Doesn't time just fly by? Already it's Day 20 of the kidnapping of Paul and Rachel Chandler by Somali pirates. I wonder how they are faring; if they are getting enough food etc.
Meanwhile the media has moved on and isn't reporting the story anymore.
There's one last plaintive message on their yachting blog, dated October 23rd.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Remembrance
On this day of this, at this time, 91 years ago, the French Marshal Foch, allied Commander-in-Chief and the German anti-war politician Matthias Erzberger met in a forest in Picardy, Northern France, and signed the armistice agreement which ended WWI. They were in such a hurry they never noticed that one of the pages of the document was pinned in upside-down.
What they were fighting about no-one can quite remember, but it was the Great War, the war to end all wars; that we all know.
Every year on this day we wear red plastic poppies to remember our “glorious dead” from that and subsequent wars. Some people start wearing them in late October, but frankly that’s just ostentatious. The correct form is: remembrance week only.
This year particularly, remembrance of our war dead is no great effort of recall. Every few days another funeral cortege passes through the Wiltshire market town of Wootton Bassett carrying soldiers fallen in Afghanistan on their last journey from RAF Lyneham to the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford where they come into the care of the coroner. The residents of Wootton Bassett have taken to congregating in the High Street to pay their respects as the coffins go by. At first the military authorities tried to downplay this, but now they’ve adapted to the new custom and put on a decent show with crawling black hearses led by a tall man in top hat walking at the head of the procession.
Notable by their absence at these occasions are all the politicians who sent the soldiers to war in the first place. In fact the only party leader to attend has been Nick Griffin, chairman of the BNP, who arrived unannounced, without the massive security team he needed at the BBC, and when asked by journalists for his opinion refused to comment on the grounds that it was neither the time nor the place for politics. In this, he shows a sensitivity and sureness of touch to which none of our actual leaders could ever hope to aspire.
What they were fighting about no-one can quite remember, but it was the Great War, the war to end all wars; that we all know.
Every year on this day we wear red plastic poppies to remember our “glorious dead” from that and subsequent wars. Some people start wearing them in late October, but frankly that’s just ostentatious. The correct form is: remembrance week only.
This year particularly, remembrance of our war dead is no great effort of recall. Every few days another funeral cortege passes through the Wiltshire market town of Wootton Bassett carrying soldiers fallen in Afghanistan on their last journey from RAF Lyneham to the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford where they come into the care of the coroner. The residents of Wootton Bassett have taken to congregating in the High Street to pay their respects as the coffins go by. At first the military authorities tried to downplay this, but now they’ve adapted to the new custom and put on a decent show with crawling black hearses led by a tall man in top hat walking at the head of the procession.
Notable by their absence at these occasions are all the politicians who sent the soldiers to war in the first place. In fact the only party leader to attend has been Nick Griffin, chairman of the BNP, who arrived unannounced, without the massive security team he needed at the BBC, and when asked by journalists for his opinion refused to comment on the grounds that it was neither the time nor the place for politics. In this, he shows a sensitivity and sureness of touch to which none of our actual leaders could ever hope to aspire.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
QE raised to £200bn
Today the MPC has decided to chuck another £25bn on the fire into the economy to keep us warm over the winter. They expect to have spent it by the end of February next year. That will take the total "printed" money to two hundred billion pounds. Or £200,000,000,000.00 if you prefer digits. The money is being used to buy gilts (mainly) ie, British government debt.
Strangely, if you add in the most recent bank bail-out costs, two hundred billion is just about the amount the government needs to borrow this year for its running costs.
Dogs and vomit come to mind.
BBC
Strangely, if you add in the most recent bank bail-out costs, two hundred billion is just about the amount the government needs to borrow this year for its running costs.
Dogs and vomit come to mind.
BBC
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Karadzic trial gone wrong already
Former President Karadzic, on trial at the Hague for alleged war crimes, is refusing to leave his cell to attend the court room. You see, he has been served with one million pages of evidence by the prosecution and needs time to read and digest it before the trial can begin.
I railed about the farcical Milosevic prosecution a few posts back and urged they not make the same mistakes again. But they've gone and stepped right back into the same dog turd.
Let's say Karadzic reads at one page a minute, and reads eight hours a day, for five days a week, and works 50 weeks of the year - well, in eight years' time he'll be about ready to walk into that court room.
It's tempting to think the prosecutors are their own worst enemies but let's not forget - they are being paid by the hour!
I railed about the farcical Milosevic prosecution a few posts back and urged they not make the same mistakes again. But they've gone and stepped right back into the same dog turd.
Let's say Karadzic reads at one page a minute, and reads eight hours a day, for five days a week, and works 50 weeks of the year - well, in eight years' time he'll be about ready to walk into that court room.
It's tempting to think the prosecutors are their own worst enemies but let's not forget - they are being paid by the hour!
Lisbon treay ratified
Yesterday the Czech Republic's President Klaus signed the Lisbon Treaty, rather unexpectedly, with no ceremony - he just did it. He warned a few days ago that, "the British must hold an election within the next two weeks if they want to stop this," and we didn't.
The Treaty comes into effect on the first day of the month after full ratification - so it applies from the first of December. On that day we lose 60 vetoes; any residual control over our fishing grounds, and will become Citizens of Europe; although we don't (yet) lose our member state citizenship. (They're not called member countries anymore.)
This puts the Conservatives in a little tizzy. They promised a referendum, but now Lisbon is a done deal a referendum wouldn't change anything. The best they can offer now is a referendum on any future extensions to the treaty and to be mean to Europe in some other way.
Times
The Treaty comes into effect on the first day of the month after full ratification - so it applies from the first of December. On that day we lose 60 vetoes; any residual control over our fishing grounds, and will become Citizens of Europe; although we don't (yet) lose our member state citizenship. (They're not called member countries anymore.)
This puts the Conservatives in a little tizzy. They promised a referendum, but now Lisbon is a done deal a referendum wouldn't change anything. The best they can offer now is a referendum on any future extensions to the treaty and to be mean to Europe in some other way.
Times
Monday, 2 November 2009
It's day 11 for the Chandlers
It's Day 11 for Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British yachting couple taken from their boat, the Lynn Rival, by Somali pirates as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania. Initially they were forced to sail towards the Somali coast while the pirates ransacked the vessel for items of value, and made continual demands of money from Paul and Rachel.
Then the yacht was abandoned at sea as the pirates presumably had no patience with its slow progress and transferred Paul and Rachel by speedboat to a container ship they had hijacked some time ago. While on the container ship they spoke to relatives and ITN News via satellite phone. The pirates demanded a US$7,000,000 ransom. Then the couple were taken ashore to the coastal town of Haradheere.
The problem the pirates have with the Chandlers, and they don't usually take small boats, is that all their wealth was tied up in their yacht, which was abandoned at sea and has since been recovered by the Royal Navy. There's no rich oil company to pay the ransom; they probably don't have kidnap insurance, and the British government does not (officially) ransom its citizens, or even talk to terrorists.
The pirates now have so many hostages, the crews from ships they have taken, that the advisability any military rescue attempt, even if completely successful, must be counter-balanced against reprisals on other hostages.
Apparently the COBRA committee has been considering the matter.
I'm guessing they will try to wear down the pirates, let negotiations drag on, reduce expectations, and eventually get the Chandlers "bundled" with the ransom of another vessel and its crew so they aren't seen to be paying for the release of citizens - even if they do put some money in the pot.
The UK government routinely plays down the significance of hostages. They encourage relatives to keep a low profile. This serves two purposes: it takes media pressure off the government, and it bores the kidnappers to the point they may take a negligible sum to hand over the hostages. There is considerable evidence that even when they discover where hostages are being held they prefer simply to do nothing. (Some sources indicate that the intelligence services knew Terry Waite's location for most of his 1,763 days of captivity.)
So the Chandlers had better settle in for the long haul.
Then the yacht was abandoned at sea as the pirates presumably had no patience with its slow progress and transferred Paul and Rachel by speedboat to a container ship they had hijacked some time ago. While on the container ship they spoke to relatives and ITN News via satellite phone. The pirates demanded a US$7,000,000 ransom. Then the couple were taken ashore to the coastal town of Haradheere.
The problem the pirates have with the Chandlers, and they don't usually take small boats, is that all their wealth was tied up in their yacht, which was abandoned at sea and has since been recovered by the Royal Navy. There's no rich oil company to pay the ransom; they probably don't have kidnap insurance, and the British government does not (officially) ransom its citizens, or even talk to terrorists.
The pirates now have so many hostages, the crews from ships they have taken, that the advisability any military rescue attempt, even if completely successful, must be counter-balanced against reprisals on other hostages.
Apparently the COBRA committee has been considering the matter.
I'm guessing they will try to wear down the pirates, let negotiations drag on, reduce expectations, and eventually get the Chandlers "bundled" with the ransom of another vessel and its crew so they aren't seen to be paying for the release of citizens - even if they do put some money in the pot.
The UK government routinely plays down the significance of hostages. They encourage relatives to keep a low profile. This serves two purposes: it takes media pressure off the government, and it bores the kidnappers to the point they may take a negligible sum to hand over the hostages. There is considerable evidence that even when they discover where hostages are being held they prefer simply to do nothing. (Some sources indicate that the intelligence services knew Terry Waite's location for most of his 1,763 days of captivity.)
So the Chandlers had better settle in for the long haul.
Sharia4UK march
Well, I expect you're wondering what happened on the Sharia4UK march in London on Saturday last, where the plan was for hundreds, if not thousands, of muslims to meet in Parliament Square at 1PM and then thunder down Whitehall picking up more supporters en route before arriving at Trafalgar Square for speeches. The way they made it sound Sharia would be de facto law by nightfall.
What actually happened is this: the day before they claimed to have received some email and text threats and so moved the whole shebang to an "undisclosed location". The location was so secret that in fact nobody turned up. Nothing happened.
Some English Defence League protesters did turn out; about 30 of them. They wandered down Whitehall from Trafalgar Sq, stopping off for a few minutes to pay their respects to the "Glorious Dead" at the Cenotaph. With no muslims to attack it was a very tame affair - heavily policed though.
The most significant event in Westminster that afternoon was a drive-by of about 500 motorcyclists protesting at Westminster Council's attempt to impose parking charges on bikes and tighten up the rules on parking on the pavement and such liberties. They were peaceful but noisy and doubtless very annoying for the motorists they held up for a five minutes or so.
We must conclude that Sharia in the UK is not imminent.
What actually happened is this: the day before they claimed to have received some email and text threats and so moved the whole shebang to an "undisclosed location". The location was so secret that in fact nobody turned up. Nothing happened.
Some English Defence League protesters did turn out; about 30 of them. They wandered down Whitehall from Trafalgar Sq, stopping off for a few minutes to pay their respects to the "Glorious Dead" at the Cenotaph. With no muslims to attack it was a very tame affair - heavily policed though.
The most significant event in Westminster that afternoon was a drive-by of about 500 motorcyclists protesting at Westminster Council's attempt to impose parking charges on bikes and tighten up the rules on parking on the pavement and such liberties. They were peaceful but noisy and doubtless very annoying for the motorists they held up for a five minutes or so.
We must conclude that Sharia in the UK is not imminent.
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