The end of the Labour party
Endangered in England's largest cities, losers in London, out of power in Scotland and sharing it with the nationalists in Wales, wiped out in the south, on the run in the north-west marginals, under fire in the West Midlands, all but bankrupt and with a collapsing membership: what is to become of Labour? This is how, if they are not careful, parties die, writes Iain Martin. Extinction is never the result of a single event, rather it happens more slowly, over several decades. A grouping whose leaders and policies once appeared as a fixed point on the landscape, gradually lose definition until virtually no one thinks it is any longer worth paying attention. The party is left abandoned, and historians with the benefit of hindsight insist that it was always going to happen. Iain Martin Daily Telegraph
The Mole: David Miliband tests Brown with call for radical new phase 
The pros and cons of overthrowing Gordon Brown
Full article: The future is even blacker for Gordon Brown's party than it seems
The West has no power
Zimbabwe hurts the British psyche, says Martin Jacques. Because we suffer from an acute case of colonial amnesia, we seem to think that we have some unalienable right to lecture Zimbabwe on its iniquities. Meanwhile, President Thabo Mbeki, whose efforts to broker some kind of deal have been widely and patronisingly scorned, has scored a major diplomatic triumph. He managed to bring both Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC to the negotiating table. All the western bluster and invective now look just that: the route to a possible solution has been the work of South Africa, the SADC and the African Union alone. This is yet a further illustration of a shift in global authority. Western power can no longer deliver in the face of the growing power, competence and self-confidence of developing countries. Martin Jacques The Guardian
Full article: Burma and Zimbabwe witness the last gasps of the supreme global sheriff
Zimbabwe Today - the latest from our man in Harare
Labour's betrayal of the unions
Not just on the laws, but on the growing inequality, the war, the 42 days detention, pensions and everything, this Government has not just ignored the unions but taken delight in doing so because they think it proves they're not Old Labour, writes Mark Steel. The Government may argue they can't appear to agree to the demands of a narrow layer such as the unions. But luckily they do find a way of agreeing to the demands of the much wider group of managing directors of supermarkets, arms companies and newspapers. For example, Terry Leahy, chairman of Tesco, was invited on to a panel making laws about town planning, and Digby Jones, former head of the CBI, was given a post in the Government. Because company directing is the trade that most needs protecting in uncertain times.
Mark Steel The Independent
Full article: Why do the unions keep handing over their money?
Jihadists thrive in Morocco
Since the tide of the war turned last winter, thousands of al-Qaeda jihadists have fled Iraq. North Africa appears to have attracted the largest number of returnees. Morocco, long recognised as one of the most moderate and peaceful countries in the Muslim world, may prove more vulnerable. One sees countless women draped in black that remind one of Hitchcock's The Birds. Jihadist propaganda is sold on the streets in stalls provided by the municipal authorities. Fewer and fewer places serve alcohol, and parts of the main cities are becoming no-go areas for foreign tourists. Over the past year, almost 1,000 people have been arrested in connection with terrorism after attacks that claimed at least 60 lives.
Amir Taheri The Times
Full article: Al-Qaeda's sinister creep into North Africa
How to avoid talk of a recession
Why do politicians and the media prefer to talk about a credit crunch rather than a recession? First, a term is more likely to catch on if it's alliterative. Then, there's the onomatopoeia factor. "Crunch" sounds decisive, punchy and, crucially, short: it's an event, rather than a decade. For George Bush, however, it's still too explicit. He favours "slow economic downturn" and "period of uncertainty", or the more folksy ("rough times") or demotic ("Wall Street got drunk"). In his avoidance of the R-word, Bush is only following presidential precedent. History shows that yesterday's economic euphemism becomes today's profanity. In 1929 Herbert Hoover used the word "depression" to avoid saying slump. As the US economy plummeted again in 1937 Roosevelt's administration, in order to avoid calling it depression, called it a recession.
Anne Karpf The Guardian
Full article: Economic with actuality
