28th January 2013
The Chief Rabbi’s subject on Thought for the Day on Today this morning was the holocaust. He made various points but one was that all it takes for things to go wrong is fear and a willingness to blame others. For the war I think that will mean the Nazis feared and blamed the Jews. There is nothing we can do about being afraid. It is a great discipline for me so as to act in ways which I perceive to be in my best interests. Unfairly blaming others though is something our thought processes can work on. We should not let ourselves do it.
Brazil was due to have a ceremony of celebration today to mark 500 days to the 2014 World Cup they are staging. However that has now been cancelled as a mark of respect to the 231 people who died in a nightclub fire yesterday in the city of Santa Maria, caused apparently when a member of the performing act lit a flare on stage. Most of the dead are university students.
Last Friday’s FT editorial suggests South America is splitting into two camps. Chile and others who are focused on pragmatism and getting results; and those such as Cuba, Venezuela and Argentina who employ heated revolutionary rhetoric yet preside over worsening economies.
In his piece in Today’s FT Edward Luce passes on a phrase which no doubt is doing the rounds at the moment. It is, let Obama be Obama. He thinks it possible the Republicans could have started to employ new tactics. Rather than being openly confrontational they are resorting to guerilla tactics and playing it long. Just like the new mood of the underdogs who have disappeared into the desert in North Africa in fact.
29th January 2013
It is reported today that the Police and Crime Commissioners for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, two Conservative and one labour, have joined together in overruling their police forces’ wish to outsource information technology and human resources functions to the private firm G4S. That leaves the Lincolnshire police as the only constabulary who employ the group. G4S of course are the firm who messed up their security contract for last year’s Olympics.
Sometimes we can be a silly lot. We do not seem to look forward and recognise potential pitfalls; not have a healthy scepticism. An example, in my view, was a piece on Today this morning just before the 7am news. Anyone can carry out cosmetic surgery. In our world therefore, where there is a possibility it will happen. No one should be surprised then that we get Tupperware type parties where an extremely nice person offers to inject botox under your skin for a not inconsiderable amount of money. Subsequently, more often that not, people feel dissatisfied and diddled. A representative of the Royal College of Sugeons was saying his organisation hope to persuade the government to introduce a set of standard for practicioners so that problems are less likely to happen in the future.
The director of the international security think tank RUSI was on shortly after and for a representative of a sober organisation he seemd to be giving a remarkably political slant to the current north African Sahel situation. He made the point that hard core militants in the region are only in the low 1000’s. They are a disparate, undisciplined bunch. The worst thing the West could do at the moment is unite them by providing a fighting cause. We are there to protect the local populations. We should do that and no more. They will then have no reason to support the outsiders, who will start running around in circles and eventually burn themselves out. The essential thing I would add is that we must hold their nerve. The Gang will test us all the way.
30th January 2013
Last week a mother of three out jogging in a rural area in southern France was stabbed to death. The police have arrested a 32 year old man living with his mother nearby but who originally was from Chatham in Kent. It has not been explained convincingly why he was picked up but I presume he was already known to the police or they had intelligence about him from elsewhere. It reminds me of the murders in Chillenden, Kent in 1996 by Michael Stone, also from Chatham I believe. I refer to Mr Stone obliquely in appendix 8/1 of my book. Mr Stone has seemed very upset by his conviction. His guilt was found on the evidence of an alleged confession he made whilst on remand in prison for the offence. He went through long, ultimately unsuccessful, appeal processes lasting until 2004. I think it possible Mr Stone looks at things differently than a lot of us and suspect what he found so galling was not that he was being punished for doing a terrible thing but that he had been found guilty on the basis of words he did not say.
The human DNA story, which I find difficult to grasp, progresses. Yesterday we were told that the Institute of Cancer Research is starting a project to map the DNA within cancerous cells which will always have multitudes of mutations. That information apparently will allow doctors to better treat patients, who of course have their own unique genetic profile, within a ten year time scale.
Also yesterday the government banned the sale of five species of non-native aquatic plants. Clearing invasive species where they grow around the place apparently costs us £1.7 billion a year. I talk about Himalayan Balsam popping up in my garden in chapter 11 of my book.
There was a really interesting webpage up yesterday by a BBC technology correspondent relating how his bank and other security conscious organisations thought his identity had been stolen when he changed the motherboard on his computer. They thought the computer accessing his accounts was new and, as his online activity did not seem completely normal, froze his transactions. On the face of it quite a reassuring story. Good people are also keeping an eye on us.
The Jews are a very sensitive people. That is not surprising with their history. We must all be as understanding as we can. The point has been forceably rammed home over the last few days by a cartoon that appeared in the last issue of the Sunday Times depicting the Israeli prime minister as being vile towards Palestinians. It gave the opportunity for the a-s word to be used, anti-semitic. The shame is that is was all about art with which, I pick up, you are allowed much more leeway than the written word. I suspect that is because artists are normally expressing deep down, hidden feelings in the most appropriate way that comes naturally to them. I have no objection to that all. Whether the same reasoning applies to cartoonists I am not sure but of course the Gang inspired silly game for Sunday’s drawing was the timing, Holocaust Memorial Day. News Corp now fully understand the significance of political correctness. Rupert Murdoch and the Sunday Times editor have been eating humble pie ever since.
Developing that theme a bit, something I have noticed over the last few months is how programmes such as Today, Newsnight and Channel 4 News have become much more artistically focused. I imagine that must be deliberate and think it possible they feel it is the one aspect which separates us from the Gang more than anything else. It is their way of fighting back as mine is doing these diary notes. We value culture. The Gang are just Barbarians. And we have always been able to see that by the actions from the other side of the fence. Because they hate so much the Gang must see that everything which is spiritually important to us is destroyed. The most recent examples are the ancient books destroyed in Timbuktu but there are many more. The looting of museums in Libya and Iraq, the Buddist stautes blown up in Bamiyan Afghanistan, the dacipitated stautes at Angkor in Cambodia. Indeed, if you did some research, you might even find it an identifying mark of the American Gang.
Mr Cameron I think, quite laudably, wants to make his mark on history. Today he is off to Algeria, the eigth largest country in the world but somewhere no British prime minister has been since 1962, to meet with his opposite counterpart and president. Then he travels onto Liberia to co-host a UN poverty eradication conference with the Liberian and Indonesian presidents. As the BBC political correspodent was invited along you can be sure Mr Cameron is also very aware of the potential domestic political pitfalls of what he is doing in Algeria. I have heard it said recently that the country tends to keep within it’s box. Nothing wrong with that of course but I suspect we hope them to be a bit more outward looking, to assist in the challenges of their wider region. Another aspect, I think, is that they are happy to see Mr Cameron. And I see a connection there that the head of MI6 is openly accompanying him.
I really applaud that. I do feel it is time our security services started coming out of the shadows a bit more. Neither can I see any harm in a bit of open competition between MI5 and MI6. It would keep them on their toes. I quite often mull over the remarks a former head of MI5 made in her 2011 BBC Reith lectures, as recorded in the chapter 6 appendix of my book. My recollection of other things she said is that it is essential the organisation keeps things secret. I am not sure I entirely agree with that, especially when it means people with whom I have everyday contact feel they have to be secretive as well. Provided the motive is true I feel security officials should not be afraid of sharing a bit more. The Gang know absolutely everything they do. Also the Gang are fully aware that political persuasion is a key element of our lives. Perhaps MI5 should reflect on that fact too.
Where I do agree though is the thought I remember the lady expressing that our terrorist woes of today originally derived, almost solely, from the never ending sore of the Arab-Israeli conflict. If we can get that sorted, I believe, it could make the most massive difference to our world.
I was pleased to hear a Likud member of the Knesset, close of Mr Netahyahu, on Today this morning calmly saying he believes the new government will be more than happy to talk about peace. What I did feel unfortunate however was how he also wanted us to know how he distrusts and disrepects the Palestinian leadership. He therefore tended to come over as saying Israel will want the international community to tell the Palestinians how it will be. I do not think that will work. To get things going sticks, in my view, are the wrong tool. People have a right to make up their own minds about things. Big hearted opponents would try and offer a few carrots first.
Today’s FT reports the governor of the central bank of Greece saying the worst of his county’s financial crisis is over. Yields on their long term government bonds have just dropped below 10% for the first time in over two years.
I remember, when we sent out our task force to the Falkland Islands in 1982, Mrs Thatcher’s popularity soared. I, as is my way, was shocked that people could be so swayed by extreme action. However the way we are does not change. The same FT reports that since his military intervention in Mali Mr Hollande’s poll rating has increased by 4%.
31st January 2013
I am not going to tell you about my discovery this week about possibly unreceived messages within my family circle. That is private. One strange happening far away though is it seems clear that yesterday Israeli aircraft bombed something in Syria. Those in the Israeli government are intelligent people and I have confidence they would not have done that unless they thought it was necessary in order to protect their citizens. I am not sure they will have been correct but the act has been done. Quite predictably however the Russians are pretty upset with the Israeli deed. It is a breach of UN law. In that situation I do feel it important the Israeli goverment ensure a message is dispatched to the Russians expaining why they took the action they did. After the message has been sent they should also check it was actually received.
Whether there is any credence in what I have just written, of course, I will never know. Subsequently I see today’s FT gives the story some prominence and their sources tell them the Israelis attacked a convey holding anti-aircraft missiles which the Syrians would take to Hizbollah in Lebanon. Israel apparently was worried that the warheads would provide protection against their jets should they wish to attack the arsenal of 40,000 rockets Hizbollah hold in southern Lebanon. Then again I heard a man from RUSI say on the World at One that it all made little sense to him. You pays your money and you make your choice.
Ken Clarke was on Today this morning talking about Europe. In his estimation there are only 30 Tories, out of just over 300 in the Commons, who positively wish to leave Europe. What an amazing amount of power they wield.
The BBC is reporting this morning about cyber attacks which have been targeting the New York Times since last October. The paper’s security company believe that, although well disguised, the technological instructions emanated from China. Amongst other things the computer passwords of every employee have been stolen. The incursions started on the day the paper passed on that their investigative results showing the family of the Chinese premier have $2.7 billion deposited in secret bank accounts abroad.
An article in last weekend’s FT magazine suggested that the Russian Orthodox Church’s influence with Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin is down to one man, a 55 year old monk from a Moscow monastery one block away from the former headquarters of the KGB. The term monk though is probably misleading. The father is a modern man. He has recently visited China, is soon to go to Latin America and there is WiFi available in his priory.
There was a thought provoking piece by Gillian Tett in that issue from Davos, high up in the mountains far away from us all. She was musing on social trends and who connects with who; trying to assess how our views are changing over time and whom we trust. A point she highlights is how easily we are all influenced when we find out about important things in the world, such as the now known greediness of bankers or the phone hacking scandal.
Without any prior announcement, for security reasons, David Cameron has travelled onto the Libyan capital from Algeria today. My guess is that the arrangements will have been made at the end of last week when British citizens were advised to leave Benghazi due to a specific, imminent threat. I suspect GCHQ were picking up chatter that the Gang were trying to incite local militants to do something horrible, so the government’s warning was issued.
I think Gary Lineker will know about sports matters. I have just read him saying to a journalist that top footballers today earn between £5-10 million a year. That is totally disgraceful and obscene.
Although I do not wish to go into my reasons for recording it I note that today’s FT editorial, talking about some shenanigans in Greece, says that shooting the messenger will not make the truth go away.
1st February 2013
There was a BBC webpage published this morning telling us about a Polish lorry that got stuck driving along a minor road in a small village on the southern edge of Exmoor in Somerset. Significant damage was caused to a resident’s house. The lorry was on it’s way to a paper mill in Watchet. I recall Watchet was in the news last weekend when speedy action by locals saved a child who had fallen into the harbour in a pushchair. It seems to me the Gang are signalling they were involved with the first incident. I think it unlikely. Much as they may hope, and want us to think, they do not have mystical powers.
Beyonce has admitted today that she did mime her song at President Obama’s inauguration. I commented about the fuss on 23rd January 2013. Besides being a very good singer her actressing skills are pretty impressive too. When I watched her fiddle with her earpiece to get better feedback I thought she must be singing aloud. In any event she has explained the situation very well and says she is proud of her performance. I applaud her for being honest about it.
2nd February 2013
Had an interesting shopping trip today. With a voucher to redeem I went to a Tesco I do not normally use and had a drink in the cafe before I left, sitting on the edge of the area by the entrance. To my surprise a young man, with his jacket hood up and about eleven years old, came to sit on a nearby table facing me. I wasn’t quite sure what to do at first but then decided to give him my normal staring routine. Although he almost undoubtedly has a life of crime to look forward to, perhaps I might just make some sort of difference for him. Soon after his elder brother and father came along and started flitting in and out. Other men came and went so as to give him that feeling of physical Gang support. However I imagine it must have been thought he was under strain so a lady Gang helper went over and asked him to move as her friend in a mobility scooter liked that particular table. I got back to reading my paper. When I looked up there he was trying to get his eyes to fix on me from his new position, leaning slightly sideways to look past some people sitting at an intervening table. The little tyke. In the fifteen minutes I was there I estimate there were a dozen Gang helpers floating about, being individually texted no doubt from a central control room: just designed to put as much uncomfortable pressure on me as possible. The helpers must all be really dim if they think it’s okay, and relatively harmless, to do that sort of thing. Surely they have better ways of spending their time. Driving back there were four instances of drivers acting inconsiderately towards me. When I got home there was a couple standing by my gate three yards in from the public highway. When I asked the lady she said they were standing there to let a car pass. I did not see one.
The consensus seems to be that the Israeli election was decided more on domestic issues than security fears. Not unnaturally therefore, as suggested in last Saturday’s FT, it appears Yair Lapid will give those factors prominence in any coalition role he has, before peace talks with the Palestinians. I think that is the right way round.
On 17th November 2012 I wrote about a group of aircraft enthusiasts at Heathrow airport. I see from last Saturday’s FT that planes and trains are not the only means of transport you can become obsessed with. Apparently there are a merry band of spotters who sit outside Stobart Group depots noting the painted-on ladies’ names of their lorries as they come and go. I also see the new joint chief executive of the group came to them from a company they took over last year. That company used to be my most valuable client by far for many years until I was given the push when it was taken over by new management a few years ago. Someone told me once that the people for whom I used to work in the firm went to live in Switzerland after that event.
That paper also tells me that the Chinese and Japanese leaderships want to be friends. Some diplomatic steps have been taken to try to ease the tensions over their territorial differences.
I have respect for Ken Clarke’s opinion. On Any Questions today he was implying that the Malian government should have talked to the Tuarag rebels after they revolted in that country. However when al-Qaeda proxies moved in and took over it was absolutely right for France and Britain to get involved. In the same programme he said we have the most flexible labour market in the developed world which is greatly helping us in our current economic difficulties.
Last Sunday about half hour after I noticed my hose reel had been stolen, as noted in my diary note for that day, I was gardening by the footpath which runs up one side of my property. I noticed a dog I recognised go up. He had his head down and looked unhappy. In the circumstances I went to the fence and looked to my right. He was following a lady I did not recognise. About twenty yards away from me she paused and paid attention to my side of the path. Then she turned her head and saw me watching her. She walked on. For some reason I did not go to the point where she stopped. However I was there today for a different reason and just over my fence found an empty, small garden waste green plastic sack, not belonging to me. I believe if I had not been there she would have stretched through the post and rail fence, pulled the sack through and put it in a white shop plastic bag she had on her arm. With that being the case I think she will have been involved with the taking of my hose reel in a minor way. She will not have known the green bag was put there by someone else. However my local Gang director will have wanted her to carry out that little errand to show how how easy it is to do things you shouldn’t even when someone is around, give her confidence, and draw her into his circle of influence.
On Thursday American officials let it be known that the previous day’s Israeli attack was on a Syrian vehicle convoy of weapons. I think it likely that information was released on the personal authorisation of the President knowing that it is Israeli policy not to talk about such things. I also heard our Foreign Secretary caution about jumping to conclusions implying that even he was not quite sure what is was all about. I had some further developments on my lost message story on Thursday. I would like to say more but I am afraid, in the particular circumstances applicable, the details are not mine to tell. I apologise for that.
I have a feeling there are quite a few influential people around who caution that the Gang story would frighten everyone to death. I do not think that is necessary so. Quite a few of us would find it absolutely fascinating. One example in my view is the BBC’s most popular webpage last night and still there early this morning. It is about a car which was driven into a cordoned off car park at Edinburgh’s Waverley railway station due for resurfacing the next day. The Gang arranged that of course because they knew it would be legally impossible to remove it. The workmen in the morning could have been a bit subconsciously threatened by the unexpected situation. However they simply treated the incident for the very silly, stupid act it was. They carried through their preparatory work of removing the old surface as envisaged, leaving the car standing on a small island all of it’s own. I hope the driver received a good ticking off.
By chance this morning I came across one of those Five Minutes With, interviews on the BBC website. The subject was Will Self. If you look through the window over Will’s right hand shoulder you will see four men on two joined roofs. Two stand still and two move around. A couple of times you see glances in the window’s direction. In my view the men are Gang helpers. Silly games.
Another BBC webpage this morning reported on demonstrators protesting against government policies outside the Egyptian presidential palace. Stones, fireworks and petrol bombs were thrown. The first two of those categories were also used in Northern Ireland recently I recall during their flag protests.
The chickens really seem to be coming home to roost for the banks at the moment. The Barclay’s chairman has just waived his potential £2.7 million bonus for 2012 due to a brewing scandal about a possible under the couter loan they made to Qatar in 2008. Then the government have just made it plain that any American fines which publicly owned RBS have to pay from the Libor scandal must come out of their own bonuses this year. The UK fines will remain within the public sector.
3rd February 2013
Another possibility on Wednesday’s air strike in Syria I think is that the Gang were hoping to make today’s security conference in Munich ineffectual. It seems the international communiity are hoping to outmanoeuvre the Syrian government by bringing the Israelis, the Russians, the Iranians and the Syrian opposition into a secure ring where they are willing to talk directly to each other, or through intermediaries. All were represented at the meeting. I admire the Israelis for having the guts to deal with people they really do not like very much.
When I was further down my garden today than last weekend I noticed a fallen tree from the property next door obstructing the footpath and overreaching into my garden. I think it will have happened the same day as my hose reel was stolen. I will ring the County footpath officer about it in the morning. I desribe an identical incident in Chapter 10 of my book which happened in 2010.
In my experience when the Gang’s long term hidden ways aren’t working they will resort to scare tactics. I think they might be at that stage at the moment with the Prime Minister. It seems plain his recent referendum speech should have secured his political postion up to the next election. However his view on gay marriage is not the same as some in his party, even though 55% of the public agree with him. The Gang, in my view, have decided to mount a rearguard action to persuade as many influential Tories as they can that supporting same sex commitments could lose them the next election. However I think that is a bit silly. I heard on the World this Weekend at lunchtime that out of the 15 areas people say they will consider in 2015 when deciding for whom to vote, gay marriage ranks number 12.
I understand when Mr Cameron’s mum was asked about the subject recently she said that David just can’t be told. She ought to speak to my family.
It hadn’t filtered through to my brain that there is a planned process in place to bring long term stability to Afghanistan. This evening Mr Cameron is hosting the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan for dinner at Chequers, their third get together since last July. First they gathered in Kabul, then at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. In this case the problem participant to be included in due course is the Taliban. I think things must be going reasonably well otherwise we would not have been told that tomorrow’s formal talks will include military and intelligence chiefs from the sides. I feel a 15 year old young lady might just have got something to do with that.
Another organisation showing confidence now, I believe, after their traumas of last year, is the BBC. This morning they were quite happy to promote their own programme, Desert Island Discs, as a news item. The former Tesco boss, Sir Terry Leahy, was saying the dominance of the supermarkets today is really what you would expect. We may not like the demise of the High Street but supermarkets would not be so successful if we did not shop in them. Apparently just nine stores hold 98% of the UK’s £150 billion grocery market. The situation, it seems to me, is just the same with tabloid newspapers. We might complain about their content but actually we are the ones who buy them.
I think the Gang might have been hoping that the cotaminated meat story, pitting supplier against supermarket, would turn out like the farmers’ milk price arguments of last summer. Those are described in chaper 12 of my book. Fortunately the Secretary of State for Agriculture stepped in to save the day. I supect the government have been checking their own sources and have found traces of pork in halal meat supplied to prisons. That is against the religion of muslims who comprise just under 13% of the jail population. The matter is now going over to the Food Standards Authority who are meeting with major supermarkets tomorrow to see if the retailers can ensure that all meat products under their contol are correctly described. No doubt they will have the resouces to introduce their own DNA testing.
There was a piece on Today yesterday about Swedish prosecutors in the 1990’s who accepted a man’s confession, in prison for committing a bank robbery, that he had committed eight serial murders. It has subsequently transpired he made up his guilt for five of the killings. The other three are now being re-examined. I recall that Swedish prosecuters have accepted the claims of two ladies that Julian Assange was disrespectful in his part consentual sexual relations with them during a visit to the country, to the extent that he is now suspected of having broken the law.
The BBC have been giving great prominence this week to the maimed and dying seabirds which have been washed up on our south coast with contaminated feathers. At the moment it seems likely it was due to a ship washing a substance out of it’s tanks whilst in the English Channel. I think they feel the Gang are behind it. I also supect MI5 have been taking an interest. The birds have been taken to an RSPCA centre in Somerset for treatment and their representative was also on Today yesterday. For such a straighforward story he seemed quite tense. I think it possible he has picked up there is more to it than meets the eye but has been told nothing. If that is so it is bound to have worried him, necessarily or needlessly I am not sure.