Tony Blair on the Iraq War

From Mail Online

CNN TV Interview (excerpts) - "Tony Blair says he's sorry for Iraq War 'mistakes,' but not for ousting Saddam" - 'I can say that I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong because, even though he had used chemical weapons extensively against his own people, against others, the program in the form that we thought it was did not exist in the way that we thought,' Blair said in an exclusive interview on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS that airs Sunday".

The Guardian (with CNN video excerpt)

“I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong,” he told CNN. “I also apologise for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.”

Richard Pine on Greece: New Book, "Greece Through Irish Eyes"

From Kathimerini - "The Irishman who loves and mourns Greece", Nick Malkoutzis

Richard Pine: "I object to the way the EU has developed from the vision of its founders, into a centrist, determinist, German-dominated financial center, not least because the crisis in Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal demonstrated so clearly that the eurozone was ill-conceived and makes the whole EU vulnerable to supranational and supracontinental forces which are joyriding the universe".

"Greece Through Irish Eyes" (Amazon). I am reading it now!

Greek News Agenda

RTE 10 Review

The Irish Times, on book launch - "EU is detrimental to Ireland and Greece, says writer Richard Pine"

Athens Books Launch - 'Loving, mourning of modern Greece goes together' (Athens News Agency)

Peter Hegarty review in The Irish Catholic - "When an authoritative writer such as he calls for Greece – and Ireland – to leave the EU, and abandon the euro, one listens with respect."

Read also, Simon Baddeley's customer review on Amazon.co.uk

Greece: Mortgages and Foreclosures

From Cyprus Mail  - Renee Maltezou and Jean-Baptiste Vey

"Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday said his country would fully meet its obligations under a multi-billion euro bailout but would not tolerate mass foreclosures on problem mortgage loans for thousands of indebted people.
Setting a red line in talks with the country’s lenders now in Athens for consultations, Tsipras said turning the country into an “arena of confiscations” of homes was out of the question".

Thanks to June Samaras for the link

Update - Moscovici says Greece must resolve four outstanding issues by Eurogroup meeting- eKathimerini

"The issue of foreclosures is thought to have topped the agenda during
Moscovici’s talks with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ahead of his meeting with Tsakalotos. According to sources close to the Greek leader, he stressed the need to ensure that the country’s social cohesion would not be disrupted by relaxing the rules on home repossessions. Currently, primary residences with a taxable value of 300,000 euros are protected from bank repossession but the institutions want this to drop to a market value of 120,000 euros and only for owners living below the poverty threshold to be protected from losing their homes".

Gov’t to seek political solution to dispute over mortgage-holders at Eurogroup

Western Dorset: Plans for economic growth

From The Dorset Echo - "The West Awakens"

A Place for Halloween? The Ruins of St. Andrew's Church and Bell Tower, Portland, Dorset

A concise literary history of the vampire - from 1816 to Twilight,

Kate O'Connor, Oxford Today

The ruined church of St. Andrew's, Portland, Dorset, above Church Ope Cove

John le Carré - a biography and a memoir

William Boyd: Why John le Carré is more than a spy novelist (New Statesman)

"David went to Sherborne – a place he loathed – and he left, of his own accord, early, in 1948, at 16, preferring to move to Bern, Switzerland, where he learned fluent German. It was at this stage of his education that he was first recruited by consular officials at the British embassy to report on local left-wingers and fellow-travellers and another duality entered his life, that of the spy".

In his review of Adam Sisman's biography (The Times, October 24, 2015), John Sutherland writes of David Cornwell (the author;s real name):

"Why, for example, did David suddenly leave Sherborne? He has given irreconcilable accounts. A master tried to kiss him. He was unfairly flogged. He couldn't ("always an outsider in his own country") stand the 'neo-fascist' Englishness of the place. His father's cheque bounced once too often, We'll never know".

Official website

"John le Carré: The Biography" by Adam Sisman is published by Bloomsbury (672pp, £25).

From cold war spy to angry old man: the politics of John le Carré, The Guardian
John le Carré's own memoir will be published in September 2016

"The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life" – John le Carré