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Over at The Sharpener blog, the debate continues in the clearly argued comments on Jarndyce’s original piece [More >>>>]

Anatole Kaletsky thinks Tony Blair has shed socialist confusions between ends and means but that Gordon Brown probably hasn’t. In which case the sooner Brown is in No 10, the better [More >>>]

There were respectable and logical reasons for using force against Iraq, but they were vitiated by failures of nerve and judgement as to lawfulness and timing. [More …]

The government’s proposal to extend the time allowed for detaining a terrorist suspect for investigation and eventual trial offers an opportunity to get rid of control orders, a much greater evil. [More>>>]

Jarndyce in ‘The Sharpener’ blog rebuts (but does not refute) the arguments of those of us who see the German election results as confirming the case against PR for the UK, but only by conceding our main point. [More >>>>]

The NATO attack on Serbia over Kosovo was illegal, unnecessary, unsuccessful, and fraudulently justified. Belief in its success led on to Iraq. [More >>>]

The transcript of Tony Blair’s radio interview after the UN summit suggests a prime minister unable to clarify government policies in reply to routine questioning. Has he begun to lose the plot? [More >>>]

The whole debate on Iraq between George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens can be seen on video on the internet [more >>>]

Sunday’s German elections demonstrate the defects and undemocratic features of Proportional Representation [more >>>>]

Tony Blair wants parliament to tell the British judges how to interpret the Human Rights Convention so that it can deport terrorist suspects even when they risk being tortured. The Australian lawyer John Greenwell comments. [More >>>]

The prime minister says the criminal justice system aims primarily to protect the accused from the state or the police, and needs to be reversed. Can he really believe this? [More >>>]

Michael Brown has resigned as FEMA Director after his humiliating removal from responsibility for Katrina relief: poor treatment by his bosses and the media. [More >>>}

This video clip of what’s been going on in a Walmart store in New Orleans really defies the imagination [more >>>]

The American Red Cross website confirms that the Red Cross was banned from entering New Orleans after the hurricane lest its relief efforts discourage evacuation. Hardly credible? [More >>>]

Eloquent testimony in NBC ‘Meet the Press’ from the President of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana [More >>>]