politics

Looks like Mr Miliband has caved completely to the interests of US imperialism, not surprising, but at least he's made it official - if it wasn't already. From the Press Association: Britain branded Russian recognition of Georgia's breakaway regions "unjustifiable and unacceptable" as the diplomatic row intensified. Foreign Secretary David Miliband accused Russian President Dmitri Medvedev of "inflaming" the crisis by insisting that South Ossetia and Abkhazia should be independent....

The signatures are on the paper, the ceasefire has been signed by both sides now. But something is clear, Saakashvili has issues. This guy makes Condoleezza Rice look sane. I'm sure even she was embarrassed by some of the crap this guy came out with at their joint press conference earlier: I have to specify, this is a ceasefire agreement. This is not a final settlement. We are under Russian invasion and Russian occupation right now....

After Russian forces halted actions against Georgian forces yesterday, citing that South Ossetia had been secured and that (to quote Russian President Medvedev) the "aggressor has been punished and their armed forces have suffered significant loses", Georgia has finally accepted the Russian-French plan for ending the conflict in South Ossetia. The plan consists of: 1) Non-use of force. 2) Stop all military action. 3) Free access to humanitarian aid. 4) Georgian troops return to their previous positions before the conflict....

Yesterday you may remember the BBC using footage of a crying woman and a child, describing the attack that she witnessed, she was portrayed in the report as being Georgian. The same woman was also shown on Russian television - what the BBC didn't bother to show you was what she said after "thank you Russia for coming and saving us". This kind of thing has happened too much, pictures on news websites on the internet show Georgian artillery, which are labeled as Russian artillery firing into Georgia....

On the news tonight - reports of Georgian forces observing a ceasefire - desperately trying to cast the Georgian forces in a positive light. Yet even on the very same news programs they later admitted that fighting continued in South Ossetia, and that Georgian forces hadn't completely withdrawn. Tskhinvali is tonight still under fire from Georgian artillery. The Georgian government cannot be trusted to observe any ceasefire, the last ceasefire was on Thursday, which they broke within hours when they launched an all out assault upon South Ossetia with armour, aircraft and artillery which flattened large parts of Tskhinvali killing around 1,500 civilians, and 10 Russian peacekeepers - the very forces they were supposed to be on the same side as....

For those up early Friday morning, if you turned on the news you saw reports of a huge Georgian offensive against separatists in South Ossetia. Background: South Ossetia, is a de-facto independent state, which Georgia claims is its own, however it is primarily made up of Russians, most carry Russian passports and have Russian citizenship. Following a brief period of fighting in the early 1990s, a ceasefire was made between the rebels, whereby a joint Russian-Georgian and Ossetian peacekeeping force (limited to about 500 soldiers) remained in the area to keep the peace....

Blatant and obvious to all, hypocrisy at its best. In response to the Georgian offensive against Russian peacekeeping forces within the de-facto independent state of South Ossetia (ethnically Russian). The U.S. State Department supports Georgia's "territorial integrity". What a shame it doesn't support Serbia's territorial integrity - or anybody else's for that matter, unless of course they're a reliable business partner. South Ossetia's independence was forced by rebels during the early 1990s, until 1992 when a ceasefire was declared and a small Russian-Georgian-Ossetian peacekeeping force was put into place to oversee the ceasefire....

The press has been running seemingly endless anti-China stories, almost every article on the BBC website has an image of a policeman to go along with any story about the Olympics. How about reporting the news for a change instead of creating it? Today two Britons are being held by Chinese police after putting up "Free" Tibet banners near the national stadium, a number of other protests have gone on around the city by small groups of people....

Enough playing to the Daily Mail's readership and their imaginary "middle England". If I hear another politician saying "hard working families who play by the rules" I am going to get annoyed. Most of my work colleagues and myself aren't married nor have children. I guess that means we're all stuffed. Unemployed? Heck they don't work hard you must be stuffed. Pensioners, they may of worked hard all your life, but now you don't, I guess they're stuffed too....

Good question Grimmer, just when are the Parliamentary Labour Party going to act to stop the relentless march of the Labour Party to electoral oblivion in 2010? So where did Gordon get it wrong? 1. Ensuring there was no contest for the leadership 2. Ensuring there was no-one in the cabinet from the left-of-centre 3. Inviting Tories like Digby Jones and Quentin Davies into his "big tent" and excluding the left-of-centre...