‘UK govt lining up with Islamist radicals in Syria’

Above you can watch an interview with me on RT on the UK's neo-con government's policies towards Syria. The bully boys of Britain and France got the EU to end their arms embargo-opening the way for direct supplies of arms to 'rebel' groups. More on this story here.

The Left vs. the Liberal Media

This piece of mine appears in the anti-war magazine The American Conservative

How Media Lens debunks the BBC’s humanitarian interventionists


It all started in July 2001 when two men, concerned about bias in the corporate news media in the UK, began to send out “media alerts” to a small number of family and friends. Twelve years on and Media Lens—the brainchild of writer David Edwards, a former manager in sales and marketing, and David Cromwell, a physicist by background—has established itself as the UK’s media watchdog. There’s no doubting the impact they have made. “Without their meticulous and humane analysis, the full gravity of the debacles of Iraq and Afghanistan might have been consigned to bad journalism’s first draft of bad history,” is the verdict of veteran reporter and filmmaker John Pilger.

You can read the whole piece here. (and check out the neo-con cyber-stalking in the comments thread.)

Erdogan has brought the war to Turkey by backing the Syrian rebels

Above you can watch an interview with me on RT on the growing protests in Turkey against the Turkish government's stance towards Syria. More on this story here.

The Intelligent Punter's Guide to the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest

Just a few hours to go before this year's Eurovision. Here's my Intelligent Punter's guide to this year's contest from The Week.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. Time to put our Euro-scepticism on hold and watch as twenty six European nations- well twenty-six nations that are the part of European Broadcasting Network- compete to see who can win the  annual Eurovision Song Contest. To help you enjoy Saturday evening’s proceedings even more, why not have a few bets on the event? Backing the winner of a 26 runner race might seem a daunting prospect but Eurovision is not the punter’s minefield it might first appear.

You can read the whole piece here.

On the subject of Eurovision, here's my piece from the Daily Express on UK contestant Bonnie Tyler, rock's comeback queen. 

Peace in Syria? Only if the arsonists become fire-fighters

This new piece of mine on Syria appears over at OpEdge on the RT website.

The prospects of a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis is still a long way off. We won’t get an end to the violence until the foreign powers who have been fuelling the conflict, the US included, radically change their policies towards the country.

You can read the whole piece here.

Becoming Sir Alex Ferguson is a lifetime's work....

This article of mine appears in the Sunday Express.

THERE have been quite a few theories put forward to explain the extraordinary success of Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary manager of Manchester United who finally announced his retirement last week.
One point which has generally been overlooked is that Fergie, now 71, already had 12 years of football management under his belt before he was crowned Old Trafford supremo in 1986.

His road to greatness began at lowly Scottish club East Stirlingshire in 1974. He then managed St Mirren and Aberdeen, and even had a spell managing Scotland before Man United called.

Ferguson's career reminds us that 30 years ago you didn't get the top jobs unless you had served a long apprenticeship… and it wasn't just football managers that this applied to.

You can read the whole piece here.

The Bravery of the Bevin Boys

This piece of mine appears in the Daily Express

THEY were for a long time among the forgotten heroes of the Second World War.

The Bevin Boys was the name given to the 48,000 or so young men aged between 18 and 25 who were conscripted by the government to work down the mines during the period 1943-48.

The part they played in the war effort was not officially honoured until 2007 when the government announced that they would be awarded a Veterans Badge. But this week there was further recognition of their important role when the Countess of Wessex unveiled a memorial, designed by former Bevin Boy Harry Parkes, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

You can read the whole piece here.

Dr Keith Simpson: The man who made dead people talk

This piece of mine appears in the Daily Express.

JOHN GEORGE HAIGH, the Acid Bath Murderer, was confident he would not be found guilty of killing Olive Durand- Deacon because the police would never find her body.
How can you prove murder if there is no body?” he boasted.

But the serial killer had reckoned without Home Office pathologist Dr Keith Simpson.

You can read the whole article here.  And if in the UK, don't miss 'Murder on the Home Front', at 9pm on ITV on Thursday. 

The two sides to Ronnie O'Sullivan

This piece of mine, on the enigmatic snooker genius Ronnie O'Sullivan, appears in today's The Daily Express

Just imagine if Lionel Messi, having scored five goals for Barcelona in a match in the Champions League, announced in a press conference afterwards that playing football was not something he really wanted to do and he was quitting the sport? Or if jockey Frankie Dettori, having ridden all seven winners at Ascot, had said he was only riding to pay his children's school fees?

People would find it very hard to understand how someone so brilliant at their craft could be so disillusioned with it. Yet that's what has happened this week in the sport of snooker.

You can read the whole article here.

Syria: 'Rebels' try to bomb their way to power by killing innocent civilians'

Another day of terrorist attacks in Syria. But hey, we're not supposed to call them that are we? Even when they are clearly, by any objective assessment, terrorist attacks that would be condemned within minutes by western leaders if they took place in Tel Aviv or Riyadh or in any other country that was considered a western 'ally'.

New interview with me on RT on the latest situation and why William Hague and co have got blood on their hands.