Wednesday, November 30

A short history of Troy


There is much debate at the moment about Englishness which I find interesting since I am not English - I am, since both my parents were born outside the UK, a second generation immigrant.

My ancestors were, in part, Norman and Celtic - the latter who got beaten up by the Anglo-Saxon invaders, probably using bad language when so doing. A good example of a famous Celt was Arthur, of round table fame from the West Country. The French ancestry bit dates back to one Hugo deTroyes who was a Knight from the French town of that name. Hugo was by all accounts held to ransom by the English during the Hundred Years War with the French. His fellow countrymen did not want to pay to get him back so he was sent off by his captors to live in HM Tower back in London. Sometime later he was freed, subsequently Knighted and lived out his days in middle England.

A descendent of Sir Hugo turns up as a General in Cromwell's army and was sent by the Lord Protector to Ireland to do some serious beating up. Choosing to settle in the emerald island permanently; his descendants had mixed fortunes. Prompted by the great potato famine of 1844 one Patrick Troy (my great great grandfather) a stonemason, arrived in Jersey, one of his grandsons, my grandfather married into a family of Norman decent.

There are incidentally two Troys recorded as army officers on both sides of the American Civil War; perhaps it was the same chap causing confusion - a family trait. There is Maltese influence on my immediate maternal side of my lineage; which probably accounts for my gesticulatory tendencies. Anyway my Father a Jerseyman and my Mother, born in Malta settled in southern England in the 1950's.
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Thus I am: 2/8 Irish 2/8 Norman French, 1/8 Maltese and 3/8 English.
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The reason for this short ramble around my ancestry is to illustrate that I am indeed not all English but a British European.

Anyway, Europe (the continent) is good, the EU ( a political project) is bad.
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PT

More G4


By Sarah-Jane Hollands, G4 correspondant.

Yesterday saw the release of G4's second CD this year. Phenomenal sales of their debut album, which went double platinum, and a 25 date sell-out tour, enabled the boys to get straight back in the studio to record another album in time for the Christmas market.
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As sub-editor of this blog, I felt it my duty to rush out and purchase said CD, to see if it measured up to the high standards of the first - I was not disappointed.
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On the first CD (G4), there was a splendid, spine tingling version of 'Jerusalem'.
On the new CD (G4 and Friends). we are treated to a very proud rendition of 'I Vow To Thee, My Country'.
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That got me thinking. Clearly, Jon, Ben, Mike and Matt are patriotic chaps. Perhaps there is a gap in the market for a whole album of very British songs.
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'Rule Brittania', 'Flower of Scotland', 'Land of My Fathers', 'Scotland the Brave', 'God Save The Queen' and of course, everyone's favourite, 'Land of Hope and Glory'...... these are just some of the many celebratory, patriotic songs that would benefit from the G4 treatment.
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So how about it boys? Let's have an album the whole nation can be proud of - these are the songs that made Britain great - we can be great again!
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And by the way chaps, there's an open invitation to Tea Time with Troy (and the sub-editor will come along too, for good measure!) - do join us for tea and a chat, we may even throw in a biscuit or two!
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G4 and Friends - CD of the Week!

Tuesday, November 29

Buy the book


Now seems as good a time as any to mention the recent launch of a new paperback edition of "The Great Deception", (Continuum, £9.99) best-selling history of the EU, written by Christopher Booker and Dr Richard North.
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This has been extensively revised and updated, to include the story behind the rise and semi-fall of the EU constitution. When the first edition appeared in 2003, it was praised by historians and commentators as by far the fullest and most revealing account of the "European project" to date, and sold more than 10,000 copies.
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Anyone who tries to order it via Amazon must be careful to look for the new subtitle "Can The European Union Survive?" Thanks to the legendary idiosyncrasy of that computerised bureaucracy, it still shows the cover of the old edition, by which some readers have already been misled.
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This blog highly recommends this book, for anyone who wants to find out the truth about the EU - Book of the Week!

The mid-week quote no. 10


''The primary purpose of the commission is to create regulation and to ask it to do less is like asking for less sex in a brothel.''

Dr Richard North's comment on a report by the "think tank" "Open Europe" on EU regulation. Entitled Less regulation – four ways to cut the burden of EU red tape.

Indeed.

Monday, November 28

Of Royal Assent and reality




Christopher Booker, right, in his column in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday stated:
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''Finally the Queen gave Royal Assent to the MoD's scrapping of our last county-based infantry regiments, to be merged into new large regiment to fit the British Army to the needs of the 'European Rapid Reaction Force'.

This gave rise to Peter Lindsay's comment on an internet discussion forum:

There comes a time when it has to be said, but I am going to say it now. The Queen is not doing her job of upholding the constitution and is effectively doing nothing to save Britain from oblivion.
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If she was going to do anything, she should have called a halt by now, by refusing to sign EU Treaties and associated bills and thus precipitating a constitutional crisis in which she would receive the overwhelming backing of the people.
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The Monarchy has become completely toothless and has thus betrayed Britain to a foreign bureaucracy and their quislings at Westminster and in the Media. As things are going, she will go down in infamy as the only British monarch in history to sit back and let the country lose its independence without lifting a finger. The British people are now on their own and must find new power-structures to organise for survival and to protect themselves from an elite which has abandoned them.
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Well the editor of this blog was not going to sit around and allow unreasonable criticism of Her Majesty, especially when prompted by the sub-editor to 'wade in' because the fundemental issue was being missed. I commented:

Hang on here - lets look at the issue of 'Royal Assent' in detail.

Royal assent is the final stage during the passage of legislation through Parliament. A bill which has been given Royal assent becomes an Act of Parliament and is then law following due parliamentary process. It is a purely formal stage in which the Royal Seal of approval is given to the legislation. In reality the monarch does not have the power to refuse to give consent. Queen Anne was the last monarch to do so in 1707. George V was keen to withdraw Royal Assent to the Parliament Act of 1911 (which restricted the powers of the House of Lords) shortly after he became King and was advised that if he did so he would unlikely to be crowned later that year.

House of Lords.

The monarch does not give assent in person - the last time this was done was in 1854 - instead it is given by the Speaker in the Commons and the Lord Chancellor in the Lords. By ancient tradition the royal assent is given in Norman French in the words `La Reyne le veult', which roughly translates as `the Queen wills it'.

The real issue here that Peter Lindsay raises is not about Her Majesty neglecting her duty but about the political will of her subjects. When there is the will in Parliament to halt the drive for political integration on all fronts with the EU, then and only then can all the key leavers of government be repatriated back to UK control. This of course is what the UK Independance Party is about, our only internal debate is, or should be, how this is achieved. By means of political pressure (ie votes) UKIPs core aim is to repeal the European Communities Act (ECA) of 1972 and, importantly, all subsequent Acts thus consequently leave the EU - preferably before it implodes.

Going off at tangents about withdrawing Royal Assent and the such like may sound impressive and may appear to be good emotive fun but it will in actuality not help our cause.

The response on the discussion forum, silence. Have I spoilt the fun or what ?

PC Trafalgar


A Traditional Tale, Tweaked for Our Times.

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Nelson: "Order the signal, Hardy."
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Hardy: "Aye, aye sir."
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Nelson: "Hold on, that's not what I dictated to the signal officer. What's the meaning of this?"
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Hardy: "Sorry sir?"
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Nelson (reading aloud): " ‘England expects every person to do his duty, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious persuasion or disability’. "What gobbledygook is this?"
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Hardy: "Admiralty policy, I'm afraid, sir. We're an equal opportunities employer now. We had the devil's own job getting 'England' past the censors, lest it be considered racist."
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Nelson: "Gadzooks, Hardy. Hand me my pipe and tobacco."
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Hardy: "Sorry sir. All naval vessels have been designated smoke-free working environments."
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Nelson: "In that case, break open the rum ration. Let us splice the main brace to steel the men before battle."
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Hardy: "The rum ration has been abolished, Admiral. It’s part of the Government's policy on binge drinking."
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Nelson: "Good heavens, Hardy. I suppose we'd better get on with it ..full speed ahead."
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Hardy: "I think you'll find that there's a 4 knot speed limit in this stretch of water."
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Nelson: "Damn it, man! We are on the eve of the greatest sea battle in history. We must advance with all dispatch. Report from the crow's nest please."
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Hardy: "That won't be possible, sir."
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Nelson: "What?"
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Hardy: "Health and safety have closed the crow's nest, sir. No harness. And they said that rope ladder doesn't meet regulations. They won't let anyone up there until a proper scaffolding can be erected."
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Nelson: "Then get me the ship's carpenter without delay, Hardy."
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Hardy: "He's busy knocking up a wheelchair access to the fo'c'sle, Admiral."
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Nelson: "Wheelchair access? I've never heard anything so absurd."
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Hardy: "Health and safety again, sir. We have to provide a barrier-free environment for the differently abled."
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Nelson: "Differently abled? I've only one arm and one eye and I refuse even to hear mention of the word. I didn't rise to the rank of admiral by playing the disability card."
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Hardy: "Actually, sir, you did. The Royal Navy is under-represented in the areas of visual impairment and limb deficiency."
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Nelson: "Whatever next? Give me full sail. The salt spray beckons."
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Hardy: "A couple of problems there too, sir. Health and safety won't let the crew up the rigging without hard hats. And they don't want anyone breathing in too much salt - haven't you seen the adverts?"
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Nelson: "I've never heard such infamy. Break out the cannon and tell the men to stand by to engage the enemy."
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Hardy: "The men are a bit worried about shooting at anyone, Admiral."
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Nelson: "What? This is mutiny."
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Hardy: "It's not that, sir. It's just that they're afraid of being charged with murder if they actually kill anyone. There's a couple of legal-aid lawyers on board, watching everyone like hawks."
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Nelson: "Then how are we to sink the Frenchies and the Spanish?"
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Hardy: "Actually, sir, we're not."
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Nelson: "We're not?"
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Hardy: "No, sir. The Frenchies and the Spanish are our European partners now. According to the Common Fisheries Policy, we shouldn't even be in this stretch of water. We could get hit with a claim for compensation."
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Nelson: "But you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil."
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Hardy: "I wouldn't let the ship's diversity co-ordinator hear you saying that sir. You'll be up on disciplinary."
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Nelson: "You must consider every man an enemy, who speaks ill of your King."
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Hardy: "Not any more, sir. We must be inclusive in this multicultural age. Now put on your Kevlar vest; it's the rules. It could save your life"
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Nelson: "Don't tell me - health and safety. Whatever happened to rum, sodomy and the lash?"
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Hardy: As I explained, sir, rum is off the menu! And there's a ban on corporal punishment."
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Nelson: "What about sodomy?"
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Hardy: "I believe that is now legal, sir."
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Nelson: "In that case... kiss me, Hardy".
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__________________________________

Thanks to Phil Cordell, health & life coach,

www.fitforyou.co.uk

Tel: 07798 853 479

Sunday, November 27

The Sunday Quote no 137




The Sunday quote:

''That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.''

Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963) - an essay titled 'Case of Voluntary Ignorance'.


Say sorry Richard


In the year of our Lord 1191, the then Archbishop of Canterbury died of disease whilst taking part at the siege of Acre in the Crusades in the Holy Lands.

The formidable citadel of Acre was perched on a promontory and very hard to capture. On the plane below stretched the vast armies of Chrissendom from all over Europe. The beseigers were themselves besieged. Their supplies were dwindling and the fighting elite of Europe were ravaged by disease.

English King Richard the Lionheart, arrived on the scene and saved the campaign through strength of leadership. Acre was recaptured.

Eight
centuries later the present Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, left, in a lecture at the Islamic University in Islamabad has apologised for the Crusades saying that they were a ''serious betrayal of many of the central beliefs of Christian faith.''

Well hang on here - what is His Grace actually saying ? Let's examine some basic facts and remember that in the 12th century life and standards was very different from what we accept in the 21st.

Pope Urban II ordered the start of what became known as the Crusades in 1095 as a counter measure against the forcible take over of the Holy Land by Muslims who had progressively made it more and more difficult for Christians to visit their holy sites on pilgrimage.

What does Dr Williams believe would have been the better course of action, trade sanctions ?

The Crusades were indeed brutal, as was warfare at that time. The Archbishop is no doubt trying, in his own way, to improve Christian-Muslim relations. Apologising for our national history only makes himself and consequently his office look ridiculous. Perhaps, His Grace will be issuing a rebuke to the impressive statue of Crusader King Richard I ( couer de lion) on his way into the House of Lords next week.
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Above, Statue of King Richard Richard I (1189-1199) outside the members entrance to the House of Lords

Saturday, November 26

Killer cameras


Speed cameras (officially known as road safety cameras) are the cause of an increase in road traffic deaths. That is the logical conclusion in the figures released by Road Minister Dr Stephen Ladyman on Friday.
The statistics show that 3,409 people were killed in road traffic incidents in 2000 when 26 per cent of fatal accidents were speed related.
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In 2004 3,221 people died and 34 per cent of fatal crashes were speed-related.

In 2000 speed related deaths numbered approximately 886 deaths - in 2004 1,095 deaths.

Clearly the governments speed camera policy is not reducing road deaths but adding to them.

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Speed cameras are netting some £23 million (and rising) in extra revenue for the government (2,000,000 motorists were fined in 2004) and are a prime factor in alienating the public from the police.
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When the point that speed cameras are the cause of an increase in road deaths in Britain is understood by the majority of British motorists, perhaps they will make a very British protest and insist upon their day in court when they are flashed by any of the thousands (1233 erected since 2000) of killer speed cameras. However knowing my fellow countrymen, most will continue to whinge into their real ale and pay up as demanded.
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PT

Friday, November 25

George Best, Quote.

Special Quote

"Half my money I spent on women, fast cars and booze - the rest I just squandered!"
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George Best, 1946-2005.
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Best scored 137 goals in 361 appearances for Manchester United, betwen 1963 and 1974.
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He won 37 caps for Northern Ireland and was voted European Footballer of the Year in 1968.
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He was widely regarded as the most breath-taking, skillful British footballer of his generation and will be mourned by football fans the world over.
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The British press have been acting like vultures waiting for the time to devour the life of a once gifted, more recently alcholic sportsman; meanwhile largely ignored by the media, over 100,000 people are about to die in Kashmir because our modern 'high tech' world is unable to adequately react to the aftermath of the earthquake in October. One despairs at the priorities of the British national newspapers.
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George Best, 2nd left, beats the opposition to score a memorable headed goal.

Forgotten?




The recent earthquake in Pakistan seems to have slipped from the consciousness of most of the Western world.
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As we approach the first anniversary of the tsunami, which also caused mass loss of life and devastation, TV schedules are packed with "what happened next?" type programmes; newspapers are also concentrating on follow-up stories from survivors and people that helped in the aftermath.
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That is all well and good, but let us not forget that in Pakistan, major relief is still desperately needed. Many thousands of victims are still homeless, hungry and without adequate sanitation.
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Once again, The Independant is the only newspaper covering the ongoing tragedy. This was their very commendable lead story yesterday:
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''Six weeks after the massive earthquake that devastated parts of Pakistan, the United Nations and relief agencies are racing against time to avert a horrendous, avoidable humanitarian tragedy.
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''As winter closes in, aid agencies fear the world's failure to react quickly enough to their pleas for help has made a second disaster a terrifying prospect. About 80,000 died in the immediate aftermath of the quake, and the agencies believe another 80,000 could now perish. As the first heavy snowfalls hit the high valleys most affected by the earthquake, senior UN officials warn that up to 380,000 people in these areas still need emergency housing over the next two or three weeks, almost double earlier estimates.
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''At the same time, despite many promises of long-term help from the international community, immediate relief aid is still only trickling through at a fraction of the speed it is needed. According to official figures, only $216m (£125m) has so far been committed or pledged to the UN's relief appeal for $550m, less than 40 per cent. By comparison, at the same stage, the appeal for the Indian Ocean tsunami, was almost 90 per cent complete.
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''Pakistan announced last weekend that its request for $5.2bn in aid had now been exceeded, with more than $5.4bn in pledges. But relief agencies say that most of this referred to long-term loans, rather than immediate help. " We need more money and we need it now," said a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York. " We are still at the life-saving rather than the reconstruction phase and our operations are dependent on the flow of money coming in."
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''Andrew Macleod, the UN's chief of operations in Pakistan, said aid money had been "very slow" in coming through. "Most of what was pledged last weekend was 'soft loans' for the future, not aid now." He added: " Over the next couple of weeks or so, we have to house between 350,000 and 380,000 people who are living on the edge of the snowline or who will come down from above it. Then we need to keep up the supply of food and medicine." He added: "We have to distribute between 800 and 1,000 emergency shelters every day and 40,000 tents over the next 15 or so days to protect people from the winter"
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''A report by Oxfam said earlier warnings that the aftermath of the earthquake could kill as many as the disaster itself, still held true. " Tragically, with hundreds of thousands of people still unable to provide for their basic needs and winter weather rapidly descending, that possibility cannot be wholly excluded," Oxfam said. The Red Cross in Pakistan said it was a "race against time". The organisation was the first agency to deliver aid to the village of Chham in the Jhelum valley, where about 4,000 households are inaccessible by road because of landslides, and will soon be inaccessible even by helicopter when snow sets in within the next 15 days. The first of the heavy snowfalls - which can measure as much as 15ft in villages such as Rinja and Chittrian near Chham - have already begun, and many people are still without tents or warm clothing.
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''Privately, some UN officials express deep concern at the slow trickle of aid. "I was at the meeting of donor countries after the tsunami and it was like an auction, with countries trying to outbid each other with what they could offer. By comparison, the Pakistan donor conference in October was very low key, with lots of speeches of condolence and promises of money, but very little hard cash. It was quite shabby," an official in Geneva said.
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''Both the UN and relief agencies believe the slowness of aid is due to a combination of the lack of media coverage at the outset, due to the inaccessibility of the stricken areas and the purely practical fact that, after a year of such tragedies, the coffers of many countries are exhausted.
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''Suggestions of anti-Muslim bias are unproven, says Oxfam, which pointed out that one of the richest Islamic countries, Saudi Arabia, has so far given only $3.2m, although it has promised a further $140m. The biggest international donor is the United States, with $102m given and $53m pledged to the appeal. The UN says the key is to persuade countries to convert pledges to contributions.
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''In Britain, the Government is expected today to announce a further " substantial" increase to the £33m so far committed in short-term aid after Downing Street was convinced of the "serious crisis" in the region, said a spokeswoman for the Department of International Development. A further £70m in long-term aid has also been offered.
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The Government is expected at least to match the £40m in contributions from the public, which the Disasters Emergency Committee stressed was already being used to distribute food, tents, medicines and supplies.''
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The statistics are horrific:
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Casualties: 80,000 perished in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Aid agencies say 100,000 are in 'a very weak condition' and at imminent risk of dying.
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Housing: 3.5 million people lost their homes in the quake and at least 80,000 people urgently need housing in the few days remaining before the snows close in .
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Aid blunders: Many of the 370,000 tents distributed are unsuitable for the winter. At least 40,000 tents and 15,000 shelters need to be distributed quickly.
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Hunger: The World Food Programme estimates that 2.3 million people will need feeding over the winter.
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Aid gap: The UN called for $550m in immediate aid, but only $150m has been committed with pledges for another $65m .
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Britain's effort: The British Government has contributed £33m in short-term aid and pledged £70m in the long term. Private donations to charities have topped £40m .
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To donate to the British Red Cross Asian Earthquake Appeal, go to
www.redcross.org.uk/asianearthquake, phone 08450 535 353 or send a cheque to British Red Cross Asian Earthquake Appeal freepost LON18968, Sheffield, S98, 1ZA
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The Disasters Aid Committee are also still taking donations so please, give what you can to help today.

Thursday, November 24

Majestic Malta,GC

This week, Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Phillip are making an official visit to the Mediterranean island of Malta - whose peoples were awarded the George Cross during the Second World War following attacks and a seige from Facist ( combined German and Italian) forces. The Island often referred to as the George Cross Island was up until recent times a strategic British Naval base.
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Military helicopters buzzed overhead and sharpshooters kept watch from rooftops as Queen Elizabeth II began her first overseas trip since the July 7
terrorist attacks in London.
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The Queen is given flowers by a well-wisher as she takes part in a walkabout in Republic Street, Valletta, in Malta, shortly after her arrival on the island to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
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Security in this tiny Mediterranean island nation of Malta was tight ahead of the three-day Commonwealth summit which begins on Friday.
Still, applauding well-wishers were allowed to line the pavements of the narrow medieval street in the Maltese capital's historic centre where the monarch's motorcade passed.
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During the early evening, Her Majesty took a 10-minute walk past the crowds as thousands of Christmas lights, decorating the street, twinkled overhead.
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Maltese nationals crowded onto balconies and pressed up against windows in buildings lining the street for a glimpse of the Queen, who arrived two days ahead of the summit's opening.
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Malta, which includes three inhabited islands lying strategically between north Africa and Italy, gained independence from Britain in 1964 and joined the European Union (EU) last year. Now a general disillusionment from much of the population according to
Reuters regarding EU membership. Reuters reports that ''euphoria" is deffinatly waning as the EU struggles to approve a budget and poorer new members, such as Malta face having to share the cost of enlargement. Prime minister Lawrence Gonzi says his country still stood by the sacrifices it made to qualify and was benefiting from millions of euros of annual aid but the joy of joining had yielded to a realisation that the proposed EU constitution was in limbo and that the budget was in deadlock.
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What is the benefit to Malta of being a member of the Commonwealth now that the Island state is a EU member ? Comment to follow on future postings.

Wednesday, November 23

Bank rip off to end - next year



British Banks are, at long last, being forced to end a cheque clearing scam which nets them £ 30million a year. They rake in the cash in interest on cheques and automated payments which take up to seven days to reach customers' accounts.
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But now they are set to cave in to pressure from the Office of Fair Trading, who gave them until the end of the year to come up with a scheme to end the rip-off. The Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) will meet next month with OFT bosses to commit to a deal which will see cheques cleared in just two hours.
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In some cases, transactions could go through in only 15 minutes.
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Federation of Small Businesses spokesman Niall Stuart said in a press release on Monday:
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"Cash flow is the biggest problem for small businesses and waiting for cheques to clear only makes this worse.
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"Firm owners are waiting up to seven days for a cheque to clear while bills mount up.
"Suppliers and wages are some of the outgoings expected to be paid on deadline.
"But if a cheque for a big job is in the bank waiting clearance, small firms need to rely on money from elsewhere to meet the demands" Often they have to get their overdrafts extended, which leads to more debt.
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"When a cheque is deposited, the money leaves the payer's account usually on the same day.
"But the person due the cash is left waiting up to seven days to get their hands on it.
"The banks, meanwhile, are claiming interest on the cheque value. Now, at last, this has been addressed."
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In May, banking chiefs accepted after considerable pressure had been applied over many years, that electronic transactions such as bill payments and internet banking were taking too long to process.
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After considering various solutions, they opted for a two-hour processing pledge.
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But customers should not get too excited yet, we will have to wait until the end of 2007 before the system is introduced - allowing the banks to net more than £ 60million !

Tuesday, November 22

Blog of the week


Congratulations to http://onelondon.blogspot.com/ who have won the editor's blog of the week award. Readers can update on the sad tale of the demise of Londons Red Routemaster buses and the rise of the flaming (very un-British) long bendy bus.
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Routemaster afficianados, also go to
www.routemaster-bus.org.uk and enjoy the nostalgia.

Troy's Briefs 001


Troy's Briefs - EU Politics - criminal penalties.
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There has been an interesting development in the saga of criminal penalties applicable to EU law. Now read carefully:
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The furore last September when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overturned a (EU) Council framework decision on this issue, specifically who had authority to dictate penalties relating to environmental law.
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Widely misunderstood by Journalists at the time – many of whom believed that the EU had suddenly acquired powers to send people to jail, was actually a turf war. The (EU) Council had decided it could determine criminal penalty levels under the judicial co-operation provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, as amended – the so-called "third pillar" provisions - while the commission disagreed.
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Instead, the EU Commission argued that, where the policy areas came within the competences of the Treaty, and the application of criminal law was necessary to ensure the effective implementation of laws made within those policy areas, then the "first pillar" legislative procedures should be used, with the commission maintaining its exclusive right to make proposals.
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With the ECJ having agreed with the commission, officials have gone back through previous Council decisions relating to criminal penalties and, tomorrow, the commission will unveil a “communication (as yet unnumbered) pointing out that other areas of community law are affected as well. In these areas, it further asserts that the Council's decisions are made "on the wrong legal basis" and thus intends to issue proposals to remedy the situation.
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Issues the commission believes require remedial treatment include criminal penalties and sanctions against counterfeiting in connection with the euro, "combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment", money laundering, assisting illegal immigration, corruption in the private sector, attacks against information systems and ship-source pollution.
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No doubt, following the official publication of the commission’s proposals this week, there may be much media outrage at the fact that the Community is specifying penalties in these areas at all.
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If nothing else, all of this will help to underline how much of HMG, including the definition of specific offences and the determination of the type of penalties that should be applied. But, as before, in practical terms, nothing much has changed.
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All this is about is whether the Council on its own, or the Commission proposing to the Council (and EU Parliament), can decide on these issues. In the final analysis, if the Council – and/or the parliament for that matter – does not like the commission's proposals, either can reject them.
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Nevertheless, it is fascinating to watch the power-play at work and, this time the commission has succeeded in taming the unilateralist tendencies of the Council. So the battle continues, such is politics at the heart of Europe.
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One hopes all of the above is clear as euro mud !
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New briefs next week !

Anniversary quote no 4

Margaret Thatcher entering Downing Street as PM and exiting having resigned, 11 years later.
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Anniversary quotes:

Comments by The Right Honourable Baroness Thatcher of Finchley 15 years ago at the time of a very British coup of Conservative MPs who ousted 'the Iron Lady' from office after 11 years as the UK's premier.


''I fight on, I fight to win.''
Comment, 21 November 1990, having failed to win outright in the first ballot for party leader when challenged by Heseltine.

''It's a funny old world.''
Comment, 22 November 1990,resigning as leader of the Conservative Party and consequently Prime Minister.

''I shan't be pulling the levers there but I shall be a very good back-seat driver.''
Comment, the day before leaving No 10.

Widdecombe, MP time traveller



Today, Anne Widdecombe, MP reportedly remarked "if this (we think she means David Cameron - a policy free zone) blows up in our faces, it is going to set us back ten years".
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This, apparently is the reason she doesn't feel she can throw her weight behind David Cameron's leadership campaign.
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Perhaps someone could remind Ms Widdecombe that ten years ago, the Tories were in government, questionably also in power, with a very small majority in Parliament.
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Do you want to borrow the Editor's Tardis, Anne?

Monday, November 21

Very British blogging


Tim Worstall The Times columnist and blogger, last week published a book, Blogged - an anthology of British blogging.

Curiously, his work does not appear to be on line !

In his piece in Saturday's edition of The Times Worstall comments:

'' The best historical analogy (of Blogs) is with the rise of the coffee houses in the 18th century, which coincided with a reduction in the cost of printing and paper.'' he adds later: '' We bloggers are no longer passive consumers of whatever we are offered to read or watch, we are now able to fact-check what we are offered, complain more about inaccuracies, correct them and in general complain with rather more effect than the traditional shouting at the TV or penning letters to the editor ever managed to do.''

Well yes indeed, there is still good reason to send letters to the press and shout at the TV - it is an excellent form of stress relief.

Tim Worstall highlights two blogs as being exceptional:
http://dailyablution.blogspot.com a site that drives journalists crazy by fact-checking their assertions and http://chasemeladies.blogspot.com surreal humour at it's best - we agree !

Sunday, November 20

Ha ha enterprise week

Entrepreneurs need ministers to stay out of the picture.
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By Jeff Randall
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First a confession: this piece almost didn't appear. I nearly blew it, because when I should have been writing 1,000 words I was stricken by a fit of laughter.
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The source of my debilitating condition was reading that Enterprise Week - a campaign to bang the drum for Britain's start-up businesses - had been strongly endorsed by... yes, you've guessed it, the Government.
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Even more hilarious was learning that Alan Johnson, the trade and industry secretary, had told an Enterprising Britain Summit in London on Monday: "We need to back our entrepreneurs, not hamper them. We need to praise them, not knock them."
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Oh, behave! For sheer, unadulterated cheek, this matched the kid who shot his parents and then begged the court for leniency on the grounds that he'd been made an orphan.
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When it comes to hitching free rides on passing bandwagons, few organisations canout perform New Labour. Yet even by the party's own high standards for shameless opportunism, this attempt to bathe in the glow of Britain's wealth creators redefined chutzpah.
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The four business entities behind Enterprise Week are the Confederation of British Industry, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors. Frankly, I'm amazed that they've allowed the event to be hijacked quite so brazenly by a government whose idea of a good day's work is a positive headline in tomorrow's tabloids.
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So, before New Labour's spin-machine sends us home dizzy, let's remind ourselves that only three months ago, a CBI report concluded that this government had missed most of its targets to nurture small businesses.
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The CBI was particularly critical that ministers had failed to build an enterprise culture in the UK, create a positive environment for growth, improve regulation and encourage entrepreneurs in disadvantaged areas.
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Of course, it wasn't meant to be like this. In his March Budget, Gordon Brown promised to cut red tape, and offered the prospect of "a light and limited touch" for business regulation. With an election less than two months away, the Chancellor was keen to reassure self-employed workers and fledgling businesses that New Labour was a flexible friend. It sounded good - Brown's patter often does.
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The trouble is that you could fit the Treasury and all its fixtures and fittings in the gap between his rhetoric and reality.
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Underwhelmed by what Brown has done since for small business, the CBI's director-general, Sir Digby Jones, said recently: "How can an enterprise economy break through when the Government presides over systematic, stifling red tape, a discredited planning regime and a society that becomes more politically correct and risk averse by the day?"
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On this theme, the CBI's president, John Sunderland, told his members at last year's conference: "On average, each business in the UK is subject to 85 separate health and safety regulations (many more if rash enough to produce food and drink). It is fair to say that the present regulatory burden is a regressive tax on small business." The British Chambers of Commerce is no less scathing. A report earlier this year, commissioned by BCC and compiled by London and Manchester Business Schools, put the cost to business of 46 separate pieces of legislation introduced by this Government at £15billion a year.
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At the time of the report, BCC's director-general, David Frost, said: "As well as the cost, firms tell us that they are spending too long dealing with paperwork, trying to get their heads around each and every regulation."
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No surprise then that the UK Business Barometer, run by the University of Nottingham's Institute of Enterprise and Innovation, found that a quarter of companies questioned had deliberately stopped growing their operations to avoid the impact of New Labour's employment regulations.
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So when you hear ministers blethering on about fostering business at grass-roots level, encouraging young people to start companies and freeing entrepreneurs from the burdens of administration - as the Chancellor did yesterday on BBC television - remember the following: This is a government that knows so little about real enterprise that Johnson's predecessor, the witless Patricia Hewitt, went out of her way to defend MG Rover's "Fab Four", claiming that the risks they had taken (almost nil) justified their rewards (shedloads).
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On the night Rover eventually collapsed, it became obvious to those of us reporting the story that Hewitt's grasp of detail was so weak that she couldn't differentiate between administration, receivership and liquidation.
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This is a government that presides over more than 500 quangos - dubious bodies such as the British Potato Council - at least 100 of which have appeared since New Labour won power in 1997.
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Funded by billions of pounds of taxpayers' cash, they devour the value that is created by risk-taking entrepreneurs. This is a government that thinks it's a good idea for companies to be forced to offer six months' paternity leave, a move that BCC has warned will be "an administrative nightmare". This is a government that threatens to reform our welfare system but continues to fund 2.7m people on incapacity benefit, even though David Blunkett, when he was work and pensions secretary, described the system as "crackers" - and with good reason.
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There are four times the number of people claiming incapacity benefit today than were being paid invaliditybenefit 30 years ago. This is a government that has created battalions of public-sector jobs while imposing cutbacks on our armed forces. Many of these state positions are beyond parody, yet they are paid for, in part, by additional taxes on private-sector businesses, the very enterprises that the Chancellor keeps telling us that he's keen to encourage.
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This is a government that has turned the raising of stealth taxes into an art form. Few politicians in the world could, as Brown did, push up National Insurance Contributions - a payroll tax - and still say with a straight face that business taxes had not been increased.
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If this government's ministers were really serious about promoting enterprise, they would simply get out of the way. No chance of that, though: they might miss a picture opportunity.

Posting from Bradford.



The week-end essay, by Dr Richard North who lives one and a half miles from the scene of the murder of Policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky on Friday afternoon.
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"Leaving the EU would not make any difference," my colleague Helen Szamuely remarked yesterday evening. She was chairing the final session of the Bruges Group meeting in Kings College London, where Ruth Lea and I had given our views on alternatives the European Union.
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The point Helen was making – which Ruth Lea had also made – is that as long as this government (and previous ones, for that matter), share the same dirigiste, centrist mindset as the legislators in our Brussels government, then we would continue to suffer from the same type of managerial, anti-democratic form of government that emanates from the European Union. Nothing very much will change.
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No more so is that evident that in the story offered by Christopher Booker in his column this week, where he reports on the government plans to restructure the 43 local police forces of England and Wales on regional lines.Although the title of the piece is: "The urge for 'Euro-regions' plays fast and loose with law and order", there is no evidence that this restructuring – the most fundamental in 170 years of British policing – is being carried out to any sort of European agenda.
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While, as Booker's story reveals, home secretary Charles Clarke is pushing regional structures with extraordinary speed, there is no "smoking gun" which can prove that Brussels is behind the plan. Nevertheless, there is clearly a European agenda to the regionalisation process, which is being pursued regardless of the decisive "no" vote in the North East regional assembly referendum.
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This will result in our police forces being cut from the existing 43 to 12, corresponding with the 10 regions of England, London and Wales (the two largest regions, South East and North West, can each have two forces). Wales is to have just one force, not four as now. The seven South West forces are also to be merged into just one, from the Cotswolds to Cornwall.
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With the murder of Sharon Beshenivsky, the 38-year-old Bradford, PC still very recent, there is much in this weekend’s newspapers on the story but it is only Booker who deals with the regionalisation story.
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Yet, while the general media takes the predictable and largely unproductive line of pursuing the question of whether all police officers should be armed – the Beshenivsky death and the move towards larger police forces are not entirely unconnected.
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Rehearsing the key facts of the Beshenivsky murder, we are told that she and her colleague, Teresa Milburn, 37, were responding to a silent panic alarm, relayed from a private security company, and walked into a hail of bullets as they arrived at the scene, an Asian travel agent in Morely Street, Bradford, by the name of The Universal Travel Express.West Yorkshire chief constable Colin Cramphorn says they had no reason to believe that this was anything but a routine call-out, but the locals might disagree.
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According to The Sunday Times report:
Though the modest shop looks unremarkable, it was, as locals knew, a conduit for significant amounts of cash. Many of the largely Asian local community took money to the agency so that it could be transferred to friends or relatives in Pakistan. It was known as one of the quickest ways to send help to those in need after the earthquake in Kashmir. "There was a lot of cash there; people come in with it so it can be wired back home," said Sher Khan, a local councillor and friend of the family that runs the agency. "Many extra people have been doing that since the earthquake."
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Then, those with longer memories will recall that, in January 2003, there was another armed robbery of an Asian travel agent in Bradford, when a "substantial quantity of cash" from a travel agency, this one in Lumb Lane, not ten minutes drive from the Morely Street premises.
That time, there was also a fatal shooting, Mr Taz-war Hussein, 36, who was praised for his bravery after he and a friend had chased the robbers' car before a confrontation in which he was shot once in the chest with a handgun.In a comment that could apply equally well today, Mehrban Hussain, a Conservative councillor for the university ward, which covered the area where the incident took place said that gun crime was a major problem in the Bradford area. “We have had a few shootings in different areas of the city over the past year," he said. "A lot of criminals are now carrying guns. The police have got to be stronger in clamping down on these people.”
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Gerry Sutcliffe, MP for Bradford South, said he would be raising concerns about shooting incidents in the city with West Yorkshire's chief constable, Colin Cramphorn. "I have my concerns because there have been a number of incidents in Bradford of late," said Mr Sutcliffe. "Guns are too freely available. It is an issue the government is tackling. Anyone who carries a gun is a risk."
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Coming back to the present, much is made of the fact that the current shooting took place in a location minutes away (in fact, just across the road) from the main Bradford police station. But that is to give a false impression of the nature of the police station and its proximity.
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The building is the Bradford police headquarters, a vast, sixties, multi-story office, full not of operation police but bureaucrats in uniform. Furthermore, the side adjacent Morely Street is the cells entrance. The main entrance is the other side of the complex, perhaps ten minutes brisk walk from the scene.As it transpires, it was not police from this building who attended the scene. Beshenivsky and Miburn were, in fact, based at Eccleshill, in the northern suburbs of the city, and would not have had the local knowledge of the patch. Indeed, they responded by car, rather than as a foot patrol working in the locality.
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What we have, therefore, is an out-of-area team of probationary women police officers responding to a panic alarm from a high-risk premises of a type with a known vulnerability to armed attack – the sort of premises which, one would of thought, would merit automatic attendance from an armed response team, as would be the case if a bank or building society was being attacked.
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On the face of it, therefore, this looks like yet another cock-up by West Yorkshire's finest, one that ended up with two of its officers being shot and one killed. But the broader issue is that it seems also to be a failure of local, and particularly intelligence-led community policing.
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By coincidence, in the Sunday Times today, is an article on the success of community policing – in Chicago, where the stress is on local knowledge, responsibility and accountability.In Bradford, however, we do not have local policing. We do not have a local police force.
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We are policed by West Yorkshire Police, with its headquarters in Wakefield – distant, unaccountable, remote, inefficient and, ultimately deadly. And, as Booker reports, the government’s answer is to make such police forces more distant, more unaccountable, more remote – with results that are all too predictable.
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This may not be in response to a European agenda, but it is certainly from the same wellspring, which favours distant, unaccountable, remote and invariably inefficient forms of government.
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As Helen told us therefore, leaving the EU is not by any means the whole answer to our problems. We have to tackle bad government, whether from Brussels, Westminster or even the "local" Euro-region.Needless to say, but for Booker, that issue is not even on the agenda. Instead, we have the media re-opening the tired, lame issue of whether all police should be routinely armed. Leaving aside the question as to whether two "rookie" policewomen with handguns might be more danger to themselves and the public than any criminals, the real problem seems to me that our greatest danger is the bureaucratic mindset which is at the root of too many of our problems.

Head-bangers in Westminster



A strange structure consisting of 14 gigantic steel girders with a glass roof resembling an upturned bicycle rack will soon be erected in the 40 yard walk way in Star Chamber Court in the Houses of Parliament to protect MPs from the rain.

Several tall MPs may have to duck or risk banging their heads on the canopy which encloses the main route from their offices in Portcullis House to the Centre of the Commons. Fifteen tall MPs have signed a Commons Motion complaining that the new structure will be a hazard to their colleagues, Daniel Kawczynski, below, the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham who is 6 ft 8 in and Rob Marris, Andrew Selous and Michael More, all of whom are over 6 ft I in.

Norman Baker, the Lib Dem MP for Lewis, who has led the protests, said yesterday. ''If you have to have a cover for you don't expect to pay almost half a million pounds and it is such a grotesque structure.''

For those many occasions when it rains heavily there are two other routes that MPs can take from the division lobbies or the dining rooms and back again to London's underground railway system.

Commons officials have justified the design as in keeping with the demands of the Palace of Westminster and the demands of English Heritage. The Houses of Parliament designed by Messers Pugin and Barry is a Neo-Gothic extravagance was never an example of functional economy so it can be argued that the latest addition is entirely in keeping.

An official, last week, confirmed that the height of the new structure met the building regulations minimum clearance of between 2 and 2.1 metres. Ah well, clearly this is the problem, Members of the UK's Parliament are still measuring themselves in imperial measurements whilst buildings have been metricated !

In any event as The Times commented in its third leader (always the best one):

''Dry MP's are preferable to wet ones just as, on balance, clever ones are better than dim ones.'' The piece concludes sardonically: ''But it is idle to complain that it would have been a thousand times cheaper to provide a House of Commons Umbrella {available in the Houses' gift shop for £19.99, Ed} to every MP.

Indeed.

Stalemate

Why nobody ever does anything about Brussels' great financial scandal ?
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For the eleventh year in a row, the EU's auditors have refused to sign the Commission's accounts.
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Europe’s finance ministers keep turning a blind eye and so the problem goes on and on.
The issue is addressed In The Business today, by European Analyst, Dr. Richard North.
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Enjoy, the detail is also very important.

The Sunday Quote - 136



The Sunday Quote.
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"Sir, I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding."
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Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1709 - 1784.
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. Johnson 's statue facing The Strand
Delivering this week's Dimbleby Lecture, Sir Ian Blair clearly has found us an argument, without himself understanding.

Saturday, November 19

Police matters



Yesterday afternoon two women Police Officers were shot by armed robbers in the West Yorkshire City of Bradford. Sadly, one officer, PC Sharon Beshenivsky, right, died.
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She was the sixth female officer to die in the line of duty in the 30 years since females have policed the streets in mainland Britain as equals with their male colleagues. The dead officer is understood to have been a Police Officer for only 8 months.
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The details of this murder will be well reported elsewhere, it is not the role of this blog to be a news service. Comment on current issues is, however, very much our focus.
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The West Yorkshire Police priorities have in the past been, quite rightly, criticised by Bradford resident and regular correspondent on this blog, Dr Richard North. The West Yorkshire Police appear to have some strange ideas as to law enforcement. The murder yesterday of the 38 year old officer, a mother of three, we hope will perhaps refocus the management of West Yorkshire Police onto their proper duty to the public. That duty is not to send eight officers to assist private bailiffs to illegally enforce a warrant and subsequently fail to properly investigate their error. Nor is it to send two inexperienced officer on patrol together. Many other examples of West Yorkshire Police's curious priorities are available upon request.
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It is a regrettable fact as well as a failure of government, policing and the judicial system - that the number of offences involving firearms in England and Wales has increased each year since 1997 according to Home Office figures.

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Figures released last month showed that fire arms offences had increased by 5% last year to a total of 11,160. Back in 1997 there were 4,903 such offences.

The possession of handguns was banned in Britain in 1996 following the Dunblane massacre. The illegal ownership of handguns is believed to be higher that it has ever been, with nearly 300,000 illegal guns estimated to be in circulation in Britain.

The increase in gun crime is linked to gang activity and the expanding drugs trade. Tony Blair's government has failed to address these issues effectively, although it promised to be ''tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime''. The reason, is in major part, because the British Police service (once proudly known as the force) is self focussed on its own political correct image and the wrong targets. Vast resources are deployed to areas such as motorists who are relentlessly prosecuted (for financial gain) whilst organised gangs remain mostly beyond the reach of law enforcement and business crime remains undetected or even not understood by most investigating Police Officers. Car Crime is now hardly investigated, victims are now only supplied with a crime number. Ten years ago a report of a car theft was always followed up with a visit from an officer, not now in modern Britain.

The facts are that fixed roadside speed cameras now collect over £114 million a year in fines, giving the Government a clear profit of £22 million a year. Despite a huge increase in convictions experts insist that speed cameras have not led to a decline in road deaths or boosted road safety. Instead pillars of the community have been turned into criminals, using massive police resources in the process and leading to respect for the police plunging to an all time low in Britain; ask most long serving constables and they agree but dare not say so in public. Is the reason for this because the Police are now 'risk adverse' by culture ?


A national outpouring of grief for the 20 percent rise in deaths involving police vehicles, the figure now reaching 44 last year, up from 17 in 2000-1. would be justified; the current figure includes four entirely innocent pedestrians, including an 18-year-old woman, slaughtered by police cars responding to emergency calls.

Sir Ian Blair this week sought a public debate on ''what Police service we the public want''. Today, following the tragic shooting in Bradford would be a good time to start that debate and face the uncomfortable truth, which is that Britain's Police Service has largely lost the plot. This blog intends to be at the very centre of that so very vital debate, which in many people's view will be thinking the unthinkable, so be it. Let us hope that politicians and the Chief Constables really do listen and more to the point understand that their joint failure is not an option. That failure would result in a Britain far far worse than that portrayed in the Anthony Burgess classic novel The Clockwork Orange.

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Above, Stanley Kubrik's 1972 film The Clockwork Orange


PT

Friday, November 18

Defence of the Realm



Your freedom in their hands
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by Dr Richard North

There was a time when Her Majesty's Government was responsible for the defence of this country, and with it the freedom of the Queen's subjects. But, in the brave new Blairite world, this, it seems, is no longer the case.
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That much emerges from our reports on the closure by BAE Systems of the former Royal Ordnance factories in Bridgwater and Chorley, which provoked a flurry of Parliamentary Questions from Conservative defence spokesman Gerald Howarth, and others.
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Asked by Howarth whether he expected the supply of components to be affected by the proposed closure of the BAE ordnance factory at Bridgwater, minister of state for defence, Adam Ingram, replied that BAE Systems Land Systems would "remain responsible for the maintenance of security of supply of components currently manufactured at the Bridgwater factory".
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When also asked what assessment he had made of the implications for security of supply of the proposed closure of sites at Bridgewater and Chorley, Ingram replied in like manner that BAE Systems "are responsible for security of supply of ammunition."
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He went on to say that they have provided detailed plans to the Ministry of Defence, plans which, of course, are not in the public domain.To an extent, the possible adverse effects of our ammunition and other essential military supplies being manufactured abroad can be militated by maintaining strategic stocks in this country. Thus, the question by Lindsay Hoyle, Labour MP for Chorley, was of special relevance. Hoyle asked what were the plans for the management and security of the Heapey ammunitions storage facility, in the event of the closure Royal Ordnance Chorley, only to get another dead-bat answer from Ingram:
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"The Heapey magazine facility is owned by BAE Systems. The management and security of the facility are matters for the company."
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There it is then. The provision and security of vital military supplies is nothing to do with her Majesty's government. It is entirely the responsibility of BAE Systems – and, of course, L'Escroc Chirac, in whose country much of the supplies will now be manufactured.
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Dr North presented his paper, ''The wrong side of the Hill'', an in depth study on the effects of a pro EU and anti-US defence precurement policy, at the Centre for Policy Studies this week.

More images of remembrance day

Further images from central London last weekend.

Lest we forget too soon.

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''War is nothing but a continuation of politics by other means.''

Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)

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Photographs by Peter Troy

Mrs Pam Lancaster, Poppy seller, proudly sporting her medals.

Thursday, November 17

The Dimbleby lecture -2005



Last night on BBC1, Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force and Britain's most senior police officer, delivered the annual Dimbleby Lecture.
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This is not without precedence, in 1973, the then Metrpolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Robert Mark delivered the lecture and famously remarked: '' A measure of the success of a Police Force is that it arrests more criminals than it employs.''
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Click below to read a transcript of Blair's speech.
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Our thanks to our readers at Crystal Palace Bulletin Board Services, whose thoughts on the subject you can read below:
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As ever, these particular football fans' views are both informative and amusing, a pity that their over-paid heroes are also incapable of noteworthy comment as well as kicking a ball.
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Sir Ian Blair asked a sailent question: What Police service do we the public want?
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As this blog has commented on before the answer is not a Police service which alienates the public and is incapable of understanding that it is doing so. Not a Police service that targets motorists not criminals despite evidence that in doing so, road safety is not improved and vital public co-operation is harmed. Not a service that fails to understand the needs of the public. Not one that fails to thank members of the public for going well out of their way to assist the police as key witnesses in serious crimes, as exampled by the editor of this blog's experiences in two court cases in 2003.
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Most certainly not one that over reacted to the anti-hunting protests at Westminster in the summer. Clearly and emphatically not a Police service that in contradiction of its founding principles, is an arm of government, as endless recent examples illustrate.
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The Commisioner stated last night that the Police are rather good at catching criminals. Sorry, no they are not. They sadly are rather good at overreacting and imitating government departments with all the bureaucratic absurdities that are magnified in New Labour's Britain.
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In March 2004, The Federation of Small Business established in a survey that a third of all crimes committed against small businesses were not reported since business people believed that there was no point in doing so.
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The British public wants a Police service that does not believe that it is institutionally above the law as clearly Sir Ian does.
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In his lecture Sir Ian compared the Metropolitan Police to the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy have not in their long and glorious history sunk an innocent merchant ship. The Police service have been less successful in that respect.
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The day of the killing of the innocent Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes in London, Sir Ian amazingly wrote to the Permanent Under Secetary at the Home Office demanding that the statutary investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Authority be set aside for ''security reasons''. His request was, quite rightly, denied - for the audacity of asking (and expecting to over ride the law) he should have been dismissed by the Home Secretary.
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What sort of Police service do we want in Britain? Well one in which Sir Ian Blair plays no part ! Let the debate continue.
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