Sunny ‘Liberal Conspiracy’ Hundal is organising a follow-up to 2008′s successful ‘Blog Nation’ event. Details over at Liberal Conspiracy, but Sunny asks what we’d like to discuss; below the fold, then, are some thoughts. In terms of logistics, I would make three suggestions. Given the layout, it’s important that each table isn’t talking amongst itself [...]

Yes, I’m biased towards Labour, but the boy done good. H/T The Wardman Wire. xD.

Iain Dale asks why we should accept people who aren’t connected with Britain from Guantánamo Bay. These are my reasons why we should. Firstly, it is in our strategic interest for two reasons. I will look at the morality and legality later, but it is enough to say that many states and people, friendly, neutral [...]

My friend, Ewan Watt, has tagged me for ten predictions for 2009. Luke Akehurst, who Ewan also tagged, has some interesting predictions. Mine are: There will be an attempt to ‘test’ Obama militarily within his first year of office There will not be a General Election in the UK There will not be a go-ahead [...]

The UK’s commander in Helmand, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, has said that we shouldn’t expect a decisive military victory in Afghanistan; I wholeheartedly agree. He should have added that there was never going to be a military victory in Afghanistan. Setting up the Afghan government was never going to be enough, either. The international community needs [...]

The 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia. Sochi is 34km from the border with Abkhazia, one of the breakaway provinces of Georgia. Here’s a map of the area; Sochi is in the north-west/top-left corner. Read into it what you will; however, it seems likely that there will be problems. Czech Foreign Minister [...]

A little while ago, I wrote a post here and on the Wardman Wire called ‘Help Zimbabwe from your chair’. Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe, respectively the President and General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trades Unions (ZCTU), were being charged with ’spreading falsehoods prejudicial to the state’. Those falsehoods are, in fact, criticisms [...]

Like many young people, Mehdi Kazemi came from Iran to study English in London in 2005. While here, he discovered that his boyfriend, back in Iran, had been charged with sodomy and hanged. He applied for asylum but was refused, although the Home Secretary agreed to review his case. He has now been granted asylum [...]

The Times has published the top fifty countries from Jane’s list of stable and prosperous countries. The top eight are, in order with their populations in brackets, the Vatican (800), Sweden (9.1m), Luxembourg (480,000), Monaco (33,000), Gibraltar (29,000), San Marino (30,000), Liechtenstein (34,000) and the UK (60.5m). If Sweden is included, those countries are less [...]

I wrote here about the risks of drawing comparison between al-Qaeda and the IRA. An article arguing something similar from Henry McDonald is on the Guardian politics blog; I recommend reading it. xD.