25th March 2013
The political terms of the Cypriot bailout were agreed in Brussels last night with the island’s president. Actual details will come later. It’s flagship Bank of Cyprus will be restructured. The second bank, Laiki, will be dissolved and divided into good and bad parts like Northern Rock. In accordance with the rest of Europe all deposits under 100,000 euros will be guaranteed. It is now up to the Cypriots themselves to decide how much they want large depositors to contribute to the required home sourced element of the bailout package amounting to 5.8 billion euros.
From the public pronouncements it seems Dmitry Medvedev is much more upset about the terms of the Cypriot bailout than Vladimir Putin. He has called it theft of Russian money. Mr Putin however has authorised an extension of the time span for Cyprus to pay back it’s 2.5 billiion euro loans to Russia, in order to assist them.
I have just watched a video clip of David Cameron’s speech this afternoon on immigration controls. Although he didn’t use the words it seems to me he was telling us how the government are going to fight back against the world of criminality centred on lowly paid foreigners who are brought to this country.
A week or so ago the Forum of Private Business, a support group for small businesses, criticised John Lewis because it asks for a higher discount from it’s members if sales of their products at the department store increased. I heard the partnership’s response which was that it is a normal business practice and, in a two party relationship, it seems equitable both should benefit proportionally from success. From BBC reports yesterday it seems that at about the same time Laura Ashley asked for an immediate 10% cost price cut from suppliers including orders already placed. There I would agree with the FPB that one party seems to be unilaterally hogging all benefit for itself. That does seem rather unfair.
The Commons Home Affairs Committee, as highlighted by Today this morning, has just issued a report castigating the UK Border Agency for in the past not providing accuratae figures to Parliament, and therefore the public, on their backlog of work. They say the then chief executive showed a complete failure of leadership. The lady now is head of HMRC.
Immediately before that was a piece on nail beauty salons and how they are proliferating in our High Streets. I would think that is good news for some small business women. The average charge apparently is some £30, not an insignificant amount of money I would have thought when money is tight. I feel it shows how important it is for us to feed our emotional sides, especially the ladies.
Channel 4 News went to Rwanda this evening to conduct a live interview with William Hague and Angelina Jolie. It was on their visit to draw attention to the use of sexual violence against women as a tool of conflict, especially in the civil war taking place just over the border in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The UN says that 200,000 people have been raped in that country since 1998. In Britain you sometimes have instances of gang rape reported. I see that as akin to terrorism against the female sex, not in Africa but where you live.
I have just watched a BBC 2 documentary on Boris Johnston who has a distinct chance of becoming Prime Minister one day. It is plain to me, as much as he may wish to hide it, that he is incredibly competitive. He will never let anything get him down whatever the pressure. As remarked by Ken Livingstone on the programme he is also very emotional. He has the ability to make people feel good about things. He is an admirer of the fairer sex. All those characteristics make him the person he is. Londoners have voted twice to make him their mayor. The thing I reflect on though is when it is pointed out to him that he has brazenly lied in the past, he seems to shrug that off as though it isn’t important. If you aspire to be a politician on the world stage I think honesty probably matters a great deal.
There is a map in today’s FT reminding us that Cyprus is close to the coasts of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. And it is in that area of the Meditteranean Sea of course where huge deposits of natural gas are waiting to be developed.
The Home Secretary announced in the Commons this afternoon that the head of MI5, Sir Jonathan Evans about 55 years old, is to step down in April at the end of his current contract. No futher information has been given and I don’t expect it will be. He became director general in April 2007 taking over from Lady Manningham-Buller, in post from October 2002 and who retired aged aged 58. Mr Evans was appointed MI5 director of international terrorism 10 days before 9/11.
There was a studio discussion on Newsnight this evening about immigration. A contributor from an outside broadcast in an urban street was Nigel Farage. Mr Farage mentioned that earlier he had been in the pub. I suspect that whilst having a drink he received a call from Newsnight on his mobile phone asking if he wouldn’t mind appearing which he agreed to do.
27th March 2013
David Miliband has announced this morning that he is resigning as an MP amd leaving British politics to become chief executive, in New York, of the International Rescue Committee. His wife is American. At first sight it looks a strange decision. But when you think about it you can see what could be the reason. I suspect he worries, if he were here, that whatever he did or said would be used to destabilise his brother. That wouldn’t be good for Ed and it wouldn’t be good for David. Bill and Melinda Gates are making a real difference in the world, with money and good intent. I am sure Mr Miliband could have the same effect with his undoubted skills, I feel, of diplomacy and leadership. He might also believe that as a private citizen he will have better opportunity to get some good things moving ahead when residing in the most powerful country in the world. Also, until you are dead nothing is ever final. If at some time in the future he ever thought it would be appropriate to return to these shores to help us out, I have no hesitation he would not need to be asked twice.
I suspect this story might have something to do with reflections on the recent Cypriot situation. The Bank of England Financial Policy Committee have announced that our banks must raise another £25 billion for their reserves. I think that will be seen as a confidence building measure. Normal trust in our banking system has not yet returned. If lenders had the security of knowing that, even were some of their borrowers to mess them around, it would make no difference to their financial position, they would feel much more secure in making that loan in the first place.
This morning it is reported that the next Olympic stadium has been shut temporarily until a structural problem with the roof has been sorted out. The Gang love high profile events and I expect we will get lots more stories like that before the Games open in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
I have compared the Gang to an ameoba before. Over a long period of time they concentrate on an organistion. As they get stronger and stronger that starts to affect the confidence of it’s leaders and their decision making ability. It works the same way with countries. This morning we are told that North Korea is cutting the one line of permanent contact it has with the South, a telephone line used to help with any day to day difficulties arising in an industrial park in the North where South Koreans also work.
This morning two women with a dog were walking in a tunnel through a cliff, giving access to the beach near Shaldon in Devon when there was a landslip at the entrance. Forunately they were not at that particular point when the earth came down. They have been rescued unharmed.
A fourteen year old girl died yesterday when she was visiting a friend’s house in Wigan, Greater Manchester. While her friend went out she stayed behind indoors, reportedly eating a meat pie. With that enticement, I suspect, she was attacked by a pack of five dogs who devoured her.
The Home Secretary lost her High Court appeal today against the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruling that Mr Abu Qatada should not be deported to Jordan. The government say they will appeal again, presumably to the Court of Appeal.
The police have said that Boris Berezovsky was found on the floor of his bathromm after having apparently hanged himself. The door had been locked from the inside.
Before 7am yesterday Today had an interview with the father of Iran’s nuclear programme under the Shah in the 1970’s. It was started with American support. When the Revolution came in 1979 he fled to Paris and the work was stopped for the very reason that it was associated with the Americans. But later the new regime saw it’s value and it was restarted. The gentleman related how he was approached once by Sadam Hussein to go to Iraq to start nuclear work there but he declined.
The radio news said yesterday that 3,000 homes and businesses had just suffered their fourth night without power due to last week’s snow. Uniquely two pylons in western Scotland have been brought down. On a much smaller scale I relate in chapter 10 of my book how strange people in this area went around in November 2007 cutting down wooden electricity poles in farmers’ fields with chainsaws.
There was a man from RUSI on the programme saying that since the American Presidential election many more arms have been getting though to the Syrian opposition, from old Croation stockpiles of all places. His anlysis is that those are being directed to the more moderate elements of the FSA with a view to what might start happening once the Syrian regime has finally fallen. He says the FSA is now more divided than ever.
There was a remarkably honest former BBC executive interviewed on the broadcast the day after he had been released by the police without charge. He had been arrested by a team of seven officers last autumn following an allegation by an actress that he had sexually fondled her in 1965. He said that he had only ever met her once for five minutes when no touching took place. The Gang however are very clever. They only move when there is cover for their story. It is quite reasonable to suppose there is no smoke without fire. The man went to prison for fraud in the 1990’s. As far as Mr Savile is concerned he made the point Jimmy was a former boxer of big pyhsical stature. He had some pretty nasty friends. The BBC man was afraid of him. He did speak to Jimmy once after he heard he had been with a girl under 13 but that was just shrugged off. He also said he was living in the television culture of the swinging sixties, the first time I suppose when girls knew they could have sex but with the pill ensure they did not get pregnant. The gentleman readily admitted that in today’s terms he was a womaniser. His experience was that if you propositioned a hundred woman, two or three would say yes.
Cyprus’ finance minister was on the transmission. He said that Ireland’s economic shock contracted their econonmy by 20% yet the country has recovered well. He is optimistic. Then at the end of the progamme there was a discussion about Iceland, not yet part of the EU. There the banks’ borrowing had grown to ten times GDP, in Cypus the factor was seven. Despite extra taxes in Iceland, and capital controls not to be fully lifted until 2015, growth came back in 2012 and people who had left the country are now returning in numbers.
The farmers always seem to get the short end of the stick. Bad weather is mostly an inconvenience for us, for farmers it is their livlihood. The Isle of Man has been very badly hit by the snow and although no one knows the full extent yet nationwide, certainly thousands of lambs have frozen to death.
Jeremy Hunt announced yeterday that a legal obligation of candour is going to be introduced in the NHS, an organistion employing some 1.4 million people. A contributor to Today commented that doctors already swear an hipppocratic oath to protect their patients. He says they have not looked after them properly before because a culture of bullying and fear of managers has pervaded the service. He is not sure criminality is the answer. However what I think he misses is that when you have got yourself into a situation like that you need a jolt to free the log jam. Perhaps a statutory provision, in this instance, could be the incentive people need to do the right thing.
Probably nothing directly to do with the Gang here in my view as it is all out in the open. Some people have got worried by the scale of the retribution by an internet hosting firm in Holland who accept spam clients, and an anti-spam group based in London and Geneva. Because of bad feeling between them the first has bombarded the second with so much spam that the world wide web itself has been slowed down.
I had my garden tractor and trailor out on Sunday bringing some wood for the fire up my site. It was stupid of me. There was snow on the frozen ground and it was slimy. I slipped on the small grass slope by the house and rolled back damaging the log box on the patio slightly. I never got up the slope and eventually left it. During that time there were two gents with vehicles making a bit of a noise over in the road. Yesterday I was out for the day. This morning I didn’t notice out of my bedroom window when I got up but this afternoon I saw a hole in the patio-side flowerbed 12 inches deep by 18 inches wide. Someone had been along yesterday to see what had happened, reported back and was told to leave a sign of their visit. The local Gang director decided to remind me I am under constant observation and he wants to pressurise me as much as he can when I do not act competently at all times.
The Central African Republic is a land locked anarchic state between Cameroon and South Sudan. There was a coup there at the weekend causing the president to flee to Cameroon. An analyst from Chatham House was fearing on Today this morning before 7am that the new gang will merely try to divide up the country’s spoils amongst themselves. Hopefully a rule of law to prevent such things will eventually be imposed. Nevertheless the gentlaman said that for the continent as a whole prospects are good. Provided peace can be maintained economic growth on the continent should make everybody better off.
Later in the broadcast was a piece on pigeon racing and the arguably cruel practices which exist in some divisions of the sport, such as the annual race from Barcelona when hen birds will fly to the death to try and get back to their mates. My feeling is that pigeon racing is predominantly respectable but unfortunately it has been infiltrated by some not so nice people. A few years ago we had a homing pidgeon arrive out of the blue. For some reason it thought our patio was it’s home. We shooed it away but it kept turning up. Eventually we put it in a box and I drove some five miles away to let it go. It came back. After that I looked on the internet and found a helpline to ring. I gave them it’s ring number and they came to pick it up. We didn’t see it again.
I talk about the weather in chapter 12 and it’s appendix of my book. Later in the transmission there was a lady from the Royal Meteorological Society talking about the jet stream. She said it runs at about 30,000 feet and is out of the reach of aircraft from the ground. I am not sure about that. Anyway the root cause of our cold weather at the moment is that the jet steam is much farther south than it should be at this time of year.
Last month the government announced formation of the Cyber Crime Reduction Partnership to join police, security experts and academics in the fight against computer attacks. A few days ago GCHQ were funded to investigate vulnerabilities in commercial software. Then today, as I heard on this morning’s radio news, the Minister for the Cabinet Office has announced creation of a small dedicated unit of experts to be called the Fusion Cell, specifically to liase with and encourage businesses to share information in real time on their cyber experiences, anomalously if needs be. Over time it is hoped it will become a genuinely equal task force between the intelligence and business communities. The EU I think intend to do the same some of thing but within a legal framework to penalise those who do not cooperate.
28th March 2013
From a piece on Today this morning I understand researchers have identified 80 genetic markers in people who have developed breast, ovarian or postrate cancer in comparison with a cancer free control group. Because we get out genes from our parents that means of course that the risk of getting cancer can be inherited. It is also hoped the genetic variations identified will lead to knowledge later about how cancers attack us in the first place.
With the NHS being a Gang target it must be expected that no change will come through without raised emotion and difficulty. Another item on the programme was about the new 111 phone number due to start on Monday to replace NHS Direct and take some of the strain off 999 calls. It seems trials have not gone universally well and the GMC are worried that some parts of the country will offer a totally inadequate service. Nevertheless I am sure they will get there eventually.
The Chief Veterinary Officer appeared on the broadcast speaking of a new vaccine which is being developed for foot and mouth disease. Because it is not active it will be much easier to store than previous versions, last longer and it’s use will be easier to monitor. It will take some time to become an end product but in due course shall be a great boon for farmers. They should no longer have to worry about going through the emotional trauma of our last major outbreak in 2001 when seven million sheep and cattle were slaughtered and put into mass graves at a cost of £8 billion. It will also help in other parts of the world where foot and mouth is endemic.
The Times has published a story this morning informing us a BBC producer on Panorama has been suspended. It is alleged he offered work to a security consultant for information to assist in the making of a programme investigating a company developing luxury homes in the Carribean. The edition was due to be broadcast last Monday but has now been postponed.
It has come out at the inquest today that the body of Mr Berezovsky was found on the floor of his bathroom with a cord around his kneck. Another part of the same cord was attached to the shower rail. The presumption for the moment therefore must be that the cord broke after he hanged himself and was already dead.
A story here, in my view, indicating Mr Cameron wishes to keep friction within his ministerial team to a minimum. Number 10 has announced this morning that John Hayes, second to the Lib Dem minister Ed Davey in the Energy Department, is being moved sideways to be a minister without portfolio. Mr Hayes openly differed with his boss on policy last November. His new new title is to be the PM’s parliamentary adviser with the added spin of being able to act as Mr Cameron’s eyes and ears among Conservative MPs. Mr Davey’s new deputy will be Michael Fallon who takes on the job in addition to his role as Business and Enterprise Minister. From his media appearances I would say Mr Fallon is a safe pair of hands and is close to the Conservative leadership.
On the World at One yesterday was a very interesting interview with the Conservative MP Karl McCartney who was first elected to the Commons, for Lincoln, in May 2010. Following the MP’s expenses scandal, which I mention in chapter 6 of my book, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority was set up in 2009. Just after his election Mr McCartney put in an expenses claim, to hire staff and pay for accommodation I think, of over £25,000. Five months later it was still unpaid and he had to borrow money from his parents to tide him over. He felt that was unjust and wanted answers from IPSA. Coming to recent times he put in a fully documented application on 10th December 2012 for some £5,000. It was not paid until 24th January 2013 which he considers unacceptable. For his first claim I imagine lengthy correspondence took place and at one point he wrote an email containing intemperate language. Throughout that time the chief executive officer would never agree to meet with him and I understand he has never met with any other MPs to discuss their issues. Eventually however Mr McCartney secured a meeting with a senior IPSA management team member in June 2011 whilst the CEO was on long term sick leave. As they broke up the IPSA man said that when he and his colleagues went out drinking in the pub they were always told to screw MPs into the ground if they could. As Mr McCartney was still making waves the IPSA team told the Conservative Party that they would make public the words he had used in his unfortunate email dating from 2010 or 2011. When he still would not go away IPSA leaked the email to the press in February 2013 before they published it on their own website. Mr McCartney’s view is that although MPs are not scared of IPSA they do feel intimidated by them. Having heard the radio interview, and from my own experience, it seems to me there is an indication that the CEO of IPSA is a fearful Gang helper. And that one or more in his senior management team are greedy Gang helpers.
On Tuesday the Home Secretary announced in the Commons that the work currently carried out by the UK Border Agency is going to be brought inside the Home Office. She said that in it’s five years of operation the Agency had become a secretive organisation. It’s function will be split into issuing visas and immigration enforcement. Apparently there are 180,000 people overstaying their permits here who have never had their immigration status determined.
Earlier today mortars were fired at the faculty of architecture at Damascus University. 15 students were killed and an unknown number injured.
Chris Morris reported for PM yesterday from the Turkish Cypriot State having passed through the border from the Greek side of the island. They have been separate since Turkey invaded the north in 1974 after a Greek military coup in the territory made it look as though it was going to become part of Greece. The prevailing hope he found was that the banking crisis in the south would be a jolt to Greek Cypriots; that they might become less isolationist and believe reunification could be a good idea after all.
Tuesday’s FT reports that Japan and the EU are going to open talks to further bilateral trade. It seems that is a way to circumvent the Doha round of World Trade Organisation negotiations which have just about broken down.
A few pages further on is a worrying article by Roula Khalaf on Egypt. She says it’s leaders are incapable of managing the nation and they need some outside help before it is too late. Mr Morsi needs to understand that the economy and politics are inescapably entwined. Eqpyt is a very important strategic country in the region.
Yesterday’s FT reports about raids the day before on various foriegn, including German, Non Governmental Organisations in Moscow on suspicion of breaking their laws. Once NGO head comments that the massive scale of the inspections only serves to reinforce the menacing atmosphere in the country against civil society.
Today the FT’s political editor, George Parker, suggests there is a tacit understanding between Messrs Miliband and Clegg that neither of their parties will offer an EU referendum in the run up to the next election.
Also in that paper it is noted that Turkey is raising the rhetorical heat against Greek Cyprus. It says Turkey will not allow the Italian oil company Eni to participate in Turkish joint energy projects if it involves itself with exploration of Cypriot gas fields in the Meditteranean Sea.
After that is an analysis piece on Yemen saying the hidden forces in the country comprise proxies of Saudi Arabia and Iran struggling for domination of future direction.
This afternoon the Home Secretary has announced that the current deputy since 2007 Andrew Parker, 50, will be the next head of MI5. He is a married career service officer with children, of large pyhsical stature who has worked on terrorism, counter espionage and serious and organised crime. He is a keen orthanologist and says he looks forward to leading MI5 through it’s next chapter.
There was a report on Channel 4 News this evening about Syrian women in Jordanian refugee camps who are subject to exploitation and abuse. Men from Gulf States come to offer fake marriages for small amounts of money, others roam the sites at night comitting rape. There are no forces of civil order present. There was also an interview with the UN and Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, who said he could see no immediate outcome to the conflict. Both sides still think they can win militarily. It will probably get worse before it gets better.
29th March 2013
I note in chapter 6 of my book that 46 lives were lost in March 2010 when the South Korean navy ship Cheonan exploded and sank in open seas. And that an international team of experts concluded it had been hit by a torpedo from a North Korean submarine. I also surmise whether the North had fighter aircraft in the air at the time should there have been any reaction from the South. Present tensions with America started when North Korea tested a long range rocket capable of carrying a nuclear bomb on 12th December 2012. America has acted proportionally in my view, all the time signalling to Pyongyang it is far bigger and stronger than they and will not be pushed around. They should calm down a bit. China and Russia of course are in the same position but for some reason they seem to be quite frightened of the current situation. On Thursday the US, in annual military exercises with the South, flew two stealth B2 bombers over the Korean peninsula. That has so enraged the North (I could equally have used a four letter word beginning with G), they have apparently made movements at their missile sites and say they are ready to launch rocket strikes on the American mainland, Hawaii, Guam and South Korea. The USA respond that they are ready for any eventuality.
As I relate in chapter 12 of my book a report, the Kennedy Report, was issued in 2001 concluding that in the previous ten years 30-35 children had died at Bristol’s Royal Infirmary due to inadequate surgeon skills. The anaesthetist whose information triggered the inquiry found he became blacklisted by the NHS for what he had done. He had to emigrate with his family to Australia to find work. No one did anything strategic about the report’s warning, as far as I am aware, until July 2012 when the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts said they were reducing the number of specialist children’s heart operating centres in England from 10 to 7. That would enable at least 4 surgeons to be based at each centre and for 24 hour cover to be provided. One of the facilities to be shut was at Leeds. On Wednesday a judge ruled that closure could not go ahead due to legal flaws. Yesterday the medical director of the NHS said he was carrying out an urgent review of the performance of the Leeds centre and operations would be temporarily suspended. One local MP has called the timing of the decision very odd. Another said it is a deliberate attempt to undermine the heart unit. However I would not have thought the anticipated length of the investigation, three weeks, is a long time to wait to ensure that children are as safe as possible.
It is amazing how long it can take sometimes for a caring society to do the right thing. The first report into Stafford Hospital, looking at mortality rates betwee 2005 and 2008, was in March 2009. The Cure the NHS campaign group had been set up by a Stafford resident in November 2007. I suspect concern had also been raised in authority by seeing data produced by the Doctor Foster organisation. The report listed a catalogue of failures throughout the hospital. In July 2009 the Labour Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, announced an independent inquiry into Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust by Robert Francis QC which reported in February 2010. A few days afterwards Mr Burnham commissioned a further inquiry into the supervisory and regulatory bodies for Foundation Trusts generally. After the General Election in May 2010 the new government announced a full public inquiry into Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust would take place. That started in November 2010 also chaired by Mr Francis. The final report was published on 6th February 2013 making 290 recommendations in all. Quite a long journey really taking over five years from the first complaints raised by a dogged campaigner whose mother had died in Stafford hospital.
Saturday’s FT reports that the Lebanese prime minister resigned the day before due to political stalemate on arrangemnts for new elections and who their ongoing security chief should be. The situation is an illustration, in my view, of that determining faultline in the Middle East, religious denomination. Lebanon is a western, European style country of commerce yet whose capital, Beirut, is only 66 miles from Damascus. Under the surface the Shia Muslim group Hezbollah, allies of the Syrian government, are a strong force. The prime minister calls for a new government to represent all it’s people, not just parts. The Sunnis and Shias in Lebanon it appears do not trust each other.
The same page gives details about the Israeli-Turkish rapprochement I mentioned last Fiday. I suspect it was a chance President Obama took. It appears he left it until the last moment, when he was flying off to Jordan, to take the plunge with Mr Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister made his 30 minute phone call, in which the President also particpated, from the airport.
The paper is generous about the visit referring to the President as a talented politician. Beside hoping to charm the Prime Minister he also conversed directly with Israeli students telling them political leaders will not take risks unless the people demand they do so.
Back on his home turf the editorial in the paper suggests Mr Obama has been outwitted by the gun lobby, in the form of the National Rifle Association. By perfectly legal means it seems they have added clauses to the bill currently going through Congress to stop American government shutting down, which actually water down current provisions against gun ownership rather than the reverse. The President can’t do anything about those without bringing down the whole legislation itself. The Gang are a formidable foe.
Just above that I supect the editors feel a bit piggy-in-the middle over Leveson media regulation. The column suggests we still haven’t got a workable solution. I think the politicians may have concluded they have already done all they can but the piece does ask for some necessary ammendments to the framework, if it is not too late.
However the column ends in a mood to raise the spirits. Following the publication during last week of the picture just after the Big Bang, it reflects that we now know more about the universe than ever before. The forces holding it together are stronger than those tearing it apart. We cannot see those forces but we unmistakenly view the direction of travel. We will get there in the end.
Elsewhere a piece refers to the JPMorgan whale bid affair where the bank lost $2 billion on it’s own account in the spring of 2012 through credit default swap trades originating in it’s London office. Senior officers have tried to make light of it at Senate hearings, yet the author says ithe bank is regarded as one of the best run financial institutions in the US. He therefore wonders what the rest are like. He worries that it should be like this so long after the 2008 crash. His solution is that such organisations must be prohibited from similar in-house trading and made smaller so any future failures cannot affect the whole system.
The Person in the News in that paper was the new Chinese president, Xi Jinping’s second fiddle. The pemier’s name is Li Keqiang. Commentators say his task is to loosen the state’s dominant role in the economy, strengthen the rule of law and reduce corruptiion.
In Simon Kuper’s view, as expressed in last weekend’s FT magazine, the advent of social media has improved our writing skills. It means we continue writing after school for a start and, with it’s briefness, encourages us not to waffle when we communicate. It has made writing more like conversational.
It is funny how these things happen but I do feel that both the new Pope and the new Archbishop of Canterbury have brought a fresh of breath air into their respective spheres. Justin Welby was on Songs of Praise on Sunday and this morning he has given Thought for the Day on the Today Programme. He is natural and spontaneous with everyone. He is energetic and wants to get out there doing things. The Church of England is lucky to have him.
Thanks to Roger Harrabin on Today this morning I have now heard of the Madden Julian Oscillation. The climate phenomenon causes thunderstorms in the Indian Ocean which drift northward. It seems possible they affect the course of the jet stream above us although no one is quite sure. Immediately after Roger was the Met Office’s chief scientist who disarmingly fullly accepted that her body got last spring’s forcast wrong. They said that April would probably be drier than normal. In fact it was the wettest for over 100 years.
Frank Gardner was saying on the broadcast this morning that MI5 and MI6 now work very closely together as do MI5 and the police.
After listening to one of the Newspaper Reviews on the broadcast I understand The Guardian and The Telegraph write this morning about Andrew Mitchell. It seems the Director of Public Prosecutions received the police file yesterday saying no evidence had been found that police officers lied about their dealings in Downing Street with Mr Mitchell and no conspiracy had been uncovered. A source at the DPP has said however they are unhappy with the quality and quantity of the details which have been passed to them. To coincide with that information I imagine, Mr Mitchell’s solicitor has let it be known that his client is suing The Sun for libel. The paper says they will vigorously defend themselves.
30th March 2013
I do feel we are moving forward well on looking at drug taking as a health, and not a criminal, issue. The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse is being replaced on Monday by the Health and Wellbeing Directorate. That means apparently drug treatment services in future, including possibly those for alcohol misuse, will be commissioned by local councils and not central government. There was a discussion about the change on Today this morning. It was hoped the good progress we have already made in the field will not be frustrated by the new set up. Our HIV rate is already half of the Germans and a tenth of the Americans.
Also on the programme, talking about the Leeds General Infirmary affair, was the professor responsible for Doctor Foster mortality data in the NHS and one of the cardiologists who had spoken with the medical director of the NHS deciding him to commence his review. The timing of events was interesting. The cardiologist received an email giving him data which alarmed him as the court was reading out it’s judgement. The interviewer called that remarkable. The cardiologist initially was not comfortable with the word, preferring coincidence. However at the second attempt he did agree it was remarkable.
My interpretaion is that the person who sent the email is a Gang helper. The essential thing to understand I feel is that, if I am right, the person did nothing wrong in an official sense. Only he or she will know if the timing of the email was a favour for someone else. As far as the Gang are concerned they love the turn of the dice. To organise themselves beforehand so, depending on what we do out here in the real world, they can throw their pebble in the pond and see what happens. Standing orders for Gang members are to make the resulant ripples in the water as turbulent as possible.
Although I understand North and South Korea have never been at peace since partition in 1953, North Korea has still wished to up the rhetoric this morning by saying it now considers itself to be at war with it’s neighbour.
Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, seems to get easily upset about things. He has written in this morning’s Daily Mail that the Prime Minister has made Christians feel persecuted and alienated. Apparently at a recent Downing Street Easter reception for religious leaders Mr Cameron assured them he supported the right of Christians to practice their faith. For some reason, which is beyond me, Mr Carey apparently chooses not to believe those words. The Daily Mail heading I understand is that the former Church head has made an astonishing attack on the Prime Minister. That laguage reminds me about the paper’s commentary on the lecture given by Hilary Mantel at the Bristh Museum on 4th February 2013 about which I write in my diary notes a fortnight later.
Off on my holidays today to the snow covered French alps.