digamma.net - notes

Remember back in aught-five when a friend of my family who writes for the Guardian got kidnapped in Iraq?

Now he’s wising off to Hugo Chávez’s face:

What prompted the ire was a Guardian query about a draft constitution and its most contentious provision: the abolition of presidential term limits to allow Mr Chávez to run again when his period in office expires in 2012. Given that he had ruled out a similar change for governors and mayors, on the grounds that they might become corrupt in power, why risk it with the president?….

The carnival mood curdled when Mr Chávez was asked about term limits. “Why don’t they ask for a referendum in the Caribbean [Commonwealth] islands and ask people if they want the Queen to be their head of state? Why doesn’t the Guardian make an investigation in Britain about the monarchy?” he asked. There was no chance to explain that the paper has advocated republicanism.