They already have two British MEPs, Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert, with a reputation for hard work in the European Parliament. A Green vote is an opportunity to say that, whatever petty obsessions dominate the day-to-day political agenda, at least some people remember that our planet is slowly, lethally warming.Some of their policies are a bit eccentric – for example, they seem to be marketing themselves as more Eurosceptic than UKIP, a strange stance for a progressive party.But when it comes to demanding a swift transition away from burning poisonous fossil fuels, the Greens are the only party who do not have an eccentric position.So remind me again why “they’re all the same”. Eagerly scattering soundbites as he goes, the man who once was Archbishop of Canterbury has this week provided a useful insight into the Church and the Crown. Promoting his memoirs, he has also reminded us that the very contemporary disease of publicity-addiction is not restricted to the young, vain and pretty. Being only one of those things, Lord Carey has nonetheless found himself in the news with the help of some light indiscretions from his book, goosed up by a bit of headline-friendly opinionising.
Mr Tenet “provided erroneous information about weapons of mass destruction to President Bush which caused his government massive embarrassment in the United Nations and his own country”, Mr Chalabi said.Mr McLaughlin is a highly esteemed career intelligence official with wide support within the agency, and is respected by Republicans and Democrats alike on Capitol Hill. I accepted his letter.He will serve at the CIA as the Director until mid-July, at which time the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John McLaughlin, will serve as the acting Director.”George Tenet is the kind of public servant you like to work with He’s strong, he’s resolute He’s served his nation as the Director for seven years He has been a strong and able leader at the agency He’s been a strong leader in the war on terror. In July last year, as the controversy over Saddam’s apparently non-existent weapons of mass destruction gripped Washington, Mr Tenet took the blame for allowing the disputed claim into the text. Mr Tenet acknowledged that the agency had not hired the right people, or ensured the correct channelling of data.In his mea culpa to the bipartisan commission, he said: “We all understood [Osama] bin Laden’s attempt to strike the homeland. We never translated this knowledge into an effective defence of the country.” But when asked whether, in retrospect, anything could have been done to prevent the attacks, he defended the agency, saying: “I don’t believe so The plot was off and running Operators were moving into the country. Decapitating any individual, even Bin Laden, in this context would not have stopped this plot.”On that occasion, he may have saved his skin because, while he held overall responsibility for the intelligence failures as CIA director, Mr Tenet could not be personally blamed.
The Labour Government is reviewing local taxation; a strong Lib Dem vote next week will give them the moral authority to lobby hard for their policy to be adopted nationally.If only they had a heavyweight leader like Menzies Campbell to communicate these policies, the danger of the Lib Dems being overtaken by UKIP might be staved off.The other anti-war option is the Green Party. The absurd situation where I pay the same council tax as the deprived families round the corner crammed five-into-a-flat would end.This is a smart local policy for local elections – and it might just have an impact. A typical Respect candidate is Yvonne Ridley, a former journalist, who describes the young fundamentalists who went to fight in defence of the burqa-enforcing Taliban as “heroic” and “principled”. A vote for Respect is a vote for totalitarians in an unconvincing left-wing costume.So if you want to choose an anti-war party but can’t stomach supporters of Lenin, Saddam and the Taliban, where can you go?The Liberal Democrats took a clear anti-war line – and they have some brave policies for the local elections. They have breached the ultimate post-poll tax political taboo and advocated reform of Britain’s grotesquely regressive system of local taxation.The party wants to scrap council tax and replace it with a progressive system of local income tax.It’s easy: under their scheme, the amount you pay in tax to your council would be calculated according to your income, just as with income tax. They called for Saddam to win the 1990-91 Gulf War, and their model society is Lenin’s Soviet Union.The MAB is an Islamic fundamentalist off-shoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which has blatantly misogynist and homophobic strands.
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, you know our politics is in the gutter when all we do is look at faded stars.
A few days ago I was speaking to a smart single mum on a long train journey. Are we discussing Europe, immigration, or – a mad idea! – the country we just invaded (or the one we invaded before that)? No; election coverage has been dominated by Robert Kilroy-Silk and Joan Collins. Less than a week to go, and the nation is greeting a great moment of democratic destiny – its chance to go to the European and local polls on 10 June – with a monumental, almighty shrug of the shoulders. Take away the glamour and sub-showbiz nonsense that excites people like Lord Carey, and leave in its place a constitutionally useful institution, and the country will be in a healthier state.Unfortunately, the challenge of breaking his own mood of vaguely arrogant, fatalistic drift may take more strength and courage than Prince Charles appears to possess.terblacker aol
More from Terence Blacker. After the traumas of divorce and death, these two people appear to have decided to give up playing their parts in the royal soap opera. Their personal relationship to one another is, they have made clear, more important to them than any public duty.For those of us who believe that, at best, the Royal Family should take on a reduced role, embodying a non-political Head of State without the expensive, stupid, class-ridden claptrap, these are hopeful developments. For if those at the centre of the Windsor dynasty turn out to be a sincere, slightly dull country-living couple, the tabloids will quickly lose interest and millions of royal subjects can start growing up.
