La Casta Europeana

Clemente Mastella, who resigned as the Minister of Justice on January 16th, after it was revealed that he was under investigation for several crimes, including extortion, has been in parliament for thirty-one years, as a member of four different political parties. Mastella has denied any wrongdoing. Last week, he withdrew his party, the Udeur, from the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a move that, on January 24th, after a no-confidence vote in the Senate, led to the fall of the government.

-- from Beppe's Inferno by Tom Mueller.

If, as a result of the fall of Prodi's government, Berlusconi makes a comeback, then his holiday-buddy Tony Blair, who is said to already have Sarkozy's support, could make a comeback as Presna Yurp. It may be that only Merkel, Zapatero and few others stand in the way.

Weapons of mass distraction

If you ask a child - or someone particularly untrustworthy - what they are hiding behind their back, they might show you one hand at a time, transferring the contraband from one to the other in between. I think the government did something like this over the notorious "uranium from Africa" claim.

from Chris Ames on Britain's WMD sleight of hand.

I'm loving angels instead

No need to worry that Blair called for BAE inquiry to be halted, because the Holy Father will surely forgive.

The Lobby

JC Superstar: Blair turns to Heifetz as key peace advisor.

As Blair said in another context: "I really believe this stuff".

Dumping on Mandela

BAE deal shakes SA democracy - another excellent report from Peter Marshall.

John Company

Through all the talk around Tony Blair's time in office, a silver thread of clarity emerges, continuous with much of British history. The man may embrace Catholicism or whatever when he leaves office, but his truest calling would seem to be incarnate (incarnadine?) as an agent for, er, Anglo-Persian in Libya. Ex Africa semper aliquid...

Lullaby of Tony

Tony Blair sings The Clash and Tony Blair eats his words (thanks to Nick Edwards for the latter). But, as Michael Goldfarb puts it well, he never made the killer gaffe, and no performance could match his.

[P.S. 14 May: Avi Schlaim says It is not only God that will be Blair's judge over Iraq]