DK has managed to dig up an extremely wrong-headed article on the Georgia versus Russia conflict over South Ossetia. Marius Ostrowski tries to put the ‘Russia is terribly terribly bad; just because the people of South Ossetia are Russian, want to be part of Russia and the Georgians keep trying to kill them doesn’t mean [...]

The allegations that Craig Murray made against Alisher Usmanov (see here for backstory) have been repeated in the European Parliament by Tom Wise MEP. This means they are now covered by parliamentary privilege and can be repeated by anyone. Way to go, Schillings.
You can hear the allegations on blip.tv, or download the MP3 file.
Alternately, here [...]

There is much discussion amongst our continental brethren about just what to do with the aborted EU constitution. Some suggest simply ratifying the thing anyway, despite the French and Dutch “no” votes; others propose cutting bits and trying again; others still that bits of it should be introduced gradually (so that no one really notices); [...]

Professor Victor Bulmer-Thomas, in his last briefing paper as Director of non-profit foreign policy analysts Chatham House, is suitably damning of our dear foreign policy obsessed PM - with a few nice little digs to boot:
“In Blair’s case, of course, the focus on foreign policy may have been accentuated by the difficulty of playing a [...]

Kendall Myers, a senior US state department analyst, has called the Anglo-American relationship “one sided” and implied that Blair was essentially an idiot for wasting his time. Some choice quotes:
It was a done deal from the beginning, it was a onesided relationship that was entered into with open eyes… there was nothing. There was no [...]

The rising prison population isn’t only a British concern; it also makes the news in Italy. However, the comparison with Britain breaks down on at least two counts: firstly, because the size of the prison population is considerably smaller (in both absolute and relative terms); secondly, because the Italian government has taken the novel step [...]

Simon Heffer is not a columnist for whom I usually have much time - although his biography of Enoch Powell was relatively interesting, that was more down to the subject than the author. If anything, the writing style put me off reading the thing more so than did old Enoch’s politics.
Still, Heffer has a piece [...]

Melanie Phillips writes that Europe needs to become re-Christianised to resist the tide of Islamic extremism:

Courtesy of today’s Metro freebie (published by the same lot as are responsible for the fervently anti-EU Daily Mail):
“Traditional loaves of bread could soon be replaced by packs containing just four slices under a new EU ruling”

It’s a disgrace! How dare these Brussels bureaucrats take away our sliced whites! How dare they presume to allow [...]

Thus spake France’s Minister for European Affairs, Catherine Colonna, giving her opinion of the state of the EU to the assembled ranks of the French Ambassadorial elite. Packed with (if we’re honest, fairly astute) criticisms of the current way the EU works, this seems to be a new approach from France, the country which more [...]

Archbishop Cranmer, although a dab hand at being burned alive, is a relative newcomer to UK blogging. He must be good, as he’s been namechecked in the Sharpener’s New Blood Roundup - although he’s perhaps a little extremist and religious for my taste.
However, one Cranmer post is so monumentally weird I felt the need to [...]

Sometimes our ‘saints’ need to be disrobed. 
Gunter Grass, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1999, has recently admitted to serving in the Waffen-SS during the last days of World War Two.  This story is being dressed up as exposing Grass as a hypocrite.  I argue that the story is does nothing of the sort.  [...]

Much has been said about the recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon and blockade of that country, with the apparent intention of putting back the Lebanese economy by 20 years.

[Israeli] Army Chief of Staff Lt-Gen Dan Halutz said the Israeli military would “turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years” if the soldiers were not returned.

Here I intend to approach the subject from a point of view of European (and especially European Union) foreign policy

Anyone else get the impression that it’s take out the trash day?
On a day when Labour fundraiser Lord Levy has been arrested and Israel seems to have declared war on Lebanon, David Cameron looks to be quietly dropping the one policy pledge he’s actually made.