In writing history it is important for me to develop a feel for the characters involved. I started off picturing William Macnaghten as an Edward Carson type; but as my knowledge expands he strikes me more and more as a Peter Mandelson figure.

Macnaghten was, in modern parlance, Burnes’ line manager. Macnaghten detested Burnes because Burnes had opposed the invasion of Afghanistan and the imposition of the puppet Shah Shoojah. Macnaghten had been one of the architects of this invasion. But Burnes had been persuaded that, as the British government’s acknowledged Afghan expert, he had a patriotic duty to assist the invading force. I liken this to Tony Blair persuading Clare Short to stay on to help reconstruct Iraq. That is the more appropriate because what follows is a report from from Burnes on the state of the occupation, in which Burnes’ real concern for the welfare of the ordinary Afghan and what we would call good governance shines through. It is also plain that he still sees the occupation as a disaster.

Macnaghten submitted Burnes’ report to the Governor-General with his own comments added, in which he spins everything as a great success for British policy.

Burnes, Macnaghten, Shah Shoojah and the large majority of the Kabul garrison were killed in the sunsequent Afghan uprising.

William Macnaghten to the Secretary of the Government of India, August 10 1840, enclosing Burnes report:

Although stern in the execution of justice (as was exemplified only the other day in the case of the murderer in whose pardon so much influence was exerted), yet his majesty is merciful and kind-hearted in the extreme, and if the personal qualities of a monarch could ensure popularity, Shah Shoojah could not fail to obtain it. My longer experience of his majesty’s character more thoroughly convinces me of the truth of what I have already asserted, that there is not an abler or better man than himself in all his dominions.

Burnes report with Macnaghten’s comments:

7 August 1840
Cabul

Sir William Macnaghten

“Yet though I have not even a local habitation in this country, I find myself so mixed up with it, both in the public mind and in the despatches of government, together with my being in such constant communication with you, that it seems due to myself, I should, to you at least, clearly and candidly state the opinions I hold – opinions not lightly formed, but based on much personal intercourse with people of all ranks, and vitally affecting the sacred interests of our country in Afghanistan.

Let me here, then, without further comment, place before you the facts of the past year in every quarter of Afghanistan, and if they be as fairly as they are fearlessly stated, they will, I am sure, arrest your most serious consideration, and lead you to join with me in the conclusion, that much reformation is required somewhere, and that if his Majesty has not the power to what is passing, it remains for us to guide him through the dangers of the way.

I never doubted that much reformation is required. The difficulty is how to bring it about. W.M.

The inhabitants of Shawl, who had long suffered under the grinding yoke of the ex-chief of Khelat, had hoped for protection from the strong arm of our new Government. Their return is plunder and devastation; the party of Shah Niwaz Khan at Khelat had increased in number and strength in the same hope, and it has proved equally futile. That we are bound to make good the losses of these people is evident, that we shall have promptly to retrieve our honour is equally apparent: but the melancholy truth which prevents itself is, that our agents were rejoicing in the peace and tranquillity around them, when an organised rebellion, which has ended in revolution, was passing before them. The moral ought not to be lost.

I am of the opinion that too much has been made of the misfortune which elicited this paper. Similar misfortunes have very generally occurred to us in the first establishment of our influence in other parts of the East. Witness the occurrences at the commencement of the Nepal and Pindaree wars. A party of twenty of the Shah’s disciplined troops were destroyed on their march from Khelat to Quetta; but all the attempts of the rebels in the last mentioned place were nobly repulsed. Doubtless we shall do all in our power to relieve the suffering occasioned by the ravages of the rebels. W.M.

Adjoining Khelat to the east, we have experienced two serious disasters in the province of Cutch Gundava; but although it belongs to the King of Cabul, his majesty’s control over it has as yet been nominal, and it is not my object to dwell on anything beyond the limits of Afghanistan. As a link in our policy, however, the calamity of two detachments must not be overlooked; the effect of it may have roused into action the insurgents in Khelat – it certainly gives courage to barbarous tribes, whom it is difficult to subdue by force of arms, and who, by the fixing of one large detachment among them instead of many small ones, might have been taught to fear our power, and by that wholesome fear even by kindness and conciliation led to serve as local troops, instead of plundering and attacking us.

I know little or nothing of the proceedings of our authorities at Cutchee, and I have more than once remarked on our want of information. The district is, I believe, managed altogether as if it were a British possession. W.M.

Between Bammean and Cabul lie the districts of Koh-i-Damun and Kohistan; there are no parts of the kingdom of Cabul where the feeling towards the present regime is more hostile than here. It was in those districts that Dost Mahomed ruled them with a rod of iron. He put to death most of the chiefs, he quadrupled the revenues drawn from them; in fact he was helpless – he could not have held Cabul a week if he followed any other policy, for the Kohistanees command Cabul, and could “chappao” the city at any time if united. To sow dissension amongst them was Dost Mahomed’s policy, and in this he completely succeeded; it is the only district in the country where the name of the late ruler is execrated.

One would have supposed that here, at least, his Majesty’s government would have found favour, and the more so as the Kohistanees flocked in great number to welcome his majesty on his entrance into Cabul last year, and exhibited the strongest feelings of loyalty and devotion.

I visited in May last this country; the change that had followed was fearful; I found governors levying duties of an unusual nature; taxes demanded which his majesty had declared to be obsolete, and a great proportion of the population of the districts of Shunkendurra had actually quitted their homes and fled to the hills.

I did present the facts to his majesty. The minister, Moolah Shikore, pronounced the complaints groundless. The minister imprisoned the complainants, and after much delay, meted half justice, with which the people went to their homes, blessing his majesty.

In three weeks they returned to state that the king’s officers, in hopes of the affair having been forgotten, had exacted what his majesty had excused., and again the same process had to be gone through. At this time the feeling in Kohistan is feverish in the extreme; many more of the distant parts of it, as Tiguao and Nijrow, pay nothing to his majesty’s treasury and an j insurrection may break out at a moment’s warning, in that very part of his majesty’s dominions where circumstances have him a certainty of the most trusted subjects, and where a hatred of Dost Mahomed assured him of faithful adherents; famed too, above all the tribes in Afghanistan, for their courage and their valour.

The Kohistanees certainly did flock in great numbers to Cabul, and were well received. I have no reason to believe that they are generally not well affected, though they are proverbial for their love of turbulence and rapine. Some of their chiefs commenced correspondence with Dost Mohamed at Khollom last year, before his majesty had been a week on the throne.

The district is in Koh-i-Damun, not Kohistan. The grievance of the people was, that demands were made on them for taxes levied in the time of Dost Mahomed, but remitted on the accession of his majesty. It is not unlikely that, on hearing of Sir A Burnes’ approach, they adopted the means here described of ensuring his intercession. This instance of oppression was brought to my notice, by Sir A Burnes, at the time of its occurrence, and his majesty was much distressed when we informed him of it. But do not these, and worse than these, occur every day under native governments? The more distant parts pay nothing to his majesty, why should they rebel there? The answer is obvious – the people are naturally fractious, and addicted to intrigue and plunder. W.M.

So much for the state of affairs in the kingdom of Cabul on this day – the anniversary of our entrance into its capital. At court, I fear, we shall not find matters in a better state. Much is said of the king’s popularity; this is a subject I feel anxious to grapple with thoroughly. To me it would be very astonishing if any Afghan king who had allied himself to the Sikhs and English would be popular; it is not in the nature of things. His majesty’s successor may hope for a better share of the public favour, but Shah Shoojah must, I fear, get on without it.

The present system is not popular with some classes. The causes of this feeling I have repeatedly enumerated. The Shah himself is, I believe, personally popular with all, though he may not be able, with his limited resources, to satisfy unreasonable representations. W.M.

I would not, however, dwell much on the abstract question of unpopularity – I would rather inquire into the causes of it, if they exist, or are only imaginary. Bad ministers are, in every government, solid grounds for unpopularity; and I doubt if ever a king had a worse set than Shah Shoojah.

His principal advisor is an old servant, by the name of Moolah Shikore, who has grown grey with his majesty in exile, where he distributed, in some hundred fractional parts, the pension which the Shah received from the Company. He is not a man of family, but a Moolah; his faculties are impaired by age and disease; he once incurred his majesty’s displeasure, for which he forfeited his ears – a subject fruitful in witticism to the discontented about the court, and little calculated to elevate the representative of his majesty. So completely is the poor man’s memory gone, that he never recognises a man who he has once seen; that the commonest business requires half a dozen notes; in fact of him it may be said, that his whole business is to gather money, and to this one end his remaining faculties are applied.

Moolah Shikore passes by the name of vizier, or minister, but his majesty gets offended at his being so called, so we may presume he thinks it possible to get on without a minister. By facts which have come under my own knowledge, I shall depict the vizier’s character, and all of them can be tested by yourself. In the last winter, his notions of political economy led him to seize all the granaries around Cabul, on which he put his seal, and from which he drew forth the grain, and had it exposed for sale in the bazaar by his own officers, at a price fixed by himself.

When spring arrived, he conceived it would please his majesty to adorn the royal gardens which have been long neglected – a measure most laudable, and to a people so fond of gardens like the Cabulees, highly popular. – this was to be done gratis, and by conscription on all around the district.

The poor peasantry were dragged in hundreds from their homes at seed time, when their lands required their care, and compelled to labour without any reward. Discontent rose to such a height, that I sent to the minister, and plainly told him that he was disgracing the king and himself, and that I would no longer stand silent, as policy dictated I should on all occasions, unless he at least gave the poor wretches bread, and if he would not do it, I would next day open my treasury and supply it.

After this the workmen got two pice worth of bread per diem, while our engineering officers were paying seven times that in the adjoining garden, where our cantonments were erecting.

The next freak of this minister was to reduce the number of butcher’s shops in this populous city, and to compel these to sell at his own price, thereby ensuring a monopoly of meat to a few and injuring many. For days, the loudest complaints were uttered, till free trade was at last established. As I write, the shops in which flour is sold are now shut, the minister having turned his views from meat to bread ; and it is painful to pass through the bazaar in consequence. With such an adviser, can his majesty be popular? – do he and his minister deserve it?

I think that the picture of Moolah Shikore is rather a caricature. His only fault, I believe, lies in his age. He is thoroughly honest, and devoted to his majesty’s interests, and so scrupulous he will not allow his majesty to be cheated by others. This is the secret of much of his unpopularity. The system of forced labour is certainly not new in this country; and as for Afghan notions of political economy, we can only grieve that such things are. Sir A Burnes has himself heard me read many lectures to his majesty on this subject, and when I have prevailed on him to leave the market alone, his orders have been issued not from conviction, but from deference to my wishes. W.M>

I have spoken of the duties assigned to Oosman Khan with the revenue, and that brings me to that very important subject, and the system on which his majesty conducts it, if system it can be called, and which calls loudly for reform. The collectors of the revenue are the soldiers; they receive assignments on certain districts for their pay, and they proceed there, living at frr quarters on the community, till the peasant pays the amount of the assignment; causing thus a more fruitful harvest of dispute than any other human invention could have devised. Distant from the capital, the subject refuses to submit to such oppression, and before the snow falls, expeditions are sent forth to levy his majesty’s rights; if the snow does fall, the people defy the officers of the crown, and escape for the year. By one of these expeditions the system will be explained.

Khan Shereen Khan, the head of the Persian faction, was despatched, in the fall of the year, to the countries of Koorum and Koost, south of Suffaid Koh; he levied his majesty’s dues and lived five months, with 1800 men, at free quarters in the country! As he is a good man, he did his duty with more mildness than an Afghan, but to continue such a system must clearly alienate all the people of the country from Shah Shoojah and from us; for the force we give him ensures what, if left to himself, he could not otherwise command. Iit is therefore incumbent upon us, by sending religious men, or by demanding hostages to live at the capital, as security, to see that some other revenue arrangements be adopted; bby the present we can neither rely on the Afghan nor our own, for the former implied that if a subject paid his duties one year, he was called out to plunder the Punjab or Hindoostan the next!

One would have supposed that the system of collection here alluded to was new, instead of being introduced from time immemorial in this country. A better system will, I trust, be gradually introduced, but it is too much to expect that H.M. Should clean the Augean stable he found here, in the space of a twelvemonth. If left to himself, H.M. Could not have had recourse to any other systen. I fear the religious men would be found defaulting collectors, and the capital would not be large enough to contain hostages for all the revenue payers in the country. W.M.

But if these sentiments apply to such troops, what is to be said of a body of Sikhs, in the costume of their country, as the king’s guard in this Mahomedan capital?

A few evenings ago I was saluted by several of them with the Wajerojee ka Futteh in the very streets of Cabul. I assert, without feat of contradiction, that no Sikh (Khulsa) ever durst, in the time of the Afghan monarchy, appear thus in this city; and I further assert, that there presence here is odious to the people, and to the last degree injurious. We all know that panic and mutiny are very infectious among soldiers. If Hindoostanees successfully demand their pay with arms in their hands, what will prevent Afghan horse and foot acting likewise? – and where men are so irregularly paid, what so probable? And if it occurs, are we to bayonet and slay his majesty’s subjects, because it pleased his majesty to live beyond his means? Place these facts before any soldier, and I shall retract all these opinions, if he deems them unsound or unprofessional.”

Surely it is not desirable to perpetuate this exclusive spirit? Nor does there appear to be anything very objectionable in a Sikh making a respectful salutation, after the custom of his own country, to an English gentleman in the street of Cabul. W.M.
Sgd. Lt Col Alex. Burnes

PS 22 August 1840

The above paper was written on the 7th August, or fifteen days ago; it has been deemed too gloomy. The following events have occurred since, and if the facts enumerated were insufficient, they may serve to indicate where the truth lies.

1. Captain Hay, beyond Bameean, where all was indeed quiet, was invited to occupy some forts ahead of his position, he accepted the offer; 29 of his 100 men were wounded, and 9 killed, the party only saved from destruction by Lieutenant Hart leading two companies to the rescue!
2. Captain Macgregor sent 1500 Afghans against a place north of Jellalabad; they were defeated, lost their gun, and 100 men – 200 went over to the enemy!!
3. The Shah was going to Koh-i-Duman, thirty miles from his capital; the chiefs objected to it; he is obliged to give up his trip, and return his tents into store!!!
4. Kelat has no sooner fallen, than Beloochees have moved against Shawl again, and troops have gone down to Candahar to the rescue!!!!
5. The chiefs of Khooloom and Khoondooz have joined in a confederacy against us, and prevented Dost Mahomed coming in!!!!!
6. A conspiracy has been discovered by myself, and believed by the king and the envoy, implicating almost all the first men in Cabul and the surrounding countries in a plan to subvert the country!!!!!!
7. Letters from the Sikhs to Dost Mahomed have been intercepted, sending money!!!!!!!

With seven points of wonder I close the result of twice seven days.

Newsnight held an item on Scottish independence last night in which the BBC threw away any pretence at objectivity. Allegedly investigating the practicalities of independence, it ran a series of interviews with diehard unionist figures, mostly openly New Labour. The only “expert” interviewed on the economy stated that nobody could support an independent Scotland on the grounds they would be economically better off. Another “expert” opined that an independent Scotland may be kicked out of the EU, while a former New Labour Lord Provost of Glasgow said it was laughable that a country the size of Scotland could have its own army, navy and coastguard [presumably Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Portugal don’t, then].

The point is that these were not presented as pro-union views, but as “expert analysis” of the practicalities. Jeremy Paxman then tried but failed to intimidate Nicola Sturgeon, and went through a pantomime of body language and facial expression at the idea that Scotland may leave NATO and eventually get rid of the pound sterling.

The good news is that propaganda as bad and blatant as this has little effect – and indeed is counterproductive for those promoting it – in a situation where people do have access to alternative sources of information. Scotland is not Uzbekistan. A great many Scots will have watched Newsnight last night, and realised that the BBC think we are stupid.

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I am in person a notably happy, I hope humorous chap, whereas this blog tends to be a relentless criticism of those who wield power. It makes a change, therefore, to note a positive development. Vestas have announced plans to open a wind turbine plant near Sheerness in Kent, bringing 2,000 much needed jobs to the area. The move is dependent, however, on the government setting out a secure long term policy framework for the development of renewable energy in this country.

That is something to which Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is genuinely wedded, and this move by Vestas will strengthen his hand against the coalition Tories and their love of oil and nuclear. Vestas deserve criticism for their fickleness, with this coming just three years after the closure of their Isle of Wight manufacturing facility, but that event was also a stunning indictment of New Labour’s lack of genuine belief in renewable energy and lack of genuine commitment to UK manufacturing industry.

The existence of super injunctions is itself an indefensible restriction on freedom. The existence of gagging orders which are themselves secret is truly sinister. It also protects only the guilty – while your prostitute shagging footballer can get it hushed up “to protect his family”, it is precisely because the things are secret that they can be attributed wrongly to innocent (in this context) people like Jemima Khan.

But we should view with deep distrust the news that the Cabinet is going to discuss reform of the law, which will include regulation of social media. This is the same Cabinet which is looking to introduce a special track university entry for the British super-rich, who will be exempt from quotas and admissions competition if they pay large sums of dosh up front. There is no doubt whose interest the Cabinet will be looking to promote if they propose legislation which covers the ability to publish information about the rich and powerful.

The good news is, that in this new age of information technology, I am confident the judges and politicians will continue to be shown to be foolish by popular circumvention of whatever clumsy mechanism they seek to intrude in the path of electronic communication.

A friend still in a senior position in the FCO has informed me there will be no substantive British withdrawal from Afghanistan until 2015 at the earliest. According to a strategy paper classified Secret, carried out for the Cabinet overseas and defence committee, it is essential to retain Karzai in power until his term in office ends, to restore stability to the country. While that is official paper speak, my friend (who is not enamoured of this policy) says that the real thinking is that if Karzai falls from power after our withdrawal, we will be seen to have “Lost” the war, while the overriding aim in Whitehall and in Washington is to get out in circumstances in which we can claim victory.

The official judgement is that the loyalty of Afghan government forces is at best dubious, while they remain riven by ethnic dissension and still contain a huge over-representation of Tajiks and Uzbeks, especially at officer level. In the FCO’s view, Karzai would not last for days if NATO forces withdrew and indeed would flee very quickly rather than try to retain power. He is just not interested in being in Afghanistan without a US army to sustain his looting. That rather knocks on the head the various efforts we have made for a negotiated settlement, for which we regard Karzai remaining in power as an essential outcome.

Karzai’s predecessors as modern Afghan rulers installed by foreign invaders – Shah Shujah by the British and Dr Najibullah by the Soviets – were both murdered once their sponsors left.

The coalition government in the UK apparently believes that the sharp reduction in the casualty rate among UK forces has removed public pressure for an earlier withdrawal. The Obama administration has give firm assurances to Karzai that a high level US and NATO military occupation will remain in place until after the end of his term of office.

It is 5.30 am and I haven’t been to bed. I intended to watch the first few results from the elections and to turn in around 2 am, but the first Scottish results were so riveting, I have been unable even to think of leaving. And just a moment ago “SNP gain Paisley” flashed up. Paisley!!

The SNP so far have won 28 constituencies on the first past the post part of the election, with many still to come. Compared to seven of these last time. If this were a first past the post election, the SNP would have a thumping absolute majority. But I reckon the regional lists wil still result in an overall majority to the SNP. As Scottish independence remains the practical political goal to which I am most attached, I am absolutely delighted.

Alex Salmond has already indicated that he will use his mandate to push for more powers for the Scottish parliament – most crucially, the power to borrow money so Scotland can run a more Keynsian economic policy, and the power to vary corporation tax. These will be resisted by the Tories, which will set up precisely the confrontation needed over the next four years to prepare for a referendum on independence.

I vote Lib Dem when in England and SNP in Scotland. I am sorry in a sense to see the collapse of the Lib Dem vote in Scotland, not least because Tavish Scott is a very decent person and a genuine liberal. But the atavistic unionism of the Scottish Lib Dems in recent years deserves a kicking, not least because it is the precise opposite of the party’s historical and philosophical roots, and would have Gladstone and Rosebery spinning in their graves. Any real Liberal in Scotland in 2011 should want Scottish independence, and it was only recently in my adult life that the view started to be taken that belief in Scottish independence is incompatible with being a Liberal Democrat.

That Liberals were prepared in Scotland to spend years in coalition with war criminals, but would not enter a coalition with the SNP because of opposition to letting people have a referendum on independence, was so stupid and illiberal, that bluntly the Scottish Lib Dems deserved their virtual annihilation.

New Labour will get an enormous raft of MSPs on the regional list system, having lost 75% of their constituency MSPs. By and large these list candidates are not the same people as the defeated New Labour MSPs. Amazingly, they are on the whole even less talented than the obnoxious numpties the electorate have just sent packing. There is not going to be any effective opposition in the new Scottish parliament, and I hope that the horrible regional list system at least throws up some greens and independents to liven things up,

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(You need to click on fcomurray1, and then on the lower smallcase fcomurray1 that will appear again, and then repeat the process with fcomurray2. Hopefully I might find a more elegant way later.)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has, for the first time, admitted I was cleared on all 19 charges they laid against me, except for the Kafkaesque charge of talking about the charges against me in order to prepare a defence.

However the letter from Lord Howell claims – falsely, as far as I am aware – “that the disciplinary allegations taken by the FCO in Craig Murray’s case related first to complaints made about him by members of his staff”. In the course of a four month investigation under suspension, I was only ever shown a single complaint about me by members of my staff. This consisted of a signed statement by a small group of staff in the visa saction, to the effect that on a named morning I had told them I had a hangover.

This statement was not the source of the allegation, but rather obtained after the allegation that I was an alcoholic had been made by the FCO. Every single member of my staff was called in and asked if they had ever seen me drunk. That statement, that I once said that I had a hangover, was the sole result of this fishing expedition. I was never shown any staff statement on any other allegation, including the astounding allegation of sex for visas, and as these were all dropped for lack of evidence I presume there were no such statements. Lord Howell is telling an untruth, though I fully expect as a result of being lied to by his civil servants.

On the other disciplinary count – that of unauthorised disclosure to the media – relates to my appearance on the Today programme etc AFTER I had told the FCO I was leaving the service, so is hardly germane. Jack Straw added that line to parliament in order to say I had not resolved all charges against me. Straw had fudged this to appear still to refer to the sexual charges.

Of course, what Lord Howell fails completely to mention is, that these eighteen disciplinary charges miraculously appeared from nowhere immediately after I became the only UK civil servant to enter a written objection to our complicity in torture in the War on Terror.

What sickens me most about this in Lord Howell’s letter is the FCO’s claim to have cleared itself in its own investigation of having made the allegations against me “maliciously or in bad faith”.

Do they really expect anybody to believe that you can make eighteen serious allegations against somebody, every one of which turns out to be untrue, in good faith?

I am very grateful indeed to Nigel Jones for his persistence in winning at least this much acknowledgement of my innocence from the FCO, after eight years in which they have systematically blackened my name. I am sorry that Lord Howell can’t tell Nigel Jones from Digby Jones!

Bahrain is putting 47 doctors and nurses on trial for treating wounded and dying protestors. Again there is total silence from the UK and US governments at this sickening human rights abuse by our “ally” in the Gulf. There is no discussion of sanctions against Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. There no longer seems to be even the slightest attempt to disguise the double standards. Human rights are merely an excuse to attack those who oppose UK and US interests, meaning corporate wealth; those who promote those interests can rape, kill and pillage whosoever they please.

The comments by the jury make this sound more like murder than manslaughter:

The jury decided Pc Harwood acted illegally, recklessly and dangerously, and used “excessive and unreasonable” force in striking Mr Tomlinson.
Jurors added that the newspaper seller, who was not taking part in the protests, posed no threat.

Unfortunately the jury cannot compel a prosecution, so my bet is that the killer, PC Simon Harwood, will get off scot free. But at least a British jury has shown its historic independence of authority has survived – an independence which was denied it in the case of the murder of Jean Charles De Menezes by the utterly disgraceful Sir Michael Wright, grovelling tool of the authoritarian state.

Talking of which, it seems to me that Dr Freddy Patel needs to be sacked and struck off for the disgraceful lie that Tomlinson died of a heart attack. The last thing this country needs is bent pathologists tailoring their evidence to suit the police.

I think this is simply brilliant.

Predictably, the death of Osama Bin Laden has brought the return of “war on terror” impunity to the crazed British security services. An extraordinarily sinister body, the “Civil Nuclear Constabulary”, has arrested five Asians for possibly taking photographs of the Sellafield nuclear power station – of which there are thousands of photographs online and which is visible on Google Earth.

Because of course, if you were a fiendish mastermind wishing to have intelligence on Sellafield, you would covertly and surreptitiously take photos using five young Asian men in a group in Cumbria in broad daylight.

Racist harassment by the state is firmly back on the agenda.

To my generation, Henry Cooper was a real working class hero whose unaffected manner belied his status as a great master of his craft. Possessing incredible courage and skill, he was prevented from becoming world champion only by prominent eyebrow ridges that made his skin cut easily there. Sensibilities change with the years, and I now dislike boxing. But nobody could doubt Henry Cooper’s nobility of spirit, or the genuine warmth and respect between him and Muhammad Ali.

There is a scene in the movie Royal Flash, where the camera is in the place of an opponent boxing Cooper. Anybody who doubts the real skill of the sport should watch that scene. The lightning speed of the moving head, the bewildering feints. Not all the Rocky movies together demonstrated the reality of the sport a fraction as well as that brief scene of Cooper.

I listened to Cooper’s final defeat against Joe Bugner on the radio with my grandfather in his back parlour. The decision was highly unpopular and probably dubious – there was talk of low punches. But Cooper bowed out with grace, and represents a time of innocence when a great champion would go on to invest his little earnings in a grocery shop. Bugner, who had the physique of a Greek God, was to disappoint in the rest of his career by not punching his weight. I seem to recall my grandfather told me that this was because he had once killed a man in the ring; which should be enough to end this thread of boxing romanticism.

They called Cooper “Our Enery” and he did feel like just one of us in a way that sporting superstars somehow don’t any more. His death seems a break with a better past.

Osama Bin Laden had perpetrated many acts of violence. Blowback does not only affect states; Osama Bin Laden was killed by his former allies, those who used to support and arm him. Celebrations of someone’s death are always distatsteful, but Osama Bin Laden dealt in violent death and died a violent death. Of course, he who lives by the sword is a two-edged observation; it applies to Americans too, and I am afraid there will sadly be further violence in the short term.

There are questions to be asked about why Osama Bin Laden was killed rather than captured, when he would evidently be such a valuable intelligence asset. There are aspects of the official story which do not add up. I have seen the photo of his body on France 24, and plainly he was killed by a head shot; if you have to shoot someone you are trying to capture, you do not go for the head. Secondly we are told that he could not be captured because there was a fierce firefight of resistance at the house; but that no Americans were injured. So not that fierce, then. Aside from Osama Bin Laden, only two men and one woman were killed – so again, hardly a great pitched battle. The building was then torched, destrying the forensic evidence.

If Bin Laden did not kill himself, or get one of his own men to shoot him, it remains open to question why he was taken out with a headshot in a situation where resistance had been so ineffective that no American had been hurt.

It is yet another commentary on the state of Pakistan that Bin Laden was living in a large house in Abbottabad – which is by no means a backwater. It is also a major garrison town and the headquarters for military and intellligence operations in the Afghan frontier areas. (By chance, James Abbott, its founder, is one of the Great Game players I am currently studying). I simply do not believe that Bin Laden could live for years in a million dollar home in Abbottabad without significant parts of the Pakistani military and intelligence community knowing he was there.

One of my cunning plans for making a living was to open sex shops in the arrivals areas of airports. Since air travel became such a horrible experience, I figured that people must be chary of taking with them in their baggage the battery operated items that they find essential to their personal happiness, for fear of having them waved about by security men. Therefore the chance to equip themselves suitably on arrival might be welcome.

I was surprised to find that the Germans have got their already. In the departures lounge at Munich airport, and most importantly after you have passed through the last security search, is a Beate Uhse sex shop. And more than that, in the window they had a display of solar powered vibrators. How wonderful! You can have an orgasm and save the planet all at the same time. Good vibrations indeed.

It is worth reminding ourselves that the stated aim of SCR 1973 is negotiations, not the wiping out of one side in Libya. Killing children by bombing a residential house in a residential suburb is not remotely defensible; for Cameron to claim that killing children is “protecting civilians” is awful – those children were civilians, whoever may have been their grandfather.

I could accept that SCR 1973 could be stretched to include knocking out air defences as pre-emptive action against a challenge to the no-fly zone. That it stretches to widespread attacks on the “command and control” facilities of one side of a civil war, is plainly nonsense. The resolution calls for negotiations between the two sides; it cannot therefore be construed to mean that the only way to protect civilians is the utter destruction of one side. Then the “command and control” excuse was used to attack civilian telephone networks, then TV networks, then civilian electricity supplies. Now it is used to justify the murder of children in a family home.

I am frankly astonished that more concern is not coming from the Liberal Democrat side of the coalition about this mission gallop.

Read this from Sunny. It’s just like being back in Uzbekistan. How far away are we from arrests for blogging about this kind of stuff?

I have been watching the BBC coverage of the Royal Wedding build-up. Try to put aside all of the hype, and look carefully at the actual crowds. They are not actually that deep, there is no sense of crush – people are standing with a reasonable amount of space when they go in for their crowd interviews – and there is plenty of space on the pavements to pass behind those people ranked behind the barriers. The crowds are much, much smaller than they were for Charles and Diana’s wedding (I was in London that day). Despite an obvious BBC policy of interviewing lots of token black guests, the crowds are also overwhelmingly white and, judged by the crowd member interviews to date, composed of embarassing simpletons.

Like many of my readers, I was on the demonstration against the Operation Cast Lead Israeli attack on Gaza, which went from Hyde Park along Bayswater, down Kensington Church Road and along Knightsbridge. It was crushed, twenty abreast, and the tail was still leaving long after the head had arrived at destination. That was a longer route than this royal procession. It undoubtedly had more people than this event, and the Metropolitan Police put the number at 40,000.

If today’s event was an anti-war demonstration, the Police would tell us it was 30,000. As it is a royal occasion, I have no doubt they will claim 3,000,000.