the RESPECT party

So, the Yanks are going home. Apart from the thousands of their servicemen and women whose life-blood they are leaving in the sands of Iraq. And the tens of thousands too maimed or otherwise damaged to make it back to home and hearth. And minus the trillions of dollars in treasure they have expended on destroying an Arab country (which may have lost a million souls and seen three millions off into exile), fanning the flames of fanaticism, making Iran more powerful, and unleashing a wave of sectarianism throughout the Muslim world.

Nice work, but hardly "Mission Accomplished" as the melancholy valediction delivered by President Obama at Fort Bragg this week made clear to the discerning. The more he talked about what he once called the "dumb war" the more obvious it was that his was the task of holding the dipped banner of defeat. And the crew of thick-necked servicemen straight out of central casting roaring their approval at his description of their success could not quite drown out the sound of the Last Post. This is the death knell of American empire, the end of the brief uni-polar world in the ashes of whose hubris the lone bugler now stands playing the retreat. Like Ozymandius, history, which hasnt ended after all, will invite us to gaze upon its ruined works and tremble. But instead we will rejoice, rejoice. For the Project for the New American Century it will be never glad confident morning again.

Sounds Like Freedom is this year's Philosophy Football Christmas Party. The evening is a celebration of protest song, verse, street art and football in the year of the Arab Spring. Featuring the brilliant poetry of Lemn Sissay songs from Grace Petrie and Robb Johnson, with a headline performance by the sensational Palestinian artist Reem Kelani . With contributions from photographer Jess Hurd, music writer Dorian Lynskey, author of 33 Revolutions per Minute and photo-journalist William Parry author of Against the Wall.

A fundraiser for Palestine Solidarity the night is generously supported by the trade union PCS and Thompsons solicitors.

Friday 16 Dec at one of North London's premier theatre pubs, The New Red Lion, 271 City Road, London EC1 in Islington.

Tickets. Just £9.99 , From > http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=630 Or call 01273 471 721 to book your place.

I think Nick Clegg is low enough to crawl under the belly of a snake while wearing a top hat.

But even he must have a point where it all becomes so humiliating that the sheer burning shame outweighs the comfort of the ministerial Montego.

Cameron, in his swaggering, staggering European act of sabotage, has surely made the Lib Dems reconsider their role as the fig leaf for Thatcherite nakedness.

Cameron didn't even consult his deputy before reversing centuries of British foreign policy and, by his veto, consolidating the entire continent of Europe against us.