Dan Murphy questions a fashionable view of what triggered what is already being referred to as the Jasmine Revolution: The theory goes that private US diplomatic cables from the Tunis embassy released via Wikileaks on December 7 revealed to Tunisians that Ben Ali was an authoritarian despot, that his family was supremely corrupt, and that […]
In Foreign Policy, Michael Koplow offers his background view of the dark irony behind the sudden fall of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali—a history of ruthless suppression of Islamist opponents—and a warning for those dreaming of a domino effect: Unlike in Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, and most other secular Arab autocracies, the main challenge to […]
For years now, Mick Hartley’s blog has often linked to and summarized journalism that covers the horror and absurdity of life under the North Korean regime. Not only are its subjects prisoners, but the story of their suffering is hidden from the outside world, both by the paranoia and secrecy of the country’s rulers and […]
After delivering a speech at the “General Conference for the Support of Al-Quds”, Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia shared his suspicions that the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US were staged to provide “an excuse to mount attacks on the Muslim world” with a press conference: I am not sure now that Muslim […]
Martin Bright writes about supporters of the Euston Manifesto in his Spectator blog: Earlier this month I was asked to address an audience about what future there might be for the “decent left”. For those unfamiliar for the term this is the tendency on the left generally associated with backing the Iraq War (though some […]
In the aftermath of the most recent wave of protests in Iran, The inventive tactics of Iran’s opposition continue to deny the Tehran regime the uncontested power it seeks. The result is that the post-election political contest over the future of Iran is reaching a pivotal stage, says Nazenin Ansari. there have been reports that […]
This Thursday, 9th July 2009, is the tenth anniversary of the student protests in Iran in 1999—at the time the most serious in the country since the country’s 1979 revolution. On that day, there will be an anniversary demo in London, starting at 18:00, solely to show solidarity with the Iranian people. Participants are invited […]
Communities, majorities, lobbies, and “The Taxpayers’ Alliance”
A blog hosted on The Economist site, of all places, questions the name of a particularly noisy Right-wing UK special interest group—and counterparts in the US: ONE of the many things that irritate me is people putting themselves forward as self-appointed “spokesmen”, claiming to speak on behalf of enormous masses of other people. Examples are […]