more stupid lies in wait for him when he has finished at the Royal Courts of Justice. Last week, Downing Street launched a website through which we can all offer the Prime Minister whatever thoughts we wish to share with him: www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page821.asp. It sounds like a wonderful exercise in direct democracy. In reality, it will turn out to be a...

Businessman who gave staunch support as prime ministerial consort, but avoided conflicts of interest with admirable propriety Denis Thatcher was called on to play a role that no Englishman had ever had to play before, and he played it with style, good humour and an unselfish sense of duty that contributed substantially to the achievements of Britain’s first woman Prime Minister. It was a role not easy to put in words: it is hard enough to define the importance of the wives of famous men, and the phrases sound even more stilted when the roles are reversed — phrases such...

So here it is; the fortnight from hell. If the weather’s halfway decent, we’re stuck with wall-to-wall coverage of the most boring game ever invented, played by the most boring athletes, watched by the most boring audience, interpreted by the most boring commentators. And that’s when it’s at its best. It’s even worse if it rains. I have only two words for you: Sir Cliff. There are few more depressing representations of modern Britain than Wimbledon fortnight. A soporific sport watched only by catatonically dull suburbanites, who think they are getting down and dirty when they squeak “come on, Tim”...

Who is the greatest American? Bill Clinton  4.54%  Bob Dylan  8.06%  Benjamin Franklin  6.28%  Thomas Jefferson  9.19%  Martin Luther King Jnr  14.06%  Abraham Lincoln  15.08%  Franklin D Roosevelt  6.47%  Homer Simpson  20.60%  Mr T  8.02%  George Washington  7.71%  8414 Votes Cast

Imagine a school where 98 per cent of pupils, not one of whom has been selected by academic ability, gained five or more A* to C passes at GCSE. With the average school managing to achieve these grades with only 52 per cent of pupils, you?d think the school must be doing something right and it would be worth replicating. There is such a school, in Gateshead. And there are plans to open a sister school in Middlesbrough, as well as the hope of others in Doncaster, Leeds, Newcastle, Sunderland and Hull. Wonderful news. The people behind it ? and...

I feel slightly appalled at having to write the following sentence but I thought I?d better get it out of the way first. l disapprove of murder. All of it. Black, white, gay, straight, young, old. You name it, I?m against it. Why should I have to start by pointing out a basic moral truism? Because the outrage we all feel at murder has been exploited in the aftermath of one particular killing, in a way that undermines the justice system which should exist to defend us all. Today is the tenth anniversary of the death of Stephen Lawrence. I...

Peter Cuthbertson discusses the importance of concepts and semantics to defining a political meta-context If your arguments are irrational and unconvincing, and the consequences of people listening to them harmful and destructive, then you really need to have some other factor on your side to succeed. Sadly, those who advocate socialism, statism, lilly-livered liberalism and an ever-expanding government have just this. For almost every modern political argument is conducted in a lexicon that favours them, every debate being a competition between those who can use leftist language most convincingly - usually the left, unsurprisingly. Daniel Hannan covered this phenomenon 18...

Blair ... fury at report Picture: REUTERS PM rages at Beeb war slurBy DAVID WOODINGTONY Blair blitzed the BBC on Friday over its twisted coverage of the Iraq war. The PM was furious after a newsman claimed terror in Baghdad is worse than under Saddam. War reporter Andrew Gilligan said on Radio 4’s Today programme: “Baghdad’s people are passing their first days of liberty in a greater fear than they’ve ever before known. RELATED STORIES Sun Says “The old fear of the regime was habitual, low-level. This fear is sharp and immediate.” Mr Blair was furious at a War...

We may not quite have won yet, but three myths are ripe for deconstruction Why did Saddam Hussein have that Pulp Fiction DVD? Quentin Tarantino’s Meisterwerk was found nestling incongrously in a corner of one of the Iraqi President’s own signature achievements, the gilt and marble palace he built on the banks of the Tigris while his people starved. Finding a video nasty with random violence, gratuitous bloodshed and torture in Saddam’s boudoir is not perhaps surprising. But why did the Iraqi dictator need to shell out on fantasy footage from Hollywood? His son Uday could have provided hours of...

French duplicity rules UN out of rebuilding IraqWilliam Rees-Mogg If you do not fight the war, you will not control the peace. When the war in Iraq is over, the US Army will remain in control of the country, just as the Allies were left in control of Germany in 1945. How long that period will last will depend on the success of the reconstruction programme, which is bound to be under American control. Some people imagine that President Bush will turn to the United Nations, which spent 12 years failing to disarm Iraq, from 1991 to 2003, and...

Indiana: I can't dispute, nor can I describe with complete clarity, the profound ignorance of my people. Everything you say is correct: that is, the answer to all your questions can be yes, even though that may seem self-contradictory in places. The situation is so complex, so messed up, that it can't be characterized by a single formula. It has taken fifty years to get to this place in history, a historical moment where many evil forces are converging. Your figure of 30% has become something much worse. In the past, the so-called democracies have prided themselves on being able...

I AM IMMENSELY FEARFUL of those who are now arguing that the Bush Administration should put as much effort and vigour into bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians as it did in fighting Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. My fear is not just that it sounds so reasonable at first sight, but also at the way in which even people on the Right are quite willing to concede to this sort of reasoning. Of course, the difference between pacifying Iraq and pacifying Palestine is that while no sane person in this country blames anyone but Saddam Hussein for his...

Losing his head ... Desert Rats with broken statuePictures: BRIAN ROBERTS DICTATOR Saddam Hussein was a fallen idol yesterday — after being toppled by Britain’s Desert Rats. To the cheers of 500 locals, a five-ton bronze statue came crashing down in Al Zubayr, near Basra. Saddam’s head and shoulders were cut off with an angle grinder and suspended from a crane — after the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment had demolished the 17ft figure with a Challenger recovery vehicle. Good noose ... Lance Cpl Church on Saddam Lance Corporal Graeme Church, 27, said: “As soon as the locals saw what...

Centre of attraction ... gun-toting Sharon seen yesterday in Safwan One in kisser for SaddamFrom NICK PARKERin Southern IraqTHE British Army unleashed its secret weapon in the battle to win over the Iraqi people yesterday — a blonde squaddie called Sharon. Corporal Sharon Astor joined one of the first British patrols to take off their helmets in the town of Safwan.And her stunning looks and sunny smile won her an army of admirers.Sharon, 25, from the Wirral, Cheshire, said: “I can’t believe the reception I’ve had — it must be my long blonde hair.“The kids and some of their...

My constituency Labour party has just voted to recommend that Tony Blair reconsider his position as party leader because he gave British backing to a war against Iraq without clearly expressed support from the UN. I agree with this motion. I also believe that since Mr Blair is going ahead with his support for a US attack without unambiguous UN authorisation, he should be branded as a war criminal and sent to The Hague. I have served in the House of Commons as a Labour member for 41 years, and I would never have dreamed of saying this about any...

Inhuman ... an Iraqi grins in delight yesterday as he surveys American dead A GRINNING Iraqi thug manhandles dead American soldiers as they are paraded on TV. Six brave US troops killed in battle were shown lying in pools of blood on the floor. Smirking thug ... he drags body into abetter position for the TV cameras The Iraqi footage was beamed around the world yesterday by Arab station Al-Jazeera. A Saddam henchman was seen to drag one corpse along the floor by the arm and twist its head so the cameras could get a better shot. He placed...