Throughout the holidays the British media, perhaps for lack of other emotive news, have been focusing on British military casualties in Afghanistan in an almost morbid way. In previous major wars such case by case accounts would not have been possible, or even allowed. It seems to me that editors and the public generally should…
I am giving below the full text of the reply to me of 4th June 2009 by the then Minister of State at the Foreign Office. It is similar to many previous replies. “Thank you for your recent letters about the issues of movement and access in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Palestinian prisoners and humanitarian…
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…
