Been stuck at home all day due to lack of funds. Overdraft extension has now been agreed relieved to say so can now have a drink... one of the ways i've been keeping myself busy has been sending this email in reply to the terrible guardian article i mentioned below, will let you know if i get any feedback;

Your point comparing Benn's interview with Saddam to Bashir's with Jacko is
rather trite I think. I had the feeling reading it that I picked up the
wrong newspaper by mistake - that I was reading Poly Filla in the Mail or
something.

The comparison with HG Wells is rather unfair on Benn since I don't remember
him saying anything favourable about Saddam, nothing remotely analogous
Well's remarks regarding Stalin. No-one has anything good to say about him,
that he is an evil tyrant is obviously true, we are after all reminded of
his misdeeds ten times a day.

Of course the fact of the matter will be revealed when we see the interview
but I see no reason why we shouldn't have the lies of the hitherto silent,
unelected, psychopath heard rather than those of the omnipresent, unelected,
psychopath our leader has thrown in his hat with. A broadcast interview is
not going to herald some kind of image make over but will probably offer a
rather interesting perspective.

To thrown stones at Tony Benn, the moral courage of whom no one can deny,
without foundation in this way is not something that should have a place in
the Guardian. Why not be imaginative or properly critical and mock the
charade Colin Powell performed yesterday for instance? Point out that Blair
is about to become a far bigger murderer than Saddam of civilian lives.
Point out the systematic lies peddled by the US and British adminstrations
(www.fair.org), for instance over the weapons inspectors (four years ago the
UN withdrawn them, now they're expelled).

Being against the war does not mean being for Saddam. How could you even
suggest such a thing? "it hardly helps if the most prominent faces from Stop
the War not only pride themselves on their chumminess with the torturer, but
believe that the rest of us will rejoice in their staggering credulity."
What are you trying to do become Richard Littlejohn? Sure Wade would welcome
you with open arms to her cesspool of lies, bile and garbage...

Do you think being for the war is about being for the people of Iraq? Even
ignoring the thousands of innocent lives that will doubtless be lost the
fact remains that improving the lot of the Iraqi people is not on the
agenda. Does it seem plausible to you that a fully functioning democracy
will be installed in Iraq with a bill of rights ensuring human rights are
upeheld and that the oil wealth of Iraq will benefit those who live there?
Do you think that fact that Iran is another target on the list might have an
impact on whether they allow the Sunni muslims to form a government in Iraq
(as they surely would since they make up well over half of the population)
when that would surely bring Iraq much closer to the Iranian Sunni muslim
government?

Do you think any kind of equal representation/devolution can take place to
protect the minorities of Iraq when the Kurds will want to be (and be
entitled to be) semi-autonomous considering that this is unacceptable to
human rights heroes Turkey and there own subjugated Kurdish population?

Your piece was a piss poor article about a piss poor target. Please think a
bit more deeply next time or join The Star or something - there's already
one Julie Burchill (perhaps more than enough already) for whom we can turn
to vaguely amusing ill-argued bigotry.

"Benn said the reason for his current visit to Baghdad was "to explore
possibilities of a peaceful solution to a problem, that otherwise might lead
to the most catastrophic war in which innocent people will be killed with
long-term consequences"." Reuters

If you think this makes him an ass then you definitely should get yourself
that Daily Mail column...

I really love the Guardian, it's pretty much the last mainstream place that
isn't wall to wall nonsense (like say the beeb, which is written by baboons
for the enlightenment of eight year olds) and even this organ is gradually
being destroyed and filled with the same bullshit you get everywhere else.
You can do something about it.