the news from afar

It's funny following the news from afar - one tends to consume it in fragments and sudden chunks, a three day old paper, or a glimpse of BBC World while you're getting changed for the pool. So most of my thoughts about news items are similarly bitesize and unfit for public consumption. Gordon Brown is now appointing people who were forced to resign for being racist by the Conservative Party. Blimey. Kate McCann is now a formal suspect. Whatever next? Bush intimates that progress might be made with North Korea. Ooh.

Hang on, that last one did grab my attention, actually. It's interesting that with neoconservatism and 'liberal intervenionism' being all but discredited, and Rumsfeld's goons all but gone, Christopher Hill's diplomatic 'surge' is actually making some progress. Perhaps if Bush hadn't stopped talks underway under Clinton, we could have done this years ago.

It's still really freaky watching Bush play the statesman though. And backing things that he would once have categorically opposed. It makes you wonder, has perhaps, after all this time, his experience led him to reconsider some of his instincts and examine other methods? Is he putting his days as a crass buffoon behind him and refashioning himself as an attentive student of global politics?

It's a nice thought, but considering he today referred to APAC as OPAC, I think it might be a little unlikely.