First, this. Not that I have any money to give right now, but...
Melanie Phillips is mad (via). Not just a little bit mad, but totally bonkers. Basically, she would like to shackle all women to some bizarre combination of the kitchen sink, the baby's crib and the marital bed, forever. Or at least, that's the implication of the claim that no-one has any right to any support for their children, from anyone, unless they live with them.
On a markedly more sane note, Andrew Bartlett drew my attention to this piece by Norm Geras. I'm not necessarily in favour of withdrawing Coalition troops from Iraq: indeed, if I had any faith or confidence in the ability of those who have thus far spectacularly mismanaged - at least we assess their achievements as if they were interested in a stable, democratic Iraq - the occupation to do any good whatsoever, I think the Coalition would have a very powerful obligation to remain and sort it out. That's by the by though. What's interesting is that Norm seems to have a 'will of the people' criterion for the justification of the invasion
Anyone arguing for a withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq, whether tomorrow, in six months, or at any date determined in advance rather than set by the demands of the situation and the democratically expressed will of the Iraqi people
I was under the impression that it was fairly clear that the Iraqis weren't best pleased about having thousands of foreign troops occupying their country.
Finally, Blood and Treasure reminds us that there is a certain pleasure, a sense of independence, of distinctiveness, in vice, and urges that we not lose sight of that.
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Even if we should be democratic about this, whose opinion counts? The Iraqi people, British people, the troops themselves, the people of the Middle East generally...?
I don't have a settled view. Geras clearly thinks the Iraqi people, and I suppose I'd endorse that, without having thought about it very much.
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