the dave 'n O show

We are reassured that the Special Relationship is alive and well and - er - special. Dave gave O’s kids different coloured wellies so that they can quarrel who gets which (the auto-spell checker changed wellies to willies – you can’t be too careful). I imagine that you saw the Press Conference which was covered in its entirety here, first on Quest and immediately afterwards by Randall. As befits an Old Etonian and Cambridge-educated toff, Dave came across as very polished and articulate. O came across as likeable (in contrast to W who always came across as risible) but not too comfortable without an autocue. They avoided getting entangled in the BP/Lockerbie spat; in fact they seemed ad idem on all the contentious points which was not difficult for Dave since he was he could lay it all on the Jocks. There will be a compromise on the Mad Hacker.




It is reported here that Hillary has got in on the act regarding BP and the release of the Lockerbie ‘bomber’. Willie Hague has said that it was a ‘mistake’. Well, he would wouldn’t he? He might care to have a little chat with Dr Jim Swire whose daughter was killed on the flight and has spent his entire time since then ferreting out the truth. Sooner or later somebody is going to leak something and then the ordure will hit the air conditioning. Beware the law of unintended consequences. Linking BP smacks of that great American tradition, the Witch Hunt. BP’s position is that they were angling for a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, which is not a release, and you can bet that the US oil companies were doing the same.



I totally fail to understand the point of raising Lockerbiegate yet again except for the purpose of rubbishing BP. It’s all done and dusted and Mr M is not going to be returned to the Scottish bridewell. Hillary says that she is going to ask Willie what the UK Government knows of all this. His honest answer ought to be ‘Bugger all’, because this was a matter for the SNP-controlled Scottish Weenyparliament . Dave was able to say ‘Not me, Guv’. Hillary must be careful what she wishes for. The footnote says that it was Bush Senior who put Maggie off pursuing the prime suspects.



There is a huge amount of material about Lockerbie on the internet; a sample is (literally) the footnote – written by Paul Foot, the investigative journalist.



There are some real unsolved mysteries. There is the Case of the Missing Body. The Police surgeon who first arrived on the scene located 59 bodies and labelled them. Later he found that all his labels had been removed and there were only 58 bodies. Then there is the Case of the Missing Suitcase. A local farmer found a suitcase on his land full of packets of white powder that he suspected was cocaine. It was never seen again. These are deep matters, my dear Watson. There are strong rumours that a team of US intelligence agents returning from the Middle East were also on board.



Does the US really want to re-open this can of worms in order to rubbish BP? It’s all getting like Groundhog Day.



Still on BP, the financial press here is speculating that BP will reconstruct itself into a smaller company with higher profit margins and room for new growth. It already seems pretty clear that it will divest large US assets, and it now looks as if it will get out of distilling and retails, flogging off all its filling stations. These two activities employ over half of BP’s 80,000 workers but generate only about 4% of profits. I reckon that it’s a near certainty that the Arabs will be buying heavily into the new company; Tony Hayward has been spending most of his time in those parts. Time for Linda to go back in? The 52 week high was 622p and the current is hovering around 400p on the LSE.



Iraq is back in the news with the resumption of the public inquiry. Elisabeth Manningham-Buller, the ex-head of MI5 gave evidence that was quite remarkable. She said that at no time was MI5 consulted on Gulf 2; keeping your domestic intelligence agency in the dark strikes me as the height of absurdity. No doubt MI6 was up to speed but told MI5 nothing. Shades of the FBI and the CIA! She said that as soon as the war started the reports of domestic terrorist activity went off the clock; MI5 couldn’t cope. So let’s hear it for Tony Blair, the man who brought you 7/7.



I read that a genetically-modified mosquito has been developed which will be impervious to the malaria parasite. This has the potential for malaria to wipe itself out without any help from us. This raises the burning question. Will the Greens object as they object to anything GM? My guess is that they will because they, together with the warmists, anti-globalisers, fairtraders, organic munchers et al have shown a fine disregard for the dirt-poor who make up the majority on this planet. Watch this space; very soon we will be given predictions of humungous mossies coming through the door and gobbling up the kids.



And another thing. Why do the assorted Greens use science to justify ‘climate change’ theories and reject the science when it comes to GM?



Matters in Afghanistan are twisting and turning. First we hear that Dave wants troops out by 2014. Then we hear that Karzi wants them gone as soon as his troops are up to the job (could be a long time). Now we hear hard on the heels of the Dave-O love-fest that Dave intends to start withdrawal next year. At the same time, Andrew Mitchell, the new DFID Minister, (with whom I have a desultory correspondence) proposes to stump up another £ 200 million for Karzi, which obviously will mean cutting programmes elsewhere. I feel that value-for-money would be best served by transferring the moolah directly to Karzi’s Swiss bank account, thus saving on bank commission. Is early withdrawal being trailed? If 2014 is the date it will be our longest war since 1815.



Pedant’s corner: the news that Syria is the latest place to ban the burqa made the front page of some of the red tops, allowing them to have a dig at the Grand Coalition for rejecting the same. But I am fairly certain that what is banned is not the burqa, which is the black tent, but the niqab, which is the veil.



A footnote on Timesonline going subscription-only. When this was launched the journos writing the webpage were not given the access codes, so they had to take out subscriptions to edit their own stuff. Oops!