The Mandelson scandal reveals a political settlement in which democratic choice is curtailed and the power of markets eclipses the will of voters – only the left can challenge this, writes JON TRICKETT MP
WILLIAM SHAWCROSS, the “independent reviewer” of the government’s “counter-extremism” policy Prevent, is worried that people who object to what they call his “track record of hostility to Islam and Muslims” are twisting his words.
So I want to do him the favour of quoting his words directly. Though frankly they sound to me like an authoritarian extremist, justifying torture.
Under Prevent, teachers, doctors and social workers must refer people they think are influenced by “extremism” to the police. In practice this means mostly Islamist extremism with some small attention to far-right extremism.
GUILLERMO THOMAS enjoys a survey of the current state of the CIA (aka Langley) from an expert and insider of sorts
ALEX HALL is frustrated by a book that ducks a clear definition of terrorism and fails to perceive the role of the state in sponsoring it
US General Stanley McChrystal has been invited to advise on creating a ‘team of teams’ for healthcare transformation. His credentials? He previously ran interrogation bases where Iraqis were stripped naked and beaten, reports SOLOMON HUGHES



