Britain on a knife-edge

British politics has really kicked of in the last few weeks. The controversy surrounding Diane Abbott and her off-the-cuff statements about a white conspiracy to divide-and-conquer has only worsened the crisis following Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s remarks that Cameron was “a dictator in Europe.” In early December, whilst David Cameron was in Brussels keeping [...]

Fiddling while London burns

He was upset and indignant about his flu. It was morally wrong and inexcusable for the wicked Influenza virus to have assaulted his body in such a manner. Regardless of the fact that he had earlier run stark naked in the streets on a cold winter’s night, that behaviour did not excuse the virus for [...]

Ten things I learnt about the riots

Number One:  UK riot police don’t do riots Number Two:  Rioters like sportswear but detest furniture shops Number Three: You can get dizzy counting the number of mental somersaults that commentators make when trying to fit the cause of the riots into their agreed ideology Number Four: Don’t mess with Turks Number Five: All because [...]

Leaving Basra to the bandits

As the Royal Navy concluded their training mission last week, it marked the official end of the British military operations in Iraq. The task of training Iraq’s nascent navy is crucial due to the strategic importance of the southern oil ports and the 90 percent of Iraqi revenues that comes from selling crude. When the [...]

Azaa’ for AV

My voting career has always been an exercise in futility. A red (and sometimes yellow) mark drowned out by a tsunami of blue. But yet again I found myself making my way to the ballot box with a sliver of hope left in my heart that a political revolution was about to happen . This [...]

Where is the outrage?

Yesterday, a baffled Iraqi parliament completely ignored the very laws it legislates by voting in six MPs to replace ministers who have moved up the food chain. An Iraqi MP with only 3 votes (himself, his wife, and maybe one of his brothers) now represents 100,000 citizens. But I suppose that’s okay, because the Supreme [...]

Charisma

Charisma and the ability to charm; these are traits that  are held naturally by some, and are not easily learnt (if it is at all possible to learn them).  When is it advantageous for an individual to possess charisma? Most of the time you can probably say that at the very least it does not [...]

Madressas and my hijacked memories

  ‘Madressa’. Sunny days. Primary school fun. Occasional boredom. Running around the playground. Slightly fresh textbook cartoons. Tedious homework last minute on a Friday evening. Madressa. Hardly a term I thought would be plastered on my English TV screen in 2011. Certainly not when I was a wee little 4 year old learning my alif baa’ [...]

Why did Nick Clegg cross the road….

…because he said he wouldn’t. Or so goes the latest joke about Clegg’s epic ability to flip-flop on key policies and backtrack on some of his most fundamental pre-election promises. A few months before the election, Clegg signed a charter that said “I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament [...]

On strikes and stupidy

In about an hours time, I will be leaving the office and heading home. On a normal day, this journey is pretty ordinary and usually goes off without hitch. Today though, we have the strikes. This means that after a tiring day at the office, I will probably have to spend around 45 minutes or [...]