80 people are blown to bits in Shabqadar in north west Pakistan. This bloody slaughter is merely the latest in a long line of such outrages – muslims killed by muslims.

I find myself wondering (yet again) what motivates the suicide bomber?

Is it the promise of 72 virgins?

Google “72 virgins” and be astonished. How is it that sane people can believe such utter tripe?

I suppose the answer is in the question. Sane people don’t.

Time, I think, for an Islamic Reformation where all the hocus pokus is junked.

Time for imams everywhere to tell it as it is. There aren't any virgins waiting around for martyrs.

Going against the Party line

Having branded Lord Greaves “Mr Angry” it is time to pay him a compliment.

He slags off the Lib Dem leadership when the mood takes him (and I approve) but he also votes against the Party line when he thinks it is wrong. I think that’s a good thing.

Greaves was one of 13 Lib Dem peers who, earlier this week, voted against their own coalition government to remove – for the time being – the elected Police and Crime Commissioners from the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill.

It will be interesting to see what the feeble Birtwistles of this world do when the Bill returns to the Commons.

Going against the Party line is sometimes necessary – to save leaders from themselves.

I recall that 15 years ago, in May 1996, I was telling the Pendle Party (see attachment below) about moves in the PLP to abandon elections to the Shadow Cabinet on the grounds that the contests would be “too divisive”. It was an early sign of New Labour's authoritarianism and control freakery. And, surprise surprise, it is an issue that has resurfaced periodically ever since.

I also drew attention to the furore over Broon’s failure to consult colleagues over plans for Child Benefit. Even the front benchers directly involved were out of the loop!

So many straws in the wind.

War is a bummer

So says the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards. He tells the Commons Defence Committee about the difficulties of making headway in Afghanistan where tribal loyalties and trigger-happy Americans make an explosive mix.

Canada is, of course, ending its combat operations in July although she will continue in a training and support role.

The conflict is already the longest war in Canadian and American history. And it is costing a absolute fortune. Every American soldier costs $1 million a year to sustain in Afghanistan.

And what has been achieved? There has been some progress but corruption is endemic and, if anything, getting worse. 

A Canadian Library of Parliament paper, published last year, quotes a survey released by Integrity Watch Afghanistan that talks of “rampant corruption” where nothing gets done without a bribe. (see attachment below)

Afghanistan is the second poorest nation on earth (after Niger) and, tragically, is likely to stay that way so as long as those who are in a position to milk the system do so.

The CBC flagship current affairs programme, the National, is transmitting a series of programmes on Canada’s legacy in Afghanistan.

Many of the stories are uplifting. There are achievements but will they be short-lived?

Canada has spent a staggering $2 billion on development aid - the largest amount ever to a developing country.

Was it worth it?

I’d like to think so. But I can't get that image out of my head of hundreds of Afghan prisoners escaping from a state-of-the-art jail built with Canadian tax dollars. And the Afghan guards looking the other way.

Luck in politics

We often hear that luck is everything in politics. Being in the right place at the right time.

There can be no better example of this than Ruth Ellen Brosseau, the newly elected NDP MP for the Quebec constituency of Berthier-Maskinonge.

She was swept into Parliament on a tidal wave of support for the NDP in Quebec – despite never having visited the constituency. During the campaign she was on holiday in Las Vegas.

If that isn’t bad enough, we learn this week that she had to consult Google maps to find out where her constituency was.

Inevitably, wall-to-wall press coverage follows and she now has a national profile eclipsing all the other new MPs put together.

She tells the Toronto Star that if there is one good outcome from all the negative publicity it is that “everyone now knows where Berthier-Maskinonge is”.

That’s what I like to hear.

Attachments:

95 GC May 1996.pdf	[Report to Pendle Labour Party May 1996]	6534 Kb
Canadian Policy Towards Afghanistan.pdf	[Canadian Policy on Afghanistan (Library of Parliament)]	551 Kb
Political Developments in Afghanistan.pdf	[Political Developments in Afghanistan (HofC library paper)]	137 Kb