The commentators 21-07-14...on Flight MH17Throughout the Ukrainian crisis, Barack Obama’s administration has pulled its punches as Europeans have wilfully underestimated the Kremlin’s ruthless contempt for international law and norms. The fate of MH17 is unlikely to have changed Mr Putin’s worldview. Will it spur western resolve?
- Philip Stevens, Financial Times Among the murdered on flight MH17 were Dutch experts travelling to address a Melbourne global Aids conference. Do not be surprised if Pravda’s editorial board finds use for this in suggesting a US motive for blowing up the plane: ‘Was one of the MH17 passengers about to reveal to the world the CIA’s real role in the killer disease?’ If they do, there will be more than enough idiots to believe them.
- Dominic Lawson, Daily Mail There is only one reason why those drunken Russian-backed separatists had access to a Buk surface-to-air missile. It was a present from Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. He has set on this conflict. He is fanning the flames of violence in a sovereign European state. This is his war. He bears responsibility, and he must not be allowed to get away with it.
- Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph Most influential media in Russia is state-controlled, its editorial and management staff in effect appointed by the government. And they have been assiduous in creating scenarios in which anyone but the Russian authorities and their militia allies take the blame for shooting down Flight MH17. The problem is that there are no plausible or evidence-based alternative explanations, so they have been forced to improvise a new sub-genre of conspiracy theories.
- David Aaronovitch, The Times Ukraine is not a poor country; it’s just that the money that should be maintaining his equipment – and equipping Ukraine’s army, and guarding its borders, and so on and so on – has been spent in our shops. Ukrainians’ loss has been westerners’ gain. The price of Ukraine’s disintegration was already too high before 298 people got blown out of the sky. The tragedy of MH17 should make us realise how complicit we are in creating the circumstances that allowed it to happen.
- Oliver Bullough, The Guardian Vote for your favourite commentatorsThe annual Editorial Intelligence comment awards were officially launched last month with the announcement of the seventy-strong panel of judges to be led by Stevie Spring, chair of Children in Need.
They include Lorraine Heggessey, Nihal Arthanayake, Karren Brady, Damian Barr, Lynne Franks, Nicky Gavron, Laura Kuenssberg, Adrian Monck and Kirsty Lang. Anyone is invited to nominate their favourite commentators for the awards, which are divided into 16 categories. There is no charge for entry.
|
|
July 11
Public sector strikes July 10 Public sector strikes July 9 Sex abuse July 8 Sex abuse July 7 Westminster sex abuse June 13
Iraq June 12 Oxfam, baby buggies June 11 British values June 10 Extremist education June 9 May v Gove |
Please sign up for SubScribe updates
(no spam, no more than one every week or two)
|
|