Ok Probably Not the Best Start But...

...It's Tuesday night and I'm back from the pub with no obvious problems to report.

Before going to the pub I spent the afternoon reading the controversial draft constitution that Egyptians will be voting on this Saturday (15/12/12). It can be read here in Arabic; http://www.sis.gov.eg/Newvr/constitution2012.pdf and in English here; http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/egypt-s-draft-constitution-translated although I can't vouch for the accuracy of the translation. As the English version is some 41 pages and 236 articles long it is going to take me at least a day to fully digest. After all I doubt there's going to be much of a bidding war over the rights to turn the sections about the House of Representatives role in passing the national budget into a Hollywood movie. In the meantime though I think I should give a quick recap of the political situation in Egypt.

Back August 2012 Israel staged an attack on a Gaza/Israel border post from Egypt's Sinai peninsula in order to highlight how the security situation in the Sinai and Egypt as a whole had deteriorated since the January 2011 revolution. Unfortunately Egypt's Islamist and somewhat elected President Mohamed Morsi used this attack as an excuse to oust Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) that had overseen the revolution and subsequent transition of power and install himself as something of a dictator ruling by diktat without the oversight of a Parliament or constitution. On November 22nd 2012 (22/11/12) Morsi went one step further and issued a Presidential decree that stripped the Judiciary of any right to oversee his decisions. Coming on the day that Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire and four days before the start of the COP18/CMP8 this highly provocative act was a deliberate attempt by Morsi to provoke protests in order to push the issue of Egypt's revolution and the August Sinai attack onto the COP18/CMP8's unofficial agenda about the Arab Spring. This was also an attempt to head off protests against the draft constitution which even a speed read shows gives far too much power to Morsi.

Roughly a week later on December 3rd (3/12/12) councillors in Northern Ireland, UK voted to stop flying the Union (jack) flag over Belfast City Hall every day of the year. This provoked violent protests/rioting from Northern Ireland Loyalist Protestants that continues to this day. Although this latest outburst of violence is being commanded by paramilitary/drug gangs such as the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) probably the most prominent Loyalist organisation in Northern Ireland is the Orange Order which I have previously compared to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. Therefore Britain has provoked and is orchestrating (in this instance the terms LVF and MI5 are almost interchangeable) the rioting in order to help Morsi survive the current protests and drive through his constitution. This is because Britain prefers other nations to be weak because that makes them easier to control. In Morsi they have obviously found an ally to help that dream become a reality for Egypt.

20:50 on 11/12/12.