From that there China. He arrived back in the UK late in the evening of Sunday August 29th. Today, Tuesday August 31st is the first chance I've had to speak to him. Apparently he spent a couple of days in Hong Kong before flying on to Shanghai. He took the Mag Lev train from Shanghai airport to the city proper. He spent a few days there before taking the bone shaking train to Beijing. On his journey to China he learnt that they have to re-draw the city map of Shanghai every two weeks and saw the rest of the tourist sh*t.
The most important part of his trip seems to bee that he spent three days in Delhi, India before going to Hong Kong and spent 17 hours in Delhi airport while waiting to fly home at the end of his trip. Whilst in India his group was helped by including a British woman who was born in the UK of Indian parents. Apparently she drinks, smokes, swears and wears trousers. So her acting as translator for the group of five white men she was travelling with was a learning experience for her, her traditional parents and the whole of India.
Tonight's dinner at the pub with my father was also the first time that my brother has been officially informed of the death of the cat that watched us all grow up. Obviously this has made him a little bit sad. It's made me happy though because I've finally figured out that cat in the bin story. If you've not heard this story you should be ashamed of yourselves because it's gone round most of Europe. On Tuesday August 24th the UK's Sun newspaper published stills from a home CCTV system that showed a woman stroking a living cat before cruelly throwing into a bin. The woman in question looked a bit like my mother's government lawyer partner. Her name, Mary Bale was reminiscent of both the 1960's child killer, Mary Bell and a friend of my grandmother, Betty Bale. Most importantly though the cat in question looked a lot like my now defunct feline. Therefore the story was designed to confuse most of Europe and make me all sad that my beloved family pet had been cruelly discarded in a bin rather then recieving the funeral that I had arranged. Sadly the people who concocted the story failed to remember all those human friends that I'd been forced to leave to the grave.
If that sounds all a bit dark then to make it worse I've just watched the last ever episode of "The Bill." This cop show has been of UK TV for a full 26 years and a lot of was filmed right where I grew up in Croydon. In that time I've crashed many a scene, had my name appear in at least two episodes and slapped DCI Burnside on his little bald head more the once. So to see it end is like the ending of an era.
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Monday 30 August 2010
EDL March in Bradford.
On Saturday August 28th the English Defence League (EDL) staged a demonstration in Bradford, UK in an attempt to provoke the cities large Muslim population into riot. In the end very little happened except for a few minor scuffles. However this peaceful outcome was the result of the tolerance of the residents of Bradford rather then the actions of the police who put in a rather sloppy performance.
Firstly they did not feel the need to enforce the Home Office's ban on marches and processions in the city. I think it is fair to compare an EDL demonstration with a football match where crowd trouble is expected. In those circumstances the police intercept the coaches carrying the travelling supporters on the motorway and then escort them to a designated disembarkation point which is normally very close the their destination. This is done to stop random groups of supporter wandering around the city where they may run into rival supporters or cause trouble with local residents. While the police made a point of being seen to follow this procedure with four of the EDL coaches they allowed six more to make their own way into the city to let off their passengers where they liked. This led to groups of 30-100 EDL supporters walking through the streets to the site of the demonstration chanting, annoying the locals and generally making their presence known. To me that sounds very much like a march or procession.
The second problem with the police's plan was the location for the EDL's static demonstration. It's been widely reported that the EDL demonstrations was being held in a section of Bradford's Urban Park which had been fenced off especially for the occasion. This isn't true. The Urban Park is actually a construction site for a shopping mall development that ran out of money. The developer and the city council then agreed to fence off the half finished building foundations and let the rest of the site go to seed in order to make it look more like a municipal park then a sign of recession. So while the police made a big show of searching the EDL supporters for weapons by passing them through metal detecting arches as they entered the site the police were actually marching them on a construction site littered with bricks, stones, timber and metal bars all of which could easily be used as weapons.
Despite being something of a mini armoury for rioters the pre-existing fencing at the Urban Park did provide the police with a massive advantage that they decided not to use. What they should have done was compress the EDL into a small area up against the fencing. This would have allowed them to set up a small cordon of police officers that could easily be re-enforced. Instead the police allowed the EDL to spread out in the centre of the site while surrounding them with a large cordon of police officers. As a result of giving the EDL plenty of space to move about and an overstretched police cordon the police soon lost control as their line was broken and small groups of EDL were able to escape. Then rather then being caught and placed back in the Urban Park these escapees were allowed to search out groups of Muslim youths and some were actually escorted into these groups by the police. A tactic that is only really asking for trouble.
Although they did eventually deploy officers in full riot gear the police never fully regained control of the situation. This was mainly due to them taking a very soft approach to the EDL. In all the footage of Saturday's events that I've watched I only saw one police officer with his baton drawn and even then he wasn't using it. So the G20 kettle at the Bank of England this was not. At the end of the demonstration this lack of control coupled with the confusion over the location of the EDL's coaches to allow two large groups of EDL supporters to escape the police cordon as the police were attempting to load them on to coaches. Fortunately the EDL are a cowardly lot so as soon as these two groups were confronted by groups of counter-protesters they quickly retreated back to the protection of the police averting major disorder.
The police force in charge of the operation was West Yorkshire police force. In their jurisdiction they also have the home ground of Leeds United Football Club. Like Millwall, Cardiff and West Ham Leeds Utd have a long and fearsome reputation for hooliganism Therefore I find it very hard to believe that the police officers in charge of Saturday's operation were not aware of the mistakes they were making.
Today, August 30th the English Nationalist Alliance (ENA), an EDL splinter group tried to stage a protest march in Brighton. About 30 of them turned up and were prevented from leaving Brighton railway station by around 200 counter-protesters. In order for the ENA to be able to begin their march the police drove the counter-protesters away from the station through the city and kettled them. The ENA then held a short march and a tiny rally before heading home. While the ENA were left to smash up a pub Brighton police spent most of the afternoon chasing counter-protesters through the city with police horses.
Firstly they did not feel the need to enforce the Home Office's ban on marches and processions in the city. I think it is fair to compare an EDL demonstration with a football match where crowd trouble is expected. In those circumstances the police intercept the coaches carrying the travelling supporters on the motorway and then escort them to a designated disembarkation point which is normally very close the their destination. This is done to stop random groups of supporter wandering around the city where they may run into rival supporters or cause trouble with local residents. While the police made a point of being seen to follow this procedure with four of the EDL coaches they allowed six more to make their own way into the city to let off their passengers where they liked. This led to groups of 30-100 EDL supporters walking through the streets to the site of the demonstration chanting, annoying the locals and generally making their presence known. To me that sounds very much like a march or procession.
The second problem with the police's plan was the location for the EDL's static demonstration. It's been widely reported that the EDL demonstrations was being held in a section of Bradford's Urban Park which had been fenced off especially for the occasion. This isn't true. The Urban Park is actually a construction site for a shopping mall development that ran out of money. The developer and the city council then agreed to fence off the half finished building foundations and let the rest of the site go to seed in order to make it look more like a municipal park then a sign of recession. So while the police made a big show of searching the EDL supporters for weapons by passing them through metal detecting arches as they entered the site the police were actually marching them on a construction site littered with bricks, stones, timber and metal bars all of which could easily be used as weapons.
Despite being something of a mini armoury for rioters the pre-existing fencing at the Urban Park did provide the police with a massive advantage that they decided not to use. What they should have done was compress the EDL into a small area up against the fencing. This would have allowed them to set up a small cordon of police officers that could easily be re-enforced. Instead the police allowed the EDL to spread out in the centre of the site while surrounding them with a large cordon of police officers. As a result of giving the EDL plenty of space to move about and an overstretched police cordon the police soon lost control as their line was broken and small groups of EDL were able to escape. Then rather then being caught and placed back in the Urban Park these escapees were allowed to search out groups of Muslim youths and some were actually escorted into these groups by the police. A tactic that is only really asking for trouble.
Although they did eventually deploy officers in full riot gear the police never fully regained control of the situation. This was mainly due to them taking a very soft approach to the EDL. In all the footage of Saturday's events that I've watched I only saw one police officer with his baton drawn and even then he wasn't using it. So the G20 kettle at the Bank of England this was not. At the end of the demonstration this lack of control coupled with the confusion over the location of the EDL's coaches to allow two large groups of EDL supporters to escape the police cordon as the police were attempting to load them on to coaches. Fortunately the EDL are a cowardly lot so as soon as these two groups were confronted by groups of counter-protesters they quickly retreated back to the protection of the police averting major disorder.
The police force in charge of the operation was West Yorkshire police force. In their jurisdiction they also have the home ground of Leeds United Football Club. Like Millwall, Cardiff and West Ham Leeds Utd have a long and fearsome reputation for hooliganism Therefore I find it very hard to believe that the police officers in charge of Saturday's operation were not aware of the mistakes they were making.
Today, August 30th the English Nationalist Alliance (ENA), an EDL splinter group tried to stage a protest march in Brighton. About 30 of them turned up and were prevented from leaving Brighton railway station by around 200 counter-protesters. In order for the ENA to be able to begin their march the police drove the counter-protesters away from the station through the city and kettled them. The ENA then held a short march and a tiny rally before heading home. While the ENA were left to smash up a pub Brighton police spent most of the afternoon chasing counter-protesters through the city with police horses.
Sunday 29 August 2010
Scandals in Cricket Land
Today (29/8) the British tabloid newspaper the News of the World (NOTW) has revealed that it has been able to pay a man to influence the outcome of cricket matches in the five match England V Pakistan test series that is currently being played in Britain.
This is not that much of a scandal because the entire test series has been rigged at state level to project the British view of UK/Pakistan relations to the World over the course of a summer that began with Britain's Prime Minister accusing Pakistan of "playing a double game" during a visit to India. Unfortunately half-way through the series Pakistan suffered catastrophic flooding. This caused the Pakistani cricket officials to get all weepy and engineer this whole stunt in order to shift some of the blame off themselves. Sadly in the process they also managed to give the Brits the opportunity to clear the air ahead of the winter Ashes series. On the plus side though they've tricked the NOTW into contributing another £150,000 to the Pakistan Flood Relief Fund.
I know that today I'd promised to deliver a full report into the EDL's exploits in Bradford. Unfortunately I've been a little bit busy. So busy in fact that I was unable to watch the Belgian Grand Prix which is a shame because it was meant to be a good race. However if the FIA need to rely on the weather to provide a good race then it's time to bring back in race re-fueling.
This is not that much of a scandal because the entire test series has been rigged at state level to project the British view of UK/Pakistan relations to the World over the course of a summer that began with Britain's Prime Minister accusing Pakistan of "playing a double game" during a visit to India. Unfortunately half-way through the series Pakistan suffered catastrophic flooding. This caused the Pakistani cricket officials to get all weepy and engineer this whole stunt in order to shift some of the blame off themselves. Sadly in the process they also managed to give the Brits the opportunity to clear the air ahead of the winter Ashes series. On the plus side though they've tricked the NOTW into contributing another £150,000 to the Pakistan Flood Relief Fund.
I know that today I'd promised to deliver a full report into the EDL's exploits in Bradford. Unfortunately I've been a little bit busy. So busy in fact that I was unable to watch the Belgian Grand Prix which is a shame because it was meant to be a good race. However if the FIA need to rely on the weather to provide a good race then it's time to bring back in race re-fueling.
Saturday 28 August 2010
EDL In Bradford.
I'll try and do a full report tomorrow when all the details have emerged. However by all accounts the English Defence League's (EDL) big demonstration in Bradford ended with nothing really happening.
Between 700 and 1000 EDL turned up in Bradford which is much less then the 5000+ that the organisers were hoping for. This small group was penned in by the police near Bradford Cathedral and started chanting incisive political slogans such as "Allah was a paedophile" and "We love the [pakistan] floods". At around 14:30 they tried to break through police lines to attack passers by who'd stopped to have a look at what was going on. During this time bottles, stones and a smoke bomb were thrown. The police responded by donning riot gear, reinforcing the cordon and moving the members of the public away from the EDL.
By around 15:00 the police started to put the EDL on to coaches to remove them from the city. Two groups of around 100 each broke through the police cordon at this time. One group started heading for a local Mosque but were confronted by counter demonstrators who forced them to retreat back into the police cordon. The second group headed for the Forster Square railway station. They soon found themselves underneath a sort of bridge that was occupied by Asian youths who were not pleased to see them. After bottles and other missiles were thrown the EDL group again went and hid behind police lines. The police brought in a special train to evacuate this group from the city. By 17:00 the last of the EDL had left the city on coaches under police escort.
As rumours go round it might heat up overnight but I think in terms of disorder we're talking about a long day at the football rather then a riot.
Between 700 and 1000 EDL turned up in Bradford which is much less then the 5000+ that the organisers were hoping for. This small group was penned in by the police near Bradford Cathedral and started chanting incisive political slogans such as "Allah was a paedophile" and "We love the [pakistan] floods". At around 14:30 they tried to break through police lines to attack passers by who'd stopped to have a look at what was going on. During this time bottles, stones and a smoke bomb were thrown. The police responded by donning riot gear, reinforcing the cordon and moving the members of the public away from the EDL.
By around 15:00 the police started to put the EDL on to coaches to remove them from the city. Two groups of around 100 each broke through the police cordon at this time. One group started heading for a local Mosque but were confronted by counter demonstrators who forced them to retreat back into the police cordon. The second group headed for the Forster Square railway station. They soon found themselves underneath a sort of bridge that was occupied by Asian youths who were not pleased to see them. After bottles and other missiles were thrown the EDL group again went and hid behind police lines. The police brought in a special train to evacuate this group from the city. By 17:00 the last of the EDL had left the city on coaches under police escort.
As rumours go round it might heat up overnight but I think in terms of disorder we're talking about a long day at the football rather then a riot.
Friday 27 August 2010
The Long Weekend.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland this weekend is a holiday weekend. That means that most of the people who finished work today, Friday, don't have to be back at work again until Tuesday. As this is the last holiday weekend before Christmas a lot of people associate it with the end of the British summer. In order to try and squeeze the last little bit of joy out of summer there are a lot of things going on this weekend.
Firstly there is the Reading and Leeds music festival going on in, well Reading and Leeds. There's nothing particularly important about this it's just that I went to Reading a few times in my younger days so I always look on the festival fondly. However after three days of torrential rain the Reading site is looking pretty gruesome at the moment.
In London there is the Notting Hill Carnival. As Europe's largest street carnival this sees over 100,000 people drinking and partying for three straight days. Obviously this always leads to some fights, most of which take place on Monday evening. However I don't think there'll be any more trouble then you'll get on an average weekend in London. It's just that this weekend it's going to be concentrated on a very small part of London around Ladbroke Grove.
On Saturday (28/8) the English Defence League (EDL) will be trying to incite the mainly Muslim population of Bradford to riot. The Home Office have banned all marches and processions in the city on the day so the EDL will be staging a static demonstration instead. This means the run up for Saturday has been exactly the same as it was in 2001 when a banned National Front demonstration provoked three days of full on rioting. Obviously I don't want to lay down a challenge to the EDL but on this occasion I'm expecting an awful lot of hype but no real action. It will still be a very long day for the police in Bradford though.
In ultimate Big Brother John McCrirrick has just be evicted. This will make him happy because apparently he had a very large bet on him being the first evictee. Also Victor and Michelle have entered the house. Along with Nadia they starred in the 2004 series of Big Brother and in homage to that series they have entered a "bedsit" that is cut off from the main house. In the 2004 series this device led to a huge fight that saw security staff being sent into the house to restrain Victor and I believe one other housemate being carted off to a psychiatric hospital. 2004 was the year that Big Brother specifically putting the boot into me so you would expect the re-appearance of housemates from that year to spark off all sorts of reminiscences.
Also Josie walked out of the house yesterday (26/8). I think this is a good thing because it would be a shame if she wasted her 15 minutes of fame on a show that seems to be trying to go out with a whimper rather then a bang.
Firstly there is the Reading and Leeds music festival going on in, well Reading and Leeds. There's nothing particularly important about this it's just that I went to Reading a few times in my younger days so I always look on the festival fondly. However after three days of torrential rain the Reading site is looking pretty gruesome at the moment.
In London there is the Notting Hill Carnival. As Europe's largest street carnival this sees over 100,000 people drinking and partying for three straight days. Obviously this always leads to some fights, most of which take place on Monday evening. However I don't think there'll be any more trouble then you'll get on an average weekend in London. It's just that this weekend it's going to be concentrated on a very small part of London around Ladbroke Grove.
On Saturday (28/8) the English Defence League (EDL) will be trying to incite the mainly Muslim population of Bradford to riot. The Home Office have banned all marches and processions in the city on the day so the EDL will be staging a static demonstration instead. This means the run up for Saturday has been exactly the same as it was in 2001 when a banned National Front demonstration provoked three days of full on rioting. Obviously I don't want to lay down a challenge to the EDL but on this occasion I'm expecting an awful lot of hype but no real action. It will still be a very long day for the police in Bradford though.
In ultimate Big Brother John McCrirrick has just be evicted. This will make him happy because apparently he had a very large bet on him being the first evictee. Also Victor and Michelle have entered the house. Along with Nadia they starred in the 2004 series of Big Brother and in homage to that series they have entered a "bedsit" that is cut off from the main house. In the 2004 series this device led to a huge fight that saw security staff being sent into the house to restrain Victor and I believe one other housemate being carted off to a psychiatric hospital. 2004 was the year that Big Brother specifically putting the boot into me so you would expect the re-appearance of housemates from that year to spark off all sorts of reminiscences.
Also Josie walked out of the house yesterday (26/8). I think this is a good thing because it would be a shame if she wasted her 15 minutes of fame on a show that seems to be trying to go out with a whimper rather then a bang.
Thursday 26 August 2010
Dale Farm Eviction.
I've tried to avoid posting on this subject because generally travellers can take care of the themselves. However the hypocrisy of the situation is astounding.
Back in 1968 the UK government passed a law that made it a legal requirement for local district councils to provide sites for Irish Travellers and Romani Gypsies to set up camp. So in 1970 the Labour controlled Basildon District Council (BDC) gave planning permission for a 45 plot camp on the site of a disused scrap metal yard. This became known as Dale Farm. In 1994 the infamous Criminal Justice and Police Act 1994 removed this requirement so many traveller sites disappeared across the UK.
This shortage of housing prompted some of the travellers in the South of England to group together and purchase the land adjacent to Dale Farm in order to expand it by another 53 plots. After buying the land legally the travellers developed it by laying tarmac road ways, hardcourt bases for caravans and building permanent utility buildings to be used as toilet/shower blocks. They didn't have planning permission for this development which is a little bit naughty. However if they hadn't built and plumbed in the utility buildings they wouldn't have needed planning permission. Besides before the travellers brought the land it was being used as a scrap metal yard and most people would consider changing the use of the land from an industrial site to a residential site an improvement.
In 2003 the owners of Dale Farm began the process of applying for retrospective planning permission. They thought this would be easy because BDC had given the previous, non-traveller, owner of the land permission to use it as a dirty and noisy scrap yard between 1978 and 2001. The now Conservative controlled BDC responded by, in my opinion, wrongly re-classifying the land as protected Greenbelt land. Since then BDC have been campaigning to have the entire 98 plot site which is home to around 1000 people evicted on the grounds of environmental protection and an eviction order was issued in 2005. The argument is that if BDC allowed travellers to build where they like without planning permission then Britain's beautiful countryside would soon be destroyed.
A final appeal against the eviction order was denied by the Law Lords in July 2009 and since then BDC have being trying to find bailiffs brave enough to attempt the eviction. While these final preparations for eviction were being made Britain's new ConDem coalition government were elected on a platform of "Freedom, Fairness and Responsibility." One of the first policies announced by the Conservative Party Chairman Eric Pickles Department for Communities and Local Government was changes to the local planning legislation. Under the new policy landowners would no longer need planning permission to build on land they owned even if it is classed as protected Greenbelt. The message from the Conservative Party then seems quite clear; "Anyone can build anything they like on Greenbelt land except for members of this specific ethnic group. They're not welcome here."
So in true Big Brother fashion if you think the residents of Dale Farm should stay telephone, email or write to the Chief Executive of Basildon District Council at;
Mr Bala Mahendran,
Basildon Centre,
St Martain's Square,
SS14 - 1DL.
bala.mahendran@basildon.gov.uk
0126 853 3333.
And tell him. Likewise if you think the residents of Dale Farm should be evicted also contact Mr Mahendran and let him know.
Back in 1968 the UK government passed a law that made it a legal requirement for local district councils to provide sites for Irish Travellers and Romani Gypsies to set up camp. So in 1970 the Labour controlled Basildon District Council (BDC) gave planning permission for a 45 plot camp on the site of a disused scrap metal yard. This became known as Dale Farm. In 1994 the infamous Criminal Justice and Police Act 1994 removed this requirement so many traveller sites disappeared across the UK.
This shortage of housing prompted some of the travellers in the South of England to group together and purchase the land adjacent to Dale Farm in order to expand it by another 53 plots. After buying the land legally the travellers developed it by laying tarmac road ways, hardcourt bases for caravans and building permanent utility buildings to be used as toilet/shower blocks. They didn't have planning permission for this development which is a little bit naughty. However if they hadn't built and plumbed in the utility buildings they wouldn't have needed planning permission. Besides before the travellers brought the land it was being used as a scrap metal yard and most people would consider changing the use of the land from an industrial site to a residential site an improvement.
In 2003 the owners of Dale Farm began the process of applying for retrospective planning permission. They thought this would be easy because BDC had given the previous, non-traveller, owner of the land permission to use it as a dirty and noisy scrap yard between 1978 and 2001. The now Conservative controlled BDC responded by, in my opinion, wrongly re-classifying the land as protected Greenbelt land. Since then BDC have been campaigning to have the entire 98 plot site which is home to around 1000 people evicted on the grounds of environmental protection and an eviction order was issued in 2005. The argument is that if BDC allowed travellers to build where they like without planning permission then Britain's beautiful countryside would soon be destroyed.
A final appeal against the eviction order was denied by the Law Lords in July 2009 and since then BDC have being trying to find bailiffs brave enough to attempt the eviction. While these final preparations for eviction were being made Britain's new ConDem coalition government were elected on a platform of "Freedom, Fairness and Responsibility." One of the first policies announced by the Conservative Party Chairman Eric Pickles Department for Communities and Local Government was changes to the local planning legislation. Under the new policy landowners would no longer need planning permission to build on land they owned even if it is classed as protected Greenbelt. The message from the Conservative Party then seems quite clear; "Anyone can build anything they like on Greenbelt land except for members of this specific ethnic group. They're not welcome here."
So in true Big Brother fashion if you think the residents of Dale Farm should stay telephone, email or write to the Chief Executive of Basildon District Council at;
Mr Bala Mahendran,
Basildon Centre,
St Martain's Square,
SS14 - 1DL.
bala.mahendran@basildon.gov.uk
0126 853 3333.
And tell him. Likewise if you think the residents of Dale Farm should be evicted also contact Mr Mahendran and let him know.
Wednesday 25 August 2010
MI6 Murder Investigation.
No don't be silly the police aren't investigating one of MI6's various murders.
Instead the British police have launched a murder investigation after an MI6 officer who had been missing for three weeks was found dead in his apartment. Gareth Williams' body was found inside a sports holdall type bag in the bath of his Pimlico flat at around 21:10 last night (24/8). A mobile phone and a number of SIM cards were also found placed around the body.
Now I find it very hard to believe that if even a low ranking MI6 officer went missing his colleagues would wait three weeks before checking his home. So I think the most likely thing to have happened is that Mr Williams committed suicide out of guilt or out of that quest for perfection that very intelligent people offer suffer from. His colleagues then went on to the stage the crime scene so it could be "discovered" when they needed a James Bond style spy story to capture the imagination.
It's also possible but much less likely that Mr Williams was passing secret information on to a third party. So MI6 simply killed him to avoid a messy trial and create James Bond style spy story to capture the imagination.
Instead the British police have launched a murder investigation after an MI6 officer who had been missing for three weeks was found dead in his apartment. Gareth Williams' body was found inside a sports holdall type bag in the bath of his Pimlico flat at around 21:10 last night (24/8). A mobile phone and a number of SIM cards were also found placed around the body.
Now I find it very hard to believe that if even a low ranking MI6 officer went missing his colleagues would wait three weeks before checking his home. So I think the most likely thing to have happened is that Mr Williams committed suicide out of guilt or out of that quest for perfection that very intelligent people offer suffer from. His colleagues then went on to the stage the crime scene so it could be "discovered" when they needed a James Bond style spy story to capture the imagination.
It's also possible but much less likely that Mr Williams was passing secret information on to a third party. So MI6 simply killed him to avoid a messy trial and create James Bond style spy story to capture the imagination.
Claudy Bombing Report.
Yesterday (24/8) the British government released a report into the 1972 IRA bombing in Claudy. The report alleges that the British government and the Catholic Church colluded to not prosecute a Catholic Priest who may have had some involvement in the bombing.
By the sounds of things at the time the British security services had some intelligence but no evidence that the Priest may have played a small role in the bombing. They then threatened to tear the Catholic Church in Ireland apart looking for evidence which may or may have existed. The Catholic Church responded by moving the Priest to a new Parish in the Irish Republic in order to avoid an invasive and damaging investigation.
The purpose of bringing this up now is that the Pope is going to visit Britain later in the year. Britain is a quasi-Protestant theocracy with the Church of England at its core. Therefore it sees the Catholic Church as a threat to its existence. In preparation for the visit Britain is trying to whip up opposition to the Catholic Church in order to embarrass the Pope. This story certainly portrays the Catholic Church in a bad light and the practice of moving Priests between Parishes is reminiscent of the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland recently.
Also I made a mistake in the result of Big Brother 2010. It should have read;
5. Andrew,
4. JJ,
3. Mario,
2. Dave,
1. Josie.
By the sounds of things at the time the British security services had some intelligence but no evidence that the Priest may have played a small role in the bombing. They then threatened to tear the Catholic Church in Ireland apart looking for evidence which may or may have existed. The Catholic Church responded by moving the Priest to a new Parish in the Irish Republic in order to avoid an invasive and damaging investigation.
The purpose of bringing this up now is that the Pope is going to visit Britain later in the year. Britain is a quasi-Protestant theocracy with the Church of England at its core. Therefore it sees the Catholic Church as a threat to its existence. In preparation for the visit Britain is trying to whip up opposition to the Catholic Church in order to embarrass the Pope. This story certainly portrays the Catholic Church in a bad light and the practice of moving Priests between Parishes is reminiscent of the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland recently.
Also I made a mistake in the result of Big Brother 2010. It should have read;
5. Andrew,
4. JJ,
3. Mario,
2. Dave,
1. Josie.
Tuesday 24 August 2010
I Hate Democracy
Or at least the version that UK Big Brother is peddling. After quite a few weeks the Great British voting public have chosen as the winner of the £100,000 prize the woman who was already going to do very well out of magazine deals.
Anyway in reverse order the final results of UK Big Brother 2010 are;
4th. Andrew,
3rd, JJ,
2nd, Dave,
1st, Josie.
Josie goes on to join the ranks of Big Brother Champions of Champions which is made up of;
Anyway in reverse order the final results of UK Big Brother 2010 are;
4th. Andrew,
3rd, JJ,
2nd, Dave,
1st, Josie.
Josie goes on to join the ranks of Big Brother Champions of Champions which is made up of;
- Chantelle. The non-celebrity winner of one of the series of Celebrity Big Brother who went on to marry and divorce Preston of the band "The Ordinary Boys" who was in the same series of Celebrity Big Brother.
- Preston. The lead singer of the Ordinary Boys who married and divorced Chantelle off Celebrity Big Brother. The nation got to watch their love affair develop into marriage. I got to watch their marriage develop into divorce right at the bottom of Trafalgar Street, Brighton. It was during the 2006 World Cup. I was drunk and a little stoned. I had £5000 in my pocket because I was off to help my mate buy a van. It was a strange afternoon.
- Brian. The winner of Big Brother 2001 who went on to have a reasonably successful career presenting TV shows on the shopping channel.
- Nadia. The Portuguese male to female transsexual off Big Brother 2003.
- John McCirrick. Channel 4 (horse) Racing pundit who revealed himself to be an a***hole on one of the series of Big Brother.
- Makoise. The Zimbabwean nurse who found fame in Big Brother 2002 by having sex in the swimming pool.
- Ulrika Johnson. Famous as a team captain on Shooting Stars she was also apparently on a series of Celebrity Big Brother but is probably most famous as a shagger of Ex-England FC manager Sven Goren Erickson.
- Nikki Grahame. Insane ex-contestant from Big Brother 2005. With a history of eating disorders and mental distress she is the famous lover of Pete who had Tourettes
- With a "T", with "W", with an "A" and a "T" it's Coolio off some series of Celebrity Big Brother.
- "Nasty" Nick Batemen. A contestant from the original 2000 series of Big Brother Nasty Nick was the first person ever to be thrown out of the Big Brother house for cheating. If you've received your GCSE results today I wouldn't worry too much. On the day I received my A-Level results Nasty Nick was thrown out of the Big Brother house. I can't remember my A-Level results but I can certainly remember the first series of Big Brother.
I Hate the Underground.
I've just submitted yet another statement to the Court of Protection. This involves getting on a Northern Line Underground train at Balham and staying on it for 45-50 minutes all the way to Archway. I then get off the train and spend 5 minutes submitting the documents before getting straight back on the train at Archway and travelling all the way back down the Northern Line to Balham. I had to stop off at a pub to preserve my sanity and remind myself what natural daylight looks like.
The statement I submitted today was basically just to inform the Court of Protection about this Magistrates Court business. I also included a short rebuttal of the statement the solicitor has submitted. I know I haven't put up a copy of the solicitors statement but that's because it requires a certain understanding of British legal practice to understand fully. Therefore putting it up now would only lead to more confusion. However it's fair to say that there is a certain level of inconsistency between what the solicitor attempts to present as fact and the events which I witnessed. Obviously I didn't have the foresight to video tape the events in question so I can't prove the solicitor is lying but I can raise enough questions so no credible judge will be able to take the solicitor's statement at face value.
The statement I submitted today was basically just to inform the Court of Protection about this Magistrates Court business. I also included a short rebuttal of the statement the solicitor has submitted. I know I haven't put up a copy of the solicitors statement but that's because it requires a certain understanding of British legal practice to understand fully. Therefore putting it up now would only lead to more confusion. However it's fair to say that there is a certain level of inconsistency between what the solicitor attempts to present as fact and the events which I witnessed. Obviously I didn't have the foresight to video tape the events in question so I can't prove the solicitor is lying but I can raise enough questions so no credible judge will be able to take the solicitor's statement at face value.
Monday 23 August 2010
Climate Camp's Big Day of Action.
Since its official start on August 20th activists from the UK Climate Camp have been undertaking actions to highlight the problem of Climate Change and the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) role in contributing to it.
In order to introduce themselves on the first day of the camp 150 protesters marched on the buildings at the heart of the RBS HQ. They sang, they danced, they waved banners and they invited all the RBS employees to lunch at the camp although that offer was declined. One female protester decided to superglue herself to the front reception desk and was arrested for her trouble. The other 149 protesters returned to the camp and along with around another 500 campers spent the evening being entertained by live music and stand up comedy while planning and preparing for the next four days of the camp.
The second day of the camp, Saturday 21st, was always going to be quiet protest wise as campers spent their time putting the finishing touches to the camp and getting to know other campers from around the country. The main planned event of the day was a sort of field trip to the Midlothian village of Cousland which is threatend by the construction of yet another open cast mine at nearby Airfield farm. At Cousland campers met with the local residents who are opposed to the mines construction and showed solidarity by marching with them to the proposed site of the mine. The slightly Communist nature of the protest meant that sadly only around 50 campers made the trip to Cousland. The rest stayed on site to chat, practice and attend meeting and listen to speeches including one by two indigenous representatives of Canada's First Nations who face losing their homeland to the RBS funded Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline in British Columbia and the equally RBS funded Alberta Tar Sands stupidity. After these meetings around 200 campers decided to do something about it there and then by once again marching on the buildings of the RBS HQ. During this incursion some windows were smashed. Exact details are a bit hard to come by at the moment but this seems to be the rather stupid action of a small number of protesters with hammers rather then being representative of the marchers let alone the Climate Camp as a whole.
On the Sunday, August 22nd, the activity inclined climate campers took to the streets of Edinburgh to raise awareness of Climate Change and RBS's role in funding it. The highlight of the day was a flashmob style song and dance troupe that preformed a specially choreographed version of Lady Gaga's Poker Face outside the St Andrews Square branch of RBS. After that branch had been successfully closed for the day these dirty oil singers hijacked an RBS sponsored Fringe Festival stage and preformed again and again. Other branches of RBS across Edinburgh were closed for the day with a variety of superglue and stink bombs. The main part of Sunday's action was the tried, tested and often tedious method of simply handing out flyers and talking to passers-by to let them know about RBS and the vast sums of money it gives to environmentally destructive industries. Anyone who would stop and listen were no doubt also told about RBS' extensive "greenwashing." This is where a business attempts to clean it's reputation by claiming to support environmental projects such as Biofuels in the case of RBS. In reality the company rarely gives any real support to these projects and the projects themselves are often more environmentally damaging then the problem the claiming to solve.
Today, Monday 23rd of August, was billed as the camps big day of direct action and the campers didn't waste anytime getting started. Shortly after dawn seven protesters blocked the road entrance to the RBS HQ by supergluing themselves to the car park entrance. At around the same time another seven activists took to the roof of the offices of Forth Energy in Leith to raise awareness of the company's proposed building of four biomass generators in Scotland. This is a perfect example of RBS's greenwashing. it is claimed that these biomass generators will be a carbon neutral, renewable energy source because it only burns wood which only releases the greenhouse gases that it has absorbed when growing. What Forth Energy (and the UK government who subsidies the project with around £300m) fail to mention is that some 95% of this wood will have to be imported from South America generating huge carbon emissions as it's cut down and shipped across the Atlantic. They're also not keen to have it known that once these trees have been cut down they won't be replaced with more trees. Instead they'll be replaced by farms growing eucalyptus plants significantly changing the landscape and further destroying one of the World's largest carbon sinks.
At around 11:00 another group of protesters delivered a sort Trojan Pig to the headquarters of Cairn Energy, an oil exploration company. After this "gift" had been accepted the two metre long pig dumped it's cargo, a black oil like substance, all over the floor of the offices reception and steps. The technically minded protesters then used converted fire extinguishers to spray more of this "oil" onto the walls of the building. This was done to highlight that, with RBS funding, Cairn Energy intend to start drilling for oil in the sea off the coast of Greenland. Apart from the dangers of off-shore drilling that should now be obvious to everyone environmentalists are especially angry about this project because the only reason oil drilling is now possible in the area is because the burning of oil has melted the sea ice.
Throughout the day branches of RBS were picketed across Edinburgh and banners were dropped over the A8 road and in the North Bridge area. Three protesters also managed to shut down the Nicolson Street branch of RBS by supergluing themselves to the entrance. They were soon removed and arrested but quickly replaced by five more protesters who had much better luck with chains and padlocks.
The main event of the the day was a mass march on the RBS HQ in an attempt the shut it down by laying siege to it. They were helped by a six metre high replica of a medieval siege machine complete with catapult that the campers had built. Although successful the police did not see the funny side of this. So when an unconnected truck accidentally spilt some diesel on a dual carriageway they immediately issued a statement claiming it was a deliberate attempt by Climate Campers to endanger innocent motorists. The annoying thing about that is that as lies the police tell about Climate Camp go that isn't even one of the more entertaining ones.
The current arrest total for the week is 14 with 13 of those coming today. The campers are currently enjoying their last night on site before the hard work of returning the site to nature begins tomorrow.
In order to introduce themselves on the first day of the camp 150 protesters marched on the buildings at the heart of the RBS HQ. They sang, they danced, they waved banners and they invited all the RBS employees to lunch at the camp although that offer was declined. One female protester decided to superglue herself to the front reception desk and was arrested for her trouble. The other 149 protesters returned to the camp and along with around another 500 campers spent the evening being entertained by live music and stand up comedy while planning and preparing for the next four days of the camp.
The second day of the camp, Saturday 21st, was always going to be quiet protest wise as campers spent their time putting the finishing touches to the camp and getting to know other campers from around the country. The main planned event of the day was a sort of field trip to the Midlothian village of Cousland which is threatend by the construction of yet another open cast mine at nearby Airfield farm. At Cousland campers met with the local residents who are opposed to the mines construction and showed solidarity by marching with them to the proposed site of the mine. The slightly Communist nature of the protest meant that sadly only around 50 campers made the trip to Cousland. The rest stayed on site to chat, practice and attend meeting and listen to speeches including one by two indigenous representatives of Canada's First Nations who face losing their homeland to the RBS funded Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline in British Columbia and the equally RBS funded Alberta Tar Sands stupidity. After these meetings around 200 campers decided to do something about it there and then by once again marching on the buildings of the RBS HQ. During this incursion some windows were smashed. Exact details are a bit hard to come by at the moment but this seems to be the rather stupid action of a small number of protesters with hammers rather then being representative of the marchers let alone the Climate Camp as a whole.
On the Sunday, August 22nd, the activity inclined climate campers took to the streets of Edinburgh to raise awareness of Climate Change and RBS's role in funding it. The highlight of the day was a flashmob style song and dance troupe that preformed a specially choreographed version of Lady Gaga's Poker Face outside the St Andrews Square branch of RBS. After that branch had been successfully closed for the day these dirty oil singers hijacked an RBS sponsored Fringe Festival stage and preformed again and again. Other branches of RBS across Edinburgh were closed for the day with a variety of superglue and stink bombs. The main part of Sunday's action was the tried, tested and often tedious method of simply handing out flyers and talking to passers-by to let them know about RBS and the vast sums of money it gives to environmentally destructive industries. Anyone who would stop and listen were no doubt also told about RBS' extensive "greenwashing." This is where a business attempts to clean it's reputation by claiming to support environmental projects such as Biofuels in the case of RBS. In reality the company rarely gives any real support to these projects and the projects themselves are often more environmentally damaging then the problem the claiming to solve.
Today, Monday 23rd of August, was billed as the camps big day of direct action and the campers didn't waste anytime getting started. Shortly after dawn seven protesters blocked the road entrance to the RBS HQ by supergluing themselves to the car park entrance. At around the same time another seven activists took to the roof of the offices of Forth Energy in Leith to raise awareness of the company's proposed building of four biomass generators in Scotland. This is a perfect example of RBS's greenwashing. it is claimed that these biomass generators will be a carbon neutral, renewable energy source because it only burns wood which only releases the greenhouse gases that it has absorbed when growing. What Forth Energy (and the UK government who subsidies the project with around £300m) fail to mention is that some 95% of this wood will have to be imported from South America generating huge carbon emissions as it's cut down and shipped across the Atlantic. They're also not keen to have it known that once these trees have been cut down they won't be replaced with more trees. Instead they'll be replaced by farms growing eucalyptus plants significantly changing the landscape and further destroying one of the World's largest carbon sinks.
At around 11:00 another group of protesters delivered a sort Trojan Pig to the headquarters of Cairn Energy, an oil exploration company. After this "gift" had been accepted the two metre long pig dumped it's cargo, a black oil like substance, all over the floor of the offices reception and steps. The technically minded protesters then used converted fire extinguishers to spray more of this "oil" onto the walls of the building. This was done to highlight that, with RBS funding, Cairn Energy intend to start drilling for oil in the sea off the coast of Greenland. Apart from the dangers of off-shore drilling that should now be obvious to everyone environmentalists are especially angry about this project because the only reason oil drilling is now possible in the area is because the burning of oil has melted the sea ice.
Throughout the day branches of RBS were picketed across Edinburgh and banners were dropped over the A8 road and in the North Bridge area. Three protesters also managed to shut down the Nicolson Street branch of RBS by supergluing themselves to the entrance. They were soon removed and arrested but quickly replaced by five more protesters who had much better luck with chains and padlocks.
The main event of the the day was a mass march on the RBS HQ in an attempt the shut it down by laying siege to it. They were helped by a six metre high replica of a medieval siege machine complete with catapult that the campers had built. Although successful the police did not see the funny side of this. So when an unconnected truck accidentally spilt some diesel on a dual carriageway they immediately issued a statement claiming it was a deliberate attempt by Climate Campers to endanger innocent motorists. The annoying thing about that is that as lies the police tell about Climate Camp go that isn't even one of the more entertaining ones.
The current arrest total for the week is 14 with 13 of those coming today. The campers are currently enjoying their last night on site before the hard work of returning the site to nature begins tomorrow.
Saturday 21 August 2010
I Am Home Safe.
And obviously a little bit drunk. I am also hugely annoyed about Southern Trains entirely false claim about having Wi-Fi on their trains. The important thing though is that I am here posting rather then in some police station somewhere.
This evening I have been off visiting a friend in Brighton. You may remember this friend as the guy who had that car accident on the day of the England V Algeria World Cup match. Having heard his side of the story it would appear that he was approaching a Zebra Crossing outside a school and therefore sticking strictly to the 30mph speed limit. Then a white, middle aged construction worker who couldn't keep up with the Polish immigrants decided to make an illegal and quite frankly inexplicable U-turn. This left my friend with the choice between smashing into the side of his van or smashing into the side of the school. He decided to smash into the side of the van. Obviously the police, being friends with the construction worker, couldn't compliment my friend on his very good driving. They did though caution the construction worker for dangerous driving. By accepting the caution and admitting the criminal offence the construction worker also admitted to the courts and all insurance companies that he was totally at fault for the accident. Despite this the insurance companies are refusing to pay for the damage caused by the accident on the grounds that my friend was not the registered keeper of the vehicle, a fact that he declared when he signed the contract with the insurance company. The insurers are also insisting that my friends girlfriend/wife undergoes 5+ counselling session with a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma of the accident.
Tonight I also got to meet Patch, the same friends new, tiny, Jack Russell puppy. Here I feel lied to because while a puppy Patch neither tiny nor, strictly speaking a Jack Russell. On the plus side though I think that with the proper training we may well have a championship ratter on our hands.
So basically the summary version is that I smell of dog.
This evening I have been off visiting a friend in Brighton. You may remember this friend as the guy who had that car accident on the day of the England V Algeria World Cup match. Having heard his side of the story it would appear that he was approaching a Zebra Crossing outside a school and therefore sticking strictly to the 30mph speed limit. Then a white, middle aged construction worker who couldn't keep up with the Polish immigrants decided to make an illegal and quite frankly inexplicable U-turn. This left my friend with the choice between smashing into the side of his van or smashing into the side of the school. He decided to smash into the side of the van. Obviously the police, being friends with the construction worker, couldn't compliment my friend on his very good driving. They did though caution the construction worker for dangerous driving. By accepting the caution and admitting the criminal offence the construction worker also admitted to the courts and all insurance companies that he was totally at fault for the accident. Despite this the insurance companies are refusing to pay for the damage caused by the accident on the grounds that my friend was not the registered keeper of the vehicle, a fact that he declared when he signed the contract with the insurance company. The insurers are also insisting that my friends girlfriend/wife undergoes 5+ counselling session with a psychiatrist to deal with the trauma of the accident.
Tonight I also got to meet Patch, the same friends new, tiny, Jack Russell puppy. Here I feel lied to because while a puppy Patch neither tiny nor, strictly speaking a Jack Russell. On the plus side though I think that with the proper training we may well have a championship ratter on our hands.
So basically the summary version is that I smell of dog.
Friday 20 August 2010
Big Brother Armageddon.
I've finally worked out what happened in the UK version of Big Brother last Friday (13/8). Jo was evicted from the house by public vote which I think was a good thing because she didn't seem to be enjoying her time in the house. The producers then revealed their big surprise. The competition part of the series would end on Tuesday August 24th with the winner being announced during a live show. The producers would then fill the house with past winners and popular contestants from previous series to give the show a last hurrah as the final series comes to an end.
In order to bring the show to an early end this week four housemates were evicted from the show and all the housemates faced the public vote. All that is except Josie who was awarded a golden ticket that guarantees her a place in the final. That golden ticket was awarded during last Friday's live show by the other housemates. This time it was Andrew who took control of the high pressure situation. The fact he chose Josie didn't come as much of a surprise because as soon as he entered the house Andrew developed an almost unhealthy infatuation with Josie that the other housemates had to put pressure on him to tone it down.
If all this wasn't dramatic enough on Tuesday night (17/8) the forces of nature seemed to conspire to wipe the Big Brother house from the face of the earth during a flash flood. The Big Brother house is a temporary, flat-roofed structure that isn't exactly up to building code. Through out the series the housemates have been entertaining themselves by playing makeshift football with balled up socks. Many of these socks ended up on the roof of the house and in the guttering. So when an intense summer thunder storm struck on Tuesday night about one and a half feet of water gathered on the roof. With the drains blocked this water had nowhere else to go other then straight down, into the house which is packed with cameras. microphones and miles of electrical cable. This forced the producers to evacuate the housemates to an office building on the site for around six hours while the house was made safe and a temporary bedroom was set up. This meant the housemates spent most of the week confined to the garden and the temporary bedroom while the production crew tried to dry out the rest of the house in between bouts of sitting quietly in the corner rocking gently.
Nervous breakdowns aside the four housemates that have been evicted tonight (20/8) were;
Steve,
Corin,
Sam,
John James.
This leaves in the final;
Josie,
Andrew,
Mario,
JJ,
Dave.
Personally I'm a bit surprised by that because I thought Steve and Corin were certainties for the final. However the voting appears to have been taking over by teenage girls.
In order to bring the show to an early end this week four housemates were evicted from the show and all the housemates faced the public vote. All that is except Josie who was awarded a golden ticket that guarantees her a place in the final. That golden ticket was awarded during last Friday's live show by the other housemates. This time it was Andrew who took control of the high pressure situation. The fact he chose Josie didn't come as much of a surprise because as soon as he entered the house Andrew developed an almost unhealthy infatuation with Josie that the other housemates had to put pressure on him to tone it down.
If all this wasn't dramatic enough on Tuesday night (17/8) the forces of nature seemed to conspire to wipe the Big Brother house from the face of the earth during a flash flood. The Big Brother house is a temporary, flat-roofed structure that isn't exactly up to building code. Through out the series the housemates have been entertaining themselves by playing makeshift football with balled up socks. Many of these socks ended up on the roof of the house and in the guttering. So when an intense summer thunder storm struck on Tuesday night about one and a half feet of water gathered on the roof. With the drains blocked this water had nowhere else to go other then straight down, into the house which is packed with cameras. microphones and miles of electrical cable. This forced the producers to evacuate the housemates to an office building on the site for around six hours while the house was made safe and a temporary bedroom was set up. This meant the housemates spent most of the week confined to the garden and the temporary bedroom while the production crew tried to dry out the rest of the house in between bouts of sitting quietly in the corner rocking gently.
Nervous breakdowns aside the four housemates that have been evicted tonight (20/8) were;
Steve,
Corin,
Sam,
John James.
This leaves in the final;
Josie,
Andrew,
Mario,
JJ,
Dave.
Personally I'm a bit surprised by that because I thought Steve and Corin were certainties for the final. However the voting appears to have been taking over by teenage girls.
Bad Climate Camp! Naughty Climate Camp!
To the suprise of no-one except me the Climate Campers have set up their camp almost two days early in the very early hours of Thursday August 18th. This annoys me because I was planning on them being a day late. The camp has been set up at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) headquarters in Gogarburn Gardens (E12 9BH) just outside Edinburgh, Scotland.
It is important to understand that the camp has not been set up near to the RBS HQ or in a field overlooking the RBS HQ. It is actually within the grounds of the RBS HQ. Obviously this means that it has been set up on private property so RBS can evict it just as soon as a court date becomes available. This isn't expected to happen until Tuesday August 24th when the camp is scheduled to come to an end anyway. Therefore RBS probably won't bother and instead try and make some money by renting out parts of the HQ to police to set up the inevitable observation posts. Likewise Edingburgh council, who were informed of the camps location in advance by the campers, are being co-operative even offering to connect the camp to the mains water supply. They're doing this because they're hoping they'll win a prize from the state by using the Climate Camp as a practice session for the upcoming Dale Farm eviction. Dale Farm is a long standing Gyspy/Traveller site in Basildon, Essex which is actually owned by some of the Travellers who live there. As sort of a first wave of Britain's ConDem government's class war Dale Farm is expected to be evicted very soon. If previous attempts to evict Traveller sites of this size and scale are anything to go by the Dale Farm eviction will be very difficult and could actually fail.
Despite this apparent lack of activist credentials we shouldn't mock the Climate Camp for too long. After all the Brits plan was for the entire movement to die a gruesome death in a South London field at around this time last year. Their escape from the grave has not been made any easier by the fact that 2010 is a complicated year for both the science and politics of global warming/climate change.
While both global warming and climate change have both, indisputably taken place there is still an argument over what has caused them. Some people, me included, think that it is the result of humans releasing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the earths atmosphere increasing the amount of the sun's energy that gets trapped on the earth's surface. Other people, mainly oil companies, think it is the result of an increase in the amount of energy being released by the sun due to natural solar cycles. In mid-2008 the high point in this natural solar cycle came to an end and global temperatures accordingly dropped dramatically. In 2009 the solar cycle remained more or less constant giving scientists a unique opportunity to examine the effect it has on global temperatures. If global warming was purely due to increased solar cycles then in 2009 you would expect to see global temperatures to continue to fall as excess heat continued to leave the earth. However if global warming is the result of greenhouse gas emissions then in 2009 you would expect to see global temperatures to either stabilise or possibly even begin to rise again slightly.
As always in science a single set of data is going to be inconclusive. However the fact that the people who have access to this data seem to be in no hurry to release it would suggest that the trend has not gone the way that supporters of the solar cycle theory would have hoped.
Going back to the Climate Camp itself it is located close to Edinburgh airport and is literally a stones throw away from the RBS HQ so has plenty of potential targets for direct action. However it is also located close to Edinburgh itself which is currently hosting the World famous Edinburgh Arts festival along with the highly fashionable Edinburgh Fringe festival. Therefore I expect this years Climate Camp to be more of a social event then an activist event. That really should be quite a lot of fun providing the participants remember where they are.
It is important to understand that the camp has not been set up near to the RBS HQ or in a field overlooking the RBS HQ. It is actually within the grounds of the RBS HQ. Obviously this means that it has been set up on private property so RBS can evict it just as soon as a court date becomes available. This isn't expected to happen until Tuesday August 24th when the camp is scheduled to come to an end anyway. Therefore RBS probably won't bother and instead try and make some money by renting out parts of the HQ to police to set up the inevitable observation posts. Likewise Edingburgh council, who were informed of the camps location in advance by the campers, are being co-operative even offering to connect the camp to the mains water supply. They're doing this because they're hoping they'll win a prize from the state by using the Climate Camp as a practice session for the upcoming Dale Farm eviction. Dale Farm is a long standing Gyspy/Traveller site in Basildon, Essex which is actually owned by some of the Travellers who live there. As sort of a first wave of Britain's ConDem government's class war Dale Farm is expected to be evicted very soon. If previous attempts to evict Traveller sites of this size and scale are anything to go by the Dale Farm eviction will be very difficult and could actually fail.
Despite this apparent lack of activist credentials we shouldn't mock the Climate Camp for too long. After all the Brits plan was for the entire movement to die a gruesome death in a South London field at around this time last year. Their escape from the grave has not been made any easier by the fact that 2010 is a complicated year for both the science and politics of global warming/climate change.
While both global warming and climate change have both, indisputably taken place there is still an argument over what has caused them. Some people, me included, think that it is the result of humans releasing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the earths atmosphere increasing the amount of the sun's energy that gets trapped on the earth's surface. Other people, mainly oil companies, think it is the result of an increase in the amount of energy being released by the sun due to natural solar cycles. In mid-2008 the high point in this natural solar cycle came to an end and global temperatures accordingly dropped dramatically. In 2009 the solar cycle remained more or less constant giving scientists a unique opportunity to examine the effect it has on global temperatures. If global warming was purely due to increased solar cycles then in 2009 you would expect to see global temperatures to continue to fall as excess heat continued to leave the earth. However if global warming is the result of greenhouse gas emissions then in 2009 you would expect to see global temperatures to either stabilise or possibly even begin to rise again slightly.
As always in science a single set of data is going to be inconclusive. However the fact that the people who have access to this data seem to be in no hurry to release it would suggest that the trend has not gone the way that supporters of the solar cycle theory would have hoped.
Going back to the Climate Camp itself it is located close to Edinburgh airport and is literally a stones throw away from the RBS HQ so has plenty of potential targets for direct action. However it is also located close to Edinburgh itself which is currently hosting the World famous Edinburgh Arts festival along with the highly fashionable Edinburgh Fringe festival. Therefore I expect this years Climate Camp to be more of a social event then an activist event. That really should be quite a lot of fun providing the participants remember where they are.
Thursday 19 August 2010
The Cleaner's Quit.
Helen, my grandmother's cleaner/nurse today (19/8) told us that she will be working her last shift tomorrow (20/8).
In spite of the lack of notice this comes as no surprise. The Croydon lot have never been keen on her. After all by charging £10 per hour she was not sucking money out of my grandmother's accounts anywhere near as fast as the council approved people could do by charging £20 per hour. When I decided to spare her blushes by leaving her of of the Court of Protection proceedings the Croydon lot took this as a sign that I considered her an ally and that was the final straw. Since then they've been putting her under immense (by Croydon standards) pressure which has led to her suffering panic attacks and quitting. Obviously this is the Croydon lots counter move for my visit to the Magistrates today so I can't really comment on how effective it may or may not be.
I should point out though that I made a mistake earlier. When I visited the Court today it wasn't just me, some admin staff and some security staff. It was me, some admin staff, some security staff and a dwarf. I can't believe I forgot about the dwarf.
In spite of the lack of notice this comes as no surprise. The Croydon lot have never been keen on her. After all by charging £10 per hour she was not sucking money out of my grandmother's accounts anywhere near as fast as the council approved people could do by charging £20 per hour. When I decided to spare her blushes by leaving her of of the Court of Protection proceedings the Croydon lot took this as a sign that I considered her an ally and that was the final straw. Since then they've been putting her under immense (by Croydon standards) pressure which has led to her suffering panic attacks and quitting. Obviously this is the Croydon lots counter move for my visit to the Magistrates today so I can't really comment on how effective it may or may not be.
I should point out though that I made a mistake earlier. When I visited the Court today it wasn't just me, some admin staff and some security staff. It was me, some admin staff, some security staff and a dwarf. I can't believe I forgot about the dwarf.
Job Done
At around 12:00 today (19/8) I paid that £200 fee to Croydon Magistrates Court. The exact time will be on the electronic money transfer. It's a good job I went in early because it would appear that the Court used the two days warning I gave them to make sure the Court would be closing at 13:00 today. Apparently they had some extra special maintaince work that absolutley had to been done today.
As it was so close to closing time the entire Court was more or less empty apart from me, one member of admin staff and all of the Courts security staff. Have you ever had that feeling that some really aren't happy to see you.
As it was so close to closing time the entire Court was more or less empty apart from me, one member of admin staff and all of the Courts security staff. Have you ever had that feeling that some really aren't happy to see you.
Wednesday 18 August 2010
Did I Just Sleep Through a Jewish Conspiracy.
As you may or may not know both Israel and Turkey have begun their respective inquiries into the shootings aboard the Mavi Marmara on May 31st 2010. The UN have also begun their inquiry into the incident although this will simply consider the findings or the Turkish and Israeli inquiries. On Monday August 16th the BBC aired a controversial Panorama documentary about the incident. I didn't watch the program but what I've heard it seems to have laid all the blame on the Turkish passengers on the ship.
Yesterday (17/8) in the European Champions League football tournament the English side Tottenham Hotspur (the Jews in football code) played the Swiss side Young Boys Bern (prn burn). That's obviously a make up name with paedophilic overtones designed to unsettle people making enquiries about the details of Swiss bank account holders. Details about Swiss bank accounts are said to as hard to come by as moon rock but some are rumoured to contain gold that was stolen from Jewish families by the Nazis.
Also yesterday a man from the Palestinian West Bank stormed the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel taking two people hostage. The siege ended peacefully after about six hours and the hostage taker was revealed to be Nadim Injaz who in 2006 stormed the British Embassy in Tel Aviv. In 2001 the Israelis built a large wall between the West Bank and Israel. The Israelis call this a security barrier that protects them from terrorist attack. The Palestinians call it an apartheid wall designed to make them second class citizens in their own country. Either way Palestinians require a permit from the Israeli government to cross from the West Bank into Israel. These permits are very difficult to obtain and the Palestinians have repeatedly accused the Israelis of deliberately withholding them in order to prevent Palestinians from finding work. As Nadim Injaz doesn't appear to have a job in Israel and has a history of mounting armed raids against foreign embassies I'd be very interested to know how his was able to obtain one of those permits. His lawyer has claimed he was able to obtain one because he was Israeli informer during the 1990's and early 2000's. I wouldn't go so far as to say he was a Shin Bet asset but he does seem rather mentally unstable and therefore very susceptible to manipulation. If that's the case then it means Israels diplomatic response to the Turkish inquiry into the Mavi Marmara incident was to declare war on Turkey by invading their sovereign territory.
On a totally unrelated note a British Court has today passed sentenced on two 11 year old boys who had been convicted of the attempted rape of an 8 year old girl. This coincides with a the release of a report into prostitution and sex trafficking. The report claims that half of all the trafficked women being forced to work as prostitutes in Britain have been trafficked from China. There are rumours that in the 1980's Britain's MI6 attempted to undermine the Chinese state by strengthening Chinese organised crime gangs. This was done by paying these criminal to traffic Chinese children out of China so British paedophiles could have sex with them. Unfortunately this coincided with the introduction of China's one child policy when Chinese parents were encouraged to get rid of some of their children. I'm not actually sure what part of that story makes angriest. The paedophilia or the failure. Either way you can see why the Chinese would like an apology.
Yesterday (17/8) in the European Champions League football tournament the English side Tottenham Hotspur (the Jews in football code) played the Swiss side Young Boys Bern (prn burn). That's obviously a make up name with paedophilic overtones designed to unsettle people making enquiries about the details of Swiss bank account holders. Details about Swiss bank accounts are said to as hard to come by as moon rock but some are rumoured to contain gold that was stolen from Jewish families by the Nazis.
Also yesterday a man from the Palestinian West Bank stormed the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel taking two people hostage. The siege ended peacefully after about six hours and the hostage taker was revealed to be Nadim Injaz who in 2006 stormed the British Embassy in Tel Aviv. In 2001 the Israelis built a large wall between the West Bank and Israel. The Israelis call this a security barrier that protects them from terrorist attack. The Palestinians call it an apartheid wall designed to make them second class citizens in their own country. Either way Palestinians require a permit from the Israeli government to cross from the West Bank into Israel. These permits are very difficult to obtain and the Palestinians have repeatedly accused the Israelis of deliberately withholding them in order to prevent Palestinians from finding work. As Nadim Injaz doesn't appear to have a job in Israel and has a history of mounting armed raids against foreign embassies I'd be very interested to know how his was able to obtain one of those permits. His lawyer has claimed he was able to obtain one because he was Israeli informer during the 1990's and early 2000's. I wouldn't go so far as to say he was a Shin Bet asset but he does seem rather mentally unstable and therefore very susceptible to manipulation. If that's the case then it means Israels diplomatic response to the Turkish inquiry into the Mavi Marmara incident was to declare war on Turkey by invading their sovereign territory.
On a totally unrelated note a British Court has today passed sentenced on two 11 year old boys who had been convicted of the attempted rape of an 8 year old girl. This coincides with a the release of a report into prostitution and sex trafficking. The report claims that half of all the trafficked women being forced to work as prostitutes in Britain have been trafficked from China. There are rumours that in the 1980's Britain's MI6 attempted to undermine the Chinese state by strengthening Chinese organised crime gangs. This was done by paying these criminal to traffic Chinese children out of China so British paedophiles could have sex with them. Unfortunately this coincided with the introduction of China's one child policy when Chinese parents were encouraged to get rid of some of their children. I'm not actually sure what part of that story makes angriest. The paedophilia or the failure. Either way you can see why the Chinese would like an apology.
Tuesday 17 August 2010
Suffolk Train Crash
At 17:30 a sewage tanker/ Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) collided with a train at a level crossing in the UK county of Suffolk. While the driver of the HGV has not been identified he was on a regular route from a local sewage works. All drivers on that route should have been told that they need to telephone the local rail signal box to request permission to cross the railway line. On this occasion the driver failed to do so resulting in a collision with a train that left 18 people injured but none dead.
Although the times do not match up I think this accident was a rather late attempt by the Brits to force the Israelis to publicly admit that they had a hostage situation developing at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv. At the time of writing there is no news on how that hostage situation is progressing.
Edited to add@ 23:07: It turns out that Israeli hostage situation has been resolved. The Israeli authorities have arrested Nadim Injaz, a Palestinian from Ramallah who was arrested for trying to storm the UK Embassy in Tel Aviv back in 2006. Makes you wonder about the loyalty of some of those West Bank Palestinians really doesn't it.
Although the times do not match up I think this accident was a rather late attempt by the Brits to force the Israelis to publicly admit that they had a hostage situation developing at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv. At the time of writing there is no news on how that hostage situation is progressing.
Edited to add@ 23:07: It turns out that Israeli hostage situation has been resolved. The Israeli authorities have arrested Nadim Injaz, a Palestinian from Ramallah who was arrested for trying to storm the UK Embassy in Tel Aviv back in 2006. Makes you wonder about the loyalty of some of those West Bank Palestinians really doesn't it.
Now That is Annoying
About 20 minutes before I left for the usual Tuesday night pub visit I received a copy of the witness statement the solicitor David White will be submitting to the Court of Protection. The problem is I do not know if he has yet formally submitted it into evidence. Therefore it would be unwise for me to comment on the content of that statement.
Also there is apparently something of a hostage situation developing at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. Although all I know about this is what I've learned from watching the TV in the pub with the sound off my first instinct is that it is the work of a lone Jewish religious zealot/nutcase. I don't think I need to explain to the Israelis that they going to have to be really careful about deciding if they're going to send in their commandos to storm the Embassy.
Also there is apparently something of a hostage situation developing at the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. Although all I know about this is what I've learned from watching the TV in the pub with the sound off my first instinct is that it is the work of a lone Jewish religious zealot/nutcase. I don't think I need to explain to the Israelis that they going to have to be really careful about deciding if they're going to send in their commandos to storm the Embassy.
Wow Tories Are Strange.
Today the UK's Conservative (tory) government has announced that it will be introducing a "Freedom Bill" in Novembers Queen's Speech. The main policy of this bill appears to be the banning of clamping of cars illegally parked on private property. As I'm sure you'll agree that issue is one of the cornerstones of a free society right up there with the freedom to vote, the freedom to enjoy a private life and the freedom to live without being tortured(!)
In fact the announcement is so ridiculous that along with the announcement that speed cameras are to be abolished you're sure there must be some hidden subtext. There's not. Believe it or not speed cameras and parking regulations are key motivational issues for core Conservative party voters. Therefore the announcements are just an attempt to assure those key supporters that the Conservative government are making an important and valuable contribution to life in Britain. By allowing the LibDem division of the Conservative government to make today's announcement they're trying to shore up their commitment to liberal policies.
In fact the announcement is so ridiculous that along with the announcement that speed cameras are to be abolished you're sure there must be some hidden subtext. There's not. Believe it or not speed cameras and parking regulations are key motivational issues for core Conservative party voters. Therefore the announcements are just an attempt to assure those key supporters that the Conservative government are making an important and valuable contribution to life in Britain. By allowing the LibDem division of the Conservative government to make today's announcement they're trying to shore up their commitment to liberal policies.
Monday 16 August 2010
Climate Camp Wales Has Begun.
And ended about 18 hours later.
I've always thought the idea of holding small, regional protests rather then large, national protests is a bit silly. As if to prove just how silly on August 13th Climate Camp Cymru (Wales) set itself up on the protected ruins of a Roman fort within the exclusion zone around the proposed extension to the Selar opencast mine. This new extension is expected to make an awful lot of money for the mine operator (Celtic Energy) and the landowner. Local politicians have been swayed in favour of the proposal because it promises to bring a small number of jobs to a part of South Wales with very high levels of unemployment. Due to very environmentally damaging nature of opencast mining local residents are not so keen on the idea. This has provoked a long running and bitter dispute between Celtic Energy along with the local courts against the the local residents who don't want the mine extension to go ahead.
As soon as the camp set up on the Friday the mine operator and the landowner started putting pressure on the local police to take action. They also started putting pressure on Cadw who are responsible for historic sites in Wales. By the time Cadw had got onto the police on the Saturday the police had had enough and suggested that the 30 or so Climate Campers left the site. Very sensibly the campers agreed and left. They have since set up a new site on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea however this is not so much a protest camp as a large family going on a camping holiday in the Welsh countryside. On the plus side though in preparation for the Welsh Climate Camp the Brits had prepared lots of news stories about how brilliant opencast mining and how wonderful everyone in Britain thinks it is because it brings jobs. Now the camps been moved all those stories have had to be pulled.
The Climate Camp proper will take place somewhere in Scotland sometime later in August. On August 28th the English Defence League (EDL) will be attempting to provoke a race riot in Bradford. Obviously already running scared the EDL have timed this to co-incide with the Notting Hill Carnival in the hope that the clash of events will minimise any opposition. While the police are fully aware of the EDL's plans this is one occasion when I think it would be a good idea to hold a counter-demonstration against the EDL. If there is not a multi-racial presence in Bradford that weekend and it does end in violence the Crown will be quick to impose very heavy sentences on any Muslims who try to prevent their friends being beaten up or the property being destroyed while the EDL trouble makers are once again allowed to get away with it.
Elsewhere Paul Kagame has been re-elected as President of Rwanda with some 90% of the vote. This is no great surprise but something I need to go it to in more at some point over the next seven years. Also I've yet to hear that Wyclef Jean has withdrawn his candidacy for President of Haiti. Therefore I think it's time for me to read up on Haiti's constitution to see if it's possible to suspend the election.
All this does rather underline why my time is too valuable to be wasted by jumped up local Magistrates. Unfortunately I spent a large part of the day getting in contact with Croydon Magistrates Court. After about a dozen attempts and one polite threat they finally decided it might be a good idea to answer the telephone. They're adamant they're going to be sticking to their time wasting path so on Thursday (19/8) I'll be going in to pay the fees up front, mainly because I like the idea of a Court owing me money. Also today everybody who signed the petition against the conduct of the henhouse received a response from CAYSH. I can't really be bothered to post it up because it's just the usual fairy story about they can't do anything for months. I believe the correct legal for the document is "a work of fiction."
I've always thought the idea of holding small, regional protests rather then large, national protests is a bit silly. As if to prove just how silly on August 13th Climate Camp Cymru (Wales) set itself up on the protected ruins of a Roman fort within the exclusion zone around the proposed extension to the Selar opencast mine. This new extension is expected to make an awful lot of money for the mine operator (Celtic Energy) and the landowner. Local politicians have been swayed in favour of the proposal because it promises to bring a small number of jobs to a part of South Wales with very high levels of unemployment. Due to very environmentally damaging nature of opencast mining local residents are not so keen on the idea. This has provoked a long running and bitter dispute between Celtic Energy along with the local courts against the the local residents who don't want the mine extension to go ahead.
As soon as the camp set up on the Friday the mine operator and the landowner started putting pressure on the local police to take action. They also started putting pressure on Cadw who are responsible for historic sites in Wales. By the time Cadw had got onto the police on the Saturday the police had had enough and suggested that the 30 or so Climate Campers left the site. Very sensibly the campers agreed and left. They have since set up a new site on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea however this is not so much a protest camp as a large family going on a camping holiday in the Welsh countryside. On the plus side though in preparation for the Welsh Climate Camp the Brits had prepared lots of news stories about how brilliant opencast mining and how wonderful everyone in Britain thinks it is because it brings jobs. Now the camps been moved all those stories have had to be pulled.
The Climate Camp proper will take place somewhere in Scotland sometime later in August. On August 28th the English Defence League (EDL) will be attempting to provoke a race riot in Bradford. Obviously already running scared the EDL have timed this to co-incide with the Notting Hill Carnival in the hope that the clash of events will minimise any opposition. While the police are fully aware of the EDL's plans this is one occasion when I think it would be a good idea to hold a counter-demonstration against the EDL. If there is not a multi-racial presence in Bradford that weekend and it does end in violence the Crown will be quick to impose very heavy sentences on any Muslims who try to prevent their friends being beaten up or the property being destroyed while the EDL trouble makers are once again allowed to get away with it.
Elsewhere Paul Kagame has been re-elected as President of Rwanda with some 90% of the vote. This is no great surprise but something I need to go it to in more at some point over the next seven years. Also I've yet to hear that Wyclef Jean has withdrawn his candidacy for President of Haiti. Therefore I think it's time for me to read up on Haiti's constitution to see if it's possible to suspend the election.
All this does rather underline why my time is too valuable to be wasted by jumped up local Magistrates. Unfortunately I spent a large part of the day getting in contact with Croydon Magistrates Court. After about a dozen attempts and one polite threat they finally decided it might be a good idea to answer the telephone. They're adamant they're going to be sticking to their time wasting path so on Thursday (19/8) I'll be going in to pay the fees up front, mainly because I like the idea of a Court owing me money. Also today everybody who signed the petition against the conduct of the henhouse received a response from CAYSH. I can't really be bothered to post it up because it's just the usual fairy story about they can't do anything for months. I believe the correct legal for the document is "a work of fiction."
Sunday 15 August 2010
Yeah That Was a Bit Depressing.
Tonight (15/8) we have had our first traditional, family, Sunday night dinner since our cat died. If you were familiar with our cat you would remember him simply as a very food orientated killing device. As such much of the entertainment of our traditional family dinners involved foiling his various cunning schemes to try and steal our food. His passing has left a large hole in that tradition.
To make matters worse today is also the 55th anniversary of "VJ Day" when Japan surrendered to the allies marking the end of the second world war. This year Britain has made a special effort to remember all those veterans who fought on, in brutal conditions, for many months after most people in Europe had declared the war over and forgotten about it. My grandfather not only fought in that part of the World during his time in the Royal Marines. In his time in the Royal Military Police (the Redcaps) he was part of Lord Mountbatten's security detail when Mountbatten accepted the Japanese surrender. Of course you won't find much evidence of that because when the day came my grandfather was suddenly struck down ill meaning that some other mug had to take his place in the photographs.
Fortunately this didn't upset my grandmother any further because she knows nothing about this story and still can not understand why the only time she ever saw her husband cry was the day that Lord Mountbatten was assasinated by the IRA. However intelligent people should, by now be able to recognise the Brits trying to establish a narrative for the coming days.
To make matters worse today is also the 55th anniversary of "VJ Day" when Japan surrendered to the allies marking the end of the second world war. This year Britain has made a special effort to remember all those veterans who fought on, in brutal conditions, for many months after most people in Europe had declared the war over and forgotten about it. My grandfather not only fought in that part of the World during his time in the Royal Marines. In his time in the Royal Military Police (the Redcaps) he was part of Lord Mountbatten's security detail when Mountbatten accepted the Japanese surrender. Of course you won't find much evidence of that because when the day came my grandfather was suddenly struck down ill meaning that some other mug had to take his place in the photographs.
Fortunately this didn't upset my grandmother any further because she knows nothing about this story and still can not understand why the only time she ever saw her husband cry was the day that Lord Mountbatten was assasinated by the IRA. However intelligent people should, by now be able to recognise the Brits trying to establish a narrative for the coming days.
Friday 13 August 2010
Do You Believe in Omens?
Today is Friday the 13th which in certain western superstitions is considered very unlucky. It is also the day that my brother, a workmate and several other friends have set off on their summer travels. Tonight they will fly to Delhi in India. After a few days there they will fly onto Hong Kong. From Hong Kong they will fly to Shanghai in China and may find time to fit in a visit to the Beijing World Trade Expo before returning back to the UK at the end of August.
I think then it is an appropriate time for me to explain the significance of the three dots. The role of the first dot (my brother) is to draw attention and interaction onto itself. The role of the other two dots is to sit back and observe what type of attention and interaction the first dot attracts. This simple routine was the undoing of Libertas when my brother was assigned to them ahead of the 2009 European Union elections. Therefore by being seen to mount this type of operation against the Chinese the Brits are trying to convince the Americans and other allies, but mainly the Americans that Britain can be trusted to lead the vanguard against the Chinese Communist threat.
In reality though the Chinese state is much better financed and far more experienced then Declan Ganley's Libertas Party so it will present absolutely no challenge for them. In fact this routine is so old that it's almost a carbon copy of a mission my father was sent on to China back in the 1970's. That coupled with the fact that my brother will have to be handled by the Indian authorities before heading to China makes it look as if he is being sent as some sort of blood sacrifice. The idea being that this trip will act as something of an apology to the Chinese for the events of the past and by doing so will help strengthen the relationship between Britain and China. After all you didn't seriously think the Queen of England could care less what happens to England just as long as she still gets to be Queen.
Now for being that blatant I think I at least deserve a souvenir. A Go set would be ideal but there's not much chance of that because my brother doesn't even know how to play Chess.
Also Jo has been evicted from the UK Big Brother house and Josie has been given a golden ticket that means she cannot be evicted until the final on August 24th. I don't really know what any of that means either because as I'm sure you understand Big Brother has not been a major priority this week.
I think then it is an appropriate time for me to explain the significance of the three dots. The role of the first dot (my brother) is to draw attention and interaction onto itself. The role of the other two dots is to sit back and observe what type of attention and interaction the first dot attracts. This simple routine was the undoing of Libertas when my brother was assigned to them ahead of the 2009 European Union elections. Therefore by being seen to mount this type of operation against the Chinese the Brits are trying to convince the Americans and other allies, but mainly the Americans that Britain can be trusted to lead the vanguard against the Chinese Communist threat.
In reality though the Chinese state is much better financed and far more experienced then Declan Ganley's Libertas Party so it will present absolutely no challenge for them. In fact this routine is so old that it's almost a carbon copy of a mission my father was sent on to China back in the 1970's. That coupled with the fact that my brother will have to be handled by the Indian authorities before heading to China makes it look as if he is being sent as some sort of blood sacrifice. The idea being that this trip will act as something of an apology to the Chinese for the events of the past and by doing so will help strengthen the relationship between Britain and China. After all you didn't seriously think the Queen of England could care less what happens to England just as long as she still gets to be Queen.
Now for being that blatant I think I at least deserve a souvenir. A Go set would be ideal but there's not much chance of that because my brother doesn't even know how to play Chess.
Also Jo has been evicted from the UK Big Brother house and Josie has been given a golden ticket that means she cannot be evicted until the final on August 24th. I don't really know what any of that means either because as I'm sure you understand Big Brother has not been a major priority this week.
The Labour Party leadership Election.
After their devastating defeat at May's General Election and their leader, Gordon Brown's eventual resignation the British Labour Party are in the process of choosing a new leader. The block voting from the party's trade union backers is going on now and the balloting of rank and file party members ends in September.
Probably now more then ever the choice of leader also presents the Labour Party with a choice of the direction they will take over the next fives years as the party of opposition. They can either re-consolidate around their Old Labour roots and once again become a party of the workers which fights on behalf of the British public against the stinging cuts and class war that the Conservative Party is about to unleash against the people of Britain. Alternatively they can once again turn their backs on British voters and elect an intellectual leader who will focus on developing the New Labour project by building allegiances with business leaders and the political classes across Europe and the World.
In the Old Labour camp there is Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott. As the first black woman ever to be elected to the British Parliament Diane Abbott is a traditional left-wing firebrand and a veteran of the battles fought between Margret Thatcher's Conservative Government and Ken Livingstone's Labour Greater London Council in the 1980's. Although very much to the political right of Diane Abbott Andy Burnham is still more left-wing the most of his party contemporaries. He served as health minister in Gordon Brown's government and proved himself to be relatively competent in the role. He was though as largely anonymous in the role as he has been during the leadership campaign and every time he appears on television.
In the New Labour camp you have the brothers Miliband. They both grew up the affluent Hampstead area of London and are part of what has been dubbed the "Marxist Aristocracy." The older brother Ed, is said to be the most left-wing of the brothers but is still more right-wing then some members of the Conservative Party yet he still enjoys the support of most of the trade union vote. He also has the unfortunate accolade of serving as a special advisor during Gordon Brown's disastrous spell as Prime Minister. The younger brother, David, looks about twelve and is by far the most right-wing of all the candidates. Having worked as a special advisor to Tony Blair during his premiership Ed Miliband is seen as Blair's natural heir. He was then appointed to the role of Foreign Secretary by his leadership rival, Gordon Brown because it is very difficult to move from Foreign Secretary to Prime Minister. During his time as Foreign Secretary David Miliband apparently caught the eye of US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton and showed a worrying lack of concern for both human rights and civil liberties. He also showed worrying support for an interventionist foreign policy that's more commonly known as the invasion of Iraq.
Perfectly straddling these two camps there is a fifth candidate, Ed Balls. You may remember him as the Minister for Children when the Baby P scandal broke. You may also remember him as the man who had to face down the forces of hell for daring to try and bring those responsible for the Baby P scandal to justice. Oxford educated he is clearly a very intelligent man who is fast earning himself as a reputation for being a political bruiser with a lot of staying power.
There many great reasons for why Ed Balls should become the next leader of the Labour Party and one day I may get round to listing them all. In the meantime though I just want to know why the women and a few of the men in the ranks of the Labour Party haven't stood up to loudly and proudly announce the simple slogan;
"I Like Balls!"
Probably now more then ever the choice of leader also presents the Labour Party with a choice of the direction they will take over the next fives years as the party of opposition. They can either re-consolidate around their Old Labour roots and once again become a party of the workers which fights on behalf of the British public against the stinging cuts and class war that the Conservative Party is about to unleash against the people of Britain. Alternatively they can once again turn their backs on British voters and elect an intellectual leader who will focus on developing the New Labour project by building allegiances with business leaders and the political classes across Europe and the World.
In the Old Labour camp there is Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott. As the first black woman ever to be elected to the British Parliament Diane Abbott is a traditional left-wing firebrand and a veteran of the battles fought between Margret Thatcher's Conservative Government and Ken Livingstone's Labour Greater London Council in the 1980's. Although very much to the political right of Diane Abbott Andy Burnham is still more left-wing the most of his party contemporaries. He served as health minister in Gordon Brown's government and proved himself to be relatively competent in the role. He was though as largely anonymous in the role as he has been during the leadership campaign and every time he appears on television.
In the New Labour camp you have the brothers Miliband. They both grew up the affluent Hampstead area of London and are part of what has been dubbed the "Marxist Aristocracy." The older brother Ed, is said to be the most left-wing of the brothers but is still more right-wing then some members of the Conservative Party yet he still enjoys the support of most of the trade union vote. He also has the unfortunate accolade of serving as a special advisor during Gordon Brown's disastrous spell as Prime Minister. The younger brother, David, looks about twelve and is by far the most right-wing of all the candidates. Having worked as a special advisor to Tony Blair during his premiership Ed Miliband is seen as Blair's natural heir. He was then appointed to the role of Foreign Secretary by his leadership rival, Gordon Brown because it is very difficult to move from Foreign Secretary to Prime Minister. During his time as Foreign Secretary David Miliband apparently caught the eye of US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton and showed a worrying lack of concern for both human rights and civil liberties. He also showed worrying support for an interventionist foreign policy that's more commonly known as the invasion of Iraq.
Perfectly straddling these two camps there is a fifth candidate, Ed Balls. You may remember him as the Minister for Children when the Baby P scandal broke. You may also remember him as the man who had to face down the forces of hell for daring to try and bring those responsible for the Baby P scandal to justice. Oxford educated he is clearly a very intelligent man who is fast earning himself as a reputation for being a political bruiser with a lot of staying power.
There many great reasons for why Ed Balls should become the next leader of the Labour Party and one day I may get round to listing them all. In the meantime though I just want to know why the women and a few of the men in the ranks of the Labour Party haven't stood up to loudly and proudly announce the simple slogan;
"I Like Balls!"
Wednesday 11 August 2010
Well That Changed the Day Slightly.
At around 14:45 my father killed the family cat.
Being old and slow the cat couldn't quite get out of the way as my father was reversing the car so he got clipped by the rear wheel. Then rather then stopping to maybe take the cat to vet my father just carried on and drove the real wheel over him. He then drove the front wheel over him and drove off to what ever appointment he was going to.
When he got back about an hour later I went to over to grandmother's to find out what he wanted to do with the corpse. My father was sitting there calmly telling my grandmother lies about this Court of Protection business. His answer of what to do with the corpse was to leave it there in the sun until tomorrow.
Fortunately I intervened and the corpse is now its way to cremation. The incident does say a lot about my father though.
Being old and slow the cat couldn't quite get out of the way as my father was reversing the car so he got clipped by the rear wheel. Then rather then stopping to maybe take the cat to vet my father just carried on and drove the real wheel over him. He then drove the front wheel over him and drove off to what ever appointment he was going to.
When he got back about an hour later I went to over to grandmother's to find out what he wanted to do with the corpse. My father was sitting there calmly telling my grandmother lies about this Court of Protection business. His answer of what to do with the corpse was to leave it there in the sun until tomorrow.
Fortunately I intervened and the corpse is now its way to cremation. The incident does say a lot about my father though.
Tuesday 10 August 2010
It's A Tough Old Life Isn't It.
Obviously Senior Judge Lush also sent copies of his order direction to the solicitor and my father. That meant I've spent most of the day trying really hard not to laugh in my father's face which is more difficult then it sounds.
It's been made a lot more difficult by the fact that today the news has emerged that two years ago Sion Jenkins was refused compensation for wrongful imprisonment after he was cleared, on second appeal, of the murder of his foster daughter Billie-Jo. Now neither I nor my grandmother know the exact details of the case. However I do know that my grandmother really, actually and viscerally hates Sion Jenkins. Therefore every time he appears on TV she gets really angry. So the only thing you need to know about that announcement is that someone was hoping that by co-inciding with my father receiving that letter from the Court it would provoke a big argument. It didn't.
If you haven't worked it out by now the reason the Brits were desperately trying to convince anyone who would listen that they would soon win this is quite simple. If they don't win this soon then they don't win at all.
Now I'm just sitting here trying to decide if I should inform the Court of Protection about this statutory nuisance matter that has been brought before Croydon Magistrates Court. I feel I should. However I worry that the more information I give them the more reasons they have to delay the process so the more complicated it becomes. I'm not worried too much though because I'm sure I come up with something.
As for Senior Judge Lush I think I should explain in Britain saying someone is a lush is another way of saying someone is a drunk. While I'm certain Judge Lush is a proper Judge I think the rule is quite obvious. If you have a number of equally qualified candidates for a job always pick the one with the comedy name.
It's been made a lot more difficult by the fact that today the news has emerged that two years ago Sion Jenkins was refused compensation for wrongful imprisonment after he was cleared, on second appeal, of the murder of his foster daughter Billie-Jo. Now neither I nor my grandmother know the exact details of the case. However I do know that my grandmother really, actually and viscerally hates Sion Jenkins. Therefore every time he appears on TV she gets really angry. So the only thing you need to know about that announcement is that someone was hoping that by co-inciding with my father receiving that letter from the Court it would provoke a big argument. It didn't.
If you haven't worked it out by now the reason the Brits were desperately trying to convince anyone who would listen that they would soon win this is quite simple. If they don't win this soon then they don't win at all.
Now I'm just sitting here trying to decide if I should inform the Court of Protection about this statutory nuisance matter that has been brought before Croydon Magistrates Court. I feel I should. However I worry that the more information I give them the more reasons they have to delay the process so the more complicated it becomes. I'm not worried too much though because I'm sure I come up with something.
As for Senior Judge Lush I think I should explain in Britain saying someone is a lush is another way of saying someone is a drunk. While I'm certain Judge Lush is a proper Judge I think the rule is quite obvious. If you have a number of equally qualified candidates for a job always pick the one with the comedy name.
Good News.
Long expected but still good news.
Today I've just received the following Directions Order from Senior Judge Lush* at the Court of Protection;
It requests that the solicitor provides a witness statement of his own to account for his actions. It then says that on the first available date after September 20th 2010 the matter will go before a judge for a ruling. This could involve dismissing the matter, order the Office of the Public Guardian to cancel the power of attorney's, send one of the Courts "special visitors" to interview the donor or list the matter for a full hearing and send requests for further evidence.
In short what this means is that the Court has finally accepted that it cannot throw the matter out on the grounds that a medical examination has not been provided nor can it throw it out on the grounds that financial information has not been provided. Instead it has asked for the solicitor to explain himself in the hope that will provide grounds to throw out the case. That will have to be a very creative explanation.
Of course the Court still reserves the right to request detailed financial information or a medical examination although it will be hard for them to pretend that's anything other then a time wasting fishing trip that is beyond the remit of the Court. Therefore we can reasonably expect this matter to be resolved in my favour no later the October 1st 2010.
* Yes that's the sort of name that makes me think that Judges are not assigned to cases as randomly as they would like people to believe.
Today I've just received the following Directions Order from Senior Judge Lush* at the Court of Protection;
It requests that the solicitor provides a witness statement of his own to account for his actions. It then says that on the first available date after September 20th 2010 the matter will go before a judge for a ruling. This could involve dismissing the matter, order the Office of the Public Guardian to cancel the power of attorney's, send one of the Courts "special visitors" to interview the donor or list the matter for a full hearing and send requests for further evidence.
In short what this means is that the Court has finally accepted that it cannot throw the matter out on the grounds that a medical examination has not been provided nor can it throw it out on the grounds that financial information has not been provided. Instead it has asked for the solicitor to explain himself in the hope that will provide grounds to throw out the case. That will have to be a very creative explanation.
Of course the Court still reserves the right to request detailed financial information or a medical examination although it will be hard for them to pretend that's anything other then a time wasting fishing trip that is beyond the remit of the Court. Therefore we can reasonably expect this matter to be resolved in my favour no later the October 1st 2010.
* Yes that's the sort of name that makes me think that Judges are not assigned to cases as randomly as they would like people to believe.
Monday 9 August 2010
The Charles Taylor War Crimes Trial.
Former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, is currently on trial in the Hague charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Sierra Leone's long civil war. As the trial is ongoing I have to be a little bit careful about what I say.
However what we do know is that during the civil war someone was selling illegally mined diamonds known as conflict or blood diamonds and using the proceeds to arm rebel groups. These rebel groups then went on to carry out some of the worst crimes against humanity ever committed. One of the most serious allegations is that they forced children to take crack cocaine before giving them guns and sending them out to kill and eat enemy fighters and civilians. We also know that these rebels were armed, in part, with guns that the British Army somehow managed to lose from their warehouses on the British mainland.
The incident the Court is currently examining involves a party held in South Africa in 1997. Here it appears that the then South African President, Nelson Mandela, invited Charles Taylor to a party along with some of the worlds most beautiful women. It is alleged that at this party Charles Taylor gave one of these women, British supermodel Naomi Campbell, a pouch of these diamonds, presumably in an attempt to get into her pants. The head of Nelson Mandela's charitable foundation then took these diamonds from Ms Campbell and locked them in his safe for 13 years so they could be entered into evidence at Charles Taylor's trial.
The only problem the prosecution are having at the moment is Naomi Campbell's witness testimony. In a bad tempered Court appearance in which Ms Campbell appeared to be lying she refused to name Charles Taylor as the man who gave her the diamonds. This contradicts the testimony of the other witnesses and creates a doubt as to Charles Taylor's guilt. Therefore it's not hard to imagine that the British have been putting pressure on one of their subjects to provide false testimony in Court in order to help one of their friends escape justice.
However what we do know is that during the civil war someone was selling illegally mined diamonds known as conflict or blood diamonds and using the proceeds to arm rebel groups. These rebel groups then went on to carry out some of the worst crimes against humanity ever committed. One of the most serious allegations is that they forced children to take crack cocaine before giving them guns and sending them out to kill and eat enemy fighters and civilians. We also know that these rebels were armed, in part, with guns that the British Army somehow managed to lose from their warehouses on the British mainland.
The incident the Court is currently examining involves a party held in South Africa in 1997. Here it appears that the then South African President, Nelson Mandela, invited Charles Taylor to a party along with some of the worlds most beautiful women. It is alleged that at this party Charles Taylor gave one of these women, British supermodel Naomi Campbell, a pouch of these diamonds, presumably in an attempt to get into her pants. The head of Nelson Mandela's charitable foundation then took these diamonds from Ms Campbell and locked them in his safe for 13 years so they could be entered into evidence at Charles Taylor's trial.
The only problem the prosecution are having at the moment is Naomi Campbell's witness testimony. In a bad tempered Court appearance in which Ms Campbell appeared to be lying she refused to name Charles Taylor as the man who gave her the diamonds. This contradicts the testimony of the other witnesses and creates a doubt as to Charles Taylor's guilt. Therefore it's not hard to imagine that the British have been putting pressure on one of their subjects to provide false testimony in Court in order to help one of their friends escape justice.
Sunday 8 August 2010
I Probably Shouldn't Gloat But.....
Long time readers may remember that I used to be involved with a charity shop called "Enterprise House" which was run by the charity "Mind in Croydon." That was until I had a falling out with my two shop managers, their line manager, their line manager's manager and the company Barrister.
Imagine my surprise then when I was reading through the jobs section of the, local "Croydon Advertiser, Midweek" newspaper on August 4th and saw this advert, which advertises for 2x Charity Shop managers;
This means that the two shop managers that I had problems with are now trying to decide if they can find new employment or should sign new contracts to do their old new jobs at a much lower rate of pay.
Of course the reason why the Brits can look at this and think they are still winning is because the new "Diamond League" athletics league is being held at the Crystal Palace sports arena which is just across the road from Enterprise House. Therefore they were rather hoping that I would announce that the two managers had sacked. That would prompt all the worlds athletics champions to walk into the trap of Enterprise House to check and suddenly lose all faith in me.
Tomorrow I will be waiting to receive a telephone response from Croydon Magistrates Court. Of course I won't be holding my breath, after all the Brits have been trying to give the Croydon lot a subtle little hint every since the Home Secretary announced that "It's time to move beyond the ASBO."
Imagine my surprise then when I was reading through the jobs section of the, local "Croydon Advertiser, Midweek" newspaper on August 4th and saw this advert, which advertises for 2x Charity Shop managers;
This means that the two shop managers that I had problems with are now trying to decide if they can find new employment or should sign new contracts to do their old new jobs at a much lower rate of pay.
Of course the reason why the Brits can look at this and think they are still winning is because the new "Diamond League" athletics league is being held at the Crystal Palace sports arena which is just across the road from Enterprise House. Therefore they were rather hoping that I would announce that the two managers had sacked. That would prompt all the worlds athletics champions to walk into the trap of Enterprise House to check and suddenly lose all faith in me.
Tomorrow I will be waiting to receive a telephone response from Croydon Magistrates Court. Of course I won't be holding my breath, after all the Brits have been trying to give the Croydon lot a subtle little hint every since the Home Secretary announced that "It's time to move beyond the ASBO."
Bye Bye Braincells.
Remember that TV aeriel guy, Les, who I said was an alright guy even if he did run his business out of the back of his black Vauxhall Zafira? Well it turns out he's little more then a con-man.
After the debacle of my grandmother getting signed up to Virgin Media, Pay TV which didn't work my father got Les it to sign her up to FreeSat which is a free to air satellite TV service. The software on the very cheap system he installed is so useless I can't make sense of it so my grandmother has no chance. Also the signal cuts out during bad weather. Rather then getting in touch to apologise and offer a full refund this Les guy has phoned up my father to give him the hard sell about how he's got to sign up to FreeSat by the end of this week.
When my father told me about this all I said was that it might be a good idea to wait a week and maybe do some research. This sent my father into roughly an hour long tantrum the main gist of which was that he doesn't have the time to go around all these shops and do the research himself. In the end I had to sit him down in front of the computer and physically type the words into the search engine for him
Yes that my father, the former Information Communication Technology design engineer. I think I've got about 30 fewer IQ points now then I woke up with this morning.
After the debacle of my grandmother getting signed up to Virgin Media, Pay TV which didn't work my father got Les it to sign her up to FreeSat which is a free to air satellite TV service. The software on the very cheap system he installed is so useless I can't make sense of it so my grandmother has no chance. Also the signal cuts out during bad weather. Rather then getting in touch to apologise and offer a full refund this Les guy has phoned up my father to give him the hard sell about how he's got to sign up to FreeSat by the end of this week.
When my father told me about this all I said was that it might be a good idea to wait a week and maybe do some research. This sent my father into roughly an hour long tantrum the main gist of which was that he doesn't have the time to go around all these shops and do the research himself. In the end I had to sit him down in front of the computer and physically type the words into the search engine for him
Yes that my father, the former Information Communication Technology design engineer. I think I've got about 30 fewer IQ points now then I woke up with this morning.
Friday 6 August 2010
It's Big Brother Eviction Night.
Rachel is the housemate who has left the UK Big Brother house. Although I have nothing against Rachel I think she was the best choice from the three housemates who faced the public vote. The three housemates who were nominated for eviction by the other housemates were; Rachel, John-James and Mario.
From those three the Mario would have been the obvious choice to leave but he won a save and replace task. He then controversially chose to replace himself with Dave after flipping a coin to choose between two housemates which he didn't name nor did he say which would be heads and which would be tails. I didn't see any of this but from what I have seen since Ben's left Mario has gone from sad to angry to downright spiteful.
In a slightly more important matter Rwanda will soon be going to the polls to choose, amongst other things, their President. This small country which is in the east of Africa right next to Uganda is most commonly recognised when followed by the word "Genocide." The incumbent President, Paul Kagame was the man who brought Rwanda into the British Commonwealth back in March 2009 which doesn't say much about his judgement. The fact he also ordered the assassination of a political rival in South Africa during the World Cup says even less.
So my advice to the Rwandan voters is anyone but Paul Kagame.
From those three the Mario would have been the obvious choice to leave but he won a save and replace task. He then controversially chose to replace himself with Dave after flipping a coin to choose between two housemates which he didn't name nor did he say which would be heads and which would be tails. I didn't see any of this but from what I have seen since Ben's left Mario has gone from sad to angry to downright spiteful.
In a slightly more important matter Rwanda will soon be going to the polls to choose, amongst other things, their President. This small country which is in the east of Africa right next to Uganda is most commonly recognised when followed by the word "Genocide." The incumbent President, Paul Kagame was the man who brought Rwanda into the British Commonwealth back in March 2009 which doesn't say much about his judgement. The fact he also ordered the assassination of a political rival in South Africa during the World Cup says even less.
So my advice to the Rwandan voters is anyone but Paul Kagame.
Bad News. Rockstars!
It has been announced today (6/8) that ex-fugee and Haitian born rapper Wyclef Jean intends to run for the Presidency of Haiti. This has been rumoured for weeks and I've been looking for a tactful way to explain to him that this would be a really bad idea. However it seems a bit late for that now.
While Wyclef is clearly a talented musician he doesn't have any formal experience of politics whatsoever. Nor does he have any qualifications in economics, agriculture or development so I don't think he even understands the scale of the problem in Haiti. Even before the earthquake Haiti had high levels of unemployment, homelessness and poverty. The earthquake then destroyed most of the homes and businesses that provide employment meaning that these problems now affect some 90% of the population. To make matters worse Haiti doesn't have any real system of land ownership and no system of land use zoning. In the current economic reality this makes it nearly impossible to build the types of permanent structures that provide people with homes to live in and jobs to pay for them. The current President of Haiti, who is himself a well educated and successful man, understands that the scale of Haiti's problems are big for one man to deal with on his own. That's why he's decided to call in the assistance of the Office of Special Envoys to Haiti. Even that organisation is having trouble filling vacancies because the talented people it needs also understand the scale of Haiti's problems so don't want the job on their CV's in case it all fails damaging their professional reputations. In fact I'm worried that if I keep talking I'll end up with the job.
The help that Wyclef has already given to Haiti has been immense and I'm sure there are many other ways in which he can continue to help. However I think the job of President should be left for a Haitian who has a talent for politics and genuinely gets excited by spreadsheets calculating the cost analysis solar cell energy generation versus fossil fuel imports. Most importantly though the rumours of Wyclef running for President are already scaring off large donors. Although kind hearted these are professional people who understand the problems of Haiti and what is required to solve them. They are not going to be prepared to waste their limited resources on a project that is going to fail. Wyclef becoming President is also most certainly make it impossible for the US Congress to pass it's Haiti donation bill. That's why the IRS have been giving Mr Jean subtle, little clues that it would be a good idea if he didn't get further involved.
On a slightly related topic gay rights campaigners in the US state of California have got a court to ban something known as Proposition 8. This is a voter sponsored state law that bans gay couples from getting married. As I understand it gay couples in California are allowed to be joined together in a civil union that gives all the legal protections of marriage and only lacks the religious aspect of marriage. Therefore I'm at a loss to work out what exactly the gay rights campaigners have achieved especially as the matter is probably going to have to go all the way to the Supreme Court before it has any effect on gay marriage in California. In fact I think the only thing they've achieved is to give religious Americans one more reason to be angry at the incumbent Democrat President ahead of the mid-term elections even though it has nothing to do with the President.
Most importantly though the Proposition 8 ruling seems to have got lots of left-leaning Americans questioning a Constitution that protects the rights of the individual over the whipped up fury of the majority. That is a really bad thing because it's that constitution that is one of the cornerstones that makes America the country it is, the land of the free. It is also the thing that means America has never been a fascist or communist country and why Americans don't have to put up with the stuff we have to in Britain like a local council putting a family under covert surveillance for two months to make sure they were sending their children to the correct school.
It's worth noting that powerful, corporate interests, like FOX News, would like to see the back of the US Constitution as soon as possible.
While Wyclef is clearly a talented musician he doesn't have any formal experience of politics whatsoever. Nor does he have any qualifications in economics, agriculture or development so I don't think he even understands the scale of the problem in Haiti. Even before the earthquake Haiti had high levels of unemployment, homelessness and poverty. The earthquake then destroyed most of the homes and businesses that provide employment meaning that these problems now affect some 90% of the population. To make matters worse Haiti doesn't have any real system of land ownership and no system of land use zoning. In the current economic reality this makes it nearly impossible to build the types of permanent structures that provide people with homes to live in and jobs to pay for them. The current President of Haiti, who is himself a well educated and successful man, understands that the scale of Haiti's problems are big for one man to deal with on his own. That's why he's decided to call in the assistance of the Office of Special Envoys to Haiti. Even that organisation is having trouble filling vacancies because the talented people it needs also understand the scale of Haiti's problems so don't want the job on their CV's in case it all fails damaging their professional reputations. In fact I'm worried that if I keep talking I'll end up with the job.
The help that Wyclef has already given to Haiti has been immense and I'm sure there are many other ways in which he can continue to help. However I think the job of President should be left for a Haitian who has a talent for politics and genuinely gets excited by spreadsheets calculating the cost analysis solar cell energy generation versus fossil fuel imports. Most importantly though the rumours of Wyclef running for President are already scaring off large donors. Although kind hearted these are professional people who understand the problems of Haiti and what is required to solve them. They are not going to be prepared to waste their limited resources on a project that is going to fail. Wyclef becoming President is also most certainly make it impossible for the US Congress to pass it's Haiti donation bill. That's why the IRS have been giving Mr Jean subtle, little clues that it would be a good idea if he didn't get further involved.
On a slightly related topic gay rights campaigners in the US state of California have got a court to ban something known as Proposition 8. This is a voter sponsored state law that bans gay couples from getting married. As I understand it gay couples in California are allowed to be joined together in a civil union that gives all the legal protections of marriage and only lacks the religious aspect of marriage. Therefore I'm at a loss to work out what exactly the gay rights campaigners have achieved especially as the matter is probably going to have to go all the way to the Supreme Court before it has any effect on gay marriage in California. In fact I think the only thing they've achieved is to give religious Americans one more reason to be angry at the incumbent Democrat President ahead of the mid-term elections even though it has nothing to do with the President.
Most importantly though the Proposition 8 ruling seems to have got lots of left-leaning Americans questioning a Constitution that protects the rights of the individual over the whipped up fury of the majority. That is a really bad thing because it's that constitution that is one of the cornerstones that makes America the country it is, the land of the free. It is also the thing that means America has never been a fascist or communist country and why Americans don't have to put up with the stuff we have to in Britain like a local council putting a family under covert surveillance for two months to make sure they were sending their children to the correct school.
It's worth noting that powerful, corporate interests, like FOX News, would like to see the back of the US Constitution as soon as possible.
Thursday 5 August 2010
Pakistan Floods Appeal
Over the past week monsoon rains in Pakistan have caused the worst flooding in the last 80 years. So far this has killed an estimated 1400 people and displaced 4 million more. As the flood waters have washed away 80% of the countries food reserves and damaged farmland the humanitarian situation is only going to get worse as shortages of food and clean drinking water help to spread disease.
The worst affected areas are the semi-autonomous tribal regions in the north-west of Pakistan which include the Swat valley. Bordering Afghanistan these mountain regions are believed to be sheltering senior members of the Taliban and Al Qaida including Osama bin Laden. As such this is one of those situations where the best thing I can do is nothing at all. If I get involved it will only inflame an already tense and complicated political situation even further.
However the Disasters Emergency Committee ( http:www.dec.org.uk ) have today launched a fundraising appeal you can donate to here, remembering to say yes to Gift Aid; https://www.donate.bt.com/dec_form_pfa.html
If you live outside of the UK you can donate to the Red Cross/Crescent here; http://donate.ifrc.org/
or UNICEF here;
http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=9fLEJSOALpE&b=6161181
Sadly though the terrible situation in Pakistan is not even the worst humanitarian crisis going on in the world at the moment. In the Sahel band of Africa which stretches from Senegal on the West of the continent to Sudan on the east drought has caused widespread crop failure and famine. In the worst affected areas of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso current estimates put 10 million people (1.3million children) at serious risk of starving to death. This tragedy couldn't have come at a worse time for the new government of Niger who had already been working hard to overcome the disastrous farming practises of its predecessors. The UN estimates that it requires US$190million to provide basic food aid to those affect. With the current global recession governments across the world are collectively failing to help meet this target.
If you wish to donate money to help the victims of the Sahel famine you can do so here;
International Red Cross/Crescent; http://donate.ifrc.org/ and
UNICEF; http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.aspx?c=9fLEJSOALpE&b=258155
The worst affected areas are the semi-autonomous tribal regions in the north-west of Pakistan which include the Swat valley. Bordering Afghanistan these mountain regions are believed to be sheltering senior members of the Taliban and Al Qaida including Osama bin Laden. As such this is one of those situations where the best thing I can do is nothing at all. If I get involved it will only inflame an already tense and complicated political situation even further.
However the Disasters Emergency Committee ( http:www.dec.org.uk ) have today launched a fundraising appeal you can donate to here, remembering to say yes to Gift Aid; https://www.donate.bt.com/dec_form_pfa.html
If you live outside of the UK you can donate to the Red Cross/Crescent here; http://donate.ifrc.org/
or UNICEF here;
http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=9fLEJSOALpE&b=6161181
Sadly though the terrible situation in Pakistan is not even the worst humanitarian crisis going on in the world at the moment. In the Sahel band of Africa which stretches from Senegal on the West of the continent to Sudan on the east drought has caused widespread crop failure and famine. In the worst affected areas of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso current estimates put 10 million people (1.3million children) at serious risk of starving to death. This tragedy couldn't have come at a worse time for the new government of Niger who had already been working hard to overcome the disastrous farming practises of its predecessors. The UN estimates that it requires US$190million to provide basic food aid to those affect. With the current global recession governments across the world are collectively failing to help meet this target.
If you wish to donate money to help the victims of the Sahel famine you can do so here;
International Red Cross/Crescent; http://donate.ifrc.org/ and
UNICEF; http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.aspx?c=9fLEJSOALpE&b=258155
Time Wasters United.
Today (5/8) I've been in touch with Croydon Magistrate Court to find out why they've so far been unable to act on the application I made on July 20th. The reason they've given is that they feel that the evidence I provided to secure a fee exemption is not valid as it is more then one month old. Without blinding everyone with bureaucracy the certificate I provided was dated May 2010 and is valid for twelve months so it most certainly is valid. It is so valid in fact that it has already been accepted by the people who regulate court fee exemptions in another matter.
Of course Croydon Magistrate Court have made absolutely no attempt to contact me over what they, wrongly, perceive to be a problem. Therefore they're just making this up in order to waste time. They're doing this firstly in the hope that I'll forget about it. Secondly they're attempting to buy themselves some time so they can get up to speed with the matter. I suggest they hurry up.
Incidentally if they do try and waste more time I'll just pay the fees up front and charge them the standard 8% interest per week until they refund it.
Of course Croydon Magistrate Court have made absolutely no attempt to contact me over what they, wrongly, perceive to be a problem. Therefore they're just making this up in order to waste time. They're doing this firstly in the hope that I'll forget about it. Secondly they're attempting to buy themselves some time so they can get up to speed with the matter. I suggest they hurry up.
Incidentally if they do try and waste more time I'll just pay the fees up front and charge them the standard 8% interest per week until they refund it.
Wednesday 4 August 2010
Late News
Yesterday (3/8) my grandmother was visited by her care manager from the Queens Road team. I'm not going to disclose the full details of what was said however the overriding message was announced to the nation in the hurried statement by Hartfordshire council regarding the case of Stephania Wolf and her disabled daughter Sam. This was enough to spoil David Cameron's afternoon in Birmingham where he been expected to make a triumphant announcement regarding housing matters.
It was so bad that it prompted BP to today issue a statement to re-assure investors that there attempts to stop the Gulf oil slick were most defiantly, certainly working. It also prompted the announcement that the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe had filed paperwork to begin the appeals process against a recent court ruling that he must remain in Broadmoor, secure psychiatric hospital. Apart from the fact the Sutcliffe story features the words "court", "filed" and "papers" along with the fact one of the owners of the henhouse makes a large profit from keeping the Yorkshire Ripper in Broadmoor I don't see the connection between it and my legal circumstances. After all one is a matter of criminal law while the other is a matter of civil law and I haven't filed any paper work in at least the last two weeks. Likewise attempts to draw comparisons with Ian Huntley's claim for compensation are equally baseless. If the Brits were familiar with the Law Lords ruling in the case of [name] V [name] (date) they would know that despite doing all the work I can't claim compensation. Most everyone else in the street can claim compensation from the private company that own the henhouse but I can't so my motivation is just to bring the situation to an end.
At the moment all the Brits comments about my legal circumstances are so detached from reality I would go so far as to say that they are not aware of what reality is.
It was so bad that it prompted BP to today issue a statement to re-assure investors that there attempts to stop the Gulf oil slick were most defiantly, certainly working. It also prompted the announcement that the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe had filed paperwork to begin the appeals process against a recent court ruling that he must remain in Broadmoor, secure psychiatric hospital. Apart from the fact the Sutcliffe story features the words "court", "filed" and "papers" along with the fact one of the owners of the henhouse makes a large profit from keeping the Yorkshire Ripper in Broadmoor I don't see the connection between it and my legal circumstances. After all one is a matter of criminal law while the other is a matter of civil law and I haven't filed any paper work in at least the last two weeks. Likewise attempts to draw comparisons with Ian Huntley's claim for compensation are equally baseless. If the Brits were familiar with the Law Lords ruling in the case of [name] V [name] (date) they would know that despite doing all the work I can't claim compensation. Most everyone else in the street can claim compensation from the private company that own the henhouse but I can't so my motivation is just to bring the situation to an end.
At the moment all the Brits comments about my legal circumstances are so detached from reality I would go so far as to say that they are not aware of what reality is.
Monday 2 August 2010
I'd Like to go to Bed Earlier on Friday's Too.
Unfortunately the current situation with the henhouse means that's not possible. On the plus side though it means that I get to watch several hours of the live Big Brother feed just after an evictee has left or a new housemate has entered.
On Friday (20/7) Ben was evicted from the house. This is a shame for a number of reasons. Firstly Ben's mannerisms were starting to become reminiscent of Peter, now Lord, Mandelson. As the architect of the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown New Labour project Mandelson spent a decade stalking the British corridors of power causing so much terror he was nicknamed "the Prince of Darkness." Now he's out of government and lost most of his power the British media are enjoying taking their revenge. Secondly Ben's eviction has made Mario sad. This suggests that Ben's infatuation with Mario ran more then one way so it would have been entertaining to keep them both in the house for as long as possible to see how the relationship developed. Most importantly though Ben is not Andrew. Andrew is hopelessly socially inept with little idea how to behave around other people. This causes chaos in the house and puts extra pressure on the other housemates. This is especially true of Corin who seems to have been lumbered with the job of looking after him although I don't think anyone in the house is really equipped to deal with Andrew. In preforming this role Corin is picking up some of the patterns of behaviour that remind me of someone I used to know and a story that I'm sure a lot of people would like me to tell.
Friday also saw the introduction of a new housemate who was picked by an anonymous member(s) of the Big Brother production team with no input from the viewers or the other housemates. The new housemate is;
I'm now going out to have dinner with my mother. In order to avoid accusations that I'm getting legal advice from her government solicitor partner I should recommend now that people go and read up on The Hollywood Silver Fox Farm V Emmett (1936) case. Not only does it set an important precedent in nuisance cases it tells of a chicken or hen farmer who fell out with their neighbour, a fox farmer. I can barely believe that the Brits have yet to assign a number to a case that will feature this delightful precedent.
On Friday (20/7) Ben was evicted from the house. This is a shame for a number of reasons. Firstly Ben's mannerisms were starting to become reminiscent of Peter, now Lord, Mandelson. As the architect of the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown New Labour project Mandelson spent a decade stalking the British corridors of power causing so much terror he was nicknamed "the Prince of Darkness." Now he's out of government and lost most of his power the British media are enjoying taking their revenge. Secondly Ben's eviction has made Mario sad. This suggests that Ben's infatuation with Mario ran more then one way so it would have been entertaining to keep them both in the house for as long as possible to see how the relationship developed. Most importantly though Ben is not Andrew. Andrew is hopelessly socially inept with little idea how to behave around other people. This causes chaos in the house and puts extra pressure on the other housemates. This is especially true of Corin who seems to have been lumbered with the job of looking after him although I don't think anyone in the house is really equipped to deal with Andrew. In preforming this role Corin is picking up some of the patterns of behaviour that remind me of someone I used to know and a story that I'm sure a lot of people would like me to tell.
Friday also saw the introduction of a new housemate who was picked by an anonymous member(s) of the Big Brother production team with no input from the viewers or the other housemates. The new housemate is;
- Sam. 21, white, straight. Although he lacks the talent Sam desperately wants to be part of Britain's arty counter-culture that includes graffiti artists and musicians. This is evidenced by his stupid clothes and awful tattoo work. He is what people in Britain would call a try-hard. Apart from his personality Sam is going to annoy the other housemates, especially the original ones, because he seems to be doing a poor impression of Shabby. This brings back memories of the Shabby/Caiomhe unpleasantness that created such a toxic atmosphere in the house. It won't be long then before one of the other housemates decide to reduce Sam's resemblance to Shabby by giving him a haircut. This will reveal him to be a lookalike for a young man called Joel Wiener. After winning a prize for young, Jewish, politicos the 17 year old Mr Wiener has appeared on a number of political discussion shows including the BNP edition of the BBC's Question Time and one of the Leader's Debates just before the General Election. He has also given speeches at pro-Israel demonstrations making him one of the foremost spokesmen for Zionism and apologist for Israeli policy on the British political scene. Obviously making the voice of Zionism in the UK a snot-nosed 17 year old boy with no experience of the issues he's lecturing everyone on is not the best PR move. Therefore there are a variety of things that may be going on regarding Mr Wiener's career.
I'm now going out to have dinner with my mother. In order to avoid accusations that I'm getting legal advice from her government solicitor partner I should recommend now that people go and read up on The Hollywood Silver Fox Farm V Emmett (1936) case. Not only does it set an important precedent in nuisance cases it tells of a chicken or hen farmer who fell out with their neighbour, a fox farmer. I can barely believe that the Brits have yet to assign a number to a case that will feature this delightful precedent.
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