Archive for June, 2010

Spent Saturday morning at David Miliband’s leadership campaign event. While most of the candidates seem to be playing the ‘my shirt’s hairier than yours’ game over losing the election, David seems to be the only one with real plans and a real vision for transforming the party.

If we get the choice of leader wrong, the Tories will have a decade to dismantle all the good work of the last 13 years. Personally I think it’s essential that Labour elects him as the next leader.

In the afternoon I went with some volunteers to help out at Tulse Hill, where there’s a council by election.

It was a beautiful day. Perhaps a little too beautiful, because almost everyone whose door we knocked on was out, enjoying the sunshine.

As you may be able to see from the picture, my skin is so fair that I can get sunburned even standing under a tree. Who’d be a ginger?

The Israeli government today attempted to justify the killing of at least nine activists on a ship in international waters. The activists say they were trying to ferry aid supplies to Gaza, by-passing Israel’s blockade.

On the Israeli Diplomatic Website, troops are said to have ‘landed’ on the largest flotilla ship – the Mavi Marmara – only to be ’set upon’ with clubs and knives. The site also maintains that the commandos were primarily armed with paint-ball guns.

On the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning, the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, used similar language, describing how the Israeli forces were ‘attacked’ by protestors wielding iron bars.

Two points scream into mind here.

First, Israel landing a string of special-forces commandos onto a ship seems to me to be the attack. If the activists responded by lashing out with whatever came to hand, that is normally called defence.

Second, if the Israelis were armed largely with paint-ball guns, how come nine protesters are dead?

Prime Minister David Cameron’s response was also a disgrace. If ‘urging Israel to avoid a repeat’ is the best he can do, he is not fit to hold office.