Iraq Election

Turnout predictions at the moment vary between 60 and 80% on some reports. The UK General Election of 2001 was around 60%. Our own National Assembly election in 2003 was only 38% across Wales (45-46% in my Rhondda constituency, the sixth highest, I think, in Wales). It's wise to wait for the final figures, but hard for anyone to call it a failure.

I would have blogged Michael Ignatieff's excellent piece on the elections earlier if I had had time. Harry's Place got there first, and also has some quotes from the Iraq democracy blog. All of this is a good rejoinder to the crap last year from Seamus Milne who claimed Moqtada al-Sadr had the backing of 67% of Iraqis.

On a different theme (though you could argue it is related) Nick Cohen is also excellent today:

The political correct ideology was born in the defeat of the radical wave of the 1960s, and the sour whiff of failure hangs around it to this day. The middle-class left retreated into universities and other public sector ghettos where they could pretend the outside world didn't exist....I doubt if anything has done the liberal-left greater harm in the past 40 years than its association with such intolerance and intellectual cowardice.

Out of all the broadsheets, only these Observer writers engaged me today, which is unusual. Aside from the reviews of Ian McEwan's new book that is.