Stick to passing out in nightclubs, Harry

I HAD an incendiary clash with colonel turned Tory politician Bob Stewart on my Talksport radio show last Friday. The Tory, a Colonel Blink type but a nice old buffer, appealing enough to the gin and Jag golf club 19th hole bores, is used, of course, to speaking but not being spoken to.

After his foolish drawl in support of deploying cocktail king Prince Harry to "Afghan" (as the prince thinks the country is named) I gave him a round of the guns. He didn't like it up 'im!

As he threatened - live on national radio - to hang up and vowed never to darken my door again, I kept up my bombardment, reminding him that I was not one of his subordinates and that now he is an MP he must get used to the fact that we common 5/8ths insist upon our two-pennyworth.

This is what I told him. Prince Harry should not be sent - as he's demanding - to "Afghan" for the following reasons.

Make this single Number One

"I am proud to support Freedom for Palestine by OneWorld. I urge everyone to buy the single and spread its message. Let's send a message to governments that a critical mass of people want to see an end to the Israeli occupation and the oppression of its people. Peace, Shalom, Salaam."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Palestine is in crisis. Today Palestinians face daily human rights abuse and live in crushing poverty in refugee camps and under Israeli Occupation.

In response to this injustice, a group of international musicians are releasing the song Freedom for Palestine by OneWorld. Featuring Maxi Jazz (Faithless), Dave Randall (Slovo/Faithless), LSK, the Durban Gospel Choir, Jamie Catto (1 Giant Leap) and musicians from around the world.

Week of release 3 July 2011. Available to pre-order now.

Visit the single website at http://freedomoneworld.com/

10 long years of death and misery in Afghanistan

IT'S been 10 long and bloody years. In fact, in my life it sometimes feels like it's been one long bloody war.

On Saturday, I spoke at the Stop The War - 10 Years On conference in London's Red Lion Square, along with my mentor Tony Benn, who first spoke there in 1956 against the British invasion of another Arab country, Egypt.

Then, as now, we were in league with France and, of course, Israel (some things never change).

Another speaker on Saturday was Tariq Ali, behind whom I - at 14 - marched in London in 1968 when he led the famous demo in Grosvenor Square against the massacre of millions of Vietnamese by the American "leaders of the free world".