The boyfriend of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s unwed, pregnant daughter will join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Levi Johnston’s mother said her 18-year-old son left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family at the convention where Sen. John McCain will officially receive the Republican nomination for president. The boy’s mother, Sherry Johnston, said there had been no pressure put on her son to marry 17-year-old Bristol Palin and the two teens had made plans to wed before it was known she was pregnant.
“This is just a bonus,” Johnston said.
She took the words right out of John McCain’s mouth, I’m sure.
UPDATE: curse my cynicism. McCain stands by his fellow maverick!
This image will probably reassure the pro-life lobby that the candidate is very, very committed to defending the unborn. But after Barack Obama sportingly declared that he’d stay out of Palin family affairs, should Mr. McCain be getting involved?
In a rare display of normalcy from a politician, Andy Burnham, Britain’s young Culture Secretary, has apparently told Q Magazine: “I would trade in the whole political career tomorrow if I could join the Wedding Present.” Global Dashboard’s less musically sophisticated (or less aged) readers can find out what they’ve been missing since the Leeds-based band shuffled onto the scene in the late 1980s by watching the seminal ‘Kennedy’ here (complete with ropey 80s haircuts), or even by joining me and fellow dinosaurs at their Southampton Joiners gig tomorrow night.
Burnham went on to argue that all MPs are failed rock stars: “We start with football, find we can’t do that, try rock’n’roll, then end up in politics.” The out of touch Sunday Times is sniffy about Burnham’s dream (it has the temerity to liken listening to the band – one of the great John Peel‘s favourites – to “sandpapering your ears”). For my part, I think most of us, if we were honest, would really rather be in a band, and am delighted that British culture is in such safe hands.
Having returned from two very pleasant days in Red Neck Pennsylvania, I have only just read Alistair Darling’s doom-laden interview with the Guardian about Britain’s dire economic situation. There is disturbing stuff in there, but the most chilling part of all is the photo of the Chancellor that comes with the story:
This is a bizarre picture. I suppose most people thought that Darling was trying to look brooding. But the whole set-up is strangely evocative of something else, or someone else. The sea… the darkness… the tuft of white hair. Yes, this man is doing an impression of Max von Sydow at the start of The Seventh Seal, stranded on a beach and starting a game of chess with Death to ward off his certain doom…*
Watch out for David Cameron in a head-to-toe black robe, and the entire Cabinet dancing across the skyline in silhouette… Oh, you get my gist.
*A Pedant writes: Von Sydow’s hair was blond. But not in black-and-white, it wasn’t.
Turkey has been drawn in to the Georgia crisis. Because the country allowed US aid ships to sail through the Bosphorus to Georgia, Russia has tightened border security checks on Turkish trucks, causing long queues and severe delays to trade. Russia is one of Turkey’s main trading partners, so its sulking could cost the stuttering Turkish economy billions. Ankara has retaliated by tightening its own border controls, and has threatened to withdraw support for Russian membership of the WTO. Given that the latter is an organisation dedicated to free trade, such a threat doesn’t seem inappropriate.
Back in July I wrote a post on who I thought would sit on the national security forum. The NSF would likely be a NDPB made up of 12 publicly appointed members reflecting the broad range of subject areas in the national security strategy, chosen on the basis of their expertise and experience. My list (for which I was lightly mocked) included:
Chair: Sir David Veness
1. International terrorism Baroness Manningham-Buller of Northampton
2. Weapons of mass destruction Paul Cornish
3. Conflicts and failed states Clare Lockhart
4. Pandemics – Professor Lindsey Davies
5. Trans-national crime – Misha Glenny
6. Climate change – Nick Stern
7. Competition for energy – Nick Butler
8. Poverty & Governance – Paul Collier
9. Defence & Armed forces – General Sir Rupert Smith
10. Demographics – Adair Turner
11. Globalisation David Held
This afternoon we received a letter regarding the make up of the National Security Forum. The letter, sent to think tanks and academic institutions, requests nominations to the NSF and states that the Government is aiming for membership as follows:
1. Chair: a senior figure with a background in international affairs or security.
2. A member drawn from an academic body with a specialism in international/ security affairs
3. A scientist
4. An economist
5. An industrialist
6. A retired senior diplomat
7. A retired senior military officer
8. A retired senior police officer
9. A member with an intelligence/ security background
10. An international development expert.
11. A current or former member of local government
12. At least one ‘lay’ member without specific portfolio.
The Government also wants a list of up to 100 hundred experts who could be called on to advise the forum.
Before the outcry and onslaught of cynical comment offered forth I want to state for the record I think this is one of the most progressive initiatives a British Government has come up with on national security. Of course there are some concerns regarding the organisation, its structure and processes but for now I think we should sit back, mull it over and contemplate the huge potential of the NSF.
