Dissenters and compromises

Blu-tacked over my desk is a faded postage stamp-sized newspaper cutting. It says:

All change in history, all advance, comes from non conformity, wrote

the historian A.J.P. Taylor. "If there had been no troublemakers,

no dissenters, we would still be living in caves." - wise words.

So, having a different point of view is OK by me. I'm sure you agree, Scott.

I've just finished reading "Ukraine's Orange Revolution," by Andrew Wilson, [Yale University Press], which I can heartily recommend, especially for anyone who followed and fretted over, and wants to re-live the events of late Autumn 2004. It's an excellent reference to the 'runners and riders' of the Ukrainian political scene, most of whom are still in business, and a chilling reminder of how corrupt and immoral some of these guys are and what a swamp Ukrainian politics can be.

Three horse political races like the approaching VR elections, are very difficult to call, because it's difficult to predict who will take votes off who. What is worrying is the increasing animosity between the NSNU and BYuT camps. Today's 5-iy Kanal TV reports of Yushchenko supporters being beaten at a Tymoshenko rally attended by 6000 people in Chernivtsi, Western Ukraine. Let's hope that this is just an isolated incident. If this continues, all Regiony have to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy the bun-fight.

Yulia on her website claims she wants to "abolish the taboo on negotiations with NSNU", the existence of which is "not the fault of our political party". NSNU and BYuT should be starting to get their act together and directing their combined fire at Partiya Regioniv. As Scott posted previously, there is plenty to attack - a lot of it is in Andrew Wilson's book.

p.s. Partiya Regioniv campaign chief Yevhen Kushnaryov rather sheepishly admitted to employing spin-meisters from various countries, including the USA, but only as part of an 'international team' of political technologists, of course, in a recent 5-iy Kanal TV interview.