Truth will out - somehow.

Another triumph for the Met. police! Vast step forward in the war on drugs!
Yes, you have guessed it. They have finally managed to interview Kate Moss about her alleged drug taking habit. So that's all right. Armed with her information to destroy the underground, we can be sure that no 11 year old will again collapse at their desks.
Yes - I am being unfair and cynical. Yes - it is all a media thing. However, I am not the only one to have doubts about this sort of them and us circus when a celebrity gets dragged in. I was around the Drug Squad when they went after the Rolling Stones. The policy was that every time one of the group even so much as suggested the word d-r-u-g-s, they would be turned over with the maximum severity and publicity. It got so obvious that a member of the House of Lords protested at breaking a moth under the wheels of justice. The only thing their tactics achieved was an increase in the sales of Mars bars. And that was based upon the inventive brain of a detective sergeant anyway. Other than a personal confession from Ms Moss, the police can have learnt nothing new. Shame on them for their investigative prowess if she was able to tell them something they should have found out for themselves since the photographs appeared.
For a force lead by a man with such respect for ultra-p.c. attention, it seems strange that they have made such a fuss over the Moss-Docherty event. They most assuredly were not the only couple treating their noses to a chill that evening. It is likely - given the popularity of marching powder amongst the hi-born and others in the spotlight in some way or another - that they were not the only famous individuals indulging. So, why the discrimination given to their supposed offences?
I would be really cynical and twisted were I to go too far with the article's suggestion that, right now, the Met. needs to draw attention away from a number of things and a hi-profile event is just the thing. "Look - we cannot control our trigger-fingers but we are tough on people outed by the press"

Can we believe this?

The Times has learnt that Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, is to produce detailed codes of conduct telling pet owners how to feed their animals and where they should go to the toilet, (for instance the cat code says "Ensure that cats’ preference for privacy is met by giving them a hidden away place with cat litter to relieve themselves. This advice forms part of a nine-point guide for “going to the toilet”.
Every domesticated animal will have a code of conduct tailored to their species, each of which is expected to run into dozens of pages. This will form part of the Animal Welfare Bill, expected to clear Parliament in the next few months.

My dog and I cannot wait to get our copy of the Code........

Good use of scarce resources - my ass! 18 pages on what to do for a cat. Me and pointy nose have got it down to five lines.

Move right down the bus please

Serious drama today! The World is nigh at an end.
My iPod is full and will not accept any more Tunes. I suppose I should have realised this earlier when I saw that they were marketing one with higher capacity.
Oh well – not much in the general drama that is in the world.

Met police goes nuts

My thought at the time was that no good would come of the police action.
It just gets worse the more that escapes from the inquiry

Sun 29 Jan 2006

Family speaks out over 'cover-up'

The family of Jean Charles de Menezes called on Britain's top policeman to "consider his position" after reports that officers covered up their part in the Brazilian's death.

Undercover police changed a surveillance log to hide the fact they had mistakenly identified the 27-year-old electrician as a suspected suicide bomber, it was claimed.

Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head by anti-terror officers as he tried to board a train at Stockwell tube station in south London the day after the abortive July 21 attacks.

The alleged cover-up meant blame for the tragedy would have been shifted to senior Scotland Yard commanders or the armed police who pulled the trigger, the News of the World reported.

Asad Rehman, spokesman for the innocent Brazilian's family, said the allegations had "severely dented" confidence in Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and his force.

He added: "Sir Ian Blair does need to seriously consider his own position today.

"It seems that Sir Ian Blair was not aware of any of this information for quite a while following Jean's death, which does raise certain questions about how in touch he was with the operation.

"Both then and today Sir Ian Blair is ultimately responsible for the safety of people in London and this country. It seems he didn't have his eye on the ball.

"We will ask him to examine his own conscience today. We believe this issue hasn't gone away."

The News of the World claimed a "Whitehall source" had leaked details from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report into Mr de Menezes's death, which was handed over to the Crown Prosecution Service 10 days ago.

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=146992006

Last updated: 29-Jan-06 20:55 GMT

Roots! Respect!

Those in the loop will know that I was born in a town called Romford. At that time, it was within the county of Essex but has since been swallowed up by Greater London and is now in a borough called Havering. From country bumpkin to semi-Cockney cheeky-chappy in one lifetime.
I came across a group that deals with Romford history. I laughed at that; history in this case seems to be as recent as 1960. There was some interesting material on the forum so I signed up and contributed a small "this is me" posting. That was about 10 pm last night.
On checking my emails this morning, I found a reply from someone who had lived not more than 8 houses away from the Wood baronial mansions only slightly after we got there and is seeking information for a book and historical research. Small world indeed. It will be interesting to see if this guy's questions and responses spark anything off in my brain.

Me as a car?

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Wave that flag!!

British is best!

More light relief

From Grouchy Old Cripple

He said . . . I don't know why you wear a bra; you've got nothing to put in it.
She said . . . You wear pants don't you?

He said . . ..... Shall we try swapping positions tonight?
She said . That's a good idea - you stand by the ironing board while I sit on the sofa and fart!

He said . ... What have you been doing with all the grocery money I gave you?
She said . ....Turn sideways and look in the mirror!

He said . . How many men does it take to change a roll of toilet paper?
She said . We don't know; it has never happened.

He said . . Why is it difficult to find men who are sensitive, caring and Good- looking?
She said ...... . . They already have boyfriends.

She said...What do you call a women who knows where her husband is every night?
He said . . . A widow.

He said .. . Why are married women heavier than single women?
She said . . . Single women come home, see what's in the fridge and go to bed. Married women come home, see what's in bed and go to the fridge.

Gotta be better

After all that Real World stuff, we need something like this.
Altogether now ... aaah

Clarification

Since yesterday, I’ve had a few responses to my capital punishment posting. I cannot say why but these have come as email rather than as comment here on an open forum.

Let me just recap on my definition of ‘evil’. I do not include those I think of as just killers pure and simple. To me, an evil murderer is one to whom killing is just a transitional act. They execute their victim just so as to retain their company. For acts such as cannibalism, necrophilia or some other perversion. Don’t just think of or research Bundy – have a look at some of the others such as Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy in America, Peter Kürten in Duesseldorf or Miyazaki in Japan. They killed so that they might further degrade their victims’ bodies or use them as trophies and playthings. I’ll save you some horror – just look at Dahmer. Go on to the others if you doubt that such inhumanity could exist. Kurten demonstrates that we are not looking at some modern phenomena. Pretty well every country in the world has suffered evil killers. I also have little time for the deprived background or disturbed childhood theories. At the level of depravity that I consider qualifies as evil, I consider that any aberration in growing up is just another step on the pathway from evil potential to evil reality.

My use of the word ‘evil’ does not relate to any religious belief on my part. Any other word that equates to amoral will do if it suits the reader.

Execution in the case of such individuals is, to me, the most suitable way of dealing with those who have demonstrated their wicked ways. The requirement to retain them in extra security could only lead to inhuman conditions and there we risk being contaminated by those we have to safely hold. Incarceration of those who have such desires where these cannot be satisfied is also unnatural.

I am not advocating universal capital punishment.

Defend 'till death

My adrenaline has been flowing today. Just like the good old times when as a junky I had my overdose on most days. A poster whose work generally intrigues or otherwise attracts me had just had her eyes opened to serial killers. Most particularly, Ted Bundy who practically caused the term to be invented. I knew of Bundy from some way back having spoken to a FBI guy who had had dealings with him. He described the guy as pure evil and that interested me enough to read about Bundy and other serial killers. There could well be a lack of knowledge in England of what constitutes a serial killer. One needs to realise that they are not some form of Dr Shipman offing little old ladies with a comfy helping of pain-killer. There is as much resemblance as next door’s Tom bears to a hungry lion. My friend Gemmak went on to abhor the idea of the death sentence. In the manner typical for her, she presented a cogent opposition to this form of legal stricture. I bit it then, I still bite it now and I suspect I’ll bite it until my dying day.
My support for execution is not based upon long out of date biblical exhortations of eye for an eye. To me, the clinical end of a life by injection, electrocution, gas or whatever in accordance with a legal finding is in no way retribution for a death that was associated with terror, humiliation and pain. I consider that some people exhibit conduct that puts them beyond the pale. They are outlaws. They have rejected our morality. They lack that speck of whatever it is that distinguishes us from mere animals.
Yes – OK I hear you say. They are not very nice people but why kill them? Cannot they be confined in some way? Is there no form of treatment? Does our executing them not constitute some sort of two wrongs do not make one right? Does not their death demean us? Lot of questions there eh? My short answer is really that I do not have any appreciation for these reservations and objections. Debating these is, to me, as productive as questioning why I do not walk about indoors with dog mess on the sole of my shoes.
I do feel that the way these matters are handled in America is less than perfect. But then, they do have a large problem on their hands. Their legal system means that executions may take place some score or so years after the crimes were committed. As medical practitioners refuse to have anything to do with judicial executions, some are bungled. Electrocutions go wrong. The fact that these errors take place in front of a panel of witnesses gives them widespread publicity and doubtless some witnesses embroider their accounts anyway. However, these lawful terminations are part of the law in most states. Public opinion is freely expressed and widely available
We here in UK seem to have a strange attitude to capital punishment. Time and again, the media report public support for it’s reintroduction in the wake of a particular crime. It does figure in governmental debate but is always overwhelmingly defeated when it comes to a vote. I accept that that is right and proper. I’ve looked at what happened at Rillington Place and on the roof with Craig and Bentley Ruth Ellis did the case for capital punishment little benefit It would appear that we had our history of wrong and bungled executions just as have the Americans but we took a different path.
Anyway, that has been my day. Enlivened by a few words in a blog. Good. Oh, and if there is anyone who wants more of this pro and con stuff, have a look at what must be the definitive page of links.

Ignorance cannot be bliss.

Gay agenda are more and more entering our daily life. There is such a depth of homophobia that it is difficult to find exactly what is in the minds of the pink community and distinguish this from what critics think is in their minds. I personally find it difficult to determine what should worry me and what can be ignored. If I am going to be a bigot, I want to be sure that my case has some foundation. How can one be anti- if one does not know exactly what is confronting one?
So, I'm glad to have found this gay resource. From what I have read so far, it does not scream GAY out too loud for me. I'll see how it goes. Doubtless, there will be some who cry Know Thy Enemy. Fine by me but please let me decide who is my enemy.

Zen zense

A Zen story told to me some years ago, which I can still remember and which still has relevancy at least once a day: Two monks were walking down the street after a heavy rain that left the streets quite muddy. They came upon a a lady of very easy virtue vainly attempting to find a dry path across the road without soiling her kimono.

One monk, more compassionate than the other, picked up the woman and carried her across the street, setting her down on the other side of the road. He returned to his companion and they continued down the road for some minutes until the second monk chided the first with the remark, "You really shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?"

"Why, you contaminated yourself by touching that impure woman."

"Oh, are you still carrying her? I put her down on the other side of the street."

Just be aware

This popped out at me today as I was cruising the ether. It is a sign we saw a number of times when we did our final American Tour. I wanted to photograph it at the time but we were on I roads and with no safe stopping places.

Instant Sunshine - Get it here?

Washington Times says
Pakistan's Nuclear Arsenal Underestimated, Reports Say
By Ben Barber, The Washington Times
Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is far larger than previously suspected and may be five times as large as that of India, according to U.S. military and intelligence reports.
Instead of the previous estimates of 10 to 15 nuclear weapons, the new estimate is that Pakistan has built from 25 to 100 bombs and has the missiles and jet planes to deliver them.
Reuters reports

With Saddam’s Iraq out of the way, Iran now stands as the only Gulf power that can effectively veto regional efforts at peace through either its explicit support of transnational terrorist groups or the employment of its military power — especially as it achieves status as a nuclear power.
There is no other state in the region that combines the same assets and ambition in terms of politics, economics and security.
Saudi Arabia has no effective security profile (nor does Egypt for that matter), and the House of Saud’s political ambitions are more limited in scope, concentrated as they are primarily on keeping the monarchy in power at all costs.
Pakistan possesses a far larger population, but its largely uncontrollable domestic situation consumes whatever ambition the political leadership there has for a larger regional role.
Bush is getting tetchy over the Iranian nuclear ambitions which he fears either cloak bomb-making activity or by their nature create fissionable materials. Little trial balloons keep floating up over the political horizon.
The NY Times says
Diplomats  around the world keep repeating the mantra: There is no military option when it comes to slowing, much less stopping, Iran's presumed ambitions to get the Bomb. The Europeans say so. The Chinese, who need Iran's oil, and the Russians, who make billions supplying Iran's civilian nuclear business, say so emphatically.
Even the hawks in the Bush administration make no threats. When Vice President Dick Cheney was asked Thursday, in a television interview, if the United States might ever resort to force to stop Iran, he handled the question as if it, too, were radioactive.
"No president should ever take the military option off the table," he said, carefully avoiding the kind of language he once used to warn Saddam Hussein. "Let's leave it there."
Mr. Cheney, it seemed, was trying to sow just enough ambiguity to make Iran think twice. Which raises two questions. If diplomacy fails, does America have a military option? And what if it doesn't?
"It's a kind of nonsense statement to say there is no military solution to this," said W. Patrick Lang, the former head of Middle East intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "It may not be a desirable solution, but there is a military solution."
Mr. Lang was piercing to the heart of a conundrum the Bush administration recognizes: Iran could become a case study for pre-emptive military action against a gathering threat, under a policy Mr. Bush promulgated in 2002. But even if taking out Iran's facilities delay the day the country goes nuclear, it would alienate allies and probably make firm enemies out of many Iranians who have come to dislike their theocratic government. And Iran simply has too many ways of striking back, in the oil markets, in the Persian Gulf, through Hezbollah.
"Could we do it?" one administration official who was deeply involved in planning the Iraq invasion said recently. "Sure. Could we manage the aftermath? I doubt it."
All seems a heady mix? Let us hope we can get something sorted before this all goes Guy Fawkes-wards. Iran presents it’s actions with a nudge and a wink “Negotiate with us”. I always thought there had to be some two-way trust in any negotiation? We are ignoring Pakistan’s potential on the grounds that they have sufficient other fish to fry.  Pakistan a stable democracy anyone? Pakistan a keeper of nuclear weapons secrecy?
Oh – one more thing. I’ve not factored-in the Israeli attitude. They do not wait for what they see as inevitable aggression. If the hot stuff started to fall in Iran, how long before it went technical and nuclear?
Don’t think I’ll risk my money buying next Christmas’ gifts at the January Sales.

Really personal service

This officer has the right idea. No one can complain where they have the opportunity to tailor a ‘service’ to their desired ends.
Police Subscription serviceFrom the previous post about 'personal police officers' I've daydreamed a police 'subscription' service, whereby paying different levels of 'premiums' (to compare it to the world of insurance) affords you different levels of police cover. I'm not seriously suggesting this ever would or should happen (and it wouldn't work either, for reasons at the end).
The Citizen Protection PackagePayments: Ordinary taxation, no extra contributionsCover afforded----------------1. Public 999 number for life-threatening and emergency calls2. Public non-emergency number for non-urgent calls and incident reporting3. Police response according to availability of patrols and priority of incident compared to other incidents already in and requiring allocation.4. Standard investigative procedures adminstered for victims of crime5. Standard victim support and witness liaison services6. Access on demand to crime prevention advice
Ideal for: The vast majority of people who have little cause or reason to involve or interact with the police on a regular basis

The “I can’t control any aspect of my life, please do it for me” packagePayments: £5000 monthly, plus cost of any extra modulesCover afforded---------------1. Public 999 number for life-threatening and emergency calls2. Public non-emergency number for non-urgent calls and incident reporting3. Private 24/7 ‘general enquiries’ line, for advice from trained/bored (delete as appropriate) professionals on how to keep the baby quiet in the middle of the night; how to control the kids and techniques for getting back in the house when you’ve locked yourself out. Alleviates pressure on the 999 service.4. Police response according to availability of resources5. Guidebook on increasing response times to your job – helpful tips such as including the phrases “he’s got a knife/gun”; “they’re threatening to kill me and I think they mean it!” or “there’s 100 people fighting and they’ve got weapons!” with no penalty charge incurred when the units arrive and realise you’re a lying fraud.6. Private 24/7 transport request service – dial this number if you need a lift to the shops down the road and can’t be bothered walking, if there is a free patrol nearby they’ll swing past and pick you up. This service is not guaranteed7. Standard investigative procedures administered for victims of crime – target demographic are rarely victims, just clueless, and thus need no extra cover8. Standard victim support and witness liaison services – same reason as above9. Free crime prevention advice dispensed with general advice on how to live life
Extra modules available-----------------------------
1. Child rearing services, for those times when you just can’t control the little blighters! £100 a month or £2,000,000 for us to take them off your hands permanently, whilst you get back to Trisha repeats on ITV 452. Resolution service – in an argument with the spouse or neighbour? Our trained negotiators will come round and help sort it out without the bloodshed involved of doing it yourself. Why learn basic social communication skills when someone else can do it for you? £500a month for a neutral negotiator, £1000 if you want them to always side with you. No matter too trivial or pathetic.
Ideal for: Those who simply lack any life skills; problem solving ability or communication prowess, always finding themselves unable to cope with any situation or confrontation, and who will dial the three 9s if they spill a pint of milk.

The “Get me the copper I dealt with last time, right here, right now” packagePayments: £74999.99 a month plus cost of any extra modules (previously known as the 'Arrogant Tosser' package)Cover afforded--------------------1. Private police officer, who is contactable 24/7 by phone, fax, pager, e-mail, personal alarm and carrier pigeon, and will drop whatever they’re doing to attend to your every whim and desire2. Consistency of service as the officer knows your entire life history and criminal interactions3. Immediate investigations carried out by a dedicated staff of CID Officers especially trained in investigating minor allegations of assault way below their remit.4. Immediate response from aforementioned private officer, who will arrived in a marked vehicle with blues and twos, risking life and limb, even if you’re just reporting a jarred pinky finger or one of your kids is making you cross - it's all about making our customers feel loved5. The right to make a spurious allegation against someone in order to have them immediately arrested by your personal officer. Even if nothing comes of it the allegation and you know it, you'll feel better with the power and control!6. Sympathy for your plight from all concerned, at least whilst you’re in earshot7. Get out of jail free card – single use only8. The right to say “I pay your wages” to certain officers9. The right to say “I know officer xxxx” and actually mean it
Extra modules available---------------------------------
IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION – one off payment of £50 million. Confers on one the absolute unqualified right to say “I ain’t dun nuffin’” if arrested, and to expect officers to take notice of the normally glib claim
1. C&D tipoff line – Now the phrase “I’ll have your job” takes on a whole new meaning – for just £3499 a month you can get immediate access to a C&D officer, who, upon hearing your grievance, will automatically attend the scene/station you’re at and will fire the offending officer on the spot! No evidence or other side of the story required. Our new and improved service means that intoxication is no longer a bar to being taken seriously!
Ideal for: Those who believe the police to be at their beck and call, and who demand the same officer to deal with them, irrespective of their workload. The self-righteously indignant who believe the world and all services owe them a living, and woe betide if something doesn’t happen exactly according to their preferences and there’s blame to be apportioned.
NB: Unless one has the C&D cover, one automatically impliedly accepts that officers will sneer about you behind your back after they've dealt with your 35th callout that day.
=================================================================
The system will, of course, be deliberately structured so as those most likely to abuse the service can’t afford the level that suits them best. Ironically, it’s the same people who are most likely to use them! After all, those additional costs that the increased services people demand/expect has to come from somewhere!
So, in the end, everyone ends up using the standard service anyway, but those most likely to use the other options expect the same level of cover from the standard package. Meanwhile, those who genuinely need the service, and can afford to pay for the different levels of cover, don’t see the need as they rarely need to speak to the police. Thus when they are actually innocent victims of crime, they have to fight for attention amongst the myriad of jobs involving trivial neighbour disputes. Such is the world we live in!

Duty of Opposition is to oppose

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first
refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming
that the matter is already settled.
Having established that, we can go on to something that
appeared in The Times on 3 January this year.Let's agree we want division by Ross Clark

JUST ONE little word from the lips of David Cameron has filled me with hope. The word was “awful”, and he used it to describe Gordon Brown. Thank God, I thought: the Tory leader and his frontbench have now finished their brief flirtation with consensus politics and can get on with the job we pay them to do: arguing with Her Majesty’s Government. Why David Cameron should ever have thought consensus politics was a vote-winner I can’t imagine. The last time the main political parties engaged in a consensual approach was in the 1970s, when they agreed to agree that workers should be forced to join trade unions, prices and incomes should be fixed by the Government and that most heavy industry should belong to the State. A fat lot of good that did the country. It was only thanks to a battle of ideas in the 1980s that such socialist dogma could be exposed as a folly. Consensus politics would do the country just as much harm now as they did in the era of Heath and Wilson. If the Tories send Tony Blair’s education “reforms” through on the nod, as Mr Cameron has indicated they will, the failed ideology of comprehensive education will be holding back pupils for another generation. Whatever the reason for the Tories’ third election defeat, it wasn’t because voters were put off by the party’s imaginative manifesto promise to give parents vouchers with which to buy their children’s education at independently run schools; in fact, given the reluctance of the Tories to sell their big idea, I doubt whether it registered with voters at all. I presume that Mr Cameron’s pledge to end “Punch and Judy” politics was an overture to that great swath of the population who are assumed to be “turned off” by politics. If the Tories think they can win over this group by politely agreeing with Mr Blair and doing little deals with him over lunch they can think again: it would merely give the chronically apathetic even more reason to denounce politicians for all being the same. As for those of us who do take an interest in the governance of the country, we expect something in return for the £60,000 a year that we pay our MPs: verbal bare-knuckle fights. After all, most of us bicker with each other over schools, hospitals, roads and Iraq all the time; unless our MPs do the same they are not properly representing us. I escaped any really heavy political education or indoctrination. I was for a brief spell a member of the Young Communists back in the days of Harry Pollitt. That was mainly because the female Young Communists were allegedly proponents of Free Love. One could also get very cheap flights to Russia - about £15 in todays money. My plot was to get £30 and a Free Lover. Don't quite remember what happened about the trip bit and I think one experience of unshaven armpits and un-deoderanted Free Love was sufficient. Harry gave me a bit of status at post-match celebrations in the Rugby Club when it came to the student song about him.

Old Big Head

Yet another personality test result. All I can say is that if I’m so good, why don’t I feel that way?

You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.

Randy Members

So, another 'personality' falls onto his sword over sexual misdemeanours. The Liberal Party is fast becoming all things to all men with rent boys added to alcohol addiction.

Yes, it is unfair to trash a whole party from the peccadilloes of a few individuals. But, just wait a while. The problem of the demon booze was surely visible to more than just a few inner-core members. It was common gossip and the appearance of the guy way back should have suggested to those not in that inner circle that he was 'shumens bestest friynd' . Early days right now but doubtless it will transpire also that rent boys were a topic not mentioned in certain circles lest it offend. Bad enough that those directly involved did not have the character to remove themselves from the public arena; worse that they were not outed when they themselves confirmed that they saw no reason to take up the Regimental pistol and the one round.

I doubt that the Liberal Party are the only one with skeletons in the closet and in the bar. Does it matter? In terms of the drink and the sex - no. Drinking is not a crime and homosexuals get a very long leash nowadays. It is the duplicity of it all.

Of course news of scandals had been printed before. The attempt in 1820 by George IV to divorce his wife Caroline created such public uproar that there was fear of revolution. In 1890 the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell was driven out of British politics after he and the woman he lived with, Kitty O’Shea, were found guilty on charges levelled against them by her husband.

But the Caroline and Parnell cases were brought into the public domain by those directly involved and were played out in an open court of law. By contrast, what politicians (and royals) did behind closed doors was then rarely reported. Prime ministers such as Gladstone (who “rescued” prostitutes from the streets), Lloyd George (“the old goat” from whom, reputedly, no woman was safe) and Macmillan (whose wife had a long affair with the Tory MP Bob Boothby) escaped public humiliation.

To list the sex stories concerning politicians that have been printed since 1963 would choke a camel. At least since Cecil Parkinson (then trade secretary) admitted an extramarital affair with Sarah Keays in 1983, the public has been asking whether the amorous pursuits of MPs should be reported. Do they have anything to do with us or with their ability to legislate and govern?

Those who indulge know too well what the attitude of the public is towards those they elect and can have no doubts that their conduct is unacceptable. I'd like just a bit more honesty and integrity in my politicians before I trust them with my fully-committed mandate.

Tikka Masala

Damn! I thought that curry was a bit hot.

Camus

The heating is on full but still I feel cold. Maybe the warfarin is beginning to kick in.
I want to get back nearer the fire so I'll settle for something profound

I don't want to be a genius - I have enough problems just trying to be a man.

Albert Camus

Silver hairs amongst the grey

Back when I was around seventeen (years of age not stones), I had a fairly wide circle of friends and a busy-ish social life. There were people at two athletics clubs, older people at a rowing club, the college rugby club and a mix of ages from a cycling club. I was in continuing education so there were fellow students.
We’d socialise in groups of a dozen or so. Mainly drinking really although we went to the cinema and live variety shows. We all mixed together as male and female although this was no big thing. Couples did pair up but then tended to drift out of the circle and do things on their own.
I was reminded of this life style when listening to some of my George Melly music. He figured large in our concert going. Louche in a black track suit singing old jazz tracks or stuff along the lines of ‘My canary’s got circles under it’s eyes’. My memory was drawn back to recent photographs of George and what a sad and declining figure he now presents.
I tried to visualise friends from the 50s as they might be today. I really tried. And totally failed. Not one single image presented itself. I could remember them as they were in their prime but taking hair away, adding a bit of weight, stooping them over was just a waste of time. I suppose it must be some kind of protection – age shall not weary them as……. sort of thing.

Tatty

When she was small, my daughter was called Tatty. This because she was generally scruffy and got her Christian name to sound something like Tatty.
However, she scrubs up quite well.

Cheer me up please

I'm feeling a bit miserable as you can see.

Bin Laden pantomime

This is typical of a number of reports about the probable fate of Bin Laden
Bin Laden 'dead' evidence mounts
January 16, 2006 - 9:30AM
A terrorism expert says he has seen evidence showing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is either seriously ill or dead.
Dr Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, says documents provided by an Indian colleague suggested bin Laden died of massive organ failure in April last year.
"It does seem reasonably convincing based on the evidence that I've been provided with that he's certainly either severely incapacitated or dead at this stage," Dr Williams told ABC radio.
Dr Williams said Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy who was the target of a US air strike in Pakistan last week, has been making all statements on behalf of the terror network for the past year.
Dr Williams said proving whether the terrorist leader was still alive might be impossible.
"It's hard to prove or disprove these things because there hasn't really been anything that allows you to make a judgment one way or the other," Dr Williams said.
"But it does seem strange that Dr Zawahiri has been making all of the statements since then, and nothing's been heard from bin Laden since, I think, the December of the year before."
Dr Williams said even if bin Laden was dead, those who upheld the same philosophies would continue to fight for their cause.
And then, as if magic, 4 days later, we get this:
By Yara Bayoumy
DUBAI (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden warned that al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States, but said the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans, according to an audio tape attributed to him on Thursday.
Al Jazeera television, which aired the tape, said it was recorded in the Muslim month that corresponded to December.
"The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete, God willing," said the speaker on the audio tape, who sounded like bin Laden.
In the tape, bin Laden said al Qaeda was willing to respond to U.S. public opinion supporting an American troop pullout from Iraq. He did not specify conditions for the truce, but indicated it was linked to U.S. troops quitting Iraq.
"We have no objection to responding to this with a long term truce based on fair conditions."

Wolfenden Report.

With all the debate on homesexuality still not finished (I was going to say not 'put to bed') it is interesting (to me) to go back to the report that made such conduct a little less abomidable. The bit that I find most relevant is the committee recommended that

"homosexual behavior between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence". All but one of the committee were in favour of this and, contrary to medical and psychiatric witnesses' evidence, found that "homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as a disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects". The report added, "The law's function is to preserve public order and decency, to protect the citizen from what is offensive or injurious, and to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation and corruption of others ... It is not, in our view, the function of the law to intervene in the private life of citizens, or to seek to enforce any particular pattern of behaviour."

The interference in private life attitude has certainly blown right out of the closet.

Oh! God!

Gizzajob

This could be a good game. I've ended up as a Prime Minister which is
quite satisfying until one thinks of that utter bag of seminal deposit we
have doing the job now. And those who might take over or replace him
are little better options.

.

any years ago there was a period of time that is often casually called "Medieval." It was a time, so the story tellers tell us, of tiny kingdoms, brave knights and ferocious dragons. ransportation and travel were both crude and difficult, usually necessitating that each kingdom be as self sufficient and self reliant as possible. So it was very important that within each kingdom all the major crafts and professions of the day were ably represented to insure the survival of the kingdom. In the English language we still see remnants of some occupations in the familiar surnames such as Carpenter, Miller and Baker. nterestingly enough, beyond the specific title the vocation also took on its own greater personality. This personality preference can also give a broader understanding of the basic complementary style and types necessary to the kingdom's survival, or perhaps any organization's success. Although the specific vocation influenced the name, it was no accident that certain personality types and styles gravitated to certain occupations. The personality of these jobs suited the inclinations of the job holders, and the predecessor to modern day job descriptions was born. The successful matching of a job-holder's personality to the personality and unique requirements of the job was necessary to the kingdom's survival, or perhaps any organization's success. The successful kingdoms more than likely were able to blend the differences into a powerful and formidable entity. With today's diverse workforce, the corporate kingdom that acknowledges and nurtures these personality preferences could become an organization as successful as the Camelot of old. ven though we now appear to have the freedom to explore many different career alternatives, we still have a medieval vocational personality within each of us. This personality, properly identified and understood, can motivate our success but, if ignored, may set the stage for our ultimate failure. Since times appeared to be simpler then, let us return to the kingdoms of medieval Europe and see what we would have done then, regardless of what our names are now. our distinct personality, The Prime Minister might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. You are a strategist who pursues the most efficient and logical path toward the realization of the goal that you perceive or visualize. You will often only associate with those people who can assist you in the implementation of your plan. Inept assistants may be immediately discarded as excess baggage. To do otherwise could be seen as inefficient and illogical. On the positive side, you can be rationally idealistic and analytically ideological. You can be a bold decision maker and risk taker who can move society ahead by years instead of minutes. On the negative side, you may be unmerciful, impatient, impetuous and impulsive. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today's corporate kingdoms.

The End of The Day

Well, here it is. Three o'clock in the afternoon and I have run out of things to do. I've used time with a first-thing shower and then an after-lunch bath. I can state quite positively that there are no Old Mans' Hairs in my nostrils or ears. All my shoes and boots are polished and lined up as for any inspection. Norma has the car today so pointynose and I were reduced to a walk round the park. Gossip with the parky-man. Bit of training with the dog. Papers read from front to back and back again. Soduko sodded. Got my lunch - mackerel. Ate it and washed up. Cruised far and yon on the magic p.c. Hot-synch'd the pda.
I could go on with this much longer. When looked at in cold type, one might think that I have been run off my feet. Back in the days, I would have been proud of a "To Do" list of this length with every little box neatly ticked. Nothing deemed too difficult and pushed to tomorrow either. And yet - I just know that I have really done san fairy anne.
I know what is missing. Meetings; all that fun getting agenda sorted and fitting our appointments together. Well, if it was all so good why did I give the work to my secretary and tell her it was enpowerment for her? Business lunches. They had gone under the new morality that swept through the corporate hostility world in the early 80s. Instead of the three and four hour sessions with fine digestif wines and cigars we were having meetings with crudities on the side. What else did the world of commerce give me? Travel. Yes that was nice so I can add that to the Lost World of John Wood. Scheming and politicking? Ah yes. That is a cert for something no longer present in my life. I now decide quite unilaterally what 'company' car I will have.
So - this is retirement. Old stagers told me that I would be so busy that I would not be able to fit in everything I chose to do. That is patently rubbish. I could work a one day week and do more in real terms. The phrase God's Waiting Room is often associated with this semester of our life - no, strike life and insert existence. I should have made an appointment, organised a meeting, invited the Guy for lunch so as to escape the Waiting Room.
I'm seeing that sign "No reps seen except by Appointment"

Suits you sir!

The Yorkshire Post reports that the Baby Belly - as conceived by friends Charlie Ratcliffe and Katrina Lumb - allows women to remember the exciting transformation of the body (YP's words, not mine) and to capture it in the form of a plaster, bronze or aluminium cast. Medical plaster bandages are placed on the tummy and removed after 20 minutes. The plaster is used as a mould, or is sanded and painted to produce a lifelong keepsake. Having the baby is evidently not a sufficient reminder of your nine-month gestation period, nor does he/she count as a "special and unique souvenir". Prices start at £300. But for the shy mum - or the damn busy mum - you can get a DIY kit for £50.

I just add this to my 'what are we coming to' binder. I have to say though, that had my beloved tried to din me for £300 +, I would have captured her baby belly for posterity in the manner illustrated.

Digi-cop

Is this the way we may end up? Infinite brain power for instant decisions on shoot or no shoot, programmable to deal with inherent racism, no sick days or limitations on shift lengths. Doubtless, could also have attachments to deal with instant banking reference fines, ID card production on the spot and summary execution. Plus - a major advantage - they can be any colour or gender one may wish!!

Pinocchio

Pope discusses sex

Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical, expected in the next few days, warns believers not to confuse love with lust or degrade it "to mere sex".

	It is Pope Benedict's first encyclical

The encyclical, a papal letter to bishops that sets out Roman Catholic policy, discusses the relationship between "eros", or erotic love, and "agape", a Greek word referring to unconditional, spiritual and selfless love.

"It is not totally negative on eros," a Vatican source said. "It argues that eros under the right circumstances is OK."

What's that line from My Fair Lady - By God, I think she's got it?

River stay away from my door

Given the bits and pieces of my life in the past weeks or so in my campaign to not emulate Sharon or Banks, I think I could do without the sort of detail about Mikey that is available.
What it does do is make me even more determined to get everything prophylactic in place. Going well so far with the warfarin and getting the blood values up to the desired level.

10pm - do you know where your sperm is?

These are extracts from US legislation connected with paternity issues. I offer them not as a comment on the American legal system but rather as examples of just where the hell this world might be going. We have here in UK already had admissions by a mother that she recovered the condom after sex with her boy-friend and impregnated herself.

Either intent to have sexual intercourse or an intent to impregnate a woman will result in child support liability. Can a man escape this liability if he has neither the intent to have sexual intercourse nor the intent to make a baby? The answer is no. So long as a man engages in an intimate sexual act resulting in his depositing of his sperm with a woman who then becomes pregnant, he is liable for child support.

In State of Louisiana v. Frisard, 694 So. 2d 1032 (La. Ct. App. 1997), the mother and father of the child for whom support was sought met in a hospital while the father was visiting an ill relative. The mother was a nurse's aid who has access to a variety of medical equipment. The mother offered to perform oral sex on the father, and, in the words of the father, "as ... any male would, I did not refuse[.]" The mother had the father wear a condom. The mother then removed the condom from the father, and unknown to the father, she inseminated herself with the father's sperm using a syringe.

The Louisiana court, noting that the probability of paternity was 99.9994%, held the father's testimony that he "had some sort of sexual contact with the plaintiff around the time frame of alleged conception, although he denied that they had sexual intercourse" was sufficient to prove paternity. 694 So. 2d at 1036. This fact of paternity obliges a father to support his child. 694 So. 2d at 1034. In essence, because the father intentionally engaged in a sexual act resulting in his deposit of sperm with the mother, he is liable for child support.

Another case reaching the same result on facts that are, quite frankly, bizarre is S.F. v. Alabama ex rel. T.M. In that case, the father testified that he went to a party at the mother's house. He had been drinking for several hours before he arrived, and had in fact gotten sick on the way to her house. At the mother's house, the father continued to drink, and the last think he remembered was getting sick again and his brother putting him in bed at the mother's house. The next morning, the father awoke in that same bed with only his shirt on. The father did not remember having sex with the mother, and he did not knowingly and purposely have sex with her.

The father's brother testified as to the same facts. A friend of both the mother testified as to the same facts, plus the fact that about two months after the party, the mother said she had sex with the father while he was "passed out" and that it saved her a trip to the sperm bank. Another friend testified that the mother had said she had sex with the father, "and he wasn't even aware of it."

A physician testified that it is possible for a man who is intoxicated to the point of losing consciousness may nevertheless have an erection and ejaculate; they are not conscious, voluntary activities.

The father argued that because he did not have sex voluntarily with the mother, he was not liable for child support. The court disposed of the argument, comparing it to the arguments made in L. Pamela P. v. Frank S.: the wrongful conduct of the mother in causing conception did not obviate the father's support obligation. The court also compared the father's argument to the arguments put forth in the statutory rape cases, concluding that the "rape" of the father could not preclude a finding of liability for support.

The dissent would have held the father liable for child support, but would have deviated from the presumptive child support guidelines because "the mother's sexual conduct was reprehensible and is a misdemeanor. Because of the mother's inappropriate conduct, the trial court should have deviated from the guidelines."

Evening all

Because of what I used to be, I read a lot of police blogs. Written by police officers here in UK and some overseas countries. There is a common trend amongst the UK writings. Very little police work is being done out on the front line, where Dr Martin size 12s are the latest gear. Yes, there are plenty of police officers but their numbers are diluted by those who are in admin, planning, training, this, that, the other. Such work as does occur is done in a manner that does not inspire confidence and must be less than motivating for the officer concerned. The Gov'mint persists on loading new initiatives with little thought as to practical matters. Courtroom-less justice is one of the latest comedies of errors that will involved police staff and time already in short supply.
The overseas contributers do not seem to have the same concerns. What one sees there are positive attempts to do what, surely, we expect of our crime control organisations.
It's all going to end in tears before bedtime if our police, in a language they invented, throw Teddy into the corner.

Garnett man

I've just been watching some Sickness & Health DVDs on my little portable player. (hey - it's really good and I can recommend the idea of having such a gadget).
I am amazed all over again that Alf was allowed to put his head over the parapet. I knew quite a lot of Alfs as I was growing up and when I was earning my pocket money working for my father. To me, what he said was nothing terrible - like some of the Little Britain characters are - but was the everyday attitude of a lot of people expressed in a humourous way.
However, just to see what his status is now, have a look at the Wiki entry:

Alf Garnett was a fictional character on the BBC television sitcom Til Death Us Do Part and later In Sickness and in Health.

The character, played by actor Warren Mitchell, was reactionary, mean-spirited, selfish, bigoted, racist, misogynistic, and anti-Semitic, despite allegedly being Jewish himself. Generally he blamed his problems on everybody else. His family was the usual target of his anger and frustration. On the show, Garnett was regularly ridiculed for his illogical views and hypocrisy by his family, but he stubbornly refused to admit he was wrong.

To add entertainment to the show, Alf was outraged when his daughter, Rita (played by Una Stubbs), decided to marry Michael, her long-haired, unemployed boyfriend (played by Anthony Booth) from Liverpool, a Catholic of Irish descent; precisely the type of person Alf most hated.

Alf was generally a staunch supporter of the Conservative Party (though not Margaret Thatcher) and he supported West Ham United as well as being an admirer of the Queen and the Royal Family.

The British public loved Alf Garnett, although the television show was heavily criticised for the character's prejudices. Writer Johnny Speight often commented that the character was supposed to be a figure of ridicule, but admits that not all viewers saw the satiric elements of the character.

It is perhaps not a complete coincidence that Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett looks very similar to Sir Rudyard Kipling, who has also been perceived as paternalistic racist; however, Mitchell was not the first choice of producer Dennis Main Wilson for the part. It was initially offered to Peter Sellers, Leo McKern and Lionel Jeffries, but they all turned it down or were unavailable.

Alf Garnett was the direct inspiration for Archie Bunker in the American sitcom All in the Family.

Full of Life

This is Keira Knightley. Brit. Actress. 20 years or so old. Appeared last night at a show business thing where she had been nominated for an award. She did not win but it does not seem to have rained on her parade. There are some excellent photographs of her in today's Daily Telegraph where she is wearing a super dress and some very rich-looking diamonds. She obviously went on the giggle-juice and quite clearly thoroughly enjoyed herself. Good to see happy pictures of a fresh young talent having a night out. Long may she enjoy her life.

Stop that!

I don't care what is in the back of your mind or what demon-inspired list you may have of Things To Do Today. Put them aside and read what this guy is saying. Go beyond his point of literature and think just what the cock-eyed plans and plots of our maniac politicians is leading towards. Not just destroying the chance to debate dolci et decorem est but so much more that is of value and essential to leading a full and rounded life.

Straw Dogs

If today's lone reader can remember, Straw Dogs was about the treatment rendered to incomers. I have to admit I fell asleep but woke just in time to see really wicked things being done to Susan George. It all seemed a bit far fetched. But, now after, what, 30+ years I read what is happening to what appears to be a nice village and start to wonder. Still, at least the dreamy Susan George will be safe.

Mapping

As a bigot, it is necessary for me to keep track of stereotypes. Thankfully, someone has published just such a thing that will save me much referencing.

Shameless commercialism

As the regular reader will know, I do not often have good words to say about many or much. However, I’ve now had occasion to use a supplier more than once and each time they have come up trumps in price and service. Their name suggests watch batteries only but they do much more. Far better than waiting for some spotty oik at Dixons to cease his gossip and do his impersonation of ‘Computer says NO’, So, this is who you want – in plain sight, no link http://www.watchbattery.co.uk/

Hail! That man there

I think I might include a Quote For The Day somewhere in this stuff. However, I doubt that I could find one as apposite as this:

"The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government."

• Variant: "The more corrupt the state, the more laws."


• Original Quote: "And now bills were passed, not only for national objects but for individual cases, and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt." -- Annals 3.27”

The Annals, or, in Latin, Annales, is a history book by Tacitus covering the reign of the 4 Roman Emperors succeeding to Caesar Augustus.

Not only a Quote For The Day but also a Quote Of The Day

Again - EXCLUSIVE - End of the World

Mark Steyn is a contributor to the New Criterion but publishes widely in both the printed and electronic media. In his almost-current article he provokes us with this:

Most people reading this have strong stomachs, so let me lay it out as baldly as I can: Much of what we loosely call the western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most western European countries. There’ll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands— probably—just as in Istanbul there’s still a building called St. Sophia’s Cathedral. But it’s not a cathedral; it’s merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate. The challenge for those who reckon western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the west.
One obstacle to doing that is the fact that, in the typical election campaign in your advanced industrial democracy, the political platforms of at least one party in the United States and pretty much all parties in the rest of the west are largely about what one would call the secondary impulses of society—government health care, government day care (which Canada’s thinking of introducing), government paternity leave (which Britain’s just introduced). We’ve prioritized the secondary impulse over the primary ones: national defense, family, faith, and, most basic of all, reproductive activity—“Go forth and multiply,” because if you don’t you won’t be able to afford all those secondary-impulse issues, like cradle-to-grave welfare. Americans sometimes don’t understand how far gone most of the rest of the developed world is down this path: In the Canadian and most Continental cabinets, the defense ministry is somewhere an ambitious politician passes through on his way up to important jobs like the health department. I don’t think Don Rumsfeld would regard it as a promotion if he were moved to Health & Human Services.
Further along in his argument he gets nearer to what he sees as the threat
….. if we are at war—and half the American people and significantly higher percentages in Britain, Canada, and Europe don’t accept that proposition—than what exactly is the war about?
We know it’s not really a “war on terror.” Nor is it, at heart, a war against Islam, or even “radical Islam.” The Muslim faith, whatever its merits for the believers, is a problematic business for the rest of us. There are many trouble spots around the world, but as a general rule, it’s easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in “Palestine,” Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs. Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs. backpacking tourists in Bali. Like the environmentalists, these guys think globally but act locally.
Yet while Islamism is the enemy, it’s not what this thing’s about. Radical Islam is an opportunist infection, like AIDS: it’s not the HIV that kills you, it’s the pneumonia you get when your body’s too weak to fight it off. When the jihadists engage with the U.S. military, they lose—as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq. If this were like World War I with those fellows in one trench and us in ours facing them over some boggy piece of terrain, it would be over very quickly. Which the smarter Islamists have figured out. They know they can never win on the battlefield, but they figure there’s an excellent chance they can drag things out until western civilization collapses in on itself and Islam inherits by default.
Not a cheering future is it? However, my chosen path of assimilating this harsh prediction is that these type of struggles have been around for a long time. This world will last me out my lifetime.

Love - where art thou?

Here's a woman who is having troubles in her life.
It does seem sad that something one would think to be so easy creates this sort of situation. I merely wonder - is she just a lone voice calling in the darkness (darkness? maybe that's the problem?) or one of that monsterous Regiment of Women who is just a bit more forthright than her sisters?
I'm sure that no one is born good at sex. It is a learned science rather than a natural craft. Just as in wider life, some schools are better than others. The blogger in question is well able to express herself in the written word so has the vocabulary needed to have a face to face discussion with her partner. Even if she is unable to say exactly what will turn her on, she could surely make it clear that she is a female human being and not just some accessory you screw on the bed. Whilst the male needs are much simpler and far easier attained, no man is so pig-headed that he would reject suggestions as to how something so simple and easy could be extended with just a little effort on his part. One thing I do forecast - if she just lays there and thinks of England, nothing will improve.
I suppose I should comment on her site rather than preach away here. I think my input would be a little harsh. Say what you like about my driving, say what you like about my dress sense but do not ever dare to comment on my sex life is a adage that is best observed.

Voice of the Back Office

Brian – a police officer – reports this opening salvo for 2006 from the backroom boys of the Met Police.
Corporate Risk Management and Health and Safety naming 06.01.06 The decision has been made to re-brand the Corporate Risk Management Team (part of the DCC) and the Health and Safety Branch (part of HR Directorate) to clarify their respective roles for both team's customers.To clarify the role of the two teams for MPS staff the following re-branding will apply from Monday 9 January 2006:
• The Corporate Risk Management Team will now be known as the Business Risk Management Team.
• The Health & Safety Branch will be known as the Safety and Health Risk Management Team.
• The Corporate Risk Assessments owned by the Safety and Health Risk Management Team will be known as the Corporate Safety and Health Risk Assessments.
• The Corporate Risk Register owned by the Business Risk Management Team will be known as the Management Board Business Risk Register.
This re-branding clarifies the nature of the risks handled by each team and puts safety first.Safety and health risks are elements of business risk, the latter encompassing all risks to the achievement of the business objectives of the Service and its (B)OCUs and Departments. The Corporate Risk Management Team has an oversight role in relation to all business risks. In the area of health and safety this role is discharged through close liaison with the Health and Safety Branch and membership of the Strategic Health and Safety Committee.
Risk management terminology can be confusing, particularly when it is used in differing contexts and because it can mean different things to different people. There is some confusion amongst MPS colleagues between the terms "risk assessment" and "risk management". Furthermore, it can be confusing when we use the word "corporate" both to mean something mandated by the corporate centre or the top layer of a process that is also deployed at Business Group and OCU levels.Risk Assessments, including dynamic risk assessments, refer to operational or safety matters, whereas Risk Registers are generally part of the business planning and change management processes, when identifying risks to achievement of business objectives.By re-branding the two risk management teams and their key products we aim to clarify the nature of the risks with which each is concerned.We hope that the changes achieve their purpose.
If you have any thoughts as to how we might clarify risk management matters for you further please do let us know.

Tread softly...

The history of our country is totally fascinating. Events can be interesting as solo reading or fed into the totallity of what made this place what it is. The destruction of our history and background of influence is at risk from the one-size-fits-all policies and apologise-for-everything agenda now almost rampant.

Take a walk on the legal side By John Cooper

IF your new year’s resolution was to take more exercise, there is no need to travel too far to take in interesting trips with a legal flavour. Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson have compiled an engrossing compendium of English towns and villages entrenched in some mysterious folklore. The Lore of the Land will take you to places such as Five Knolls in Bedfordshire, the site in 1667 where Elizabeth Pratt admitted to bewitching her two children at her subsequent trial; Manningtree in Essex to discover the burial place of Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General; or Alton, in Hampshire, where in 1867 a solicitor’ s clerk brutally murdered a girl in the local fields. Fanny Adams was so mutilated that her murder led to the expression “Sweet Fanny Adams” whenever a foul dish of meat was served for dinner. IF it is fact rather than legend that you need, then Clive Aslet’s Landmarks of Britain will be a reliable guide for your travels. It surveys the history of Britain through the places where events actually happened. From the Old Bailey, described as “rotund as a barrister’s peroration, as florid as a judge’s face after luncheon”, to Shire Hall in Monmouth, the scene of the biggest Chartist trial in 1839, convened after the Newport rising earlier that year, this book is startling in its comprehensive account of the nation’s history through its towns and cities. Some of the landmarks noted in the book are contemporary. The Blind Beggar pub, 337 Whitechapel Road, London E1, is described as the “Nemesis of the feared Ronnie Kray”, where he shot George Cornell, a South London gangster, three times in the head, and the Grand Hotel in Brighton also demands an entry where at “nearly three o’clock in the morning of October 12, 1984”, the Brighton bomb became “the IRA’s worst atrocity on the British mainland ”. But there is always the opportunity of retreating back in time if our recent history is too unpalatable — visit the Market Place in Wells, where in 1685 Judge Jeffreys, Lord Chief Justice of England, presided over the Bloody Assizes where 2,600 of the rebels who fought against the King were tried and mostly executed. ENGLAND, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, edited by John Lewis-Stempel, should accompany both of the works mentioned above. It records 2,000 years of English history in the words of people alive at the time. As you visit Canterbury Cathedral, one of Aslet’s Landmarks of Britain, read Edward Grim’s account of the murder of St Thomas à Becket. Grim was Becket’s attendant and describes in detail the end of the Archbishop: “Then the third knight inflicted a terrible wound . . . the crown which was large was separated from the head; so that blood white with brain . . . dyed the surface of the Virgin Mother Church with the life and death of the confessor and martyr in the colours of the lily and the rose.” If you visit the Grand Hotel, take some time to read Norman Tebbit’s account of the outrage. Read Kenneth Tynan’s report on the Lady Chatterley trial at the Old Bailey in 1960, “Gerald Gardiner, counsel for the defence . . . prowled up and down like a wounded lion, waiting for those 12 inscrutable citizens to come to their conclusion”, one of many examples of the most articulate of their age giving us the temperature of their times.

Reprieved.

Here is a scary item. I am not a great chocolate eater but when I do get the urge, I tend to go for complete satisfaction in the one big handful. Mars bars or Snickers go down well. The idea that the porky police had forced their withdrawal from sale almost led me to the barricades.
Then I saw the date of the item. Not April 1st but way back in 2004 so it seems the daft idea was - to make a small pun - shelved.
I'm off to celebrate with a Big Un.

The Challenge

Mr Cameron needs to be challenged over the fact that the ostensible centre ground to which he is laying such noisy claim is nothing of the kind but is rather the forward salient of a lethal assault upon the foundation values of British society.

Unless this hijacking of the centre ground is acknowledged and redressed, we will continue to be locked into hopeless confusion over language, concepts and policies.

British values are under siege. The freest and most tolerant society on earth now leads the way in intimidation, moral degradation and lies. The need to identify, reclaim and defend the real centre ground, in order to rescue the progressive ideal of social justice which has been taken hostage, is the single most urgent task in British politics.

Thus speaks Melanie Philips. That nice but dim Mr Cameron owes her a drink.

First? Second? Dead heat?

I have wanted to understand more of this debate of Intelligent Design that is flourishing in America. However, the approach is, for me, difficult. The basic 'truths' one has to accept to get to the outer rings of the matter, are ones I do not recognise. However, this guy seems to have made it a bit easier. Just a bit. I'm struggling with the concepts and the pro and con of the matter.

Retribution?

If one subscribes to the school of divine retribution there is a quandry in this event. Is it 'our' God punishing them for some unknown sins or are the deaths the work of their own 'God'? I suppose Dr Hook who is now on trial for terrorist offences would find the retribution concept easy to justify if it applied to others.

Mecca Stampede Kills 345 People Amid Hajj Pilgrimage (Update1)

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- At least 345 people died today during a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, the Saudi Arabian health minister said.

Many of the 289 people hurt in the incident were released from hospital after receiving first-aid treatment, the minister, Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Maneh, was quoted by the official Saudi Arabian news agency, SPA, as saying.

The security spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Mansour bin Sultan Al-Turki, said that the incident occurred at the eastern entrance of the Jamarat Bridge in Mena, a valley outside Mecca, just after sunset, according to SPA. The pilgrims were performing a ritual in which pebbles are cast at pillars to symbolize the stoning of Satan.

Millions of Muslim visitors are in Mecca, birthplace of the prophet Mohammed, for the Hajj. As the fifth and final pillar of Islam, every able-bodied adult Muslim must undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.

Crowding has been a factor in many deaths during the annual event, including the 1990 Hajj, when more than 1,400 died, and in 2004, when about 250 were crushed in Mena.

The stoning of Satan is the riskiest part of the Hajj as pilgrims jostle to make sure their pebbles strike one of three pillars, and weaker ones risk being trampled on by the masses, Agence France-Presse reported.

Luggage, which fell from moving buses, caused the pilgrims to trip, al-Turki said, adding that security forces cordoned off the area in an attempt to rescue and provide aid to the wounded. Al-Jazeera television showed the bodies of dozens of pilgrims covered in white shrouds.

Almost 60,000 security, health, emergency and other personnel were involved in organizing this year's Hajj, in a bid to prevent a stampede, AFP reported.

After today's ritual, Muslims will make a final visit to Mecca's Grand Mosque.