Five days with no news, plenty of beer, wine, whisky, champagne, port, armagnac and cognac, obscene amounts of top-notch food and even some snow. Hurrah.<\/p>\n
I return to discover that I made it to number 8 in Blogpulse’s top blogposts of 2005<\/a> run-down – with only 52 people having to die and a whole bunch of others getting mentally and physically scarred for life to get me there. Makes me so proud…<\/p>\n It’s also worth noting that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is being arsey in an attempt to stifle knowledge of the government’s complicity in torture<\/a>. Keep an eye on former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray<\/a>, whose memoirs are at the centre of this latest dispute, for more.<\/p>\n You may also like to check out Mark Mardell’s review of the EU year<\/a> – he seems to be predicting another year of debate about the future direction of the entire EU project. Which is sort of what I was predicting twelve months ago<\/a> for 2005 and it never really happened in anything like a constructive manner, so forgive me if I remain fairly certain that the entire continent’s going to approach the new year and its perennial problems in its traditional ostrich-like pose, firmly refusing to confront the manifold dilemmas that recent events and long-term trends have conspired to produce.<\/p>\n In other words, 2006 looks to be about to kick off with a load of the same old stuff. Still, might prompt a few more longer, more considered postings at some point, I suppose…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Five days with no news, plenty of beer, wine, whisky, champagne, port, armagnac and cognac, obscene amounts of top-notch food and even some snow. Hurrah. I return to discover that I made it to number 8 in Blogpulse’s top blogposts … Continue reading