Straight male seeks Bush supporter for fair, physical fight - m4m

Bush victory infuriates world press


By Gareth Harding
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

NO2ID Launch e-Petition

NO2ID has today launched an e-Petition under Cabinet Office rules at
www.no2id-petition.net to ask for the withdrawal of the forthcoming ID
legislation.

Members of civil liberties and privacy groups, and opponents of The Home
Secretary's proposals across the UK, are encouraged to add their
signature to the petition - and to spread its URL far and wide. The
e-Petition will be submitted in time for the Queen's Speech, and will
once and for all put a lie to Mssrs. Blunket and Blair's public
assertions that there are 'no longer any significant civil liberties
concerns' with the scheme.

Mark Littlewood, national co-ordinator of the NO2ID coalition against
identity cards said:

"With opinion polls showing that up to 4m British citizens are
absolutely opposed to identity cards, the government risks further
alienating a substantial part of the electorate. A backlash on the scale
of the anti-war or pro-hunting lobbies is becoming more likely with
every step the Home Office take forward. One can only hope that common
sense prevails and that David Blunkett's opponents in the Cabinet and in
Parliament block this ludicrous scheme. If they do not, a major campaign
against identity cards will be fought in every corner of the United
Kingdom."

Notes to editors

NO2ID is the cross-party, umbrella campaign against the introduction of
identity cards in Britain. For more information see www.no2id.net

For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact
press@no2id.net

*** ENDS ***

This book was first thought of, so far as the central idea goes, in 1937, but was not written down until about the end of 1943. By the time when it came to be written it was obvious that there would be great difficulty in getting it published (in spite of the present book shortage which ensures that anything describable as a book will 'sell'), and in the event it was refused by four publishers. Only one of these had any ideological motive. Two had been publishing anti-Russian books for years, and the other had no noticeable political colour. One publisher actually started by accepting the book, but after making the preliminary arrangements he decided to consult the Ministry of Information, who appear to have warned him, or at any rate strongly advised him, against publishing it. Here is an extract from his letter:

I mentioned the reaction I had had from an important official in the Ministry of Information with regard to Animal Farm. I must confess that this expression of opinion has given me seriously to think ... I can see now that it might be regarded as something which it was highly ill-advised to publish at the present time. If the fable were addressed generally to dictators and dictatorships at large then publication would be all right, but the fable does follow, as I see now, so completely the progress of the Russian Soviets and their two dictators, that it can apply only to Russia, to the exclusion of the other dictatorships. Another thing: it would be less offensive if the predominant caste in the fable were not pigs. [It is not quite clear whether this suggested modification is Mr ... 's own idea, or originated with the Ministry of Information; but it seems to have the official ring about it - Orwell's Note] I think the choice of pigs as the ruling caste will no doubt give offence to many people, and particularly to anyone who is a bit touchy, as undoubtedly the Russians are.

Any fairminded person with journalistic experience will admit that during this war official censorship has not been particularly irksome. We have not been subjected to the kind of totalitarian 'co-ordination' that it might have been reasonable to expect. The press has some justified grievances, but on the whole the Government has behaved well and has been surprisingly tolerant of minority opinions. The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news - things which on their own merits would get the big headlines - being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that 'it wouldn't do' to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralized, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is 'not done' to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was 'not done' to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.

At this moment what is demanded by the prevailing orthodoxy is an uncritical hatred of "Radical Islam". Every-one knows this, nearly everyone acts on it. Any serious evaluation of Radical Islam, any disclosure of facts which the American and British governments would prefer to keep hidden, is next door to unprintable.[...]

The question of who will be the next US president and which one of the two parties in the US will be the winner of the election is not important at all... The Democrats and the Republicans are all tarred with the same brush.

Iran's Jomhuri-Ye Eslami

A Bush victory may lead to more of the same movement towards unilateral exercise of US power. But would a Kerry presidency be any different?

Malaysia's The Star

At the end of the day, the US president, whether Democrat or Republican, will be elected primarily on their agenda for the US. And in US politics, Africa is barely a tiny blip on the radar.

Kenya's Nation

No drastic change in policy is expected, but the result will signal whether the aggressive, unilateralist role America has adopted in the past four years is going to continue or be scaled down. The difference in the end may be reflected only in nuances.

Pakistan's Dawn

Regardless of who claims victory in these elections, the al-Qaeda leader will emerge the biggest winner.

London-based Arabic paper Al-Quds al-Arabi

The Iraqi street is still wondering whether America's position in Iraq will change if Kerry wins, whether America will stay the course in Iraq or run for its life.

Iraq's Al-Shira

No matter who wins in Tuesday's presidential vote, the outcome seems destined for rejection by almost half the country.

Canada's The Toronto Star

This election is a test for the American people on how far they are willing to show empathy with people of other nations and how far they want to expand their horizons.

Indonesia's Pikiran Rakyat

The USA is celebrating its great festival of democracy enveloped in all kinds of suspicions, doubts and mistrust about the fairness of the process and the guarantees of the final count.

Spain's El Razon

The best thing for both candidates and for the prestige of US democracy itself is for there not to a repetition of the foul-ups of 2000.

Spain's El Pais

On Tuesday the US will be under the spotlight, the rest of the world expects to see the self-proclaimed champion of democracy leading by example.

Zimbabwe's Sunday Mirror

The surfacing of al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, in a video tape has made the US voter doubt whether the Bush administration has really achieved anything in the last four years.

Saudi Arabia's Al-Watan

To get rid of an atmosphere where violence is seen as the only solution, the last hope is the victory of Kerry.

Turkey's Sabah

Only one candidate came to public office as a warrior scarred and cautioned by war. The other came to office as a moral tourist.

Australia's Sydney Morning Herald

For the sake of world progress John Kerry's victory would be preferable so that Europe and the USA may have a chance to start afresh together.

France's Le Monde

The Bush revolution, like many of its kind, has exhausted itself. America now needs a president who does not turn his back on the need to eradicate and eliminate Islamic terrorism, but seeks to do this efficiently, wisely and with international support.

Israel's Yediot Aharonot

If Kerry wins the elections, it can be expected that a very different atmosphere may be formed both in America and the world.

Turkey's Milliyet

The importance of these elections is unquestionable, because at stake is living for four more years with the unilateralism that has imbued the policies of the Bush administration or being able to take the path of international co-operation.

Spain's El Mundo