Election Help - UK Election

BBC News: An excellent help for election night folks, an Election seat calculator, allows you to see the % shift and how this effects the seats each Political Party will get on the night, also fun way to check the polls. Read of the Day.

The Battle for Kandahar ?

The New York Times: Reports on the use of American Special Forces in the Afghan City of Kandahar, this is the next major battle for NATO Forces in Afghanistan. The problem for the West is that NATO Forces will have to be in Afghanistan for years to show any real difference, the Obama Administration is planning to take forces out in 2011, thus if your Taliban/Al Qaeda all you have to do is wait out Obama, why fight a war you cant win if the other side is just going to leave. It is beyond debate that NATO forces will win direct one on one fights with the Taliban/Al Qaeda but one has to think of Afghanistan on a strategic level, on that level any Western Force in Afghanistan is going to lose in the long term, the political timetable never matches the military timetable, its just a matter of when we leave Afghanistan and the cost in the loss of Armed Forces Personnel.

Bush 43 Memoirs

Telegraph: Reports that memoirs of Bush 43 will come out in November. The book is of historic importance, it will be interesting to see what Bush 43 thought about his long fight to win the Presidency in 2000, his opinion Bill Clinton, the Bush Administration actions after 9/11 and the failure in Iraq after the invasion and the long War in Afghanistan. One advice to Bush 43 learn from Bill Clinton, don't make it War and Peace, keep to the point and keep it interesting, the liberal NYT will hate it from the start, but this is the chance for Bush 43 to set his own historical record.

The Shadow War in Labour - Redux

The Times: Reports on the growing internal battle within the Labour Party for after the May 6th result, the Home Secretary Alan Johnson is making clear that he has not problem with working with the Liberal Democrats and that he supports reforming the voting system. In other words folks PM Brown is toast, if Labour comes third as expected on May 6th expect Brown to be thrown out and Mr Johnson to try and make a deal with LibDems. The old hands within Labour don't want to see the Conservatives and LibDems working together, this could mean that they could be out of power for a generation, thus they will throw Brown under the Bus to keep power, the game is afoot folks.