Welcome to MY world

Just back from an overnighter in London. Down yesterday on the train, a 40 minute meeting with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and then on the town prior to train home today.

Just as I have already had my final ever long haul air flight and my final ever European holiday, this marked the last of my trips to London. It was just too much stress on the old body. My back gives in quite quickly carrying anything like an overnight bag and a few files. The actual travel is OK so I suppose I might make a lightweight run. The meeting was some contingency planning that SoS wanted to make regarding the publication by Lord Saville of his Inquiry findings of events of Bloody Sunday on 30 January 1972.

I was there when the thing went off at Londonderry and ran the first immediate investigation so it would be nice to be in at the death. Others at the meeting included three Generals and a very senior MOD official. And me. How a humble WOI got dragged into that sort of body, I'll never know. I have nothing to be afraid of but it seems our meeting was to debate just what needed to be done if there were any problems with the cover of anonymity given to many of the military witnesses should Saville attribute blame.

Seeing it might be the Final Night of John's Proms, I decided to make a bit of a night of it. The very first posh restaurant I went to was in 1942 when my father took me to a business lunch at Veerasawamy's Restaurant in Regent Street. I know not why - he was not one given to acknowledging fatherly treats. I was obviously impressed as it became a favourite watering hole for me as I progressed through courting and into marriage. During my time in the Army, we went there whenever we returned from foreign climes. Although it was an Indian restaurant it bore little resemblence to any such establishment of today. Possibly the best description would be to liken it to a Government resthouse in pre-Merdeka Malaya. It was the burra sahibs version of Indian eating. The food was vaguely Home Counties English with added spices. None of that curry stuff that the natives eat dontcherknow! Such dishes were available but were not the foremost items on the menu. Right from my first visual memory it had a sort of run down, faded charm. The staff were very discreet but one's glass was kept topped up and dishes came and went in an almost discreet manner.

Well, it has been sold by the Veeraswamy family who ran it since 1926. The new brooms have refurbished it. No red flock wallpaper-style; the idea seems to represent the spread of the cuisine from North to Southern India. Very opulent decoration without very much OTT features.

So, this was the setting for my final experience of London dining. I invited my daughter and an Internet friend I'd not met other than over the ether. She brought her man but, even as a host, I have to say that my night was made wonderful by Caroline's bringing my grand-daughter Liberty along as a totally unexpected surprise. Liberty is a mid-teenager going on 25'ish and is so bright that she sparkles. She was in no way fazed by being in a party of oldies and held her own in conversation. And wine drinking! We did the usual thing of ordering a wide assortment of personal choices but robbing each other's dishes. It was a wonderful few hours that went by all too soon.

So, as the retreat from Empire progressed with many milestones, I've touched another milepost in my retreat. Sad I'll not see it's inside again but warm memories of some very very fine times are still with me. Last night was the cap put back on the bottle. I can live with that.

Getting ready for a pilgrimage to London tomorrow. I was invited to meet the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in advance of the publication by Lord Saville of his report on the Bloody Sunday inquiry. Having been there when it all went off, I thought I should get in on the final act less one; hopefully I'll live to see the final story. The MOD are picking up all my expenses including travel and overnight accommodation which is nice of them. I will feel like an illegal immigrant getting all that from the Government!

It will give me the opportunity to make my own trial of the latest electronic wizardry with my Touch toy. I have bought some Wi time and will see how I get on on the train, in the hotel and in the street.

Dinner is laid on with Caroline and a friend from Facebook.

Report on the whole thing comes later

I cannot now remember where I read the words of the title here – some Colonial bust up I suppose. I am reminded of them by the two incidents arising from Police conduct at the G20-linked demonstrations. Given that we do not yet know the full circumstances behind the very dramatic video footage, I will refrain from direct criticism, What does intrigue me is the way that the events have polarised the public’s attitude towards the police.

I subscribe to a forum where the members have very forthright views and the vocabulary to express these in colourful language. For months now, there have been threads where treatment only just short of capital punishment has been advocated against what are generally referred to as chavs.  The overweening desire was that police act in a very positive manner. Full rigour of the law etc.

Now that we have images showing just what level of violence can be deployed, the firmness of character seems to have been diluted. It is fair to say that there is universal condemnation of police methods. There is a small proportion who condemn the way punishment was meted out but who attribute this to individuals and not as a Force policy.

Given that many of those who express anti opinions will have seen service in Northern Ireland at times when violent street demonstrations were common, this lack of sympathy for the individual copper is hard to understand. Whilst we see police armed with paramilitary weapons and riot kit, it would seem that there is a general air of restraint in their usage. The application of police baton and riot shield to civilians limbs and flesh should have led to many more injuries than were reported. The line where front line demonstrators meets front line police is a scary place. It is where the real effect of my title comes into play. The police press forward and, in the main, the public try and retreat. The people at the back in both parties are free to act – free to push on and free of the consequences where the two groups meet. Hitting a civilian with a view to getting them to put themselves at a range where they can do no harm to the police has absolutely no effect.

So, where do we go from here? Clearly, abandoning the streets to a mob cannot be permitted. There will be many who seek non-violent demonstration but the scenes of the attack on the RBS premises show that there are others with an agenda beyond mere demonstration. In terms of violence, the G20 crowds were relatively benign. The Poll Tax and Grosvenor Square were far more violent. What can happen if the thin blue line breaks was shown with the death of PC Blakelock who was hacked to death at Broadwater Farm. To take the easy road out and call for the use of the military to assist the civil powers is not an answer I would like to see introduced. Soldiers know only one thing when it comes to dealing with opposition – brute force and shooting to kill. Hearts and minds do not come into play at mob interfaces.

So, better training for the police or special police groups trained to deploy at demonstrations once tempers start to fray? My own choice would be specialist police. The French CRS were very effective when dealing with rioting after coming into being in Algeria. The Japanese have very specialised riot control forces where demonstrators resembled paramilitary forces and vastly outnumbered police. One of the problems I would anticipate in setting up such groups would be reluctance to finally destroy the image of PC Dixon. Unfortunately, Dock Green is now a far more violent place.

The Guardian has put together a collection of video recordings of the sort of thing I am concerned about.

With all the fuss about El Gordo’s email problems, I feel a little hesitant at posting today. I had never imagined so much heat could be generated by the thoughts of one individual sent wandering off into the ether with little targeting or guidance.

Sure, Guido has a large following but I suspect that all his followers are of one mind anyway. Read one rant at the disclosures and you have read them all. For all practical purposes, nothing is served. Brown’s arrogance means that he will not ever consider himself in the wrong by employing personal staff with the attitudes now revealed.

If what was done – or planned to be done – was so very heinous, please tell me why Cameron has made so little of it? This annoys me more than the email plot really. If the Duty of the Opposition is to Oppose (a phrase of Winston Churchill’s father – he knew all about opposition), then Cameron is more of an ally than Leader of the Opposition. Whilst inertia has given the Tories a lead in the shadow election polls, that lead is not such that a few weasel words and empty promises would not lead to the return of Brown.

And that is something of far greater importance than a few schoolboy japes passed around amongst fools.

We set off today to find a replacement armchair. Norma has killed hers; the seat bit is collapsed and, whilst it may be extra comfy, it looks scruffy. I had wanted a replacement club chair style and had checked out a few second hand dealers. Scarce and when I did find one it turned out that the design was not as accommodating as my memory had it. Next choice was a reclining thing with a foot extension. Comfort was the main selection criteria.

Fort Kinnaird is the home of furniture shops up this end of the world. My sought after style would be expensive if not closely supervised so we started off at the cheaper end of the market. Surprisingly, I found what I wanted at the otherwise despised DFS outlet. Electric with back recline and foot rest all included.  

We have to wait a bit as we want it in green leather rather than the black they hold as stock. It actually goes into far more recline mode – I felt as if I were about to give birth. This will be for me and Norma inherits the remaining armchair from the suite.

Of course, being at that end of the world we were not too far from our favourite foodie place and slid along there. No reservation but we are obviously known and a new table and seating arrangement was found and we were well ensconced.

 

Two defenceless bream were soon consumed. We did not have our usual server; a very bright and chirpy young woman with strangely dyed pinkish/red hair and the male alternative was not up to standard but the food (and gin and tonic) amply compensated.

Of course, the gin and tonic disqualified me from driving but did make me suitable for a long deep sleep all the way home.

So – nothing planned but a fine day indeed!

I am conscious that I have been away from here for some while. No real reason behind not blogging; just I have had other things to do with the time I feel like spending at the console.

When we got the replacement car after my older car was written off by Farmer Giles, I decided to add a few bits. There are a number of places up here where one can only get patchy reception on a car radio so I decided to get a transmitter so that I could play my iPod through the radio. That was not a total success in that the adaptor for the iPod was not readily available – it was relatively aged. I had been looking at the Touch for a while and decided to change to that as my music resource.

The Touch is a wondrous machine and more or less took over my life. There are so many applications – many of them free. Loads to try and reject. Those kept had to be configured to best advantage.

Another planned improvement to the new car was a hands-free phone fitting. I got one that clips to the sun visor. Setting up that took a while. I got a new phone as the Treo was not holding a charge and had to be reserved purely for use with the sat nav. Choosing and setting up a new phone took a while.

So, that is where I have been and what has kept me away from here.

I’ll try and do better. But, the Touch keeps nudging me ……………