Blair Must Go

The Metropolitan Police have been found guilty in a criminal court of causing the death of an innocent man, and yet the Commissioner says that he won't resign. This is sadly sympotomatic of modern society, where people seem to want the power without the responsibility that came with it. I think politicians started acting like this when John Major was at number 10, and it has carried on since Labour came to power.

The bottom line is that there are times when the person leading an organisation must take responsibility for the actions of that organisation. This is one of those times. However much Blair tried to justify himself today (and his comments outside of court were cringeworthy) he is the man at the top and his organisations actions have been proved, beyond reasonable doubt, to have caused the death of an innocent man. For him to stay in post now would be to drag the Metropolitan Police even further into the gutter than they already are. Likewise the officer in direct charge of the operation, Commander Dick, should also resign. The jury may have said that they attach no personal blame to her but she headed up that unit and they caused the mans death.

One point that needs now to be looked at was why this matter even went to trial. Why didn't the Metropolitan police plead guilty and admit what they have done wrong? Why did they try and blame the victim, and try and exonerate themselves? The honourable thing to do would have been to accept that they had failed Mr De Menzes and his family, but they didn't even have the decency to do this. Every day the police seek confessions from suspected criminals for teh crimes that they have committed and yet the police themselves were unwilling to admit their own criminality.

Ever since Mr De Menzes was shot I've wondered where this shoot to kill policy of the police came from? How do they possibly think that this could have been lawful? The police are allowed to use reasonable force to restrain or arrest someone, and at times this could equate to lethal force. However to have a policy of shoot to kill is something different altogether, and yet the police adopted it without any public discussion or concensus, and without seeking the approval of parliament.

Vote Nick Clegg

Sad to see Ming step down but I think it was pretty inevitable. The King is dead, long live the King. I hope Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, will put his name in the hat and if so he'll get my vote for leader. Nick is a former Euro-MP for the East Midlands and I have now doubt could lead us onward to victory.

Fixed Term Parliaments

All the farce about a possible election over the past few weeks has led me once again to consider the benefits of fixed term parliaments. Other countries operate this quite successfully so why shouldn't we. At the moment the Government of the day can choose the timing of the election and inevitably pick a time which most suits them. This is acting in their interests, but not necessarily the country's interests.

Surely in a modern democracy we can cope with fixed length parliaments, preferably of four years in duration. That was everyone knows where they are and this silly phoney war doesn't happen. If we were really bold and coupled it with sensible hours for parliament actually sitting ans introduced more efficient voting methods then we could make it somewhere where things actually got done.

Brown Running Scared

So Gordon Brown has announced that there won't be an election this year. After allowing so much speculation to occur it's obvious taht he was intending to go to the country in November, so he's obviously beeen worried by recent poll results. I don't mean opinion polls, but genuine votes in genuine elections. The 1,000 votes that Labour lost, mostly to the Lib-Dems, in the Coalville by election on Thursday must have helped to make up his mind. Where people are offered a choice they are turning more and more to the Lib-Dems, and that must worry Labour half to death.

Is This Really How Richard Branson Wants To Make His Millions?

As I've said below (and by the way, thank you for all the messages of support following my last post) I've been targetted by a silent caller. Thankfully this has now stopped. There is now a bar on the phone line so that withheld numbers can't get through. However I've had to really battle with Virgin Media, whose phone system I use, to get anything done.

When I first rang the malicious calls bureau at Virgin Media all they were interested in doing was selling me new products. Apparently they think that silent calls are a good way to make money. Their so called customer service advisors seem to be nothing more than sales people. Frankly I was appalled that they want to make extra profit out of people in this way. The advice that they gave me was also wrong. They told me that:

a) The police wouldn't want to do anything - not true, the police were very good and very helpful;
b) Making silent telephone calls isn't a crime - Even when I pointed out to them that I am by profession and training a criminal lawyer they stuck to this incorrect line - in case anyone has any doubt it is an offence under s2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1996 to pursue a course of conduct which causes another person harassment, alarm or distress, and this sort of behaviour is exactly what the offence is about; and
c) That is was probably just an automated dialing system - not true because we are TPS registered, an ex-directory number and I could hear someone present at the other end of the line.

The malicious calls bureau also told me that it is impossible to tell where calls have come from without having a trace on the line. Friends who work for BT tell me that this is in fact something which is very easy to do. I'm no expert on that, but I'm happy to trust the expertese of my friends. Even when the police said that they wanted a trace put on the line to check where future calls were coming from Virgin simply didn't want to play ball.

I never signed up to Virgin Media. They bought my old phone company. The temptation to now change to someone else is very strong. I feel very let down by them.

I'm sure that somewhere in the higher reaches of Virgin they will have a customer service charter or something like that. The senior management will tell themselves that they really do put customers first. Unfortunately experience on the ground shows that this is simply not the case.

Silent Telephone Calls

Someone has been targeting me with silent phone calls during the night. Frankly this sort of behaviour is pathetic. If you don't like what I stand for then come and debate the issues. I'm fully open about my beliefs and opinions, and I'm always willing to discuss them and explore other points of view. If people aren't willing to do this, and instead try and resort to campaigns of harassment and intimidation, they have already shown the weakness of their position and just how small minded they are.

I've had to report this matter to the police. They have now arranged for a trace to be placed on my telephone, and to block caller withheld calls. If it's you whose been doing this the message is simple, continue and you will be arrested and caught.

Given my criticisms of the far right parties in recent weeks I suspect that they or their supporters are behind this campaign. If so, it re-inforces my view that we need to stand up against evil, and describe it for what it is.

Salman Rushdie

I have always been amused at the ability of fellow politicians to lose all sense of perspective at various times, but the comments of a Pakistani politician about Salman Rushdie being knighted really go beyond the pail. Their religious affairs minister suggested today that the decision of the British to give Rushdie a knighthood justified suicide bombers! This is a disgrace, and coming from a country which is meant to be an ally in the so called war on terror is frankly astounding. I trust that the Pakistani government will dispense with his services forthwith to show that such comments are wholly and totally unacceptable. All right thinking people, in all right thinking worlds, should be appalled by this.

Smart Energy

I'm all in favour of promoting green energy, as you will see from my web site, and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and invest in programmes that look like they have the potential to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. However I felt it necessary to add an item here to express my concerns about this company, Smart Energy, who promote and sell solar hot water systems.

When I saw their add I thought that it looked worth exploring and e-mailed asking for someone to contact me with further details. It took them a couple of weeks but then someone did contact me and say that they could send a rep round. Generally this is comething I'm not keen on but I thought this time I'd say okay. They offered an appointment for Friday in the evening. They didn't say anything about wanting to take all night.

My concerns were raised when their sales manager "Giovanni" then rang me to give me a special promotion code to pass to the rep. I'm really not keen on this idea - give him the code and he'll give you a discount. As a consumer I want to be offered the best price straight away, not just if Giovanni thinks that it's a good idea.

On the Friday the rep came at 7.15 like we'd arranged. We had a chat and he began his sales patter. However when he was only 2 pages into his brochure after 30 minutes I asked him to speed it up a bit because we weer going out later. He say he couldn't so I suggested that we re-arrange, but instead he walked out in a huff. You know, even if I don't like someone I'm dealing with I always try and maintain good manners but this was obviously too much for them. What was even more surprising was when Giovanni the sales manager telephoned me at 9am on the Saturday morning wanting to know why we had terminated the appointment and being, frankly, unacceptably aggressive over the phone. Up until that point I would have been willing to re-arrange as the product looks quite good, but given his conduct I told him that we were no longer interested.

Maybe I just caught them at a bad time, but it seems to me that a firm which treats potential customers so badly is one that people should exercise great caution about dealing with.

The ironic thing is that I first saw their web site following a link from the Google ads that I carry to finance my own site. I'm now going to be contacting Google about having that advert removed from my site. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I was in any way endorsing this company.

Betrayal Of The Poor

Last week the G8 leaders met in Germany. Despite all the spin they tried to put on it, the content of their agreement for the third world seems to have been that they are not even going to deliver on everything that they have promised previously. Whilst they were deciding that, about 20,000 people will have died of hunger in the countries most affected by their decision. This is a disgrace.

Two years ago I was in Edinburgh for the Make Poverty History March. The strength of world feeling was very visibly demonstrated by that, and the G8 leaders responded by making a number of pledges, the same pledges that by and large they have failed to deliver and are now trying to wriggle out of. The deaths of every single person to die from hunger, malaria and other easily curable illnesses are on the hands of the G8 leaders.

Climate Change

I was sceptical when I heard that George Bush was proposing a radical new initiative to tackle climate change. Having read his proposals I'm even more sceptical. America is suggesting a series of initiatives which will benefit American companies with no real commitment from the US to cleaning up it's act. It's a sham proposal, designed to do two things. First, Dubbya hopes it will derail the chances of progress at the G8 summit next week, and second he hopes it will take some of the pressure off him during the rest of his presidency. Sorry George, but you're wrong on both counts. You have been wrong on the environment from the start of your presidency, and it seems that you are going to end it the same way, still being wrong.

Climate change is the biggest single issue facing the world today. Everyone else can see it, but those in the American administration who are still pursuing their policy of grand imperialism are turning a blind eye. America needs to act, but for the sake of the world, not it's own trade balances.

As for Tony Blairs comment that this marks a major change in American policy, this just hows what a lapdog of Bush's he is. I have nothing but contempt for that man, who with Bush I view as a war criminal.

A Question Of Democracy

The affairs of Broxtowe Borough Council have been causing a lot of discussion in the local paper over the past few weeks, so here's my take on things. There seem to be two questions, first how come the Tories aren't in power when they gained the most seats, and second what is the status of the BNP, who hold a seat in Brinsley.

First then the running of the council. this is quite simple. The voters of Broxtowe have decided not to place any one party in overall control. The Lib-Dems and the Tories are almost evenply placed, with 16 seats to 15, but we have been able to form a partnership with the other parties - Labour and the Independents - something which the Tories, despite their best efforts, were unable to do. this means that the ruling group comprises 25 seats, out of the 42 currently decided. Quite clearly therefore we do have a majority of members, hence the Lib-Dem led partnership runs the council.

Second then the BNP. A BNP councillor won a seat in Brinseley Ward, so she has a democratic right to be on the council. That doesn't mean we have to like it though. The BNP in Brinsely may be the smiling face of evil, but they are still a fascist party, and people have every right to protest against them and show their disapproval of the BNP's policies of race hate. Remember, Hitlaer was elected but no-one (except maybe the BNP) argues taht this legitimsed what he did. I hope that the protestors will continue to show their disgust for the BNP's presence.

There has been some discussion in the papers suggesting that the protestors at the last council meeting chanted through a minutes silence for Cllr Steve Doo, who tragically passed away just before the election. As someone who was actually present there may I make it clear that this did not happen. Once the crowd settled, which did take a few seconds, the silence was observed by everyone. I knew and greatly respected Steve Doo, and would have been deeply upset had the silence been disrupted, but that simply wasn't the case.

Energy Review

I am so disappointed with the outcome of the Government energy review. Whilst it says some nice things about renewables the impact of those will be totally obliterated by the Governments desire to build a new generation of nuclear power stations. Nuclear power leaves nuclear waste, and until we devise a way of getting rid of it which doesn't involve storing it for 100,000 years we ought not be going down this road.

As an island nation I am disappointed that we don't draw a lot more energy from water and wave power than we do. It seems that it's been easier to buy in technology from elsewhere (usually America) than it is to actually develop alternatives ourselves. The UK should lead the way on green energy, not come a distant runner up.

Vote For Martin

Martin Jackaman, from Nottingham City Council, has been nominated for the Council Worker of the Year award, which is selected by public vote. Martins contribution has been to design and instal a new style disabled toilet, which has had a hugely significant impact on the lives of disabled people in the city. I'm suupporting this and encouraging people to vote for Martin, not just because he is a friend, but also because I believe work which really does change peoples lives should be recognised. You can vote for Marton on line using the button on the Links page on myweb site.

Welcome To My Blog

I've just migrated my blog page to New Blogger, so forgive me if it takes a few days to get used to the system and to set my page up as I want it. One thing that I'm going to try is to allow comments on this, which I wasn't able to do using my old system.