Recently in International Category

Proof, if it were needed, that some in Labour still haven't got why they lost the general election.

Step forward Bob Ainsworth, who brought a similar amount of gravitas to the role of defence secretary as the Chuckle Brothers would to being named monarchs of this nation.

Unpopular with the armed forces, and so politically out of touch that even one of his friends back in Coventry felt the need to go to the Press to hit out at the way Ainsworth had dealt with the death of this friend's son in Afghanistan.

On Twitter this week, Ainsworth wrote:

Tory minister says' our troops don't need more helicopters' and the mighty press are silent

That was in reference to an earlier Tweet he posted:

Peter Luff minister just said don't need more helicopters in Afghan havnt since 06 what did they say when in opposition!

I think Tony Blair proved a long time ago that there's little point a politician pretending to be a football fan unless they are REALLY a fan of the beautiful game.

His odd support of Newcastle United stank of prawn sandwich all the way from Downing Street to St James's Park. It simply wasn't sincere. Gordon Brown, on the other hand, was much quieter about his support for Raith Rovers. He'd mention it if asked, but that was it.

So quite why David Cameron - so keen to keep reminding us that he has learnt the lessons of Labour's mistakes - insisted on that dreadful video message to the England team is beyond me.

He supports Aston Villa, apparently, although I suspect it's a long time since he stood in the Holte End on a Saturday afternoon.

One of the criticisms ahead of the election about the Conservative Party was that it was short of experience of government. Fair point, but in their defence, the Tories could point to the likes of William Hague and Dr Liam Fox as members of their shadow cabinet who had been around pre-1997.

There was no surprise when Dr Fox (no relation to the old Top 40 show DJ) became defence secretary, but it hasn't taken him long to get into a muddle.

The Tories sent out three cabinet members - Foreign Secretary William Hague, defence Secretary Dr Fox and international development secretary Andrew Mitchell - out to Afghanistan to present a united front to the Afghan leaders.

Sadly, Dr Fox hadn't read the script. Or if he had, he chose to ignore it.

You could almost sense the disappointment among the media who had assembled outside the Chilcott Inquiry yesterday.

Not only did Gordon Brown perform well in front of the panel, he seemed, at the end, to have enjoyed the experience.

For a man who seems to have walked from one cock up to another in the years in which he has been prime minister, perhaps it is unsurprising that a chance to go over his time as chancellor would play to his favour.

Regardless of where you stand on his handling of the economy in general - and the jury surely is still out on how much of the current economic crisis is down to his decisions compared to America's triggering of a global meltdown - there's no doubt Brown was a stickler for detail.

TO ME, the one constant throughout Tony Blair's reign at Number 10 was that nothing was ever as it seemed.

That's not to say nothing positive came from Blair's time in charge - it did. It's just that Labour always seemed determined to put a shinier gloss on even the most positive of upbeat stories.

He was often accused of being false, and of trying to be everything to everyone - ironically, both allegations now put at the feet of David Cameron.

I must declare an interest before I continue with this blog post: I'm not going away on holiday for Christmas, and even if I was, I certainly wouldn't be able to afford to fly British Airways.

But even with that level of envy towards those who can afford to jet off with BA, I can't help but think Unite has delivered perhaps the most spiteful industrial action in recent history, if not ever.

There are some professions you have sympathy with instantly, some workforces that you're prepared to stomach personal disruption for, knowing they are fighting a good fight.

Firefighters, yes. Nurses, yes (if, indeed, they can strike.) Teachers, even, once you get beyond the "12 weeks holiday and a 3.30pm daily finish" myth.

Air hostesess, maybe not.

And so to today's good news. As the Liverpool ECHO reported first thing today, Liverpool football fan Michael Shields is free.

It's the right decision, for the wrong reasons, at the wrong time.

Justice secretary Jack Straw denied Michael freedom over the summer, on the grounds he wasn't sure if Michael was "morally and technically innocent" In doing so, he effectively overturned the founding principle of our justice system which determines that a person is "innocent until proven guilty" and that such guilt must be "beyond reasonable doubt."

He subsequently agreed to look at it again if new evidence came to light.

That evidence appears to have been mentioned in a conversation Mr Straw had with the Shields family over the confession by a third party - believed to Graham Sankey, another Liverpool football fan who was also in Bulgaria for the Champions League final in Istanbul - when it transpired that independent parties had also heard the confession.

This might sound cynical, but after all the hard work and effort put in by the Shields family and their campaigners, it seems impossible that they had overlooked this. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter because Michael is free.

And so it continues. What feels like an eternity since Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was released from jail is actually nearer a fortnight.

Despite the hours of TV coverage, and acres of newsprint which has been devoted to the release of the only man convicted for the bombing of the transatlantic jet above Lockerbie (and who many, including relatives of some of the victims believe is innocent) there doesn't appear to be anything which suggests either the UK or Scottish government have done anything wrong.

So what if Jack Straw was lobbied by BP on the matter? Just because BP want to get into the oil fields of Libya doesn't mean Mr Straw can suddenly over-ride Scottish devolution to grant the oil giant what it wants.

THIS weekend, what is left of Hurricane Bill is expected to "lash" the UK. By that, we should expect heavy rain, blustery winds and a Daily Mail story on bank holiday Monday which strives to blame Labour for the bad weather.

What perhaps couldn't have been predicted was the severity of the other storm which has strived to batter the UK this last week - the fallout from the Scottish Government's decision to release the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from prison on compassionate grounds.

While Hurricane Bill looks to just pass us by briefly, the stench of rank hypocrisy coming from America over Kenny MacAskill's decision looks set to linger longer. Like most bad smells, it won't go away quickly. And for all their protestations, the Americans denouncing the right of a democratic country to administer its own justice system have only served to prove Kenny MacAskill right. It was a brave decision, and it took a brave man to make it.

THERE are a lot of people who still snigger when Twitter is mentioned. While it may prove yet to just be a passing trend, there is no doubting it has altered the way many millions of people communicate.

In terms of political activism and grass-roots campaigning, it has built on the groundwork done by Facebook - the ability to organise a virtual protest via the creation of a Facebook group has done an awful lot to, as politicians and civil servants love to refer to it as, engage people.

But where Facebook group fails, compared to Twitter, is that it still relies on the organiser to alert others to its existence.

Put a message out on Twitter, complete with a hash tag, and everyone who follows your updates will see it, some will respond to it, and in turn their comments, complete with hash tags, will reach a wider audience with every link in the chain added.