James Forsyth

There has been understandable outrage about the role that those blue-tracksuited heavies played as the Olympic torch made its ignominious way round London. But now The Independent is reporting that these guards are members of the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force that has played a brutal role in putting down the recent protests in Tibet. The government need to urgently tell the public what powers these goons were given, what visas they were on and what background checks were made to ensure that those directly responsible for gross abuses of human rights were not allowed to run around London’s streets. Holding the Olympics in China is one thing, allowing the People’s Armed Police to operate in the British capital is quite another.

The message from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker’s opening statements to the Senate Armed Services Committee is that there has been significant progress in Iraq since September, but that his progress is fragile and that any rapid change in strategy would endanger it. The main news in Petraeus’s testimony was his commitment to a 45 day pause in troops withdrawals once US troop levels have been returned to a pre-surge level and his dismissal of the idea of a fixed timetable for withdrawal. Also worth noting from Petreaus’s evidence were his comments on the role of Iran and Hezbollah in training the extremist Shiite special groups and his contention that ‘Iraqi leaders now recognise the threat posed’ by Iran’s actions.

You really couldn’t make this up, the snow that fell today led to 100 flights being cancelled at Terminal 5. Now, I’ll grant you that you don’t expect snow in April but it was hardly a blizzard. One wonders what is left to go wrong at Terminal 5.

The consequences of the fighting in Basra and the subsequent cease-fire are still unclear. Some see events as testifying to Sadr’s strength, others point out that it was him who was forced to sue for peace.   Kimberly and Fred Kagan, key advocates of the surge, have a piece in this week’s Weekly Standard which acknowledges the uncertainty over what happened in Basra—an uncertainty, which as they point out, largely exists because of the British decision to abandon the city—but argues that most coverage is missing the most crucial fact about what went on: “The most important fact about the recent operations has escaped most observers, however.

I have very little time for Ken Livingstone but I can’t think that tonight’s revelation about his private life is going to make much of a difference to his political fortunes. I expect the fuss will die down fairy fast as none of the usual ingredients required to keep this kind of story going are present. First of all, Ken can’t be accused of hypocrisy—he is hardly a family values politician. Second, none of the other major campaigns are going to want to go anywhere near this story.

It is quite incredible that the problems at Terminal Five have still not been resolved. It is expected that 50 flights will be cancelled today, bringing the total since Thursday to over 400, while 28,000 bags are somewhere in this mess. This is nothing short of a national disgrace and aside from the inconvenience being caused to passengers, huge damage is being done to the attractiveness of Britain as a place to do business. But no one at British Airways seems to think they should resign. At time like this, one really does wish that they had carried on with their rebranded tail fins and dropped the British bit of their name completely.

If anyone doubted that British political parties are doing a poor job of both using the internet to drive their message and exciting voters, then just consider this from Tom Watson’s blog: “Barackobama.com was the 11th most visited site for UK Internet users in February. In September last year it was 172nd. During the week of super Tuesday his website had more visits than any of the major UK political party websites. Obama was the most searched for political figure in the UK, receiving three times as many searches as Hilary Clinton. That’s reach.” To be fair, there are some British politicians who understand the potential impact of the internet—notably, George Osborne.