Monday, June 01, 2009

Help this man (Part 2)

Remember Tony Blair's good mate, Silvio Berlusconi? You criticise him at your peril...

Excellent stuff in the Times on Italy's rapid descent towards 21st century totalitarianism. Following the recent scandal about Berlusconi's mysterious "friendship" with a teenage girl and his wife's accusations that "he frequents minors", the way the Italian tycoon and his henchmen are intimidating anyone standing in their way is becoming impossible to ignore.

"Silvio Berlusconi survives as the lech with the common touch"
, by Rosemary Righter, is an excellent snapshot of the situation (click here for the full article):

"So he turns up at Noemi’s 18th birthday party in a Neapolitan suburb (as he never, says his wife, turned up to his own children’s parties); so he gives the girl a £5,300 pendant (a bit much, but he can afford it); so he has more ways of saying how and when he came to know her than there are colours in a cassata ice-cream; so it’s all uncomfortably similar to other rumours about nubile “interns” at his Sardinian summer villa".

Excellent is also today's leader "The Clown's Mask Slips": "The most distasteful aspect of Silvio Berlusconi’s behaviour is not that he is a chauvinist buffoon. [...] What is most shocking is the utter contempt with which he treats the Italian public".

Also on the subject:
Watch it, Italy

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