DEMOCRACY ROUND-UP
It's possible that Berlusconi will win the election in Italy. BERLUSCONI! The discredited crook who passed laws ensuring he wouldn't have to answer for his crimes. He whose last government was described as '... a bunch of mafiosi, corporate managers, lawyers of the Mob, racists, neo-fascists, old-time fascists, "post-fascists" and every other brand of right-wingers and nutters.'
Why? The simple answer is that people don't vote to elect a government, they vote against the incumbent government to punish it. They vote out the clique which has broken its electoral promises and vote in a clique which will in turn break ITS electoral promises. That is the full extent of electoral power in a parliamentary democracy under free-wheeling capitalism.

In Zimbabwe, we are told by the British media, Mugabe was defeated but clings on to power. This is a disgrace. The people have spoken, Mugabe must go. In other words the British media want Mugabe to go. Once he's out and Tsvangirai is in, everything will go on as it did under Mugabe, with one small difference. If Tsvangirai wants to line his and his cronies' pockets with western "aid" he'd better stop the seizures of white planters' latifundia. Forget human rights, democracy and the rest, THAT'S where Mugabe and ZANU got it wrong. After all, that was the only difference between Mugabe's régime and that of Arap Moi when he was running the Kenyan economy into the ground and opponents into prison.

The British media are also worked up about Tibet. Now this is a tricky one. The Olympics are a big money-spinner. China is a capitalist's paradise: the workers' have no rights, pollution at levels unacceptable in the west is just fine by China's political bosses. And it's all somebody else's fault. That's communism for you. Aren't you glad you live in a democracy?
So let's not get too worried about China, criticise them all you like, but don't expect anyone with any authority or influence to pressure them to improve workers' wages or conditions.
As for Tibet, we support the pro-democracy movement, which means we support the Dalai Lama. Well you can take democracy too far. He may be an autocrat and the head of a theocratic régime (in waiting), but that can be a good thing. Real elections can produce the wrong results. Think of Hamas in Gaza, Chavez in Venezuela. If the CIA doesn't run things properly anything can happen.