If anyone reads this in Iran I would like them to know that I feel for them very much at the present time. The Presidential elections appear to have been stolen. Otherwise why would so many unnecessary additional ballot papers and ballot boxes have been produced? I am an independent member of our Parliament and…
“The wars of mankind are like children’s fights – all meaningless, pithless and contemptible. All their fights are fought with wooden swords, all their purposes are centred in futility.” – Jalaleddin Rumi This quotation comes from a 13th Century Islamic mystic, one of the great men of the Sufi tradition. He was born in modern Afghanistan,…
I have visited Turkey at intervals since 1994, as an informal observer of elections and other sensitive events. This spring I was present at the local elections in south-east Turkey. The nationwide results got much more media coverage than local elections here. Since 1984, despite various ceasefires, there has been a prolonged, armed uprising by…
I am one of many independent (Crossbench) Peers and would like to introduce you to my background in my first guest blog. In the late 1960s I visited Northern Ireland as the civil rights protests began to turn into armed conflicts. In 1971 I began to take part in the work of the House of…
