Whitby Gazette and Jon Stokoe

The Whitby Gazette is the city paper of the Goth capital. It was also the first paper to publish the work of Lewis Carroll, a regular visitor from 1850-70.  Encouraged by the public reception - although self-critical about his early efforts -  the Reverend Dodgson went on to write the books which dominate children's literature upon which millions of pounds and thousands of jobs have depended.

Then in 1885 The Gazette recorded on 24 October:

"The Russian schooner Dmitri of Navra, with silver sand, came in suddenly, in heavy weather, but going ashore in Collier’s Hope because a total wreck"

The event camd to the notice of a visitor to Whitby, Bram Stoker, who also happened to find a name in a geography book in the local library which fired his imagination.  That wreck became the Demeter out of Varna, carrying the potent fictional character Dracula, which is why his landfall became the Goth capital.

Who knows, but if the editor of the Whitby Gazette had not carried that report perhaps Stoker might have had him come ashore somewhere else, thus depriving Whitby of millions of pounds of tourism income over a century later. 

Since 1854 the paper has maintained its place in the town and travels all over the world.   There is an online version but the interesting thing about the Whitby Gazette is that it is still growing in its paper distribution.  The online version is searchable but there is really no substitute for the discerning Goth or Steam punk or explorer; one simply must have a paper copy to read over tea no matter where that tea is taken.  The object itself, not just the data, is part of the experience with its nautical masthead and distinctive typeface.

Strange then that the owners, Johnston Press, are proposing to dispose of the editor.  Jon Stokoe bucks the trend in local papers.  While others are struggling,The Gazette is growing.  What ever he is doing, it is working.  Even asking the question makes only about as much sense as sacking Rumplestiltskin because it costs money to provide him with beer and sandwiches.  He's spinning straw in to gold, for goodness' sake.  Keep him at it.

A petition to save the editor has been set up to plead with Johnston to show economic sense. Jon Stokoe is worth the money and should be kept on.




Go here to sign the petition. 

BBC Busted - for International Women's Day

Fingerprints : an ambush against UKIP has been identified.

On  Question Time, Thursday 7 March, Amy Rutland, a regional Labour worker, pretended to be an average member of the public and took an opportunity to embarrass the Labour Party she supports by calling Diane James, the  UKIP candidate, and anyone else who is concerned about the effects of uncontrolled immigration "disgusting".



As noticed by Political Scrapbook, she claimed earlier in the day to have cooked this up with Stephen Twigg, who was appearing on the panel.  That probably explains why he was so smoothly ready with a prepared answer.  Amy later protected her tweets. It has been suggested that these were merely boasting after the event and that Twigg might not have been in on it - in which case why protect them rather than leave them open? 

Dimbleby, if doing his job properly, should have allowed Diane James to answer the original question of substance, which was about whether UKIP presented a threat to the Tories. Instead, he insisted that she respond to the insult. It has yet to be established if Dimbleby knew of the stitch-up; no doubt he'll deny it. It is very strange, though,  how the microphone was able to go to an auburn-haired lady at the front who also appeared to be primed with the keyword "scaremonger".  Were the women connected?

If you want to see the response by Diane James and the much saltier reply by Melanie Phillips which explained why UKIP are a threat to the Conservatives, the 5 minute clip is on Youtube.

But for the slow-learners in Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, let's play that old favourite Oh she's just a bigoted woman.  You can see the moment his political soul leaves his body.



Kebab Time for Biased BBC has other fun photos.

Murph Guest and Freedom of Expression

Ray 'Murph' Guest is a paramedic at the West  Midlands Ambulance Service.  He doesn't like the fact that some people have dared to complain about the treatment their relatives received at Stafford Hospital and that the Francis Report agrees with them that it was shockingly bad.

He expressed this in salty terms:-

 

Specifically, he wished that  Julie Bailey would suffer a life-threatening illness. It didn't appear to strike him as at all inconsistent with being a paramedic or that it might reflect poorly on the people around him.  His main purpose was to show that they are in fact wonderful people. 

Epic fail. 

According to the Telegraph, Julie Bailey has informed the police on the grounds that:

 “I believe that this man is an ambulance controller. I am concerned about what would happen if I was to have an accident and I was to phone the ambulance service and he was there in the control room.”

Whether this is a police or a professional standards matter is not clear at the moment. Mr Guest seems to have fallen out spectacularly with his father after the death of his father's wife (who may or may not be his mother) and his father had joined Ms Bailey's protest group, Cure the NHS.   There is an element of family business here and Julie Bailey has been caught in the crossfire.

However,  Guest has established one thing clearly: some front-line staff despise the patients.  They wish them dead, seeing the maintenance of the NHS as the point of the job rather than the alleviation of human suffering.  They hold opinions which make one very much doubt their willingness to do the job without having their arses licked, such is their fury at criticism. 

At this point somebody usually jumps up and says "But it's  only him, not fair to judge etc".   But he's not the only one. He is like the pox blister which shows the corruption running through the blood.  Bailey has had a five year fight and been repeatedly rubbished.  Even now, when an inquiry and report has shown she was right to complain, the arse-covering Powers That Be are busy trying to make her seem like the unreasonable one for insisting that they must remove the corporate mask and hold accountable the individuals who failed. 

But Murph Guest has accidentally blown the gaff by sneaking out from under the control of smooth PR operators. What he and the Powers That Be really believe is that old, dying people are bloody nuisances but for whom hospitals would be clean, target-hitting places.

So let's hear it for freedom of expression. This is why you have to have a free press and free speech - otherwise you don't find out what they really think. 

Update 30 May 2013:  Nick Cohen at the Spectator reports that a campaign of intimidation has been waged against Julie Bailey.  

Update 25 June 2013: Guido Fawkes reports that a campaign of intimidation, including vandalism of Bailey's late mother's grave, continues. 

Stephen Hester is a banker

Crocodile wallets

Who is Stephen Hester?

Stephen Hester is the Group Chief Executive of RBS.  The one who was narrowly persuaded to go without his bonus.

Wiki

Hester is paid an annual salary of £1.2 million by RBS.^[1] Alongside this, he took home £6.5m in bonus and pension payments in 2010.^[8] In 2012 he was offered a bonus of just under £1 million, following some considerable pressure from politicians and the public, he declined the bonus.

You may have heard of him being disgusted and depressed about the 'selfish and self-serving' behaviour of his staff during the LIBOR rigging scandal.  Apart from banking, RBS is also 75% shareholder for Direct Line  which operates several brands of insurance.  One of these is Churchill

Churchill is part of the Direct line group, separately listed from RBS.  It is headed by Paul Geddes.

Now let us go back in time, this isn't about banking.  It's about insurance.

Churchill

Founded in 1989, Churchill is now one of the UK’s leading providers of general insurance, offering car, home, travel, pet, van and motorbike insurance over the phone or online. Many of the products are award-winning.

The Accident

In December 2009 the then-thirteen year old Bethany Probert took it in her head to walk home from horse riding at about 5pm.  The accident happened  on the Abthorpe Road which runs between Silverstone (NN12) and Abthorpe.  You can see it for yourself on Streetview, which toured the road in good weather.  The road is picture-postcard England, with straights, narrows,  and shallow bends between hedges dotted with mature trees. 

Yes, she could have waited for her mum to pick her up, but showing a spark of initiative and not being a prisoner, this schoolgirl decided to do what, at any other time in history, would be regarded as normal. She started to walk home on the country road. It was after sunset but it wasn't the middle of the night. Even in December people can be reasonably expected to be moving round at 5pm.   Being a young teenager, she didn't think to dress up in a hi-vis jacket, which is not a legal requirement. She also may have been listening to music. That's legal too.

The road doesn't have a footpath or lighting. It has hedges which  tend to lean in to the road, obliging pedestrians to walk a little further out.  The speed limit is 60 but speed, as we are often told by the better drivers, is not the point. Conditions are the point, and the conditions did not admit that 55 year old Mr Paul Moore, who was on his way to work for his 5pm shift on the far side of Silverstone, should travel faster than 40mph in his Saab 9-3.  

Unfortunately, he probably was traveling faster than that.  Seeing an on-coming vehicle, he changed his position on the road, pulling left, closer to the hedge where Bethany was walking.  Pedestrians are advised to face oncoming traffic but because of the hedges and a bend there, Bethany was on the narrow grass verge or the tarmac - it is thought she may have had one foot on each - rather than the advised side . For that particular point, she was on the correct side because of an approaching bend and a lack of a footpath (see paragraph 44 of Mr Pittaway's adjudication). 

Mr Moore did not see Bethany because he was focused on the oncoming vehicle. He hit the girl.  She was wearing dark clothing.  Had he been traveling more slowly and remained aware that the pools of shadow under hedges might contain any number of things - dogs, deer, junk, even walkers - then he might not have had the accident.

Bethany did not die but the head injuries effectively ended the independent life she might have had. She requires full-time care from her mother but she's alive and can move round.  Mr Moore didn't set out to hurt anyone, but the reality of driving is that you can, purely by miscalculation.  Eversheds summarized the court's findings; liability was established against the defendant.

Fortunately,  Mr Moore had insurance from Churchill.  The child cannot be put back as she was, but she can be cared for.

But Churchill doesn't want to pay up.  

When the case got to court in August 2012, by which time the child's condition was clearer, Churchill argued that because Bethany was a horse rider, she should have known about wearing a hi-vis jacket, even though she wasn't riding a horse at the time.  The court found that you can't expect a 13 year old girl to carry the same degree of responsibility for her action as an adult might. Besides, Mr Moore was not looking where Bethany was walking; he was focused on the oncoming vehicle. 

Churchill argued that she was negligent in listening to music, otherwise she would have heard the Saab coming.  The court replied, based on the opinions of the accident advisors, that the noise of the oncoming car would have obscured the sound of the car behind her. 

The insurers said they want to appeal.  Mr David Pittaway QC, hearing the case, wrote that he thought they were seeking to reopen the issues which have been decided.

Despite that we now read that Lord Justice Ward has granted permission that Churchill can take the case to the Court of Appeal.  Apparently, there is an argument that it might be alright to run children over if they aren't dressed as Christmas trees, psychic, and happen to be walking home in the country after sunset.

However, this post is not about about the strict legality of an insurance firm being able to go to the extent the law allows in order to avoid doing what it says on the tin: taking the financial pain away when there is a terrible accident. 

This is about Stephen Hester of RBS and Paul Geddes of Churchill, who should stop pissing about and pay out £5m as directed. It will cost them that anyway; it's just a question of whether the lawyers are allowed to gouge more of the £5m out for their fees, or if it should all be paid to the girl.

 £5m is less than Stephen Hester earned in the single year 2010.

The money, although substantial, can't be the issue. If it was, RBS  wouldn't be paying out bonuses of £1.5bn to staff in its investment arm. £5m is chicken feed in comparison.  The taxpayer owns at least 75% of RBS, and  RBS is the 65% shareholder in Direct Line.  RBS received £1bn in dividends from the flotation.  The Probert settlement has to be managed to keep Bethany and her mother the rest of their lives, since her mother has had to give up work to care for her daughter. If Geddes and Hester were told to pay it personally out of their own fortunes, they'd barely notice it.

Stephen Hester has two children as does Paul Geddes .   How might either of them might feel if their child  was smashed in to a hedge and then they had to spend three years fighting for the compensation which insurance is supposed to provide.  But then, earning a basic £1.2m a year, I expect Hester would  be able to airily wave it away and pay someone else to do the hard work of looking after the child.  If the worst came to the worst, he could sell the 350 acre estate in Oxfordshire or the ski chalet in Verbier.

Stephen Hester should ring Paul Geddes and tell them to settle before the stink does any more damage to the group ahead of the remainder of the divestment.  Geddes shouldn't even need telling. That he does, tells us something about the failure of Hester to inculcate a sense of duty and decency in his staff.  Hester will no doubt argue that under European Competition Law, he's not supposed to tell his executives what to do.  This isn't about European  Competition Law - it's about duty and decency.

 
It is the duty - already  admitted - of Churchill is to pay this claim.  Decency dictates that they pay the victim, not the lawyers.

Update 10 Feb 2013:  The Sunday Times reports:

THE boss of Royal Bank of Scotland will be handed a £780,000 bonus just weeks after the bailed-out lender was fined £390m for its role in the global interest rate rigging scandal. Stephen Hester is set to pocket the share award next month.  RBS, which is 81% owned by the government the taxpayer is adamant that Hester should receive the payment, which was granted in 2010, as he has received only one annual bonus since joining RBS in 2008. 

Ah, poor lamb. If only he'd been wearing a hi-vis jacket.

Update 14 Feb 2013.
Inform Blog reports that Lord Justice Ward has retired.

Job of the Month - Whitby

This one doesn't pay much but it could be a peach for somebody who wants to be slap in the middle of the action at Whitby.  The New Angel Hotel wants a full time receptionist.

 
 Photo : see their facebook timeline.

Chain JD Wetherspoon have refurbished the dowdy building in the modern nautical style; all glass balconies and minimal steel rigging which evoke 1920s cruise liners and yachting.  Opening is projected for 28 March.

Application is online - there are only a few days left for this job - and they have a facebook page which charts the renovation. 

If I had a talking picture

Ecce Duchess of Cambridge 

Art critics clashed yesterday about the new portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge. 

Brian Sewell, who is an expert on miniatures since his days of viewing pictures taken on tiny cameras by spies, said that it was about as good an effort as David Hockney was ever likely to make, seeing as how he normally paints trees purple. 

Prince Charles, whose collection of  novelty toilet roll covers is said to include a jeweled one in the shape of a hawk from the Saudi Royal Family, said he didn't mind so long as they put it in a gallery which was properly half-timbered.

Her Majesty The Queen peered at it knowledgeably and asked the artist "And how long have you been a portrait painter?"

Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, refused to answer the trick question and said that he was thankful to have married a woman who, like his grandmother, did not change her hairstyle, which was always beautiful.   But if she did change her hairstyle, that would be beautiful too.

He also wisely declined to comment on whether the Duchess was packing it on as the pregnancy progressed but snappers none the less made efforts to get the burgeoning mum-to-be to stand against the light and turn sideways.

New Year's Day 2013

To Whitby for a dash in the sunshine. Parking on top of the cliff the wind naturally tried to grab my hat and throw it in the sea, but I'm wise to that trick and had it firmly fixed on.  Walking down in to the town there is the protection of the cliffs so the wind drops.  As you may have seen, the rain combined with poorly maintained drains have caused a serious landslip just below the church.

None of this deterred the thousands of visitors today so the restaurants, pubs and any shop which cared to open did a fair trade.  Lunch was at Mr Chips in Church Street, down beyond the swing bridge in the sheltered moorings of the Esk, where Mr Raft had the selection platter to try everything.

As this is the Goth Capital their seasonal decorations were in the festive Goth colours of  red, black and silver. So, just like normal really, but in a festive arrangement which should be easy to copy and requires no maintenance since none of it is alive.

After lunch we wandered along and found an alley which I had not noticed before although it has always been there.  Since 1982 - how on earth can can I have missed it? -  it has housed the Washhouse Pottery where Laureen Shaw produces pots and tiles which riff on traditional Delft designs.



She and her husband also rent out the house they restored, Pottery Cottage.  The third photo down on that link is of the pottery which leads in to the courtyard where the cottage is.  Bought a sweet little slab coaster for the desk in a fish design.

 Walked back to One-O-Five, the jet workshop where Kevin Dixon was spending the last day of his season producing jewellery and carving exquisite jet sculptures.  As of tomorrow, he's shutting up the shop and going to his annual retreat and source of inspiration, watching animals in the jungle. I think that's why his tiny lizards, bats, rabbits and snakes seem ready to dash out of the display cabinet. He'll be back at Easter, ready for another eight months.

The snag with the job is that it is a seven-day-a-week business now that Whitby has visitors from Easter to New Year.  Kevin remembers when they used to roll up the road just after the summer holidays and store it with the deck chairs in the pavillion.  Unfortunately for Whitby, it is ruled from Scarborough which has failed to get on with setting up the park and ride schemes which tourism needs if lack of access is not to deter people from spending their money down in the town.

Whitby has much more in common with the other towns along the Esk valley; they should be making their own decisions in their own interest, not being treated as a source of  car parking revenue for Scarborough's benefit.   Freedom for Whitby!

Remembrance 2012

It has been a kind Remembrance Sunday; dry, bright and cool. 

The cathedral was full to the doors.

The falling of petals during the silence is appreciated by mourners; 

they file quietly to the altar afterwards to take photos. 

Some take a petal as a relic.

For those who prefer a secular Act of Remembrance, the town centre was also full.

People choose to remember; they do not forget.

My favourite Wiki - Supranational European Bodies

This lovely Euler diagram shows that there are alternative bodies we could be members of in a way which is very easy to see.  It's only like a gym membership package or choosing which insurance options to take on a policy. Just move your flag to where you'd rather be. 

Where we ought to move to is a matter for debate, and there could be some additional rules which link certain memberships so that if you want to be in one, you have to be in another, which might constrain which group(s) we go in to.

However, Switzerland seems to do pretty well by being in The Council of Europe, EFTA and the Schengen area.  Admittedly they still have the rulings of the EFTA court to deal with but then, if you are forming mutual trade agreements you must expect there to be a way of arbitrating when club members disagree.

The main thing to grasp is that when David Cameron makes oozy noises about a referendum and Tory ignoramuses pretend you can pick and choose which part of EU law to comply with, either they haven't done their homework or they are telling a flat lie in the hope of electoral success. It's not an in-or-out issue to frighten the children with.

Yes, we can leave the European Union and survive. No, we won't necessarily lose all our memberships although we might have to ask EFTA nicely if they would admit us.  No, we don't really need permission to go. Lawyers will tell you they can't undo this, that or the other.  Tell them we are going to resile, repeal the ECA72, and if they won't get on with the job then, like Cardinal Wolsey, they'll be replaced with Thomas Cromwell.

If it's good enough for Henry VIII, it's good enough for us.

.....
See also Switzerland News

Baker - Job of the Month

Back in God's Own Country to continue my vital research in to Yorkshire tearooms.  A perfect opportunity has emerged for one lucky person: Lewis and Cooper want a part-time cook/baker in their tearoom in Northallerton.

Lewis and Cooper's is a grocery shop of units grown-together over the last 112 years.  It specialises in top-quality foods and wine for the discerning diner, cook and host. A wander through their food halls, which grow like a cave system back in to the depths of the building, is an exotic trip back in time. Unlike the deracinated supermarkets, aromas from all round the world waft from the deli, the bakery supplies and faintly from the chiller cabinets. There are bargains; I've had top-notch free range chickens at standard prices and it is the best source for bulk lavender flowers.

Above the shop are parlours set with snowy tables which look out over the high street.

I hold Strong Views on the food in L&C. With the exception of a dispute about the finest kippers, it is the best tearoom because it has philosophy of preparing food for the mouth and stomach rather than the eyes.  This is not to suggest the food is ugly, but it is for consumption, not modelling.

When you sit in the parlour and look across the road and down the high street you see the mighty Bettys,  the twinkling establishment patronised by the Alan Bennett-loving classes. A religious divide opens at this point between those who favour the international polish of the Swiss-influenced Bettys and the British approach of  L&C. 

This is not to imply that Betty's uses anything other than superb ingredients; it's just that they craft witty look-at-me fancies while L&C prefer to serve an exquisite scone with local butter, cream and strawberry jam. 

The difference in approach is reflected in the recruitment policy. Lewis and Cooper are looking for a tip-top home baker and cook.

Contact Becky Robinson on 01609 772 880 for details and an application form. 

Where the Buffalo Roam

If the Essex police get tired of sightings of lions and tigers and bears, oh my, they can book a safari in  North Yorkshire  where they will see majestic herds of buffalo and deer sweeping down from the Hambleton Hills.

These magnificent specimen followed our trailer and began to run and jump just like in the Westerns.  While the water buffalo and highland cattle are disinclined to break in to a trot and demand to have the carrots brought to them, the American buffalo - Bison bison, so good they named them twice - are wild animals and always remember that they are supposed to be on a long journey. 

They've settled in well to Yorkshire; the hottest summer days are a trial to them but they are cheerful in the winter and their whole body is adapted to deal with  snow on grassland.  They appreciate some top-up hay and yummy carrots but, unlike the conventional cattle, they don't have to be brought indoors and coddled through to spring.

Up close it's easy to see why the Great Plains people deified the animals; they look at you quietly but with a wary curiosity.  There is definitely Somebody Home. The shaggy fur at the front looks soft and clean; they don't smell. The flanks are much finer skin, almost felty by the look of it - but they won't let you touch them.

This could be tricky. The whole point of them is to find a source of meat which is yummy, lean and unmodified by modern animal husbandry such as antibiotics, but after five minutes they begin seem like huge quiet spirits; things you'd rather have around than not.

The meat is wonderful my co-tasters advise. But I ended up eating venison and orange burger and iron-age pig sausage.  Those are animals which are either air-heads or are bred to be eaten.

These buffalo are spooky, as if they have raced off the cave wall and never changed in all the 20,000 years, still wondering about those annoying apes.

Langthorne's  farm shop, cafe and farm tours, 

Northallerton, North Yorkshire, DL6 2PD
 

Blue Moon

You can have a religious argument about the definitions of "a blue moon".  Whatever, this month contains the novelty of two full moons in one calendar month.

As it was so cloudy at the first full moon I wasn't able to see it so I'm hoping for better weather on Friday night. The August moon(s) are my favourite; she floats over the fens and fields as if looking for her own reflection in the water and windows.  The great harvesters creep over the land late in to the evening, half-paddle-steamer, half-dragon, then they vanish improbably by daylight as if they went back to giant burrows.

Logically, everyone knows the moon is a faraway rock but when you look at that silver white disc - or a ruby moon which I've seen - it is impossible to think of it as merely subjectively beautiful; she's objectively, intrinsically beautiful and always was long before there were any humans to wonder if you could reach her.

In 2005 Andrew Smith published his series of interviews with the astronauts who had done more than just wonder.  Standing at the pinnacle of thousands of years of technological development they had been able to answer the question: what's it like to go to the moon?

"Moondust - in search of the men who fell to Earth" was updated in 2009 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.  It is now 40 years since the final manned Apollo mission and  Smith's book puts the programme in to its historical context. He secured interviews from the remaining moonmen, including email exchanges with Neil Armstrong who clarified many factual points about the mission.

Thank goodness Armstrong's mission was successful.  The emergency speech had already been written in case anything went wrong.  And yet, as Smith's book shows, there is curious sense in which the eulogy remains true; the moonmen suffered a kind of death because their old selves would not exist thereafter and nothing they would do subsequently could quite compare with those few days.

This full moon will not have Neil Armstrong beneath it. I believe she'll be looking for him.
............

Moondust - in search of the men who fell to Earth
Andrew Smith, Bloomsbury 2005, update 2009
ISBN 978 1 4088 02380

Wanna buya Peter Oborne nuddy calendar?

Clutching a lace hanky and smelling salts, Peter Oborne launches in to Prince Harry on the basis that he shouldn't be having all this FUN with a willing young woman in case it fuels the fires of Republicanism.

Really? There has been comment about what we pay for the Prince, but then there would be anyway even if Harry was a cross between Cliff Richard and Mother Theresa. Even the staunchest anti-monarchist I know doesn't think that a young man doing something legal with a consenting adult in the privacy of his own hotel room should be pilloried because a scumbag took photos they should not have.

But since they did, let's be clear: this is a PR triumph.

The overwhelming response has been "Yaaaayyy, go for it Hazza" with a muttered side order of "Lucky sod, he even photographs well".  See our Prince? That one, the one who has plenty of blood in his veins, enough to raise a flagpole, well, that's how a Tudor prince is supposed to look. That's how we like 'em, as if they can kiss and fight and have a go at a serenade.

Of course, this would look saddo if he were still playing strip billiards in ten years time and begun to look as if his skin needed ironing, and the pretty girls exchanged for hanging about with creepy-looking ladyboys the way his great-uncle went over  the late Wallis Simpson, so he shouldn't make a life-long habit of it.

But right now the wisdom of Max Bialystock applies:  When you  got it, baby, flaunt it.

Festival City

Edinburgh is rife with festivals.  There is even a website listing them.   The city is the setting for a new novella by John Robertson Nicoll called The Balloon Man in Edinburgh.

On a fine Spring day in Edinburgh a strange, shabby little man alights from the train at Waverley Station and makes a beeline for Princes Street Gardens bearing gifts for the squirrels that inhabit the trees there. He meets an old Polish gentleman who, feeling sorry for the little "tramp", offers him free temporary accommodation in his large house on the edge of the City's New Town. But old Josef doesn't know what he has let himself or his tenants in for. Over the next few days the old landlord, poor lovelorn Miss Laird and the crook, Driscoll, will all feel the effect of Buster's presence and their lives will be changed forever.

Currently it is available in a Kindle edition, £1.78, and there is a free Kindle app for those of us - like me - who haven't got a Kindle and want to read it on the PC. 

John R Nicoll also has a blog and is supposed - nudge nudge - to be getting on with writing an important fact-based play about Scotswoman  Jane Haining, who refused to abandon the pupils under her care when the Nazis took power in Hungary. 

At the risk of saying something nice.....

Last summer we saw the worst of our youth in the looting and rioting events.  This year there has been a surprisingly touching and noble contradiction; look, they are healthy, they are sporting, they are doing something which involves aspiration and applied effort rather than blaming society.

The reservations about the Olympics  have to be assessed in context:  yes, it's hideously expensive but at least we have something to show for the money, unlike the billions we've shoveled in to the pockets of foreign dictators, pretending that it will help their wretched citizens, or the money we chuck every day down the hole of the EU.

For a start, the Kings Cross concourse is a marvel of engineering.  I look forward to the day they finally undo the bodge which was made of the original frontage but so far the job has been good.

Mayor Boris Johnson  has done well - a Pericles of our age, just like he always wanted to be - in wrangling the city in to a half-way decent condition.  It is a mammoth job as London has been bedeviled by corruption and incompetence since the day the Luftwaffe went home and left the rest of the destruction of communities to the brown-envelope and and system-build brigade.

Socialist utopia, my foot; those estates were clearly built by people who were devoid of talent or taste; it's probably a compliment to think they were bribed - they were probably so dim that they honestly thought they were building something pretty.  As it is, the average Victorian prison or workhouse compares favourably to the Pembury Estate.

There's still a long way to go but at least a start has been made.  The more those tower blocks come down, the better things will be.

Just how much better things are getting might not show to the average Londoner who is there every day but on my last visit there was one  small thing which made me think "Wow" and it won't be apparent to every visitor to this blog.

The toilets under Piccadilly Circus are finally working as they should be in a civilised city.  

Frankly, it was a surprise to find them open, but to find them with an attendant, spotlessly clean and not like unto the devil's arsehole was such a shock that I went back for a second visit in case I'd dreamt it.  There has to be an attendant; that prevents them becoming drugs-exchanges and doss-houses.  Chuck out the lesbian out-reach 5-a-day coordinators and hire lavatory attendants and watch your civic culture improve.

My wish is that in addition to good toilets, Boris considers re-introducing that civilising thing, the drinking fountain, where any passer by, no matter how rich or poor, can get a drink of safe, clean water to keep them from fainting.  It would also to cut down on all the manky plastic bottles floating about.

It can be done;  I give you Bergamo, which has the most wonderful water, like liquid light, freely dispensed from drinking fountains all across the city. Let MacDonald's sponsor the fountains; they can put their logo on it if they like; they can still sell their burgers, orange juice and hot coffee but a sip of water and a safe place to wash your hands should be freely available everyone in the city and ultimately to everyone on the planet.

A cheery picture

Saw this down at the tip, lurking at the bottom of a skip.

Didn't rescue it. 

Paul Chambers Twitter Trial - post mortem

 "We have concluded that, on an objective assessment, the decision of the crown court that this 'tweet' constituted or included a message of a menacing character was not open to it.

"On this basis, the appeal against conviction must be allowed."

You can see how the magistrate at Doncaster magistrate's court in May 2010 may have been baffled by the high-power prosecution from the Crown Prosecution Service.  In a string of cases over the past two years they have been misapplying law which is broadly written so that they can use it when they need to. Instead, various jobsworths have been trying to score departmental points by bringing novelty cases which should never have got past the screening such as the golliwog in the window and the ludicrous John Terry case.

Paul Chambers was fined  and ordered to pay £600 costs  after being convicted of sending "a message of a menacing character", contrary to provisions of the 2003 Communications Act.  This famous message:

"Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

Much harder to see is why Judge Jacqueline Davies, sitting with two magistrates, dismissed his appeal his appeal in November 2010, saying that the electronic communication was "clearly menacing". 

It's clearly NOT menacing. Nobody gives you 'a week and a bit' in a threat.  In the context of the delay being down to snow, it was obviously a self-referential jibe at the expense of people who say unreasonable things.

There were linguists all over explaining the classic form of the joke, plus the fact that Chambers was fully identified, which should have given her a clue.  Maybe the two magistrates also on the bench were too much in awe of her, too sympathetic, to do what they should have done - take her aside and offer her a drink of water or maybe she should let somebody else hear the case? Maybe somebody not so het-up about personal matters?

Judge Jacqueline Davies lost her much loved husband,  Paul Clark  in  October 2008 and had trekked across the Sinai Desert in memory of him in 2009

Invent Partners thought she was just ignorant of the technology and so relied on what ever gubbins the CPS told her.  They sent an open letter, but not, unfortunately, until it was already obvious that she didn't understand what she had been told.

The nub of it is this: either Jacqueline Davies is a woman who doesn't speak English well enough to understand a joke or her personal grief intruded in to her judgment so that she failed to back-stop the CPS lawyers on the make.  The airport staff are absolved; they just have to report this rubbish, not take a view on it.

None of the magistrates come out of this well; they are supposed to be bastions of common sense under the common law, but at least three here allowed themselves to be cowed, or maybe they also didn't understand what they were being asked to rule on.

My condolences to Her Honour Judge Jacqueline Davies, but grief and ignorance are a bad mix at any time, disastrous in a judge who has not only to sentence the guilty but perform the function of stopping the state - in the person of the CPS this time - from oppressing the innocent citizen.

Judge Jacqueline Davies won't be the only judge who has been wrong-footed by the CPS.  It has been bringing cases, reckless as to whether it is likely to win or lose because it is using the process as punishment.

Paul Chambers had his life turned upside down, lost his job, has a criminal record which although quashed will always be revealed by an enhanced CRB check,  by CPS workers who have managed to hide behind a judge.

He is owed a huge  apology, reparations, and a job for life at the CPS as he now knows much more about the law than they do.

Update 11/04/2013

At the end of 2012 the CPS issued interim guidelines about the prosecution of alleged offences concerning the social media.

Here are the interim guidelines

Captain Haddock - Gone Fishing

I am richer for having read him, poorer now that he is gone.  Can a blogger make a difference?  Captain Haddock did since to read him was reassurance that pockets of sanity remain in this country. 

Condolences to the family and great thanks for giving his friends and readers, via Max,  the opportunity to express their thanks for his life.


The late Captain Haddock was a prolific commenter but also ran several blogs that carried detailed information about his interests which he illustrated beautifully.

Opinion and investigations - Something Fishy


The Captain's sea angling blog, Fishy Fishy contains, in the first comments, a poignant conversation with another much-missed writer, Mutley The Dog.

His great love of Wiltshire was chronicled and particularly beautifully photographed in his blog Wiltshire Flag.

May he rest in peace, which he loved so much.  

Update:

I'm most humbled by your gracious comments ...but it's a case of mistaken identity....another Captain Haddock....who I have seen from time to time around the blogs...

Apologies.  My condolences to the family of the other Captain Haddock, but rejoicing that this one is still with us. 
 

Five Rings to Rule Them

Amazon is carrying the Official Olympic Wenlock Police Figurine

You may care to read the reviews.  

I DON'T KNOW WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS TALKING ABOUT, THIS IS A GREAT TOY, IT IS FUN TO PLAY WITH AND MAKES ME FEEL help me PROUD TO BE BRITISH. IT IS MODERN IN DESIGN AND it's watching me REPRESENTS ALL THAT IS GREAT ABOUT OUR COUNTRY AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES WHICH WILL BE GREAT please THE IOC ARE DOING A FANTASTIC JOB AND OF COURSE SOME PEOPLE ARE GOING TO MAKE SOME MONEY OUT OF IT, BUT THAT'S FINE BECAUSE it's going to take my pets away THAT'S THE WAY OF THE WORLD THESE DAYS. WHAT'S SO WRONG ABOUT MACDONALD'S I SAY AND COKE THEY i don't want to die ARE TASTY. IN CONCLUSION YOU SHOULD BUY ONE. 

........................

 After purchasing this toy I was surprised that it unpacked itself and it's surface to air missile system in my back garden. After a test firing of the missile (which passed through my kitchen, down the hall, through the open front door before slamming into Mrs Greyson's house at number 17) all I can say is that a single eye must clearly hamper effective depth perception. I am inclined to think the toy is unsuitable for small children and neighbours opposite. 

.............................
 

By 

peculiar "andrew_eccentric"

 This toy is worse than masturbating to a picture of Lord Coe, official overlord of the 2012 Olympics. And believe me, I've tried.

Update:  some commenters have noticed that Wenlock reprises that masterpiece of the 20th Century, Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for Figures for the Base of a Crucifixion."  Especially the middle one.

Summer Sponge Pudding

Despite the rain the garden has given usable fruit.  A dish of pearly blackcurrants, emerald gooseberries and ruby wild strawberries.  

Two or three cups full, that's all you need for a summer sponge pudding.


Wash and prepare the fruit, place it in the bottom of a pudding basin and add a decent dredge of sugar.  Put it in a cool oven while you mix up the sponge.  If you do this, it makes the cooking time more reasonable.


Mix up sponge topping made from;
 2 oz sugar
 2 oz butter
 1 egg
 3 oz self-raising flour
 and a splash of milk.  

The consistency should be soft so that it drops off the spoon.  Take out the warm fruit, turn up the oven to about gas mark 5, and add the sponge topping . Add an extra sprinkle of sugar on the top for prettiness. 

Bake at gas mark 5 for about 30 minutes. Check that a knife comes out of the sponge cleanly. If not, leave it for 5 minutes longer until it is ready.   

You can cook this on cold fruit but it seems to take much longer to reach the temperature which makes the sponge puff up. 

Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.