I’m sure you all know that I love music, hence the ATW jukebox feature on the site.

As and from this week, I want to write a regular "Behind the Song" column – over on the Tangled Articles section. I hope you will find this an interesting read and I guarantee you will find out some things that you definitely didn’t know! I’ve been a bit reluctant to do this since a writer whose work I profoundly admire, Mark Steyn, does a similar kind of thing and I didn’t want to be seen to be copying him. But my enthusiasm for music is way too powerful and I reckon I can make it worth your while to read it!

So, this week I HAVE just published the tale of how a blind Texan wrote Country & Western’s most horrific song – even though he is best known for writing gentle love songs and tales of lost romance!

Well, I’m not in the least surprised to read that a draft report on strategies for Iraq which will be debated in the USA by a bipartisan commission beginning Monday, urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria. The date for retreat is not set but don’t worry – the Jihadists will get the message. Nudge Nudge.

As for talking to Iran and Syria – this is entirely in line with the lunatic notion that these nations can somehow "stabilise" Iraq and help the nascent Iraqi democracy establish itself. Naturally both Iran and Syria are truly deeply and madly devoted to the removal of any vestige of democracy in the Middle East and it looks like the Iraq Study Group’s report – fronted by James Baker (the man who abandoned ordinary Iraqis to Saddam’s tender mercies in 1992 as the mass graves testified) – will ensure that the axis of evil prevails.  When the unreal is presented as realism, we know the plot has well and truly been lost. 

Can I just say how sorry I am that Tony Blair has said how sorry he is about something that happened to some people a few hundred years ago? The Prime Minister has described the slave trade, which Britain helped to ban, as a "crime against humanity." Well, maybe it is – and since some African Nations are STILL practising this, doesn’t that make them war criminals? When shall we invade….? 

Were I an Israeli, I would feel SO humiliated by Osloid Olmert’s latest craven appeasement moves to appease the psychopath in Hamas. It’s reported that this clown is now pledging “humanitarian and economic incentives” (Bribes) IF the terrorists free a captive Israeli soldier and violence ceased. This is not leadership – this is total leftist defeatism wrapped up in the hollow rhetoric of peace processing.

Israel under Olmert is ENCOURAGING the Pali terrorists by REWARDING their evil deeds. Shame on him.

I see that David Cameron (Pictured here in full NucaringConservative military attire) is flying out to an important photo-opportunity with our troops in Basra.  Producing an onion from his pocket, Call Me Dave said he wanted to show his "support for our troops and to hear their experiences."  He also said he wanted "to get a more direct understanding of the political situation by meeting Iraqi politicians and to look at the prospects for halting the terrible cycle of violence and for making the transition to Iraqi control over security".

Quick update for Dave. Save yourself the bother of this journey and save the Earth all those nasty C02 emissions from your aircraft by digesting this;

1. You can show support for our troops by staying at home and encouraging them to VICTORY in Jihadistan. I seem to remember that your track record is to urge appeasement in Iraq. Conflicted message Dave.

2. The way to stop "the terrible cycle of violence" as you call the war is to encourage our Military to use such overwhelming physical force as to persuade the Jihadi that they cannot win in Iraq. 

As some may remember, I have written, and continue to write, novels (all unpublished, I must reluctantly admit): so while trawling around some writing and short-story sites, I came across this little gem of a contest, which is entitled the Short, Short, Short, Short, Short, Short Story competition, which emulates the most famous short-short story, which was written by the immortal Ernest Hemingway, which went “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”

As we are approaching the Season of Goodwill to all men, and of course women, I would like to initiate the ATW Short * 6 story competition, which of course would be won by the author of the best six word political headline, or comment, or genuine shortest current affairs story.

Rules are as follows:

No obscenities allowed, either in asterisks or otherwise!

Libellous entries shall be excluded!

Humour will be given bonus points!

Entries must be of six words only; no more, no less!

A time limit of three days for all entries will be made.

As with all political ideals, the editor’s decision can only be altered by bribery!

Points will be given for topical ideas, and points mean Prizes!

First, and only prize shall be the opportunity to insert one post on ATW, as the winner would be invited to contribute by e-mail to the e-mail address as listed; this would be transferred to me, and the entry would be posted under my Guest Contributor’s name, with full credit given the original author!

You are under Starter’s Orders, folks, with the deadline at eleven a.m. on Thursday 30^th November!

When Neil Sedaka wrote "that breaking up is hard to do"....he failed to appreciate that socialists take a radically different view on such matters! It has been clear ever since the NuLabour rabble came to power that it has pursued a vindictive approach to the institution of marriage. This is manifest in this story in which a newly wed couple reveals how they were told by a Government welfare official: "You’d get more money if you split up."

Janet and Mark Fensome were advised by their local Job Centre that if they wanted extra money in handouts, the best thing to do was to get divorced because under existing rules, couples who live apart get more.  if the Fensomes had split up they would get an extra £25 a week – or £1,250 a year.

There are other handouts where couples can claim more by breaking up. Divorced couples can claim two portions of housing benefit and council tax rebate. Single parents get a £22.20 housing benefit premium. The unemployed can also claim more in income support and job seekers’ allowance. In both cases a couple who split up can claim an additional £25 a week. A single person gets £57.45 a week in income support. A couple who are both claiming receive a total of £90.10, or £45.05 each. The difference for two people is £24.80 a week or £1,289.60 a year. A total of £200million of income support was claimed fraudulently last year – £130million going to people claiming to be lone parents.

When did you last hear an MSM story attacking alleged "lone parents" for being the biggest contributors to Benefit Fraud? The truth is that Government and its media allies view marriage with contempt and the fact that it has now become financially advantageous to split up speaks volumes for NuLabour’s "commitment" to the family.

I wonder what you make of Cherie Blair’s attack on the media claiming there is “no professional morality in journalism”. The Prime Minister’s wife took her revenge on a profession that has bedevilled her for years when invited to address students at Roehampton University on Wednesday. She told a stunned audience that it was “not a noble calling” and journalists “have no ethics”.

Now then, time for my pennysworth. I’m sure you might accept me to be a reasonably trenchant critic of the MSM. However I also happen to know several journos and I consider some of them to be deeply principled. ( though I would take issue with some of those principles!) I think journalists are no different to the rest of us, and their profession exposes them to a wide range of views and disciplines. So I  think that Cherie Blair is wrong.

But let me offer up a profession that truly “is not a noble calling” and which self-evidently “has no ethics”.. yes, I’m talking about POLITICIANS. As far as I am concerned, it really is a profession of whores.

As the Pope prepares to visit Turkey this coming week, I trust all will be well for Benedict XV1 as some of the portents are worrying. Militant Islam clearly sees this as an opportunity to further flex its muscle, and already a man (Muslim?) has lunged at Archbishop Pierluigi Celata, the former papal ambassador to Turkey, who was on a advance scouting mission in his Catholic robes. The country’s current bestselling novel, Plot Against the Pope, shows Benedict on the cover, targeted by a bearded sniper in front of a burning cross. Wonder what religion the bearded sniper might be? Wonder who is buying it? Wonder why?

Iran has been accelerating its programme of HANGING those unfortunates who disagree with the Mad Mullah’s regime. The shocking details of what is going on in Iran at this very time make stomach-churning reading but they provide us with further proof as to just how EVIL this terror regime is.  Can we all agree on that?

AND YET  – Tony Blair talks of engaging with Iran as a "stabilising force" in the region, echoing the thoughts of the French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy who also claimed that Iran is "a great country, a great people, a great civilisation which plays a stabilising role in the region."

I suppose when you head towards the gallows for the crime of expressing disagreement with the Mullahs that "greatness" may not be so apparent. Whether it is political dissidents, people who are gay, adulterers …Iran favours the NOOSE as a way of dispensing justice. 

We are behaving towards Iran just as we did towards Germany in the 1930’s. The spirit of appeasement prevails and evil grows stronger.