Vote for Hitch

I got round to listening to the programme on Radio 3,  about British and other European writers living in America, featuring Christopher Hitchens. He concluded by saying that the one thing that might tempt him back to Britain was the prospect of becoming a Member of Parliament. This would have to be guaranteed, but he still saw the House of Lords as ridiculous. Another drawback was the cut in salary. 

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Highly recommended is 'The Smell of Paradise', a Polish documentary shown on BBC4's Storyville. They started off interviewing Zelimkhan Yandarbiev (Yandarbiyev, Yanderbiyev) in Qatar in Jan 2004. He met Mullah Omar in Afghanistan in 2000 and asked for political support. The Taliban recognized Chechnya as an independent state.