"Famous But Incompetent"

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 10:23:02 +0000
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: "Famous But Incompetent"

Hi Dave:

The two main stories here in the UK today may both be of interest to
a number of your IPers.

The first, characterised by the rather splendid headline that I've
used as my subject line, concerns a 72-year old  English pensioner
(senior citizen) who has just been released after three weeks in a
South African jail where he had been incarcerated at the request of
the FBI. This was initially a result of identity theft, but very
harsh statements are being made about the way FBI has handled the
case:

See, for example, from the Guardian newspaper:

   http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,903699,00.html
   http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,903754,00.html

The other, much larger story, is about yesterday's vote in the House
of Commons, when there was a huge rebellion by members of the ruling
party regarding The Prime Minister's Iraq strategy. I don't know how
fully this rebellion is being featured in the US Press, or will be
understood by the US President and his senior colleagues, but it is
certainly making an impact here. See, again from the Guardian:

> Rebel vote stuns Blair
>
> 121 Labour members vote against war
> · Biggest ever revolt against a government
> · Tory support helps save PM
>
> Michael White, Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt
> Thursday February 27, 2003
> The Guardian
>
> Tony Blair's Iraqi war strategy was shaken to the core last night
> when 121 Labour backbenchers defied a three-line whip to join a
> cross-party revolt and tell the prime minister that the the case for
> military action against Saddam Hussein is not yet made.
>
> The vote, which came at the end of an impassioned and impressive
> six-hour debate in the House of Commons, dramatically reshapes the
> debate for the three crucial weeks ahead.
>
> The scale of the revolt, the biggest within a governing party for
> more than a century, saw Mr Blair's plea for endorsement of his
> pro-UN approach to disarming the Iraqi regime rejected in favour of
> a "not yet" amendment by 198 rebels, including 121 Labour MPs, 52
> Liberal Democrats, 13 Conservatives and 12 nationalists. The vote
> against the amendment was 393, with Iain Duncan Smith leading most
> Tory MPs into the Blairite lobby.
>
> Jubilant rebels rubbed home their point when the bland main motion
> backing Mr Blair's position was carried by 434 to 124. Fifty-nine
> Labour MPs voted against.
>
> The rebellion spread far beyond the hard core of 30 to 40 leftwing
> MPs who have consistently opposed western military interventions. It
> easily surpassed the 67 who rebelled against disability cuts in May
> 1999, and the 47-strong revolt over lone parents' benefit in
> December 1997.
>
> The vote "demonstrates there is no public support for a war. The
> prime minister has failed to convince the public or the party. It's
> time for him to think again", said the leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn, who
> has been campaigning against Saddam Hussein's brutality since the
> 1980s when his regime was backed by the west.
>
> But satisfaction was not confined to rebels. "This is a really
> sophisticated vote. Tony now knows he has to go along the UN route,
> which he didn't know on his own. It needed the demonstrations and
> this vote and it's what Britain should do," said one senior minister.
>
> The scale of the rebellion undermines Mr Blair's belief that he can
> send 40,000 British troops into action even if an "unreasonable
> veto" by France or Germany denies him the vital second UN
> resolution. He remains confident that he will get it.
> . . . .

The full story is at:

   
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,903844,00.html

Different national newspapers will of course have handled this story
in different ways, but the only one I've heard quoted by the BBC as
encouraging Tony Blair to ignore the rebellion is the Sun, a popular
tabloid.

cheers

Brian Randell

-- 
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/


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