Dissident Voice
Mehdi Hasan’s polemical take on politics, economics and foreign affairs
Expenses: the story that never ends
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 19 November 2009 22:31
Tory MP David Curry stands down from committee
The expenses scandal continues to haunt Westminster
Is it just me or is the MPs' expenses scandal the story that never ends; the gift (for journalists!) that never stops giving? Every time you think it's over and we've moved on and British politics is "back to normal", it bursts back onto the parliamentary scene and into full public view. The Telegraph (who else!) is reporting that David ...
Bin Laden and me
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 19 November 2009 08:52
My interview with his son in this week's NS
Omar Bin Laden. Credit: Getty Images
I have interviewed, via email, Omar Bin Laden, the fourth eldest son of the world's most notorious terrorist. You can read it here.
He says he wants to work for the UN (!) and, surprisingly, has very little trouble getting on airplanes. Oh, and he doesn't know where daddy is but probably wouldn't tell us even if he knew.
Omar has, however, decided ...
Vote Blue, Go Green?
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 18 November 2009 17:11
Not quite ...
The Independent, on its front cover, highlights a new report by leading scientists suggesting that the world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6º by the end of the century.
Meanwhile, the Left Foot Forward blog points out that the Tory MEP Roger Helmer ...
Why die for Karzai?
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 17 November 2009 13:12
The question Brown and Miliband can't answer
In his Guildhall speech last night, Gordon Brown made the case (again!) for the British military presence in Afghanistan, arguing that the western alliance would "never succumb to appeasement". This morning, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, addressed the Nato Parliamentary Assembly in Edinburgh, in a speech entitled "The war in Afghanistan: how a political surge can work". Miliband said ...
Stephen Byers to quit parliament...
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 16 November 2009 18:02
... but who cares?
Stephen Byers, the former transport secretary and New Labour outrider, has announced he is to quit as an MP at the next general election.
I can think of only two responses:
1) Who cares?
2) Good riddance.
Oh wait...
3) Can anyone name a single thing that Stephen Byers has done, either as a backbencher or as a minister, to enhance or improve British public ...
Britain's Israel lobby
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 16 November 2009 17:54
What is it, who's in it and how does it work?
Channel 4 has challenged one of the few remaining taboos in British politics. Credit: Getty Images
Does the UK have a pro-Israeli lobby? And is it as powerful or as prominent as its (in)famous US counterpart? Tonight's Dispatches on Channel 4, fronted by the Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne, sets out to answer these questions and shine a light on this sensitive and contentious subject, one of the few remaining taboos in British politics and British political ...
On a break
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 09 November 2009 00:36
Silence from 'Dissident Voice'
I will not be blogging for the next week or so. I would point you in the direction of James's excellent Public Accounts blog for your daily dose of politics and opinion. Normal service will resume on Monday 16 ...
Horrific shooting at Fort Hood
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 06 November 2009 12:37
What does this mean for America's Muslim soldiers?
Having spent two years working in the relentless, 24-hour-world of Sky News, dealing with "breaking news" stories, I am almost immune to stories out of the United States of gunmen running amok and killing members of the public/co-workers/students/delete-where-applicable. However, the latest incident at Fort Hood - the largest US military base in the world - in which 13 people ...
Palestinian Gandhi
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 05 November 2009 16:21
Have we found one?
Having once written a column in which I urged both the Israelis and the Palestinians to find "viable leaders committed to non-violence and able to articulate an authentically Gandhian vision for ending the conflict", and now having written a column in this week's magazine condemning suicide bombings from an Islamic point of view, I thought I'd point you in the ...
Can Ken Clarke stay in this shadow cabinet?
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 05 November 2009 12:40
Pro-European Tories must remain consistent -- and brave
Will Straw's Left Foot Forward blog draws our attention to this statement by the shadow business secretary and noted Tory Europhile Ken Clarke, in a report from 2003:
Ideas such as a "Supremacy Act", asserting the superiority of British law or giving the British courts the power to overrule judgements of the European Court of Justice, undermine one of the fundamentals ...
Obama's first year -- good or bad?
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 04 November 2009 18:36
Debating the Obamaniacs
The excellent Jonathan Freedland bursts some of the Obama bubbles on the first anniversary of his historic election victory:
The US is still fighting two wars; Guantánamo remains open, with no clear plan for its closure given that Congress has ruled that none of its inmates can be moved to the US; Iran has not yet agreed to anything; Middle East peace ...
Kim Howells sees sense on Afghanistan
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 04 November 2009 10:06
The former Foreign Office minister calls for withdrawal
As the New Statesman has long argued, and continues to argue, it is time to bring our boys home from the killing fields of Helmand. We are not "winning" the war in Afghanistan; nor is the war "winnable". The corrupt and illegitimate Karzai government is not a credible partner, and the Taliban cannot be wished away.
It is therefore refreshing to see ...
Quote of the day
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 02 November 2009 17:41
David Cameron on ConservativeHome
As for ConservativeHome, well, although I love and adore ConservativeHome in all sorts of deeply precious ways, I haven't seen this. So I'll go off and read it and maybe get back to you.
- The Conservative leader, David Cameron, commenting on the Tory blogsite's claim that he is planning to dump the party's commitment to a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty (as ...
Lord Pearson's anti-Muslim rant
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 02 November 2009 13:14
Islamophobia and Ukip
I have blogged before about the odious Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the Ukip peer and front-runner for the leadership of that EU-obsessed party. But is Europe its only obsession? The Telegraph's Ed West says that "Lord Pearson told me that, if elected, he will make the threat of radical Islam the major focus" of the UK Independence Party.
Defenders of ...
Beyond Kaminski
Posted by Mehdi Hasan - 01 November 2009 15:17
Have we forgotten the Latvians and the rest?
Has the Kaminski brouhaha distracted us from the bigger picture? The Tory blogosphere may want us to change the subject and move on, but the reality is that the cuddly Cameroonian Conservatives remain allied, in Brussels, with a bunch of whackjobs, loons and bigots. Will Straw has the details. Does David Cameron, for example, know that the Lijst Dedecker ...
