Tim Collard

An anti-government protester wears a makeshift helmet during a stone-throwing battle with supporters of President Hosni Mubarak in Tahrir Square, Cairo (Photo: GETTY)

Observing recent events in Egypt, I’m sure I’m not the only old China hand who’s beginning to get a bad feeling. It’s clear that the protestors are not about to vacate Tahrir Square; equally, it’s becoming clear – despite his comments last night – that Mubarak is not going to give up as easily as did Ben Ali in Tunisia. Irresistible force meets immovable object. Might the regime resort to force à la Chinoise?

Some of the language used by the Mubarak regime has been horribly reminiscent. The talk of “the legitimate demands of… Read More

Ford Open Prison: a booze-up, then a riot

Although I have never met a British prison officer, I sympathise with their working conditions. We aspire to be more of a free-booting, vibrant, devil-take-the-hindmost American-style society, while forgetting that the US imprisons (per capita) five times as many of its citizens as we do. And we won’t build the prisons for that, so the ones we have are all heaving. And money must be saved, which inevitably means staffing reductions. We hear that, at Ford Open Prison on December 31, there were only two prison officers and four support staff on duty.

Was that enough? Well, it was clearly enough to prevent a large-scale prison break-out, which is the bare minimum the public requires from prison management. But was anyone surprised to hear that, in… Read More

A general election leaflet for former immigration minister Phil Woolas (Photo: PA)

Today I made a decision of which I am not terribly proud. As a member of the Labour Party’s panel of approved candidates, I was invited to apply for the candidacy for Oldham East and Saddleworth. This is going to be a difficult seat to fight, for obvious reasons. I wish the very best to whoever fights it for Labour, and promise my active support in the campaign. But it isn’t going to be me.

I know this looks like cowardice, and possibly it is. But I’m not sure the cowardice is mine. Let me explain.

I know that my Party is deeply ashamed of how this seat was fought in May. I rather think that some of u… Read More

Well, judging by yesterday’s events, it looks as though those who bet on a sensible North Korea might be about to lose their money. The problem is, it’s a difficult entity to bet against. South Korea has suffered a sunk battleship with 46 deaths this year already, and after a day of naked aggression – also including fatalities – Seoul is still reluctant to call their North Korea’s bluff.

A 'pro-business' government would help small businesses to grow (Photo: MARTIN POPE)

No defence offered, your Honour. Yes, I have no excuses for the appalling mess the last government made of the defence budget. Aircraft carriers we don’t need and can’t land planes on, one of which has to be completed and then mothballed because – yes, it’s true – it would be more expensive to cancel it. How can that possibly be the case? I accept that contractors incur a lot of forward costs in planning a large project: but how can such costs outweigh the costs of ploughing on to completion? They can’t. It’s just built-in bunce for the contractors. Which brings me to the question: who signs these contracts?

This isn’t just a New Labour phenomenon. During the 1980s it was the practice… Read More

Coping in 1950s Birmingham (Photo: Getty)

Oh those poor old middle classes. Day after day after weary day, we hear about their woes. “Coping classes at breaking point”; “middle class hit by something or other”; it never rains but it pours for these poor people. They go under many names: the “coping classes” are what the last government called the “hard-working families”. To Ed Miliband they are the “squeezed middle”. I don’t like that; it reminds me too strongly of the process of putting my trousers on in the morning. To me they are the “poor sods who got conned into voting for a cabal of millionaires singing ‘We’re all in this together’ ”. Perhaps one should seek a neutral description: the Sober Married Unsubsidised Gentlefolk, for instance. At least it would provide… Read More

Humorous cufflinks on sale at the Labour Party conference (Photo: FELIPE TRUEBA/UPPA/Photoshot)

Well, I was a Davidite (in the sense that David got my second preference after Andy Burnham), but I’m far from horrified at Ed Miliband’s election as party leader. Yes, of course we’ll have to put up with a certain amount of barracking about “loony lefties” and “the trade unions’ candidate”, and possibly a brief poll surge for the Tories as the propaganda takes effect, but it will be a long time before any of this really matters. Within six months we’ll be judging Ed by what he says and does as leader rather than what he had to say and do to get elected.

But, however little it matters in the long run, we’re left with the… Read More

Sha Zukang (Photo: UNPAN)

When I spotted the title of Peter Foster’s piece in yesterday’s Telegraph – “China’s UN diplomat in drunken rant against Americans” – my first thought was: “Sounds like Sha Zukang – only surely he’s retired by now.”

But no – Mr Sha is still up and running, this time as UN Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs. Foster’s article points out that “it is not the first time that Mr Sha, a career diplomat, has let the mask of diplomacy slip”. Ain’t that the truth.

When I worked in Beijing in the late 1990s Mr Sha was head of the Arms Control department of the Foreign Ministry, and an entertainingly robust opponent. The best performance I ever witnessed was in 1998, when he was guest of honour at a lunch given by Commonwealth… Read More

Midafternoon traffic flows along Beijing's second ring road (Photo: Frederic J Brown/AFP-Getty)

After last week’s diatribe concerning the closing down of half of Lancashire, because a man had climbed onto a motorway bridge to send smoke signals to the heavens about his mistreatment by the Child Support Agency, a reality check. News came in over the weekend of a real snorter of a traffic jam on Highway 110 just west of Beijing, which lasts over 60 miles and is now in its tenth day of existence. One realises that our own dear traffic police, however misguided their ground rules for handling these situations, do at least get it right in their own terms.

Between Jining and Chaigoubu on the main highway into Beijing there are road… Read More

Should suicidal pedestrians be permitted to hold up motorway traffic?

As a long-serving depressive myself, I’m not usually short of sympathy for those driven to the brink of suicide. And, if one really is driven that far, then one is impervious to criticism in any case. But I can’t help thinking that there are better and worse ways to do it, and that one perhaps should reserve a tiny portion of one’s tortured mind for the effect one might be having on other people. But I accept that even those genuine suicides which shut down train or tube lines are deserving of respect for their suffering.

I do draw the line, however, at people who climb up buildings and threaten to jump off. Partly because they very rarely seem to do so;… Read More