Godstone Farm is an open farm and children's activity centre in Godstone, Surrey. On August 8th 2009 a child who had been in contact with animals at the farm came down with Escherichia Coli 0157 (E-Coli), a particularly nasty bacterial infection the symptoms of which include vomiting, diarrhoea, kidney failure and death. Despite the relevant government agency being informed at the time no action was taken and the outbreak was allowed to peak yesterday (9/16) with 40 cases including 14 children who are seriously ill in hospital. Although E-Coli occurs naturally in farm animals it has been suggested the strain in the Godstone Farm outbreak was brought in from an outside source making the incident an example of bio-terrorism.
While Godstone farm is not technically within the London Borough of Croydon it is about 30 minutes drive from the town centre. As such it is a popular destination for Croydon school trips and for Croydon parents to take their children too during the long summer holiday. I personally can remember visiting the farm on a number of occasions and started hearing rumours that children who'd visited the farm were getting sick in the first week of September before the story got picked up by local, low-level news media the following week (9/7 onwards).
The Health Protection Agency's failure to take action to control the outbreak stems from a belief by the British Security Service that the American intelligence services are spying on a British spy network that is operating in Croydon. Although in espionage circles this is pretty much normal behaviour, even amongst allies, on this occasion the Brits have gone and got all upset. In response they decided to launch what a hacker would probably call a back trace in order to find out what, if any, information the Americans have gathered and how they went about doing it. The operation was planned to take place in the week of the September 11th anniversary because the Brits knew that event would leave the Americans mournful, distracted and therefore susceptible to attack.
At around dawn (local time) the Brits snapped and closed down Godstone Farm breaking the story internationally. This allowed journalists to talk to the families of those infected and changed the dynamic of the discussion into one of whether the farm (Croydon) has any future or whether it will have to be shutdown and all the animals destroyed. Personally I've been asking that question for years but the local authority seem unable to give the correct answer.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Harrasment Update.
Over the past four weeks there has been a noticeable uptick in the levels of harassment around me. Apart from putting 14 kids in hospital with E-coli this has mainly been limited to neighbours banging on the walls and silent phone calls so it's been, you know, terrifying(!)
Part of the reason for this is an attempt to get me to drop this burglary business. That's because if I persist with it the Brits will have to work very hard to avoid jailing one of their own operatives and possibly roll up the entire network. The main reason though is that my sister's six month hospital placement is coming to an end and my brother will be out of contract in November. This means that the Brits much vaunted counter attack has not yet achieved a success and is fast running out of road. Therefore the Brit's will either have to admit defeat or come up with a new plan of attack which will inevitably suffer from the principle of diminishing returns.
Of course the American civil service know all this because they've been using that knowledge to help the Brits inhibit my ability to operate before complaining they're not getting the level of service they would like. Now whose going to build a ladder for Obama to climb down over this health care reform issue. While I agree with the plan in principle it is a sad fact of life that in Obama's first* term America can either afford an economic stimulus package or universal health care. Sadly the American civil service, worried by Gitmo issues, decided to side with the Brits ahead of the G20 summit so the Americans will have to live with the consequences of the judgement call. Personally I'm not American so it's no skin off my nose either way.
*The way things are going at the moment that should possibly read only.
Part of the reason for this is an attempt to get me to drop this burglary business. That's because if I persist with it the Brits will have to work very hard to avoid jailing one of their own operatives and possibly roll up the entire network. The main reason though is that my sister's six month hospital placement is coming to an end and my brother will be out of contract in November. This means that the Brits much vaunted counter attack has not yet achieved a success and is fast running out of road. Therefore the Brit's will either have to admit defeat or come up with a new plan of attack which will inevitably suffer from the principle of diminishing returns.
Of course the American civil service know all this because they've been using that knowledge to help the Brits inhibit my ability to operate before complaining they're not getting the level of service they would like. Now whose going to build a ladder for Obama to climb down over this health care reform issue. While I agree with the plan in principle it is a sad fact of life that in Obama's first* term America can either afford an economic stimulus package or universal health care. Sadly the American civil service, worried by Gitmo issues, decided to side with the Brits ahead of the G20 summit so the Americans will have to live with the consequences of the judgement call. Personally I'm not American so it's no skin off my nose either way.
*The way things are going at the moment that should possibly read only.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Oh Yeah.
I've been in contact with the police over that burglary. The officer in charge of the case is on holiday until next week so I didn't get to speak to him. The officer I did speak looked up the case on the computer and confirmed that fingerprints have been lifted from the scene but have not yet been identified. So basically we're in exactly the same position we were two weeks ago and I'm getting the general impression that everyone had been hoping that this would've gone away by now.
Monday, 14 September 2009
CIA Try Their Hand at Comedy.
American TV networks have today been fascinated by a very funny video. The CCTV tape shows the scene from a convenience store when escaped steers from a local rodeo enter the store and start wandering the aisles. After a few minutes a couple of brave cowboys, still on their horses, come in and round up the errant cattle getting them out of the store before any serious damage is done.
The whole thing is remarkably similar to an incident that came out of Ireland earlier in the year when the US civil service were busy hazing their newly elected President. Therefore the incident seems to be a simple fishing trip born out of desperation. That desperation is understandable because the US security services are currently feeling a little stressed out. Not only have they been forced to endure the 8th anniversary of what was not their finest hour they're also wasting far too much energy trying to bring a premature Israeli/Palestinian peace process. Plus they don't seem to be as committed to resolving the British problem as perhaps they need to be.
Conversely the Brits are still in the grips of a complete nervous breakdown which is quite tedious but could lead to a slightly gory anecdote about how I busted my knee at a place called Godstone Farm although that's pretty much it. Anyway happy new year.
The whole thing is remarkably similar to an incident that came out of Ireland earlier in the year when the US civil service were busy hazing their newly elected President. Therefore the incident seems to be a simple fishing trip born out of desperation. That desperation is understandable because the US security services are currently feeling a little stressed out. Not only have they been forced to endure the 8th anniversary of what was not their finest hour they're also wasting far too much energy trying to bring a premature Israeli/Palestinian peace process. Plus they don't seem to be as committed to resolving the British problem as perhaps they need to be.
Conversely the Brits are still in the grips of a complete nervous breakdown which is quite tedious but could lead to a slightly gory anecdote about how I busted my knee at a place called Godstone Farm although that's pretty much it. Anyway happy new year.
Saturday, 12 September 2009
A Bad Week fo the Bad Guys!
Over the last seven days the runts of the litter of British fascism have been on the march again with limited success. On Saturday, September 7th the English Defence League (EDL) attempted to stage a protest against Islamofacism in Birmingham. After assembling in a pub on Broad street the EDL quickly gave up on any idea of staging a proper protest and instead went on a drunken wander around the city centre. By 13:30 they came into contact with around 20 Unite Against Fascism (UAF) counter demonstrators and fights broke out forcing the 80 or so EDL to scatter. Over the next two hours news of the clashes spread and around 800 local, Birmingham residents turned up to join in. This forced the EDL to seek refuge in a pub which was quickly cordoned off by the police. At around 15:30 the police were forced to commandeer two double Decker buses in order to evacuate the EDL from the city for their own safety. As the EDL were being driven away they decided to smash up the buses and throw the seats at passers by leading to all 80 of them getting arrested bringing the total number of arrests for the day to 90.
On Friday a group calling itself Stop the Islamification Of Europe (SIOE) decided that it would be a really clever idea to stage a protest against Islam outside London's largest Mosque in Harrow on September 11th, during Ramadan just after Friday prayers. Despite repeated offers from the Mosque to sit down and discuss their concerns peacefully the SIOE, which is little more then one man and his blog, decided to press ahead with their highly offensive demonstration. By 17:00 they'd assembled a massive 20 people including members of the EDL which was met by a 1000 strong counter demonstration called by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and made up of young Muslim men from the Mosque alongside local residents of every creed and colour. At around 17:30 the SIOE group started goading the UAF group trying to start a fight. They got one when the UAF group charged them forcing the SIOE to retreat behind the police lines. By 18:15 the SIOE had been evacuated and were escorted from the scene by the police again for their own safety. Over the next 45 minutes or so the pumped up crowd had some minor scuffles with the police unaware that the SIOE had already left the area. By 20:00 it was all over as people melted away from the riot that never was leaving ten people arrested including the leader of SIOE Stephan (bullied at school) Gash on a charge of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace.
All in all it's been a pretty humiliating week for the British far right that's left them looking like they've had their backs broken. The EDL have got a number of demonstrations planned over the next couple of months, including one on tomorrow (13/9), but I doubt there will be much of a turnout especially as the Labour government seem to be getting very vocal in their opposition now the hard work's been done.
On Friday a group calling itself Stop the Islamification Of Europe (SIOE) decided that it would be a really clever idea to stage a protest against Islam outside London's largest Mosque in Harrow on September 11th, during Ramadan just after Friday prayers. Despite repeated offers from the Mosque to sit down and discuss their concerns peacefully the SIOE, which is little more then one man and his blog, decided to press ahead with their highly offensive demonstration. By 17:00 they'd assembled a massive 20 people including members of the EDL which was met by a 1000 strong counter demonstration called by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and made up of young Muslim men from the Mosque alongside local residents of every creed and colour. At around 17:30 the SIOE group started goading the UAF group trying to start a fight. They got one when the UAF group charged them forcing the SIOE to retreat behind the police lines. By 18:15 the SIOE had been evacuated and were escorted from the scene by the police again for their own safety. Over the next 45 minutes or so the pumped up crowd had some minor scuffles with the police unaware that the SIOE had already left the area. By 20:00 it was all over as people melted away from the riot that never was leaving ten people arrested including the leader of SIOE Stephan (bullied at school) Gash on a charge of behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace.
All in all it's been a pretty humiliating week for the British far right that's left them looking like they've had their backs broken. The EDL have got a number of demonstrations planned over the next couple of months, including one on tomorrow (13/9), but I doubt there will be much of a turnout especially as the Labour government seem to be getting very vocal in their opposition now the hard work's been done.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Release of the Lockerbie Bomber.
On August 20th Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan man convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds. The release was actually put back by a week because in this metaphor I was playing the role of al-Megrahi and the flight 103 role was being played by President George W Bush's visit to London in 2003. Obviously for that to be accurate flight 103 would have had to have crashed because the pilot simply ran out of talent but the metaphor only really existed to distract from two inescapable facts;
1. Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa. When all that capacity comes on line the country is expected to be the tenth largest oil producer in the world.
2.Britain is in a very sorry state of affairs. It's small strategic oil reserve commonly known as Scotland was plundered heavily during the miners strike and by successive Governments keen to cover up holes in their economic policies. It is now expected to run dry and contribute to the looming energy crisis which, according to a pessimistic report released on 1/9/09, is expected to hit Britain as soon as 2017.
Therefore the al-Megarhi release was simply an attempt by Britain to secure Libyan oil concessions and because the timescales involved exceed the length of any British Parliament was a matter for the civil service or "the state" rather then any elected political party. The fact that the final decision was left to the Scottish Government was an attempt to create a rift between Scotland and the English civil service in Whitehall. The thinking behind this is that economically speaking Scotland is an unsustainable disaster area so when the oil reserves run out Whitehall would prefer it if Scotland achieved independence and became the EU's economic problem.
Since the story exploded into an almighty row Britain has released an avalanche of documents to convince everyone that no oil concessions have been received in return for al-Megrahi's release. I for one believe them because I said it was a British plan, I didn't say it was a good plan.
1. Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa. When all that capacity comes on line the country is expected to be the tenth largest oil producer in the world.
2.Britain is in a very sorry state of affairs. It's small strategic oil reserve commonly known as Scotland was plundered heavily during the miners strike and by successive Governments keen to cover up holes in their economic policies. It is now expected to run dry and contribute to the looming energy crisis which, according to a pessimistic report released on 1/9/09, is expected to hit Britain as soon as 2017.
Therefore the al-Megarhi release was simply an attempt by Britain to secure Libyan oil concessions and because the timescales involved exceed the length of any British Parliament was a matter for the civil service or "the state" rather then any elected political party. The fact that the final decision was left to the Scottish Government was an attempt to create a rift between Scotland and the English civil service in Whitehall. The thinking behind this is that economically speaking Scotland is an unsustainable disaster area so when the oil reserves run out Whitehall would prefer it if Scotland achieved independence and became the EU's economic problem.
Since the story exploded into an almighty row Britain has released an avalanche of documents to convince everyone that no oil concessions have been received in return for al-Megrahi's release. I for one believe them because I said it was a British plan, I didn't say it was a good plan.
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Climate Camp Have Done It!
Against the backdrop of a poor choice of location, expected hostility from the local residents and some quite frankly autumnal weather the Camp for Climate Action have just finished holding their summer camp on Blackheath South East London.
The week of events began on Wednesday August 26th when around 1000 environmental activists met up at several locations around central London before snaking through the city to swoop on the Blackheath campsite. Over the next two days they built a small tented village, played wide games, enjoyed entertainments and engaged with the local residents in workshops on the worlds environmental problems and how to solve them. On Friday 28th a group of around 100 protesters left the camp and headed off to stage a small protests outside the head office of Barclay's Bank. In their role as the British Government's dirty bank Barclay's are engaged in all sorts of unpleasant things that need protesting against but on this occasion the demonstrators were concerned with Barclay's involvement in the Canadian Tar Sands industry. This business involves stripping vast swathes of the Canadian wilderness of its tar sands through massive open cast mines. Once the tar has been mined it is taken to factories where huge amounts of energy are used crushing and squeezing it to extract a few drops of an oil that is far too dirty to be used to power automobiles. In short tar sands oil is one of the most environmentally damaging fossil fuels even before you get round to burning the stuff.
On Monday 31st another two small groups of campers left to stage two small, photogenic protests. The first of these involved protesters in overalls dusting and polishing the outside of the HM Treasury building to highlight the dirty little secret that for all it's claims of being a world leader on environmental issues the British Government actually spends large amounts of taxpayers money funding a range of environmentally damaging industries including the Canadian tar sands. The second group headed to London City Airport where they staged a small but noisy picket at the entrance in order to draw attention to the fact that most of the private jets that operate out of the airport often pump out huge amounts of greenhouses gases in order to fly planes with more crew then passengers on board.
Tuesday September 1st was the camps day of mass direct action and it started early. At around 9AM 12 activists blockaded the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland and got the building shut down for the day while they carried out an "ethical renovation". At around the same time another group staged an always courageous naked protest at Edelman PR who represent E-on the energy company that operates the Kingsnorth and Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal fired power stations. Throughout the day these demonstrations were visited by a roaming group of protesters who also took in the Canadian Embassy and the head office of oil company BP before converging on the head office of Shell Oil who are heavily involved in the production of Canadian Tar Sands.
Although this wasn't the most spectacular camp in it's history this years Climate Camp has probably given the new environmental movement it's greatest victory. You see this year the Climate Camp was meant to be robbed, raped, beaten and abused to such an extent that it collapsed into a quivering, paranoid mess of infighting leaving it too busy to dare challenge the status quo ever again. That would mean that just 94 days ahead of the Copenhagen Summit Britain would be able to send the message to the world that the movement was broken so there's no need to sign up to a deal that would stop the Queen profiting from her large portfolio of mining and energy investments.
In the end that car crashed before it even got going http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewgreen/4561358.SHOOTERS_HILL__Man_seriously_hurt_in_crash_with_police_car/ because the camp was better defended and enjoyed more local support then was expected so you only need to read the hundreds of, ever more desperate, anonymous comments posted on the Internet while the Climate Campers were keeping their heads down to see that the movement's hardly even been dented.
The week of events began on Wednesday August 26th when around 1000 environmental activists met up at several locations around central London before snaking through the city to swoop on the Blackheath campsite. Over the next two days they built a small tented village, played wide games, enjoyed entertainments and engaged with the local residents in workshops on the worlds environmental problems and how to solve them. On Friday 28th a group of around 100 protesters left the camp and headed off to stage a small protests outside the head office of Barclay's Bank. In their role as the British Government's dirty bank Barclay's are engaged in all sorts of unpleasant things that need protesting against but on this occasion the demonstrators were concerned with Barclay's involvement in the Canadian Tar Sands industry. This business involves stripping vast swathes of the Canadian wilderness of its tar sands through massive open cast mines. Once the tar has been mined it is taken to factories where huge amounts of energy are used crushing and squeezing it to extract a few drops of an oil that is far too dirty to be used to power automobiles. In short tar sands oil is one of the most environmentally damaging fossil fuels even before you get round to burning the stuff.
On Monday 31st another two small groups of campers left to stage two small, photogenic protests. The first of these involved protesters in overalls dusting and polishing the outside of the HM Treasury building to highlight the dirty little secret that for all it's claims of being a world leader on environmental issues the British Government actually spends large amounts of taxpayers money funding a range of environmentally damaging industries including the Canadian tar sands. The second group headed to London City Airport where they staged a small but noisy picket at the entrance in order to draw attention to the fact that most of the private jets that operate out of the airport often pump out huge amounts of greenhouses gases in order to fly planes with more crew then passengers on board.
Tuesday September 1st was the camps day of mass direct action and it started early. At around 9AM 12 activists blockaded the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland and got the building shut down for the day while they carried out an "ethical renovation". At around the same time another group staged an always courageous naked protest at Edelman PR who represent E-on the energy company that operates the Kingsnorth and Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal fired power stations. Throughout the day these demonstrations were visited by a roaming group of protesters who also took in the Canadian Embassy and the head office of oil company BP before converging on the head office of Shell Oil who are heavily involved in the production of Canadian Tar Sands.
Although this wasn't the most spectacular camp in it's history this years Climate Camp has probably given the new environmental movement it's greatest victory. You see this year the Climate Camp was meant to be robbed, raped, beaten and abused to such an extent that it collapsed into a quivering, paranoid mess of infighting leaving it too busy to dare challenge the status quo ever again. That would mean that just 94 days ahead of the Copenhagen Summit Britain would be able to send the message to the world that the movement was broken so there's no need to sign up to a deal that would stop the Queen profiting from her large portfolio of mining and energy investments.
In the end that car crashed before it even got going http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewgreen/4561358.SHOOTERS_HILL__Man_seriously_hurt_in_crash_with_police_car/ because the camp was better defended and enjoyed more local support then was expected so you only need to read the hundreds of, ever more desperate, anonymous comments posted on the Internet while the Climate Campers were keeping their heads down to see that the movement's hardly even been dented.
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