As brave lawyers and democracy activists battle it out with General Musharraf’s police, the British and US establishments have been busy behind the scenes.
Splits in left wing organisations are ugly, messy affairs. From a distance it can look like nothing more than a confused jumble of claims and counterclaims – a "pointless argument" about egos or trivial details.
A new row erupted over immigration this week, after the government admitted that 300,000 more immigrants were working in Britain than had previously been announced.
Respect, the coalition which has won greater electoral success than any left alternative for decades, is facing a deep crisis. It is a political crisis about the direction of the left in Britain which requires an urgent response.
The Liberal Democrats removed one leader because he had a drink problem. They have now thrown another out, apparently for being too old.
Despite some polls last week no one seriously believed the Tories had a chance of beating Gordon Brown in a general election. But because of his obsession with "triangulation", the prime minister still managed to create chaos over whether or not to call a snap poll.
In among the "will he won't he" hype over whether Gordon Brown will call a general election, the prime minister has asked the union leaders for some cash.
When it comes to young people and crime, the message delivered by Gordon Brown at Bournemouth this week was more of the same.
The mainstream media is usually keen on opinion polls, yet it curiously overlooked the results of a survey by the ORB agency last week.They asked 1,461 Iraqis how many household members had died as a result of the conflict since the 2003 invasion.
A debate is growing within Britain’s working class movement. At stake is whether trade unionists maintain the support and funding which has been central to the Labour Party since its inception.
Gordon Brown says he wants a "politics of consensus, not division". He says, "Britain needs a new type of politics which embraces everyone in this nation, not just a select few."
Leona Helmsley, the US billionaire tax fraudster died last week. She once said, "Taxes are only for little people." Her legacy lives on in Britain’s largest companies’ attitudes to tax.
