I just heard a Libyan diplomat to Ireland come on the radio to condemn the actions of his own government. Not looking too good for Qadhafi then. Of course he isn’t going to get the support from ours that he’s requesting. You can see the argument for a Western government not commenting on other people’s revolutions; comments could be seen as interference, etc. But Jesus Christ, could we not say something along the lines of “We disagree with importing mercenaries to machine-gun your people in the street”?
Meanwhile… Each new opinion poll here delivers its payload of depression. For the first time in our history, Ireland had a chance of delivering a mildly socialist government. And after having lived under a conservative one that wrecked the economy and gave all our money to bankers, you’d think we’d go for this. But we seem to be in real danger of electing the furthest-right government we’ve ever had – a single-party Fine Gael administration. A party of small business, big farms, and the professions, FG has never formed an administration without the balancing influence of Labour as coalition partner. (The reverse is also true.) If they do get in by themselves, the country had better brace itself for a shock.
Irish group blog The Anti-Room is running a competition for election haikus. This is my first entry:
Tired of the same old wealthy-favouring right-wing politics?
No?
Good.