21st January 2013
Last Friday a BBC webpage reported that the Metropolitan Police have started an investigation into allegations of child abuse by a 1980’s paedophile ring with links to the then government, centred on a guest house in Barnes, South London. It seems information had been received from Tom Watson MP and an advocate for abused children who at one time worked for the National Association for Young people in Care.
The Chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee was saying this morning on television and radio that his members thought the Cabinet Secretary was not the right person to look into the plebgate affair. Bearing in mind that it appears the truth was not unearthed it seems quite a valid criticism. A civil servant working in No 10 Downing Street, with the best will in the world, cannot really help but be political, and possibly not worry too much about the rights and wrongs of a particular situation. The committee members thought plebgate should have been looked at by the Prime Minister’s Independent Adviser on Minister’s Interests who is currently a retired civil servant and former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. I understand Mr Cameron does not agree with that view, at least in public but it does seems to me, had that route been taken, Mr Mitchell might well still be in his job.
One of those stranger that fiction true stories was on Today this morning. Looking at the growth rings of some cedar trees in Japan over 1200 years old, scientists have discovered high levels of radiation for 774 AD, give or take one year. The finding has been backed up by analysis of ancient ice in Antartica. Although humans would not have been aware, it can only have happened apparently because of a large cosmic event in our galaxy, such as two black holes or neutron stars colliding. If it were to happen again today however things would be a bit diffferent. All our satellites and communications around the globe would be knocked out.
The Algerian president has been speaking about the events at In Amenas. He says 37 foreigners died with additional men missing from Japan, Britain, America, France, Norway, Romania, Malaysia and the Philippines. 29 militants were killed and three captured alive. He said the kidnappers had entered his country from northern Mali and, besides Mali, were from countries including Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Niger, Canada and Mauritania. It seemed plain the attack had been planned for over two months.
It was Barack Obama’s public inauguration today attended by some 800,000 people. Not as many as four years ago but a good number nonetheless. The President used the phrase we the people five times. He told his fellow Americans that they are made for this moment. They should seize it and seize it together.
I am not sure I have ever heard a politician talk about how we might be living our lives decades ahead as did Mr Cameron yesterday when speaking of the fight against terrorism. In the past horizons seemed to be limited to the next election. I feel he would not have done that unless he knew, whatever hue of new government we have in 2015, they will be continuing the battle against extreme Gang proxies in much the same way as he is now.
The House of Lords crossbencher Baroness Cox was interviewed on the Sunday Progamme yesteray on her return from Sudan. The broadcast described the situation there as the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world today. In appears the government is carrying out a policy of genocide against it’s own people living in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions under the excuse of fighting a civil insurrection. A quarter of a million people have been displaced from their homes. In one village she visited 400 people had died from hunger. The West watches and it does nothing.
A BBC webpage reported yesterday the Syrian foreign minister saying his government would, under certain conditions, be willing to talk to the opposition about forming a new government. I don’t think that will come to anything but at least it is a move in the right direction.
There was a report this morning on Today about troubled families and a quiet revolution taking place in social work. The buzz phrase is family intervention where a single person is a family’s point of contact with outside professionals. The purpose being for the family as a unit to take control of their lives including those of the more difficult members within it. 40,000 families will be helped this year in comparison with 11,000 last.
There was an article in last Friday’s FT on the arguments for and against Greek Cyprus having been a money laundering centre for tainted Russian money in the past. The piece considered whether the island will be offered a bail out loan from the IMF and Europe.
The same issue reports that Tahirul Qadri has reached an outline agreement with the Pakistani government on fair and transparent procedures for their general election. Let’s hope that calms the situation down.
I would like to see peace between Arabs and Irsaelis. That might be pie in the sky but at least I can dream. To be realistic the portents do not look good. Results do not materialise out of thin air. They have to be built on something. Geoff Dyer however, in today’s FT, is not totally negative. He says that John Kerry, soon to be the American Secretary of State, is eager to make the peace process one of his priorities. And apparently Mr Obama promised during his election campaign that he would visit Israel during his second term. I feel it would undoubtedly be best if the President keeps some of his thoughts to himself but I hope at least he will give it his best shot.
Mr Cameron was speaking in the Commons again yesterday. He said there is a generational struggle now in place against radical Islamists who think that mass murder and teror are not only acceptable but necessary. He said that fight would top the agenda of the G8 world leaders’ summit in Northern Ireland in June. He said we must frustrate the terrorists with our security. We must beat them militarily. We must address the poisonous narrative they feed on. We must close down the ungoverned space in which they thrive and deal with the grievances they play on to garner support. He was fully supported by the Leader of the Opposition.
A BBC webpage reports this morning that the shadow health minister will be making a speech today warning that British culture is becoming increasingly pornified, with the inherent danger that is creating for our youngest and most vunerable. She asks for a national conversation between parents and children about sex, porn and technology. Then perhaps we old fogies can better understand those who will be leading us forward into our brave new world.
A phrase I could have used in my diary note last Saturday about analysing our DNA, I now think, is Big Data. A lady adviser to Barack Obama, who will be giving a lecture at the Royal Academy of Engineering tonight, was talking about the concept on Today this morning. It is entirely up to us what path we wish to take but it seems we now have the technical ability to collate and interpret hugh amounts of data from all sorts of different sources so we can better understand such subjects as climate change, weather patterns, shopping habits and global financial flows. Whether you look upon that as a threat or opportunity of couse depends on your point of view.
Something I picked up from Today this morning is that the production compound for the In Amenas gasfield stretched to three square miles and was base for 700 workers. A remarkably bold operation then by the militants. You could almost say foolhardy.
22nd January 2013
I have been travelling today and stopped at the westbound Leigh Delamere services on the M4. Before I left I had a latte coffee in a restaurant in my local town centre. It cost £1.95. There are five places on site in Wiltshire where you can buy a coffee, the in-house cafe, the coffee chain, the entrance lobby outlet, WH Smith and the BP petrol filling station. All sell Costa Coffee. If you buy a latte the price everywhere is £2.99 expect for the machine in the newsagents, and the petrol station which is takeaway only, where it is £2.79. If you decide you would like a coffee from the Burger King instead you will find it only sells cold drinks. Should you want to get some cash from the machine with which to buy your coffee you will be charged £1.99. I find all that absolutely chilling. The information I have given you was gained in ten minutes during a quick stop to go to the toilet. The fact that I have never read, heard or seen of similar set ups around the country from the multiplicity of media outlets we have in this country, I find absolutely amazing. It is also pretty worrying, in my view, that national companies such as Motto, BP, Burger King and WH Smith can be bullied in that way.
23rd January 2013
Chance is a funny thing. Completely unexpectedly to observers I think, the Israeli public did not veer to the right in yesterday’s election. Quite the opposite. Mr Netanyahu is being asked to form the next government but out of 60 seats in right wing blocs and 60 in the centre-left. Mr Netahyahu I believe understands the position. That the citizens of Israel have spoken on what they wish upon themselves. He will serve them as best he can. The biggest winner it seems is Yair Lapid, whose party Yesh Atid was only formed last year. It won 19 seats, second only to Likud-Beitenu on 31. No doubt to accommodate some of Mr Lapid’s views Mr Netanyahu has said he has five principles moving forward; firstly security, then fiscal responsibility, then acting responsibly to achieve peace, then ensuring society is fair and lastly reducing the cost of living, especially in housing.
And Joe Public are also up there in front for the second big story of the day. Mr Cameron’s Europe speech was finally made at 8am at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London. A Conservative manifesto pledge will be entered into for the next election to renegotiate our terms of EU membership. Then that outcone will be placed before the British people through an in/out referendum by 2018.
It seems America has it’s own plebgate story at the moment. The Times have suggested that Beyonce might not have sung live at President Obama’s inauguration on Monday. Not that it matters one iota either way of course but, having watched her performance, it looks totally genuine to me. There was a big fuss I recall when Elton John used a teleprompter while singing at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997. All very small minded.
I missed it at the time but in December 2011 the Home Secretary announced that a College of Policing would be established to supplement the Inspectorate of Constabulary and IPCC. It will help in producing a more professional service especially in the fields of training, development, skills and qualifications. I have found out because the BBC issued a FoI request to all police forces last autumn asking them about vetting of senior officers for the purpose of providing confidence to their subordinates and confirming them to be suitable for their roles. The results are published on a BBC webpage this morning. 13% of the UK’s top officers were curently found to be unvetted through, it would seem, poor management practices. Up until now police vetting has been carried out internally. In the future it will be the responsibility of the College of Policing as called for by the union Unison.
Then a separate report on the BBC webpages this morning was about ACPO’s own initiative to investigate corruption in the police’s ranks through commissing a report on the subject from Transparency International. It has found that inappropriate dealings can arise, for example, through a policeman being keen on keeping fit and body building. When in the gym he is offered steroids by criminals to enhance his physique and, if he accepts, the downward slope has started. Other corrupting areas identified apparently are the procuring of sexual favours and misuse of police information systems. Chief constables will be meeting this week to work out some plans to counter the problem.
I have heard it said that the militants who attacked the In Amenas gas plant came from all over North Africa. That of course implies an extremely well organised strategic force at work and would explain why there has been so much talk about the wider region over the last week. The BBC have put up a most informative slide show webpage this morning on the position. It explains that the history of many peoples in the Sahara and Sahel is smuggling and long distance transportation so it is not surprising that they adapted well to moving cocaine from South America, heroin from Asia and immigrants generally across their land, all into Europe. Besides the petty criminals roaming around the region in recent times there have been disaffected rebels expelled from Algeria in the 1990’s, unhappy fighters from the Tuareg people who no longer have a source of income in Libya and imported Jihadists who wish to die for their cause. Not hard them for those hidden men behind al-Qaeda to do their work and get some big things going. Northern Mali, it would appear was their site of choice. Such a shame because parts of the region have good economic potential. Niger has one of the world’s largest uranium reserves and Mali has Africa’s third largest gold deposits, in the far west of the country,
Another webpage reports that 100 aid organisations have grouped together to lobby the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland this year under the slogan, Enough Food for Everyone IF. It is obviously not right that children should still be starving in our world and the mainly charities set up wishes to highlight that it is the fault of we well off people. Their earlier campaigning effort in 2005 failed. The IF campaign is not suggesting that more money should be raised, just that developing governments should get what is fairly due to them and funds for the poor should be better spent. At the heart of it maybe is the need for global companies, donor and recipient countries to all be a bit honest and transparent about what they do. So much the better for us to keep an eye on them.
I have been staying in the household of a family member for a couple of days. There both the freeview digital television and digital radio were playing up. It was as if their function was being directed from outside with the viewing and listening experience diminished accordingly. I listened to the wireless online instead.
An initial report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch on the Vauxhall helicopter crash came out today. If it was not accidental, so the supposition of my note of 17th January 2013 could be correct, I feel the crucial aspect is whether the pilot was lured to Battersea Heliport, somewhere you would not have expected him to be on that day. In fact it transpires he was travelling back from Elstree at the time after he had been refused permission to land there. Prior to that there had been various contact from others giving him the message helicoptes should really not have been in the air in the prevailing weather conditions. I supect his view was he had a job to carry out and he wanted to do it. But it would have put pressure on him. I hope it may come out eventually why Mr Barnes, as he was flying back over the Thames, asked to be diverted to Battersea. His recorded phrase about the new destination was that it would be very useful. Air traffic control then put him in a holding pattern between Westminster and Vauxhall bridges. When he was given the all clear he had to perfom a difficult 180 degree turn to make his landing approach.
24th January 2013
There was a lady Anglo-American journalist on Today this morning anticipating the thrust of America’s foreign policy on the appointment of their new man in the State Department, John Kerry. She thought his first priority would be the China-Japan relationship. For the Middle East she felt Mr Kerry would be treating each constituent country separately, hoping that the bits of the jigsaw would slip into place that way, rather than having an overall arching policy. Certainly the experience of my private life is that that is the best approach.
A BBC webpage reported yesterday on changes to A-level education that are being introduced by Michael Gove. Most head teachers and university leaders appear to think the new system will be little more than change for change’s sake and not in the best interests of their students. I hope it does not transpire that Mr Gove has been a little vain.
Although sources differ on the extent it is agreed that crime rates are currently falling in England and Wales, with reduced vandalism the star having fallen 14% in the last year. No one really knows the reasons why. One of the most plausible explanations for me, as far as vandalism is concerned, is that modern technology such as computers and smartphones have given youngsters absorbing ways of spending their time. Hanging around on street corners with your friends is less attractive than it was. On the negative side though I do feel today’s society is less social than when I was young. Teenagers seems to prefer to text than actually speak to each other.
Yeterday the United States announced that in future women will be allowed to fight alongside men in military combat situations. President Obama has called the change historic.
Also yesterday North Korea announced it’s intention to conduct a third nuclear test at some point in the future following ealier ones in 2006 and 2009. They say it is for peaceful purposes but nobody believes them. You do wish their leaders would think about the welfare of their people a bit more rather than selfishly spending vast sums on grandiose schemes.
Recently I have had a conversation with one of my daughters about stress. We agreed it is a bit like a faulty tap with an empty jug underneath. First when the tap starts dripping you hardly notice. But over a long period of time the stress levels gradually build up. As the water level reaches the top of the jug it only takes the smallest of drips to make the whole entity suddendly overflow. The Gang know only too well that is how it works. In their experience everyone ultimately has an overflowing point.
David Cameron appears to have achieved the trick of pulling his eurosceptic MPs on board with him in his Europe referendum speech yesterday. Neither do those who think they have the best, pro-european, arguments fear a plebiscite. I was a bit surprised when Mr Cameron said he would insist on a vote by the people even in a future coalition government he might head but I see Nick Clegg has indicated today he feels comfortable with that too. Let the arguments begin.
25th January 2013
I haven’t noted it before but in January 2012 two cars were stopped, in an intelligence led operation no doubt, coming off the Eurotunnel shuttle. Inside were found five handguns, three silencers, ammunition and 500 grammes of cocaine, all destined apparently for London gangs. Four British soldiers based in Germany and their civilian contact have today been sentenced to between six and a half and 14 years imprisonment.
A BBC webpage reports today that at least one in five people including half of schoochildren, were infected with the swine flu virus during the first year of it’s pandemic in 2009, using data from 19 counties. 200,000 victims died around the world.
In 2007 a former CIA employee revealed in American media interviews that the agency had conducted waterboarding sessions against detainees in the past. It seems some two years later the CIA became concerned that individal officers who had carried out that activity might be identified. They decided to prosecute the whistleblower under a law not used for 27 years. Today he was convicted to two and a half years in gaol under a plea bargain.
26th January 2013
I have an account with the stockbrokers, Selftrade. Recently I have withdrawn a couple of large sums from my holdings. Yesterday I received a letter from them saying they had noticed my action and please could I tell them why I had taken the money out. The example given was that it might have been to buy a new car. Just in case I think it non of their business, which it undoubedly isn’t, they had a sentence in bold lettering to inform me that if I didn’t reply within 30 days they would freeze my account. I have therefore politely replied that the withdrawals were for private purposes. An exactly similar situation, in my view, to when I was called into the bank manager’s office as describe in chapter 2 of my book. That was over 20 years ago.
On the Business Questions page of last Saturday’s FT I read a barrister’s advice that an employee would not be wise to let his or her boss know if, say, they were a member of a controversial political organisation. It could lead to them being blackballed for promotion, for example. The reason is that political beliefs in the workplace are not well protected under UK law. The European Convention on Human Rights thinks we should do something about it.
In that edition was a piece on David Cameron’s by then known forthcoming European speech. It included a quote by fellow Conservative David Davis. He said the Prime Minister needed to establish negotiating leverage to deliver what he needs to deliver. The two comments I would make on that are it assumes a position, not where you negotiating, but where you are taking what you want: and Mr Cameron does not need to deliver anything, he just needs to do his best.
I also learnt from that paper that America launched a pan-Sahelian counter terrorism initiative in 2002, in response to 9/11, in which they trained various officers of the Malian military. Some of them were involved in the overthrow of their government last March. Apparantly the al-Qaeda branches in Yemen and Somalia also merged into a single terrorist entity last year.
An interesting article a few pages on raises the prospect that Tahirul Qadri might have returned to Pakistan recently on the initiative of the military, wanting him to be a proxy for political changes they would like to see. Probably then they would have been involved in the five point anti-corruption agreement Mr Qadri reached with the government for the forthcoming election. However it seems the generals have no wish to intervene directly. The reporters say both the public and armed forces have contempt for the government’s mismanagement of the economy and security situation. Intermittent power supply is such a problem that there would be no sense at the moment to create new industry as no certainty arises of being able to maintain necessary production.
The issue also dealt with the then upcoming Israeli election. It says 52% of the public believe an independent Palestinian state would be best but 62% do not think a peaceful settlement will be possibly. A real insight into how desperate they feel in my view. Leaked comments of President Obama’s are recorded of him saying that Israel does not understand where it’s best interests lay and it is rapidly heading towards near-total isolation. Mr Netanyahu’s response apparantly was to fall back onto following through the public’s decision. Now that is known I believe his subsequent remarks show he will try and do the right thing by his people.
Higher up it is recorded that House of Representative Republicans have thought it advisable to allow a three month extension to the America debt limit deadline. They are worried no doubt of incurring voters’ wrath.
Also on that page Richard McGregor goes through what looks like a really big change in American political tactics. Rather than disband his election team Mr Obama has kept his supporters on, renaming their platform as Organising For Action. The purpose is to maintain a groundswell of campaigning support for his second term policies, hoping to circumvent I expect direct vociferous Republican opposition. That group will be up against the Republican organisation American Crossroads co-founded by Karl Rove in 2010.
Lastly in that edition are some insightful comments on the current terrorist situation by Roula Khalaf. It seems that over the last year various local groups have sprung up, from Yemen in the east all the way through to the western coast of North Africa, devoted to the establishment of Islamic law. They all have the same form of branding, some with peaceful aims. She has noticed the same thing with a grouping in Syria. The rebels accept them because they are against the government. Separately in North Africa there are the al-Qaeda groups. Mokhtar Belmokhtar apparently has always been based in Mali. I personally feel the force of human emotion should never be underestimated. It seems to me quite likely that when Mr Belmokhtar fell out with al-Qaeda last year, and he was presented with the opportunity of showing what a big man he is on his own at In Amenas, he took it with great relish.
A middle aged man walked into a betting shop in Plymouth yesterday evening wearing a gasmask and apparently holding a weapon. He was pinned down and restrained by customers. He was dead when police and paramedics arrived. I heard a man say on the lunchtime radio news today that he walked into the shop just after the robber had been disarmed. He was told of the situation and asked to leave. The incident makes me think of the attempted bombing in an Exeter cafe in May 2008 by a man from Plymouth which I relate in chapter 6 of my book. That man was later found to have spent time in a mental health hospital. I suspect the scenario may have been similar yesterday. Also I have remarked before that I believe local Gang directors have habits just the same as the rest of us. Sometimes their schemes are quite predictable.
Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, 68 years after Auschwitz was liberated by the allies and the site of over one million deaths. Tomorrow evening BBC 1 will transmit Prisoner A26188: Henia Bryer. Ms Bryer is Jewish and survived being sent to four concentration camps. I don’t think she has ever wished to publicise her story. Now she is 86 though she feels she should tell it, as she has been asked, for the sake of posterity. She spoke to John Humprys on Today this morning and is a lovely lady. She has kept her Nazi identification number which was tattooed on her arm. That is her proof of what happened to her. So no one can doubt her experiences.
After listening to the World at One on Thursday I am aware the UN have just launched an inquiry into 25 drone attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, the Palestinian territories and Somalia. They wish to ascertain whether those instances have complied with international law. Apparently 51 states have the technology to use drones although the main operators are America and Israel. Besides legality the argument is also used that, for the attacker, they are an extremely safe, low cost and easy form of warfare. In that sense the odds of combat are unfair, especially when there are civilian casualties involved.
On Thursday the UK government and some others warned any of their citizens in Benghazi to leave immediately as there was intelligence of an imminent terrorist attack. The Libyan deputy interior minister said he knew nothing of it. From the newspaper review on Today yesterday I understand The Independent reported the location of our sources were in Algeria and Egypt.
The government have become aware of the behaviour of some aggressive bailiffs. New laws will be introduced so that the industry have to work to a set of scale fees, and that bailiffs are not allowed to enter homes at night or when children are alone.
There has been a Labour Party led Commons debate this week on the blacklisting of workers in the building industry which I wrote about on 22nd October 2012 . Michael Meacher MP has called it the worst breach of human rights since the war. It appears the Consulting Association carried out surveillance of some workers, recording such things as car registration numbers, personal relationships and so forth. A director of Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd has confirmed that his company loaned the organisation £20,000 to set it up and paid for it’s winding-down costs in 2009. The gentleman was chairman of the association between 1993 and 1996. Then there was a gentleman on Today on Thursday who told how another man died on a construction site where he was working. The next day a union meeting was held and a democratic vote taken to stike for one day in sympathy. As I result of that action he now believes he was blacklisted and hasn’t been able to find work in the industry since.
Injustices occur wherever you live in the world. Yesterday’s PM broadcast a piece from Russia after their Parliament had almost unanimously passed a draft law to restrict homosexuality and gay rights. Skirmishes between the opposing sides arose outside the building. The supporters of the law, backed by the Russian Orthodox church, were disguised by masks and apparently being quite violent.
Peter Horricks, the director of BBC Global News, was on Today this morning explaining how there is an official campaign of intimidation by some in Iran against families there of individulas who work for the BBC Persian television channel in London. The latest tactic apparently is to make up degrogatory stories about the broadcasters and then create false blog sites or Facebook pages which admit to those accusations. As a responsible employer the BBC will allow any presenter who wishes to stand down from their role, to do so. It is estimated about 12 million people listen to, or view, BBC Persian services on a regular basis.
There was also an update on that programme on the Leveson report situation. It appears the politicians are conducting all party talks on a suitable way forward. The chairman of Hacked Off has expressed disquiet this week that the process for change is losing momentum. Publishers however are sure they can have something properly effective in place without any outside help by July 1st.
International Development secretary Justine Greening has been in Jordan today to highlight the plight of refugees coming across the border from Syria. Britain has just announced another £21 million in humanitarian aid. Ms Greening says most other countries are making vague promises of help but not coming up with the goods. She thinks that is unacceptable. The diplomatic effort is prior to a UN sponsored aid conference on Syrian refugees in Kuwait next week.
27th January 2013
I like being outside. I can often be found in my garden. Between last Sunday and today someone entered my grounds, unscrewed the hose reel with wrapped hose on it from the wall of my house, and stole it. I will report the theft to my village neighbourhood police officer in the morning. It is the right thing to do. I am intending to move sometime next year so I don’t think I will bother to replace it. I suspect it happened while I was away for a couple of days in the week. During that period I allowed someone to visit my home whom I trust absolutely. I think it possible when I tell the police they will ask if I have had any recent visitors. If I tell them the full details it would be perfectly reasonable for them to ask that person if they saw anything whilst they were here. I could not stop the police also asking the person if they had recently come into possession of a hose and reel. It would then be perfectly understandable for that person to associate me with bad things happening in their life.
There is a BBC webpage up this afternoon entitled Holocaust Memorial Day marked in UK. It has a video clip of a lady interviewed at the northern end of the Milleniun Bridge in London. 49 seconds into the clip a man walks behind the lady. My hunch is that he was asked to do that by his MI5 control room.
If you are an ordinary untainted person, irrespective of what you do, the Gang will not like you. A 20 member band were playing a gig in northern Mexico on Thursday night. They have gone missing. It is estimated that 70,000 people have lost their lives in the country by drug related violence over the last six years. The recently elected president is creating a new national police force to try and do something about the problem.
A BBC webpage reports today that Starbucks had a meeting in Downing Steet on Friday. If they met Mr Cameron I hope he told them not to worry about the adverse tax publicity they have received recently. I used their outlet at the Fleet services on the M3 last week. I thought it was a very well run establishment. They could do nothing about the Gang member who decided to sit opposite me ten minutes after I arrived.
The battle lines in Egypt are now drawn. Those democratically in charge will need to keep calm and have good judgement over the coming months. Last week seven people were killed and 450 injured in the country on the second anniversary of their Arab Spring uprising. The following day, as a result of a court judgement, about 30 people were killed in rioting in Port Said. The funerals were today when 3 more were killed, and 400 injured, in disturbances.
After hearing the radio newspaper review this morning I have looked at an article in today’s Mail on Sunday about a possible leadership challenge against David Cameron by the MP for Windsor. Under Party rules 46 MPs have to write to the chairman of the 1922 Committe to force a vote of no confidence in their leader. The paper suggests that level of support is in place if plotters feel they have a realistic chance of succeeding. For me the Gang have leaked the story as a result of Mr Cameron’s sucessful speech on Wednesday. I would think the Prime Minister has very nicely covered his back until the next election. We might just as well know the details now therefore to create as much disrespect for politicians in the public mind as possible.
Last Tuesday’s FT informs me that in his inauguration speech President Obama said America would respond to the threat of climate change knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.
The editorial in that paper writes about Pakistan which it refers to as being on the crossroads of central and south Asia with the Middle East. It says the country is in a mess. It suggests some of the ways forward are to rebuild policing and justice, impose a genuine rule of law, have an independent educationsl system and spread a culture of competitive politics.
My understanding is that the UK has a nuclear armed submarine sailing at all times should it ever be required to fire it’s Trident missile. Last Thursday’s FT reports on Lord Browne, a former Labour defence secretary, saying that in his view it is time for us to step down from continuous at sea nuclear deterrence.
French forces are moving forward apace in northern Mali. Yesterday they took Gao and say they will be in Timbuktu soon. I would be surprised if America had not been providing quite a bit of covert support. However, for one of those complicated political reasons I find difficult to understand perhaps, nothing has been said. Now things are going well. A BBC webpage this evening says America intends to provide mid-air refuelling for French planes and transport facilities to fly in troops to Mali from Chad and Togo.