Mick Smith - Times Online - WBLG

Gaza Attacks and Olmert's Threat to the Innocents Damage Israel

There is no doubt that Hamas has provoked Israel with rocket attacks from Gaza onto Israeli territory, but the disproportionate response unleashed yesterday will do Israel nothing but harm. Commentators have suggested that retaliation would be difficult because there is an election going on in Israel, but the unavoidable conclusion is that the election, and the tightness of the race between the candidate of the Kadima party Tzipi Livni, and the Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, is a key factor in the decision to take such dire action. Both candidates have promised to act tough and the ironically named Operation Solid Lead means Livni is now able to claim that she can be as tough as Netanyahu.

We Need to See Our Servicemen and Women in Uniform, Not Ban Them

It is sadly all too frequent for relatively insignificant events to be blown out of all proportion, particularly once the media gets hold of them. So it was with the case of RAF personnel being told not to wear uniforms when they go out and about in Peterborough. Heaven knows what our American readers think! Go anywhere in uniform in America, and despite the increasing opposition to our misguided presence in Iraq in recent years, you will be slapped on the back and the only abuse you will get is if you try to put your hand in your pocket to buy your own drink.

Will James Miller's Family Ever Get the Justice They Deserve?

Lord Goldsmith seems an unlikely recipient of applause from someone who has persistently questioned why Britain ever went to war in Iraq, but his support for the family of James Miller definitely deserves a few plaudits. Miller was shot dead in Gaza in May 2003 by the second of seven shots all of which were captured on video and featured in the award-winning Channel 4 television documentary Death in Gaza. The Israelis have always claimed that Miller was caught in a firefight and that the first two shots, the second of which killed Miller, were not fired by an Israeli soldier, the implication being that he was killed by a Palestinian.

How Many More Blair Babes Put Up With This?

I’m bound to say I find the story behind the sad demise of former Labour MP Fiona Jones distinctly troubling. I am not talking about the petty jealousies among the Blair Babes, of whom she had been a prominent member, nor the reported squabbling within her local party that is alleged to have had a hand in her fall from grace. It is the shadow of the prominent politician, an unnamed cabinet minister, hanging over her sad alcohol-induced death last month that concerns me. It has been alleged in a number of newspapers that he sexually propositioned her. It is further suggested that when she declined his advances he was somehow instrumental in her political demise. Could this possibly be true? It is barely credible that someone who believes in the same values as the Labour party could be capable of such a thing. If someone in the cabinet really did behave like this, surely there would be other women who were similarly propositioned. Where are they? If it were true, would they not want to come forward to ensure it never happened to someone else?

Am I the Only One to Smell a Rat?

When Sir Ken Macdonald was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions there were cries of cronyism. Critics suggested that the reason he was appointed was the fact that as a co-founder of Matrix Chambers, he was a colleague and friend of Cherie Blair. Three weeks ago, Sir Ken disproved any suggestion that he was in her husband’s pocket, rightly criticising the prime ministerial hype surrounding the so-called “war on terror” and warning that draconian changes to the law to meet the threat would play into the terrorists' hands.

Life Really Isn't Fair

The spin doctors at the Ministry of Defence are apparently extremely angry over our story on Sunday revealing that the real cost of the refurbishment of the MoD Main Building is three times the £746m they have always claimed, at a whopping £2.35bn. So upset in fact that a text message on my phone from a senior MoD official, parts of which I cannot repeat in polite company - we do have scruples on this website - tells me that the story is “utterly, shabby, second rate b*))*cks”. Except that of course it isn’t, it was revealed as true in a parliamentary written answer on 6 December. That response was written by MoD officials, who I assume knew what they were talking about, and it has since been confirmed as accurate by the MoD press office.

Remembering them on this special day

Just a brief note today, Christmas Day, to stop for just a moment and think of all the families of the 66 British soldiers killed during 2006 while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whatever we think of the Iraq operation and Tony Blair's pathetic inability to stand up and point out the obvioous to George Bush, we can all take time out today to think of the families who are celebrating Christmas for the first time without someone they loved dearly. Respect is due not just to those who died but also to those left behind.

A Merry Christmas to all of you and my very best wishes for a happy new year

MS

I’m a Proper Journalist Get Me Out of Here

Last Friday I visited the Cheshire Cheese, Fleet St, for one of those increasingly frequent rituals of the British journalistic scene, a Daily Telegraph going away do. I have no idea if any television companies have thought to film a fly-on-the-wall documentary of the Telegraph’s transformation into a newspaper for the brave new world but if they didn’t they really did miss a trick. The place seems to be becoming more like one of those tabloid TV “reality” shows by the minute, what you might call “I’m a Proper Journalist Get Me Out of Here”.

A Curious Sort of Madness

A curious sort of madness has taken hold at my previous newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. When the erstwhile painters and decorators the Barclay Brothers took over the Telegraph from Conrad Black there was general rejoicing. I’m still not quite sure why. Black had his own much publicised “issues”, I shall put it no stronger than that, but at least he had the good sense to put people in charge of the newspaper who knew what they were doing.

Mr Blair goes to Washington

Tony Blair went off to Washington to get his orders from George Bush on how they should continue to stand back and implicitly condone Israeli air attacks on civilians in Lebanon. I would really like to know how many British voters – or come to that how many Labour voters - our great humane leader represents in his support for Bush and his rather strange ideas on how to win "the Long War" on terror.