Prospecting for Nuggets

I went into town earlier to have a mooch around, amongst other institutions, WHSmiths. Irritatingly, they seem not to perceive Shrewsbury to have as much of a market for Adbusters or the Ecologist as Cambridge, though I can't imagine why. What you can buy is several shades of magazine covering the diverse fields of Caravans, Dogs, Angling, Cars, etc, and a whole shelf from floor to ceiling of nigh-on-identical puzzle mags. But evidently a single shelf section is enough to encompass all shades of political opinion one might conceive of. Bastards.

But I digress. Happily, I was able to buy both Prospect and DWM (Doctor Who Magazine for the uninitiated). Prospect is one of those magazines which I derive a bizarre enjoyment from flicking through, and putting aside with a firm intention of reading it thoroughly later, before 4 times out of 5 never actually getting back round to a given article. In the end, I guess I buy it for the single page columns. I suspect I'm not the only one.

So it's just as well that the columns are rather good.

I particularly enjoy Washington Watch, for nuggets like this:

Giuliani's Scary Advisers

That other New York candidate, the Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani, has appointed a pretty scary foreign policy advisory team. There is Kim Holmes from the very right-wing Heritage Foundation and former senator Bob Kasten, who proposed ending US aid to any country that voted the wrong way at the UN. Kasten also looked to accuse the UN Population Fund of promoting forced abortions. And Giuliani's senior figure is that original neoconservative, Norman Podhoretz, currently leading the "bomb Iran" brigade.

I thought this was interesting to remark on, because it is often said that Giuliani represents quite a liberal shade of Republican. On the basis of this, it seems that's probably restricted to a social context.

Of more direct Lib Dem interest is the article on taxing the super-rich. Which I have not yet read, although it is top of my list.

Also, I hadn't realised, having not been quick enough to buy Prospect in Shrewsbury for a while, that the magazine has started a blog. Marvellous!