No Way to Elect a President
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101586.html
By David S. Broder
Thursday, February 22, 2007; Page A19
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced plans to hold an
unusual Saturday session last week to vote on the House-passed
resolution opposing President Bush's plan to send more U.S. troops
into Iraq, he disrupted the schedules of at least six of his
colleagues who are running for president.
Joe Biden and John McCain were both supposed to spend the day in Iowa;
Hillary Clinton, in New Hampshire; Chris Dodd, in South Carolina;
Barack Obama, in South Carolina and Virginia; and Sam Brownback, in
Florida.
A War Under Law
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101583.html
Congress Must Address U.S. Detainee Policies
By Jeffrey H. Smith
Thursday, February 22, 2007; Page A19
In November, Americans voiced their frustration with the war in Iraq
and gave control of Congress to the Democrats. The voters rejected the
president's swaggering, go-it-alone approach and the administration's
contemptuous attitude toward the Geneva Conventions, which led to the
abuses at Abu Ghraib, actions that so damaged our credibility that
other nations are much less willing to cooperate in the war on
terrorism. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and her able legal
adviser, John Bellinger, have pushed for reforms that have begun to
reverse this trend -- but much more must be done.
Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Patrick J. Leahy introduced legislation
last week that will move us further in the right direction. But there
are three things Congress should do.
Can Free Trade Be a Fair Deal?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101587.html
By Harold Meyerson
Thursday, February 22, 2007; Page A19
Within the past year, an important new debate has taken shape, though
it's not likely to be the focus of any forthcoming presidential
debates as such. It is likely, however, to distinguish liberal from
centrist thinking for decades to come.
The debate begins at the familiar flash point of trade -- more
particularly, with the realization of business elites and their
political champions that the nation's free-trade policies have become
threatened by growing public anxiety over our economic future. While
corporate profits soar, individual wages stagnate, held at least
partly in check by the brave new fact of offshoring -- that millions
of Americans' jobs can be performed at a fraction of the cost in
developing nations near and far. November's elections, in which voters
sent to Congress a freshman class composed almost entirely of free-
trade skeptics, rang alarm bells on both Wall Street and K Street.
A Lack of Courage In Their Convictions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101585.html
By George F. Will
Thursday, February 22, 2007; Page A19
Indiscriminate criticism of President George W. Bush is an infectious
disease. Some conservatives seem to have caught it, but congressional
Democrats might be crippled by it.
Consider some conservatives' reflexive rejection of the
administration's achievement -- with China, Russia, South Korea and
Japan -- of an agreement that might constrain North Korea's nuclear
weapons program. Voicing the obvious with a sense of originality,
critics exclaim that North Korea is a serial liar. And, echoing the
equally reflexive disparagement of the agreement by some liberals,
these conservatives say it is not significantly different from
President Bill Clinton's 1994 agreement, which failed.
Blair Plans To Withdraw 1,600 Troops From Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022100201_pf.html
500 Others May Follow by Fall; British Leader Under Pressure
By Mary Jordan and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 22, 2007; A01
LONDON, Feb. 21 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Wednesday that
1,600 British troops would return home from Iraq in the coming months
and that a further 500 soldiers may be withdrawn by the end of summer.
Even though Britain has only 7,100 troops in Iraq, compared with the
135,000-strong U.S. contingent, they carry symbolic importance as the
largest allied presence. British forces make up half of the roughly
14,000 non-U.S. troops in the coalition in Iraq.
Clinton, Obama Camps' Feud Is Out in the Open
By Chris Cillizza and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 22, 2007; A01
An increasingly acrimonious competition between Sens. Barack Obama and
Hillary Rodham Clinton to enlist the Democratic Party's leading
fundraisers and operatives burst into the open yesterday,
overshadowing what was billed as the presidential campaign's first
gathering of candidates in Nevada.
While Clinton (N.Y.) and Obama (Ill.) have not for the most part taken
their competition public, their campaigns in recent weeks have been
trumpeting each victory, such as the recruitment of a major Boston-
based rainmaker by Obama and a prominent African American state
senator from South Carolina by Clinton.
Farrakhan Speech May Be His Last Major Address
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101719.html
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, February 22, 2007; Page A02
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is slated to give what might be
his final major address this weekend in the birthplace of the
controversial religious organization.
Farrakhan, 73, is to speak Sunday in Detroit at the end of a Nation of
Islam convention. The religious group, which has deviated from
mainstream Islam on several key points, has advocated black
separatism.
Libby's Fate Now Rests In the Hands Of the Jury
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022100963.html
Reliability of Memory Remains the Key Issue
By Amy Goldstein and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 22, 2007; Page A04
A federal jury ended its first day of deliberations yesterday in the
perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby after the presiding judge
urged jurors to rely on their "life experiences" in deciding whether
the vice president's former chief of staff lied to investigators -- or
made an honest mistake -- about his role in a CIA leak.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton's instructions to the jury of
eight women and four men reinforced the issue of the fallibility of
human memory that has been central to one of Washington's most
celebrated trials in years.
In Tennessee, Bush Talks Up Tax Breaks for the Uninsured
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101822.html
Democratic Response to Health Plan Mixed
By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 22, 2007; Page A04
CHATTANOOGA, Feb. 21 -- The last time President Bush visited this
state, last September, it was to campaign with GOP Senate hopeful Bob
Corker against the Democrats. Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Corker was in
the audience and the state's Democratic governor was on the stage at
the convention center here for a folksy discussion on how to improve
the health-care system.
Bush hailed the governor, Phil Bredesen, for his "innovative
policies," as he talked up his new plan to increase coverage of the
uninsured by tinkering with the tax code and giving states more
flexibility to design low-cost benefit plans for those who lack
coverage. Bredesen said it was the first time he had been invited to
appear with Bush in such a setting.
Detention Facility for Immigrants Criticized
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101661.html
Organizations Laud DHS Effort to Keep Families Together but Call
Center a 'Prison-Like Institution'
By Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 22, 2007; Page A03
TAYLOR, Tex. -- The day Mustafa Elmi turned 3 years old he had to
report to his cell three times for headcount. To be able to get one
hour of recreation inside a concrete compound sealed off by metal
gates and razor wire he had to pin his picture ID to his uniform.
Such routines characterized Mustafa's life, as well as that of his
mother, Bahjo Hosen, 26, during their first seven months in the United
States, the country to which they fled to escape political persecution
in their native Somalia. They ended up in the T. Don Hutto Family
Residential Facility, one of the nation's newest detention centers for
illegal immigrants that the Department of Homeland Security touts as
an "effective and humane alternative" to keep immigrant families
together while they await the outcome of immigration court hearings or
deportation.
In French Campaign, Immigrants Find a Voice
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101977_pf.html
Voter Registration Soars After '05 Suburban Riots
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 22, 2007; A10
MANTES-LA-JOLIE, France -- Fernand Trigano stood beside a rack of $8
jeans and watched French presidential candidate Francois Bayrou work a
street market in an immigrant suburb of Paris, shaking hands over
baskets of dried fish, stacks of flat bread and mannequins modeling
head scarves.
"Salaam alaikum!" shouted a young man in a leather jacket, offering
the traditional Muslim greeting "Peace be upon you."
Iran Continues Nuclear Work Despite Deadline, Sanction Threat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022101819_pf.html
By Dafna Linzer and Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 22, 2007; A14
Despite the threat of new sanctions, Iran is advancing work at its
largest nuclear facility and has informed international inspectors in
writing that it will not comply with a U.N. order to suspend the
program, according to U.S. and European diplomats familiar with the
inspectors' latest findings.
The U.N. Security Council on Dec. 23 set a 60-day deadline for the
Tehran government to halt its nuclear work. Since then, though, Iran
has installed nearly 400 centrifuges, in two separate lines, at its
uranium-enrichment facility in the town of Natanz, according to
several officials who agreed, on the condition of anonymity, to
discuss details from the inspectors' report, which is due today.
American Liberty at the Precipice
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/opinion/22thu1.html
Congress and the Supreme Court should act quickly and forcefully to
undo the grievous damage that the Military Commissions Act has done to
the basic freedom of habeas corpus.
Britain Cuts Its Losses
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/opinion/22thu2.html
The announcement that Britain will be withdrawing up to 1,600 of its
7,100 remaining troops in Iraq can't be welcome military or political
news for President Bush.
Korean Men Use Brokers to Find Brides in Vietnam
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/world/asia/22brides.html?ref=world&pagewanted=all
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Many South Korean men are traveling abroad to pick wives and hold
weddings in a matter of days.
Serbs Face Tough Choice as Kosovo Independence Looms
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/world/europe/22kosovo.html?ref=world
By CRAIG S. SMITH
The estimated 120,000 Serbs left in the majority-Albanian province,
many of them natives, are wondering whether to go or to stay.
Some Countries Remain Resistant to American Cultural Exports
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/business/22scene.html?ref=asia
By TYLER COWEN
Economic growth is booming in countries like India and China where
American popular culture does not dominate.
U.S. Tries to Ease Concerns in Russia on Antimissile Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/world/europe/22policy.html?ref=europe
By THOM SHANKER
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said American plans to base
missile defenses in Eastern Europe were solely intended to counter
Iran.
Abu Ghraib and Its Multiple Failures
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/arts/television/22stan.html?ref=middleeast&pagewanted=all
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Rory Kennedy's documentary looks up and down the chain of command to
examine how and why the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison took place.
Splits Emerge Between U.S. and Europe Over Aid for Palestinians
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/world/middleeast/22diplo.html?ref=middleeast
By HELENE COOPER
European officials appeared more willing than the United States to
consider economic support for a Palestinian government that does not
recognize Israel.
In Both Parties, 2008 Politeness Falls to Infighting
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/us/politics/22feud.html?ref=us&pagewanted=all
By PATRICK HEALY and JIM RUTENBERG
A caustic exchange has highlighted the sensitivity in the Clinton camp
to Senator Barack Obama's rapid rise.
Clinton-Obama: The Morning After
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/clinton-obama-the-morning-after/
Post-mortems on the mini-rumble.
Bush, in Talk-Show Manner, Promotes His Health Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/washington/22bush.html?ref=politics
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
President Bush conducted a chat session in Chattanooga, Tenn., with
people who are uninsured about his plan to expand health coverage.
A Reunion of Refugees, Class of '57
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21education.html?ref=education&pagewanted=all
By JOSEPH BERGER
Bard College's treatment of Hungarian refugees in the mid-1950s is in
sharp contrast to the current suspicion with which immigrant scholars
are met.
A Google Package Challenges Microsoft
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/technology/22google.html?ref=business
By MIGUEL HELFT
Google will unveil communications and productivity software aimed at
businesses that will be accessible over the Internet.
Arms and the men
Conor Clarke
February 22, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_clarke/2007/02/arms_and_the_men_1.html
Keen observers of American politics have been quick note that the
three leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination
have been subtly (or not so subtly) inching rightward on social
issues. The list of flip-flops is by now quite lengthy. It was just
six years ago that John McCain denounced televangelist Jerry Falwell
as an "agent of intolerance". Then, last May, McCain delivered the
commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University. During his ill-
fated 1994 Senate campaign, Mitt Romney told voters he would do more
for gay rights than liberal lion Ted Kennedy. Now he says he rejects
both gay marriage and civil unions. And then there's Rudy Giuliani,
who once moved in with a gay couple while moving out of a marriage
gone bad. For some strange reason, he isn't bragging about the
experience.
These twists and turns are well and good, but the social shift might
hide a second, equally unconvincing attempt at collective amnesia.
This one has to do with guns. Believe it or not (they would rather you
not) the same three candidates have long histories of supporting gun-
control legislation, which is about as close as a Republican can get
to outright apostasy. Giuliani-the-mayor nailed miscreant gun
traffickers and manufacturers with some hefty lawsuits, and supported
the federal assault weapons ban. Romney, meanwhile, signed a statewide
version of the same bill. And McCain pushed hard to close a
legislative loophole that allowed virtually anyone to buy firearms at
a gun show. Why look, there's even a gun-control bill with the
senator's name on it.
Land of the Pharaohs
Inayat Bunglawala
February 22, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/inayat_bunglawala/2007/02/in_the_land_of_the_pharaohs_1.html
Memphis, Egypt, receives far fewer visiting tourists compared to the
necropolis at Saqqara or the magnificent pyramids in Giza, and the
reason is not difficult to discern.
For despite being the ancient capital of Egypt from 3100 BC until 1300
BC, and the largest inhabited city in the world for much of that time,
Memphis today contains little more than a splendid open air museum.
Much of the old city today lies covered by palm groves.
The road to wellbeing
Derek Draper
February 22, 2007 7:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/derek_draper/2007/02/where_next_for_wellbeing.html
As Libby Brooks has already blogged, last night's wellbeing debate at
the House of Commons attracted the numbers, but did we get the
insights? I posed several questions in my last post about exactly what
we mean by wellbeing. After six great contributions from the panel and
many more from the floor I think I can say that I am now a little
clearer about things.
One thing I am clear about is that this issue heralds a sea-change in
British political discourse. As James Purnell said, wellbeing will be
at the centre of the next general election. It was no accident that
last night one of the key strategists who will run Labour's campaign
slipped into the room to take the temperature of the debate.
How Eminem can save the Middle East
Marc Lynch
February 22, 2007 6:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marc_lynch/2007/02/hip_hop_and_cultural_outreach.html
The hard-nosed American rapper 50 Cent, who played a sold-out gig in
Beirut with buxom Lebanese superstar Haifa Wehbe last summer, has a
lot of fans in the Arab world. Young Arabs identify with the
resilience and irrepressibility of a man who struggled up from an
incredibly difficult life and rose to the top against all odds - not
to mention his swagger, quick tongue and irresistable beats. Their
experiences often resonates with rap's depictions of oppressed
communities struggling against poverty, absence of opportunity,
political impotence, street violence, indifferent government and a
hostile mainstream culture. Arabs bitter over American foreign policy
could relate when Kanye West electrified a televised Hurricane Katrina
relief program with his outraged cry that "George Bush doesn't care
about black people" or when Eminem denounced Bush and the Iraq War
("No more blood for oil, we got our battles to fight on our own
soil").
Hip hop's popularity in the region might seem like an opportunity for
some "cultural diplomacy", a notion that harkens back to the brilliant
officially sponsored jazz tours by Louis Armstrong in the 1950s.
American Arabic language Radio Sawa has won a sizable audience with a
steady (if bland) diet of popular hip hop songs, and the US State
Department has recently sponsored some hip hop cultural diplomacy
tours.
Fighting fear with fear
Jamie Hacker-Hughes
February 22, 2007 6:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jamie_hackerhughes/2007/02/fighting_fear_with_fear.html
Tuesday's story about the use of virtual reality approaches for the
treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders in American soldiers
returning from Iraq is not as far-fetched as might first appear.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is part of what psychologists
call the phobic disorders, where people develop exaggerated fears to
specific objects or situations. At its simplest, it might be something
like snakes or spiders.
Not a sign of success
Stephen Biddle
February 22, 2007 5:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/stephen_biddle/2007/02/not_a_sign_of_success.html
When the British prime minister, Tony Blair, announced the phased
withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, the stated rationale was that
progress in training Iraqi security forces and pacifying Basra had
made the British presence unnecessary. The Bush administration
similarly described the withdrawal as "a sign of success" - in the
words of national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Yet the withdrawal cannot be justified on military grounds. Whatever
one thinks of security in Basra, troops are desperately needed
elsewhere in Iraq. The United States is combing every US army post and
marine base in the world in the hope of finding another deployable
soldier or marine to send to Baghdad and Anbar, where coalition forces
are badly understrength - even after the president's announced a troop
surge. Conditions in Basra are clearly much more stable than in
central Iraq; perhaps one could make a case that 7,000 British
soldiers are surplus to the real requirement there. But there is no
troop surplus in Iraq as a whole - on the contrary there is a
desperate shortage. If we now have more troops than we need in Basra,
the normal military implication would be to send them to Baghdad, not
the UK.
Mother knows best
Indra Adnan
February 22, 2007 4:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/indra_adnan/2007/02/the_new_politics_of_motherly_w.html
I was in Holland last weekend, when the UNICEF report on children was
published. My family emigrated from Holland when I was three, yet I
was brought up by a militantly Dutch mother, who, unlike many of her
new British neighbours, gave up a promising medical career to take
care of her four girls. Visiting my cousins this time, I was struck by
how none of the girls had veered from that "traditional" choice.
All had jobs - from running their own consultancies to managing a
chain of butchers - but none of them worked after 3pm. I smiled often
to myself as the contrast between the image of Holland as radically
liberal - even amoral - contrasted with the conservative reality that
I was witnessing. To some extent I had run all my life from the memory
of my mother "stuck" at home.
Nobody does it better
Jonathan Freedland
February 22, 2007 3:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_freedland/2007/02/one_of_the_things_we.html
One of the things we noticed early in the premiership of Tony Blair
was that he was different when it came to abroad. On foreign affairs,
he was clearer, more certain, even more radical than he was on matters
domestic. So he could be strong and unbending in the face of Slobodan
Milosevic in 1999 - only to fold before the British fuel protesters a
year later.
In this morning's second Today interview with John Humphrys, devoted
to international affairs, the distinction seemed to hold up once more.
My sage colleague David McKie emailed with this observation: 'The "you
know" count was well down on their first encounter and only became
profuse when the questioning switched from Iraq to Iran and again in
the final exchange about rolling back "evil".' It seems Blair still
relishes the world stage as the place where he is free to demonstrate
moral clarity and big vision, so different from the grey compromises
and boring detail of the home front.
Talking to the enemy
Ismail Patel
February 22, 2007 3:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ismail_patel/2007/02/the_guardian_has_achieved_what.html
The Guardian has achieved what recent politicians, academics and
diplomats have failed to do - it has created a forum for debate by
bringing together two sides of a six-decade long conflict by printing
Khalid Mish'al's article and the subsequent response by Zvi Heifetz,
the Israeli ambassador in London. This is a small, but under the
circumstances, significant achievement.
The past year has been an experience in new depths of pain for the
Palestinian people. While Israel has vehemently worked to disfranchise
Hamas since its inception, this reached new intensity following Hamas'
election victory in January 2006.
Donations to clarity
Libby Brooks
February 22, 2007 2:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/libby_brooks/2007/02/at_the_beginning_of_last.html
At the beginning of last night's debate on the politics of wellbeing
at the House of Commons, chair and organiser Derek Draper noted that
if he'd hosted a meeting on the same topic when he'd worked in
parliament, he'd have been lucky to get a quorum. Instead, the room
was so packed out that half an hour into the discussion we had to move
to a larger venue down the corridor to accommodate the interested
parties who were continuing to arrive to hear Oliver James, Richard
Layard, Neal Lawson, James Purnell, Tim Loughton and Sue Palmer talk
on a subject that is now unquestionably in the mainstream.
A few observations about the night. This could only be the very
beginning of a conversation. The discussion was inevitably sprawling:
ranging from the meaning of happiness to the comparative effectiveness
of cognitive behavioural therapy with other therapeutic methods, and
from the impact of technology on family bonds to how much politicians
can influence cultural mores. The audience itself was similarly
disparate. From the tenor of the questions I'd guess there was a
majority of therapeutic practitioners, as well as charity workers,
writers, and a pleasing number of younger faces. Keeping this
conversation going will require much more focus, and must find a way
of connecting specific issues with those who have most to say about
them.
More 'I don't' than 'I do'
Jo Wood
February 22, 2007 2:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jo_wood/2007/02/a_day_for_the_kids.html
Yesterday, National Statistics Online released its findings on
marriage in the UK today - that they're at their lowest in over a
century. In 2005 there were 244,710 marriages, compared to 273,070 in
1896, when the entire population of the UK sat at only about 32
million. Divorce peaked in 1993 at 180,018 and last year was down 14%
on that figure at 155,052. National Statistics claim some of the drop
could be due to a change in the law to prevent "sham" marriages, but
the cause could be more deep-rooted, and spell out a cultural shift in
modern day Britain.
"Broken home" always seemed a bit of a harsh term of phrase, but I
guess that's what they are. Have the soaring divorce rates of our
parents' generation taught us not to divorce? Not notably, compared to
how many of us are marrying. On the flip side, it has simply meant we
are saying "I do" less frequently, and when we do, we are older and
wiser - in the last decade the average age at marriage has increased
to 36.2 years for men - up just over three years, and 33.6 years for
women - up just under three years. In 2005, 60% of all marriages took
place between partners who had not previously been married.
A call to alms
Robert Fox
February 22, 2007 12:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/robert_fox/2007/02/_behind_the_rhetoric_and.html
Behind the rhetoric and headlines about Tony Blair's decision to bring
1,600 British troops home from Basra, there are tough home truths. The
announcement is a signal that Basra is now the business of the warring
Shia parties and militias. Theoretically, security there is now in the
hands of the 10th Division of the new Iraqi army - but whether the
army ends up as a partner or client of the Shia militias is an open
question.
British defence chiefs wanted to bring out at least 2,000 troops by
May. They have got to send more troops to Afghanistan with the opening
of the spring fighting season there, aggravated by the gathering of
the biggest opium harvest ever. Next month Britain is sending a second
battle group of 1,000 fighting troops to Helmand. The army wants to up
this to three battle groups by the late summer - but this can only be
done if they "draw down" in Basra to about 4,000 troops by the end of
the year.
From the outside in
Rehna Azim
February 22, 2007 12:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/rehna_azim/2007/02/not_speaking_english_is_the.html
"Not speaking English is the single biggest barrier to successful
integration," says Darra Singh, Chair of the Commission on Integration
and Cohesion echoing the view of 60% of the 2,000 people surveyed by
the commission.
Strong words and eminently sensible ones too, I'd suggest. I hope they
lead to sensible, practical proposals for supporting migrants to
improve language skills when the CICC delivers its final report to
Ruth Kelly in June.
A man of influence
Open Thread
February 22, 2007 1:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/02/a_man_of_influence.html
Standing in Westminster Abbey beside a marble statue, Melvyn Bragg
told Radio 4 listeners this morning that the man depicted ...
.... is not, as many here are, a great statesman, a great warrior or a
great monarch or even a great literary man, but a man who, I would
contend, had more influence than anyone in this abbey has ever had on
the course of human history.
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