Have you guys noticed a major narrative change in the Hamas war against Jews?

Now that the ceasefire line can’t be pushed because Hamas has rejected it everyone is now suddenly switching to imposing a two state solution on Israel. Just how these intellectual pigmy’s think this will work out any different to what we had on October 7 is never explained.

Nor is it explained that Israel’s only conditions for stopping the war is handing over ALL hostages and Hamas’s unconditional surrender.

Well the longer the war drags on the more dead Hamas operatives and hesbullah operatives and IRGC goons so let it roll on. I am wondering though whether someone somewhere in Qatar, Iran and Lebanon isn’t starting to curse Hamas for all the manpower and material they are losing in sudden and unexplained incidents though?

tomo,
In Aus. the government has set up ombudsman offices for some private industry complaints (telecoms, insurance) as well as for government offices. It's interesting that the private companies appear to respect their ombudsman's rulings while the public bodies continue to do as they please.

Like the OV programme, I think the government ombudsman is just window dressing: don't bother us, bother him. At least the ombudsman has a go — a step up from other complaint processes I've wasted my time with — but it seems unaccountability in office is pretty rampant here and in the UK.

Appears slack maintenance can happen on Airbus planes too.

Still enjoying the Mann / Steyn readthroughs. I keep picturing Tom Hanks reacting to Ricky Gervais's caustic patter: Do I have to sit here and take this? Mann and the Team may have hit a new low, if Pielke Jr's suspicions are correct. Climatology, where you can be a disgrace to the profession AND a paragon of the profession with no contradiction.

tomo,
I wasn't advocating that MPs be able to interfere in daily running, just saying that I believe they generally have the "nuke" option if some unaccountable body is truly off the rails (like the ATSIC example). Getting them motivated to do so is another matter of course.

We've headed down the path of the ombudsman representation here. As you say, it's not satisfactory. What is needed is designed-in feedback loops so performance can be evaluated.

NSW used to have an Official Visitors programme, to keep an eye on mental health units and prisons. OVs were appointed by the pertinent minister (Health or Corrective Services). They had the Minister's authority to visit the facility at any time (with or without notice), to be given access to any records, and to interview any inmate. The idea was not to be a patient/prisoner advocate, but more as a spot check/informal audit to make sure that the facilities were following procedures correctly. OVs had no power beyond the above. They couldn't order the administration (or whoever) to do things differently. But they could report to the Minister who certainly could make orders. IOW, OVs were the Minister's spies.

Something along those lines is as "independent" as any government body should ever be allowed to get. They still have to be accountable for they work they have been assigned.

That's not the way the bureaucracy wants it of course. Dad was a mental health OV for about 20 years after his retirement from full-time work, and saw it decline from something useful to window dressing. The Health Department bureaucrats didn't like the short-circuit path direct from the coalface to the Minister, but they were fairly subtle in undermining it. Ministers weren't briefed on the purpose of the program and (with the revolving door of Ministers) came to see the OVs as just another bunch of patient welfare advocates. And the OV appointees changed to match that perception (there had been a lot of retired psych nurses and doctors but, as they aged, they were largely replaced with "concerned citizens"). I see the OV programme still exists, and looks like it remains just another patient advocate.

mailman,
Yes, I didn't choose my words well. Freedom *is* under attack, but I don't think it's the prime target. That's what I was getting at referring to Moulton's talk. He was in defence of "manners" — civility — an underpinning of civilisation.

We have men claiming to be women, being allowed to compete with them in sports. I see today that men are being encouraged to beat up women in a modern travesty of boxing. This has, I suppose, actually increased our freedoms, but a freedom to beat up women is a freedom I'd rather not have. The three axes — freedom, fairness, civility — need to be balanced; they are each awful if taken too far. Civility has been taking a lot of hits in the name of the other two.

tomo,
I'm sure you're right that MPs can't interfere with the running of these independent bodies, and what you describe is the customary blob/swamp protecting its own. But I'm pretty sure that anything created by an act of parliament, parliament can repeal.

Possibly one thing in the minds of voters in Australia's recent "Voice" referendum was that, about 20 years ago, the government abolished the Aborignal and Torres Straight Islander Commission. It was created by a parliamentary act, but had become utterly corrupt, playing favourites, pocketing lots of money intended for Aboriginal welfare, etc. Parliament was able to shut that down with a show of hands. The Voice, a similar body but created in the constitution by referendum, was going to be much harder to shut down if it got out of hand.

Repealing an act is a blunt instrument admittedly, better to create something that will evolve and improve, but it seems there are a fair number of bodies in the UK where the best remedy would be being knocked on the head.

Enjoyed listening to the Mann Steyn set-to yesterday. I like their voiced reconstructions. The fellow they have playing Steyn has the pitch right, overdoes his (slightly) glided "R"s, and is way too pompous sounding; in the end more like Geoffrey Robertson than Steyn. However, having heard the words, it'd be terrific to have pictures of Mann squirming as he is repeatedly damned to his face as a fraud.

Steyn described Mann as a “vicious blowhard”….who discriminates against, harasses, and bullies anybody who disagrees with him”. He said Mann’s Hockey Stick graph was a fraud and Mann himself was a fraud. Mann falsely claimed on numerous occasions to have won a Nobel Prize.

https://twitter.com/Dodders75/status/1749342651457892862