10th December 2012
The Australian disc jockeys, Mel and Michael, have given a TV interview about their feelings following the death of Mrs Saldanha. I noticed that Michael was sitting in front of Mel signing, for me, that he was the more senior of the two. When the interviewer asked Michael whether he would ever do the same kind of thing again he specifically did not answer the question. Mel said nothing either. I think he felt that because the death could not have been foreseen from his action it would be alright to do a similar thing again. It makes good radio.
A well known publicist was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of historic sex offences from a long time ago. He said that anyone who knew him would realise he is not capaable of such things. It was rumoured that the police leaked his name to the press. This morning another man in his 60’s has been taken to a London police station on suspicion of a similar offence. This time the media do not know the gentleman’s identity.
Not that I disapprove necessarily but I see the King Edward VII hospital story is taking on a party political dimension. Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East, has Indian parents and today he met Mrs Saldanha’s husband, son and daughter at the House of Commons. Earlier he had visited the family at their Bristol home. The hospital has also said it has been in contact with the family to offer whatever assistance it can.
At the beginning of Chapter 12 in my book I talk about a morning I spent at the car storage compounds around Royal Portbury Dock near Bristol. On 5th December 2012 there was a collision in the North Sea in fog off the Netherlands. One of the ships, carrying a cargo of cars, sank with the loss of at least four lives. This afternoon a fire broke out on a ship in Ipswich docks carrying over 100 vehicles. Looks as though our security services are doing their job.
The home affairs select committee has issued a report asking for a royal commission to consider decriminalising the possession of illegal drugs. The Home Office minister, Jeremy Browne a Lib Dem, was on Today this morning saying he thought it a balanced report which the government will consider carefully. The Conservative prime minister said he was not in favour of decriminalisation. Mr Cameron pointed out that drugs’ use is coming down.
I made a diary note on 1st August 2012, in these extracts, about our research into the phenome and how I believe it relates to my personal story mentioned in the Chapter 12 appendix of my book. That line of thought now seems to have been focused into understanding the human genome better, the personal genetic code within all of us which makes us the individual we are. The prime minister announced today that £100 million will be allocated for that project over the next three to five years. It seems the idea is to build up a database of the genetic make up for upwards of 100,000 people so that we can understand better how are bodies are attacked by diseases such as cancer, and investigate treatments for those. Besides providing better intelligence about our bodies I think it is hoped it could lead to various business opportunities in the global healthcare field.
11th December 2012
From a BBC webpage up this morning about Poppy Dinsey it appears that anyone who takes a photo of a stranger owns the copyright of the photograph themselves. Dinsey gets around that my taking photos of herself with a smartphone and then posting them, say, on the internet. That way she owns her own copyright.
I had heard that the new Bond film was a bit different and got around to seeing it today. The baddie is a fortyish, disaffected former MI6 employee. He is a completely barmy gangmaster figure who is able to rule his roost purely by using thugs and modern technology. He attacks the MI6 headquarters in London and a sitting parliamentary session. His transport when being chased around London is provided by marked police vehicles. Pure fiction obviously but, as a have suggested in my New Tricks TV series notes over the last few weeks, a lot of kernals of truth in my view about how our world does in fact operate. A good film.
One of my diary notes in the chapter 6 appendix of my book was written in April 2012 when the government announced it’s intention to give the state powers to monitor internet and email activity on an aggregate basis. I did then, and do now, get spam into my inbox whose titles and names pick up on my activities in the immediately preceding days. Because I deal with it in my conscious mind it does not affect me put if I were near the edge I imagine it could. The Gang just do what is possible. I feel it would help if they knew they were being watched sometimes rather than them watching us with impunity all the time. Anyway Nick Clegg, who I imagine receives virtually the same intelligence reports as David Cameron, has said today he thinks the Communications Data Bill needs a rethink, to protect citizen’s privacy. I am sure we will sort something out.
When things get tough people become extreme. That is just the way of things. It is quite natural. Just before 7am this morning Today had a report from Athens. Drawing on the experience of history the point was made that it was the hpyerinflation that Germany suffered after the fisrt world war during the Weimar Republic that led to the democratic rise of Adolf Hitler. As far as the current day is concerning the xenophobic Golden Dawn party is now a strong force in Greece and in the Hungary parliament the other day a member of the Jobbik party said he thought a list of Jews, whom he considered threatened the national security of his country, should be compiled.
Jeremy Bowen is in Damascus at the moment with the blessing of the Syrian government. He broadcast a powerful piece on Today this morning from both sides of the conflict. Completely impartial reporting of a terrible situation.
The Today progamme had changed loactions this morning from Television Centre to New Broadcasting House in central Londfon. As you would expect all very professionally handled.
Today’s FT has an article on the Nine Elms redevelopment scheme in London. From the graphic I see the new American embassy will have a moat. It does look a bit odd. It can only be for security reasons.
I have received the impression that America’s use of drones against suspected terrorists abroad was a definitive strategy of Barack Obama in his first term. If that is a fact I believe it will partly have been, for the politician, because the policy could be exercised mainly out of public view. Gideon Rachman in today’s FT takes the Obama administration to task for the practice. I think it is proably illegal and does seem to be morally questionable. It is something, in my view, that should be discussed. It should not be an elephant in the room subject.
12th December 2012
The successful North Korean rocket launch took place overnight, a week before the South Korean election, flying out over the East China Sea between China and Japan in contradiction of outstanding UN resolutions. Both America and China have been critical and we are calling in the North Korean ambassador to express our disapproval.
Proponents of woman bishops in the Church of England have had a think I reckon about how they want to move forward. I feel they have hit upon the right solution. The tide of history is on their side so all they have to do, really, is get their step by step approach right. First they have told their opponents that they will will use the democratic process, by utilising grassroots support in parishes, to get their elected supporters onto the next synod which sits in November 2015. There will then be a simple yes or no vote and they will win. However they do not want to be unneccessarily horrible to their detractors. If they want to talk about it, and be flexible, they can come to some form of arrangement. Any agreement could be fast tracked through the current synod. The difficulty of course with something hard nosed like that is you have to be absolutely sure you are doing the right thing. I am happy with it. It is the same line the goverment are taking in press regulation discussions with editors.
Good news at last on the jobs front. UK unemployment fell between August and October by 82,000, the biggest quarterly fall since 2001. The Minister for Work and Pensions says he hopes we are getting to a stage where people who want work can find it.
The lead story on Channel 4 news last night was about today’s culture for young teenages in relation to sex. Girls were saying how they were pestered by boys on social media for nude photos of themslves, preferrable with their pubic hair shaved. Apparantly it is called sexting. Many boys have the impression it seems that if they ask often enough the girl will eventually give in. I think boys themselves will feel pressue to act like that within their peer group so as to remain one of the lads. Obviously not a good background in which to develop caring relationships although the very positive aspect was that both genders on the programme seemed to take it in their stride. They were extremely sensible. People, young and old, do not essentially change over the generations. It is how it is for them nowadays and they accept it. The worrying side though is that only the only the most well adjusted and supported will have been happy to speak to a TV programme about the subject. The vast majority I fear are all at sixes and sevens. I called one of my book chapters It’s All About Sex Stupid and I am sure that is true. It is something we should all recognise in ourselves and start talking about the damn subject, in a way that young people who look up to us can understand.
There were two utility company stories in the same segment of Today this morning which I suspect were there to give the Gang a clear message. The first was about shoddy reinstatement surfacing after those companies have been doing roadworks. There are 340,000 instances a year at an extra cost to the taxpayer of £200 million, not to mention the added inconvenience. We know what you are up to.
The more interesting was that the Metropolitian Police want us to know that for the last seven years they have been keeping a database of mains supply electricity flows in the capital, and possibly elsewhere as well. This varies on a minute by minute basis depanding on total demand and is like a time fingerprint so that in some circumstances it can indentify exactly when an event occured. When an electrical appliance is on it emits a slight, almost inaudible, hissing sound. If the police have a recording of the appliance which they can amplify sufficiently it will match the power supply pattern in their database. That then tells them the exact day and time the appliance was on. Always a good idea to put criminals on the back foot.
After more than a week of daily rioting last night’s protests in Nothern Ireland were peaceful. We always get there in the end but it was not neccessary for the peaceful residents of the province to be wearied by such thuggery. I expect the Pat Finucane review, ordered by David Cameron, has been awaiting publication for a few days and that could well be the real cause of the recent troubles.
The situation about Mr Finucan reminds me of the North Wales child sex abuse history, or indeed that after the Hillsborough disaster. Lots of investigations none of which even touched the real story. Mr Cameron, with his knowledge no doubt, thought we should bring some closure and the investigating independent QC had more secret information made available to him, I believe, than had ever happened before. Thankfully he discovered no involvement of top politicians but below that he found the state security services, led by MI5 I suspect, knew full well that loyalist paramilitaries had plans to kill Mr Finucane but did nothing to protect him. Afterwards the full official apparatus was used to cover up the true circumstances. Now it is too late for Mr Finucane’s widow. Mr Cameron has sincerely apologised on behalf of us all to her and her family for her husband’s murder 24 years ago. Quite understandably though her public comments indicate she does not find that any help. It is always the innocent who suffer most.
Today’s FT, written yesterday, says that America’s decision to link one of the Syrian rebel groups to al-Qaeda had upset some or their more moderate colleagues who no doubt look upon them as their friends. Perhaps realising his mistake this morning’s Radio 4 news reported Mr Obama announcing on a television show that America had decided to finally recognise the opposition grouping as the true representatives of their country. That decision was extended to the Friends of Syria meeting of over 100 counties in Morroco today.
To be a bit more conspiratorial about the last note though you could argue that Mr Obama found himself in a bit of a bind. He could not be seen by the Washington village to be going against the advice of his intelligence chiefs, yet he had decided the time had come to support the opposition. Perhaps he thought the best way of achieving that would be to appear to be pushed around by events, politically forcing him to change his mind.
The News International company accounts show that when Rebekah Brooks resigned in the summer of 2011 she received a payoff of £10.8 million.
Following the Sun editor this time it is the Times’ top pressman, James Harding, who is leaving his job around the end of the month. He has intimated it was not solely his own decision.
The chap who damaged a painting at the tate Modern the Sunday afternoon I . . . . has pleaded guilty and been jailed for two years.
At today’s inquest it was announced that Jacintha Saldanha was found hanged in her room. The hearing has now been adjourned until March. Three notes were found. It may well turn out to have been a tragic lone suicide. However I would be interested to know with whom she had contact in a psychological way immediately before her death. More far fetched perhaps but I do also talk about people being found hanged in paragraph 46 of my 1st March notes in appendix 10/2 of my book.
Shale is a thinly layered sedimentary rock comprising mostly pressurised clay. When it formed natural gas often became trapped within it and through fracking that can be released where the rock lies and brought up to the surface for our energy use. China is thought to have the largest reserves of shale gas and by 2035 America estimates it will provide 46% of it’s natural gas supply. Even now the volumes being produced have greatly reduced gas prices in America. The government here have today authorised fracking to resume in Lancashire. Althgough our reserves it seems are not sufficient to affect our prices in the future in will give us security of home supply.
The paths are parting in Europe. Eurozone ministers have today agreed that about 200 of their largest banks will come under the direct supervision of the European Central Bank from next March. It is seen as the first step towards integrated banking union. It gave the zone sufficient confidence to release 34 billions of euro funding to Greece which had been on hold since June. Newsnight had an instructive 11 person discussion last last on our future in Europe. It is definitely something we should be giving lots of careful thought to.
Then on Today this morning there was an interview with Poland’s finance minister, the EU’s faster growing economy. In absolutely perfect English he said the euro has fundamental flaws but his country wants to join the zone as soon as it is safe to do so. He explained that joining the club is a trade off between pooling some of your sovereigny and losing influnce through isolation. He has no doubt that to take the plunge will be in Poland’s overall best interests.
From the first newspaper review on Today this morning I understand the Guardian reports that Michael Gove, the education secretary, is effectively at war with some teaching unions. He has written to all school heads asking them to take strict disciplinary measures against any teachers not working normally due to their political views.
A couple of BBC webpages are up this afternoon on our state intelligence services. The first is about Russian Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned by polonium-210 in London in November 2006. We already knew the government thought he had been killed by the Russian state in the form of their security service. What we didn’t know, and which is now in the public domain as a result of preparations for next May’s inquest, is that it is alleged Mr Litvinenko was a paid operative of MI6 and at the time of his death was helping the Spanish secret services. To have an inquest over six years after a death is better than none I suppose. However I do have to say that if it were not for publication of my story I do not believe we would be having it, in the way it is happening, at all.
The second is a really strange story arising solely, it seems, from the chance discovery of some correspondence at the time that Tripoli fell to the opposition in August 2011, written by MI6 many years before to their couterparts in Libya. It confirmed that MI6 were involved when Libyan Mr Sami al-Saadi, his wife and four children were forceably flown from Hong Kong to Libya in 2004 so that the husband could be questioned there about alleged misdemeanours. Because correspondence going the other way, to Britain, has not been disclosed we do not know the full story and that I imagine has allowed our government to deny liabilty in Mr al-Saadi’s legal claim against us. Nevertheless out of the goodness of our hearts we have agreed to pay him £2.2 million of taxpayers money if he does not take his claim any further. Mr al-Saad’s solicitor was on PM this afternoon. He said he though his client had been psychologically damaged by his experiences.
14th December 2012
I imagine it has occured to you, as it has to me, why I am still around. I think it is partly down to me having a few personal tricks of the trade. They work for me but that may not be the case for others so I do not want to say things that may not help. However I have just read the Agony Uncle column in last weekend’s FT. One of the questions is; I notice that lately you have been bothered with some quite stupid questions. Please tell me how you are coping with that. The answer is; I would say in exactly the same way as I am coping with you, to wit, with aloofness and contempt. Don’t worry about me. You look after yourself.
One of the best ways for the state to fight back against the Gang, in my view, is to adopt a multi-agency approach. One such area is sexual abuse against others. Over the last few days the Metropolitian Police has said it has received a four fold increase of reports from the public of alleged sexual assaults since the Savile revelations. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency says it too has had in a 30% increase in it’s field. To draw on that no doubt the NSPCC is today launching an advertising campaign to encourage young abused to phone their helpline and speak to one of their trained counsellors.
It is quite possible this is something and nothing but I have decided to note it all the same. There are not that many diary notes in the chapter 13 appendix of my book but quite a few relate to earth’s situation in our solar system. Yesterday I noticed a BBC webpage highlighting the annual Geminid meteor shower due as we pass through the dust of a known comet. Then this morning that was followed up by another page producing various comments from website readers who had seen some resultant meteors. One said the one he saw was a bit scary because it was so incredibly bright. Apparently that would have been a fireball meteor and a rare thing to happen.
Ed Milliband is giving a speech in south London today building on his One Nation idea in relation to immigration. He says that overall he thinks we are at ease with our growing ethnic diversity. However new people who look different to you and who you can’t understand when they talk are bound to create unease in some. He says the way to deal with such issues is not to sweep them under the carpet. Newcomers must be encouraged to blend in so we do not live in a segregated society.
There has been a really interesting news story highlighted by Today and the BBC webpage this morning. It helps us to better understand ourselves. A study at Glasgow University has found that staistically we are less likely to turn up for a hospital or doctor’s appointment, possibly to hear bad news, at the start of a long hard week on a Monday than just before the weekend on a Friday. As I say at the end of my book I do think the essential key is confidence.
It is thought the population of the British bee, one of our most sensitive of creatures, dropped by 30% between 2007 and 2008 with the trend continuing. One of the culprits is suspected to be sprayed insecticides. From Today yesterday I understand evidence to the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee has indicated that the toxicity of one type of incesticide in particular, the neonicotinoids, is still at half it’s original level more than three years after falling onto the ground. One witness to the committe said that would cause mass mortality in most soil dwelling animal life. As you might expect though the chemical companies are saying it is all a load of baloney.
As we all know a lot of money flows into football, even though their accounts might look a bit strange. Today this morning had a long interview with Lord Ouseley who will soon be leaving the Kick it Out campaign. For me he was portraying the same old story. Money, unless you are very careful, corrupts your values. Even now when some black players complain about the racism they suffer they do not appear to be taken seriously. That leads you to become despondent because no one appears to care, shrug your shoulders and give up. It is exactly how I felt when I went in with my bottle of milk to my local police station as described in the chapter 12 appendix of my book.
Turning to the chapter 11 appendix I entered a note there about the Lid Dems passing a motion on drug reform at their autumn 2011 party conference. My anticipation was we would not hear any further from them on the subject until the next election. However Mr Clegg has been on the airwaves this morning following this week’s parliamentary report very sincerely, in my view, asking for a Royal Commission on the subject. That would take years but at least it would put serious consideration onto a mainstream agenda. Amazingly Mr Clegg says young people find it easier to obtain illegal drugs than legal alchohol or tobacco. That alone surely shows there is something going badly wrong somewhere. The Deputy Prime Minister says there appears to be a general political conspiracy of silence on drugs because it is a controversial subject. There should be more focus on doing the right thing. We need to bear down on the criminal suppliers of drugs, not punish the users. He compares the drugs situation to a war in which there are 2000 fatalities every year, your enemy is continually getting richer than you and forever introducing new weapons in the form of 40-50 new legal highs every year. Younger and younger children are becoming snarled up in the trade, really through no fault of their own. I would add, do we want to punish them as well? Is it really an issue we are not prepared to think about like adults?
It is widely accepted that Alan Turing was one of the key individuals at Bletchly Patk during the war who helped break German’s secret message codes, thereby helping us win and significantly shortening hosilities. Apparantly he was a homosexual which was illegal at the time. In 1952 one of his acquaintentenes helped a friend beak into Mr Turing’s house and when he reported that to the police his gender preference came out. He was convicted of gross indecency. In 1954 he was found dead from cyanide poising. I half eaten apple was found beside his body thought to have contained the poison. There is a letter in today’s Daily Telegraph with 11 signatories I understand asking the Prime Minister to formally forgive Mr Turin on behalf of the country.
15th December 2012
Simon Kuper’s whole piece in last weekend’s FT magazine was about the death of UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjold in 1961. He was travelling in a plane about to land in the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia, now called Zambia. The plane disappeared from the radar and it was said Mr Hammerskjold died in an accidental crash. The allegation however is that the aircraft was shot down on the orders of the CIA with the connivance of the high commissioner of the colony. And that Mr Hammerskjold did not die in the crash itself but was subsequently shot. All crimes of course need a motive. Here it is suggested the secretary general was in favour of self rule for Africa but some parts of the American state were worried about securing their supply of uranium for the future, an essential component of the atomic bomb, which at that time was being sourced from central Africa.
Last night’s Unreported World on Channel 4 was about 31 year old television celebrity Kseniya Sobachak, the daughter of a former mayor of of Saint Petersburgh. The family has been close to Vladimir Putin with it being rumoured that Mr Putin helped her father flee Russia when he was wanted on corruption charges. However she appears to have fallen out with Mr Putin after the parlaimentary elections in December 2011 and opposed him when he was electd president in March 2012. She now publicises her political activism on televison and social networking.
The first item on Friday evening’s Any Questions was the war on drugs. In fact it seems likely Mr Clegg has a long term aim to push the subect into public consciousness for the possibilty of making a commitment in the Lib Dem manifesto for 2015. The following year a UN drug policy summit is scheduled. The consensus was that it is a global problem which one country cannot tackle alone. We would just be out-manoeuvred and isolated by others. At the end of the discussion Jonanthan Dimbleby asked for a show of hands from the audience. Apparently 99% said they favoured decriminilisation of drugs.
Today this morning had a piece on Louise Casey who is heading the government’s troubled families’ unit. The unit has been allocated a budget of £448,000, £4000 per family, so professional counsellors can be employed, usually I would think through other agencies. The programme interviewed a 30ish (?) single lady who had two children by the time she was eighteen and was then in crisis. By having her own dedicated worker, Sue, who would see her between once and four times a week for over a year, she turned herself round. A plan was drawn up for her, reviewed every six weeks, which she readily admits she did not keep to. Sometimes she would not answer the door, sometimes she said she was sick when she wasn’t. But eventually she got there.
There was a peaceful demonstration in Belfast this afternoon by about 1000 loyalists continuing the Union flag protests. Much more positively for me though was the vigil in the morning attended by several hundred people who linked arms to encircle Belfast city hall and pray for peace for five minutes.
There is not point in pretending this has not happened. I am not allowed to have any hidden elephants in my room. At the start of the school day yesterday a 20 year old white man left the home he shared with his teacher mother in Newtown, Connecticut having just shot her dead with a weapon registered to her. He went to the elementary school where it seems she sometimes worked, forced himself in and shot dead 20 children in two kindergarten classes and six adults. He then committed suicide by gunshot. I refer to the state of Connecticut in chapters 5, 7 and 10 of my book; also in the appendix for chaper 12 and appendix 10/2.
Sir, I ask you to reflect on the current situation. I believe your forefathers would turn in their graves if they could see what has become of your organisation. It seems now to be primarily an instrument for terror and death. You have just destroyed the happiness of 27 families, not only for today, or next week, or next year but for the rest of their lives. They do not know you even exist. That cannot be right. If you could trust enough I would be more than happy to meet with you, at my expense, to see if I could suggest some pratical steps you and your colleagues could take to make your activities more legitimate. Few of us object to people who want to make lots of money by legal means. We all find it abhorrent however when that slips over into causing premeditated harm to innocent people, young or old.
16th December 2012
I picked up a nasty bug when I went to visit . . . . in her care home for her Christmas party on Friday. No sign at all for 24 hours but then it developed into my normal problem of infected flem coming up from my lungs giving me a sore throat. This attack is a bit different though. No sweating to keep my temperature down and less quantity of flem than usual. It is making me feel low but hopefully should not last too long. If it was malicious it will have been due to the fact I think that it was known exactly where I would be sitting five or ten minutes before I walked into the building.
I talked about norovisus in one of my website diary notes for 7th December 2012. It does seem to be turning out much worse than normal this year. Hospitals in Birmingham, Nuneaton, Maidstone, Margate, Dundee and Wales have shut wards and two crusie ships, both into Southampton, have had outbreaks.
I have heard a few comments over recent days that there is an argument for saying the old Aztech calendar predicts the world will end next Friday. It seems the story has taken off on the internet blogosphere. In a survey arrarantly one person in ten said they were concerned something might happen. The trouble with a Gang dominated world is that it is quite possible, only to reinforce those fears more.
On the dead carrier pidgeon in the chimney story I understand from this morning’s radio newspaper review that the code has been deciphered. Apparently the Sunday Mail reports a Canadian gentleman using a Royal Artillery code book saying the author was calling for some German tanks to be attacked.