22nd April 2013
Something for my little red book. When I send emails I compose them on my offline office computer, prepare them on my online computer when it is not connected to the internet and send them with no screen record of what I have said or where they have gone. A bit pointless really but it helps me feel I am keeping my end up. This morning I sent three family emails in that mode. The phone rang once just after I had finished. My 1471 told me it was Marks and Spencer Bank with whom I have a credit card. When I rang, the girl told me her computer showed no record that I had been phoned. I asked her to note my call which she said she would do.
Nervous after the Boston bombings no doubt the Dutch city of Leiden kept some 20 schools shut today after a gun threat was posted on the internet. Internet Service Provider indentification seems to have been swift as a person was arrested later in the day. He is a former pupil of the British School at neighbouring Voorschoten.
The BBC have conducted an interview with a North Korean spy, now living in the South and pardoned by them. In 1987 she and an accomplice boarded a Korean Airlines commercial flight nine months before the Seoul Olympics which her government hoped to prevent. They took a bomb on board and then got off at a stopover. When it exploded in mid flight all 115 on board were killed. She now lives surrounded by tight security. She has left two children behind and she believes her family in the North have been taken to a labour camp.
Mr Cameron has been out today in the Midlands arguing for the government’s planned reforms in the NHS. The Royal College of Nursing has called the desire to make training nurses work at the level of helthcare assistants, to experience physical intimate contact with patients, is stupid. Mr Cameron agrees his proposals are contoversial but my guess is he feels the majority of the public agree with what he is saying.
The BBC say this morning that the Boston teenage bomber might have killed his own bother. It seems the police were trying to put handcuffs on the older man lying in the road when the other drove off in their getaway vehicle dragging him along the tarmac. The elder had travelled to Russia for six months last year and people are wondering exactly what he did there. The surviving youth has an injury to his neck preventing him from talking. It seems possible that was a botched suicide attempt. He is happy though to communicate by writing things down. A former Kremlin adviser was on Today this morning speaking about the case. He confirmed that President Putin phoned Presidet Obama last Tuesday to offer his condolences. That being said he doesn’t feel the Americans had fully appreciated the Chechen terrorist thread previously. The Russians are willing to fully cooperate with the Americans in getting to the bottom of recent events.
Jeremy Bowen was also on the programme reporting that the Syrian government has captured a town near Damascus killing at least 80 people, including women and children, after five days of fighting. His analysis is that somehow Mr Assad has convinced himself he is winning. Jeremy puts that down to the steadfast support he stills receives from many in Russia and Iran.
The programme also highlights details of a Newsnight item to be broadcast tonight. Over 1000 people in both Romania and Bulgaria have been polled with the result that 1% in the former and 4.2% in the latter say they have definite plans to come to work here before the end of 2014.
I don’t write about Burma very much primarily I think because I perceive it to be the province of a Chinese gang without direct connection to America. That may or may not be right but certainly upset between Bhuddists and Muslims, as referred to during the broadcast, is so bad that atrocious killings often take place. The government are doing what they can to turn the country round and today the EU have formally lifted all it’s outstanding sanctions.
The chairman of the GMC was on the transmission explaining why doctors have been advised, by and large, to use their real names when participating in social media. The reason is that doctors hold a responsible position in society and therefore they should try and project that into their private lives. As far as I am aware there is no compulsion on them to conform. Normal GMC rules apply to all their behaviour, so I can see no harm in giving guidance like that.
Before 7am Kevin Connolly reported from Israel on it’s Iron Dome missile defence systen which is strongly supported financially by the Americans. The weapons are designed to shoot down rockets as they fly through the air into home terrority. It seems there are doubts about whether they actually work. Everyone can see explosions in the air but it seems evidence of the shot down rockets is missing. Israeli forces will not talk about it. All sounds a bit fishy to me.
Kent Police announced yesterday that they would not be prosecuting Paris Brown for the remarks she had made on Twitter.
From a BBC Kent webpage I see that Kent Police started three month long Operation Castle at the beginning of February. They are trageting burglary and vehicle theft across the county and have so far arrested 373 people. The Deputy Chief Constable has said that one objective is to disrupt organised crime gangs around here.
Mr Cameron must have come straight back to London after his morning engagement to go to the memorial service at St Martins in the Field for Stephen Lawrence who died 20 years ago today. He read at the the service as did Mr Miliband and Mrs May. Other attendees were Mr Clegg, Mr Johnson and Mr Hogan-Howe. An impressive list who individually all took the trouble to go and support Stephen’s mother. The police Commissioner promies that eventually all Stephen’s murders will be brought to book.
Last Wednesday’s FT reports that for the first time China has provided the world with a few details about it’s armed forces, hopefully starting a move towards greater transparency of it’s state structures.
An article in Thursday’s paper suggests the Syrian regime has taken away it’s forces from the Golan Heights to defend Damascus. That leaves a vacuum which could be filled by jihadist opposition groups. I do hope the Gang are not planning something.
Another piece says that last year Russia was one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. However growth has slowed for five quarters now and in the most recent three months has stopped completely.
Ammending ny note from last Tuesday, Friday’s FT passes on a Reuters report that the man from Mississippi in fact sent three ricin letters. The last was to a local judge. The man faces large fines and up to 15 years in prison. His lawyer says he is not guilty.
I saw in Saturday’s FT that the proposed EU Tobin tax is supported by only 11 of the 27 member states.
Another piece records that after six months of talks the prime ministers of Kosovo and Serbia have agreed to normalise relations allowing them to prepare for membership of the EU. Apparently they did break down last week but were rescued in some way at the final hour. The settlement is looked upon as a significant achievement for the EU foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton.
If there is a significant story around you can be sure the FT will pick up on it. Clive Cookson in that edition writes about DNA. When Mr Crick and Mr Watson first recorded their discovery in 1953 it made little splash. Then the significance began to sink in. By 1968 the whole of the genetic code had been unravelled. Commercialisation of the knowledge gained was able to start. By the manipulation of DNA it became possible to produce insulin to treat diabetes from cultures of yeast cells. Then between 1988 and 2003 the Human Genome Project sequenced the 3 billion chemical letters in the DNA human genetic helix. Apparently it is estimated that the $3.8 billion the American government invested into early research has returned the country $796 billion. Big benefits in medicine, agriculture, the environment and energy are now on the cusp of major advances. It is hardly surprising then that David Cameron is so keen on the subject about which I last wrote on 19th January 2013.
23rd April 2013
Italian politics is a mess. The current president’s term of office expires next month as reported in yesterday’s FT but, even after five rounds of voting at the end of last week, MPs could not decide amongst themsleves who should replace him. The only solution has been for Mr Napolitano to stay on for a second term. No advert there for the democratic process. Neither has there been any progress on formation of a new government since February’s elections. Heads will really be down after the presidential debacle so not much light anywhere.
In that paper Richard McGregor writes that the Washington bomber suspect would be questioned without a lawyer being present and not being reminded of his Miranda right to remain silent. There is precedent for that apparently in American law when public safety requires it.
However I wonder if a bit of a political struggle about his legal status took place. Later in the paper Edward Luce wrote, presumably authored on Sunday, that he would not be treated as an enemy combatant, which has even less privileges than Miranda. Then, also on Sunday I read a BBC webpage that two Republican senators were calling for him to be dealt with as a war foe. Finally, on the BBC TV news last night I saw the White House representative say he would have full American citizen rights after all. The youth was charged with criminally using a weapon of mass destruction. Edward says America was lucky to have such a calm President during the crisis. Emotions could have become so much higher without his lead.
The FT’s security expert, Roger Blitz, wrote just below Richard. He has spoken to RUSI and says unlike America we have a policy of containment and prevention when our citizens become radicalised. We try and nudge them away from any violent views. Apparently we have been successful doing that in 5-600 specific cases. Something else I pick up from his piece is that the Times Square bomber, acting at a significant point in my story as related in chapter 5 of my book, was a radical Islamist and a graduate of Bridgeport University in Connecticut.
At it’s peak Pfizer’s site at Sandwich in Kent employed some 5000 people. Then in September 2007, two months after I walked into Kent police headquarters and asked to speak to a senior officer, it announced it was shutting it’s manufacturing facility there. By February 2011 employees had more than halved. At that ime Pfizer said it was closing the whole site. I thought the shock then, from the Prime Minister downwards, was very real. In the event it did keep 650 employees on and announced in January 2012 it would dispose of the location so it could become a campus for life science companies. Generally however it seems some commentators are saying the rapid decline of the phramaceuticals industry in recent times is much like what happend to car manufacturing in this country in the 1980’s. The FT editorial in that issue visits the problem. It says the warnings of various scientific societies should be heeded. Some public sector financial help is probably needed.
Interestingly it seems the Boston bomber can talk after all. When he was charged in his hospital room, and asked if he could afford legal representation, he said no.
In a Gang influenced world you just do what is possible. Along those lines a Somerset businessman has just been found guilty at the Old Bailey of selling fake bomb detectors. He grossed £50 million over 10 years selling to Iraq, Georgia, Saudi Arabia Arabia and Niger, primarily the first I think. A more callous thing, when people are in fear of their lives, you could hardly think. I have seen a photogragh of the man walking in the street. He looks respectable.
Yesterday the Canadian authorities arrested two legal immigrant men on suspicion of planning to derail a train on the Toronto to New York line presumably by means of an explosive device laid by the side of the track. I suspect it would actually have happened in the States. The two apparently have been under surveillance for some time and there was FBI involvement. The intended attack was not imminent. We are told they had links to al-Qaeda elements in Iran. Al-Qaeda however is a Salafist Sunni muslim organisation. Iran is a Shia muslim country. Quite understandably the Iranian Foreign Minister has called the claim ridiculous. However from listening to Today this morning it seems the Canadians realise it is a bit more complicated than that.
The situation reminds me of events in England when very responsibly 11 foreign nationals and one British man were arrested in April 2009 under Operation Pathway for a suspected non-imminent bomb plot. I describe that in chapter 5 of my book and believe the action was taken because I saw some of the men in August 2008. The authorities didn’t want me making a fuss about things if they didn’t do the right thing. I think it possible over the coming weeks and months the FBI could be accused of playing silly games with it’s nation’s security over the Boston suspects, as suggested for MI5 I feel in the Four Lions film. They appreciated that possibility so made sure the same accusations could not be made in Canada.
An example here that we ordinary people should not be sycophantic, in my view, of those in the upper echelons of world societies. Respect should be earnt not given away. It has emerged today that the trainer protegee of the Shiek of Dubai, also president of the United Arab Emirates, has been doping horses at his boss’ Newmarket stables so that they would win races when they shoudn’t. That only came to light when an unannounced drugs spot check was carried out.
By chance my next note is about another UAE shiekdom, Abu Dhabi. The piece was on Today this morning before 7am and concerns a South African eminent locum doctor who was working there 10 years ago. Without him knowing, and in his absence, he was found guilty by a court of being responsible for the death of a patient after he had left the country. Last August he was on a flight which had a stopover in Abu Dhabi. The indication to me that he might well be a targeted individual by the American Gang is because it seems he was encouraged to leave the safety of the international zone of the airport to go to the apparent comfort of a local hotel to wait for his connecting flight. That allowed him to be arrested and he has been held in the country ever since. His next court appearance is today. The legal process is not always fair I am afraid.
The Justice Secretary was on the programme explaining why the government wish to tighten up the rules about meritless judicial reviews, used when someone wants to challenge a decision of public administration. He said that in 2011 there were 11,350 such applications to the courts of which only 144 were successful. Seems like a sensible move.
The Archbishop of Canterbury used to work for Enterprise Oil in London and has City expertise. Therefore when he said yesterday that he considers we are in an economic depression like the 1930’s, not a lesser recession, people listened and took notice. He said banking should be more locally based.
There was a most interesting discussion between two ladies on the broadcast about the pros and cons of pornography. I applaud such open discussion. For a few months a couple of years ago I looked at a soft porn website. When I came to fully appreciate I no longer lead a private life though, with the Gang watching my every move, I stopped. On the computer screen you had frames on which you clicked to watch that particular video. One would always be of a genuine situation where a young lady had gone to a job interview to work in the sex industry. The man behind the desk wanted to test her out. He would have sex with her in the room whilst holding a small video camera in one of his hands. From that you would invariably see the girl felt completely humiliated. However she had gone there to earn the money on offer. She could not complain about what was being done to her. An impossible situation for her. One of the cons.
Misha Glenny is a Balkan expert and he writes an article in today’s FT expressing genuine astonishment, I feel, that EU foreign affairs representative Catherine Ashton has brokered a Balkan’s deal as I mentioned yesterday. The key it seems was that she was left to do it all on her own without, perhaps well meaning, vested interests putting their oar in. Possibly the Gang were so tied up elsewhere they did not have time to destabilise the situation as they normally would.
Channel 4 News interviewed the parents of the alleged Boston bombers in Russia on tonight’s programme. I am not sure how long they have been there but both are highly suspicious of the American authorities. They say the FBI showed much more interest in their elder son than has so far been revealed. I have also picked up that American investigators did not realise the dead son went to Russia in 2012 because someone spelt his name incorrectly. That reminds me of the morning in July 2005 when Jean Charles Menezes was shot dead by the Metropolitan Police in part because an officer went away from his post to the toilet at a crucial moment.
24th April 2013
Yesterday the Coop group had a board meeting and decided not to go ahead with their proposed takeover, which they have been negotiating for the last two years, of 631 Lloyds Bank branches. The European Commission had told Lloyds their branch network was too large for true competition and some outlets must go. The Coop chief executive has said this morning that the risks of proceding outweighed the potential benefits. I heard the Cabinet Minister without Portfolio, Ken Clarke, and a man I feel close to the Prime Minister, say pretty much on the World at One at lunchtime that in his view the Coop are running scared. I have a bank account with the Coop. I wrote to them about a problem with it on 18th April 2013.
The Home Secretary has been going through the courts recently to try to sort out her Abu Qatada problem. This morning she announced a new tack by signing a mutual assistance treaty with Jordan. She hopes that will give her the legal cover she needs to deport Mr Qatada to Jordan, from where he originally came, without his solicitors being unable to prevent it.
It seems, according to a BBC webpage, that sometime during Monday the FBI thought they had better double check they had the right man for sending the ricin letter to President Obama. They searched his house and could find no evidence, physical or computer related, that he knew anything about ricin at all. He was released overnight. He puts that all down to the efforts of his attorney, not previously known to him, whom he referred to in the video clip as his blonde angel. She says she believes the original FBI officers acted in good faith but the case against her client was very, very diabolical. She does not know why the FBI changed their mind. An associate of the freed man, with whom he had fallen out, has now been arrested under suspicion of committing the offence. From filed court papers I now know that another sentence was in the ricin letter wording. The first phrase said ‘Maybe I have your attention now even if that means someone must die’. A sensible conclusion from that, it seems to me, is the author knew what the two suspected Boston bombers might do.
I happened to browse through a Daily Mail when I was out this morning and see that the older brother married an American girl in June 2010 when she was pregnant. They had an on-off relationship apparently through college. She started wearing a hijab in 2008. The BBC report this afternoon that yesterday the Russians have allowed US Moscow embassy officials to travel to Dagestan to interview the boys’ parents.
A BBC webpage was published on Monday quoting the appropriate Boeing manager as saying it is quite possible the cause of the battery fault on the 787 Dreamliner plane might never be know. That sounds a bit too convenient to me.
The EU head of counter terrorism has told the BBC that 100s of Europeans are now in Syria training with jihadists opposition menmbers. The worry is that one day they will return and continue their battles at home.
The BBC also reported this morning the Royal College of Nursing say that NHS hospital accident and emergency departments are in crisis. They cannot cope with the numbers of patients currently flowing through them. Numbers are up by one million from those of two years ago.
A bit more to this story than meets the eye I would think as it is based on the alcohol industry’s submission to the Scottish government in 2008 over it’s proposal to introduce a minimum alcohol price. Academics have now sifted through the details presented which they say were indefensible. The lobby had ignored, misrepresented and undermined the scientitic evidence available. The Scottish Parliament have since fixed a 50 pence minimum unit price. I also recall the coalition government seemed to effectively drop it’s plans for a minimum alcohol price about a month ago in pretty murky circumstances.
Some time ago I remember reading an article about how Mark Zuckerberg recruited Sheryl Sandberg from Google as chief operating officer entirely on his own. He wanted to feel comfortable he would be employing someone who sees things the same way he does. Gillian Tett interviewed her for last weekend’s FT Magazine to promote her first book. Ms Sandgerg says her advice to women is to date cool, crazy, bad boys. But you should not marry them. For that journey you want an equal partner.
Simon Kuper wrote about gay marriage in that magazine. He picks on the theme of how quickly society is changing. Two of the same sex living together has become accepted by most people as quite okay. Nevertheless it still needs to be sold into some resistance. If you get your language right he suggests people start thinking about it along the right lines.
The same transitional theme came up on Today this morning with some international research saying that there is a general trend across western societies to become more peaceful. Our violence is now about equal with other European countries but but our graph is steepest. Homocides here are down 28% in the last five years and voilent murders 21%. American violence is reducing similarly, but with their gun culture you are 10 times more likley to be killed with a firearm than you are here. In the States 85 people die by the gun every day. No one knows why the improvement is coming through. My theory is people are becoming more inherently confident. Violent folk are essentially bullies. When they realise you are not afraid of them they tend to back off. I think we are way ahead of the politicians and public figures on the subject. Perhaps they should listen a bit harder to some Bostonians.
I mentioned about cosmetic procedures, such as botox injections and fillers to plump up the skin, on 31st December 2012. Today returned to the subject this morning. Any business can do it and there is currently no regulation whatsover. No one is around to save you from your own foolishness. Some say the scale of the problem is a crisis waiting to happen. Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director, was on the programme explaining that legislation and formal qualifications for practitioners, amongst other provisions, will probably soon be introduced.
A contibutor in Today’s FT says unexpectedly to many mainstream politicians in the country, Mr Grillo’s Five Star Movement in Italy is as stong as ever. His opponents are the ones who have miscalculated. Now Italians have a president again a prime minister to lead a coalition government should be an achievable aim. Parliament should listen to the disgruntled voters. Bring about meaningful reform. And best of all have decisive elections soon.
25th April 2013
On 15th April William Hague told the House of Commons we thought it highly likely the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against it’s opponents. I heard on Channel 4 News this evening that MI6 have evidence it is the case. Everything has been quiet since so you have to ask why the story has broken again today for the Americans. I suspect it is the Gang hoping to put politicians in one of those impossible situations, especially the President who has spoken about chemical weapons and red lines. It seems the story has arisen because American intelligence agencies have thought this is the time to present their reports to their masters. Defence secretary Chuck Hagel has used the somewhat odd expession that the submissions have some degree of varying confidence. Then I saw a video clip of Republican senator John McCain say that America should now intervene military. However he seemed to look a bit uncomfortable as he was speaking. It reminded me of the time the Kent Police chief constable spoke to the camera in the summer of 2010 warning how government spending cuts could endanger the hemegeny of his force as agreed by his officers in the Kent Police Federation. I got the impression that his moment in the spotlight was not entirely his own idea.
Then the mayor of New York has passed on today that he was informed the night before by the FBI that the younger alleged bomber has been speaking to his questioners. He said he and his brother had prepared a pressure cooker device and five pipe bombs pesumably with no clear idea what they would do with them. However on the spur of the moment they decided to detonate them in Times Square. The bungled bomb attack on Times Square in May 2010 is a crucial part of my story as I explain in chapter 5 of my book. The teenager seems to have wanted to boast to his interogators of their plans but equally, I feel, he wanted to protect his co-conspirators by saying it was just the idea of he and his brother, and by referring to it as a spontaneous decision.
I didn’t note it but a 19 year old Canadian pop singer was in the news recently. He appeared to be under a lot of pressure which seemed unfair. Now it has happened again. Whilst in Stockholm I think a policeman smelt marijuna inside Justin’s tour bus. A small amount of drugs were found but it seems no further action will be taken. Policing can be political sometimes. I recall it is due to the decisions of Swedish police and prosecutors that Julian Assange is currently staying in the Ecquadorian embassy in London.
I have just heard Jeremy Bowen speak on the BBC TV 10pm news the day after he has returned from Damascus. He says things are getting fluid in Syria with the government forces in a spurt of activity. Ongoing stalemate is not a phrase he would use. I feel the Gang look upon the regime as a sign of their virility. Things are getting difficult for them and they will fight to the last. It looks as though the situation might get worse before it gets better.
Memories here of the Royal Marsden fire in January 2008 as mentioned in chapter 6 of my book, just about the first concrete national sign for me of what this story is all about. A BBC webpage this morning relates at least 38 people are feared dead in a fire in a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow. One report says an electrical short circuit was the cause.
I haven’t mentioned the Dhaka building collapse, even though it had immediately been linked to workers producing clothes for Primark here. I was hoping it had got nothing to do with the Gang. However I heard Eddie Mair interview a person from the pressure group Labour Behind the Label on PM yesterday which now makes me wish to diarise a record. The lady’s surname was Maher. Before he started Eddie thought he should confirm the correct pronounciation. It is exactly the same as his own. Professional as he is Eddie carried on completely unphased. The eight story building contained clothes factories and retail units. It probably had 3000 people in it when it suddendly collapsed on Wednesday, probably due to building defects, killing at least 273 and injuring some 1000. It has created great upset in Bangledesh with 10,000 people out on the streets protesting that such a thing should have happened where they live.
Information is king. I think I may have made two wide of the mark notes yesterday. My excuse is I had a business, and family thoughts, focused day. I did some notes in the evening but my mind was not totally on it.
I wrote the Boston suspect bomber, who has been moved to a Massachusettes prison today, was probably protecting co-conspirators. Then I heard on the radio news this morning that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has said the thought of driving to Times Square only came up when his brother suggested it in the car they hijacked as they were escaping from the Massachusettes Institute of Technology. However petrol was needed and when they stopped for some the driver took the opportunity to escape and phone police. That sort of mind game is uncannily similar to my granddad note of 15th April 2013.
Then I suggested senator John McCain appeared leant upon when he spoke about Syria yesterday. I could see it was an important statement for him but I now think I jumped too quickly to a conclusion. I saw him interviewed on Newsnight last night when it was clear he feels passionately on his subject. He related how he had been to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan and witnessed the suffering there. He may have been politically pushed into a corner by others. That does not matter. He was very pleased to have the opportunity to talk about the things he genuinely believes. He spoke as if a weight had been lifted from his mind. I believe top Labour politicians reacted in a similar way when they came to know fully about this story.
The subject of Syrian chemical weapons is certainly increasing the pressure all round. David Cameron has wanted to contribute in a BBC TV studio this morning by referring to it as a war crime and speaking of red lines, although specifically for the international community as a whole. For me though the key player is just one man, President Assad. If he can be convinced the best thing would be for him to step down everything else will slip into place. If it can be conclusively shown to him that elements of his own forces have been using sarin against innocent civilians that might just persuade him it really isn’t worth the candle to carry on.
The Queen’s Speech is the week after next. If the newspaper industry want a change to the intended provisions on press regulation I image they need to lay out their stall before then. Yesterday their spokesman from Associated Newspapers did just that. Whilst they are happy with the structure of a Royal Charter they require some changes, primarily giving their own side influence over the whole ladder of regulatory control. The essential distrust of politicians still seems to be there. No way do they want that lot to have the final say. It is presented as a take it or leave it offer. Otherwise they will not be joining the scheme to be created by the government. The only newspapers not on that line are the Independent and the Guardian. The initial mood music from the politicians is they will not be budging either. Another of those impossible situations it seems.
Yesterday the Prime Minister announced he had appointed the MP for Orpington and Boris Johnson’s younger brother, Jo, as the head of his policy unit. The commentary is that that will set up better communication with Conservative MPs. I think Mr Johnson will also be a person in whom Mr cameron has confidence.
Another BBC webpage I saved from yesterday says that the CIA placed Tamerian Tsarnaev on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database in 2011 presumably after the Russians contacted them. I understand it contains 745,000 names so I don’t think you could call that specific. It seems the detonators for the bombs were similar to remotes for opening garage doors meaning they had to be used quite close to the bombs themselves.
It looks as though the health authorities are getting their act together about protection against measels outbreaks. They want some one million children in England, who missed their vaccintaions due to the MMR scare, to be innoculated now. I heard a suggestion on Today yesterday that the press in the late 1990’s were as much to blame for the debacle as anyone else. They blew the story out of all proportion. Then a GP from Liverpool was on that programme as well. He said there has been a mini measels epidemic in his area since February 2010.
For that operation I see 1.2 million doses of vaccine have been obtained, not a mean feat I would have thought in a relativley short space of time. An indication, in my view that the authorities are worried by the currect situation. I suppose you cannot complain that it was not done transparently. There is no point in worrying people unnecessarily. But on the other hand people can be a bit complacent sometimes. Every horse needs a kick up the back side to get it running in the race effectively.
One of those stories than some people have know about for a bit but the rest of us didn’t, emerged yesterday. A low level employee at Lambeth palace started stealing books from it’s library it seems in the early 1970s. When some items couldn’t be found it was assumed they had been lost in war time bombing but then in 1975 it was realised that couldn’t always be so. On the man’s death in 2011 the library received a letter written by him informing his former employer of what he had done. In the attic of his home they found 1,400 publications, some almost priceless. It is thought the man stole them for criminal purposes but when he found them difficult to sell he just stored them away. The library says it has decided to make the position public now as some of the stolen works are becomming available to view again. I suspect it may also have something to do with Mr Welby being the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
On the application of a 17 year old who was detained without his parents knowing, the High Court ruled yesterday that police policy of treating such youths as adults was against human rights law. The police say they will accept the judgement meaning in future parents will be fully involved when any child under 18 is taken to a police station.
I forgot to mention at the time but on Tuesday’s edition of Today John Humphrys was interviewing a relative of two men whose bones have been found in a farmer’s field in France from the Geat War. They were to be reburied in a war cemetery. The lady seemed comatose and unprepared. I thought John handled the situtaion very well.
Then on Wednesday before 7am was a piece about a poster with big staring eyes, and a message below saying bicycle theives we are watching you. The placard was placed above a bike rack on the university campus at Newcastle. It has reduced thefts by more than half. A lady from the university was saying it seems people’s behaviour is modified when they are reminded their actions in public might be noticed by others. That is why visible CCTV cameras are such a good idea in my view. However the downside of the study was that thefts at nearby cycle racks with no eyes went up, so crime overall was not affected.
Jeremy Hunt was on Today yesterday on the A&E pressures saying he feels his service needs to make some fundamental changes so that not so many patients go there in the first place. When they are there staff should be better able to treat them. It sounds a pretty difficult problem.
I am not quite sure why this story is in the news today but there was a highly critical IPCC report published in February on the failing of the Met’s Sapphire rape investigation teams in 2008/9. There was the current head of the unit on Today this morning saying a new start is to be made with a new leader, probably new branding, and at least 100 extra officers.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee publish a report this morning on our tax regime. The 8.10 slot on the programme was devoted to a discussion between it’s chair and the head of tax policy at Deloittes, one of our four big tax firms. The report says the firms second staff to the Treasury and HMRC to advise on new tax rules who then go back to their offices to tell their clients how to get round those provisions using the inside information they have gained. It is alleged that is done in a highly organised way. The tax avoidance advice given is very agressive and the relationship with government employees is far too cosy. It seems an enforceable code of practice is needed.
On the radio news yesterday morning was a most interesting piece on the Prison Governors Association criticising government drug policy. It says, with some international partners, that outright prohibition of class A drugs is not helpful. Some offenders commit crimes to fund their drug addition. If that circle could be broken it is likely the prison population would fall.
27th April 2013
The most important element of Archbishop Welby’s character, in my view, is that he is tough. A senior man of God who doesn’t mind upsetting others, if it is the right thing to do, is I feel a remarkable person. In the news today the Archbishop has suggested bankers should have to pass professional exams for their job. That is nothing which has every occured to me before but but when you reflect on it he is absolutely right. I had to do a three year university course and two years experience before I was looked upon as competent to value property. Bankers are not second hand car salesmen. They should not be happy to be looked at in that way.
A US citizen tour operator, with a Korean sounding name, was arrested in North Korea last November for sedition against the state. He was posing as a tourist after entering the country, it seems, from Russia. He has admitted the charges against him and is now awaiting sentence. The information has been released by the official North Korean news agency. I shall make no commentary. We will see what happens.
President Obama was at the dedication ceremony of the George W Bush library last Thursday. It has an exhibit of a twisted piece of metal from one of the twin towers. The day before a bit of aircraft landing gear was found in an 18 inch wide gap between two buildings in Manhatten at the proposed site for a new mosque and community centre three streets away from Ground Zero. Due to markings on the metal it is thought it comes from one of the suicide planes chosen for 9/11. I suspect it is genuine and has been held in store by the Gang for the last eleven and a half years until they wanted to use it. I see the New York Police Commissioner says the area will also be searched for human remains. Perhaps that means rumours or intelligence exist that pieces of skeleton are also in the wrong hands.
By chance I heard a quote of Mrs Thatcher’s on the radio this afternoon. In 1975 she said that you don’t win by being against things, you only win by being for things. I also recall Michelle Obama said to American athletes at the London Olympics that to win is good, as I record in chapter 6 of my book.
Yesterday there was a accident on the M62 between a lorry belonging to a relatively small food retailer and a minibus. It was obviously pretty horrific from the continuing attention which is being paid. The smaller vehicle was carrying a party of young ladies going to a hen party. An 18 year old passenger has so far died with eight others still in hospital, some in a critical condition. The lorry driver has been bailed on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.
Iraq has just had it’s most violent week since the Americans left in 2011. 170 people have been killed since last Tuesday. Another example of current Gang anger in my view. The situation has caused prime minister Nouri Maliki to appear on national television to say that sectarianism has suddendly come back to his country and what an evil it is.
The publicist Max Clifford was charged yesterday with 11 counts of indecent assault on seven girls aged from 14 to 19 between 1966, when he was 23, and 1985. He has said they are all completely false and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ court to defend himself at the end of next month.
Something I had not realised on the Italian situation is that there was no obligation for 87 year old President Napolitano to stay on in his post. The squabbling politicians asked if he would and, out of the goodness of his heart, he agreed. That though gave him great moral authority which he used to his advantage on Tuesday when he gave them all a good ticking off. With his voice cracking from emotion he told the MPs in his inauguration speech that they must stop acting like children. They should do the right thing by those who voted for them. If they did not he implied he would walk away from the lot. He would resign and let them get on with it. Fortunately for all they seem to have heeded his words. This afternoon a new coalition government has been settled. The quarter of the electorate who voted for Mr Grillo’s New Dawn Party however are not being represented in any way. He still does not want to join the party.
All sentences have now been delivered for the 11 hoped for terrorists in the Operation Pitsford trial, following guilty verdicts in February on the three who pleaded their innocence. The BBC’s Dominic Casciani has posted a webpage today explaining what a bungling lot they were. The similarities with the Four Lions film are quite uncanny. MI5 knew what they were about all along. When four of them went to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2011 our secret service just waited for them to come back, so easy would it be to pick them up again.
On Tuesday the police announced that their seven month search for April Jones had ended. That must have cost a lot of money. I will not forget her.
To coincide with the news, Today interviewed the mother of Damien Nettles this morning so she could explain how an open loss like that affects you. Damien disappeared in 1996 when 16, after he had been to a fish and chip on the Isle of Wight where he lived with his family. It seems likely he was murdered and that various people know what happened. The police arrested five people in 2011, one from North Kent, but have obviously never had sufficint evidence to charge them or take the matter further. The case remains open.
The president-elect of the Faculty of Public Health was on the programme talking about containing and tracking infectious diseases. That comes down to the creation and maintenance of good records of course. The gentleman was saying he had experience of an outbreak of mumps at an independent school last Christmas and found their medical records for some pupils, especially those from abroad, were not what they could have been. He wondered if that deficiency may apply over the independent sector as a whole. He also made the point that our swine flu outbreak starting in 2009 came into this country with independent school children returning to this country from a holiday in Mexico. On the other side a headmistress was saying that in her experience his fears are unfounded.
The director of RUSI was on the broadcast speaking about the opening of a UK based operational centre for Reaper drones at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. 10 aircraft will be used in due course. They will take off and land in Afghanistan using local operators but once in the air the RAF pilots here take over. Our team at a Nevada command centre in America will remain in place. We make the point that our planes are only used for intelligence and protection purposes. Unlike America we do not fire missiles from them to take out unsuspecting people we do not like.
28th April 2013
A BBC webpage with video clip was published this morning about Presideent Obama speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. He poked fun at himself in relation to his place of birth and President George W Bush in respect of his library. He heaped praise on the journalists who covered events around the Boston bombings.
Fortunes have turned full circle in Iceland. In the parliamentary election yesterday voters effectively decided the Progressive Party and the Social Democrats should lead them into their new future. They are the same groupings who presided over the country’s near economic collapse in 2008. They promise debt relief and tax cuts. Iceland is a small country. I hope the people of Iceland collectively don’t come to regret their decision.
As the Gang are a multi-layered hidden society who only interfere with your life when they deem it necessary is it, unfortunately, all too easy to forget they are there. The temptation is to slip into inappropriate ways because the larger picure which was at one time obvious to you, has slipped into the distant past. Mr Cameron, I am pleased to report, is not like that. But it seems some parts of the Chinese leadership are. In chapter 11 of my book I go through my analysis of the events surrounding the death of Neil Heywood in China in November 2011. And how I believe the Chinese ended up being very greatful to us for our assistance in the matter. My diary note of 17th May 2012, reproduced in the chapter 12 appendix of my book, gives one manifestation in my view of that gratitude. From a report in last Thursday’s FT however it seems the Chinese no longer look upon us as their friends. They are terribly upset that Mr Cameron saw the Dalai Lama, quite coincidentally also in May last year, when the gentleman visited London. It seems the world renowned Buddhist is someone the Chinese hate. Last week Francois Hollande visited China. He was given the red carpet treatment. The Chinese also made it clear the British Prime Minister would not have been welcome. If you were sitting at a desk in America thinking about how you could drive a wedge between British and French allies, I imagine that is just the sort of thing you would arrange.
The paper also reports on the debate which has started in America after the Boston bombings, on the right balance between surveillance and civil liberties. Bearing in mind it is the information which led to the quick arrest of the bombers some argue the country should make more use of CCTV cameras in public places to protect the public, as we do over here. The piece also reports Republican senator Lindsey Graham saying on Tuesday that the one mistake he will not tolerate is the denial that a war is in existence.
Last week I was reading in the FT that the economic reforms of Mexico’s new President were beginning to unravel as the politicians start to bicker with each other. That edition though pleasingly reports the differences have been resolved. The forward momentum is back on track.
A contributor in the issue writes about the financial difficulties currently being experienced by such American conurbations as Stockton, Detroit and Chicago. He compares his experience of being drafted in to help New York in 1975 when it was in the same position. Opponents started talking to each other. He became friends with powerful union bosses. He says big beasts need not abandon their principles but they must create a climate where dialogue and compromise is possible. Where mutual sacrifice can be negotiated.
While Italy’s new government was being sworn in today a 46 year old Italian man shot and seriously wounded two policemen outside the Prime Minister’s office about a kilometre away. It seems the man had lost his job and felt desperate about things.
I last wrote about the Data Communications Bill on 11th December 2012. Friday’s FT reports that, under objections from the Lib Dems, it has now been dropped from the Queen’s Speech.
Another piece in the paper says the Muslim Brotherhood have decided to start opening offices in Syrian rebel held areas. That is fine by me. It is all out in the open.