8th April 2013
I see that President Putin has thought it worthwhile to visit Germany today for trade talks. He then went to Holland for the same reason. He said he was worried about the North Korean situation getting out of hand. If it blows up it will make Chernobyl look like a child’s fairy tale. Today’s escalation has been the North threatening to prevent it’s 50,000 workers entering the Kaesong enterprise zone, on it’s territory but funded and managed by South Korean firms. As Mr Putin implies, fully supported by Mr Netanyahu I am sure, the way forward is to be calm, thoughtful, savvy and brave. He put that into practice when he was in the company of three topless women at a German trade fair today.
Following on from my note yesterday I used my Virgin credit card twice last week in France without any problems. I rang MBNA, Virgin’s agents, this afternoon to ask why, after that, it was rejected in Switzerland. The nice young man I spoke to had a record that it had happened. When I queried it, he said it must have ben done by their security department. He suggested I should have advised Virgin I was travelling abroad before I went. I did my best to be polite to him throughout.
A BBC webpage reported yesterday that the day before a van was stopped by police driving though Colchester, from a rendevous on the Essex coast I would guess, probably on it’s way to Manchester. Inside were 80 kilogrammes of cocaine worth £12 million. Soon after the driver and passenger from Manchester were held, six men and one woman were arrested in the North West. The police have hinted they are big fish. It will I feel have been an intelligence led operation and a big blow to the Gang.
From this morning the existing Disability Living Allowance, payable after you have filled out a form 55 pages long, is not available to new claimants in the north of England. The new Personal Independence Allowance will be rolled out through the whole country over the next few years. The overall national state contribution will not necessarily be less but, unlike the present system, ongoing assessment of it’s appropriateness for the individual will take place. That should save money in the long run.
From Today this morning I found out that the week before last a small boxing tournament was taking place in London. In the fifth round of a bout a 31 year old boxer looked unwell. The fight was immediately stopped and he was taken to hospital. He died there on Saturday after complications arose from bleeding on the brain.
Baroness Thatcher died suddenly this morning, aged 87, shortly after suffering a stroke in the London hotel where she was staying. I think there was a bit of shock because it was unexpected but people soon recovered and the glowing tributes flowed. She was a remarkable woman.
9th April 2013
I see from a BBC webpage this morning that Japan has placed three anti-missile batteries at locations around Tokyo to protect it’s 30 million residents from North Korean attack. On the face of it that may look an over reaction to us. However I do feel you have to take national characteristics onto account. From this distance the Japanese appear to be an inherently emotional people. They frighten easily. From that perspective it seems a reassuring thing for their leaders to arrange.
Girlguiding have a panel of 16 teenage advocates to assimulate what is important to their fellow members. Through that route 2000 guides last month were asked what they thought about Page Three girls in the Sun. I wrote about the subject in chapter 11 of my book. The paper has printed the images since 1970. 88% said they thought the photos are no longer appropriate in today’s world and should be dropped. So they thought they would tell the paper. The Girl Guides heiracrchy is officially backing the campaign. A BBC webpage quotes The Sun’s editor as saying he had no plans to comment on his receipt of the Guides’ letter.
I think we are going to see more and more stories about our genetic make up. The BBC report this morning that the one in a hundred men who develop prostrate cancer, and also carry the BRCA2 inherited mutated gene, should be treated as urgently as possible. They are are the ones who are likely to immediately have agressive tumours growing inside them when the disease is contracted. That approach could make a significant difference to overall survival rates.
A typical Gang event happened yesterday afternoon, in my view, when a lorry careered off the M42 just as it crosses the M6 Toll Road north of Birmingham. The photograph I saw clearly showed that two motorways were closed by just one accident. What a wheeze. I am sure it is just the sort of mishap all media editors immediately focus on. Miraculously the lorry driver only had injuries to his legs.
I have heard it suggested that the motivation for the murder plot on Margaret Thatcher in the 1984 Brighton bombing was IRA retaliation for us allowing Bobby Sands and nine others to starve themselves to death in prison in Northern Ireland in 1981. The attempt failed but six good people did die that night.
An indication I feel that Lady Thatcher’s death yesterday might not have been from natural comes from reports that violent demonstations to celebrate her demise took place last night in Bristol and Brixton. 200 were involved in the West Country and 100 in London. It takes significant organisational skills, contacts and possibly prior warning I suggest to get people together for a bit of rioting in a few hours. It reminds me of the deadly attempted arrest of Mark Duggan and much larger summer riots in 2011 which kicked off on 4th August, thirteen days after I sent the Prime Minister a fax reproduced as appendix 11/8 in my book.
A lot has been said about Mrs Thatcher over the last two days. She is certainly a figure who gets the grey matter working. For me she was the only modern real female leader the world has yet seen. Women I think are more emotional than men and she was able to put that characteristic within herself to good purpose, together with a steely determination. She trusted herself absolutely. Nevertheless, it seems to me, she ultimately lost her internal balance over the Poll Tax. She succumbed to the pressure she was under. She did not take a sufficiently high enough number of people with her. It was her political undoing.
I have heard her say she would never forgive her colleagues for what they did to her then. I know how she felt. For many years I decided the same thing about something that happened to me in 1985. However it is not a very Christian view. Because their motive is good I believe churchmen have as much right to exercise political power in our society as our elected representatives. They would say you should let bygones be bygones. And coming at that from another angle it is so much easier to be kind when you are starting from a full, in depth knowledge base about what is really going on under the surface of our world communities.
Mrs Thatcher I believe was a woman for her times. Our country was in a mess at the end of the 1970s. The unions ruled us. We were in debt to the IMF effectively giving them control of our economy. In the next decade she turned our ship around. Not seemlessly, that would have been impossible but she did the job. I think the Falklands War was wrong. The lives lost were not worth it. However without it Mrs Thatcher would only have been a one term Prime Minister, so who am I to preach to others.
A few days agao a 67 year lady in Bedfordshire was led away in handcuffs by a police Community Support Officer from a doctor’s surgery after the practice had mixed up her medical notes with someone else and, I presume, were not sympathetic about it when she complained. The police have since apologised to the lady. In a newspaper review on the Today programme this morning I learnt the surgery obviouly do not feel the same way. They have removed the lady from their list meaning she will have to register somewhere else. That is very much how a Gang influenced world works I am afraid. It just comes down to what is possible.
I wrote about Paris Brown over the weekend and the news on the broadcast said she is employed by Kent Police. Because of complaints they have received from the public the service are now going to investigate whether she has broken any laws. As a final comment on the story I have heard Ms Barnes say that whilst she would like Paris to take up her post in July as envisaged, the ultimate decision must be hers. That of course is exactly how it should be. It takes two to tango.
Sir Bruch Keogh was on the transmission saying that his decison to pause childcare heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary was based on poor data from the hospital itself. For example they did not tell him how old were the children for which they were providing figures. To mend a baby’s heart is very much more difficult than that of an older child. It is the same old story I am afraid. When you are under continual pressure it is not easy to act, in this example, in a totally professional way.
Paris Brown has said this afternoon she doesn’t want her job anymore. You can hardly blame her for that. Nevertheless she looks a pretty tough nut to me. She calmly read out her resignation statement herself. It was measured and generous. I hope we see more of her.
It must have been deeply upsetting for Paris but the essential thing for me is that, through the whole nasty episode, no one got physically hurt. There were no sticks and stones around breaking bones. As Paris says it is time for her to move on.
I did see a BBC webpage yesterday reporting that Wikileaks has just published 1.7 million diplomatic cables from the 1970s but decided not to note it. I think I now see the significance. They are not actually leaks. They must have been published with the cooperation of the American government as they are available to view onoline at the US National Archives. Last week of course our government authorised the British Library to trawl any UK website and retain it’s contents for the benefit of the nation. Possibly the American reasoning is that if we are doing something like that, there is no point in them being bashful. They might just as well go down the same route.
Last Friday’s FT reports that Japan’s central bank has started a policy of printing money and putting it into the economy until an inflation rate of 2% has been reached. It is hoped that will stimulate business activity and bring an end to their deflation problem which started in the early 1990s. It should also help other nations by sucking imports into the country.
That paper had a piece on the new data collection powers of the British Library. Scholars, to protect the author’s copyright, will be able to view the published information from January 2014 but only in person at one of the six library sites and then one person at a time. In future large scale publishers will have the option of depositing their works digitally instead of in printed form.
David Gardner wrote from Beirut in yesterday’s FT about Cyprus. In a way it seems they were unlucky. They were net contributors to the EU budget in 2010 and 2011. Everything was coasting along quite nicely but with that fundamental weakness of low capital ratios in their banking sector. When they finally had to sort that out to fit in with our new world, they had no alternative but to obey the rules of others stronger than they. David goes back to the division of the Greek-Turkish island in 1974 which gave the Greeks, on their two thirds, freedom to do things their own way. Then came the 15 year civil war in nearby Lebanon which allowed Cyprus to attract various funds using lax banking rules. Then came the break up of Yugoslavia. Cyprus was there to allow Slobodan Milosevic to evade western sanctions and fund his campaign of war crimes against humanity. That exercise gave it’s banks sufficent size to be a natural home for the hidden wealth of Russian oligarchs from the time of the break up of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Between 1975 and 2011 Cypriots’ per capita income quadrupled. No wonder they were upset it all had to come to an end.
10th April 2013
I drive a Ford Focus. Yesterday afternoon I confirmed a meeting in Redhill for next week. Today at 4.30am a driver in his 50s was killed on the M25 when journeying between Godstone and Redhill. His passenger had minor injuries. He had stopped his Ford Focus on the hard shoulder, which was being used for traffic during roadworks, without it’s lights on and it seems had just got out of the vehicle when both were struck by a lorry. Some drivers say they have been stationary in traffic for three hours.
I did not make a note at the time, public or private, but on 21st March 2013 a man died on a railway level crossing at Athelney just under ten miles from where one of my daughters lives in Somerset. On 24th January 2013 I drove past under a mile away from the crossing. It seems the man was driving to work when he tried to dodge an oncoming train as the half barriers were down. Yesterday evening two people in a car died when it was hit by a train on an automatic half barrier crossing near Grimsby. A local website says the indications are that the barrier was working correctly. It seems likely to me an order has gone out from High Command for all Gang area directors to see if they can entice as many people as possible to risk their lives on level crossings. We shall see how that goes over the next few weeks.
The hateful sniping about the cost to the public purse of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral has started. William Hague has pointed out that the EU rebate she secured for us in 1984 is worth £75 billion so far. He feels we can afford to contribute towards the family’s expenses.
Today’s North Korean news is that the regime has prepared a previously untried ballistic missile, with a range of 2000 miles, for firing. That has caused the South Koreans to raise their alert level to it’s second highest position. What I feel is so good about that is we are being kept fully informed of what is going on. Only rarely, in my opinion, is transparency not the correct approach. Good quality information is empowering. It shows the power of truth.
A BBC webpage reports this afternoon that Dr Katherine Giles, in her thirties, died when hit by a lorry close to Victoria Station on Monday morning as she was cycling to work at University College London. One of my daughters works around the corner. The lady was an eminent scientist and had conducted research trips to the Artic and Antartic. That is a tragedy for her students, colleagues, family, and friends. They must do something good to remember her by. Yet it is also the case that in the last three years there have been an average of 13 cyclist deaths on London streets. So far this year there have been two.
Yeterday’s FT reports that Italy may be in political deadlock but it is still being governed. Mario Monti’s caretaker administration has decided to pay back 40 billion euros in public debt to the private sector over the next 12 months thereby pushing liquidity into the economy. That will increase the country’s deficit which will have to be managed later but most economists look upon it as a positive move.
Another article there, following the bilateral trade talks trend, says that Brazil is to restart previously dropped discussions on a free trade agreement with the EU. Apparently they are worried about becoming too dependent on the Chinese.
Even if you are a president it is not always easy to do the right thing. But Mr Obama is not giving up. The paper says he has gone to Hartford University near Newtown. He told his audience he would not walk away from the promises on gun control he has made; his determination is as strong as ever. California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, Connecticut and Maryland are looking to strengthen their rules. Just as many are moving in the opposite direction. The public say they are overwhelmingly in favour of tighter restrictions.
David Gardner writes about Lebanon again in that issue trying to make sense of the conflicting pulling powers and motives between Syria, Hizbollah, Iran and Saudi Arabia in the country. He finds it complicated. My hunch is the Gang make it so difficult to read. They are separate from everyone else and are masters at hiding their presence. Their essential interest is in making money. They will interact with any party for that purpose. You only ever see the results of what they do. You are never privy to their planning meetings.
Following the critical report last week of the three former HBOS executives by the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards the chief executive said yesterday he thought he should return his knighthood and also wanted to forego a third of his £580,000 pension from his old employer. If you are in a street gang you know what peer pressure is all about. You are influenced by the standards of those around you. I believe the culture at the top of our society is turning for the better.
That story is front page news in today’s FT. Exactly the same reasoning applies I feel to a report a few pages in. Austria and Luxembourg are going to relax their banking secrecy rules following a leak of tax havens banking account data by a whistleblower last week. Other member states think they should.
I wrote the other day about the Americans being an insular lot. Perhaps I should have concentrated a bit nearer to home. Anyway thanks to a piece in the edition I now know that John Kerry has just spent three days in Israel and the West Bank before coming to London today for the G8 meeting. One subject was how to stimulate commerce in the Palestinian area with American help to better the lives of it’s residents. It seems the longer term proposition is to resurrect a 2002 Saudi-backed Arab peace plan, for Israel to be formally recognised by Arabian states and in return for the Jews to withdraw fron sensitive areas of the West Bank. That does fill my heart with hope. Thank you all. It does make it worthwhile.
The last paragraph of course does make a lot more sense of what is currently happening on the Korean peninsular.
Another article there reports that Uhuru Kenyetta was yesterday sworn in as president of Kenya thereby making him the second sitting president indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. The other I believe is Mr al-Bashir of Sudan two countries up the map in Africa. He was charged in 2009.
Frank Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, broadcast his BBC 2 programme tonight about his return to Saudi Arabia. It was in Riyadh in 2004 that he was ambushed in the street, shot six times and left for dead. If it had happened in this country he would have bled to death as we did not then have the same levl of specialist medical supplies as the Saudi hospital. His cameraman was killed. Frank’s spinal cord was broken. Besides Frank’s friend al-Qaeda killed 200 people in the country between 2003-6. The Saudi Royal Family defeated them by a combination of bribes, killings or chasings abroad. The state is stable again but dissent is not tolerated and women are second class citizens. Things are getting better but slowly. Access to the internet and social media is allowed. After America and Brazil, Saudi Arabia has more You Tube postings than anywhere else. But therein also lies a tale. The country is very rich due to it’s oil. Locals do not have a work culture. Foreigners do all that stuff. So the rising unemployment rate and inequality will bring tension. It is a question of whether the change comes fast enough.
11th April 2013
Today’s G8 meeting of foreign ministers at Lancaster House is between America, Russia, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada. The first two have spoken about North Korea with likeness of mind. They agree to disagree on Syria. It is positive to see that members of the Syrian opposition are present in London. If I know that the Russians do too and have no frightful objection. It does seem the way forward for Syria is to have two opposing groups of equal strength. Once we get there perhaps they can stop the killing. The Syrian National Coalition attendance also fits in with the news from yesterday that the Syrian opposition jihadist group, the al-Nursa Front, have joined forces with al-Qaeda in Iraq. That announcement came from the al-Qaeda side. The Syrian leader, Mr al-Jawlani, said he had not been consulted about the publicity although, as he is an obedient man no doubt, he later confirmed his allegiance to his larger cousin.
Back in London Mr Hague wants to talk about gratuitious rape in Africa under the cover of war, and there will be round table analysis of where we are with Iran following the meeting in Kazakhstan last week.
You can tell there is an undercurrent of nervousness about Mrs Thatcher’s funeral next week, especially no doubt with various dignitaries visiting for the day from abroad. Over 700 service personnel will line the route under operation True Blue. Apparently The Sun said yesterday that the SAS and Special Boat Service will be involved. The Gang will be watching for any mistakes, in planning and on the day. However we pulled off the Olympics without any hitches. I have every confidence.
There was an interesting discussion on the World at One yesterday involving Lord Trimble the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1995 to 2005. His information is that there was a line of communication open between the British Government and the Republicans at the time of the Northern Ireland hunger stikes in 1981 in which ten men starved themselves to death. We made an offer to end them before the sixth death. That was accepted in principle but the leadership of the other side prevaricated for political purposes. Paradoxically though David Trimble says that showed the Republicans the power of open politics which years later led to an ultimate settlement. Another subject was the Anglo Irish agreement from 1985 between Britain and Ireland which the Northern Ireland Unionists found deeply upsetting. Mr Trimble says it destroyed the peace process for 10 years. Jonathan Powell, Mrs Thatchers Chief of Staff, also contributed. He said in later years the lady came to look upon the agreement as one of her biggest mistakes.
On a wider note you see how Mrs Thatcher was targeted by the Gang over many years. They saw she was a threat and acted accordingly, in the dual approach manner they often use. Her friend and colleage, Airey Neave, was assassinated in the House of Commons car park in March 1979 when he was shadow Northern Ireland Secretary. Two months later Lady Thatcher was Prime Minister.
Cyprus has announced today that it is selling £341 million of it’s gold reserves to help finance it’s bailout as required by the European Commission. I have been waiting to write a note about the size of the hair cut Cypriot bank depositors, with over 100,000 euros in their account, will receive. A figure of 60% has been mooted but nothing has been confirmed. I can only think it is because the European authorities consider that is a private matter between the Cyprus government and it’s banks. It is up to them to make it public if they want. It seems they do not.
There was a discussion on Today yesterday flowing on from the Girl Guiding Page Three campaign. A former Page Three girl was saying she saw the photos as a celebration of a woman’s body. There is a picture of her on the programme’s website. I would call her beautiful. I feel she is taking too narrow a focus. My guess is that the image of only about 10% of young women in this country would be considered suitable by the editor of The Sun to adorn his paper. I don’t think that is very empowering for the other 90%. It is likely to make them obsessive about how they look.
On 8th March 2013 Asda withdrew it’s budget range corned beef from sale as small amounts of horsemeat had been found in it. Since then, under the supervision of the Food Standards Agency, they have tested it for bute finding that positive. The levels are very small so as to be no threat to humans. However, at the direction of the FSA I imagine, the product is being formally recalled, That means, if you have a tin in your cupborad, you should return it to Asda. The supermarket did not return the Today programme’s calls yesterday when they asked them for comment.
An associated story relates to the food tests on meat products which have been ordered by the European Commission. The results are due to be released next week but because the amount is so high, 500,000 tonnes, Dutch authorities yesterday announced they were recalling the product. They have no idea where it originally came from so cannot vouch for it’s authenticity. Two Dutch wholesalers are involved and fraud is suspected. The meat was exported from Holland to Germany, France, Spain and possibly the UK. That is very responsible of them I feel, definitely doing the right thing. I suspect it might have something to do with the sort of ancillary things Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, discussed with Mr Putin on Monday when the Russian President visited the Netherlands for trade promotion purposes.
Today had technical problems yesterday morning. Thought for the Day was so late it crashed into the slot reserved for the weather. Then after the 8am news there was an interview on Afghanistan with a lady in Geneva, a location also mentioned by the Defence Secretary when he spoke immediately afterwards. In the same building as the lady I would say, and clearly picked up by the microphone, was someone screaching away on a cello or double bass.
I wrote about President Putin and ladies’ bare breasts on Monday. The broadcast also came to the subject when they interviewed the leader of the German branch of Femen on the line. She started off by saying their protest was political but then went on to remark that men exploit women’s bodies for their own purposes. It seemed to me that was what she felt most strongly about, not to bring about democratic change in Russia. There is nothing wrong with that at all but it is confusing for her and confusing for us if she doesn’t recognise the true motivation within herself. Indeed I would argue she was exploiting her own body on Monday for low purposes. She did say her action had obviously scared the police and security around Mr Putin. I think that is a bit nearer the mark. To get back at others for how she feels.
The last Liberian civil war ended in 2003. For the years before that will have allowed men to rape women without any fear of retribution. And as we all know once you get into a habit, or culture, of doing things in a certain way it is extremely difficult to break the cycle. Jim Naughtie, for the programme, has been to a poor area of Liberia to speak to youngsters who are still afflicted by the problem. One in three Liberian girls get pregnant before the age of 18, most of them at 13 and 14. They feel the best way of tackling the issue is to talk about it, often in role play situations. That is exactly how I feel about my story. It needs an airing.
The largest four Japanese carmakers have announced this morning that they are recalling 3.4 million cars worldwide to have new airbags fitted. A defective part has been found in cars made between 2000 and 2004 by Japanese company Takata. Takata of course will have to pay the cost of all that expense. It shares fell 9% when the news broke.
At the moment Britain has an opt in system for organ donation on death and even then relatives are given the right to override the deceased’s wishes if they feel strongly about it. It is reported today that in 2008 the NHS Blood and Transplant service set itself a target to increase donations by 50%. That level was achieved last year when 1200 were made providing 3100 transplants. A lady on Today this morning said that when her brother died his body provided new life for ten different people. The NHS hope to devise extra strategies in the summer for making donations even more plentiful.
Madonna has adopted two Malawian children and funds a charity, Raising Malawi, in the country. She was there last week when I suspect she sacked the President’s sister as it’s head after allegations of financial impropriety and corruption. Thanks to the 7am Radio 4 news this morning I know that the President and Education Minister have made a stinging attack on Madonna’s character, claiming she is star struck. Such a reaction of course has the mark of the Gang all over it. If you are caught out you will always be encouraged to be as vicious as possible. Madonna says she will not allow it to divert her from supporting little chidren.
The same bulletin said that scientists in America have tested imported rice and found it to contain 20-40 times permitted lead levels than would be recommended for the grain if it were grown in the USA. Worst culprits are China and Taiwan. The problem arises simply because of the different environmental standards that apply in those less advanced countries. A difficult situation.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, was on the broadcast this morning talking about the Whole of Government Accounts for which the first set of annual figures were issued to 31st March 2010. She thinks their quality, scope and speed of delivery can be much improved but even so there are some glaring trends. Expotential cost rises appear to be taking place in the fields of nuclear decommissioning, NHS negligence and Public Finance Initiatives.
The programme also had a dig at it’s bosses for not agreeing to be interviewed on the terms of Tony hall’s employment contract as Director General. Apparently he will not be allowed to comment on his experiences at the Corporation, without permission, until two years have elapsed after his departure.
I was really pleased to see a video clip of a lady Met Police Commander this evening lay out clear ground rules for anyone who wants to demonstrate at the funeral next week. You are welcome to protest peacefully if you want but cause any physical damage to person or property and the police will be down on you like a ton of bricks. Do not listen to those Gang types who want you to cause trouble.
Helen Warrell in today’s FT says that Jonathan Evans, the outgoing head of MI5, has briefed university vice-chancellors on the dangers of their research work being stolen by cyber criminals. The identified dangers are straightforward hacking of office computers or the pyhsical stealing of data from laptops when away from work such as if on academic of fund raising trips abroad. I suspect that warning has been given due to specific intelligence in MI5’s possession.
I think I am also right in saying that the FT hardly ever mentions Mr Evans by name. This however is the second occasion since the Home Secretary announced his departure on 25th March. If that was four weeks beforehand his last day will be the week after next. I think it likely the staff at the FT wish to show their support for Mr Evans.
Another piece says the Muslim Brotherhood are losing support on Egyptian university campuses. It speculates that might translate into poor results in parliamentary elections later this year. The paper also wrote a critical editorial of the Brotherhood the other day saying they were thinking too much about themselves and not enough about their voters.
12th April 2013
There was a feature in last weekend’s FT Magazine about the Californian Democrat politician Gerry Brown. In 1992 he challenged Bill Clinton for his Party’s presidential nomination. The process led to Mr Clinton becoming president the following year. He says of the experience that his opponent had a better plan than he. Mr Clinton made friends with the sons of Mammon. Mr Brown says the children of darkness are wiser in their way than the children of light. It all comes down to motive.
On 2nd February 2013 I wrote about the Stobart Group. The main body of the weekend paper tells me that their new chief executive has been the victim of a boardroom coup within three months of joining. To accompany the article is a picture of some car transporters in Stobart livery.
On 5th April 2013 I noted on the new UK website recording system being introduced by the British Library. The statutory regulation authorising it was signed by Ed Vaizey, Culture Minister. Mr Vaisey spoke to the FT for that edition about government plans to provide national infrastructure for mobile telephony using cabling laid alongside Network Rail tracks.
The next page says that Zimbabwe have found an outlet for selling uncut diamonds from it’s mines. It’s market for the last five years has been Dubai with trade being worth $408 million in 2011 from $1.7 million in 2008. There is nothing illegal about the sales but I would be surprised if anyone knows where payment for the stones ends up within Zimbabwe.
Another report remarks on the pretty ridculous situation of political paralysis in Italy. The manin culprit seems to be Mr Grillo, the leader of the Five Star movement. He appears to think that the quarter of voters who supported him will be happy when he does absolutely nothing to better their lives. Some people would call that a bit like betrayal. Anyway not surprisingly cracks are showing in his organisation. Some of his colleagues think he should be talking to his political opponents to seek some form of compromise.
I haven’t referred to it before but that edition also speaks about the current bird flu problem in China. The H749 animal virus, which can spead to humans, appeared in February and has so far killed nine people. A mass slaughter of poultry in some markets has taken place to try and contain the outbreak.
On 9th March 2013 I wrote about going to a widowed elderly neighbour each week to watch a DVD with her. She very seldom contacts me by phone but has done a couple of times since I returned from holiday last weekend. In my absence something has happened to the phone line between our homes. When she calls my phone only rings once, then it goes dead. It is the same from her end. If I am in that doesn’t matter too much as I can do a 1471 and find out if it was her. However if I am out and she wants to leave an urgent message for me to pick up when I get back, she can’t. I think that is pretty horrible. You might also have guessed that I have started to get other similar calls this week. The phone numbers for all those are being withheld by the caller.
I wrote about Madonna yesterday. The day before, Malawi State House the office of the Malawian prime minister, criticised her. It has now transpired that the president, Joyce Banda, knew nothing about the statement herself. She says she is extremely angry she was not told. Madonna is focused on the 10 primary schools for children her charity has been able to build in Malawi.
I understand the US Defence Intelligence Agency’s report on North Korea was leaked. It said it had moderate confidence that the country has the capability to place a nucler bomb onto a ballistic missile and fire it, although with limited reliability. The South Koreans say they do not agree with that assessment. It might also explain why I have just been able to watch a video clip on a BBC webpage of the President sitting in the White House saying that no one wants to see a conflict on the Korean peninsular. Mr Kerry is now in South Korea before going to China and Japan.
Mr Cameron never made it to France on Monday but he is still going to Germany today to stay for the night with his family, at the German equivalent of Chequers, with Mr and Mrs Merkel. Mr Cameron wants the states within the EU to be more independent. Ms Merkel is hoping for a stronger union in the future. I am sure they will have a lively discussion.
A large part of my story is about conspiracy, something that normally has to be proved by a court of law. It has to be like that, and unproven, because the Gang are a secret organisation. It comes down to what you believe. My book though, I consider, provides chapter and verse why the American Gang exist. Nevertheless I am not conspiratorial as a person. Hardly any of us are in my view, although too many perhaps distrustfully suspect it of others. As an example I take the last paragraph. The way it will have worked I feel is that Ms Merkel will first have spoken to her husband about her proposed invitation to the Camerons, knowing that he does not normally get involved in her public affairs. He said fine. Then the invitation will have been made. Then Mr Cameron will have spoken to his wife and to their two elder chldren about it. They said fine. So it is happening. No conspiracy there for some sort of devious end. Sometimes it seems that most eurosceptic MPs think that Europe is one big conspiracy. It is not.
At the beginning of 2012 a UN camp opened in Mauritania just over the border from Mali for refugees fleeing from ethnic tension there. This morning on Today a gentleman from a charity working in the Mbera camp, Medecins sans Frontiere, was saying that in recent months it has been completely overwhelmed by the numbers flowing in. Chidren arrive in good health and then become malnourished. He was very clear he did not wish to apportion blame but wanted to highlight the problem so that more resources could be provided in a team effort by the various groups involved for the better running of Mbera.
I think Mrs Thatcher and Mr Gorbachev respected each other. I am sure it was also for his own political ends but he knew the lady would agree to be interviewed for 45 minutes on Soviet Union television in 1987 by three towering men of state media. She would deal with anyone. She did not care who they were. Her bravery worked and it was a great triumph as related on the broadcast this morning. However with all the analysis of the last few days I can see that that was Mrs Thatcher’s public persona. In private she was thoughtful, caring of the ordinary person and pragmatic. But her strength of emotion gave her personal power which she knew how to use.
I will never know if my note on Tuesday about Lady Thatcher’s death not being natural, is correct. However if it is was it does show in my view that the Gang Master is losing the plot. It can’t be intimidating any goodies except me because we do not suspect anyway. All it has done has made us think about the lady’s attributes in a reflective way. That has made most of us feel better I think.
So, with that conclusion why does he do such things? After all this time I feel I can say pretty definitely it has got little to do with us at all. The primary purpose of acts of retaliation and intimidation are to keep the troops in check. The clear message is, unless you toe the line this is the sort of thing we will arrange for you.
There was a gentleman from Chatham House, based in Seoul, on the transmission talking about North Korea. He said the power centres in the country are represented by the Party, the military and the State. I am sure there is a lot of overlapping as well. The conversation turned to family influences on Kim Jong-un and it’s seems his aunt and her husband have his ear, as they did his father. Bizarrely the lady runs a burger bar in Pyongyang apparently, the only one in the country. That last piece of information, in my opinion, means she is not as important as she may think she is. It is the sort of thing the Gang arrange to keep bit players happy.
After that came Jim Naughtie’s last piece from north west Liberia. He and his very small crew went in search of a waterfall which Grahame Greene had visited. Mr Greene worked for MI6 at one time. I write about him and his book, The Third Man, in chapter 8 of my book. It was sacred in the local culture and apparently used as a site of human sacrifice until the 1920’s. Jim only found it with the help of a village elder who was able to lead him to it. His translator explained that it’s whereabouts was so murky because it was associated with dark rights and the exclusively male, influencial Poro secret society. A subject I think which will have interested Mr Greene a great deal.
Then came Thought for The Day. The presenter very neatly compared Christ with any parent here on earth. You bring your children into the world and then you have absolutely no control over them at all.
One subject the programme highlighted was the sexual exploitation of young girls. Before 7am a represenatative from the Street Project in West Yorkshire, working since 2006, said they were trying to protect vunerable young men in the world of drugs, organised crime and prostitution from being recruited into grooming by older men. Later the head of CEOP was interviewed. He implied that culturally, and without foundation, we tend to look upon it as a Muslim problem. In September 2012 seven white men and one other were sentenced at Derby Crown Court to 42 years imprisonment in total for grooming. It was hardly reported by any national papers.
13th April 2013
I have just read a BBC webpage about Mr Kerry’s Asian trip. He is now in China. You get the feeling that someone is now talking to Mr Jong-un, no doubt Chinese, and that has given Mr Kerry the confidence to say the gentleman understands himself how awful a nuclear conflict would be. It would have been the 101st birthday of North Korea’s founder on Monday and the page hints the regime plan to fire a rocket then. If that is what turns them on, and no one gets hurt, I am sure none of us mind.
Additionally, the fact that I had the information with which to compose the last paragraph is an immesnsly encouraging sign I feel.
Also up is a piece from a BBC News reporter on, to be blunt, Israeli rudeness. It is a bit silly when a taxi driver starts arguing with you about where you really want to go. It indicates to me that the Gang are immensly strong in the country affecting the way ordinary people think. In that case it is solely up to their leaders to guide them out of their difficulties. A great responsibility.
On Wednesday The East Kent Hospitals Trust said it was putting it’s major incident procedure into effect at it’s hospitals in Ashford, Margate and Canterbury. The measure will free up resources and beds. The Trust has found that all of a sudden it is treating a lot of very sick patients. No one is quite sure why.
Health Officials are saying that the measels outbreak in South Wales which started in November is not likely to peak for another four weeks. The reason why the disease has been able to take strong hold is because parents around the late 1990’s were not taking their young children to be immunised. And that was down to a report based on flawed data issued by Dr Andrew Wakefield, together with his strident comments at the time. Doctor Wakefield was struck off the medical register in 2010 for his actions then. Neverthelees, still stirring things up, he is reported in today’s Independent as saying that if the government had used a single measels vaccine rather than the combinded MMR jab, everything would have been fine.
A note I’ve been meaning to make for a few days is about my perceived differences between my Kent local Gang director and the one looking after me in France last week. We Brits are a bit cleverer I feel. In 2011 we had a lot of trouble with ongoing vandalism to the plastic liner in our pool in the garden, as I relate in chapter 4 of my book. However it was prepared for over the winter before and when started it was not possible to say it had definitely been attacked by acid. It could just about have been normal strain. In France though I had the leather handle of my attache case, carrying my laptop, blatently cut three quarters of the way though. The computer is so lightweight there is no way that could have been wear and tear. Indeed coming home the handle, due to the lightness of it’s load, still didn’t give way as intended. Then when I came to repair it this week I noticed that the the other end of the handle, and the two ends of the other handle, had also been cut slightly. That will have happened in England and was a much more long term project.
It would be nice if the Gang could just leave us alone to get on with our lives as we wish. Thanks to the BBC’s golf correspondent I know that in the 2012 Wales Open an English professional was penalised by the refereee walking with the player and his group, for slow play. That was done in accordance with the rules but is very unusual. On the American PGA tour such a thing has not happened since 1995. Then the same referee decided he was going to penalise a 14 year old Chinese player at the Masters yesterday. The correspondent reports that there is a very strong feeling among players that the teenager was victimised. So when later in the day Tiger Woods unintentionally broke the rules of golf the media are forceably asking what the appropriate committee of the Augusta National Golf Club are going to do about it. A young unknown foreign golfer is one thing: the most famous, commercially important professional in the world, who already has had more than his fair share of emotional trauma in his life, is another. Strictly speaking Tiger sould be disqualified. A tricky problem.
A BBC webpage reports this afternoon that the head of Google, Eric Schmidt, is close to President Obama. I think that must be the connection for his interview in today’s Guardian where he advocates for the private use of drones with on-board cameras to be regulated. How would you like it if you had one of those flying over your house all day he asks.
The same paper reports that this week’s American presidential weekly radio address is being given by a mother of one of the children killed at Sandy Hook on 14th December 2012. That is obviously designed to increase the political pressure against Mr Obama’s opponents on gun control. It is unconventional but I can see nothing wrong with it as both the lady and her husband are clearly willing participants.
I feel the most significant statement after Mr Cameron’s visit to Mrs Merkel’s official residence was that both leaders are keen to progess trade deals with other parts of the world, especially the USA.
There was a lady scientist on Today this morning giving much more detail on solar geo-magnetic storms than I have heard before. It seems the sun is just coming up to peak activity of an 11 year cycle so there are likely to be quite a few explosions of gas from it in the near future. When a storm of charged particles passes over us the areas of out infrastructure at risk are satellites, communications and GPS systems, and electricity transformers in power stations. Quebec was affected by a stream in 1989 when they lost power for a number of hours. We will have at least 17 hours warning of particle arrival so should be able to take precautionary measures as required. Mention was made of the 1859 Carrington Event during the last period of high sun activity. Telegraph systems over the whole of Europe and North America failed. Sparks were seen on telegraph pylons.
NHS England has now published a full data set of mortality rates for the 10 children’s heart operating centres in England. All came under the alert level although Leeds, Alderhay in Liverpool and Guys in London were close to it. Leeds were the only centre to submit incomplete data. Professor Brian Jarman from Imperial College London and the Doctor Foster unit was on the transmission linking the Prime Minister’s statement from February that any under performing hospitals in the NHS should be investigated. In his view Sir Bruce Keogh, in our new world of transparency, had little option but to take a cautious approach. But with the high emotions involved he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.
In his thoughts about his Liberia trip overall, Jim Naughtie was hopeful for the future of the country. If they can educate themselves adequately they won’t have to depend on the Chineses in the future. He also touched on that artistic slant again. Some people just seem to hate high ideals where no money is involved, and that includes Liberia. Jim was saying a photographer left the country when the civil war started. When he returned he found all his equipment and historical records had been destroyed. He started documenting the ongoing conflict in his country’s history from scratch. But someone did not like that. His house was burnt down. The photographer thinks that is a shame. As he says you can’t have a future unless you understand the past.
14th April 2013
Londonderry is the UK’s City of Culture in 2013. The Gang will not like that challenge to their authority very much. They have hoped several times to set off bombs there in recent months, most recently on Friday evening when a car was stopped containing guns, ammunition and a suspected pipe bomb. Two men were arrested. The criminals will like the G8 summit at Lough Erne in June even less. Friday’s FT reports that 4500 officers from the PSNI will be on duty for the event together with 3,500 from the mainland. Security will be second only to the Olympics. Three remote controlled aerial camera drones will also be bought for the event.
The paper also reports that a lot of Russian money, which would otherwise have been in Cypriot banks at the moment, is flowing into Latvia. The country hopes to be the 18th member of the eurozone.
The editorial in the edition asks Mr Obama to put some flesh and bones on his vision for a Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement. It feels that is the best way forward.
Andrew Marr was a guest on his own programme this morning. He said that he will be back as it’s presenter as soon as possible. He will have to be a bit obsessive about that, in order to complete the exhaustive psychotherapy programme which is required. It is fortunate in that respect it is in Andrew’s character to be single minded. In regard to his own body Andrew said he came to believe short bursts of energetic exercise were good for him. That contributed to his third stroke in January. He had not realised he had had the first two. As Andrew says he is lucky to be alive.
Thanks to two BBC websites published this morning I am aware of the following information. At the beginning of April an elephant had to be put down at a wldlife park in Kent after fighting with another female. Eight days later a second female was destroyed after collapsing. Last Thursday a third female elepant could not stand. It too was permanently put to sleep by the vet. In the early hours of this morning a fire broke out in a corrugated iron building, part of a small zoo in Scotland run by a couple. It is believed a substantial number of reptiles have died.
Harold Wilson was mentioned at the end of the Today programme yesterday. Something that sticks in my mind from the time Mr Wilson resigned in 1976 is that he said he had planned it for a long time. If that was the case he had told very few people as everybody seemed to be extremely surprised. I was thinking about it when I composed my commentary to paragraph 34 of my 1st March 2010 notes, printed in chapter 7 of my book. The Gang I believe were very stong in the upper echelons of our society in Britain in the 60s and 70s.
Purely by chance I have just read a piece on the Radio Times website written shortly after Eddie Mair’s interview with Boris Johnson on 31st March 2013. Eddie tells the questioner his contract is soon up for renewal and he hasn’t heard from management yet. I think he must know Chris Moyles.
I heard a livestock auctioneer on On Your Farm on Radio 4 this morning say that, as a result of the horsemeat scare, he reckons the prices of British beef cattle being sold under his hammer have increased by 10% in the last few weeks. He also suggested farmers should not sell their stock direct to brokers who visit their farms. They are much more likely to get a fairer, higher price in an open transparent market ring attended by the tens of interested buyers present.
From the Sunday Programme after that I learnt that the Commons are voting next week on an ammendment to the Equality Bill to make discrimination on the basis of caste, illegal. Caste, as I understand it, is related to the teachings of the Hindu faith and catergorises your importance in an Indian society depending on who your parents are.
The Masters golf is reaching it’s conclusion. In the event Tiger was given a two stroke penalty. He is playing but he will not win.