17th June 2013
After my note from yesterday about the Egyptair plane a BBC webpage reported yesterday evening that five Syrian passengers on the flight claimed asylum in the UK. There are no further details but presumably that is the cover for the note in the toilet, knowing that the aircraft would then land at the nearest available airport. Smart people these Somali refugees.
Another completely puerile story doing the rounds yesterday, in my view, was about an incredibly loud sonic boom which apparently shook buildings and smashed windows in Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. It seems a passenger plane nearing Heathrow from the Sates lost communications contact. That no doubt could be something as simple as someone flicking a switch by mistake. Then the pilot of the Typhoon jet sent up to investigate, silly man, made a big bang as he was flying around.
One of Edwared Snowden’s recent allegations is that our security services secretly listened to delegates at the London G20 meeting in April 2009. Turkey and South Africa are particularly upset by that.
Thanks to a photograph on a BBC webpage taken as they left their plane at Belfast airport I know that Mr and Mrs Obama have brought their two girls with them on their trip to Northern Ireland. I hope the family have an enjoyable time.
French objections must have been salved as it has been announced today that Europe and America have agreed their free trade agreement push. Talks will start in July and it is hoped they will be completed by the end of 2014. David Cameron says that if agreement is reached it will be bigger than all other current deals around the globe put together. It could create two million jobs. Big stuff.
Yesterday, with all the other admirers, 35,000 leather clad bikers were in St Peter’s Square for Mass and a blessing by the Pope. They were there to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Harley-Davidson.
A BBC webpage reported yesterday that the US Senate Intelligence Committee have let it be known fewer than 300 phone numbers were subject to detailed investigation last year from all the data available to the NSA. Apparently it led to two significant arrests. Officials say the gathered information is destroyed after five years.
After being alerted by a radio news item this morning I have looked up a BBC webpage to see why the Czech Republic prime minister is resigning. For quite some time I have thought the Gang are influential at the top of Czech society which I noted, for example, on 1st March 2013. As is the Gang’s trait the tale is about destabilised personal relationships as much as anything else. It is said the present coalition government is extremely fractious. It is also reported the prime minister has been close to his attractive female chief of staff for some 10 years. With echoes of the Chinese politician wife’s actions I mentioned on 15th August 2011, as well as in my book, the lady appears to have over reached herself. It is alleged she ordered the military intelligence sevice to spy on the prime minister’s wife. The couple are now getting divorced. The assistant is currently being held in custody on charges of corruption and abuse of office.
The new chief executive of the Cooperative Group has been on the airways today explaining how the recently discovered £1.5 billion deficit in it’s bank’s balance sheet will be covered. The mutual society itself will pay part and the rest, unwillingly I expect, will come from less superior debt holders. I heard a man say on the World at One that he is one of about 6000 people who have Permanent Interest Bearing shares for his retirement with the Brittania Building Society, part of the group. At a stroke his interest has been stopped. He will now get, a lower value I think, share holding. His only hope is that the price of those shares go up in due course. At any event no public money will be involved in the restructuring.
Bearing in mind that story has come out of nowhere it seems it’s regulator and auditors will have some questions to answer. At the end of his long day the CEO, who has arrived since the troubles have emerged, said on Channel 4 News that he does want to get to the bottom of things in due course.
William Hague said on Today this morning that the crisis in Syria cannot be ignored; it will not go away. We have so far given £170 million in humanitarian aid and are one of the biggest donors in the world.
Malcolm Rifkind was saying on the World at One today that he thinks it hypocritical of Russia to criticise the west about thinking to arm the Syrian opposition. Russia have been supplying the regime with weapons for years. He pointed out that of the 100,000 rebels only 5000 belong to Jabhat al-Nusra, the group linked to Al Qaeda.
18th June 2013
The week before last 81 Tory MPs wrote to David Cameron asking for a parliamentary debate before any decision is taken on supplying arms to Syrian rebels. I have looked on the internet but have not been able to find a list of the signatories. However one was John Baron a member of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He appeared on Newsnight last night and spoke very sincerely I thought. He said his understanding is that government managers have given an assurance that the Commons will be allowed to vote on the issue.
It is a very difficult situation I feel. However to decline to get involved in the bitter confrontation seems to me a bit like throwing your hands up in despair and then walking the other way. I think we should want to help. It would be a task of Solomon but as a heard Michael Fallon say on the World at One on Sunday, in relation to international tax transparency, you have to start somewhere.
There is a BBC webpage up this morning about today’s Met Office meeting which I mentioned on Saturday. A press officer says they will be looking into the causes of our variable weather such as trying to work out why the jetstream flows in the way it does. The chairman of the meeting says ocean currents have been stuck in a rather strange pattern for the last ten years or so which might be a factor. The melting of the Artic ice cap could be affecting differences bewtween ocean temperatures, also having a bearing on jet stream flow. The press officer confirms that once a low pressure system gets into a kink in the jet stream it is pretty well stuck there, producing masses of rain until it dissipates itself.
In February the Kent PCC asked Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to investigate the workings of Kent Police. The report has just been issued and has found there is institutional bias within the service towards presenting crime statistics in their best possible light without concentrating particularly on the substantive issue of combating crime. In HMIC’s view 25% of instances reported to the force, such as for burglary or rape, were incorrectly classified as not being a crime. The Chief Constable says he takes the criticisms very seriously and will try to do better. A follow up inspection will be made in December.
Taskim Square in Instanbul was cleared by the police on Saturday. A news item on the radio this morning reported that yesterday a single man staged a silent protest in the square by standing still and staring into the middle distance. Later he was joined by others. After about eight hours the police intervened to end the protest. The man said the government failed to understand the message the protestors are trying to send.
From hearing this morning’s radio newspaper review I see that Ken Clarke has thought today is the time to write in the Daily Telegraph about Europe. Quite reasonable I feel he says America would only be interested in including us in a free trade deal if we were part of the EU. They would not want to negotiate with us on our own or even as a fifth member of the European Free Trade Association. That has produced a flurry of disrespectful comments from eurosceptic MPs.
In his speech to dignatories and school children in Belfast yesterday President Obama told the youngsters their community had set an example to the rest of the world that a path through conflict to serenity can be trod. He urged them not to rest but to try to break down more walls and heal more wounds.
The value of effective regulation is shown this morning, in my view, by an item Today have highlighted about Her Majesty’s Prison at Lindholme, South Yorkshire. HM Inspectorate of Prisons made an unannounced visit in February and found drugs and alcohol widely available throughout the institution. One wing was being so badly managed it has been shut down and all the inmates moved elsewhere.
Why the Gang can’t ever do anything useful beats me, but they can’t. The broadcast passed on a report by the International Maritime Bureau that Somali piracy fell by 78% in 2012 compared with the year before. Unfortunately however it has been overtaken by the same activity on the other side of the African continent. There were 966 sailors attacked in the Gulf of Guinea last year. Nigeria is rich in oil with many tankers going back and forth to the ports so pickings are easy. Land based criminals board them, take what they want and then leave a few days later. As you often find a multifaceted approach, in this case by those on land and at sea, is needed to deal with the problem.
George Osborne was on the 8.10 slot on the edition primarily talking about tax discussions at the G8 meeting. On the Stephen Hester story, which I mentioned on 13th June 2013, he suggested a new man is needed for the next phase of the bank’s recovery. He confirmed the public should get all it’s money back. Afterwards Nick Robison commented he thought the government had had a disagreement with Mr Hester about the most appropriate future lending profile for the bank.
Cancer Research UK say we are suffering an epidemic of male throat cancer at the moment as reported by a BBC webpage. For reasons unknown we are three times more likely to contract it than women. 5,600 men developed the disease in 2010 and only one in ten patients survive for ten years or more.
Thanks to a BBC webpage I see that G8 leaders are spending two hours this morning talking about counter terrorism strategy.
Culture Secretary Maria Miller will have No 10 to herself today when she meets internet companies there to try and persuade them to make images of child abuse and pornography harder to view using their servers. Perhaps she has the painters in at her own ministry. In attendance will be Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Talktalk, Vodapohone, O2, EE and Three.
It is announced today that Welshman Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, will take on the chancellorship of the University of South Wales later in the year when the present incumbent retires.
I imagine the Americans have had informal contacts with the Taliban, who have had a diplomatic presence in Qatar since January 2012, for some time now. My understanding is they have not progressed because the Taliban did not want them to. On the day that the Afghans take responsibility for their own security it is announced that formal peace talks are to take place in Doha, within the next few days. Perhaps that timing is important to the Taliban in some way. Even so they are being presented as being between the Americans and the insurgents, with the Afghan government also sending delegates.
John Simpson on the evening BBC TV news was sceptical about the talks. The Taliban are a very diverse bunch he says. It is difficult to know who the real leaders are. And as most of them think they are winning their battles there is little incentive for them to compromise with their opponents. After that a saw a clip of John Kerry commenting on the situation. He didn’t seem very enthusiastic either.
Coral and Paul Jones want to do some good now that April has been taken away from them. They have given an interview to Channel 5 News, speaking quietly and sincerely, that in future they do not want men to be able to download indecent images of children from the internet as were discovered on Mark Bridger’s computer. Coral has said she would like to have a personal meeting with David Cameron to explain her views. The Prime Minister has responded that he would be pleased to do that.
At the Number 10 meeting it was agreed the industry’s Internet Watch Foundation will be provided with an extra £1 million of funds by the companies so it can be proactive in removing illegal internet sites from computer screens. IWF will be assisted by CEOP currently affiliated to the Serious Organised Crime Agancy.
Eric Schmidt writes in yesterday’s FT about tax. He says he hopes the G8 meeting comes up with some international rules that global companies can clearly follow.
The FT had a reporter in the audience for President Obama’s speech at the Belfast Waterfront Hall yesterday in front of 2,000 young people, politicians and business leaders. After reading the report you feel the President was talking directly to the young ones. For the important issues, such as enduring peace, he seemed to be saying it was for them to keep their leaders on the straight and narrow. Sometimes it is up to the people to make sure their politicians do not lose focus or turn down dark alleyways.
To fill out my Czech Republic note from yesterday the paper says last Thursday 400 police from the organised crime unit raided the prime minister’s office, several ministries and the residences of various lobbyists. Apparently they found up to five million euros in cash and several kilos in gold. The country has had six prime ministers since 2002.
At the security issues session of the G8 this morning it was agreed that none of the eight should make ransom payments to kidnappers for the release of hostages in the future. It seems France and Italy for example have handed over such rewards in the past.
On G8 tax all OECD counties, which excludes Russia, have agreed to automatically give each other information on their residents’ tax affairs. Those details however will only be available to tax authorities, not to the general public. Shell companies will have to identify their effective owners. Charities supporting the IF campaign are a bit disappointed by the outcome. Mining companies operating in developing countries are particulary told they should be more transparent. Apparenty many currently use complex ownership structures in the Netherlands and Switzerland to avoid paying tax.
On Syria a joint communique was agreed that there should be a peace conference although no date was set. When he spoke to Russian media afterwards Mr Putin rejected the notion that he had been unfairly pressurised in any way. Mr Obama did not comment on the subject nor make himself available for questions.
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19th June 2013
First it was the North Koreans, as I said on Sunday, who want to see the eyes of some American leaders in a room face to face, now it is the Taliban; announced at such a time perhaps to upstage the end of the G8 summit. And just in case you thought that was a straighforward arrangement it has come through this morning that four US soldiers have been killed during a mortar attack on the Bagram airbase.
Separately it seems the Afghan president was pretty upset by the announcement of the peace talks which I guess was completely unexpected to him. At one time he said his people would not participate and at another that he would halt security talks with the Americans themselves. A BBC webpage reports this evening that John Kerry has telephoned Hamid Karzai to try and calm things down.
In his press conference at Loch Erne yesterday President Putin compared the murderers of Lee Rigby to the type of person you get in the Syrian opposition movement. I can see where he is coming from but, I feel, the stark difference is that in Britain we have had one death, in Syria the number is over 80,000. I do not consider therefore it is fair to balance one with the other. To use it as an excuse for allowing the killing of innocent civilians in Sryria to continue unabated, would not be right.
A group of North Korean defectors have made a website allegation that Kim Jong-un gave out copies of Adolph Hitlers memoir Mein Kamp during his birthday celebrations in January. From the thunderously offended reaction in North Korea I doubt if that is true.
When Nigel Evans MP went to Preston Police Station today to answer his bail he was arrested on three more counts of indecent assault said to have happened in Blackpool and London between 2003 and 2011. He continues to strenuously deny all claims. I have no way of knowing whether Mr Evans is innocent or guilty. However he does not stike me as a man who would lie just to save his skin. I would be pleased to sign a Witness Statement as to how I believe it plausible his accusers might have made false allegations against him for reasons of fear, if his solicitors would care to make contact with me.
The Care and Quality Commission replaced three former regulators in April 2009 to oversee all health and care providers in England. From 2008 Furness General Hospital, in Barrow-in-Furness, had a high number of baby and maternity deaths and injuries. The initial April 2010 CQC report, one month before the General Election, into the position found nothing wrong but that didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. An internal review of the first findings therefore took place, as well as a later independent report by external consultants Grant Thornton starting in the second half of 2012. It seems likely the critical internal paper was suppressed by a senior manager in March 2012. It might even have been destroyed. The Grant Thornton report was published last Friday. By all accounts it is a damning document. The new CQC chairman, in post for four months, was on Today this morning and said his organisation has not been fit for purpose as it was dysfunctional. Jeremy Hunt has said in the Commons that the situtaion has been unacceptable. Things will have to change. As you often find in such stories they was a person around, sitting here as a non-executive director on the CQC board, who tried to expose what was going on. She made a submission to the Mid Staffordshire public enquiry of her concerns about the CQC. The response of the former chair of the body was that she was mentally unwell.
There was no mention beforehand but from Northern Ireland Barack Obama flew to Germany. There he gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin as he did in 2008 when he was a presidential candiadate. Presidents Kennedy and Reagan have done the same before him. He said Berlin stood for peace and justice and for those who wanted to tear down walls of all types. In comparison with 2008 it was, perhaps, a bit of a damp squib. The city centre had been locked down and the President spoke from behind bullet proof class. I would be interested to know whether that was at the insistence of American or German security officials.
The lead item on the news this morning was about the cross-party Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards which has just issued it’s latest report. The Treasury has called it an impressive pice of work. The highlighted recommendation has been that bankers who transgress badly in the future should be sent to jail. One of it’s members is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
I heard a relaxed William Hague speaking on Yesterday in Parliament on Today this morning when answering questions on arming the Syrian opposition. During the exchanges the Speaker said he thought it appropriate the government should seek a formal opinion of the House on their policy through a vote on a substantive motion. It has been reported that Mr Hague nodded as Mr Bercow said it. However I’m not sure Mr Cameron sees it that way. When reporting back on the G8 summit today the Prime Minister wanted to say to MPs that the government might decide to act on it’s own if there was a need to take action quickly. He also suggested Mr Putin had now agreed it would be necessary for President Assad to be ousted before peace could be achieved.
20th June 2013
I was telling someone yesterday about my phone troubles as a mentioned on 1st June 2013. The person said that they had exactly the same problem with their home phone, of it just ringing once. A BT engineer came out and sorted it by fixing a new phone socket in five minutes. When the bill arrived it was over £300. The person went straight to Ofcom to complain. The regulator agreed it was wrong. They gave the person a number at BT to ring to sort it out. That extension was picked up immediately when rung and as soon as the details were given the whole charge was cancelled without question. A very clear signal there, I would have thought, that if you know the right people it is remarkably easy to get things done which most of us find extremely difficult.
In chapter 10 of my book I talk about 260 bronze plaques in November 2007 being stolen from a crematorium memorial in a Kent connurbation. The connurbation was Chatham. This morning the story is of 30 graves being vandalised at a cemetry down the road from there I think. Children’s graves had items placed on them which were then set alight. The PC dealing with the case has called it despicable. In exactly the same way as the 2007 incident I would say it was a reactive Gang action. Because they felt pressurised. It was a consequence that was needed in order to keep the troops in line.
Channel 4 News had a feature on Monday evening on Guinea. It is one of the poorest countries in west Africa yet massively rich in natural resources. It has $50 billion worth of iron ore deposits in the east of the country but none of that wealth is getting through to the people. The Chinese are there as is Israel’s richest man who became involved in 2008. If the goverment could tax the multinationals effectively that would be a start I am sure. The president was elected three years ago on a ticket of transparency and fighting corruption. However, as we should all know by now, just because you are a democratically elected leader does not mean you get anywhere against the global Gang network.
Girlguiding UK yesterday announced that from September new recruits will not vow to love God and serve their Queen. Instead they will be asked to affirm they will be true to themselves and develop their beliefs. I think that is a good idea.
Just before 7am yesterday there was an official on Today from Eseex County Council whose job it is apparently to try and stop people feeling lonely and isolated. The council have a, wait for it, socialisation index and access to a mosaic commercial database which can include your shopping habits from supermarket loyalty cards for example. At one stage the man referred to allowing people to make choices. That is a reflection, in my wiew, of the culture of the world in which he works. He quickly realised his mistake and changed the expression he had used. It sounds to me as if the council have got their own little Prism intelligence system which the Gang can use to control lonely and isolated people.
Just after that was a quirky piece of information in the news bulletin obtained from an article published in the Royal Society journal. Apparently scientists have discovered that an audience clapping has got nothing to do with the quality of an performance. If a couple of people start clapping we just follow and exactly the same thing happens when we stop. We are crowd influenced people.
There was a representative on the programme from the Coop saying that a voluntary scheme has been agreed by all major supermarkets on a uniform food labelling system giving nutritional information for what is inside the pack. Having taken a look it it seems pretty good to me. Some multinational companies are refusing to join but, as the lady said, it is a massive step forward from where we were ten years ago.
There was also a piece on the broadcast following Mr Netanyahu’s opening of a new exhibition in southern Poland last week. The mass murder at the Auschwitz concentration camp was planned by the Nazis in 1941 and started in 1942. By the time of liberation in 1945 over a million people, mostly Jews, had been gassed to death. That is a difficult number to comprehend. When you think about it probably very few of the people caught up in the extermination were bad. It does not work like that. They were just in a culture that was out of control. However, as a former director of Mossad remarks, the lesson of the Holocaust is that unless we are prepared to do our bit for good any of us could become murderers.
I was not aware but The Sopranos is an American television series which ran between 1999 and 2007. It was about a New York Mafia boss and how he balances that role with his private life. The star, 51 year old American actor James Gandolfini, has just died whilst on holiday in Rome apparently from a heart attack. He is receiving many glowing tributes.
Frank Gardner was on Today this morning early talking about the Taliban talks and, as I have heard him mention before, he referred to Hamburg in relation to 9/11. It is a connection I have never made so I have looked it up. One of the terrorist pilots of the hijacked planes on 9/11, and leader of the team that day, was thought to be the head of an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg. He was the man in charge of the nuts and bolts of the operation. He perished of course on that fateful day. Frank says the Taliban have confirmed they are willing to share power in Afghanistan, no doubt wanting to be in charge in the areas of the country where they are already strong.
A story which has hit the headlines this week is unrest in Brazil, currently hosting the football Confederations Cup before next year’s World Cup. It started a few weeks ago with protests against an increase in bus fares but, like the Arab Spring and Taksim Sqaure, it has transformed into a much bigger protest. Young people are calling not only for better transport but impovements in schools, education and more besides. On Tuesday over 50,000 demonstrators gathered outside Sao Paulo cathedral. It is extremely pleasing to hear the Brazilian government say it does not mind that at all. I hope the Turkish authorities are listening. Indeed the Brazilian ambassador in London was on the programme this morning saying his government wants to learn from the protestors and understand what thay are saying. He said he found the situation healthy, interesting and helpful. Brazil is a Bric country. It is growing economically, fast. However a lady out on the streets said to the BBC reporter that she doesn’t want to consume loads. She wants to feel part of the society in which she exists.
I nice straightforward political story was in the broadcast’s feature spot with the Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, saying we need to move ahead in this modern age and start growing genectically modified crops. Such plants resist disease, do not need spraying, can be developed to improve health and because of their productivity free up land for other uses. If you travel to America you will almost undoubtedly eat GM food. I have not heard of any adverse side effects from that to their visitors. Last year between 88% and 94% of all their maize, cotton and soybeans produced was GM. In Europe land coverage for GM plants is less than 1%. France, Germany and Austria are even more afraid of the subject than we are. Mr Paterson wants us to show a bit of leadership to see if we can work through that European blind spot against common sense.
There has been a big fuss this morning because the CQC, on the advice of it’s solicitors, redacted the names of it’s past managers who took steps to hide findings of poor care at Furness Hospital. The Information Commission was on the programme saying the Data Protection Act could not be used as an excuse for individuals to retain their privacy where public policy clearly dictates disclosure. Yesterday the CQC were saying they would take a second legal opinion but the story has run away from them this morning with politicians confirming identities would be revealed. That duly happened this afternoon when three board members were named, two former and one current, who were present when the 2012 decision to suppress the internal review was taken.
It wasn’t my intention to write about this event, as I feel it should be a private matter even though it happened in a public place. Today however it has morphed into a story of political correctness so, I suppose, it is now on limits. Nevertheless I hope the politicians and journalists concerned, and indeed the young lady who decided to try and put Nick Clegg on the spot this morning, do not forget we are talking about two most probably traumatised people. I personally do not think anyone with political purpose should wish to take any risks to make the situation for them worse than it is. If Nigella Lawson has wanted to talk publicly about it she would have done so by now.
Anyway Nigella and her husband, Lord Charles Saatchi, were sitting at a restaurant table in central London sometime last week. They had a disagreement about Ms Lawson’s children from a previous marriage I understand. For some reason Lord Saatchi thought it appropriate to put the fingers of one of his hands around the front of his wife’s throat as she sat opposite him. Someone was watching and took a photo. It clearly shows, in my view, that Ms Lawson is frightened. The image was put into the public domain, as is the photographer’s right I believe because it was taken in a public place. The police investigated the incident. Lord Saatchi has been cautioned by them. He has made public statements to try and make the best of it. From what he has said I think he cares for his wife and regrets what he did.
When I was about 12 or 13 I was riding my bike down a street about five miles from where I lived. I saw a man who I thought was acting suspiciously by a car. I stopped my bike, turned round and told him what I suspected. He treated me as if I was mad. Aferwards I thought I had done the wrong thing. I was not 100% certain he was up to no good and as such I should not have made unsubstantiated allegations at him. I have a lot of symathy therefore with the way Nick Clegg answered on his radio phone-in on LBC this morning. I think essentially he was saying the same thing. Only the two people involved know exactly what it was all about. The right answer perhaps was that he would have walked over to Ms Lawson and asked if she was alright. However I wonder how many of us would have thought of that reply on the spur of the moment on a live radio broadcast.
No privacy for The Queen I am afraid when she is out and about. I don’t think I have ever seen her happier than when her horse, Estimate, won The Gold Cup at Ascot this afteroon. We all need a bit of light relief sometimes.
Last summer Eurotunnel bought three cross channel ferries from the liquidators of Sea France and leased them out to the new MyFerryLink company operating the Dover to Calais route. However, taking into account their existing 40% share of the market with their under sea service, the UK Competition Authority decided at the begining of this month that would give them uncompetitive pricing power and ruled their ferry service must stop. Eurotunnel said it would appeal. Today the European Commission has accused Eurotunnel of overcharging train companies for use of it’s track through the tunnel which it owns. Eurotunnel has said it’s charges are transparent and not excessive. In chapter 7 of my book I relate what happened to me one day in August 2008 on a day trip to France using Eurotunnel.
The Leader of the House of Commons today confirmed in the House that we will not arm any forces in Syria without the support of a Commons vote under a substantive motion.
There was a clip on Channel 4 News this evening of a White House spokesperson referring to the Taliban talks in Doha. She seemed to say the Taliban had been told they must not present themselves as a Afghanistan government abroad. I think that is the correct approach. They come over as a pretty childish bunch. Afghanis should be speaking to each other not sucking up to the superpower soon to be departed. I feel the Americans should sit in the room with the participants to ensure fair play and pull them back into line when needed. But otherwise the two sides should be mature enough to sort out their own problems for themselves.
I don’t believe we should deny the rightness of our own values though. If we can influence for good we should not be timid in doing so. Hopefully the importance of the equality of both sexes will be more and more appreciated in Afghanistan as time goes on. The programme also highlighted the case of an Afghan lady who was raped in 2010 resulting in her giving birth. When she complained and went to the police she was jailed for adultery. Her family disowned her. The only way forward was to marry her abuser. He seemed to feel a bit hard done by that he had had to take on the responsibility of a second wife and family.
Thinking about her jailing, that can only happen in a male dominated society I feel which believes a woman can prevent rape herself. I am not sure whether that is physically possible or not. If it has not been produced I would like to see some academic research from places such as The Democratic Republic of Congo where rape is used as a weapon or war. Woman could then explain in academic form how forced rape occurs in practice and the effect it has on them. The results hopefully, if read by Afghan men, would make them understand better. Sometimes of couse women will allow men to defile their bodies simply because they are afraid. It would also be nice to think men in Afghanistan might come to realise that situation can’t be inverted to argue a woman has willingly had sexual intercouse with a man.
Yesterday’s FT sys that after the Loch Erne discussions a Syrian peace conference will probably be put back to September. Another chance to build up a head of steam. That is all you can do I feel. If you don’t at first succeed you try and try again.
Today’s FT, on the food labelling story, says that 60% 0f packaging will not be included. Cadbury, Coca-Cola, United Biscuits, Unilever and Heinz are not taking part.
21st June 2013
I understand one of Mr Obama’s favourite soul singers is Jeffrey Osborne. I wrote a communication to Kent Police headquarters once and got the name of their Chief Constable wrong. I felt extremely embarrassed by it. That is how the mind works.
I heard on the radio news this morning that the Daily Telegraph has reported on an apparent scam being operated by pharmaceutical companies and chemists where the latter supply the NHS with special prescription drugs not within standard price structures. Salesmen apparently offer to give under the counter rebates to their chemist customers who then pass them onto the NHS using the price shown on the printed invoice. The government say they will look into it.
There was a horrendous car accident outside a primary school in South Wales yesterday in which nine people were injured, one little girl with a fractured skull. The car driver who crashed had his grand daughter with him. She was able to tell us he coughed just before he lost consciousness. A family psychologist told BBC Radio Wales that in the aftermath of such incidents, if a parent is distressed it is important they show it to their children. Then they should go on and explain to their children what it is that has made them distraught. That no doubt is all about being brave and being able to communicate well with your children.
A specialist author was on Today early this morning saying that the Ministry of Defence set up an Unidentified Flying Objects desk in 1950 during the paranoia of the cold war. They thought some of the sightings would be Soviet spy planes flying over us. However the team was disbanded in 2009 when it was thought the money used could be better spent elsewhere. I believe it likely that was due to my story. All the previously secret files of sightings have now been made available online by The National Archives, totally 52,000 pages in all apparently. The author suggests they would be a useful source for a PhD study. It seems a good place to see a UFO has been in Glasgow between 10-12 on a Sunday night, just as everyone comes out of the pubs no doubt.
There will be people down at Stonhenge at the moment, the longest day of the year. The programme had a piece about those seeking alternatives spiritualities and the fact that the Church of England are training pioneer ministers to reach out to them. I think that is a good idea. There is no reason why you shold not make contact with such people to tell them what you have to offer. If they decline your approach though it is important you should not be offended.
Before Jeremy Hunt appeared on the broadcast a lady said she felt she had not been properly trained to do her inspection job with the CQC. The Minister thoroughly agreed with that and said the changes to the organisation are going to be quite fundamental. Inspectors in future will be experts in their field. Their bosses will only be telling the public how a hospital, for example, is currently performing. Monitor, the health care regulator, will have an expanded role to take all remedial actions. At a different time a clip was played of Mr Hunt talking to Radio 5 Live. It was put to him that an adverse report might destroy the trust of those served by the hospital until things were sorted out. Mr Hunt replied his teams had to tell the truth, uncomfortable though that might be. There are no guarantees in life.
The Gang thrive on opportunity and destabilisation. They hate it when you are steadily moving forward. Johnathan Powell, Tony Blair’s political adviser involved in the Northern Ireland peace process, was speaking on the edition. He said that when opposing parties are talking together over a long period towards a specified goal it is essential to have someone there with them to help in the thinking process. Looking specifically at Afghanistan though the trouble is Mr Karzai will be leaving office next April. The sides will not be able to get down to the nitty gritty until the next president is in place.
The BBC have been reporting on one of those falling between stools stories today, this time about Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. It seems that illegal slash and burn clearing of forests goes on in Sumatra Indonesia, west of Singapore. It always causes a haze around this time. However this year the smog is the worst since 1997. No rain is forecast for a week. The people of Singapore are pretty angry but they are impotent to do anything about it.
22nd June 2013
Yesterday a thirty old teacher at a school in Eastbourne was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment for having sexual intercourse with, and abducting to France, a 15 year old girl in his class. In the courtroom after the trial the two professed their love to each other. Towards the end of the hearings however the prosecution suggested the man could be looked upon as a predator of his pupil. Although I have not looked my impression is that has opened the floodgates of emotional negative tabloid press comment against the man. Next week everyone will have forgotten about the pair. However I would be interested for a jounalist to inform me, say two years after the man has come out of prison, how the two have got on and whether they are still together.
Channel 4 News concentrated on the ruling by the Lord Chief Justice yesterday overturning the convictions of a woman and three children who had been trafficked into this country for crime. He said such people should be treated as victims not criminals. The programme interviewed a Vietnamese teenager who, when 14, came here. His mother told him he was leaving home to search for his missing father. The overland journey took almost a year staying mostly at houses along the route. He was at one for four months. Whilst there he was told he should not go out. As always with the Gang no compulsion is every put on you. You are just persuaded into acceptance. In this case the young man found that if he did walk through the front door there were two or three big men waiting outside to beat him up. I describe exactly the same process in chapter 7 of my book about a young lady who took her dog for walks in the village where I used to work.
Yesterday there was a lady MP from the Commons all party Heath Select Committee speaking on the World at One about the CQC not publishing one of their investigations on Furness Hosital. In her view it seemed likely someone was leaning on the CQC themselves to take that stance. She referred to the possibilty of a sinister mafia like network being in existence.
When I wrote about the role of women in Afghani society on Thursday it was with no form of smugness or complacency. In a Gang influenced world such perceptions can apply just as much in parts of western society as anywhere else.
The same programme had a piece on Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Her gender is a major factor in the country. It has been suggested to her on a radio broadcast that her husband must be gay because they have no children and he is a hairdresser. Negative references have been made of her pyhsical appearance (as has happened in the past here I recall about Kate McCann) and she has had arguments in the Australian parliament on the subject of sexism and misogamy. Whether such remarks are justified is immaterial in a political world. If you throw enough mud some will stick. In this case the Labor Party are considering replacing their leader as they fear they will not be able to win the next election with her at the helm.
I realise there is something I have never written down before. It is rumoured that masons have secret handshakes so they can recognise each other without direct communication. In my experience employed, probably office based, Gang operatives are always men in their twenties or thirties: before they move onto better things no doubt. They always wear black and only drive black cars. I often see two cars driving down my lane. The are a well known Italian make. Both are the same model, of different colours but which you very rarely see on our roads. One is driven by a man living nearby, who I have been told works in a non managerial role for Kent County Council, and the other by his wife.
There was a nice explanation of the Bitcoin system in last Saturday’s FT Weekend Magazine. They say it aims to transfer money cheaply, simply and anonymously. Your bank account is a piece of software on your computer called a digital wallet connecting to somewhere in the clouds. The man in the clouds will then send your money to wherever you would like.
In the paper itself Google chairman Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying he fears for the fragmentation of the global internet community into distrusting Balkanised parts. Europeans are pretty unhappy to have discovered the sort of things America’s National Security Agency have been doing so I can see what he means.
However elsewhere it is reported the EU justice minister met the US attorney general the day before in Dublin and agreed to set up a working party to look into the issues raised by the Prism programme. That should help.
The edition also refers to the IRA Enniskillen bombing on Rememberance Day in 1987 when 11 people died. The fact that our authorities chose Loch Erne as the venue for the G8 summit, a couple of miles away, is unlikely to be a coincidence I feel.
If the UK government of course were to unilaterally publish how much multinational companies paid us in tax they would just move to another country that was more accommodating to the privacy of their affairs. It is reported in the issue that the UK government therefore will only open up registers at Companies House if others act in the same way. In the event there was concerted action at the G8 but not so that the public will be able to see how it is all working.
The paper also records it was the day before that France lifted it’s veto to EU-USA trade negotiations. However it was only on the basis that cultural issues would be off the table for discussion. That doesn’t look much like a Frenc concession to me.
There are two extreme weather stories in the news at the moment. First there has been severe flooding and landslides in the foothills of the Himalayas after heavy rain in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, with over 500 deaths. Then over 100,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in western Canada. Calgary, a city of one million people, has been badly affeted.
Thanks to remarks made by Jonathan Dimbleby on this Week’s Any Questions which I listened to at lunchtime, I know that the age of consent to sexual intercourse in Denmark, France and Sweden is 15, three of eight European countries where that threshold applies: Austria, Italy and Germany are in another group of eight where the age is 14. Looking at Wikipedia I see it is 13 in Spain and 18 in Malta and Turkey.
The inevitable has happened. The US justice department has filed criminal charges, including for spying and theft of government property, against Edward Snowden. The BBC reports America is preparing an extradition request to the Hong Kong authorities.
Then, also this morning, the Guardian has published a report using information from Edward about operation Tempora run by GCHQ for the last 18 months. I now see the significance of my note dated 7th May 2013 about fibre optic cables passing through this country. It appears the listening agency has fixed monitoring equipment to the 200 cables concerned and over the period has been hoovering up 600 million global communications a day, storing them for 30 days before they are destroyed. All that information is fully shared it seems with America’s NSA. The holding period, I would have thought, should give plenty of time to find and print out any emails, for example, which interest them. A quote on a BBC website from Big Brother Watch says that history, now out in the open, doesn’t fit very well with what we have always been told that warrants are obtained before any individual communications are looked at. I agree.
The question was discussed on Today this morning. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee said he will have a report from GCHQ on his desk within a few days to give their side of the story. I doubt however if we will be told what they say. Shami Chakrabi, director of Liberty, said she thought GCHQ’s interpretation of the law will be shown to be wrong in due course.
The programme had a report from America on how they see the Syrian situation. There are opinions on both sides and they are not confined to Party lines. I feel that is good for democracy. Some issues I think, of which the Syrian conflict is one, should not be clouded by politics. I wrote about the 81 Conservative MPs on Tuesday who have written to the Prime Minister to say we should not arm the rebels. They did not take that action in the public domain although it was widely reported in the media. I hope they do not look upon their letter as some form of political game. The Syrian people deserve better than that.
I expect if the truth be told the Brazilian goverment are quite hurt, bearing mind the economic progress they have achieved for their population, by the mass demonstrations taking place there, by hundreds of thousands throughout the country. Unlike Mr Erdogan however they are not showing it. The president, Dilma Rouseff, appeared on television overnight and said she would get the regional governors together to see if they could address the concerns being expressed. It is probably a matter of understanding as much as anything else. Young, aspiring, reasonably well off individuals know they are unhappy but probably find it difficult to explain rationally even to themselves. I suspect it is that normal Gang culture story. You feel you have no control over your life, are not being listened to and no one respects your views.
It is certainly a theme that has been running through our global societies now for a couple of years. Once social media shows you you are relatively free, the strength of numbers makes you want to achieve even more. Paul Mason was on Newsnight last night, and Today this morning, talking about it. People start outmanouvering their own political leaders who no longer have the power to simply do what they want between elections.
The broadcast informed me that two Guardian journalists have just written a book about undercover policing and the Metropolitan Police’s Special Demonstration Squad which operated between 1968 and 2008. They have discovered that a police officer infiltated an environmental protest group in the 1980’s and was one of four or five authors who wrote the McLibel leaflet, making various allegations about how McDonalds restaurants unethically ran their business. I don’t think many people read the leaflet origianlly but the clever Gang influence, in my view, was that McDonalds decided to sue. They effectively won but it cost them about ten million pounds in legal fees and caused a lot of damage to their global brand. During the court case, taking over ten months, it was never revealed the group had been infiltrated by two police officers.
Possibly the first sign of ramifications from President Obama’s decision to support the Syrian opposition militarily, came up this morning. I heard on the radio news that America is going to keep 700 military personnel, with their equipment of F-16 figher aircraft and Patriot missiles, in Jordan indefinitely. They had been there apparently on a training exercise but that arrangement expired on 20th June.
The Friends of Syria group, comprising the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan held a meeting to discuss things, in Doha today. The rebels have said they have received new weapons, not from America, which they believe will help them in their fight. Mrs Merkel was in St Petersburg yesterday talking to Mr Putin. She went along with a German delegation to an annual international economic forum held there.
Yesterday’s FT reports that President Obama’s speech in Berlin on Wednesday was strong on climate change. We want to avoid coastlines that vanish and oceans that rise, he said. The paper’s analysis is that with his immigration reforms at home making steady progess he is turning his mind to other things. It is fantastic he has so much energy.
Martin Wolf was a member of the Independent Commission of Banking which reported to the government in September 2011 and he had a strongly worded article on the banks in that paper. I think he feels they have still not properly reformed their ways. That perhaps they are waiting for us to look the other way so they can get on with business as normal. He says the costs to the British economy and public accounts from the financial crisis have been akin to a world war.
Immediately below that is another hard written piece, by Philip Stephens. He has not taken his eye off the ball. Terrible though the Syrian situation might be he makes the entirely reasonable point that if Iran goes wrong it will be ten times worse. Mr Obama needs to grasp that nettle. It would be a sign of strength, not appeasement, to start talking meaningfully to the Iranians.
23rd June 2013
Although the details are private yesterday, on my weekly food shopping trip, I visited my local police station and left an envelope with them. There was a white van parked at the side of the road by the entrance as I left. That call, I think, worried my local Gang director. He did not know what I was communicating. When I got up this morning something was happening outside you would not normally expect at that time on a Sunday. As I result of subsequent events I feel I can say beyond reasonable doubt that over last night, at a property within a quarter of a mile from where I live, Class A and B drugs were packaged into retail sachets. At, most probably, 9.30am precisely they were walked out of the immediate area to a rendevous point, near to where a liesure activity takes place. A vehicle will then have come in from the A2 trunk road as it passes through Kent. It will have collected the consignment and driven towards the QE11 bridge on the M25 and central London. The continuance of that drug running activity where I live, so long into this story, is totally unacceptable.
At the G8 summit it was agreed the top western countries would not pay ransoms for the release of hostages. Just to rub salt into the wound, in my view, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said this morning on Twitter they have not killed any of the five Freanch and three other European hostages they currently hold, yet. Rallies across France, organised by four of the faminlies affected, have just been held to mark 1000 days of their captivity.
It is reported this morning that Edward Snowden has legally flown out of Hong Kong on a plane bound for Moscow. I think we all have a lot to thank him for, for doing that. You could see how it was developing. China and America were in danger of falling out over his extradition procedings in a big way. People were ready to get terribly upset and most likely say extreme things they shouldn’t. Mr Obama and Mr Xi may be the world’s two most powerful leaders but when your troops get vitriolic there is little you can do.
A good news story out of Gaza for a change. Mohammed Assaf has won the Arab Idol talent TV show. He lives in the Strip and had to bribe his way out through Egypt to get to the event in Beirut. Revellers were out celebrating in the streets of Gaza City and East Jerusalem last night. It has really raised their spirits.
The Sunday Programme investigated the interaction between poor mental health and spiritual beliefs this morning. It is easy to confuse the two. The essence, I think, is the distinction between good and bad thoughts. Religion is all about the first. If you are slipping into the latter then you might need a bit of help. A lady was saying a very useful concept is that of containment. First of all you keep someone safe in their own space. Once they have been stabilised your group, family, church congregation or social society get together to help them.
I think that kind of network is also in existence on the other side of the fence. The Gang would never have been so successful unless they have got a lot of things right. They excel in their gang culture. At it’s best the stronger members of the group help out the weaker ones. Unlike us their leaders share the best of their knowledge with each other. Ostensibly they trust each other. From that process they have a better understanding of how groups influence, and an individual’s mind works, than we do. The trouble though, of course, is that they put that knowledge to bad purpose not good. They have no moral values.
I was very pleased to see this morning Starbucks has said that, through not claiming tax deductions to which it is legally entitled, it will pay £10 million in UK corporation tax this year and the same next. I hope it’s competitors, such as Costa Coffee owned by Whitbread Plc, will follow suit.
Baroness Warsi, born in Pakistan and Minister for Faith and Communities since September 2012 was a guest on Good Morning Sunday today. She said the art of politics is to connect passion with reason and practical outcomes.