13th May 2013
There was a good turnout in the Pakistani election and it seems Mr Sharif should be able to govern on his own. He has been congratulated by the Prime Minister of India and the President of Afghanistan. One thing he wants to concentrate on is improving the country’s infrastructure. A bullet train project between Karachi and Peshawar is in his sights. That would uplift the spirits of the people no end.
I am sure there can’t be anything in this but it is a bit of a coincidence. This afternoon the man charged with murdering Tia Sharp has changed his plea to guilty four days into his trial, after nine months beforehand of protesting his innocence. Then last week Abu Qatada made a similar turnaround saying, out of the blue, that he will toddle off home. It is almost as if people they speak to no longer think themselves they can buck the system. They might just as well give in gracefully.
Overnight a fire in a tranport depot near Newquay run by a local family-run business destroyed 35 buses. No cause has been given. I suspect that might have something to do with the Cornish speedboat accident at the beginning of last week.
President Obama has known the Prime Minister for some years now but today was was the first time I have heard him use his first name in public. He was extremely generous towards him, as indeed he was about the UK. I hope that might make it a bit more difficult for Mr Cameron’s more fractious eurosceptic MPs to be horrible to him.
I was lopping branches alone at a nearby property yesterday just in from the road. It was a surreal experience. My local gang just could not leave me alone. All the normal activity, to show their virility no doubt, of passing horse riders, pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. Plus people always popping out from inside having their chinwags and smoking their fags. I was chatted up by a young lady. When I was a bit cross and suggested she finish her cigarette as quickly as possible she had her gang mentor standing besides her in a matter of seconds. As you might expect there was also a bit of a nasty side. I left the site for three minutes. When I came back the gang mentor was standing in the road ready to give cover, in my view, for his friend in a car down the lane. If I had been away six minutes, I suggest, I would have had my chain saw stolen placed just in from the garden gate, in a drive past operation. Should that have happened and I had started accusing anyone on site, I could have been in trouble. It would have been untrue. I might even have been told that a strange car had been seen stopping outside. Then in the middle of all that was a very respectable purposeful looking middle aged man walking down the road wearing a black ear piece. He was swinging his arms. Gang helpers do not walk down my road swinging their arms.
Gordon Brown launched his party’s United with Labour campaign, for Scotland not to break from the United Kingdom, in Glasgow today.
The bute in horsemeat story is one of those impossible situations you so easily get in a Gang influenced world, in my view. As mentioned on Today this morning before 7am all horse carcasses are now tested for bute. However the cost of that is more than the value of the meat itself. Someone is going to have to pick up a massive bill. I don’t think any human has yet fallen ill through consuming bute so quite understandably the man from the FSA seemed to wonder whether it is all worth it. The trouble though is it provides Gang cover. If they wish to target a victim by feeding them bute, provided they keep within the laws of probability, they can easily do that and blame it on an unchecked food chain.
Robert Peston was saying on the programme that a billion pounds might be needed to fill the hole found in Coop Bank’s balance sheet. Until it unexpectedly walked away from the Llodys Bank deal it’s board didn’t seem to realise it’s true position and neither did it’s regulator. Will we never learn.
I don’t mean this horribly but a way in which top politicians are a bit like the Gang perhaps is that once they see an opportunity they go straight for it. Now I have seen the evening’s news bulletins I suspect Mr Cameron’s two day trip to America is about a bit more tha just Syria. I am not there so I am guessing but I think possibly our Prime Minsiter is being lauded as a significant world leader. As I said earlier Mr Obama has been helpful towards Mr Cameron’s domestic political position. For his part Mr Caneron went on a tour of the FBI headquarters in Washinton following their successful investigation into the Boston marathom bombings. That, I feel, was no encourage as many American journalists and politicians as possible to make connections helpful to Mr Obama in his future intended handling of world problems. Earlier I read in Friday’s FT how difficult some Republicans are being in the ongoing fiscal negotiations. If Mr Obama could bring then round to a more amenable outlook that, I am sure, would please him greatly.
14th May 2013
The Sony Radio Academy Awards were last night. Best speech programme was Witness on the BBC World Service, best radio journalist of the year was John Humprys and best speech radio broadcaster was Eddie Mair.
At 9am this morning I was out in my garden on a bank putting in some hedging plants. When I heard two people talking nearby I immediately recognised that as possible cover being provided on my patch and I became alert. A few moments later a white council type open backed van drove onto the front driveway of the property next door but one. I used not to be able to see over there but within the last 12 months the intervening tress and scrub have been taken out. A bit silly really. A middle aged lady wearing a red sweater came over. The man in the passenger seat of the vehicle, wearing a yellow high visibility jacket, got out. Whilst they were chatting he put something down by the low dwarf brick wall to his left. They departed and she went inside. A few moments later she came out again and picked something up from besides the same wall. When I came back up the garden I found that the council had delivered my periodic suppy of plastic rubbish sacks. However I think thy must have got their records wrong. They only left me some about three weeks ago.
The essence of the Gang story in my view is that it fills people with destructive emotion which, without them realisiing, can be channelled by Gang helpers for the strategic aims of the Gang heiracrchy itself. That is pretty much how I see the current EU referendum debate in the Conservative Party. The Prime Minister has said he will pledge a 2017 referendum in his Party’s manifesto. That has not satisfied the core MP rebels though, about 70 I think. He says he will publish a draft bill for the purpose. It seems that will not satisfy them. They appear to have a pathological distrust of anyone who does not see the world exactly as they do. If the truth be known I suspect they would rather the question were not put to a referendum at all, as they really do not trust us to give the right answer. The polls do actually show we are not particularly interested in Europe as they are. However they cannot let it drop because they need a vent for their bad feeling. Even if they got absolutely everything they wanted they would find they were still no happier. They would then move onto something else.
The Russians have today caught a CIA agent attached to the American embassy in Moscow doing thing he shouldn’t. He was apparently wearing a blond wig at the time. The American state department have said they are aware of the situation and have no other comment to make.
I don’t think that will work to make sides fall out and neither I hope will the more serious Syrian incident publicised today. Although it has been known about for some time a video appears to show a well know opposition leader cut a heart from a dead Syrian soldier and take a bite of it. At the same time, as a Sunni, he made offensive remarks about President Assad’s Shia Alawite sect. The official Syrian opposition are fully aware how explosive that could be. They say they will fully investigate and take action as appropropriate.
The same BBC webpage informs me that Mr Putin has spoken to Mr Netanyahu again even though Israel has bombed it’s ally and Russia is supplying arms to Israel’s enemy. Next week Jordan will host a Friends of Syria meeting in preparation for a hoped for peace conference in June. Mr Kerry is obviously trying to remove wriggle room for the sides. He says the Syrian government have provided a list of their representatives for the conference and the leader of the Free Syrian Army had assured him he is comitted to the negotiation process.
A lady from the Electoral Commission was on Today this morning before 7am saying she would like the public’s views on how our electoral processes could be bettered. Our system is essentially based on trust which does make it susceptible to manipulation perhaps to those who want their favoured candidates to win a little too much.
The Police Federation got a new chairman in January. He was on the programme saying he is worried that, after the revelations of the Leveson enquiry, some police officers are unsure of the ground rules for speaking to the press. That uncertainty means they can be leant on by senior officers in certain circumstances. He wants greater clarity on the situation.
15th May 2013
My fax to David Cameron of 23rd July 2011, appendix 11/8 in my book, refers to the mentally unwell man who beheaded and killed a British lady in Tenerife a few months earlier. Dispatches on Channel 4 on Monday evening went through the background of the event, concentrating in part on his time in the care of the North Wales area of NHS Wales. The lady’s family want answers. If he had been treated differently in Wales he might not have been released in May 2011 to go on and kill their mother. Unfortunately the health board told the family they could not offer them any evidence based reassurance or explanations. They had looked into it themselves but for reasons of patient confidentiality they couldn’t possibly say what they had found or inform the family of any remedial action they had taken.
Any market system should operate in full openess and transparency. Otherwise, human beings as we are, we tend to take advantage of one another. It seems that hidden, inaccurate pricing of oil products might have been going on for a decade so that individual traderes and sections of the market could make advantages for themselves. The key player it would seem is the price assessment company Platts who take end of day data from oil companies to create a benchmark for others to use. That of coure is very much like the Libor system, based entirely on trust between participants. It has not been said how their suspicions were aroused but yesterday the European Commission raided the offices not only of Platts but BP, Shell and Statoil looking for evidence of collusion between those parties. If conspiracy is found, that the Gang have always known about it, in my view, is indicated by the fact that a whistleblower went to the Conservative MP for Harlow, Robert Halfon, last year. I heard Mr Halfon speak on Today this morning. He is upset that nobody listened to him. And being a hurt politician he seems to be looking for scalps and people to blame.
I wrote about seeing too many ambulances in London with their blue lights flashing on 1st May 2013. It seems all the right people agree we have a structural problem with the increasing pressures on our hospital A&E departments. Too many people are going there for a variety of reasons, one of which is that an aging population should be treated and cared for elsewhere. Jeremy Hunt was on Today this morning pointing out that between 2001 and 2009 our A&E admissions went up 35%, but Sweden’s figure was 1%. He says we have six months to turn ourselves away from the precipice.
On his last day in America yesterday Mr Cameron went to the United Nations to see if he could help clarify a report just being produced on development goals of which he is co-chairman with the leaders of Liberia and Indonesia. It seems since his last involvement the document has lost some of it’s principal commitments which he hopes to get reinstated.
I am sure he will not mind me commenting that at times I did feel the Prime Minister looked a bit out of his comfort zone on the trip. I think that may have been because he was doing things being asked of him by others. Whilst he was quite happy with it all, and fully saw the logic, they were not necessarily the sort of activities he would normally do. One example perhaps was when he teamed up with Prince Harry, a much younger mischievous man that he, to ride on a red London bus to promote an event attended by creative UK firms in the States. Nevertheless I thought it was an unmitigated success.
I am away at the moment and reading the Daily Telegraph. Another consequence for our lenghtening age stucture, reported in it, is that those with Dementia are likely to double over the next 20 years rising to a potential cost, just for Britain I think, of £19 billion. What I sense is happening all of a sudden, and which pleases me greatly, is that world leaders are talking to each other about things that matter. As far as dementia is concerned America and Britain are going to join forces on a joint research project and we will use our G8 chairmanship next month to ask for as many as possible to join in better future diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Jeremy Hunt has described the current pick up rate of dementia in this country as shockingly low.
By chance I happened to see the lunchtime BBC TV news today. It included an interview with the daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury. She spoke about how difficult it has been for her to deal with her depression and that it has been a great help since she admitted to herself that she has an illness. I think it incredibly brave of her to talk publicly about such a private thing.
A BBC webpage reported earlier that last night 1000 Met Police officers raided 75 addresses in east and north London to catch burglars and drug offenders. It was part of an operation which has recovered over £100,000 in stolen property. The page highlighted a retired professor from London University College Hospital who had his computer stolen while he slept. He had on it a paper about human genetics and believes it was deliberately targeted. Only in recent times I think have we come to realise that general criminal activity can be used by the Gang as cover to carry out some of their specific tasks.
Nadine Norris comes over as a very personable lady. However to me her sense of judgement is absolutely zilch. Last week she had the Conservative whip restored to her. You might have thought she would be grateful for that. Indeed immediately afterwards I think she was. However, as she would see it perhaps, things have moved on. She has told the Spectator she is thinking of running as a joint Tory-Ukip candidate in her constituency at the election. She knows that is against Party rules but it hasn’t changed her decision to say it.
Yesterday’s FT says Number 10 Downing Street is drawing up plans to compel motorway service stations to display their petrol prices, on average 5% higher than on a trunk road, at the side of the carriageway. The reason given is that many motorists do not realsie until they arrive on the forecourt that motorway petrol prices are higher than elsewhere. I cannot actually believe however that those of us who drive a bit did not know that already. Much more likely I would have thought is the desire to give the message to the companies in motorway service areas that we are keeping an eye on you. I would like to think my note of 22nd January 2013 has something to do with it.
The results of a YouGov poll were passed on in that edition. Participants were asked to mark three of 12 choices on the issues that are most important to them. 65% said the economy, 35% said health, 32% said pensions, 17% said immigration and 10% said Europe.
The same paper says that top Chinese banks have stopped doing business with North Korea thereby putting economic pressure on the regime.
A story has arisen in America, reported in that issue, that a local tax office based in Cincinnati began in March 2010 to target Tea Party and other conservative groups to see if they had correctly claimed tax exempt status under federal law. That is allowed provided the organisation, even if political, focuses on civic activities and betterment. As most Republicans hate paying taxes in principle, and probably distrust their ruling Democratic opponents so much they will suspect them of any skullduggery, it has produced a heady political mix. Members of the Grand Old Party in Congress are hopping mad. It would be quite a clever move I think if someone were sitting at a desk thinking about how they could anger touchy politicians the most.
16th May 2013
One thing the Gang are very clever about in my opinion is to upset us so we become obsessed with one particular problem, then go off somewhere else to make their pots of money. Amazingly it seems the profit margin in making illegal drugs is 200% whereas for fake medicines it is 2000%. And selling the latter is far, far safer for the criminal. I found that out this morning when watching a daytime BBC television programme called Fake Britain about counterfeit pharmaceutical products. It interviewed a mother whose eight year old daughter needs four injections a day of insulin for her diabetes. The little girl started experiencing bruising which shouldn’t occur. When that was looked into it was discovered the NHS were supplying her Mum with fake needles which were damaging her tissue. However, like the horsement scandal, the supply chain for some medical products has become so complicated it is practically impossible to go back to source. You only pick the problem up when you find out the product does not work properly. What the mother found so upsetting was that someone who did not know her daughter was quite happy to put her life at risk just for making a little amount of money. The programme also touched on the internet medical drugs market. There you are completely on your own. If you buy sustances using that source you are quite literally juggling with death. One expert interviewed was so shocked by what he had found he referred to it as a detached form of manslaughter. Another academic analysed soem fake Viagra. He found the counterfeiters had gone to an incredible amount of trouble to replicate the correct chemical composition but then didn’t put the correct markings on the pill itself. He found it extremely odd. It was almost as if the people who made such orders were being laughed at. I have little doubt that if I bought some pills on line, they would cause my death.
A BBC webpage informs me this morning that yesterday afternoon a 23 year man man drove into some bushes on a minor road just north of the A20, east of Maidstone in Kent. It appears he got out of the vehicle and started wandering about. Half an hour later he was struck by a train on a nearby railway level crossing and was killed.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Erdogan, travelled to Washington today to discuss Syria with President Obama. Afterwards in the video clip I saw the President seemed to be saying he was doing his best to build a consensus to engender stability for the region. Then I saw Jeremy Bowen in the BBC TV News studio. He said Mr Obama is being keenly watched by the Iranians amongst others. If his strategy doesn’t come off they will know their way of doing things is best.
In last night’s vote 116 Consevative MPs expressed regret that an EU referendum vote was not provided for in the government’s Queen’s Speech. Then today one of those, 29 year old Conservative MP for Stockton, James Wharton, came first in the ballot to put forward a private member’s bill of his choice. He has agreed to take on the six clause referendum bill drafted by the Conservative hierarchy. The Party say they will impose a three line whip on all their MP’s to try and push the provision through.
Last Sunday’s Countryfile had a piece on trials being carried out by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambride which it believes will result in a new strain of wheat producing a 30% higher yield than currently. It will probably take five seasons of tests and proving before it is ready for market. Knowing how sensitive we can be about certain issues the point is clearly made that only traditional selection methods are being used. There will be no genetically modified wheat grain involved at all.
Seven Oxford based men, six of Pakistani origin I think, were convicted by a jury on Tuesday of grooming and abusing white young girls between 2004 and 2012 for sex. One victim has said that when she was being handed around to other men she did not herself realise she was being abused. She thought she was helping out her friends. Her Mum said that when she tried to get help from professionals for her daughter living at home, in practice they did not help her. The chief constable of Thames Valley Police said that it was not until the beginning of 2011 that the authorites realised an organised grooming ring was at work. Up until then each reported case was considered in isolation. From then on however police, social workers and the Crown Prosecution Service worked as a team to bring the perpetrators to court. Even then though convictions would not have been possible unless the victims had held their nerve and given evidence in court. All six did. I saw Keir Starmer say on Newsnight that until this case those in authority had convinced themselves such girls could not be relied upon to do the right thing. That no doubt is what the Gang wanted them to think.
17th May 2013
Nigel Farage has been giving media interviews this morning about his roughing up in Scotland yesterday. It seems he was in a pub talking to customers and journalists when students from a campaign group called Radical Independence engaged with him. Accounts of exactly what happened vary I think but there is no dispute about 50 chanting demonstators gathered outside the building verbally abusing him. Mr Farage likes engaging with the general public so I feel he will have found it a difficult experience. I hope it doesn’t put him off in the future. His considered response was that his presence must have created so much turbulence because only Ukip highlight the paradox of the SNP saying they want independence but also membership of the European club. All the other mainstream parties are reticent of saying that because they also want Scotland to stay in the EU.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch have said this morning that the BSkyB man about whom I wrote on 6th May 2013 was not wearing the safety cord of his speedboat immediately before it malfunctioned. Their investigations are continuing.
I last wrote about the Mark Bridger murder trial on 6th May 2013 in connection with an apparent attempt to frame a man for murder in Northern Ireland. April’s friend says she saw her willingly get into Mr Bridger’s vehicle. Her bike was found abandoned against a fence. Mr Bridger’s defence is that he ran over her but did not kill her. After that she was in his Land Rover with him. He lost conciousness and then found she had gone. It seems very strange he should suggest to the jury he caused unintentional harm to April but did not cause her death. It is almost as though he wishes to suggest to them that she is dead but he did not do it. In my view they will have no option but to find him guilty. Nevertheless I suspect the second part of his story is true whilst the first is not. He himself does not know what happened to April. However I think it could have been made plain to him that for his own future well being he must stick to his line. Further to my note of 8th May 2013 I believe there is a 50:50 chance that April is still alive.
A couple of years ago a walnut tree next door, for which I am responsible, had to be cut down as it was considered dangerous. I bought a sapling replacement and put it in a pot the summer before last to get it established. It grew vigorously and I planted in out last spring. I looked at it last weekend and it is three quarters dead. There is a bit of growth on two branches but the rest are brittle. Amazingly when you look at the ground there are no weeds at all within three feet of the trunk. Outside that ring they are growing strongly. It is so noticeable I have taken photographs. From experience, I suspect, just the right amount of weedkeller has been used for the required effect. If the plant struggles through to the autumn a bit more weedkiller will be added then.
Whilst I think about it I bought 25 yew hedging plants this winter. They also are in pots. 24 of them are growing extremely well. One however is as dead as a dodo. I would be within my rights to reurn it to the supplier for a replacement or refund. But with my knowledge I don’t think that would be fair.
18th May 2013
60 people out of 250 on board were injured yesterday, five critically, after two New York City commuter trains crashed. The first derailed and was then hit by the second. The accident happened near Bridgeport, Connecticut. A clear Gang message there in my view, to a lot of frightened people, to keep their thoughts to themselves.
There is a lot of media reporting this morning about a six year old British girl who has been found dead in a pool at a waterpark complex attached to a hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. I hope the tragedy does not have too detrimental effect on the country’s tourist industry. About a week after I stopped living with my first wife in 1983 I met a young lady in the bar after playing a game of squash. When I got to know her better she told me she was a nanny for a farmer and his wife in the locality. A couple of years before their toddler had drowned in the pond in their garden. It was a very distressing story.
I won’t use the word grubby but it seems clear that in one of his recent conversations with Mr Putin, David Cameron has agreed to ask the High Court judge, sitting as a coroner, to exclude any evidence from the forthcoming inquest into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, which might be embarrassing to the security forces of either Britain or Russia. It seems Mr Litvinenko was a paid informant of MI6. After he had seen the secret details no doubt the judge thought he had no alternative but to agree to the request in the interests of national security. I heard on Today this morning that our change in position is being presented in their media as proof that the Russian state was not involved in Mr Litvinenk’s death. Quite how that makes any sense I am not sure.
It is all extremely upsetting for Mr Litvinenk’s family, in the form of of his widow, who only wants justice for her dead husband’s memory. It seems possible Mr Putin put emotional pressure on Mr Cameron. If so I feel that was unfair. For our part I believe our security agents should be accountable for any wrongs they have done. Mr Cameron perhaps finds himself in one of those impossible situations. Even so I tink there may be a way round it: to find a route to do the right thing, primarily for the Litvinenko family.
The popular press this morning has been full of a story which broke last night about the Operation Grange investigations into the disappearance of Madeline McCann in Portugal in May 2007. The Metropolitan Police have thought it an appropriate time to announce that their review into the case has indentified a number of persons of interest to them and that they are encouraged by the progess they are making.
You can see the Gang are peddling away under the surface to make relations between Russia and America as difficult as possible at the moment. That means that Mr Obama and Putin Putin must keep calm, maintain discipline as much as they can, and carry on. I see from a BBC webpage this morning that elements of the Russian state are so fed up with the workings of the CIA in their country that they have just named the CIA station chief in Moscow, against diplomatic protocol. US officials have refused to comment on that and say they still feel they have a positive relationship with the Russians overall.
Following my notes about the ‘Ndrangheta I see that their current 33 year old leader gave himself up to Italian police by appointment on Wednesday. The BBC webpage informing me is published this morning. The BBC proudly say they were in the police station when it happened. The Carabinieri were magnanimous in the arrangements allowing any relatives and friends who wished, to say goodbye to him before he was driven off. That included his three year old daughter whom he hardly knows, and I think his seven month’s pregnant wife. He comes over as a considerate family man and kind leader. Other well-wishers and supporters, very obviously just ordinary people, gathered outside the police station and applauded as he left. The report says that, unlike the Sicilian Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta base themselves on family ties not strength of charachter. The head of the police team suggested it will have been a group decision, to surrender one to take pressure off the others. He said it would not work. The man now faces a 16 year jail sentence.
There has been a media discussion over recent weeks about the fairness of naming those accused of criminal sexual behaviour before they are charged with any offence. The argument for naming is that it encourages timid victims to speak to the police about their experiences and so assist a conviction. It is a valid point to make. However people, especially journalists, must get their facts straight in such sensitive matters. I heard it said quite a lot that that scenario encouraged others to come forward in the case of the former It’s a Knockout presenter. However in that instance the police confirmed, on Today on Thursday, that those additional informants had no bearing on their decison to charge. Possibly however it did encourage the presenter to plead guilty at a later date. In a letter to the College of Policing the Home Secretary says that in her view people arrested on suspicion of wrong activity should have a right to anonymity. ACPO agrees with Theresa May’s position with the proviso that charging officers should have the discretion to name a suspect if they think that is in the interests of good policing. David Cameron I understand does not think it is a simple issue. The point I suppose is that it should be about appropriate enforcement of the law, not the selling of newspapers.
I see it has been announced that Ian Katz, currently the Guardian deputy editor, will become head of Newsnight in September after an initiation period. And that the current deputy editor of Newsnight, Jamie Angus, will take charge of Today, also in September.
I heard on the radio news on Thursday morning that a series of tornadoes had killed six and injured 100 in a community 35 miles south west of Fort Worth in Texas. Forth worth is 68 miles north of the site of the fertilizer plant explosion at West, Texas on 17th April 2013 two days after the Boston bombings. I see in a separate BBC report that arson is being investigated as one of the possible causes of the West explosion.
Last year BP, perhaps a little foolishly, agreed to a loose American court procedure for settlement of compensation awards following the oil leak at it’s Deepwayter Horizon site between April and July 2010, for which it had admitted liability. The trouble is a claimant does not have to show that a suffered loss of cash flow derived from the spill. Robert Peston was on the Today programme on Thursday and he gave an example of an advertising company who have been awarded $3 million just because of the way it was paid for a particular TV advertising campaign. As for the Payment Protection Insurance adverts here that just leads to all the clever dick lawyers bomabarding you with offers to board the gravy train before it leaves the station. The story, in my view, shows an American legal system which is bankrupt. Robert says BP have concluded that their appeals against the silly legal basis is likely to be unsuccessful. The petroleum company is not American after all. In that situation it seems BP have decided to go above the judges’ heads and take their case direct to political leaders such as David Cameron and Barack Obama. I think they hope to lobby for a decision at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland next month.
As a final thought on that tale I am pretty sure journalists would not have brought it to prominence without the recent oil price fixing story for which BP will be castigated, I suspect, in due course. In my view, and the journalists I think, BP are no more than Gang vitims like the rest of us. If the Gang’s nastiness is constantly highlighted, and we pull together, they can be defeated.
In that broadcast mention was made that American scientists should have made it easier to treat some illnesses in the future through rebuilding tissue for such body parts as hearts, brains and bones. They do that by using stem cells derived from the person’s own genes which will then develop into the body member required. They take a piece of the person, such as a small sample of skin and isolate out the core genetic material from it’s cells. They then take a human egg from a womam, strip it of it’s own genes and put the new ones in. The breakthrough just achieved is that scientists can now make that changed cell divide and grow some 150 times, sufficient to extract enough DNA to create stem cells.
I hadn’t realised until I heard the transmission but it is down to the chief investigative reporter of the Times, Andrew Norfolk, who whilst looking into the Rochdale grooming sex abuse case over a period of two years, realised it represented a pattern which applied to many other situations spread over the country as a whole. Mr Norfolk has received the Orwell prize for journalism for his work.
Bridget Kendall was on yesterday’s Today programme, early, suggesting I thought that world leaders are really a bit afraid of doing anything about Syria, in case they make things worse. They know what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and have perhaps lost a bit of confidence in their own judgement in deciding what would be the best thing to do. I have heard it said some want Iran involved in the discussions. Undoubtedly, in my view, the king pin is turning out to be President Putin. Someone I feel who may have previously felt excluded from the world leaders’ club; a bit of a pariah. Now everyone is going to see him in Sochi and he is probably enjoying it. On Tuesday it was Mr Netanyahu, yesterday it was Ban Ki-moon. Mr Cameron spoke to him on the phone yesterday. It does not matter how we get there as long as we do.
Shortly after that was a piece from Turkey which is still growing at some 2.5% a year even in these hard times. It could be one of the top ten economies in the world by 2050.
I have had dealings with the Independent Police Complaints Commission, described in chapter 4 of my book, which I found most unsatisfactory. It is to the credit of it’s present chair Dame Ann Owers I feel then, who was on the edition, that she herself commissioned an independent review of her office’s report into the death in police custody of Brixtonian Sean Rigg in August 2008. Her action was probably also influenced by the persistent questions asked by Sean’s family. The IPCC concluded police officers had not done wrong in the events of Sean’s death. Subsequently however the inquest jury found police action had contributed to his end. The review now says the IPCC made silly, elemenatary mistakes in their work. The Met are also going to look at the conduct of their officers again.
Last week I noted that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached it’s highest level ever. However it appears the temperature of the atmosphere, global warming, has not increased since 1998. As reported in the transmission no one is quite sure why. It could be the heat is going into the sea or that normal statistical variation is the answer. I think everyone is agreed though there are no grounds for complacency that nothing needs to be done.
Another programme piece was on the report saying that although fire brigade call outs are down 40% over the last ten years the expense level of providing fire cover is as high now as it ever was. It seems a bit of a no brainer that there should be scope for economies but even so there was a man from the Fire Brigades Union on, sternly warning us we would be in real trouble if we contemplate getting rid of our permanently employed firemen.
The policing cost of the Northern Ireland flags ptotests last autumn were £23 million. Against that I suppose the joint expense of £26,000 to the Northern Ireland Office and the PSNI of holding a two day conference in Cardiff, as highlighted in this morning’s Today Programme, could be very good value for money. It hopes to stop similar disturbances happening in the future. Besides the thugs both the Protestant and Republican communities generally felt upset during the trouble. That is why it went on so long. The Unionists no doubt believed their traditions were not being respected and the Catholics were frustrated proper democracy was not being recognised. The police, as often happens in such situations, ended up in the middle being disliked by both sides, which then allowed the Gang to play the worst of their horrible games. All sections of society are going, the police, political parties, community representatives and at least one churchman. The bonding sessions are being hosted by university facilitators. The aspect which really intrigues me though is why Cardiff? A detached location seems a very good idea but to me South Wales is a strong area for the Gang. Could someone be having a little laugh at them, I wonder?
Another piece on the broadcast suggests that the Nigerian government have decided to take their fight direct to Boko Harem. A state of emergency has been declared in three north eastern states. From the BBC webpage I read it seems the militants are making a fight of it. Apparently the Americans are also concerned the government’s actions could turn the local population against them.
I have seen a couple of the Britain’s Biggest Hoarders programmes on BBC 1 now and it’s presenter, Jasmine Harding, was on the broadcast. No doubt the reasons why a few people fill up their homes with so much stuff it is not pyhsically possible to enter them, is extremely complicated. However Jasmine’s approach is always the same. Over weeks and months she gently prods and suggests the householder gets on top of their problem themselves, giving them full encouragement and assistance all the way. The essence though is that the decison to get rid of something is always the hoarder’s. If he or she cannot manage it that time there is no problem. Jasmine just comes back another day. The method isn’t foolproof but it often works.
I expect others have also noticed how Today has focused a bit on mind matters recently and another wound up the edition. This time the concentration was on the psychological impact to jurors when shocking evidence is presented in some court cases. If you have had past troubles yourself that can trigger a serious unbalancing of your thought processes. A recording was played of a lady past juror who said the after effect on her was to produce panic attacks and to start harming herself in her sleep.
The Organisation of American States represents 35 nations from Canada in the north, through the Carribean countries down to Chile in the south. I heard on the radio news this morning that they have just issued a report on the continent’s illegal drug problem. It is detailed and not contoversial, only going so far as sugeesting mamarijuana could be legalised. The New York Times tells me America’s reaction has been considered and non-judgemental. That is a start I suppose.
Iraq has had another terrible week. Yesterday at least 60 people were killed in bomb attacks against Sunnis. They are going to have to sort it all out for themselves I am afraid.
An article in last Saturday’s FT highlights one of those impossible situations, this time in Pakistan. The Taliban leadership in the country believe that their way of seeing things, that Allah decides everything, is not compatible with democracy. I don’t suppose it has occured to them that Allah might approve of democracy. It is difficult to imagine how progress can be made in a society when powerful, open people think like that.
The editorial in the paper says that one of Sir Alex Furguson’s great attributes over the years, as English football has grown from a national sport into a global enterprise, has been his flexibilty. He adapted to the changing world in which he found himself and consistently used his well learnt principles of leadership and man management to normally come out on top.
One of my notes about the new old Etonian Archbishop of Canterbury, a chronic asthma sufferer, is dated 1st April 2013. He and his wife have had five chilren. Besides the death of one they have experienced serious illness with four. I know that because he said it when he was having Lunch with the FT, reported in that paper. Mr Welby travels on the bus around London. He does not mind if people recognise him. He had a difficult childhood after his parents divorced when he was three. Perhaps that has been the making of him. He does not seem too worried about not always doing the right thing. He didn’t touch the greens on his lunchtime plate which the journalist duly mentioned in the article.
19th May 2013
It gives me no pleasure to write this but with the way the Tory Party is tearing itself apart at the monent you do have to wonder whether they deserve for anyone to vote for them at the next election. The public will give their support to those whom they feel can offer them a positive future. If you cannot agree between yourselves what that future should be we will walk away. Yesterday’s trouble was the stupidest of stories over who said what to whom. The tragedy is the eurosceptics are so worked up at the moment the slightest of inputs gets them into high orbit again.
Anyway going through the tale, it happened at a private Conservative Friends of Pakistan event on Friday night also attended by lobby journalists. As the pressmen were starting their meal one of the joint Conservative Party chairman walked by their table. There was a bit of ribbing. It is alleged the chairman referred to constituency Tory volunteer activists, in relation to Europe, as mad swivel-eyed loons. If he did say that it was not a very polite comment about his supporters. He says he didn’t. In reality I suspect he did but thought it was a private remark between friends. In that case he had obviously forgotten about the tensions around at the moment between papers and politicians over press regulation. The rules of the game apparently are that a lobby journalist can publish a private remark provided he does not identify the source. The Telegraph, Times and Mirror duly printed referring to a person with strong social connections to David Cameron. Twitter did the rest. The Gang cannot have believed their luck.
There was a political assassination in Pakistan yesterday. The lady vice president of Imran Khan’s Movement for Justice (PTI) party was shot dead by two men on a motorbike before today’s re-run of the General Election in Karachi due to apparent voting irregularities. The city is the stronghold of one of Pakistan’s smaller political Paries, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. It’s leader has lived in self imposed exile in London since 1991. Mr Khan has said that after the accusations of electoral fraud the leader publicly threatened PTI workers and leaders with revenge. The Metropolitian Police say they are looking into the situation. A BBC webpage reports the MQM is accused of having ruled Karachi through a combination of fear and intimidation since the 1980s.
A guest on Good Morning Sunday today was the Christian academic Diarmaid MacCullooch. I thought he put it in a lovely way when he said, because we have free will, God is helpless in our world. That will pain him but there is nothing he can do about it. However of course the converse also applies. When things go right he will be very pleased for us. If he were human he would pray for us.
From the Radio 4 newspaper review this morning I understand several papers are reporting today our police are interested to trace a particular middle aged couple seen at the Portugese apartment block where Madeline McCann’s family stayed. They are also investigating handymen, cleaners and gardners who worked at the complex.
Tomorrow’s chance of self mutilation by the Conservative Party is the parliamentary debate on the Marriage Bill dealing with the joining of gay couples. Apparently 30 past and present local Party chairmen have written to the Prime Minister warning him that if he continues to support the principle it will be virtually impossible for them to win the next election. I am not quite sure why those men and women have chosen to say that. It implies the rest of us consume the whole of our waking hours thinking about how people conduct themselves sexually, in private. I would remind them about the results of a YouGov poll I have just looked up, carried out on Thursday and Friday of this week. 1809 people were asked to tick three or four issues out of 15 which are most important to them at the moment. 56% said the economy, 7% said same sex marriage. Of that 1809 the weighted number of 2010 general election Conservative voters was 556. 57% of those said the economy was one of their important considerations. 6% said gay marriage. Please don’t try and use us as cover for your silly games.
Wednesday’s FT says that with Mr Cameron when he met President Obama were his chief of staff Ed Llewellyn and his national security adviser Kim Darroch.
According to Thursday’s FT it seems that tensions betwween politicians and journalists in America are rising as they have done here. Their press apparantly feel put upon by the number of governmental investigations into leaks by it’s staff, with a prosecution being the consequence for those found out. Associated Press has accused the Department of Justice of seriously interfering with constitutionally guaranteed press freedoms. The New Yorker has just introduced a system it calls Strongbox which it hopes should allow whistleblowers to send it documents and information without being found out.
The farm complex just across the valley from me had a party last night. Guests parked their cars in the field. Outside music was playing when I went to bed. Some cars were still there this morning. I was out in my garden this afternoon when just after 3pm a heavier than normal light plane flew over the property. Soon after a woman followed by a thirtyish man, he with a rucksack, walked up the public footpath near where I was working. They appeared in a hurry. If I saw his photograph I think I would recognise him. Five minutes later a black people carrier with darkened windows drove up the road. I expect it was going to pick the couple up and take them onto their destination.