The pictures of the al Qaeda leader reportedly show an open gunshot wound to his head, part of the skull missing and visible brain matter.
One of bin Laden's eyes is reportedly open in the images, while the other is "completely gone".
But the US President told American TV network CBS he has concluded the pictures should not be made public.
"That's not who we are," he said.
"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies.
"The fact of the matter is that you won't see bin Laden walking on this earth again."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13257628
Our press have not been noticeably better. Thank god for broadcast media (mostly).
Surely this is the West's opportunity to rewrite the 'war on terrorism' narrative - if it wanted. Doesn't look likely though.
I've always had a soft spot for BA. It used to represent quality, whether you flew economy, business for first. You paid for it, sure, but you got the benefit of doing so. Generous luggage allowance, bookable seating, meals and drink all included... The price seemed like a fair deal.
Now it's different. BA seem to have lost their way. They price like a premium airline but treat their customers like an economy one. This has to be a significant strategic failure... Can't they just decide what they want to be and stick with it?
Let's take my flight to Denver as an example...
Once you get over the niggle you feel at having to pay an extra charge...each way... to take my snowboard, and the slightly more irritating fact that you now have the opportunity to check in early, but only if you pay (something easyjet lets you do for free) you get to your flight.
Now, I'm not sure what everyone else's experience was, but mine left me fuming. First thing i noticed was that Jen's inflight entertainment system didn't work. At all. The steward was less than helpless. Three resets and an hour of waiting and we got nothing. No real apology. No offer to move us. Fine. It's only 9 hours, reading an sleep beckoned.
Next was food. There was more than an hour between Jen being served her meal and me getting mine. By the time I was served, people several seats forward were bussing their own trays because they had finished their food such a long time ago and no one had cleared anything away.
After food had finally been and gone, everyone's entertainment systems went off line for half an hour or so.
So sleep time.
About seven hours into the flight I was thirsty... It had been some 6 hours since anyone had been round offering water or juice. Jen had to get up and ask.
An hour before landing we were offered a dry sandwich. 30 minutes before landing we were given boarding cards. 10
Inured later we were told to stop writing and prepare for landing.
All in all, it was a long, poorly served, poorly organised flight. Had I been on a budget airline I wouldn't have minded because I'd have know. What I was paying for. For this flight, I was so disappointed because BA do believe they are better than their competitors. The problem is, they aren't. They treat their customers like we should be grateful go fly with them. The honest truth is, they should be grateful they have any cusomers at all.
Fly premium, fly budget... I doesn't matter as long as you know what you are paying for. But, don't fly BA as you'll end up paying for one and getting the other.
I'm that much of a political geek that I'm actually excited about this and can't wait to read the book...
James Forsyth 10:17am There’ll be some people who dismiss any Mandelson book as old news. But from what I’m hearing these memoirs could be more interesting than people are expecting. Apparently, many of Mandelson’s political friends have not heard from him recently and fear they could be painfully frank.Labour holds its breath for the Dark Lord's memoir
Peter Mandelson’s memoirs are out in just over a week. Despite being one of the last off the stage, Mandelson has beaten his colleagues to the first full account of the Blair Brown era. Tony Blair’s ‘The Journey’ is not out until September. Indeed, some Blair allies think that Mandelson should have had the good manners to let the former Prime Minister publish first.
The media will be looking to see what Mandelson says about Blair and Brown. But also look out for his comments on the Labour leadership contenders. Seeing as the book reportedly goes all the way up to the last election, it is bound to have plenty to say about the Milibands and Ed Balls.
hat tip The Coffee House
Robert Harris has written a brilliant review of what sounds like a brilliant book - Philip Ziegler's official biography of Edward Heath. It begins like this: This is the most damning official biography of a British prime minister ever written. Whereas the previous holder of that title, GM Young’s 1952 life of Stanley Baldwin, was famously short and unsympathetic, Philip Ziegler’s deconstruction of Edward Heath is long and all the more deadly because the author plainly strives to be fair. But Heath’s character was so chilly, his behaviour often so astonishingly rude, and his premiership so disastrous, that even Ziegler cannot rescue him. Harris concludes that Heath was "a monster" and intriguingly (but not unconvincingly) hints that he may have been personally corrupt. But while I agree fully with Harris's damning assessment of Heath's personality and behaviour, I think there was another reason for his failure in office which was equally important. In an article after his death I argued this: Like General de Gaulle, Heath had “a certain idea of France”. The difference was that he was Prime Minister of Britain. Heath didn’t fail because he accepted a declining Britain as it was and worked with its grain, he failed for precisely the opposite reason. He tried to impose institutions, policies and ways of working that rebelled against basic British instincts and traditions. They didn’t work and they weren’t wanted. Margaret Thatcher’s policies appeared strikingly original, but they went with the grain of the country and took advantage of changing middle-class opinion. If events hadn’t changed Middle Britain there would have been no Thatcher revolution. Heath is often seen as the ultimate centrist. I believe he was a true - but disastrous - radical. This, as much as his personality, perhaps more than his personality, doomed him. - via Feeddler RSS Reader [Link] http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2010/06/robert-harris-has-written-a-brilliant-review-of-what-sounds-like-a-brilliant-book---philip-zieglers-official-biography-of-edw.html
It's not anti englishness, it's a reflection of US public opinion:
In a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans say that President Obama “has not been tough enough in his dealings with BP.” Fifty-nine percent say that BP “should pay for all financial losses resulting from the Gulf Coast oil spill, including wages of workers put out of work, even if those payments ultimately drive the company out of business.”
If Cameron was faced with the same figures on an issue with an American company at fault you can be sure he'd react as strongly... That's politics!
Why are we as health care consumers, who collectively spend trillions of dollars each year on health care, likely to ask more questions about a $15 dinner than a doctor’s diagnosis?
Just because something is a right doesn’t mean in practice it can’t be restricted.
while the government provides something it calls “education,” it is not particularly successful at educating students.
So, in answer to this questions - what's wrong with a right to healthcare, the answer is clear and obvious - nothing as long as you suffer from a topical disease / ailment that is currently attracting funding or if your body chemistry means that you respond to generic treatments. However, if you suffer from 'niche' conditions you may find the treatments hard to come by as they benefit so few people they are not deemed 'cost effective', even though they may mean a lot to you... Discuss!
