With the world’s attention focussed (rightly) on Gaza, the ongoing tragedy of Burma/Myanmar remains almost unseen. Just as the Israelis are keeping foreign journalists out of Gaza, so the Burmese junta stops reporters getting in there to see what is happening. Moreover, now that last year’s cyclone has been forgotten by the outside world and the monks’ protests have been quashed, Burma just isn’t ‘news’ as far as the global media is concerned, with a few noble exceptions such as the BBC World Service.

Nonetheless, the bloody repression there continues, including the torture of political prisoners. On 30 December, nine members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested in Rangoon (Yangon) for demonstrating in favour of the release from house arrest of their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi (who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991) has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years in detention, her ‘crime’ being that her party won Burma’s last democratic election in 1990 – a result which the junta simply refused to accept.

Has the European Commission being telling porkies about Euro-myths? The small percentage of LibDem Voice readers who avidly devour the Daily Mail and saw the recent piece by Edward Heathcoat-Amory dramatically headlined ‘Here’s proof Brussels has been sprouting lies about wonky vegetables for years!’ are not the only people who may think so. And truth to tell, what should have been a good news story from the EU has turned into something of a public relations disaster.

First the facts. Earlier this month, the EU relaxed its regulations governing 26 types of fruit and veg, lifting a ban on the …

Monday
Each autumn, I’m invited by Public Affairs International to give a briefing in London to foreign civil servants about relations between British political parties, the public and the media. A majority of the participants this afternoon are from Qatar and the UAE, which is an interesting reflection of current global realities. As their government ministers are almost all members of the ruling family, the Westminster system must seem very strange. I am left pondering what things would be like if Prince Andrew were our Minister of Defence. In the evening, I am the guest speaker at the AGM of Ealing …

Wednesday

On the tube over to West London, I wonder how Ukraine and Slovakia have managed to have their national celebrations on the same day, and both at lunchtime. Fortunately the two embassies are close to each other, and predictably there is a lot of toing-and-froing between. I decide to do Ukraine first, having recently been in the country itself and I am not surprised to find the mood somewhat sombre. After the Russian intervention in Georgia, there are rumblings in the Crimea again and the government in Kiev is falling apart. I have earnest discussions with the diplomats there, …