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Its probably too difficult to get material but what is the status on extraordinary renditions? Are they still passing through our airspace and is Labour still pretending that they know nothing about it?

I do not constitute a Liberty fan club. They seemed to think that my apparently being constantly bugged and monitored did not infringe my human rights. In fairness its hard to prove and there is a credibility issue.

However given the comments of Burnham viz-a-viz Chakrabarrti she would probably queue up to ask them hard questions. They are important questions and Labour must be readying themselves for the change at the top of the US. "How could we have missed this? It must never happen again etc".

Zimbabwe must be the top story - everything depends on how the ANC sees the situation. If Mbeki is a lame duck what is the view of Zuma? Maybe he would not share it with an external organisation but its worth asking? There must be considerable internal unease in South Africa and that steam will be looking for expression.

Will there be any responce from the International Community on the Zimababwean Election?
No Oil = No Meaningfull Responce.

...Speculators now account for about 70% of all benchmark crude-oil trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up from 37% in 2000, ...

7D

An interview with Judith Todd at some stage would be very interesting. She
used to be quite close to the Mbekis.



As for 'intervention by some of the countries in Southern Africa', there is unlikely to be an appetite for military incursion ..... in any case
SADC (the Southern African Development
Community) is not really geared up for that.

A previous SADC intervention in Lesotho in 1998 went badly wrong you may recall - so
there will be a reluctance I suspect to go down that kind of road.

Tanzania did intervene in 1978/9 to get rid of Idi Amin but that too was rather messy -
and Nyerere only sanctioned that after Idi
Amin invaded Tanzanian territory.

Maybe China holds the key, however: why not interview their Ambassador in London
about their support for the Mugabe regime?

On Zimbabwe to me it appears as an outsider (there is an interesting chap - Mutabayo I think - on Mark Urbans blog who is clearly an insider) that Zimbabwe is approaching collapse. Is it economically viable anymore? I just can't see much income being generated there. If Mugabe can't pay the troops ....

Perhaps that is a perception but maybe the aid agencies could comment discreetly?

Also are people now going to start pouring over the borders because the election is now a farce? That will put pressure on Mbeki.

#4 neilrobertson
that an interesting idea on the Chinese Ambassador.

IN THE FARCE HOUSE

Since we began sailing the world's oceans,
we have annoyed a lot of people. Today, looked at (in annoyance) from outside, with our fiddling politicians, our non-doms and off-shorers; our self-declared 'right to bomb' and bulging prisons - would anyone respect us? Yet Brown and Miliband tell 'those foreigners' how to behave while Wark, Humphries etc, read senior poiticians of sovereign states, the riot act. As these loudmouths sow, so shall WE reap. People in farce-houses shouldn't sow moans.

About Zimbabwe, I do not feel that I get any opinions or interpretations other than the anti Mugabe ones. Even if Tsvangirai won the recent contested election it was certainly not by a massive margin. Mugabe must have quite a bit of support in Zimbabwe, but one would not think so listening to the Newsnight or other news. Is that not strange? It does make me suspicious and especially when we are informed by John Simpson, the man who liberated Baghdad.