God Save The Queen is an excellent, thoughtful, new 'Blog. In contrast to PooterGeek, I doubt its author will ever storm out of the bathroom mid-shower to denounce something he's just heard on BBC Radio 4. The latest two posts there are insightful about the successful exercise of state power through history. Claire [the llama is just a good friend] might be interested in GSTQ's comparison between the British way of doing things and Russian and German examples.

One of the things that always puzzles me about the anti-war crowd is their near-complete ignorance of the professed motivations of al-Qaeda, and their indifference to the response of the US to the terrorists' main demand. GSTQ's proprietor correctly identifies the latter, in the context of recent Western military action, as an example of the “crush and concede” approach to violent opposition.

“Crush and concede” perhaps, also describes the exit Sharon is trying to make from Gaza. It's also the story of the old bastard's life. Talking of this, and leading on from my correpondence with Judith earlier this week, I wish Israel was led by someone with the moral authority to act strongly and justly, so I could back my general sympathy for Israel with approval of its government.