Lies, Damn Lies

OK, yes

This is what I would say if I was more literate.

On a lighter note, sort of, you have to love 24 hour news. When there is a tragedy like this one, they feel the need to cover it all the time. Which is fine, but of course there really isn't 24 hours worth of news. Occasional updates will occur, of course, but they are frequently reduced to getting talking heads to say things like "I offer my condolences to the victims families and friends" which need to be said, although the 4th time is probably enough. Bizzarely, when interviewing Micheal Howard, after he had basically said above, they kept asking him the same questions, to which he gave basically the same answer... I mean right after an attack its all about condolences and condemnation... so you hardly need to ask anyone more than one question. Oh well.

But yeah, its time to start really dealing with terrorism. It will be with us for a long time yet, but if we really want to reduce it in the long term then we need to open communications, we ned to listen, we need to reduce the support terrorists have to get to be able to operate. And yes, we should keep with the more millitant anti-terrorism actions. We should try and capture them, but not at the expense of causing an international incident. And above all, we should get the hell out of Iraq. We are really helping no-one there anymore, and all we are generating is hate. i'm not saying leave tomorrow, but it is time for a genuine plan of withdrawal rather than vague words about leaving "when its stable". And what we must not do is curtail civil liberties. We KNOW it doesn't work- it didn't work against the IRA, why SHOULD it work now?

And, importantly, we should not forget about the make poverty history campaign. Its still vital.

posted by Mr K @ 5:13 pm