News

Something is badly wrong with the Foreign Office when George Clooney is more likely than Margaret Beckett to have innocent Britons abroad freed

Mariella Frostrup
Sunday November 19, 2006
The Observer

I am the first person to shudder as I watch the worship of celebrity reach epidemic levels in our culture, but following the events of the last couple of weeks, I begin to wonder whether gratitude to those blessed with international fame would be more in order.
Last week saw the release from foreign prisons of two innocent UK citizens - Mirza Tahir Hussain in Pakistan, whose case was first raised in The Observer, and Henry Stableford in Italy. Some might object to Prince Charles being included as a member of the C Club, but let's not split hairs. A ceremonial visit from the monarch in waiting to our ex-colony, followed not long after by the Prime Minister, managed in mere days to save Hussain not just from the death sentence, but also see his release from prison after 18 years.

November 14th, 2006
To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,
I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.

Derek one of our long time supporters leaves England tomorrow morning to start a brand new life in Arizona.

Press Association
Sunday November 5, 2006 6:33 PM

An Iraqi court has sent Saddam Hussein to the gallows for crimes against humanity.

Shiites and Kurds, tormented and killed in the tens of thousands by the former Iraqi boss, erupted in celebration - but peered over their shoulder for a feared and potentially cataclysmic backlash from the brutal Sunni insurgency. Some fear it could be a final push into all-out sectarian civil war.