Open Letter to Hilary Benn on the Syrian Bombing

The Western powers sowed the wind in 1991, by needless violence against Iraq. Sowed the wind with a double dose by the total destruction of Iraq’s only viable secular authorities in 2003. Then gave the Middle East a triple whammy by encouraging Syrian protestors to make the impossible demand that President Assad resign before any multi-party election, when he seemed ready to compromise. (And might plausibly have won such elections without trickery, which the West decided was much more than he deserved.)

Also Parliament And World War One: ‘Defence of the Realm‘ against Betrand Russell; Corbyn’s Voring Record, MP’s Letters About the Syrian Bombing; ADS Annual Dinner: Aerospace, defnece, securty, making friends with MPs; Rail, Rents and Housing (Part 1); Froggy;  Welfare and Work Reform Bill: Interview with Paul Morrison; Parliamentary Notes; Listening to Italy. Guernica Still Burns (poem). No Hounding Socialism (poem). Prime Minister’s Question Time (poem)

Now Available On-Line

February 2015: Editorial, Britain Needs Good Jobs.  Looking back at a page of job advertisements from the Oldham Chronicle for 1979,  jobs of the sort that were wiped out by Thatcherism.

Parliament and World War One: Compulsory Military Service, Froggy, Notes on the News, Liberty Equality Fraternity (Poem), Letter on Small Business, Parliamentary Notes: Rail Franchising, Ukraine, TTIP Trade Agreement, Listening to Italy, Plastered of Paris (poem).