It's getting hard to be sure completely what's going on with Assange and the Swedes and the various warrants. I'm sure there's more background that we're not seeing and hearing.
But, assuming he was telling the truth in an interview I recently caught, he is refusing to go back to Sweden because the Swedish authorities want to hold him completely incommunicado. I admit I know little about their legal system. Less than little. But this seems like an unlikely position for a government and legislature to be able to maintain for all people who are being charged with a crime - suddenly all of their businesses and their family interactions and the like grind to a complete halt. And, remember, they're still innocent at this point. I do know that much - Swedish law presumes innocence until proven guilty. There are moves afoot to change this in sex crimes but they are under discussion not applied as yet*.
So what does Assange being held incommunicado achieve? It possibly stops him being the figure head of Wikileaks. It might even make Wikileaks easier to stop leaking data that is embarrassing, somewhat, the American government. But, I rather think not embarrassing them much as everyone knows they'll have stuff like this lying around and has stuff like that of their own available. It's getting harder to believe that the reports of his alleged crimes are credible as the steps around them are more and more weird.
It is possible, I can imagine a system that promotes it, that says the accused is not allowed to talk to the media from the time of their arrest to the completion of the trial. That seems unlikely too but he was quite adamant that wasn't what was being asked.
Vince Cable hasn't fallen on his sword. He was trapped, OK, but he said some really silly things about Murdoch (even if I agree with them, him saying them was silly) and then didn't fall on his sword.
The boss of BAA, the Airports Authority and thus the mess at Heathrow has, more actively sword-fallen. He hasn't resigned but he has agreed to waive his bonus. We don't know the size of the bonus, but I assume it will hurt him financially but not leave him destitute. While I appreciate the gesture I have to wonder if it's the right thing. What is his bonus based on? Any reasonable contract plus bonus system should not pay him a full bonus for this year, but probably shouldn't penalise him 100% of it. Next year could be different... because next year you'd have to hope better able to cope with snow and cold would be on the list. Interesting times... combined with the "is Britain's global warming impact to have weather more like it's latitude? Look on a globe... We're a long way North of the US-Canadian border in the UK. (Montreal for example, is only a little North of Barcelona.) Cold, snowy winters might become our norm in the UK as the globe warms and the ocean currents that keep us warmer than expected by latitude might have less effect... brr.
* It's worth remembering that as I've said before my inclination is to support moves for sex crimes to have a presumption of guilt. It is my response to hearing such news. And I still just don't believe it of Assange, it's just way too easy and way too weird.
