Back Towards The Locus

Daniel Davies has a great article on CiF today…

“What’s somewhat stranger is that although everyone seems to have a different view of who best exemplifies the Very Real Concerns Of The White Working Class (themselves) there’s more or less unanimous agreement on who’s in second place, and it’s always the BNP. The BNP, of course, sees the white working class as slightly thuggish, insular, fond of hang ‘em and flog ‘em criminal justice and scared of immigrants, on the same basis. But there’s no particular reason to believe that the BNP is any more representative of the white working class than anyone else who adopts this advertising slogan. So why is it that so many people who want to hitch their wagon to the Very Real Concerns, etc etc, feel the need to warn us that if we don’t listen to them, the “white working class” are bound to slough off into the arms of the BNP?

It’s doubly strange because there’s actually very little evidence that the BNP are growing in strength at all. A cynic might say that the point of the BNP is to act as a boogeyman to scare us into voting for policies that don’t seem like a good idea on the merits, out of sheer fear that if we don’t throw a couple of bones to the white working class then they will all vote BNP and then we’ll be sorry. It’s the politics of “nice tolerant multiracial society you’re got here … shame if something happened to it”.”

Now read the whole thing *he said in tones of nauseating cheer*…

Gordon Brown, the rather foolish individual that appears to be running our country, has held forth on the subject of the Mumbai attacks…

“It is clear that we have got to help the Indian government deal with this terrorist incident and we have sent people from the Metropolitan Police to help…This is an atrocious outbreak of violence planned in advance and I think we have got to look at how international action against terrorism can be improved over the next period of time.”

Well, no, we don’t, because we have little reason to believe that the awful events of the past couple of days have any particular international relevance. Asserting that the “planned in advance” attack – as if it could have been fucking spontaneous – was necessarily the result of a widespread conspiracy only serves to maintain the strategy of tension, and encourage sinister balls such as this…

“I think the terrible news from India, coupled with intelligence reports of the al-Qaeda desire to do something similar here, may well prompt Obama et al. to think very carefully about repealing the FISA accords, elements of the Patriot Act, immediately closing Guantanamo, and other homeland-security measures.”

NOOOO!

Here’s President George Bush hailing Slobodan Milosevic’s transferral to the Hague…

“The transfer of Milosevic to the Hague is an unequivocal message to those persons who brought such tragedy and brutality to the Balkans that they will be held accountable for their crimes. Milosevic’s transfer further signals the commitment of the new leadership in Belgrade to turn Yugoslavia away from its tragic past and toward a brighter future as a full member of the community of European democracies.”

Even he thinks that trials and prosecutions are progressive rather than regressive.

The worst thing about my “decency” wasn’t just what I was advocating – or, rather, what I wasn’t advocating – but the ludicrous, immature pettiness of it. Picking pointless fights, quibbling with obscure points and only occasionally firing off a half assed condemnation. Staring evil in the face and then tutting at the pimple on it’s chin, in other words. That was really quite immoral.

We know that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead, but there are also hundreds of thousands who’ve lost their loved ones, hundreds of thousands who’ve lost their limbs and millions that have had to leave their homes. Millions have little or no access to facilities, and millions more are terrified of leaving their own neighbourhoods.

The most progressive thing that we can do is chase up Tony Blair for war crimes. The legal case was utterly invalid, the deception of the commons is being revealed and his lies are there for any anorak to access. The fact that the man’s currently getting rich and chatting about football leads me to believe that he simply must be sociopathic, and is therefore a danger to himself and those around him. Moreover, bringing him to justice would show other elected leaders that they too will be held responsible for their actions, and may curb the nose-thumbing lawlessness of previous years.

Obama’s escalation of the Aghanistan conflict, and the fact that he’s being briefed by Condi-bloody-Rice, shows that there’s no end in sight for the “War on Terror”. But if we can convince our politicians that it’s not in their interests to support it – with finances, men or materiel – we can deny a valuable asset to the US. Sure, it’s unlikely, but we owe it to the continued victims of the past eight years (and many before that) to at least give it a try.

I’m pleased to see that Ian Rankin is going to adapt The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner for the screen. The first time that I read Memoirs and Confessions I was in year ten, and, well, just found it exciting. Having rediscovered it over the summer, however, I can confidently gush that it’s a truly magnificent novel; a fantastical horror that challenges the moral perceptions of the reader rather than merely guiding them through a rogues gallery.

It’s possible, of course, that Rankin will screw it up. I am – and, as someone who has a nauseatingly pompous attitude towards irredeemable shite like Harry Potter, this feels a bit like a confession – a fan of his, and he writes really good, tight novels. He does, however, have a weird habit of overpacking his openings and introductions. They read a little like this..

John Thribb was gloomy. Not just because of his acute depression, his crappy pay, Jane dumping him and the overcast weather but because he was standing over a body. The body of his aunt.

I don’t know whether he’ll carry this over to his scripts, but it’d be particularly disorientating when the opening is trying to set a tone.

On the other hand, Rankin is far more subtle than his contemporaries, in character, dialogue and, importantly, imagery. Thus, we are happily unlikely to see ravens swooping down from church towers before settling on gravestones and looking out over barren moors etc. etc. etc.

There’s an interesting bit in Inayat Bunglawala’s new Guardian column, in which he claims that a 2001 article published under the name of Khalid Mahmood MP was actually written by my fave politishun Dennis MacShane. Bunglawala links back to a diary entry by Matthew Norman…

“We much enjoyed Khalid Mahmood’s trenchant pro-war piece in the Observer. As he is one of only two Muslim MPs, the member for Birmingham Perry Bar’s defence of the bombing and dismissal of five “myths” about Islam (such as most Muslims opposing the bombing) will carry some weight. The fact that the article was identical to a piece sent last week to one of our three Muslim peers, the Rochdale chippy Lord Ahmed, is just another of those meaningless coincidences that afflict politics and media all the time.

Why Lord Ahmed declined to sign the piece, which reached him on crested Foreign Office paper and was written by FO minister Denis McShane, and pass it to a newspaper, is unclear.”

This later entry is even more interesting…

“What a year Lord Ahmed is having. Not content with turning in FO imbecile Denis MacShane for threatening him with MI5 surveillance after he refused to put his name to a pro-war article…”

The latter allegation stems from a 2001 story, in which Ahmed claimed that MacShane had confronted him, waved a handful of papers in his face and said that “we know what you have been saying, who you have been talking to. Everything you say is circulated to ministers”. An aggrieved MacShane protested that he had been misinterpreted, and they had merely had “a fairly robust political conversation but one we left with smiles”.

Would you leave a conversation smiling if you thought that another had told you he was bugging your house?

I was sad to see (via Pootergeek) that Willie Donaldson has staggered off the mortal coil. As with most geniuses his death was cold and lonely, but his life was so interesting that one can merely quote the newspaper reports that fluttered in his wake…

“Cannabis case impresario fined. When cautioned the accused asked the arresting officer ‘Haven’t I seen you at one of my pot parties?’ “

…

“Vanished producer leaves entire cast in Liverpool. Sole clue to his whereabouts a note reading ‘Have gone to London for money! Back tonight! Don’t worry! We have a hit on our hands!’

It really puts shipwrecks like Doherty and Winehouse to shame: a man that could actually live entertainingly. In fairness, he didn’t have to have his nostrils examined by a phalanx of cameramen as he left his door each morning.

Wayhay, it’s Victory In Iraq day! Isn’t it heartening to see the happy throng of, er, US bloggers. But look! The Iraqis are putting on a party as well! And (wow!) they’ve even got a statue of President Bush, and they’re…er…oooh…ah, God that didn’t look good…OW! Jeez, I….Oh Lord….