27th November 2012
Visited Disraeli’s house near High Wycombe yesterday. As we walked through the front door there was a thirtyish man with black hair talking on a mobile phone with an expensive camera holdall hanging from his shoulder. A lady gave a talk in the library. With her were me, my three companions and two couples. At one point the lady referred to the text written on a partly drawn window blind, ‘I will sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear from me.’ Disraeli said the words in his maiden Commons speech when he was being heckled by other MPs. The 75 year old-ish Gang member with white hair standing besides me gave out almost a dirty laugh at that point and turned to the black haired man standing behind him. One day I hope he will not feel quite so cocky.
There was a BBC TV News report last night on the SESAME project in Jordan. It started in 1999, and against all the odds no doubt, is on schedule for a 2015 completion. In effect it is a giant synchrotron microscope, of which there are several in the world but this is the first in the Middle East. It will be able to provide invaluable information on everything from viruses to new drugs to novel materials. Some of the countries involved are, wait for it, Turkey, Pakistan, Cyprus, Iran and Israel. The British physicist leader says he thinks their success is down to scientists having common aims transcending politics.
Part of the Gang strategy of getting us to fall out with each other it seems to me is illustrated by the fact that a group of women are suing the Metropolitan Police for compensation following their emotional, and sometimes no doubt sexual, involvement with six undercover officers between 1987 and 2010. The women were part of organisations infiltrated by the police for intelligence purposes. As a head policeman Mr Hogan-Howe has told the Home Affairs Select Committee today that, people being people, such things are almost bound to happen. We are not our brother’s keeper; nor necessarily our employee’s either in my view.
28th November 2012
On Monday the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, announced he is leaving politics in January to concentrate on his personal life. Mr Natanyahu thanked him for his service to his country and for his contribution to security of state.
Have just watched a BBC webpage video clip from Parliament of William Hague talking on the Middle East Peace Process. He is determined but also, in my view, worried that we are not going to be able to pull the situation around. He spoke to Mr Abbas on the phone on Monday and the Deputy Prime Minister did yesterday. It seems the Palestinians are applying again for non-member observer status at the UN. That could push things under if it makes the Israelis feel cold shouldered, or it could make things better if they realise the Palestinians are still willing to talk to them constructively. To make sure there is no ambivalence Mr Hague wants Mr Abbas to commit to talking to Israel withour pre-conditions; and that his side must agree not to seek jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court within the occupied territories as, it appears, that is a sticking point for Israel. With those two promises things can move forward. Respect between enemies can grow. Without them there will be no hope. As far as Britain is concerned we will not turn our back on Palestine. But unless they follow our advice we will not vote for their Resolution either. We will abstain. I hope Mr Abbas can see from Mr Moursi’s recent experience that a little bit of confidence can be an unhelpful input, unless you can show you can handle things like a statesman. Interestingly I see the Czech Republic are one of the countries who so far have said they will vote against Ramallah’s bid.
You know a Gang story sometimes even before you start reading it. The Chinese state organ, The People’s Daily, has published a 55 page photo spread of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after he was supposedly nominated by The Onion, an American satirical newspaper and website, as The Sexiest Man Alive for 2012. It took the Chinese paper a few hours to find out they had been fooled by a spoof. Two months ago the Iranian Fars news agency was tricked by a similary ruse about President Ahmadinejad. On one level just a silly game. On another creating uncertainty and destroying trust in the targeted organisations.
A nasty little story on the BBC website this afternoon about four old people from a Californian retiement home who have died after eating soup made by a member of staff, unwittingly using poisonous mushrooms. Apparently there have been 1700 reported cases of mushroom poisoning in the state between 2009 amd 2010.
A well known Irish entertainment manager is reported as having just agreed damages of over £400,000 with News Group Newspapers after The Sun and the Irish Sun gave publicity to his alleged sexual groping of a man in a Dublin club toilet. The manager had always strenuously denied his involvement to anyone who asked him. The manager’s lawyers alleged that two months after the suggested incident a News Corp journalist met the manager’s accuser and offered him a sum of money if he repeated his complaint to the police, which he agreed to do. The police then discovered the man had lied after studying CCTV footage from the club. An example in my view of the Gang giving out the word that, a day before publication of the Leveson report, the press must be seen as able to do the right thing about past mistakes. The Gang regulate our press not anyone else.
It seems that a minimum price for alcohol, which in another world might always have been treated as an illegal drug, is building up into a big story. The Scottish government have been trying to introduce it since 2009 and, with a parliamentary majority, were able to pass legislation in May this year. However the global drinks industry is powerful opposition. A challenge has been mounted in the Scottish courts and the EU has concluded the measure probably contravenes their rules on free trade. I wonder if England and Wales will have any more luck with their suggested minimum price of 45 pence per unit of alcohol.
From a Today newspaper review this morning I understand a Russian man, Alexander Perepilichnyy who came to this country three years ago, was found dead outside his luxury Surrey mansion on Saturday afternoon. It is thought he had just returned from a run. He had been helping Swiss prosecutors investigate money laundering activities associated with corrupt Russian tax officials and the so-called Klyeuv Group. Apparently he is the fourth person linked to that group to have died suddenly.
Lord Patten is a heavyweight public figure. In my view the BBC are lucky to have him. Yesterday in Parliament, on that programme broadcast an a little qustion and answer excerpt of his appearance at the Commons Culture Committee yesterday with Conservative member Philip Davies. The more experienced man, it seems to me, wiped the floor with his hoped for detractor. Mr Entwhistle would not have dealt with Mr Davies in the same way. Mr Entwhistle, through no fault of his own I feel, lost his job.
I do not watch the soaps but purely by chance I happened to see a recorded edition of Eastenders yesterday. The storyline, as I understood it, was about a wicked father who takes every opportunity to control those around him including his own son. That young man was consequently forced into denying his actual love to a female relative of his own age. More than one theme there and very topical I would say.
The Gang of course are all about transferring their own views onto others so that the recipients take them on as their own. More than that though I have a feeling, in an environment where they feel secure, they are proud to let their opinions and experiences spill out to a community in general. Because they are an historic, hidden organisation they feel safe doing that. A Wikipedia page tells me the British Army listed 1.6 million wounded during the first World War. All those individuals, mostly young men, will have come back to their towns and villages in this country, somtimes physically and sometimes mentally, shattered people. In the last few days I have heard the view that those happenings might well have had a devastating effect on the psyche of a nation. And, the way I see it, perhaps allowing an evil cabal to control destabilised men for a generation after.
The Gang are very careful now, in my view, in their dealings with me. When I was out travelling yesterday I visited a quiet Macdonalds in Essex. After five minutes I suspect the on-duty Gang director for the area, driving a Mercedes, came in for a takeaway. He did not appear to show any interest in me but in reality I think he noted where I was sitting and the tables which were empty around me. Five minutes later two sets of Gang helpers came in to crowd me, sitting in vacant seats in my direct line of vision.
The current MP for Rocdale, Sir Cyril Smith’s old constituency, was on Today this morning. He has had a recent meeting with senior police officers resulting in him, with other information, being sure Mr Smith used to sexual abuse young boys in the 1960’s, and for about 20 years subsequently. It seems the police had previously investigated Mr Smith’s activities on three separate occasions, in the 1970’s, 80’s and early 90’s, but each time no action was taken. As you might imagine it is thought that emboldened Mr Smith into thinking he was untouchable.
Politicians and media alike have been on tenterhooks waiting for the Leveson report tomorrow. And, Nick Robinson said on Today this morning, the former have got themselves fully prepared for all eventualities. The Deputy and Prime Minister have apparently cleared their diaries for two days. They will read the report this afternoon, discuss it alone this evening, send it to the Leader of the Opposition overnight, and have meetings involving government colleagues in the morning. The prospect arises that the two men will not be able to agree. In that case the possibilty could be that the Lib Dems will vote with Labour in the Commons against the government position. The important thing for me though is that we are being told in a clear, open way exactly how the process will work. This it is not an elephant in the room subject. Opposing views will be respected and, I trust, emotions kept in check. Parliamentary democracy will decide the outcome. That is exactly how it should be.
The lady who wrote Fifty Shades of Grey, E L (E…. , L….) James was interviewed by Will Gomperz on the BBC 10 o’clock TV news this evening. Her book was published in June 2011, has sold over 60 million copies, with book rights granted in 37 countries.
Today highlighted this morning that Britain, it seems, is the capital of on-line dating with 9 million of us at it. You could argue that is adventurous or, as the lady during the piece suggested, more timid than others. We do not perhaps have the confidence to get out there and speak to strangers cold. We have to have it all safely arranged first.
29th November 2012
Lord Justice Leveson was very careful this afternoon, I thought, to keep himself above the fray of the competing sectional interests associated with his report. He gave the press quite a bit of flak where it was due and otherwise said what he thought but, for me, realised he could do more than that. I initially imagined it would now be a straightforward political decision but having listened to PM this afternoon realise it is a lot more complicated. After listening to the FT editor on the programme I suspect there could be an understanding between No 10 and his industry that, if they can think of something themselves which fit’s in with the report’s recommendations, it might suit Mr Cameron just fine. On the politics it seems the Prime Minister might well lose out to the statutory enforcement lobby in a non-binding parliamentary vote. I do however believe his character is such that, in those circumstances, he would not run away and forget about the whole thing.
The difficulty with the self regulation option, it seems to me, is what you do with a newspaper which does not play with the team. Lord Justice Leveson neatly deals with that by suggesting an industry nominated independent appeal committee but with all participants overseen by another, statutory, body such as Ofcom. Then, amongst other incentives, he proposes a cheap arbitration option outside of any legal process which I feel should also empower set upon ordinary members of the public. As a final thought thought something I have never seen adequately explained is why the press think a statutory involvement for them would not work when it does for TV and radio media.
Journalists have been wondering for a few days whether the tide has turned in favour of the oppostion in Syria. They are capturing more terrority in the north and east and shooting down more aircraft. Then this morning, when we were all anticipating the Leveson report, it came through that there has been a serious technological outage in the country affecting electricity, telecommunications and the internet. I imagine that breakdown in communications could be useful if you wanted secrecy in attacking various facilities around the place. Indeed I am beginning to wonder whether the Gang are changing allegiances. They could not possibly end up on the wrong side.
It seems the government’s plan to reduce net immigration significantly, could be working. In the 12 months to last March, overall numbers arriving here fell from 242,000 to 183,000.
Today this morning reported on the fact that there are literally thousands of websites around the world encouraging vunerable young people with eating disorders to look upon their affliction as normal, and indeed to encourage them to continue down their chosen path. Lord Justice Leveson won’t be commenting on that form of opinion making. It is of course a scenario tailor made for the Gang.
On Monday George Osborne announced that the next governor of the Bank of England will be the present Canadian central bank head, Mark Carney. His term of office will be for five years from next June. As recently as August it seems Mr Carney was sure he did not want the job. However the following day’s FT says he was always the chancellor’s preferred choice. He finally persuaded Mr Carney at a finance ministers’ meeting in Mexico earlier this month.
I have written before about the Consulting Association who held of list of suspected trouble-makers employed in the construction industry. A piece in yesterday’s FT reports that the group was allegedly set up with funding from building company Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd and that John Laign, Tarmac, Amec, Amey and Balfour Beatty all used it’s services.
From that paper I see Greece, after much prevarication, has finally received it’s most recent bailout of 34.4 billion euros from the eurozone. Onward and forward but ever so cautiously.
As you might have expected our recent bad weather in which 1000 homes have been flooded has given the opportunity for some silly Gang pressure games. As referred to in that edition’s editorial the government and insurance industry cannot agree on a future insurance scheme for vunerable households. The author points out that if the government agrees to subsidise future arrangements people could actually be encouraged to live in unsuitable properties. They would know that if flooding does come the government would bail them out. Just like Greece in fact.
There was a very bad fire in the Channel Tunnel in September 2008 when a truck being transported on a railway wagon caught fire. It seems as though the same thing might have happened this afternoon when part of a car transporter caught fire on a vehicle shuttle inside the tunnel. Fortunately the train was able to exit landside and be parked safely in a French siding. That word bile comes to my mind again when I see that two lanes of the M20 London bound carriageway have been shut this evening near the Eurotunnel terminal due to a lorry fire.
One of those shocking reports in today’s FT that Kabul Bank, representing a third of Afghanistan’s banking assets and 5% of it’s GDP, had to be shut down two years ago when it was discovered to be no more than a billion dollar fraud operation for the benefit of a few well-connected Afghans. It’s downfall was one of the largest bank failures ever seen.
John Gapper in today’s FT argues for a specific change in regulation of the press. He suggests the law could be made to give judges a closer role over journalist’s work. To allow a statutory defence of public interest where otherwise the law would be broken for example or to ratify a previously concluded arbitration procees. That is fine but it still doesn’t deal with the irresponsible pressman who won’t join the club.
30th November 2012
There is a long article in last Saturday’s FT Magazine about the neo-Nazi terror cell that operated in Germany between 2000 and 2007 before the police finally caught up with them. It is believed they killed nine immigrants and one policewoman. The piece detects the roots of the organisation to the fall of Eastern Germany in 1990 when some young people felt confused and disorientated. However those individuals are a bit older now. A contributor says that today their members are aged from 25 to 55. They form a spider’s web right across Germany.
In the sense that it is all about motive I do not necessarily have an objection to bending the rules to acieve an outcome you perceive to be beneficial. An example of that in my view is in last Saturday’s FT which reports that the British government will be using the provisions of someone else’s law, the the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, to compel it’s Dependencies such as the Isle of Man, Guersney, Jersey and the Cayman Islands to automatically disclose to the Treasury full details of all bank accounts held on their small islands. If they do not comply we will report them to the Sates and I think the banks concerned will not be able to conduct business there. I wrote about the Haut de Garenne children’s home in Chapter 6 of my book. Interestingly the article says only Jersey is likely to resist the change.
We are all in this together. The same paper informs me that last Sunday 11 heads of state from central Africa met in Kampala for crisis talks to try and do something about the fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has displaced 100,000 people.
The obituary in that edition is for Maria Gorrostieta, the 36 year old elected mayor of a rural district southwest of Mexico City who was shot dead on 19th November as she carried out her normal daily routine of taking her daughter to school. The piece says she was a fearless defier of Mexico’s drug lords who paid with her life.
Have just watched a video clip of Charlotte Church on Question Time last night explaining why she believes in statutory underpinning for future press regulation. She spoke eloquently and with conviction. She received one of those deep and prolonged periods of applause from the audience caused I would say by the vast majority of hands in the room creating a sound.
The Palestinians easily won their UN vote by the 193 member body yesterday which gives them non-member observer status of the organisation. We were one of the 41 countries abstaining: there were 138 votes for and nine against. Key countries as quoted by the BBC website were, against the USA and Canada; abstaining Germany, Australia and Columbia; for France, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Turkey, China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa ansd Nigeria. Mark Revev has referred to the Palestinian’s move as political theatre which makes peace more difficult. Mr Netanyahu said the Palestinian leader made a litany of libellous charges against Israel.
Group think is a funny thing. The Gang are spreading the view, in my opinion, that politicians are such terrible people they cannot be trusted in a democratic society to act in a reasonable manner. It is so powerful that some politicians even seem to believe it themselves. The Culture Secretary was on Today this morning talking about the Leveson report. Unless I am mistaken I am sure I heard her say that in her capacity as a politician she could not be trusted to responsibly appoint the next head of Ofcom.
Because of the support President Kagame of Rwanda apparantly gives to the M23 militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we have today stopped an aid payment of £21 million that was going to be paid to his country next month.
Nigel Farage is full of confidence over the three by-election results yesterday. He very honestly has accepted that the fostering row helped the party in Rotherham. Some members of the Conservative Party look upon Mr Farage as a big threat. A one issue party UKIP might predominately be, mopping up the protest vote but even so I expect Mr Farage is very pleased about that.
As a direct result of the UN vote the Israelis have authorised the construction of 3000 more housing units in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and is speeding up the processing of 1000 planning permissions. If that were a thought through negotiating position I would be all for it. However I suspect it is not. That it is an emotional reaction based on the human feeling of hurt. Israel is a much more powerful country than modern Palestine. For some reason though Israelis do not feel that way. With power comes responsibility and, in my view, the obligation to be generous towards your weaker opponents.
Ed Millband told the FT yesterday, printed in this morning’s paper, that he could have exploited David Cameron’s position in the Leveson Report but ‘we didn’t want to play political games’.
Just like four years ago when he won his election, and much to the annoyance of Republicans says today’s FT, President Obama is out touring the country airing his views on the fiscal cliff. This time however he is quite open about what he is about. He wants to enlist the help of the public to put some pressure onto his political opponents.
The same page of the paper says Mr Obama is having lunch today in the White House with Mitt Romney. It is rumoured he would like Mr Romney to take on some form of governmental role in the future. That of course shows that not all political adversaries actually hate each other and, in my view, is a very good signal to the rest of us.
There is a whole page spread in that edition on the measures New York will have to take to protect itself against future large storms such as Hurrican Sandy. The obvious implication is that there will definitely be more along.
Today’s FT editorial says, in relation to secretive Swiss banking, that the international momentum against tax havens is such that a country can no longer reasonably use the argument suggesting if it tightens up it’s rules, miscreants would just move their accounts somewhere they will be accomodated. It says that constant, patient pressure is much better than trying to act in haste against the problem.
I have absolutely no idea why they it should have happened at the time but a BBC webpage yesterday informed me that in 1969 Germany legalised bestiality, human sex with animals, provided the creature suffered no significant harm. Next month the Bundestag will be voting on whether it should be made illegal to hurt an animal, including procuring sexual impropriety with it.
1st December 2012
It seems to me what the Gang hope to achieve in the press regulation debate is to get back, as far as they can, to previous arrangements where they can inculcate their own ways of thinking to newspaper newsrooms, using their normal tried and tested ways. Being criminals, what they are more worried about than anthing else is having hard and fast rules which, if it comes to it, can be enforced from outside onto their own circles. They are the ones who are supposed to be in charge in their spheres of influence. I think they fully believe themselves the slippery slope argument, that once politicians get a flavour for controlling the press they simply will not be able to stop. They are fighting against other gangs trying to frustrate them all the time. If their opponents are given an inch they take a mile. However the public do put politicians in parliament to legislate.
The press tell us they are responsible enough to regulate themselves. Fair enough, if they are so sure, let them do it. However at the first sign that their high ideals have not been enough they must accept their failure. You don’t need a slippery slope to create a new law at some future point in time. Things can be debated and reviewed regularly in parliament by prior arrangement. At the moment I am afraid I trust politicians more that I do the average journalist. For me therefore the position would have to be watched and watched. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Today’s BBC webpage reports that North Korea has said it is to launch a long-range rocket between 10th and 22nd Decemeber, to put a satellite in orbit. South Korea’s presidential election takes place on 19th December. My bet is that the event will not take place in the last two days of the given window. South Korean officials have called the announcement a grave provocation.
One of my diary notes in the book Chaper 11 appendix refers to the harping by some, of the apparent lack of substance in last spring’s Queen’s Speech. But you don’t have to have grandiose schemes to do good things. Yesterday in Parliament, on Today this morning related that, in fast businesslike fashion, eight private members bills were dealt with in the Commons and Lords yesterday. The eight wrongs settled were increasing marine safety, fighting scrap metal theft, recognising mental health difficulties amongst politicians, protecting mobile home residents from rogue site owners, tightening up on the abusive use of disabled motorists’ blue badges, clarifying the circumstances when property can be confiscated from prisoners, dealing with bogus council house tenants and rationalising the law of the presumption of death.
It looks as though the internet blackout in Syria on Thursday was associated with a surge of fighting in Damascus. To contradict my previous note the US State Department has said it was the Syrian government themselves who ordered the loss of communications. Activists say the death toll in the country is now over 40,000 with 80 being killed yesterday. The UN Secretary General reports that refugee numbers could reach 700,000 next month.
A good political leader in my view will often levitate his horizon above pure politics. David Cameron today has been speaking to microphone today to recognise World Aids Day. Apparently 25,000 people in the UK have the virus but do not know it. The Prime Minister said we should reflect on the public health issue, take action and spread the message.
William Hague has said today he is seriously concerned about the Palestinian situation. He warns that Israel is damaging it’s international reputation and asks that they reconsider the decision to build their 3,000 settler homes. It seems the Palestinian Authority will not talk to them unless they do. I am not sure if the two sides enjoy being manipulated by the Gang for their own ends but all the signs are they do not mind at all. I hope they realise they are being laughed at.
It seems the issue of the feedom of the internet is now being raised to frighten newspaper editors into irrational ways. Yet the continuing drop in overall press readership is a fact. There is nothing anyone can do about that. The Guido Fawkes blogger, Paul Staines, was on Today this morning. He says he has domiciled his website in the States where they have a mantra, a little unthinkingly in my view, of freedom of speech. He says that means he does not have to worry about nasty solicitors’ letters threatening libel dropping though his letterbox. Having listened to him I do not think he is unhappy about the freedom without responsibility that gives him. From today’s FT I see he has a daily readership of some 100,000, about the same as The Spectator and New Statesman. I also see from that newspaper article the editor of the Mail Online has said, I think to the Leveson Inquiry, that due to the internet politicians and the judiciary can no longer control what people are allowed to know. I personally would be surprised if that was anything they have ever wanted to do in any unreasonable way. It is, I feel, an extremely disrepectful view of others’ intentions.
The former deputy foreign minister of Mexico was on Today this morning talking about the war on drugs, on the day of his new president’s accession. He just spoke common sense; nothing more, nothing less. The consumption of drugs is about supply and demand. You cannot expect to solve the problem by tackling one side of the equation only. Trying to stop the supply of illegal drugs though Mexico for the last six years has been a failure. That is because the demand from Americans is as great as ever.
Farming Today This Week this morning was solely about the weather and our current climatic patterns. Farmers have had the most terrible season with a drought in the spring, rain in the summer and now the fields waterlogged so planting could not take place. A farmer from Lincolnshire said it was the worst year he could remember since the great freeze of 1963: his sons had never seen anything like it. The programme did it’s best to support the industry by broadcasting helpful advice on how to mitigate the problems now and in the future. To create a positive frame of mind. You can do it if you try.
2nd December 2012
It is reported today that the Army are giving non-essential personnel an extra five day’s leave over Christams to say thank you for their assistance in dealing with the Olympics and Diamond Jubillee. I think it best if that were taken at face value, as a kind gesture.
It seems the Egyptian judiciary are pretty upset at the moment. They have gone on indefinite strike. Wisely in my view President Morsi has brought forward the referendum on the draft constitution to 15th December. Lets hope that reduces tensions a bit.
Julian Assange has been in the news again over the last couple of days, firstly because he wishes to publicise a book and secondly because the Ecuadorians say he is unwell and might need hospital treatment. I hope Mr Assange can see the hopelessness of his situation. At the end of the day he is the only one who will lose out further than he has done already. It seems to me his best bet would be to trust in his own power of truth and be prepared to argue his case in the proper forum against his accusers. He should have faith that he will win. Even if that didn’t happen it would not be the end of the world for him. But he needs to put the threat of court action behind him. To move on.
Under the auspices of the Office of Fair Trading Tesco, Sainbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, Aldi, the Co-op and Lidl have agreed to adopt a set of principles when promoting special offers and price promotions. Asda is still thinking about a point of detail. I notice however that 2 for 1 food offers and the like are unaffected. It does seem silly to me to encourage us to eat more than we would normally.
A former head of the CBI Lord Digby Jones, and who now works with the government department UK Trade and Investment, was on the World This Weekend today. He asks for government ministers to be more business friendly. To like businessmen, not be suspicious of them all the time.