Kirkuk has fallen to the Kurds - and already Turkey is saying this is 'unacceptable' and are sending (with the knowledge of the U.S.) 'military observers' to the area. The threat of Kurdish national aspirations to the territorial integrity of Turkey, Iraq and Iran (or, more crudely, none of them want to give the Kurds a homeland) was one of the main reasons George Bush Senior didn't go to Baghdad in 1991. Nick Cohen writes 'now let the oppressed Kurds find a home at last' but seems to have no idea of how this might be accomplished. Don't worry Nick, I haven't either - unless the U.S. are prepared to seriously upset Turkey, Iraq (again), Iran and probably Syria. Of course, they may already be planning to seriously upset Iran and Syria - but Turkey ? We shall see - but do you really want to scrap with the Turks ?

The BNP's war has been as opportunistic as the Liberal Democrats - with
a teensy hint of anti-Semitism to boot. Their attitude to the Israeli / Palestine question and to the War On Terror is that they support the Palestinians and think Iraq is all about oil, attitudes which most Guardianistas would approve of wholeheartedly. I can't work out whether on Palestine they subscribe to the concept of the Noble Arab (an attitude held by the Foreign Office for most of the 20th century) or whether they still believe that the triumph of Bolshevism is the aim of International Jewry.

But they have got a fascinating download of a Home Office tenancy agreement for use by local councils finding acommodation for asylum seekers. If their reading is correct (and I haven't waded through all 46 pages yet) the agreement does seem to be generous to say the least. Wouldn't we all like accommodation with free rent, water rates, gas, electricity, phone and council tax bills - not to mention a new 20 inch TV and licence for it ? If true, the document is political dynamite. Or is this a Zinoviev-letter-style forgery, cunningly planted by MI5 to discredit them ? Dunno mate.