There’s an alarming increase in the number of journalists who are falling prey to corrupt regimes, war and oppression, and so like many other people in the trade I wasn’t overly optimistic about the fate of Alan Johnston.
That pessimism wasn’t diminished as we compiled a list the other week of Russian journalists killed in mysterious circumstances.
So it would be hard to overstate my delight at Alan’s release in Gaza. I know a couple of people who worked with the BBC correspondent and they were superlative in their comments about him both as a person and as a journalist.
Huge praise is due to his parents who conducted themselves with great dignity and were unstinting in their efforts to keep Alan’s captivity in the public eye.
There will be such a sense of delight over at the BBC today as the corporation welcomes back one of its own and here at the New Statesman we are celebrating with them. I can only hope that Alan fully recovers from the appalling ordeal that he has been subjected to.
Alan’s release caps a pretty extraordinary week in which we finally saw the back of Tony ‘History will judge’ Blair and the dawning of the Brown era. It’s going to be fascinating seeing what the new prime minister does in the coming weeks and months.
One of the odder aspects of events in Westminster was the defection of Comrade Quentin Davies to Labour. Last week he explained why he left DC’s Tories so I rang him up and asked him to outline what attracted him to Gordon Brown’s Labour Party. Have a read of his article.
And if you’re getting a bit, well, browned off with everything don’t miss Simon Munnery’s alternative programme for government. It involves invading Portugal among other things.
Finally, my apologies to my extensive readership for my prolonged absence. The explanation for which was provided by Simon Hooper in the previous entry on this blog.
Having a screaming infant has a number of advantages. One of which is you can’t hear the TV when it’s on. The other day I was grateful to her for drowning out Elton John who was appearing at that Wembley concert for Princess Diana. Is it just me or does he look like an oompah loompah when dressed in tails?
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