When I got back from work today the fox had taken four chickens. Only two left. I like to think of it as a parting gift.
Mr Eugenides offers a sideways look at the Blair years. Recommended.
How Naive Are These Magistrates?
17 hours ago
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Well could it be ... ?
Yes it could
Something's coming
Something good
Let's just say my views have changed in the last ten years.
Something's coming
Something good
Let's just say my views have changed in the last ten years.
Sellling England
Blogger Chris Paul in the Guardian comments. The emboldening is mine :
On Friday I was at a kind of Big Conversation event on Britain in the World at Manchester Town Hall. Hilary Benn and Hazel Blears were the MP guests and in BC style they worked the room with 15 minutes at each table.
Both seem to struggle with immigration and asylum. They appear to have a well founded fear of electoral persecution on this matter - if the UK is perceived to have open borders.
Young Benn responded to a question of mine about the extra hurdle for women asylum seekers of the sexism and the standard incredulity about rape and threat which tends to be dismissed out of hand and in some cases dubbed "domestic". We know in the UK how hard it is to get a conviction on rape 1-in-20 of cases that go to court, 1-in-50 of police reported.
How much harder if the rapists are 4000 miles away in Lagos.
In response to my tales of a woman in a wheelchair who had been repeatedly raped in Nigeria and a woman under serious threat of harm in North West Frontier Province Hilary swerved and gave an example from his Leeds casework of a woman who was experiencing domestic violence in Jamaica.
He said this wasn't an asylum case. That's as may be. Mine were.
Provided with my idea that it would be easier to win hearts and minds on a more progressive line on immigration if absolute AND relative poverty were tackled properly Hazel still recounted a rendezvous with twenty decent people relaxing in their gardens in her constituency whose number one concern was and is immigration.
She feels Labour cannot win unless we are tough on immigration.
I support the Strangers into Citizens idea of an amnesty with a two-year trial. I support a general idea of converting asylum seekers into work visa cases - without an out of country application. And I can tell you from looking close up that the mistakes made by government agencies on work cases are legion.
The complexity of the system for visits, holidays and working is way OTT.
So finally my questions:
We need to be able to sell what we believe in. How do we sell this amnesty and the real benefits of immigration ? A cross-party consensus could help but could drive racist votes.
Who is the leadership candidate to sell this, and how ?
The problem that Chris doesn't seem to acknowledge is that
a) the capacity of the UK is not infinite - either physically or culturally. There is - how can I put this kindly ? a risk that importing too many people too quickly, without allowing time for previous arrivals to integrate and take on the key British cultural norms (as defined by Gordon Brown - tolerance, inclusiveness, apologising when someone treads on your toes), may result in a society where those values - which surely underpin what succour we have given to refugees - are no longer valued.
b) the number of deserving cases is, if not infinite, extremely high.
Take the woman under 'serious threat of harm' in the NWFP. From a UK perspective pretty much EVERY woman in NWFP is under serious threat of harm. It's a place pretty short on radical feminists - a place where even suspicion of female 'dishonour' can be a death sentence. There are around 24 million people in NWFP, half of whom are women.
Or the poor woman from Nigeria, who has certainly done well to get to the UK despite her disability. Would anyone imagine she is the only one in danger in her home country ? According to the WOMEN, LAW and DEVELOPMENT in AFRICA site :
The Nigerian woman suffers violations of her rights from conception till she dies without redress by the society. At birth the male child is preferred to the female, as she grows the female child suffers various forms of violence such as genital mutilation or female circumcision, In the home she is denied education in preference to her male counterpart and subjected to heavy burden of household chores. As a child the female may be given out to marriage in some cultures and or become victim of trafficking.
During marriage the woman suffers inferior status in the home, she is not part of decision-making, denied inheritance rights as a child or wife and is a victim of domestic violence and marital rape. In the society the woman is a victim of various forms of sexual assaults without redress, denied access to credit and suffers poverty more than her male counterpart despite her enormous contribution to the Nigerian economy especially in the informal sector.
There are around 70 million women in Nigeria.
I could go on. In the cycle of atrocity and counter-atrocity in Rwanda over the last 30 years, probably the entire population, some eight million, would have had a reasonable case for asylum at one time or other. The same could be said for 50 million Congolese. Every homosexual in Iran and Pakistan has a case, every adulterer in Saudi Arabia, every democrat in China. Most of the non-Arab population of Sudan.
The asylum laws were passed in a different, non-globalised era, when international travel was still expensive and the main expected source of refugees was the Iron Curtain nations.
On Friday I was at a kind of Big Conversation event on Britain in the World at Manchester Town Hall. Hilary Benn and Hazel Blears were the MP guests and in BC style they worked the room with 15 minutes at each table.
Both seem to struggle with immigration and asylum. They appear to have a well founded fear of electoral persecution on this matter - if the UK is perceived to have open borders.
Young Benn responded to a question of mine about the extra hurdle for women asylum seekers of the sexism and the standard incredulity about rape and threat which tends to be dismissed out of hand and in some cases dubbed "domestic". We know in the UK how hard it is to get a conviction on rape 1-in-20 of cases that go to court, 1-in-50 of police reported.
How much harder if the rapists are 4000 miles away in Lagos.
In response to my tales of a woman in a wheelchair who had been repeatedly raped in Nigeria and a woman under serious threat of harm in North West Frontier Province Hilary swerved and gave an example from his Leeds casework of a woman who was experiencing domestic violence in Jamaica.
He said this wasn't an asylum case. That's as may be. Mine were.
Provided with my idea that it would be easier to win hearts and minds on a more progressive line on immigration if absolute AND relative poverty were tackled properly Hazel still recounted a rendezvous with twenty decent people relaxing in their gardens in her constituency whose number one concern was and is immigration.
She feels Labour cannot win unless we are tough on immigration.
I support the Strangers into Citizens idea of an amnesty with a two-year trial. I support a general idea of converting asylum seekers into work visa cases - without an out of country application. And I can tell you from looking close up that the mistakes made by government agencies on work cases are legion.
The complexity of the system for visits, holidays and working is way OTT.
So finally my questions:
We need to be able to sell what we believe in. How do we sell this amnesty and the real benefits of immigration ? A cross-party consensus could help but could drive racist votes.
Who is the leadership candidate to sell this, and how ?
The problem that Chris doesn't seem to acknowledge is that
a) the capacity of the UK is not infinite - either physically or culturally. There is - how can I put this kindly ? a risk that importing too many people too quickly, without allowing time for previous arrivals to integrate and take on the key British cultural norms (as defined by Gordon Brown - tolerance, inclusiveness, apologising when someone treads on your toes), may result in a society where those values - which surely underpin what succour we have given to refugees - are no longer valued.
b) the number of deserving cases is, if not infinite, extremely high.
Take the woman under 'serious threat of harm' in the NWFP. From a UK perspective pretty much EVERY woman in NWFP is under serious threat of harm. It's a place pretty short on radical feminists - a place where even suspicion of female 'dishonour' can be a death sentence. There are around 24 million people in NWFP, half of whom are women.
Or the poor woman from Nigeria, who has certainly done well to get to the UK despite her disability. Would anyone imagine she is the only one in danger in her home country ? According to the WOMEN, LAW and DEVELOPMENT in AFRICA site :
The Nigerian woman suffers violations of her rights from conception till she dies without redress by the society. At birth the male child is preferred to the female, as she grows the female child suffers various forms of violence such as genital mutilation or female circumcision, In the home she is denied education in preference to her male counterpart and subjected to heavy burden of household chores. As a child the female may be given out to marriage in some cultures and or become victim of trafficking.
During marriage the woman suffers inferior status in the home, she is not part of decision-making, denied inheritance rights as a child or wife and is a victim of domestic violence and marital rape. In the society the woman is a victim of various forms of sexual assaults without redress, denied access to credit and suffers poverty more than her male counterpart despite her enormous contribution to the Nigerian economy especially in the informal sector.
There are around 70 million women in Nigeria.
I could go on. In the cycle of atrocity and counter-atrocity in Rwanda over the last 30 years, probably the entire population, some eight million, would have had a reasonable case for asylum at one time or other. The same could be said for 50 million Congolese. Every homosexual in Iran and Pakistan has a case, every adulterer in Saudi Arabia, every democrat in China. Most of the non-Arab population of Sudan.
The asylum laws were passed in a different, non-globalised era, when international travel was still expensive and the main expected source of refugees was the Iron Curtain nations.
Sacred Cows
I'll be interested to see how this one plays out :
The animal, called Shambo, is kept by the Skandavale Temple in Llanpumsaint, south west Wales. The authorities insist it must be culled after testing positive for the cattle disease, which can be transmitted to humans.
But the Hindu Forum of Britain has promised to form a human chain around the temple to save the bull, which Hindu chiefs insist is isolated and in a healthy condition. The temple has promised to keep the animal, which will never enter the food chain, in isolation for the rest of its life but requests for a reprieve have been rejected.
The legal battle over Harriet the pet cow was still ongoing when she fell ill and died earlier this year. Whether MI5 or Ben Bradshaw poisoned her none can say, but I hope they tested for polonium. As far as I recall the government were adamant that she must die.
Like Harriet, the sacred bull of Shiva will never enter the food chain. But 'it's the regulations'.
The animal, called Shambo, is kept by the Skandavale Temple in Llanpumsaint, south west Wales. The authorities insist it must be culled after testing positive for the cattle disease, which can be transmitted to humans.
But the Hindu Forum of Britain has promised to form a human chain around the temple to save the bull, which Hindu chiefs insist is isolated and in a healthy condition. The temple has promised to keep the animal, which will never enter the food chain, in isolation for the rest of its life but requests for a reprieve have been rejected.
The legal battle over Harriet the pet cow was still ongoing when she fell ill and died earlier this year. Whether MI5 or Ben Bradshaw poisoned her none can say, but I hope they tested for polonium. As far as I recall the government were adamant that she must die.
Like Harriet, the sacred bull of Shiva will never enter the food chain. But 'it's the regulations'.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
A Nation Fit For Criminals
Wonderfully revealing BBC story of the mafia wife returning to the UK from Italy after plea-bargaining for a suspended sentence. Hubby's doing 30 years for for drug trafficking and murder.
UPDATE - Guardian
"She admitted the facts of mafia association. It was difficult for her to do otherwise because it was all on tape from the intercepted telephone conversations."
"This experience has destroyed me. In Agrigento jail I was kept in isolation and only had a shower three times a week.
"But the worst thing was the isolation. It was inhumane.
"In England, prison was completely different. It was like being in a hotel - we had a pool, I was able to use the phone and my children visited me.
"Now I just want to get back to my children.
"I won't have to work as the State will look after us and pay for us until my daughter is 16 years old."
UPDATE - Guardian
"She admitted the facts of mafia association. It was difficult for her to do otherwise because it was all on tape from the intercepted telephone conversations."
Monday, May 07, 2007
Blimey
It's not often I agree with "Good-hearted Harry" Fletcher of NAPO, the probation officers union.
Obviously I'd prefer option 1 and Mr Fletcher would like option 3. Looks like we're going to get option 2 - but without any change in the law, which would have to be debated and voted on.
(More on prison, probation and community service here.)
'Over the last few years the government has failed to deal with the looming prison crisis,' said Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, the probation officers' union. 'Successive predictions produced by statisticians in the Home Office have indicated that the prison population would surge past 80,000 by 2007. Despite the warnings, the government has not commissioned further prison places, changed the law so that fewer people go to prison or provided adequate resources for probation.'
Obviously I'd prefer option 1 and Mr Fletcher would like option 3. Looks like we're going to get option 2 - but without any change in the law, which would have to be debated and voted on.
(More on prison, probation and community service here.)
Cruddas Tackles The Issues
"The BNP’s failure to gain seats in last week’s elections masks worrying levels of support says deputy leadership candidate for the Labour Party, Jon Cruddas MP.
The MP for Dagenham said there are underlying issues that are driving people to the BNP which must be urgently addressed."
Mr Cruddas was speaking at a rally calling for an amnesty for illegal immigrants.
The MP for Dagenham said there are underlying issues that are driving people to the BNP which must be urgently addressed."
Mr Cruddas was speaking at a rally calling for an amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
And We're Off !
May 7, 2007 - 7:15AM
Riot police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters gathered in central Paris today to demonstrate against the presidential election victory of right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy, an AFP journalist said. The clashes took place on the Place de la Bastille where about 5,000 supporters of the defeated Socialist candidate Segolene Royal had gone to await the election results. Up to 300 rioters, some of whom were masked, made running attacks on riot police who took up positions at the entrance to boulevards leading onto the square. Earlier a small crowd of protesters, brandishing black and red anarchist flags, set fire to an effigy of Sarkozy in the square before tearing it limb from limb and then stamping on it.
Be fair though - these are traditional French Leftist rioters (the kind who say the Right are 'full of hate'), not 'racaille'. I imagine a lot of police will be on duty tonight.
UPDATE - strange. The graphic (from Le Monde) seems to show Sarkozy as winner in the industrial North - which I'm sure the Guardian describes as the socialist heartland - and the east, while Royal seems to be ahead in ... well, the touristy, less vibrant bits - Brittany, Bordeaux, the Southwest.
Have I got the reactions correct ? (O-level French)
Mme Royal appelle à "continuer ensemble"
The lovely Sego said she will continue to wear the same outfits.
François Bayrou et l'UDF félicitent Nicolas Sarkozy
Bayrou and UDF congratulate Sarkozy.
Jean-Marie Le Pen : "les électeurs auront le président qu'ils méritent"
Le Pen : 'You'll get the President you deserve !"
Reid Quits
Adam Boulton
The Home Secretary's bombshell announcement - and its timing, coming in between Labour's drubbing at the polls and Tony Blair announcing his departure - looks like a calculated and deliberate snub to his old foe the Chancellor.
The obvious conclusion is that Dr Reid simply doesn't want to be part of a Gordon Brown government. And although his announcement shocked and stunned MPs, he must have told Tony Blair that he was planning to go, because within minutes of the Reid announcement, No 10 released a glowing tribute to Mr Blair's loyal ally.
Is this the first known case of the rat leaving the ship before it's actually set sail ?
The Home Secretary's bombshell announcement - and its timing, coming in between Labour's drubbing at the polls and Tony Blair announcing his departure - looks like a calculated and deliberate snub to his old foe the Chancellor.
The obvious conclusion is that Dr Reid simply doesn't want to be part of a Gordon Brown government. And although his announcement shocked and stunned MPs, he must have told Tony Blair that he was planning to go, because within minutes of the Reid announcement, No 10 released a glowing tribute to Mr Blair's loyal ally.
Is this the first known case of the rat leaving the ship before it's actually set sail ?
Turning Webellion Into Money II
Listening to R5 on Friday, some interviewee with beautifully modulated middle-class tones was talking about the Clash - 'twas one Julien Temple, another nice boy fascinated by the wild side.
"I was born the same year as Joe Strummer, so in a funny way I couldn’t help but go through some of the same moves as him. I didn’t go to a public school, but I guess you could say that my parents were middle-class. We shared certain things, like that pivotal moment in the mid-’60s when we were at school. The Kinks and the Stones and that whole London thing affected both of us. Then, later in the 60s, there was the hippy thing, although I don’t think I was ever as much of a hippy as Joe, who went the whole way. Then the squatting. We shared things in common."
Public-school hippy ? You amaze me.
I first became aware of Joe when I was squatting in Notting Hill, just as he was ... then I got involved in the punk thing by meeting the Sex Pistols by chance. I was completely amazed to see Joe at the 100 Club, with his blonde hair, all punked out, totally unlike this hippy from before. It was an amazing transformation ... Joe was harder to get to know because he was always covering up his middle-class background. He was such a different person from before. He was wary of anyone who shared his past.
Full-on urban rebel, up and dahn the Westway, eh ? Trouble was, a lot of people who should have known better took it all seriously. I wonder when exactly the officer class started to feel the need to hide their origins - early 60s I'd presume, about the same time that nice middle class Mr Jagger invented mockney.
I first met Joe in the seventies, but then didn't see him again for about 25 years! Then one day he appeared in my garden. It turned out that his wife Lucinda was an old school friend of my wife ...
Asbo Comprehensive, perhaps ? I wonder which school that would be.
Later he said that he wanted to live here – and he did. He bought a farm up the road and we spent a lot of time together.
So Temple, the chronicler of London punk, ends up in rural Somerset, and good old Joe turns up to (in every sense) buy the farm up the road ! As you do. Just another example of urban hipsters letting us know what they really think. A long way from the Hammersmith Palais ...
"We're safe here ... miles away from explosions, inner-city crime, miles away even from suburbia."
"I was born the same year as Joe Strummer, so in a funny way I couldn’t help but go through some of the same moves as him. I didn’t go to a public school, but I guess you could say that my parents were middle-class. We shared certain things, like that pivotal moment in the mid-’60s when we were at school. The Kinks and the Stones and that whole London thing affected both of us. Then, later in the 60s, there was the hippy thing, although I don’t think I was ever as much of a hippy as Joe, who went the whole way. Then the squatting. We shared things in common."
Public-school hippy ? You amaze me.
I first became aware of Joe when I was squatting in Notting Hill, just as he was ... then I got involved in the punk thing by meeting the Sex Pistols by chance. I was completely amazed to see Joe at the 100 Club, with his blonde hair, all punked out, totally unlike this hippy from before. It was an amazing transformation ... Joe was harder to get to know because he was always covering up his middle-class background. He was such a different person from before. He was wary of anyone who shared his past.
Full-on urban rebel, up and dahn the Westway, eh ? Trouble was, a lot of people who should have known better took it all seriously. I wonder when exactly the officer class started to feel the need to hide their origins - early 60s I'd presume, about the same time that nice middle class Mr Jagger invented mockney.
I first met Joe in the seventies, but then didn't see him again for about 25 years! Then one day he appeared in my garden. It turned out that his wife Lucinda was an old school friend of my wife ...
Asbo Comprehensive, perhaps ? I wonder which school that would be.
Later he said that he wanted to live here – and he did. He bought a farm up the road and we spent a lot of time together.
So Temple, the chronicler of London punk, ends up in rural Somerset, and good old Joe turns up to (in every sense) buy the farm up the road ! As you do. Just another example of urban hipsters letting us know what they really think. A long way from the Hammersmith Palais ...
"We're safe here ... miles away from explosions, inner-city crime, miles away even from suburbia."
Normblog profile
This week is the estimable Squander Two. Couldn't agree more with his important advice about life. Or A.A. Milne as a comic writer.
Moral Barrel - Indie Scrapes Out The Bottom
He's a poet, a fisherman, a chess-player, a family man described as considerate and thoughtful, somebody who cares about nature and the environment, passionate yet even-tempered.
Well, yes. He certainly cared about the environment of Londonderry.
His units did a great deal of damage to the city with a campaign that made it look, in the words of one observer, as if it had been bombed from the air.
McGuinness was not always in the business of twinkling geniality, or of making friends and influencing people. He began as a trainee butcher, packing bacon in a Derry butcher's shop.
He'd soon moved on to professional butchery.
The British Army in particular had cause to regret his streetfighting skills: it lost more than two dozen soldiers, gunned down on Derry streets.
"Lost" them, did they ? How careless.
Let's just suppose that there were English Nationalists prepared to kill hundreds of innocents in pursuance of an independent England. What would the odds be of a sympathetic Indie portrait ?
Well, yes. He certainly cared about the environment of Londonderry.
His units did a great deal of damage to the city with a campaign that made it look, in the words of one observer, as if it had been bombed from the air.
McGuinness was not always in the business of twinkling geniality, or of making friends and influencing people. He began as a trainee butcher, packing bacon in a Derry butcher's shop.
He'd soon moved on to professional butchery.
The British Army in particular had cause to regret his streetfighting skills: it lost more than two dozen soldiers, gunned down on Derry streets.
"Lost" them, did they ? How careless.
Let's just suppose that there were English Nationalists prepared to kill hundreds of innocents in pursuance of an independent England. What would the odds be of a sympathetic Indie portrait ?
Saturday, May 05, 2007
"First Asian MSP goes to Holyrood"
Bashir Ahmad was at the top of the SNPs list for the Glasgow area, so was always in with a good shout of election. Ah well, at least he said he was proud to represent the people of Scotland at Holyrood. His Welsh equivalent, Mohammed Asghar, said he "will be serving with my heart and soul for ethnic minorities which are a definite part of the United Kingdom and Wales". None of this nonsense about working for everyone.
Back to Mr Ahmad. "He said that a school for the children of Muslim parents in Scotland was one of his main goals."
It certainly is. A goal in pursuance of which he's prepared to disrupt Mass in a Catholic school. I wonder how many Glaswegian Catholics voted SNP ?
Back to Mr Ahmad. "He said that a school for the children of Muslim parents in Scotland was one of his main goals."
It certainly is. A goal in pursuance of which he's prepared to disrupt Mass in a Catholic school. I wonder how many Glaswegian Catholics voted SNP ?
Compare and Contrast
BBC
Screening 'may help stem TB rise'
Introducing targeted tuberculosis screening would help to combat the recent rise in UK cases, a study says.
Researchers from Queen Mary's School of Medicine found that offering screening at GP surgeries increased detection rates by over a third, the Lancet said.
Times
Tuberculosis screening demanded for areas with many immigrants
Patients should be screened for tuberculosis in areas with high migrant populations where the disease is on the rise, researchers say.
A study in today’s Lancet medical journal found that 13 per cent more TB cases were detected when general practices used active screening in Hackney, East London, boosting rates of vaccination against the disease.
Here's another downside. When I saw the headline I thought 'but no-one chews tobacco any more'. Not something you'd have had to worry about in Ealing 50 year back - although when I lived in Leeds in the 70s the buses still had "No Spitting" signs on them :
People who spit in the street will be forced to clean up or face an £80 fine, police in north London have said.
The clampdown is particularly aimed at chewers of paan, a tobacco leaf-based mixture, which authorities blame for staining pavements in central Wembley.
Posters and leaflets are being handed out warning spitting is "unhygienic" and an "act of anti-social behaviour". "Paan damages walls and pavements and costs taxpayers thousands of pounds a year to clean," said Ch Insp Raj Kohli. Paan spittle hotspots are Ealing Road and part of the High Road near St Johns Road, according to Brent Council.
Screening 'may help stem TB rise'
Introducing targeted tuberculosis screening would help to combat the recent rise in UK cases, a study says.
Researchers from Queen Mary's School of Medicine found that offering screening at GP surgeries increased detection rates by over a third, the Lancet said.
Times
Tuberculosis screening demanded for areas with many immigrants
Patients should be screened for tuberculosis in areas with high migrant populations where the disease is on the rise, researchers say.
A study in today’s Lancet medical journal found that 13 per cent more TB cases were detected when general practices used active screening in Hackney, East London, boosting rates of vaccination against the disease.
Here's another downside. When I saw the headline I thought 'but no-one chews tobacco any more'. Not something you'd have had to worry about in Ealing 50 year back - although when I lived in Leeds in the 70s the buses still had "No Spitting" signs on them :
People who spit in the street will be forced to clean up or face an £80 fine, police in north London have said.
The clampdown is particularly aimed at chewers of paan, a tobacco leaf-based mixture, which authorities blame for staining pavements in central Wembley.
Posters and leaflets are being handed out warning spitting is "unhygienic" and an "act of anti-social behaviour". "Paan damages walls and pavements and costs taxpayers thousands of pounds a year to clean," said Ch Insp Raj Kohli. Paan spittle hotspots are Ealing Road and part of the High Road near St Johns Road, according to Brent Council.
Bromsgrove Rovers 2 Willenhall 1
Like Leeds United, only playing better football, the Greens have fallen from their high estate in the 90s, when under the great Bobby Hope they finished second in the Conference. Since then they've been reduced to the Southern League Midland Division, playing against much smaller teams. Bring back Alan Craddock and Chris Hooper say I. Much internal politicking and bad feeling means they don't currently seem to have a website, but there is a Supporters site and an unofficial forum.
They've just beaten Willenhall Town 2-1 after extra time in the playoff final, and are promoted to the SL Premier division, from which promotion back to the Conference is possible.
Congratulations to the lads, to manager Rod Brown, and to Sam Allsop for the equaliser and Jermaine Clarke for the winner.
They've just beaten Willenhall Town 2-1 after extra time in the playoff final, and are promoted to the SL Premier division, from which promotion back to the Conference is possible.
Congratulations to the lads, to manager Rod Brown, and to Sam Allsop for the equaliser and Jermaine Clarke for the winner.
The Way We Were - Station Syren
She sat with a Warwick Deeping,
Her legs curl'd round in a ring,
Like a beautiful panther sleeping,
Yet always ready to spring.
Tweed on her well-knit torso,
Silk on each big strong leg,
An officer's lady - and more so
Than those who buy off the peg.
More cash than she knew of for spending
As a Southgate girl at home,
For there's crooning and clinging unending
For the queen of the girls at the 'drome.
Beautiful brown eyes burning
Deep on the Deeping page,
Beautiful dark hair learning
Coiffuring tricks of the age.
Negligent hand for holding
A Flight-Lieutenant at bay,
Petulant lips for scolding
And kissing the trouble away.
But she isn't exactly partial
To any of that sort of thing,
So maybe the Air Vice-Marshal
Will buy her a Bravington ring.
(John Betjeman)
Where Is It ?
As a small child I used to have had a recurring dream about a big house. My father's family had settled near Darlington when they came to England in May 1940, and I was sure it was from staying there as an infant that the dream was sourced.
Sorting through my late mother's photographs I think I've found the house of my dream. Anyone know where it is ? Probably somewhere in the North-East.
Sorting through my late mother's photographs I think I've found the house of my dream. Anyone know where it is ? Probably somewhere in the North-East.
Let's not think about tomorrow ...
Lest we disappointed be;
All our joys may turn to sorrow,
As we all may daily see.
No deaths on Thursday at Trimdon , but no political explosion either for disappointed Tory Shirley Bowes.
Lucy Howels (Lab) 441 votes
Amanda Foster (BNP) 75 votes
Shirley Bowes (Con) 0 votes
Friday, May 04, 2007
Today's Early Release Murderer - Peter Tobin
The church handyman was sentenced to 14 years in prison at Winchester Crown Court in Hampshire in 1994 for the assault.
After his release in December 2004, he moved to Paisley, East Renfrewshire but within 10 months the authorities had lost track of him.
The case has once again raised questions over the early release and monitoring of sex offenders.
Has it ? You could have fooled me. Just the other day, as Judy McKnight reports, Lord Falconer was praising (Word doc) the Probation Service 'in marked contrast to the sort of speeches we have heard from John Reid'.
The trouble is that 'setbacks and relapses' translates into 'dead girls under floorboards'. If the Probation Service were a commercial organisation offering a service which caused as many deaths and injuries each year as their decisions do, they would long ago have been closed down and the directors prosecuted. 'Retaining a realism about what can be achieved' seems in practice to boil down to accepting those deaths, injuries and losses.
'It is the service on whom many people will rely when their lives are mired in crime and everyone else has given up and gone home.'
Had he followed that with 'and just as importantly, it is the service on which law-abiding people rely to take the correct decisions to protect them, their families and their property' I could just about swallow it. But, as ever, the focus is on the poor offender, 'mired in crime', as if he fell into it by accident one day.
What's Falconer's problem ? Why won't we get a decent - a just - criminal justice system out of this guy ? He's answered the question himself.
"I have been speaking, seeing, sharing and listening to a great number of people who have a vested interest in the justice system."
You said it.
After his release in December 2004, he moved to Paisley, East Renfrewshire but within 10 months the authorities had lost track of him.
The case has once again raised questions over the early release and monitoring of sex offenders.
Has it ? You could have fooled me. Just the other day, as Judy McKnight reports, Lord Falconer was praising (Word doc) the Probation Service 'in marked contrast to the sort of speeches we have heard from John Reid'.
"Underpinning our approach to probation is inevitably a desire to reduce re-offending. Using probation as effectively as we can. Increasing rehabilitation, reducing re-offending, more restorative justice, raising public protection. The challenge we face, and you most particularly on the front line, is that of how to turn the offender into the citizen.
It is not an easy task. Elements of the media and parts of the public see you as a soft touch, not grounded in the real world. They say you are naive. That does you a great disservice, and it is I believe ignorant. The probation service I know retains a realism about what can be achieved, about set backs and relapses without allowing itself to become cynical or jaded. It has dogged determination and patience. By giving people a future to follow, they can leave their past behind. It is the service on whom many people will rely when their lives are mired in crime and everyone else has given up and gone home."
The trouble is that 'setbacks and relapses' translates into 'dead girls under floorboards'. If the Probation Service were a commercial organisation offering a service which caused as many deaths and injuries each year as their decisions do, they would long ago have been closed down and the directors prosecuted. 'Retaining a realism about what can be achieved' seems in practice to boil down to accepting those deaths, injuries and losses.
'It is the service on whom many people will rely when their lives are mired in crime and everyone else has given up and gone home.'
Had he followed that with 'and just as importantly, it is the service on which law-abiding people rely to take the correct decisions to protect them, their families and their property' I could just about swallow it. But, as ever, the focus is on the poor offender, 'mired in crime', as if he fell into it by accident one day.
What's Falconer's problem ? Why won't we get a decent - a just - criminal justice system out of this guy ? He's answered the question himself.
"I have been speaking, seeing, sharing and listening to a great number of people who have a vested interest in the justice system."
You said it.
Local Elections
Was it Mao who, asked his opinion of the French Revolution, replied 'it's too early to tell ?'.
All we can say with certainty is that whenever Labour change the voting systems in an attempt to increase their vote, disaster, corruption and incompetence follow. See Mr Eugenides for the gory details (swearing alert).
PragueTory don't like the BBC coverage.
Ian Dale :
"I cannot believe that the BBC is saying a 41% vote share for the Conservatives is slightly disappointing. Actually, I can."
One thing we can say is that the 'chip and bin' system introduced by the Lib Dems in Bournemouth isn't very popular.
More later.
All we can say with certainty is that whenever Labour change the voting systems in an attempt to increase their vote, disaster, corruption and incompetence follow. See Mr Eugenides for the gory details (swearing alert).
PragueTory don't like the BBC coverage.
Ian Dale :
"I cannot believe that the BBC is saying a 41% vote share for the Conservatives is slightly disappointing. Actually, I can."
One thing we can say is that the 'chip and bin' system introduced by the Lib Dems in Bournemouth isn't very popular.
More later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
