"The parliamentary debate on the riots was unadulterated crap. I started watching it and I went to sleep.
"Everyone is clutching at explanations for the riots—gangs, greed, family breakdown, lack of respect. But I would like to go into their deeper causes.
"We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality," wrote the 19th century Whig historian Thomas Macaulay.
"There have been two reactions to the riots. There are those who understand why the riots have taken place. Then there’s the mainstream press and politicians that, quite frankly, have been disgraceful.
The media has condemned the riots in London as mindless acts of destruction. The Sun newspaper screamed about an "orgy of mob violence".
When revolution broke out in the Arab world, few expected it to reach Libya, a country under the iron grip of Muammar Gaddafi.
When Labour MP Jon Cruddas was asked why he backed Blue Labour—yet another attempt to move the party to the right—he said he wanted to "throw some hand grenades" into the debate.
Hugo Chavez appeared on the presidential balcony in Caracas on 5 July, Venezuelan Independence Day. He is recovering from cancer and is obviously very ill.
Paul Stephenson lasted just two and a half years as Metropolitan Police Commissioner before he, like his predecessor Ian Blair, resigned in disgrace.
The new policy of the US towards the threat of "cyber attacks" was best explained by one military official as: "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks."
The Greek parliament narrowly passed a new austerity package last week—in the face of mass strikes and protests.
People are challenging the brutality of capitalism—from the uprisings in the Middle East, to the general strikes in Greece, to the 30 June strikes in Britain.
