Robert Peston rules

Another contribution from CiF to my catalogue of diatribes on this government's absurd tax policies. And its a sweet little nut of a corker.

those who cannot learn from their mistakes . . .

So, after the CIA stuffed the Taleban's bunkers full of stingers and heavy machine guns back in the '70s- which were later connected to several downed airliners, warlords and opium production- it seems that the hard lessons about the stupidity of trying to buy off guerillas with weapons hasn't been learnt by the UK. I can't decide whether the inept handling of the Afghani situation is, in fact; some Kevorkian attempt to divest the nation of our responsibilities in that nation by inciting the government there to eject us in disgust; or just the usual bumbling incompetence from the good ol' boys of the civ-serv.

the conceit of Labour politicians

Simon Jenkins delivers a serious tongue-lashing to the idiots in Westminster who presume to lecture others on democracy. I hope Gordon Brown reads this. He'll need therapy afterwards.

Another CiF post details why Labour is wholly responsible for the obscene rail fair rises and the delays resulting from unfinished maintenance work. Christian Wolmar rules. The links in his article are enlightening. As someone in the comments has observed, why are we paying billionaires our tax money to cream off as profits? (Addition: More British rail service bashing on CiF here.)

We are also graced with another article by Prem Sikka asking why our financial system is so open to abuse by the very people who are meant to be regulated by it.

Finally George Monbiot's latest missive on CiF is a study of arrogance and contrived evil as he analyses the position of one Lord Guthrie and Sir Kevin Tebbit, who both feel the UK was wholly entitled to commit what the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg declared to be "the supreme international crime".

peak oil and Gordon Brown's dereliction of his duty to secure energy supplies

David Strahan has a CiF piece on the government's abject failure to plan for peak oil.

"Tony Blair wrote in last year's energy review that it was a principal duty of government to secure energy supply. He was right. Gordon Brown must now abandon the reliance on IEA forecasts, institute a truly independent assessment of global oil depletion and launch a massive programme of mitigation. Anything less would be dereliction.

But of course he won't. Even more than climate change, peak oil demands that governments confront voters with uncomfortable truths that will affect living standards. In Whitehall, legs will remain crossed and buttocks clenched as politicians and officials pray to God that it doesn't happen in their term of office, or before they draw their inflation-linked pension."

Brown builds pressure on Iran

In a clear attempt to demonstrate he is even more of a poodle than Tony Blair ever was, Brown declared his intention today to push for further unwarranted sanctions against Iran. In a move likely to generate even greater anti-Western feeling in the Middle East he completely ignored Israel's illegal nuclear arsenal, the US's breach or unilateral withdrawal from several non-proliferation treaties and the UK's own breach of the NNPT and condemned Iran's fictional weapons program.

"When we are dealing with nuclear proliferation, this needs to be taken seriously." said the Prime Minister. Whether we should take Egypt's, Pakistan's India's or, indeed, anyone else's nuclear programs seriously he didn't feel at liberty to say.