KIM JONG-NAM : VICTIM OF VX.

It seems that the death of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-un, was due to the use of a deadly poison. It also seems that the particular poison, VX nerve agent, is something which is most unlikely to have been available to anyone not closely associated with a national government.

The use of VX is outlawed by the United Nations which classifies it as being a 'weapon of mass destruction'; the tiniest amount absorbed through the skin is fatal within a few minutes. How this substance came to be in the possession of Kim Jong-nam's killer's is, of course, unknown but is certainly the subject of huge speculation. Given the vicious and murderous nature of the North Korean leadership, it must be likely that this killing was, in effect, a state-sponsored assassination for reasons unknown. Perhaps Kim Jong-nam was suspected of plotting against his half-brother or perhaps Kim Jong-un was simply continuing his campaign against anyone who may conceivably be a threat to his position.

Whatever the answers, it is surely time that China stopped supporting the appalling regime in North Korea and that the United Nations condemned them utterly. In a world which has far too many nasty rulers, Kim Jong-un must surely be the nastiest.

JEREMY CORBYN : MIXED VIEWS, SAYS MCDONNELL.

Labour's loss of the Copeland constituency in yesterday's by-election has prompted shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to say that there are mixed views about Labour's leader, Jeremy Corbyn. There certainly must be.

One per cent of Labour supporters think he's wonderful while 25% think he's not much good but they'll put up with him for now. The rest are torn between thinking that he's somewhere on a scale of terrible to downright catastrophic.

Long may he remain in office and their 'mixed views' continue !

MUMBLING ACTORS DETRACT FROM 'SS-GB'.

Once again, television viewers have risen up to complain about the difficulty of understanding dialogue in a BBC production. This time, it's been the new drama series 'SS-GB', the first episode of which was broadcast last Sunday evening. As one of the 6 million or so who are thought to have switched on, I have to say that I also found some of the dialogue to be hard to distinguish from general background noise.

The specific complaint has been that some of the actors simply 'mumbled' their dialogue. There is no doubt that this is true and turning up the volume or fiddling with other sound effects made no difference - some of the dialogue could not be heard in any understandable way. By this, I do not mean the occasional interludes of German which were part of the script and actually easier to hear than some of the mumbled English.

For some reason, the BBC seems not to understand that it's a good idea to let its viewers hear the words spoken by actors in its drama productions. Is this poor quality recording, is it a deliberate ploy by 'with it' directors to try to increase the sense of dark and dramatic mystery or do the actors simply 'mumble' ?

Many years ago now, Marlon Brando mumbled his way through many great films and yet was perfectly understandable; his mumbling was highly theatrical but worked. I suspect that today's mumbling is, at least partly, an attempt by second rate directors and actors to recreate the Brando magic but, simply put, they don't have the talent to pull it off. It is also the case that many of today's younger generation speak very quickly in mumbled sound bites which are often impossible for those of an older generation to comprehend. Sadly, it seems that the days when actors were taught to speak clearly and to project their voices are long gone; far too many have probably never experienced live performance in a theatre and are far too used to modern studio production methods, as well as being natural 'mumblers'.

The BBC's response to viewer complaints has been to say they will look at 'sound levels' which will surely achieve nothing. The problem is the quality of the speech, not the quality of the sound and only directors and actors can resolve that. Sadly, it's no doubt far too late to make any difference to 'SS-GB'.

BREXIT : PEOPLE TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND, SAYS BLAIR.

The arrogance and egotism of Tony Blair truly knows no bounds.

The man who deceived parliament and the country over Iraq's mythical 'weapons of mass destruction', and then led the country into the catastrophic financial collapse of 2008, now intends trying to convince us all to change our minds over leaving the European Union.

Blair believes that he knows better than the rest of us and that those who voted to leave the corrupt and profligate EU simply didn't understand what they were doing. Basically, he says that we were too stupid to make the right choice.

Since being elbowed out of office by his 'colleague', Gordon Brown, Blair has used his status as a former Prime Minister to amass a serious fortune. He still has ambitions to achieve other high political office and was strongly linked to a position as some sort of President of Europe; clearly, he still has such hopes but has to keep the UK within the EU if they are to be realised.

Blair is a desperate man. He is thrashing around trying to find something which will ensure that history remembers him as a political giant rather than as a failed man of straw. Frankly, his attempted return to the political frontline in this way proves his failure. He failed in the UK, he failed in the Middles East and in his European ambitions. He is a failure and his latest attempts to lead us down a path of his choosing should be rejected with vigour.

SPEAKER BERCOW MUST GO.

With any luck, Speaker Bercow has finally shot himself mortally in the foot.

The role of the Speaker of the House of Commons is to act as Chairman of debates and to speak only as directed by the House, with as little fuss as possible. Speaker Bercow has spent years attempting to redefine this role and to make himself the centre of attention but now seems to have come unstuck.

A week or so ago, he made a speech in the House which was utterly inappropriate; he expressed his own personal views regarding the proposed forthcoming state visit of President Trump. In doing so, he made clear his own personal opposition to the President, which is wholly outwith his position so to do.

In the last couple of days, it's been revealed that he has made known, in public, his own personal views regarding the European Union; again and whatever his private views may be, it is wholly inappropriate for a Speaker to act in this way. Of course, Mr Speaker may have his own private views but he is not permitted to voice them; this is not an arbitrary view but follows the rules of the House of Commons which are designed to ensure, as far as possible, the Chair's impartiality.

Bercow has destroyed any belief in his impartiality and must, therefore, depart. However, his arrogance and pomposity make it unlikely that he will go without a fight, indeed, it's even possible that he has engineered this situation quite deliberately in order to force a vote of confidence in him, knowing that, whatever his shortcomings, he may well still win such a vote. If that was to be the case, he would then have the perfect basis for remaining in office for a further 3 years and well beyond his own self-imposed limit of 9 years.

Bercow is a disgrace to his office. If our representatives in Parliament don't recognize this, what good are they ? He must go and the sooner the better.

BERCOW REALLY IS A BERK !

Mr Speaker Bercow has stirred up a rare old storm by his outspoken comments about President Trump yesterday.

As Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr Bercow is supposed to be 'above politics' though his expression of total opposition to Mr Trump addressing the UK Parliament later in the year seems to be entirely political. Basically, he doesn't like Mr Trump, his policies or his supposed attitudes.

Some Members of Parliament have expressed support for Mr Bercow while others have severely criticized him; there is probably merit in both points of view. However, it seems clear that Mr Bercow has overstepped the mark and that he has also caused potential damage to the relationship between this country and its most important ally.

Whether figures in the UK like Mr Trump or not, he is now the most powerful and important political figure in the world. That his attitude towards borders and immigration is very different to that of his recent predecessors is a matter for the United States, and not for the United Kingdom, to argue about. In the UK we should be far more concerned about the double standards which we risk applying, having played hosts to numerous international leaders over the years who had far worse records than Mr Trump has, or will ever have. Over the years, dictators, thieves, butchers and thugs have been courted by our governments and foisted on the Queen - Mobutu of Zaire, Nyerere of Tanzania, Ceausescu of Romania, arap Moi of Kenya, Banda of Malawi, Kaunda of Zambia, Mubarak of Egypt, Mugabe of Zimbabwe, various Kings of Saudi Arabia and even Putin of Russia, plus many others whose legacies may well be questionable.

Is Mr Speaker Bercow really saying that President Trump is such a horrendous figure that he is comparable with that appalling bunch, or is he just doing his usual thing of playing to the gallery in his inimitable and highly egotistical style ?

TIME TO GET TOUGH WITH ISRAEL.

The Israeli government seems determined to continue its policy of discrimination, oppression and effective apartheid against its Palestinian citizens. While governments in the West are pressured into accepting hordes of immigrants from Arab countries and providing them with all of the necessities of life, the Israelis do just the opposite and seem immune to the international condemnation that should be forthcoming.

Today's news carries the story that this racist Israeli government has passed a new law providing for the retrospective legalisation of 3,800 settlement homes built on land privately owned by Palestinians. Apparently, the Palestinian former owners of this land will be compensated, but that is hardly the point; the whole process is akin to legalised theft with the former owners left utterly dependent on the extent to which the Israeli hierarchy considers such compensation to be payable and even necessary.

That this is outrageous is obvious. That the rest of the world does nothing about it is even worse.

TRUMP MUST BE MORE PRESIDENTIAL.

Although he may have some of the right ideas, President Donald Trump seems to be going about things in a very heavy handed and wrong way.

Not only has he created a storm with his attempt to ban migrants from various countries, he's also reported to have had somewhat acrimonious conversations with the leaders of at least 2 other countries, while he also has a rather unhealthy addiction to airing his views on the social media platform, 'Twitter'.

As the boss of a business, these ways of operating may be acceptable but running a business that you own and running a country are not the same thing. The President does not seem to understand this. His attempts to bully the courts into acceding to his wishes demonstrate a serious flaw in his reasoning and resorting to Twitter to voice his annoyance is simply not worthy of his office.

Trump may well have the good of his country in mind and at heart but he must learn that politics requires a different approach to that which he is currently applying. He needs to make alliances and form partnerships, neither of which does he appear to be doing; instead, he seems to be relying on rabble rousing, which will ultimately create nothing but chaos.

If President Trump is to achieve anything in office he will have to slow down and be more thoughtful. A slightly different and more considered approach may well succeed where bombast and bullying will not; in short, he must be more Presidential.