On 12 June, my latest book, A History of Political Trials from Charles I to Saddam Hussein will be published. The book was born out of one sentence written in the Introduction to my last book but one, on the Milosevic trial. There, I had written that the Milosevic trial did not break new ground, as supporters of the brave new world of international tribunals maintain, but that instead its precedents lay in the great revolutionary trials of the past. It was in order to examine those precedents more closely that I decided to look at all the trials of heads of state and government in history.

A quote from the editorial of The Church of England Newspaper, 28 May 2008

If recent reports of trends in religious observance prove to be correct, then in some 30 years the mosque will be able to claim that, religiously speaking, the UK is an Islamic nation, and therefore needs a share in any religious establishment to reflect this. The progress of conservative Islam in the UK has been amazing, and it has come at a time of prolonged decline in church attendance that seems likely to continue.

A quote from Der Spiegel, 28 May 2008

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party said it would like to see Germany do its part to help out. At a press conference in Berlin, parliamentarian Erika Steinbach, the CDU's human rights spokeswoman, said her party wanted to see Germany accept thousands of Iraqi refugees. In particular, she said, the CDU wants to extend its welcoming hand to Iraqis who have suffered religious persecution in Iraq. In particular, that means the Christians. […]

A quote from the BBC, 28 May 2008

Human rights group Amnesty International has said it is extremely alarmed by what it calls a "climate of discrimination" in Italy. […]

A quote from Gazeta Wyborcza [Poland], 28 May 2008

Descendants of ten Polish officers murdered by the NKVD [the Soviet Union state police] in Katyn in the spring of 1940 are demanding from Russia's Chief Military Prosecutor's Office that they are recognised as victims of political reprisals and officially rehabilitated.The prosecutor's office replies it cannot do that, because there is no conclusive proof that the 25,000 Polish army and police officers, border guards, officials, and business owners were murdered on the basis of an unfair ruling issued by a Soviet court.

Splendid piece in the Telegraph by Bruno Waterfield about the shenanigans at the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) yesterday which may well result in smaller – particularly opposition – groups being closed down after next year's European Elections. I witnessed it and though to be fair it was a debate about the Parliament's rules of procedure, I have rarely enjoyed a Committee Meeting like it. It was bums on seats stuff.

A quote from The International Herald Tribune, 27 May 2008 and The New York Times, 28 May 2008

On the street [in Brussels], Malika El Aroud is anonymous in an Islamic black veil covering all but her eyes. In her living room, El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY. But it is on the Internet that El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name Oum Obeyda, she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe.

A quote from The Copenhagen Post, 27 May 2008

Danmarks Radio [Denmark's equivalent of the BBC in Britain] will hold a beauty contest for women with the only requirement being that they are over 15 and wear a headscarf. [...] DR's youth club, 'Skum', is behind the project which they believe will display the 'cool Muslim women' who 'often make up a very fashion-conscious and style-confident part of the Danish street scene'. The competition is, however, also open to non-Muslim females.

A quote from the Dutch press agency NIS, 27 May 2008

The Amsterdam police corps is giving its officers a discount if they buy the Koran translation of writer Kader Abdolah. Officers should thereby be encouraged to get a better insight into Islam, according to a corps spokesman. [...] Officers who buy the book pay half price. The other half is paid out of the Amsterdam police budget.

The European Union, the "free trade organization with a few added extras," is officially turning into a pan-European dictatorship. The Daily Telegraph reports:

The European Union assembly's political establishment is pushing through changes that will silence dissidents by changing the rules allowing Euro-MPs to form political groupings. Richard Corbett, a British Labour MEP, is leading the charge to cut the number of party political tendencies in the Parliament next year, a move that would dissolve UKIP's pan-European Eurosceptic "Independence and Democracy" grouping. Under the rule change, the largest and most pro-EU groups would tighten their grip on the Parliament's political agenda and keep control of lavish funding.

The EU already has clear authoritarian leanings and is moving in a totalitarian direction with astonishing speed.