Michael Foot has died.

Although he was (not entirely through his own fault) a failure as leader of the Labour Party, and never became Prime Minister, Michael Foot was a politician whose qualities of honesty, decency, humanity, intelligence and learning simply do not exist in politics today.

Obituaries: Guardian, Independent, Times and Telegraph.

Last night I went to an event at the London Review Bookshop at which Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett discussed their book The Spirit Level.

They described their research which seems to show that (among richer nations at least) most indicators of health and mental health (life expectancy, incidence of mental illness, teenage pregnancy) as well as violence and crime are correlated not with the overall wealth of the country but with the degree of inequality within it.

I'll review the book when I've read it.

This is excellent:

Iceland is aiming to become a global haven for investigative journalism, with the country's parliament expected to vote through legislation protecting sources, guaranteeing freedom of speech and ending libel tourism.

Supporters liken the initiative to the offshore financial havens that corporations use to avoid government tax regimes -- only for free speech.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/feb/12/iceland-investigative-journalism.

From the Detroit News:

The State Department didn't revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials had begged off revocation, a top State Department official revealed Wednesday.

Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would've foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States.

"Revocation action would've disclosed what they were doing," Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, "rather than simply knocking out one soldier in that effort."

This is really all that we need to know. But the evidence of the Haskells about how he was helped to get onto the flight by a smartly dressed man (which has not been widely reported) is also of interest:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/flight_253_passenger_says_at_l.html.

I used to think it possible that Dr David Kelly had been murdered.

I have changed my mind.

I now think it is very likely that Dr David Kelly was murdered.

Vital evidence which could solve the mystery of the death of Government weapons inspector Dr David Kelly will be kept under wraps for up to 70 years.

In a draconian -- and highly unusual -- order, Lord Hutton, the peer who chaired the controversial inquiry into the Dr Kelly scandal, has secretly barred the release of all medical records, including the results of the post mortem, and unpublished evidence.

See this report.

See also:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1245626/NORMAN-BAKER-Hutton-farcical-feeble-amateurish--MUST-told-truth-week.html.

Craig Murray comments:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/01/david_kellys_mu.html.

Before Christmas we spent a few days in New York.

Photos.