We woz robbed - a chorus for many voices

I am a little confused regarding the angst over the manner in which the repatriated Libyan was greeted. Our politicians and most of America have represented the occasion as a Second Coming. It is not, it appears, the turn-out that was so distressing but that it was given to someone described as a Mass Killer. Milly Band gathered her skirts around her as if rape were inevitable. Americans are demanding the guy be ridden out of town on a rail and subjected to an end akin to that which was a high point of American justice not so long ago.

There was a strong case for an appeal. A process which, it would seem, was abandoned more to clear procedural hurdles than for any reason of weakness or content. Many of those who are so worried by the escape someone they deem to be a Mass Murderer would be well to the fore if it involved a Brit or a Yank facing ultimate punishment.

Amongst the allegations is one that the release was purely and exclusively an easement towards improving trade relationships between UK and Libya. Indeed, Gadaffi's son has gone public with this. The Foreign Office says the idea that trade follows the flag is nonsense and such a thing never passed their patrician lips. That could well be true - much as been made by the Brits that they were totally uninvolved in the decision of the Scottish executive.

Let us assume that trade was a factor. It would, clearly, have been just one factor. Legislation exists and there is the compassion for the walking dead going home to the heart of his family. Trade is not such a dirty word as it was when we had entrances exclusively for tradesmen. Our peripatetic golfer is heavily engaged in trade even with is high position on the Royal batting order. See what his latest plans were prior to the 'hero welcome' allegation

The Duke of York had been set to visit Tripoli in the first week of September for about three days in his role as Special Representative for UK Trade and Investment.

And then, of course, we have the meeting of Corfu's semi-resident The Prince of Darkness with that same son of Muammar. At a time when the lad was engaged in politicking for the release of his subject. Mandy has denied that the subject ever arose but why would a busy man waste his time. Also, it is inconceivable that the Mandy Minders would not have established the nature of the meeting in advance. Could they really have just been comparing the benefits of foreign buggers?

Social - No. Networking - Yes

Under pressure from the Youth Wing of the family, I signed up some while back to both Facebook and to Twitter. The pressure was subtle - as I would have suspected from the relevant individual anyway and took the form of a challenge. The suggestion was that Silver surfers could not hack it on the Internet and that triggered a Manchurian Candidate response from me.
I was quite receptive at first. At first. Just until I exercised my feeble knowledge and did a Google search. I then established that I was mixed up with a load of young tearaway as Serfdom commenced at 50 years of age. My failing powers were unknown to me. At the age of 50 I had been preparing, fighting for and controlling a budget of over £6 million, directing premises and property matters at more than ten offices throughout the UK and was lead consultant of a Facilities Management NHS contract worth just over £30 million. I was regularly walking over 20 miles a day in the hilly and virtually deserted parts of England and Scotland. I was at a muscle-not-posing-pouch-gym four times a week.
I could accept that there had been degeneration between my 50th. and 76th birthday but it was the arrogance of those who set up a age classification at 50 that dismayed and annoyed me. However, to withdraw myself from these two sites could well have intensified the calumny about age-related mental ability.
That rather extended lead-in is necessary background to clarifying my decision to leave both FB and Twitter. I had been a member of a number of discussion groups and forum where the exchanges were robust to the point of  being antagonistic and insulting. Some were run in accordance with the (pedantic) rules of Usenet where the ethereal corridors were patrolled by Moderators eager to banish on the slightest hint of a misdeed. So, there can be no suggestion that I cannot keep up. In fact, it is the lack of that sort of cut, parry and thrust that sees me walking off, Shane-like, into the sunset.
Examine the claim Social Networking. Twitter has been analysed as has Facebook. I can understand the networking bit. I have been careful in my choice of 'understand' because I was always - and remain - dubious about the premise of networking. My experience as a military detective and as a commercial executive was that such liaisons were considered essential to success but I had never followed the collection of business cards and names. I am a solitary sort of bloke; individuals are fine once I have sized them up but lists of people en-masse were not my thing. The discipline of establishing secretary and PA names, birthdays, wife's forename and golf handicaps was beyond me. I thought - and have proven time after time - that I had sufficient chutzpah to telephone or go see an individual who could assist me and get what we both wanted even though we might have started the day totally unaware of the other's existence. So, I have no need of the network side of either Twitter or Facebook. It was the absence of the claimed Social aspect that disappointed me.
I had been used to a reaction to my posts. I would post or read and contribute to a thread that interested me. Back would come a response and generally I was able to follow up on that. Others would gather and we might have ten or more all participating with a wide gamut of personal opinions. Sometimes these got personal when someone would go for the player and not the ball but I found ad hominem situations quite exciting. Facebook seems to attract the middle-class; nothing wrong with that but they are seemingly reluctant to contribute anything that might be described as 'not quite nice'. They retreat behind the net curtains.
Twitter appears - to me anyway - to have a wider range of contributor but a lesser participation. I do not know the figure but I suspect that the ratio of those registered to those who post or respond is very low. There is some - to me inexplicable - need to boast of 'followers' and 'followed'. Applications boast that they will have every Red Sea pedestrian following you in the space of 24 hours. Why the hell would anyone want that? What do they do when they have them? Tweetup gatherings are announced but, whilst these might be held in social settings such as a pub, it is clear that the main attraction is - you've guessed it. Bloody networking again.
After a while, I became bored. I felt that I was having sex with a woman too drunk to know what day it was or dining with a shy virgin who kept her knickers firmly in place with men's braces. Neither challenging or attractive. I thought I might attract responses by submitting contentious posts outside the normal patterns. Nothing. Then I started being (discreetly) abusive or annoying to others. Almost zilch. A return in the realms of decimal point 0 0 sod all.
So - that is why the Aged Parent and John Wood will mount up and ride off into the purple sage resisting any call to Come Back. I cannot say I did not enjoy my short exposures. But then, I cannot say that I enjoyed anything either. To those who tried - thanks. To the others, please carry on with the Networking and God Bless. I am off back to the cut and thrust of My World.

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Big holes

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LettersFromATory/~3/wO-MnXoGNK0/

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Pretty girl becomes pretty lady

When my daughter was a small person, we used to get her into the mood for being photographed by showing her a camera and saying 'There's a pretty girl in there' Luckily, the majority printed were just that - a pretty girl. Examples are hanging on her walls as we speak. She has a new person now to make her look pretty. I reckon he is lucky like me - all that was needed was to press the button. She did the rest.

Mind you, it is in the genes of course!

Eureka!

Not truly a Eureka moment as I am not in the bath like old Archy was. Eureka as in the meaning of a sudden enlightenment.
I have been reading some accounts of the Communist campaign in Malaya during the early '50s. When I got out there, it was almost over but many of the restrictions were still in force or recent enough so that a newcomer could see what had been done to defeat Chin Peng's forces. My readings revived these memories and I went on to compare Afghanistan of today with those days and situations.
We had trained and supplied what became the CT force much as we had the mujahadeen. Our Force 136 fought the Japanese and the muja. the Russians. Both were successful campaigns but went on to become fresh fields of battle. Our enemy operated in areas where they had many advantages over us - the jungle and the wide open deserts and widespread communities. They were quite pitiless in punishing anyone whom they deemed had collaborated with us; these punishments were terror instruments in themselves. Children slaughtered in front of parents who were spared as living testimonies of helping the authorities. CT's needs were simple and they were quite capable of living off the country - simply taking what was needed from the non-involved peasants.
Tactically, they were devious and used quite simple plans of attack. Well sited ambushes. Booby traps. Explosives. Attack resources to draw our forces into areas where almost everything was in their favour. We had ample assets in terms of air power and artillery but were given little opportunity to deploy them. Our enemy was unconcerned at inflicting collateral damage but were well aware of our need to retain hearts and minds. We spent vast sums in direct operational costs - £1 million for every terrorist killed. We expended much money in local reconstruction which the enemy promptly destroyed at little or no cost to themselves.
Back then, Whitehall showed little involvement. The local European community of tin miners and rubber planters were very vocal and fiercely contemptuous of know nothing and care even less functionaries in England. The major US and UK companies involved in tin-tapping decided what was best for themselves and went about maintaining that situation. Even to the extent of supplying their estate managers with arms, ammunition and funny-money as required.
One of the most radical measures was the relocation of villages. These originally were scattered widely and provided life blood for the CT. Guarding the dispersed communities was almost impossible. Solution was to transfer inhabitants to purpose built villages built with an eye to their protection. Resistance to the moves was initially high but this was overcome but granting title to land in and around the village. This had a tremendous psychological effect. Transferees were given materials to build their own accommodation and transport to the new opportunity was freely provided. This initiative was branded by CT propagandists as a renewal of the Boer War concentration camps but the enthusiasm of the new villagers did not sustain this view.
So - where does this meld with our problem in Afghanistan?
Were we to repeat the relocation, we would have many advantages. The new compounds would be designed to afford public health and hygiene standards to raise the expectations of life for babies, children and adults. Pure water. Regular sanitation. Our reconstruction monies would go directly to the individual compounds to benefit the Afghans there. Not as some sort of Social Security handout to people squatting on their heels but to set up village industry and self-sufficiency. We would not transfer the poppy farming. Resistance to this should be overcome when alternative channels of income were identified, set up and supported. The design of the new would incorporate bases for ANA and ANP garrisons designed and fitted out to maximise their capability. Watch towers, fortifications, strong communications. Suitable trained (and indoctrinated) Afghans to form local councils in conjunction with the traditional grey-beards.
This will take time. And money. We are currently looking at involvement in the current mess for many years and the corruption takes a lot of the money. Devolving our attentions over the villages would reduce the opportunity for skimming central fundings. It would also need commitment. One thing America does well is handling large projects. Our own forces are renowned for small scale engineering. We surely Can Do - all it needs is will power.

Fight 'em on the beaches etc etc

The Government has taken a new stance in its attempts to convince us they are doing a good job. A new bogey-man has been deployed to stop Joe Public pressing that the troops come home from their exile in Afghanistan now it is clear that their sacrifices can never achieve any lasting improvement there. Brown first brought up the new spectre

Britain's offensive against the Taliban is showing signs of success, despite the heavy losses of recent days, says Gordon Brown.The Prime Minister said the campaign in Afghanistan was a "patriotic duty" to keep the streets of Britain safe from the threat of terrorist attack. In an interview with the British Forces Broadcasting Service, he paid tribute to the "sacrifice" of the 15 troops who had died since the start of the month in the bloodiest fighting the Army has seen in the Afghan campaign.

Britain's offensive against the Taliban is showing signs of success, despite the heavy losses of recent days, says Gordon Brown. "I know that this has been a difficult summer - it is going to be a difficult summer," he said. "These sacrifices that have hurt so many families in our country are ones that the whole of Britain will want to acknowledge."

Next it was the turn of his clear-eyed young acolyte David (Boy) Milliband who said 

Troops are fighting for the ‘future of Britain’ warns Foreign Secretary as the Afghanistan death toll rises. David Miliband spoke out following a surge in British casualties, which saw eight soldiers killed in just 24 hours.

This brings the death toll since combat began in 2001 to184, overtaking the 179 troops killed in Iraq.

Miliband today defended Britain’s continuing presence in Afghanistan saying that the country had to be secured to safeguard against future terror attacks on home soil.

He said: "We must ensure that Afghanistan can not again become an incubator for terrorism and a launching pad for attacks on us.”

"This is about the future of Britain because we know that the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan have been used to launch terrible attacks, not just on the US but on Britain as well."

So, the USP of their published remarks is the avoidance of a war on terror being fought on the streets of England. Given the results of their  "War on" campaigns such as W.o. drugs, W.o. knives. W.o. want amongst many others the chance of a W.o. terror breaking out is something to be avoided like the plague.

If we are indeed fighting the W.o. terror as an away match, we seem to be missing the ground where it is being held. In 2002, analysts were reporting that Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, who has taken over the command of the US-led campaign has admitted that the difficulties will grow because it will enable many, if not all, of the top Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders who are still lying low in small groups in Afghanistan, to flee into Pakistan.

Commander of the US-led forces in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Franklin L. Hegenbeck, said in an interview that virtually the entire senior leadership of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda has been driven out of eastern Afghanistan and is now operating with as many as 1,000 non-Afghan fighters in the anarchic tribal areas of western Pakistan. He claimed on the strength of intelligence reports that the Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders were plotting terrorist attacks, including car and suicide bombing, to disrupt the selection of a new government in Afghanistan this month.

At least two senior Taliban leaders, Fazul Rabi Said-Rehman and Obidullah, have said in an interview that Taliban leaders are reorganising their militant religious movement and the Al-Qaeda was recovering fast. They said there was a split within Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, ISI, between those who share the Taliban’s ideology and those who support Pakistan’s alliance with the US. The two Taliban leaders who claimed that both Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden were alive, warned of some more suicide attacks on the US and Britain in retaliation for the war in Afghanistan.

So, not only have they placed themselves beyond the reach of significant Allied forces, but wherever they were they retained the ability to create terror in both UK and USA.

And then we have another view on the "War on ......" concept. The director of public prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, put himself at odds with the home secretary and Downing Street last night by denying that Britain is caught up in a "war on terror" and calling for a "culture of legislative restraint" in passing laws to deal with terrorism.

Sir Ken warned of the pernicious risk that a "fear-driven and inappropriate" response to the threat could lead Britain to abandon respect for fair trials and the due process of law.

He acknowledged that the country faced a different and more dangerous threat than in the days of IRA terrorism and that it had "all the disturbing elements of a death cult psychology".

But he said: "It is critical that we understand that this new form of terrorism carries another more subtle, perhaps equally pernicious, risk. Because it might encourage a fear-driven and inappropriate response. By that I mean it can tempt us to abandon our values. I think it important to understand that this is one of its primary purposes."

Sir Ken pointed to the rhetoric around the "war on terror" - which has been adopted by Tony Blair and ministers after being coined by George Bush - to illustrate the risks.

He said: "London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered on July 7 2005 were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, 'soldiers'. They were deluded, narcissistic inadequates. They were criminals. They were fantasists. We need to be very clear about this. On the streets of London, there is no such thing as a 'war on terror', just as there can be no such thing as a 'war on drugs'.

"The fight against terrorism on the streets of Britain is not a war. It is the prevention of crime, the enforcement of our laws and the winning of justice for those damaged by their infringement."

I see another attraction for a withdrawal of all our forces from Afghanistan. If AQ and its cohorts chose to further a war here, we would be fighting on a battleground where we have considerable advantages over the sandy place. We have something over 160,000 police. The 9,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan would be supplemented by the home reserve and there are those in Germany close at hand. I am sure that our intelligence gathering here would be more intensive and better targetted than it is now. We have Menwith Hill and CCHQ all involved in listening in to plots and plans. Take the prejudicial stance that anyone from a Muslim background could be a AQ operative or sympathiser and we wuld be able to target them on better 1 to 1 terms than the many in Helmund province. Anyone attempting to plant IED along the Mall or to set up mortars in Regent Street would come to notice. We have a fairly sophisticated cctv and number plate recognition network in place. The cost of supplying our overseas forces is considerable and a saving there could be applied to the crime prevention measures here.

For my money, I would be much happier with a crime prevention operation here rather than a war in Afghanistan. All we do there is irritate a lot of the people. Any determined assault we mount leads to civilian deaths by nature of the grossl;y disproportionate force deployed. There are no rules to this game. So, what is there to prevent AQ from initiating a - to use words Brown and Milliband understand - a war on terror here anyway? If they truly thought they could do this and there was any mileage in it - they would. That is what terrorism is about - spreading terror.

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Payment by results

That nice young man Darling has announced his reforms of the general banking system. I've not found the enthusiasm to go into the nitty gritty but it seems that he has merely done a bit of a tune up round the edges. No major change in the supervisory system which remains with three major parties involved. Just a bit of finger wagging at bonus schemes. This after the greatest banking melt down for a very very long time.
I had hoped to see that the banks would be denied the opportunity to indulge in what is little more than gambling. There needs to be a firm foundation of banks that will serve the basic needs of customers. No get rich quick plans coming out every day. No take overs. Just plain vanilla attention to serve clients with terms, conditions, plans and charges all pre-determined and immutable. These staid and proper banks would never get into any circumstance that needs them being supported from central funds.
There is a need for cowboys to cater for the risk-takers. I have heard the term 'casino bank' and that seems about right to me. Players in a casino know the risks they run and a few spins of the wheel can strip them of everything they have made at the table. If one of the casino organisations were to go down the pan - so be it. They would not cause any major movement in the finance world and there would be no question of rescue, part-nationalisation or support. The term 'casino' would serve as a warning to those who would do business with them and they also would be on their own if things went tits-up. No great need for supervision; there would be clear and unambiguous rules and audit would be frequent and rigorous.
The question of bonus payments needs attention. The mantra is that the employer must pay inflated salaried and promise bounties for performance if they are to get the employee they desire. Nonsense. High demands and expectations by the prospective CEO or whatever are nothing other than blackmail. "Pay me this or I will go elsewhere" The system needs to be such that there is no elsewhere that will pay him the inflated salary and benefits from performance. If banks and other employers refused these high rewards to all, the idea that they had to meet the blackmailer's demands would fall by the wayside. Rugby clubs have wages caps where their total wage bill must not exceed a stated sum and these work. If the cap is £1 million and the employer wants to pay Mr Wonderful £900K - fine. All he has to do is fund the rest of his Board on the £100K that is left. There would be no £90 million transfer deals as in soccer if the agent and player knew no one would pay more than £30 million.
There should be other controls. The high cost of motor fuel and the instability of the market is artificially created. Getting a 50 gallon drum filled at the well head remains the same this week as it did 26 weeks ago. It is the machinations of the traders that cause the ups and downs. Trading on oil supplies must be barred. Only in the last few days we have seen how a trader went on a late night binge and caused a heck of a lot of trouble. The refiners all have long term contracts with those blessed with oil in their ground and it should be these that govern prices. Having a fixed price for crude would bring to a halt the nonsense where oil countries manipulate prices by raising or lowering the amount released on to the refiners. I have used oil as an example only. The same system should apply to all things capable of being traded in futures markets. These 'positions' also effect prices where costs to produce and market is steady but the cost of the item varies wildly.
I do not know enough of the, to me, murky world of the venture capitalist but the sale of deals here suggests it is something that needs control if it is not to damage a nation's economy. They are drawn into deals where they smell vast and quick profit as shark smells blood in the water. Fine. But there must be firm controls set up such that what they do is isolated from routine banking and should work alongside the 'casino' banks on the same terms. If they want to play no limit poker and go all-in and someone has a better hand - tough. Do not come crying to me.

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A new dimension

I've mentioned my attraction to country music. I use the free Spotify which has resources far in excess of iTunes and it plays in the background. I've got my own playlist which must have over 1000 tracks. Anyway, I came across a German country singer Tom Astor, It is really weird hearing a vocal in German that one knows so well in English. He sometimes sings along with the original artist and the mix of them in English and him in German is fun. Go and listen on the link.

I have some Spotify invites if anyone thinks they might want to get started.

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Civic duty

My civic duty score is increasing.

Last night I attended a Council Meeting on the subject of the Jim Clark Rally through our town. Clark was the local boy made good in car rallying and Formula 1 racing cars. Every year, there is a motor rally based in Duns. Quite unique as local roads get shut off for normal traffic to let the big beasties have a run at speeds up to 145 miles per hour. No 60 mph limit those days.

This years held a few weeks back broke new ground in having one section run through the middle of the town. Residents and visitors were strictly marshalled as to where and when they might be about in the hour or so prior to the start of the stage. I put my 'even Hitler didn't get to tell me what to do in my own home' hat on and felt pretty negative about the whole thing. In the event, my stroppiness was noticed and I was treated very well and properly.

One concern that did stay was safety. I live in the Market Square and the course came into the Square and then made a 90 degree right turn to go down a street leading off the Square. The Big Boys in the International class came up to this corner at about 100 mph and drifted sideways into the turn. A crowd of about 200 gathered on the outside of the bend and, whilst there were straw bales in position, the bales were not secured. A car hitting them would not be slowed but would merely slide on with the straw as a battering ram. Three cars that I saw did have difficult negotiating the corner but were brought under control without too much damage and no injury. Somewhat proved my concern for potential tragedy.

I wanted to comment and chose to go to the Council meeting. I was one of about 50 mostly middle aged men and women. I had expected it would be mainly boy racers with a sprinkling of coffin dodgers attending out of boredom with life indoors. The majority of attendees had notebooks and recorded the to and fro of the debate. Some had drafted what they wanted to say. I got to make my observation without it being seen as a complaint and had a full and constructive answer.

I was encouraged by what transpired. I'll do it again (so long as it does not qualify me as a 'coffin dodger attending out of boredom'). Just another sign of how we seem to have a very good community spirit up here.

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A Fine Day Out

We went to the Royal Highland Show yesterday. First time attending such event for some while; we regularly used to do the Game Fair, The Kent, the Kilnsey and the Great Yorkshire Shows and occasionally the Scottish Game Fair. Norma likes the sheep; I like the bulls and the pigs. Fine food producers are out in force and free samples are everywhere so we go around opening and closing mouths like fish in a bowl.

Weather was fine. Sunny but with a few small clouds added to a breeze to keep it from getting too hot. The live stock was in fine order. We lasted about five hours before the aged feet gave up on us. As we were leaving, the Queen was just arriving and we had front row position as the motorcade passed us by. We waved – hope that made her day!

At events such as these, I always take along a helium-filled balloon which gets tied to the radio aerial so we can spot the car in the row upon serried row of cars. We saw our balloon well enough but it was tied to another car. Luckily I had noted other clues and we got home OK. Before driving off, I went back to the Ali Baba car and cast free the balloon. Hope they were there searching until midnight! Bastards – what a low trick was that?

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We live in troubled times

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We live in troubled times.doc (67 KB)

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Back to the BoomBox days

Back in the day when it was not some sign of race to heave a massive box on the shoulder and hip wave along. Volume, of course, had to be deafening. Or maybe just sit around a musical packing case with a few cold sherbets and maybe a herbal cigarette or two. Hit Playlist and retreat!

More credibility issues

There cannot be anyone left who has any faith in the integrity of our elected representatives. Just when they should all be concentrating on getting back to people we can trust, they introduce procedures expressly designed to withhold essential information from us. We are no longer entitled to know the disposal of serious and dangerous criminals within the legal system.
I can see the touchy-feely agenda that this comes from. I might even understand how these faulty-gened individuals are processed. We have had numerous examples where dodgy characters have been let go and slip back into the abusive or threatening conduct that got them locked away in the first place. Even tagging is no guarantee. I do not regard imprisonment as being an opportunity to teach the offender how to behave or learn how to exist in a civilised community. No - all I want is him kept away from me. So long as that is achieved, they may do as they wish with crims. Hulks on the Thames worked in Dickens' times. Hard labour is what I expect not soft treatment and slip-shod assessments as to the risk to the public.

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No confidence

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Eastys as opposed to Westys

A couple of years back, courtesy of #1 son, I visited Berlin. I had never had a great desire to you there whilst I was serving as a soldier in Germany - the formalities of getting in and out put me off.
We went into what had been East Berlin and also into the former East Germany. I was entranced. The place seemed to have been in a time warp and the brash face of West Berlin seemed a million miles away. It was a bit like The Third Man come alive. I found myself wondering if we might find a night club a la Cabaret with off key oompa pa pa band and fat hostesses.
This note was inspired by an album of photographs which well show the state of the place that is now in my memory.

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Outed

There had been a lot of debate in British BloggerLand following police authorities stance that officers should not blog. So far as I am aware, all of the posters used a pseudo-name anyway and took steps to ensure that they could not be identified by what they wrote about. Two or three decided as soon as the banning order came out that the cake was not worth the candle and closed shop. Others took more effort at scrambling their stories. some resented the order and became quite defiant. Others just carried on as if there had been no force instruction.

A recent court case seems to have laid down a precedent when the blogger's right to anonymity was challenged by a newspaper. The High Court has refused to preserve the anonymity of an award-winning policeman who has blogged about the force and government ministers.Mr Justice Eady refused an injunction to prevent the Times identifying serving officer "Night Jack". The judge said said blogging was "essentially a public rather than a private activity". Night Jack's lawyer said preserving his anonymity was in the public interest. Hugh Tomlinson QC said the thousands who communicated via the internet under a cloak of anonymity would be "horrified" to think the law would do nothing to protect their identities if someone carried out the necessary detective work to unmask them.

Richard Horton, a detective constable with Lancashire Constabulary, is named as the author of NightJack. Horton tried to obtain a High Court injunction to prevent the Times from revealing that he was the author of the blog, which the paper claims reveals confidential information about criminal cases that can be identified. In April NightJack was awarded an Orwell Prize for political writing. Today, the blog appears to have been deleted by the author. Quite what the Times thinks it has achieved from all this is beyond my comprehension. The blog has gone and with it an insight into how his force operates - that material alone was worth praise. The media are very firm in their stance that they will not reveal their sources of information so we seem to have double standards here. A sad day methinks.

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Outfaced and twittered am I

Seduced by a twit

I used to have a blog to which I contributed on a irregular basis. It ran for almost ten years. Sometimes it attracted comments or complaints but never so often that it became a chore. Occasionally, during days when I was fighting The Black Dog, it came out somewhat acerbic or failed to show up at all. On balance, I enjoyed it but it was never ever near to becoming a major part of my life.

What I did get serious about in the blogging context was reading the work of others. After a while, I had so many listed as Favourites that I decided to get a blog gatherer and that led me to Bloglines. I got to know about RSS feeds and every day I would have some 50 or so blogs which generally ran into 250 or so threads. The wide range of topics on which one could find a blog amazed me. I started dreaming up really obscure interests and never failed to find that someone somewhere was providing a blogged opinion.

Then someone got me onto Facebook. I did not think that it and I would get on but I stuck with the messaging. I see it as a form of email but without spam. I've only a small circle of virtual friends; mostly family but with a couple of others picked up along the way. From one of these, I was shown Twitter. Again, initially I did not see what we might have in common but I lurked on the edges and eased my way in.

Now, it seems that most of my free time - of which I have plenty as befits a 76 year old coffin dodger - is spent catching up on my electronic world. If I had half the short term memory that I used to have, I'd be unbeatable in a general knowledge quiz.

I think I have adjusted well to the IT age.

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No Blackshirts here

Considerable huffing and puffing about the BNP result. I cannot join in with the condemnation. Whilst I recognise that a leopard cannot change it's spots the BNP of today is far removed from that of just five years ago. They have laid out their policies. Have a look at these. Is there anything there that is so very threatening? If you were viewing these without any sight or mention of BNP, would you be repulsed? Every heading is a topic that regularly draws much discussion. Each item on that agenda is an important one that deserves the fullest possible airing. If I questioned main stream doorstep canvassers on their manifesto on these ideas, would they be so very different?
So, why are the mainstream parties so determined that these matters shall not be debated? Much is made of 'hate filled' policies. One has only to listen to PMQ on Wednesdays when the leaders of the Lib Dem and Conservative parties tear into the down and out PM to see and hear 'hate filled' performances. The current leaders of BNP are well aware that the old swastika-tattooed image and style does them no favours. They used to be their own worst enemies.
There are only two of them anyway. Not one single thing they say will ever be taken up - maybe only after another group has massaged it and removed the BNP association. They will be the grit in the oyster. Not very nice people with some not very nice ideas? The recent expenses revelations and events involving Members who 'go for walks' in the park late at night clarify that there are rogues in every party.
Whence the calls for banning them? As I understand it, they were elected in a democratic manner in exactly the same way as were representatives of those now seeking to disenfranchise BNP followers. If we can survive with former IRA killers as members, I am sure we can get by with two fat blokes.

Adding a touch of class?

Very reflective. I like this.

Flint tools

I wrote about Caroline Flint bemoaning the status she saw being given to her in Brown's Cabinet. To me, a very simple event. Woman spurned and all that.
I have just read the comments of someone far more erudite than I. It does change my opinion but it sure as hell makes a lot more of it. One might even think her action was in any way significant.
The vast acreage of forest being sacrificed to detailing all the ins and outs of what is going is shameful. Analysis of what, why and who serves little purpose. I can accept rational examination if it serves to illuminate ways ahead but so little of the blizzard of newsprint does that. I wish I could do it.