Israel -Gaza War Day 5: Politics.

Following what was a another relatively quiet day in Gaza the official death toll remained stubbornly frozen at 350 although local sources put it closer to 400 as the Israeli air force carried out a reduced number of raids. Hamas have continued to be able to fire rockets into Israel including one which landed in the town of Beersheba 46km inside Israel, the furthest that any Gazan rocket has reached. There have been no reports of any injuries or fatalities in any of the rocket attacks.

The main story of the day has been the Israeli rejection of a French call for a 48 hour ceasefire made during a meeting of EU Foreign ministers. Ostensibly this call was made to allow humanitarian relief to be delivered to Gaza, however in reality it was made because European governments, the UK included are having trouble keeping up with the pace of the conflict. You see far from being surprised by Israel's action European governments had one to two months of prior knowledge of Operation Cast Lead and rather then using that time to diffuse the conflict there were perfectly happy to allow it to continue having been sold on the idea that the could exploit the conflict to gather information on and possibly influence Israels upcoming election. Obviously it was a little naive of them to think that a race between a former spy, a former commando and a former head of the army to see who would lead a country where there are a lot of votes in dead Arabs was going to following the civilised traditions of western democracy. Now that Israel have rejected the ceasefire they have been able to flip the game and exploit the war to find new ways to cement support for Israel within European governments. Britain, always keen to show that they're never bullied by the bigger boys, have rolled straight over and put out this story which can be summarised by the keywords; BRIGHTON, AMBULANCE MEN, CRIMINAL CHARGES.

Diplomatic stupidity aside I think it will be very difficult to get Israel to agree to any ceasefire or non-homicidal resolution to the Gaza conflict for reason best illustrated by the Israel government statement that they will continue until there is no longer the capability for rockets to be launched into Israel. To put this in context you have to understand just what the Qassam rockets they're fighting are. Qassams are a very rudimentary weapon with a 3ft by 9inch tubular metal body often fashioned from street lamps and drainage pipes packed with a home made propellant charge which could be anything from gunpowder to weedkiller and an equally improvised explosive charge. They have no guidance system and are "aimed" by firing them off an angled ramp much like a bottle rocket. The technology behind them is so basic that they can be built and launched by pretty much anyone. This simplicity means that the only way Israel is going to prevent Qassams being launched is by removing the raw materials of which they've made. In short Israels current war is a war against metal and is probably more dumb the President Bushes war against the abstract noun.

Speaking of (still) President Bush the United States has pledged $85million of humanitarian aid to help Palestinian refugees. It is not yet clear if the US intends to exert it's considerable influence of Israel to make sure this aid is delivered to those Palestinians who desperately need it within Gaza or whether they just plan to pile it up on the Egyptian side of the border under a big neon sign reading; "Look you can have food just as soon as you cleanse the holy land of your dirty Arab feet."

Israel - Gaza War Day 4: Zimbabwe.

Despite Robert Mugabe's assurances Zimbabwe is still firmly in the grips of a Cholera outbreak. So far the death toll stands at 1,500 with 400 dying in the last ten days. While the country is preparing for another round of delicate power-sharing talks I'm not about to attempt to use this blunt diplomatic tool to try and solve all the problems but there are clearly failings on both sides. The MDC appear to be using the plight of human rights activists as a way to delay Tsvangarai taking up the post of Prime Minister and Mugabe is still trying to blame all the countries problems on a US/UK Imperialist plot to topple him from power. This is of course ridiculous but this propaganda is ever more difficult to challenge when viewed alongside Israels conduct in the Palestine.

As part of the 2000 Arab-Israeli peace process the Palestinians, at the request of Israel, held democratic elections to decide who would represent them. They chose Hamas over Fatah. Although this election was monitored extensively by international observers and found to be fairer then the average American election Israel decided that they simply didn't like the result and refused to recognise it. They responded first by carrying out military operations against the Palestinians before placing them under an economic blockade which banned all imports and exports and with-held tax revenues generated by earlier exports. Once the Palestinian economy had been brought to the brink of collapse the Israeli's told the Palestinians that they would lift sanctions if Hamas and Fatah formed a power-sharing government. Fatah and Hamas put their differences aside and formed a government of national unity but strangely Israel failed to lift the blockade.

Instead Shin Bet, the Israeli equivalent of MI5 stepped up their infiltration of Fatah offering cash payments and probably cases of Viagra to any party officials who were prepared to disrupt the unity government and ferment political divisions between Fatah and Hamas. This subversion of the democratic process came to fruition in June 2007 when Palestine descended into civil war. After a short conflict Hamas took full control of Gaza and Fatah went off to build palaces in the West Bank. As a reward for doing Israel's dirty work the blockade of the West Bank was relaxed slightly and Fatah were given the responsibility of with-holding tax revenues to Gaza where the blockade was tightened.

Understanding that they needed to be able to control Gaza's criminal elements one of Hamas' first acts on taking control was to bring in the Red Cross to help train a civilian police force capable of stopping disparate groups from firing rockets into Israel. For some reason this caused Israel to throw their toys out of the pram and they immediately started disrupting Red Cross aid convoys until the training of the police was stopped. Shortly afterwards they started demanding that Hamas called a ceasefire and did more to stop rockets being fired into Israel.

Today Gaza appears to have entered the eye of the hurricane with the number of air-strikes falling dramatically and the Israeli air force making a point of bombing the same targets twice. This is a sign that the Israeli offensive is on the wane or more likely a deliberate attempt to draw out Gaza's secondary infrastructure ahead of a second wave of attacks. Obviously the Israeli's have dropped another few tonnes of bombs and killed 10 people but by Gazan standards that's considered a good day because they hardly bother jump when the bombs go off anymore. Meanwhile in Israel somebody dropped a tea tray sending everybody scurrying off to their bomb shelters convinced the world was about to end. When they finally resurfaced a few rockets were fired into Israel but there have been no reports of any injuries or deaths.

Israel - Gaza War Day 3: Funerals.

For a third day Israel has continued it's bombardment of Gaza but it has been a comparatively quiet day providing the Gazan residents the opportunity to bury their 300 or so dead. The grimmest of these ceremony's was the funeral of five sisters who were killed when their home was crushed as the Mosque next door collapsed following an Israeli missile strike.

Diplomatically Israel has finally admitted that rather then being a spontaneous response to clear clear and present threat to their safety the current offensive is intended to be a full scale war and has been planned from as far back as June 2008 when Israel was trying to convince the world that it was taking peace negations with the Palestinians seriously and just after Hamas agreed their six month ceasefire. Israel has yet to explain why in those five months of planning they didn't see fit to notify UN Security Council or seek a resolution justifying the attacks. The UN Secretary General has condemned Israel's excessive use of force and called on both sides to call an immediate ceasefire.

Meanwhile a UN aid agency on the ground in Gaza has called for an investigation to discover why one of their compounds which teaches local people how to distribute humanitarian aid was one of the "Hamas security compounds" that the Israeli air force saw fit to attack on the first day of the conflict killing seven. They are keen to examine the circumstances that led up to the attack because it may well constitute a war crime.

Hamas and other Gazan militant groups have continued to fire home made Qassam and longer range military grade rockets into Israel killing three more today. This means that so far Israel's operation to protect it's citizens from rocket fire has succeeded in quadrupling the number of Israeli's killed by rocket fire in just four days. It was also announced that two Israelis were stabbed and killed in a shopping centre in Northern Israel but this has not been confirmed and as it was reported as I was heading off to a shopping centre I suspect I might be in a copyright dispute with the UK security services.

Israel - Gaza War Day 2: The Ethnic Cleansing Begins.

Israel has continued it's air-strikes against Gaza dropping around 15 tonnes of bombs in an area slightly smaller then Memphis knocking out "security facilities" including a Mosque and TV stations. So far some 300 people have been killed and more are expected to die as the bombing campaign continues and medical services, already overstretched by the Israeli blockade, become overwhelmed and begin to collapse.

Aside from the industrial scale slaughter the most worrying development of the last 24 hours has been the sight of hundreds of Gazan civilians fleeing the country across the border into Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. This mass movement of refugees leaving their own country to escape from large scale military bombardment is classic tactic of Ethnic Cleansing that has been used to devastating effect in places such as Bosnia, Kosovo and Sudan. Although heartbreaking to watch and even more painful to do the only way Egypt can respond to this Israeli tactic is to strengthen their borders and force the refugees to remain in Gaza. Unfortunately a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt prevents Egyptian troops from entering the Sinai peninsula so they will have a tough time preventing this exodus from Gaza.

Inside Israel there has been some rocket and mortar fire prompting air-raid sirens to wail throughout the country but there have been no reports of any injuries or deaths. 6,500 army reservists have been called up and there are reports of tank movements along the Gaza/Israel border increasing the likelihood that this aeriel barrage is just a precursor to a ground invasion. I suspect this second phase of Israeli operations will begin around 03:00 GMT on Thursday January 1st and will probably take the form of a two pronged attack designed to cut the country in half originating from the zones around the Erez crossing and South West of Netivot but that is just a guess. The Israeli welfare minister has issued a statement declaring that Israel will "Continue it's campaign until the border [between Israel and Gaza] is permanently changed." This makes me worry that we can only be a few years away from the day when Israel announces it needs to invade Egypt to prevent rocket fire from the Sinai peninsula.

So who had the Christmas holiday's in the Israel starts another war sweepstake?

Israel has today launched the first wave of a massive military offensive into the Gaza Strip. Israeli air force F-16 jets have carried out bombing raids on 20 targets across the densely populated region killing over 150 around 50 of whom are believed to be civilian bystanders. Although Israel are attempting to justify the attacks as necessary to prevent Qassam rocket fire the targets include civilian infrastructure such as local government offices and a graduation ceremony for Gazan police officers who have been working to prevent rocket fire from Gaza's desperate militant groups. Hamas, Gaza's ruling party, have ordered a military response and launched rockets into Israel killing one. Fatah, Hamas' main political rival, have publicly condemned the attacks but privately are suggesting that Hamas have brought it on themselves by respecting the results of the Palestinian elections which Fatah lost. All three of the leading candidates in Israel's upcoming general election have stated that they think it is time to invade Gaza to topple Hamas and presumably expand Israel's borders.

It has been reported that this military operation was planned as far back as the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, at the start of October and the initial attack was meant to take place of the Christian festival of Christmas day but fog and cloud cover grounded the Israeli aircraft. If this is true then along with the long awaited delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza on St Stephen's day then it would appear that Israel is trying to manufacture international support for its latest nasty little war.

With most of the Western world taking December 25th off to celebrate Christmas by eating too much, arguing with their families and giving each other presents the Israeli air-strikes would have gone largely unnoticed. Then as people began to return to their televisions on the 26th (St Stephens/boxing day) they would have seen the Israeli's celebrating the birth of Christ by getting into the spirit of peace and goodwill by allowing a convoy of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Then with the traditional Muslim Friday prayers completed the world would have witnessed Hamas launching rockets into Israel not realising that it was a response to a particularly brutal Israeli attack so Israel would be able to turn round to western governments and say;

"You must support our war, look how these Islamists animals treat us! We show them nothing but goodwill and all they do is turn around and try to kill us!"

V for Vendetta is finally on British TV!

Sorry that I haven't posted in what seems like ages but this partly because I couldn't really be bothered and partly because there isn't really much to report. After all there is only so far you can stretch an anecdote about going to the council offices to hand in a form and the only contribution I can make on the Greek riots is a pitiful pun about the Greek police having no sense of humous. I will though take this opportunity to recommend that everybody in the UK takes the opportunity to watch a film called V for Vendetta on BBC2 at 10:20 tonight.

Based on a Thatcher era graphic novel this film tells the story of a near future Britain over-run by a totalitarian government that has suspended all democratic rights and press freedoms to protect it's citizens from the ever present threat of terrorism. Against the backdrop of this dystopia a masked anti-hero known only as V summons up the spirit of Guy Fawkes to spark a revolution and free Britain from it's tyranny. Obviously I love it as a vanity piece but I recommend everybody else watches it because although long it manages to deal with a dark and sometimes violent subject matter really well by mixing high tension with the comedy of Stephan Fry and dialogue like "What's the point of a revolution without dancing?!"

One of the key scenes of the film shows a group of protesters trying to march down Whitehall to Parliament square only to be met at the barricades by soldiers who open fire on them. As Whitehall is one of the most strategically important streets in the United Kingdom linking Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square not only providing access to the military barracks at Horseguard's Parade but to the Prime Minister official residence in Downing street the films producers thought filming this scene would cost them a fortune by making them hire hundreds of extras and build a replica set somewhere in the countryside. They were then quite surprised that not only did the Labour government give them the first ever permit to film on Whitehall the police also sent along some of their top officers to help secure the location and supervise the road closures. Even the army couldn't have been more helpful sending along serving members of the Queens Guard to act as extras and some of the top military brass to help give the army barricades a more realistic feel.

A cynic could think that the security services where using the whole thing as an opportunity to hold a massive training exercise.

Robert Mugabe has Arrested Cholera.

In a speech on Thursday Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe announced that he had arrested the countries cholera outbreak so there is no need for the Zimbabwean people or it's neighbours to worry about it anymore and there is certainly no reason for him to be removed from power. Presumably this means that as we speak Cholera is currently being beaten up at a police station just outside Harare.

However back in reality the consensus amongst aid agencies working in the country is that Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak is far from under control with another 200 reported deaths so far this week. The South African government has declared a national health emergency in the Limpopo Province which borders Zimbabwe where at least 8 people have died of the disease and hundreds of Zimbabweans have fled in the hope of receiving medical treatment. The World Health Organisation working with Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health and Child welfare have begun to respond to the crisis by setting up command and control structures throughout the affected regions. One of their first tasks will be to identify the strain(s) of Cholera involved and map how the outbreak spread. They have asked for US$6million to preform this task and get the outbreak under control.

Although this Cholera outbreak is a purely medical issue that must be addressed by properly trained and properly equipped medical professionals it highlights the deadlocked power sharing deal that has, in part, caused the collapse of Zimbabwe's health and sanitation infrastructure. The main sticking point between the two parties is the control of Zimbabwe's security services in the form of the intelligence service, the army and the police. Under the deal that is currently on the table Mugabe's Zanu would retain full control of the Intelligence Service and the army while control of the police is spilt 50:50 between Zanu and the MDC. This is of course completely unacceptable because in even the most civilised of democracies real power still comes down to which side has the most men at arms in the security services and Zimbabwe is far from a civilised democracy. I think that a much better and fairer deal would be for Zanu to retain control of the Intelligence Service while the MDC are given full control of the police. Control of the army would then be spilt between the two with the MDC member having the final say.

The Price of Failure.

To go along with it's economic crisis, political crisis and food shortages Zimbabwe is now in the grip of a health crisis with outbreaks of Cholera across the country. During the past week this has led to political and public figures including Condoleezza Rice, Raila Odinga, John Setamu and Archbishop Desmond Tutu to call for the overthrow of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. British Prime minister Gordon Brown, on Saturday, added his voice to those calls and sadly couldn't resist taking the opportunity to have a metaphorical little dig. This is particularly unfortunate when you consider that the Mugabe regime stands accused of ignoring the rule of law and using sustained violence against it's own people to cling to power.

The most recent chapter of Zimbabwe's disastrous history began in March 2008 when the country held it's general election. With neither the ruling Zanu-PF or the opposition MDC winning the required 50% majority the election collapsed into chaos amid accusations of ballot rigging and voter intimidation. After all the interested parties had finished stomping their feet, beating thier chests and throwing around empty threats it was decided that Zimbabwe would continue in accordance with it's own Constitution and hold a presidential election run-off between Zanu's Robert Mugabe and the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai. On the Sunday before that vote Mr Tsvangirai received news that made him lose faith in the process causing him to pull out leaving Mr Mugabe as the only candidate. Even though the result of the vote meant that Mr Mugabe was the properly elected President of Zimbabwe the violence that proceeded it meant that many people, myself included, weren't prepared to accept that result. In response the Southern African Development Committee brokered a power sharing deal that would see Mr Mugabe act as President and Mr Tsvangirai act as Prime Minister with cabinet positions being appointed to the MDC and Zanu-PF alternatively.

Since then the country has been paralysed with both sides failing to participate in the power-sharing process and appoint a new cabinet. This paralysis of the government alongside Zimbabwe's economic problems have meant that the countries water supply, sanitation and medical services have all but collapsed with raw sewage running in the streets and little safe drinking water creating the perfect conditions for the spread of Cholera a water borne disease that causes vomiting diarrhea and death. So far in Zimbabwe there have been around 600 deaths and 100,000 cases across multiple locations. Robert Mugabe has responded by calling a state of national emergency and appealing to the international community for help to treat the victims.

I think now is the time for all the separate nations and individual actors who make up the mythical international community to act. First by providing the medical resources needed to tackle the crisis free from agencies whose presence may delay the distribution of those resources. Then they need to exert real pressure on both Mugabe and Tsvangirai to make the power sharing deal work. If that cannot be achieved then western nation such as the US and the UK need to be prepared to deploy military force to remove the current power sharing government.

Ladies and Gentlemen Stage One has been completed.

Following Britain's multiple and varied acts of fraud, Anti-Social Behaviour and crimes against humanity I put them on a sort of twelve step rehabilitation program after the completion of which they may once again be considered members of a civilised society. I am proud to report that they have just completed the first stage of this program by finally paying out on my incapacity benefit claim. Of course they've failed to send out the correct paperwork or award the full figure I am entitled too under law and the figure they've arrived at falls far, far below the compromise figure but to see even a flicker of progress in what has previously been such a hopeless case can't help but fill me with joy. Besides my war chest has just grown.

All this means that my local Croydon council have now been granted permission to receive another benefit claim to bring my income up to that compromise figure. This claim will be a little unconventional but I suggest they authorise it with the minimum of fuss because I can submit a much more conventional one but that will incur out of pocket expenses that will triple the compromise figure. Personally I think this is a much fairer way to go about things because rather then drawing money out of the central DWP budget which will punish the sick and disabled it will draw money out of Croydon's local budget punishing an establishment that has continued to behave immorally and illegally despite numerous warnings. Of course it is now up to the people of Croydon to decide if they would like to take that punishment collectively through increased taxes and public services or whether it should be targeted against the guilty parties through cuts to individual salaries and pensions.

I'm sorry if this all sounds cold, calculating, vicious and violent but the people I'm dealing with have proved time and time again that they will not hesitate to deny medical treatment to the old and innocent, torture and murder babies for fun and offer plea bargains to paedophiles in return from drugging and kidnapping little girls so sadly they're so thick violence is the only language they understand.

I should really pay more attention to local politics.

In my local borough of Croydon there has been some dispute over plans to set up a so called Academy schools. During a particularly heated public meeting on the matter the councils head of education, Maria Gatland, was forced to resign because of an indiscretion in her past. So far so typical except for the fact that the indiscretion in question was that in the 1970's Ms Gatland was an active member of the Irish Republican Army. During her time with that terrorist organisation one of Ms Gatland's tasks was to travel to Europe in order to facilitate a major arms deal. This deal went very badly wrong with the local police seizing all the weapons and coming close to arresting the entire network. Shortly after this Ms Gatland fell out with the IRA who court martialled her and sentenced her to death. She then fled to the UK mainland where she wrote a book about her experiences before settling in Croydon where she joined the Conservative party and was allowed to rise to one of the most senior positions in the local council. Even by Croydon's standards that's quite bizarre but does reinforce my belief that if you allowed the UK security services to control the world it would look a lot like Croydon.

On the subject of terrorism I've taken a closer look at the Mumbai attacks and decided that it's entirely possible that the attacks were carried out by just ten men if those ten men were very lucky and it appears they have been very lucky. One of the first targets of the attacks was Mumbai's main police station where the head of the cities anti-terrorist command was killed. This decapitation of the police's command and control structure would have been enough to paralyse their response and allow the gunmen to regroup and move onto their secondary targets. I also think that the gunmen were all members of Lashkar-e-Toiba a Pakistani group acting independently of both Al Qeada and Pakistani intelligence services using equipment and training they had stockpiled throughout the groups lifetime. The attacks were probably carried in order to provoke a confrontation between India and Pakistan to relieve pressure on Al Qeada groups operating on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The idea that these Al Qeada groups needed assistance was probably an unintended consequence of intelligence operations within Pakistani civic society designed to get people to switch allegiances to a more pro-western ideology.

The main winners out of the attacks will probably be the USA who have gained leverage over Pakistan, Israel who have gained leverage over India and German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch who will probably now win a contract to upgrade the armoury of India's security services. The main losers will probably be India which has suffered the attacks and had it's image of a safe country damaged. Pakistan who will be under pressure to make more concessions to the US and being the host country for a proxy war between two opposing ideologies rarely works out well for a country. Al Qeada who will no doubt feel the effects of increased US power in the region. Lashkar-e-Toiba who have depleted their resources and will now come in for increased attention for Pakistan and India's security efforts.

Continuing the theme of making light of human suffering the UK has recently been gripped by the story of two conjoined twins called Hope and Faith, wondering when they will be born, when they will be separated and if they will survive. On Tuesday surgery was preformed and sadly Hope did not survive. This means that the image of itself that the UK's projecting to the world is that Hope's dead and Faith's on life support!

You've got to love a bit of theatre

As part of their desperate efforts to cover the tracks of their epic fuck up certain elements at Channel 4 decided to commission a four part historical drama called The Devil's Whore. This series tells the supposedly true story of Lady Angelica Fanshawe who was the consort of many of the main actors in the English civil war a premise that allows the series to show the drama of many of the key events of that period in history as if somehow the problems of today are all the result of a war that ended 400 hundred years ago.

In the first episode shown on November 19th one of the keys scenes was the moment in 1641 when King Charles sent men at arms to the House of Commons to arrest 5 MP's who were supposedly threatening national security. At almost exactly the same time as this was shown the security services, looking for a way to prevent details of the Baby P report being leaked, decided to send anti-terrorism police to arrest an MP and search his Commons office on a charge of obtaining leaked information that was embarrassing to the governing Labour party. The speaker of the House of Commons, a long time Labour supporter, decided to break with tradition and let them. This turned today's State Opening of Parliament into bit of a tense affair with the Commons Sarjent at arms being heckled and the first business of the new Parliament being the speaker having to explain himself to the house.

I suppose you could try to dress this all up as a way to start a discussion of how the Monarch's popularity would be affected if she was actually seen to be doing things but all in all it seems like an awful lot of fuss just to protect one little lesbian.

Corrections on the Baby P Case.

Following the minister's press conference yesterday people have been appearing across the media claiming that they have read the Baby P case review. Some have even taken to waving a sheaf of papers around as if to illustrate the point. This is of course a lie. The papers they've been waving and the document they've read is the Executive Summary of the report rather then the report itself. Once you've got past the title page, the contents page and the glossary of this document it's only about 5 pages long and as the name suggests provides nothing more then a brief summary of the reports findings without providing any of the evidence that the authors used to reach their findings. It is the investigative equivalent of claiming you've read a newspaper because you've given the headlines a quick scan.

The second mistake I need to correct is my own. Yesterday I quoted the minister of saying that "[Sharon Shoesmith] would have her employment terminated.". This is of course incorrect because the minister actually used the much weaker phrase that "[Sharon Shoesmith] will be removed from her post." At the moment "removed from her post" means that Ms Shoesmith has been suspended on full pay. With the new temporary management team at Haringey only scheduled to be in place for the next twelve months there remains a strong possibility that Ms Shoesmith's punishment will amount to nothing more then a year long paid holiday before she is welcomed back to her post in January 2010.

With those clarifications made it is time for my weekly TV recommendation. This week it's The State Opening of Parliament on BBC 1 this Wednesday at 10:30AM. Although tediously factual this is an event that everybody should watch at least once in their lifetime. Tourists will be fascinated at the pomp and spectacle of the Queen riding along in a gold carriage and the Lords assembling in their ermine robes. British citizens should pay close attention too because in amongst all the quaint traditions there are many clear demonstrations of how British society functions. This years highlight will probably the moment when the impressively named Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod is sent down to the House of Commons to summon the MP's to the House of Lords. In expectation of his arrival it is the tradition for the speaker's staff to slam the door in his face forcing him to bang on the door and ask permission for an agent of the Crown to enter the House of Commons.

This peculiar little ceremony dates back to 1641 when King Charles sent his men to the House of Commons to arrest five Members of Parliament. The then speaker of the house refused them entry, the MP's escaped and the English Civil war began. Since that time it has been part of the British Constitution that no agent of the Crown may enter the House of Commons without the invitation of the Speaker of the House and his Sargent at Arms. Something which has suddenly become highly topical following the Current Speaker, Micheal Martin's (lab) decision last week to allow the police to arrest and search MP Damian Greene's (con) Commons office on accusations that he had been leaking information which was embarrassing to the government.

Resignations and Presevations

As expected the report into the Baby P case has just been released to the dozen or so Members of Parliament who have been deemed fit to read it. In the wake of the Damian Green arrest none of them will dare to discuss any of the details so we've all had to make do with the Children's Minister's press conference where he described the reports findings as "devastating" and "revealing a catalogue of failures" with out giving any details of what these failings are or who carried them out. The press conference was proceeded by the announcement of two symbolic resignations from Haringey council;

• George Meehan, the head of Haringey council. As the elected head of the council Mr Meehan has ultimate responsibility for all of the councils services, child protection included, but he has no hands-on involvement in the day to day activities and decision making of his staff. There is no evidence that he made or had any knowledge of the decisions that led up to Baby P's death. As an elected member of the council his resignation means that he will still be able to draw his salary as a councillor.
• Liz Santry, the council cabinet member for children and young people. Ms Santry is the nominal figurehead of children's services. This means that she had little or no knowledge of the events that led up to Baby P's death. She was however responsible for attempts to cover up the case and withhold evidence from the trial of Baby P's mother and step-father. Like Mr Meehan she is an elected member of Haringey council so in spite of her resignation she will still be allowed to sit on the council and draw a salary for doing so.

In order to appear to be getting tough with Haringey council the minister used his press conference to announce that he will be appointing a new management team to run children's services in Haringey. This team will stil be directly answerable to Haringey council but will also report to the Children's Minister on a monthly basis. The appointment of this new management team will bring about one high profile termination of employment;

• Sharon Shoesmith, Head of Children's Services. After declaring that she saw no reason for Haringey Council to apologise or punish any member of staff over Baby P's death Ms Shoesmith became the lightning rod for much of the public anger generated by the case. As operational head of the department she had full knowledge of the case and made some of the key decision's that resulted in baby P's death. I am not familiar with the exact details of Ms Shoesmith's contract of employment but for the minister to announce that "her employment will be terminated" rather then that she will simply be sacked for misconduct suggests that she will receive a severance payout and still be allowed to claim her generous public-sector pension.

While Sharon Shoesmith will make way for a new head of department there is no indication that her replacement will carry out any investigation into the conduct of other members of the department to see if the they too should lose their jobs.

In short all the minister had done is to make a symbolic sacrifice in order to diffuse public anger and safeguard the jobs of those who, through their actions, caused or allowed Baby P's case. It would appear that the only person who had hands-on care of Baby P who will actually face punishment is Dr Sabah Al Zayyat who has been suspended by the General Medical Council.