(no subject)
Sep. 18th, 2003 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liadnanHmm. Just a quick post today I think, as I'm busy, have something wrong with my eye, and don't have a great deal to say.
Went out with Alan, Joff, Steph and Katy, the presence of Work in Progress now being quite evident but seemingly not doing much to slow the latter down. Had raspberry syllabub and two glasses of wine, which probably doesn't count as a balanced diet, but I'm skint and had pasta at home.
A rather interesting Private Eye this week, particularly the list of sponsors for the coming Labour Party conference (Nestlé sponsoring the foreign policy forum would make even a soft-right liberal like me raise an eyebrow, indeed blanch at the very thought, I would think it would be anathema to happy-clappy touchy-feely social democrats who are still trying to pretend to the hard left that they are too, at heart...).
And Ritu may be interested by the story of the British Indians for New Labour conference (I may have the title wrong) which Mandy organised. Apparently no one seems prepared to answer the simple question "so, are the Hindujas paying for this do as they have every previous year then?" You may or may not remember that the vexed story of the Hindujas and Mandy's enthusiastic support for their attempts to obtain British passports while he was a cabinet minister and they were already under investigation for fraud in India was one of the little stories that used to follow him around...
Then, of course, Mandy addressed the conference and appears to have praised Vajpayee (sp?) who also addressed them by videolink, as a wise statesman. The near simultaneous order from India for £1bn worth of Hawk jets was presumably not discussed at the time: that would be vulgar.
Went out with Alan, Joff, Steph and Katy, the presence of Work in Progress now being quite evident but seemingly not doing much to slow the latter down. Had raspberry syllabub and two glasses of wine, which probably doesn't count as a balanced diet, but I'm skint and had pasta at home.
A rather interesting Private Eye this week, particularly the list of sponsors for the coming Labour Party conference (Nestlé sponsoring the foreign policy forum would make even a soft-right liberal like me raise an eyebrow, indeed blanch at the very thought, I would think it would be anathema to happy-clappy touchy-feely social democrats who are still trying to pretend to the hard left that they are too, at heart...).
And Ritu may be interested by the story of the British Indians for New Labour conference (I may have the title wrong) which Mandy organised. Apparently no one seems prepared to answer the simple question "so, are the Hindujas paying for this do as they have every previous year then?" You may or may not remember that the vexed story of the Hindujas and Mandy's enthusiastic support for their attempts to obtain British passports while he was a cabinet minister and they were already under investigation for fraud in India was one of the little stories that used to follow him around...
Then, of course, Mandy addressed the conference and appears to have praised Vajpayee (sp?) who also addressed them by videolink, as a wise statesman. The near simultaneous order from India for £1bn worth of Hawk jets was presumably not discussed at the time: that would be vulgar.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-09-18 08:35 pm (UTC)Who is Mandy and whatever happened to the Hindujas and their passport drama? From what you write, I assume their money is still buying them political favours.
Vajpayee was spelled correctly...I'd even go as far as to say that he was described semi-correctly: he can be a wise statesman at times but then there are those other times when his RSS side crops up he talks of mandirs etc. And then there are times when he is neither a statesman, nor a RSS pracharak but a man who sits by silently, apparently helplessly, writing poetry while others incite violence.
Every couple of weeks, there is an article to the tune of 'Would the real Mr. Vajpayee please stand up?' :)
So are the doves still criticising the sale of Hawks to India?
no subject
Date: 2003-09-19 02:45 am (UTC)But with Campbell going, Blair needs him back, scandal after scandal notwithstanding.
I don't know what the current chances of the Hindujas getting anything here are. As I understand it your SC has re-instated the corruption case against them and wants them back.
As for the Hawks, so far as I can see there's little discussion about it here.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-19 03:02 am (UTC)Re: the discusion about hawks..that was the impression I got as well from the net. The weird thing is, the print newspapers here are publishing a couple of stories each week about how there is wide-spread opposition to the sale. I wonder where Rashmee is getting her stories from.