The shame of Thabo Mbeki

There has been a drought of TV news coverage from inside Zimbabwe due to a ban by Mugabe. So, the report last night by Neil Connery on News at Ten was extraordinary. There was footage of Mugabe's thugs going into villages at night on the rampage. And then shots of MDC supporters in a hospital recovering from appalling injuries and testifying to their torture at the hands of Mugabe's gangs.

It seems to me that Thabo Mbeki is the key to a just Zimbabwe solution. Zimbabwe depends on South Africa. It was the same in Ian Smith's days when he relied on support from the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Up until now Mbeki appears to have behaved like a complete wuss in respect of the Zimbabwe elections. His pathetically lax attitude to Mugabe can be sharply contrasted to that of Levy Mwanawasa, Zambia's President. Indeed, in an excellent leader article in the Guardian today, they report that Morgan Tsvangirai has called for Mbeki to be replaced as mediator for the Southern African Development Community in favour of Mwanawasa.

The VIP status afforded to Tsvangirai at the recent SADC meeting is encouraging. But they now have to step up to the plate to ensure that the second round of voting is fair. The signs are not encouraging. The votes for the recount (which just happen to be mostly where the MDC won) have been taken away from view for days. The electoral commission says that a lot of work is involved in the recount. Round spherical objects.

What also shows up the revolting lassitude of Mbeki is the completely contrasting view of his own party (who incidentally have dumped him as their leader) - the ANC. The Citizen reports from Johannesburg today:

...the ANC is going over President Thabo Mbeki’s head in a new initiative to meet Zimbabwean political parties in an attempt to harmonise the situation in Zimbabwe.

A source within the ANC told The Citizen the decision was taken because President Thabo Mbeki had failed to act on Zimbabwe, as he had a “soft spot” for Robert Mugabe, the “caretaker president” of Zimbabwe.

“Mbeki has failed the people of Zimbabwe, African leaders and international leaders. He also made disturbing comments, saying there is no crisis in Zimbabwe while people are being beaten up, evicted and killed.

“The ANC had no choice but to take action directly to speak to political protagonists in Zimbabwe,” said a source

The genius of Harry Hill

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Mark Speight RIP

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You couldn't make it up - Prince William lands Chinook helicopter next to girlfriend's home

It's a tricky one for the Ministry of Defence, but I think they have just about explained sufficiently (below) why Prince William landed a Chinook helicopter next to his girlfriend's home at Bucklebury, Berkshire.

This escapade comes under the heading of "you couldn't make it up". The Chinook is a massive, relatively noisy flying machine (below). Bucklebury (below) is a quiet, relatively densely populated rural village (Chris Tarrant estalished a second home there, leading to his estranged wife referring to the village with an "F" instead of the "B" at the start of its name). The idea of Prince William landing such a helicopter by his girlfriend's house there just seems astonishing.

...the MoD...told newburytoday that the trip had been planned and fully authorised as an agreed part of Prince William’s attachment to the RAF.They confirmed that the aircraft landed for 20 seconds, taking all necessary precautions. No-one left or boarded the aircraft.A spokesman for the MoD, Nick Manning, said: “Battlefield helicopter crews routinely practice landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations. These highly honed skills are used daily in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. “Helicopter bases continually seek permission from land owners to use their fields and there are only two fields permanently available in Hampshire. Opportunities to use alternatives are therefore regularly seized. “This was very much a routine training sortie that achieved essential training objectives.”The Prince took off from RAF Odiham in Hampshire during a 100-mile, two-hour training exercise, according to the newspaper. The report claims Prince William came up with the idea himself and asked permission from Miss Middleton’s family, claiming a shortage of landing spots in Hampshire.

A Chinook helicopter

Bucklebury

Nick Clegg pledges a pony for every child

Hello I'm Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats.....I pledge a pony for every child that will be gold and do spells, and we'll all live in windmills, and ride gingerbread trains and instead of money we'll all be paid in hugs.

That was the statement from the "LibDem leader" on last night's Headcases (all right - I took a bit out where I have inserted "....."!)

You can see the programme here on ITV Catch up for the next 29 days. You can't cheat by fast forwarding. The Clegg bit is at the start of the seond half.

It's a great programme and I see ITV seem to have invested heavily in it. Both Rory Bremner and Jon Culshaw are on the voice credits.

I like Prince Phillip as Dick Dastardly myself. And Heather Mills as Medusa is a hoot.

I think Nick Clegg can be flattered by the attention. Such animation isn't cheap.

Have the Republicans decided that Obama has won the Democrat nomination ?

My guess for Pennsylvania tomorrow?

Clinton will win and the slugfest will continue. It seems Obama cannot land a knock-out blow but the "points count" already shows an insurmountable lead for him. The polls show continuous leads for Hillary in Pennsylvania, which appear to have strengthened for her in the last couple of days. But, a last minute voter registration surge is helping Obama.

It's all getting very fraught. Obama is spending a fortune in Pennsylvania. The ante has been upped with Clinton's campaign calling Obama a "hypocrite" (sounds a bit petulant/sour grapey to me) and Obama attacking Clinton for being a Washington insider.

And Nancy Pelosi is getting ready to apply pressure to foreshorten the Democratic nomination race.

One fascinating development is that the Republicans appear to be going for Obama in a big way. Both McCain ("Hamas wants Obama") and Mitt Romney (revving up for the Vice Presidential ticket (?) by taking a swipe at 'elitist' Obama). I think Obama campaign can take this attention as a compliment.

Terminal 5: An apology to Willie Carson

I've recently flown out of, and back into, Stansted Airport.

It's amazing.

They actually take your suitcases off you and get them onto your plane before you take off.

All without any to-do.

Stunning.

This morning I witnessed a remarkable team at Monastir, Tangiers who were able to pull off the same trick as Stansted. Bless them. They did it with old generation computer programmes (remember - the ones where there is white text on a black screen and the cursor blinks enticingly at you?) and quite a lot of paperwork being shovelled about. But, by golly by gosh, pull it off they did.

No doubt several books are going to be written about the Terminal 5 debacle.

The most obviously stupid mistake of the whole sorry affair was: Why the heck did BA/BAA boast, before the opening, that there would only ever be one person in front of you in the queues at Terminal 5?

"You can expect no more than one person in front of you at check in,"

British Airways director of customer services, David Noyes. 14th March 2008.

That is the sort of childish mistake which wouldn't be made by any self-respecting business diploma recipient in their first week of work. (It only needs a trainee journalist to stand at the queues for a few minutes, note that there are queues of more than one person and - bingo - there is a story). It is a mistake born out of corporate hubris which cannot be shrugged off by sacking a couple of managers (and I note that David Noyes (above) is one of the directors who has left BA).

(I hesitate to load all the blame on BA. There is a fascinating article here from the deputy head of British Midland International, who offloads considerable ordure onto BAA.)

It is all frighteningly reminiscent of the appalling BA tail-fin repaint job. That was a corproate catastrophe which also prompted a few books and could also have been foreseen by a business diploma student ("What's your USP?"..."Oh your Britishness, is it?"...."Oh well, let's get rid of that for starters"....)

I joked a few weeks ago about Willie Carson running BA. I apologise to Willie Carson, his friends and family. I realise now that Willie Carson would make a better job of running BA than the current incumbent.