Wednesday, February 26, 2003

So the Mr Bond the FBI wanted is not the Mr Bond the South Africans had in custody, you couldn't see that one coming could you? Interestingly the FBI claim they were tipped off by 'someone with an English accent that the other Mr Bond was in Las Vegas and his real name wasn't Mr Bond. What I think many would like to know is firstly, how come the 72 year old grandfather sat in a cell for three weeks when it could have been sorted out in less than 48 hours and secondly why did the FBI only get off it's collective behind when the media got involved? Under the present circumstances the solicitor for the Bond family Andrew Greggs comment that, "The lesson in this is that we cannot rely on American Intelligence as it is not always 100% reliable," is rather pertinent.
As the Iraq debate continues I was sent this regarding a speech made by Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia to the Senate Floor. It's not only eloquant but touches almost all aspects of the Iraq question rather neatly. "To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war. Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the United States Senate, paralyzed by our own uncertainty, seemingly stunned by the sheer turmoil of events. Only on the editorial pages of our newspapers is there much substantive discussion of the prudence or imprudence of engaging in this particular war. And this is no small conflagration we contemplate. This is no single attempt to defang a villain. This coming battle, if it materializes, represents a turning point in U.S. foreign policy and possibly a turning point in the recent history of the world. This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in future -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. This administration, now in power for a little over two years, must be judged on its record. I believe that record is dismal. In that scant two years, this Administration has squandered a large projected surplus of some $ 5.6 trillion over the next decade and taken us to projected deficits that are as far as the eye can see. In foreign policy, this Administration has failed to find Osama Bin Laden. This Administration has split traditional alliances, possibly crippling for all time, International order-keeping entities like the United Nations and NATO. This Administration has called into question the traditional worldwide perception of the United States as well-intentioned, peacekeeper.This Aministration has turned the aptient art of diplomacy into threats, labelling and name calling of the sort that reflects quite poorly on the intelligence and sensitivity of our leaders, and which will have consequences for years to come. Calling heads of state pygmies, labelling whole countries as evil, denigrating powerful European allies as irrelevant -- these types of crude insensitivities can do our great nation no good. We may have massive military might, but we cannot fight a global war on terrorism alone. The war in Afghanistan has cost us $ 37 billion so far, yet there is evidence that terrorism may already be starting to regain its hold in that region. We have not found Bin Laden, and unless we secure the peace in Afghanistan, the dark dens of terrorism may yet again flourish in that remote and devastated land. In only the space of two years this reckless and arrogant Administration has initiated policies which may reap disastrous consequences for years. We are truly "sleepwalking through history ". In my heart of hearts I pray that this great nation and its good trusting citizens are not in for a rudest of awakenings. I truly must question the judgement of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is "in the highest moral traditions of our country ". This war is not necessary at this time. Pressure is having results in Iraq. Our mistake was to put ourselves in a corner so quickly. Our challenge is now to find a graceful way out of a box of our own making. Perhaps there is still a way if we allow more time."

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

A 72 year old grandfather from Bristol is on the FBI's most wanted list for a multi million dollar fraud in Texas. It would seem however that the FBI has picked on the wrong Derek Bond and should be defrosting a large piece of humble pie. What does seem odd is that it's taken them three weeks to take a picture of Mr Bond to prove he looks like the Mr Bond they're after, a digital camera and email would have probably sorted this out in less than a hour. If this is the wrong Derek Bond, all Derek Bonds of pensionable age should think twice before leaving the country.

Monday, February 24, 2003

Whilst watching the rather excellent X-Men I was minded of the fact that this week is the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of DNA. Well discovery is not quite right, DNA had been know about for sometime but what Francis Crick and James Watson did was much more significant, they deciphered the complicated double helix structure. And so significant was Watson and Cricks work that Nobel Laureate Peter Medawar believes, 'It is simply not worth arguing with anyone so obtuse as not to realise that this complex of discoveries is the greatest achievements of science in the twentieth century'. I am inclined to agree with him.

Sunday, February 23, 2003

Some people collect old books, some collect matchboxes, a mate of mine collects phone cards and another friend has a collection of unfinished vehicle restorations in his garage. For me it's the stuff I played with as a kid like subbuteo and scalextric but the biggest part of the collection is taken up by board games. Now I mention this because I recently found a web site which is a veritable cornucopia of things games related, in board games terms it's the mother lode. And the most popular game amongst the cognoscenti? A Rio Grande title called 'Puerto Rico'. Nope I'd never head of it either but it's now on my list.

Tuesday, February 18, 2003

I’m beginning to see more and more rumours and predictions about the upcoming Thunderbirds movie appearing on the web. The director’s chair has been given to Jonathon Frakes of Star Trek fame along with a budget of about $75 million and the words of Polygram boss Michael Kuhn ringing in his ears, "This won't be another Avengers". But from most of what I’m reading is that it will be just that. The original idea was to make a family oriented film for all ages but this seems to have been scraped for one aimed at the under tens, I suppose they tend to eat more Happy Meals than anyone else after all. Also someone has read the new script and as you can guess it sucks. Another worrying point is that Frakes knew nothing of the popularity of Thunderbirds until he got the job. He also thought the original series was “pretty wacko” and the film will have “a Spy Kids meets James Bond kind of vibe.” Oh dear! And there was me thinking Thunderbirds it was about huge explosions, huge machines and rescuing people. If they get this movie wrong may god forgive them because I for one won't.

Monday, February 17, 2003

With my recent attempt at becoming a pundit on Radio 4 I have been giving the current situation with Iraq some careful consideration and although the radio debate was an attempt to help those of us who were undecided I still find my self sitting on the fence. Those of you who know me will be aware that ‘fence sitting’ is not something I normally do. The problem for me is that the arguments about Iraq are not as binary as they seem, both sides position’s having merit but are riddled with inconsistencies and not a little bit of hubris. So indulge me as I look at both sides of the argument to see if can make the situation a little less confusing or possibly not as the case may be. The Doves The basis of the Dove’s argument is that war is a bad thing and in one stroke appear to win the argument; they also suggest that any attack on Iraq will play into the hands of the extremists and plunge the whole of the Middle East into conflict. Whilst everyone agrees with the first point I’m not so sure about the second. Also if marching into Iraq is a ‘no no’ what they don’t do is tell us is how we deal with Mr Hussain and his odious regime or whether we should deal with him at all, as sanctions have proved ineffective and the Iraqi regime continues to thumb its nose at the UN. Containment or a second resolution are unlikely to be quick enough for the thousands of Iraqis he and his cronies continue to torture, gas and murder. In addition the Anti War movement have to be very careful about whom it chooses as allies as two of its main proponents, The Socialist Workers Party and The British Association of Muslims make strange bedfellows. The first has an obvious political agenda and the latter, as Nick Cohen in The Observer points out, have circulated a newsletter that suggests that apostasy from Islam is ‘punishable by death’, not I suggest a view held by many of the marchers last weekend. One also has to wonder how many peoples view of the Iraqi conflict are coloured by their view of the Americans, which brings me neatly to... The Hawks The basis of the Hawk’s argument is that Sadam Hussain is a despot who not only threatens his own people but everyone else by supporting terrorist groups and possessing weapons of mass destruction. However this raises the important question of why Iraq and why now? The link between Al-Qaeda is unproven and although the Iraqis once had such weapons the inspectors have found no evidence they still do. OK they may just have hidden them away but if you want to send 120,000 troops into Iraqi you better be pretty sure you know where they are. Also what about handful of other countries who are probably a bigger threat to world stability like North Korea or those with have just as bad if not worse human right records like Saudi Arabia? Or even those still in breach of UN resolutions like Israel? No one seems to trust the Americans to ‘do the right thing’, after all their record in regards to Iraqi is not good, first funding Sadam Hussain when Iran was seen as the Middle East’s pariah them abandoning the fledgling democratic movement to their fate after the Gulf War. Then of course there’s the oil.
It occurred to me the other day that I live in the middle of celebrity central. Not ‘A-List’ celebrity central I hasten to add but in ‘I-recognise-the-face-but-can’t-quite-remember-the-name’ celebrity central. I thought therefore I'd use the blog as record of whom I spot and share it with my small but worthy readership. Sunday in Richmond Park who should pass me but crime fighting duo Dempsey and Makepeace, well Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber actually, walking the dog and small child. Incidently Glynis is still a bit of a babe.

Saturday, February 15, 2003

With the UN in turmoil, light tanks at Heathrow and a man with a grenade in his luggage the news that England were beaten by Australia at football, that’s soccer for anyone who thinks people who play football should wear forty pounds of body armour, has passed by without the national angst that it might has coursed under normal circumstances. Let’s hope the delicious irony that the combined wage bill for the Australian team would probably be covered by the spare change David Beckham left in the changing room wasn’t lost on at least a few people.

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

I’ve been listening to the BBC Radio Play version if Lord of the Rings and it’s quite brilliant. For Tolkien purists it follows the book closely and you understand pretty quickly why in transfer to silver screen the narrative was heavily modified. The voice acting is superb and the cast impressive, with Ian Holm as Frodo, Michael Hordern as Gandalf, Peter Woodthorpe's brilliantly plays the slimy, creepy Gollum and the late John Le Mesurier as Bilbo to name but a few. Even with a running time of thirteen hours some stuff still had to go,and diehards will start whinging by the dropping of 'minor' characters such as Tom Bombadil, who incidently didn't make it into the film either but it must be remembered that to dramatise the entire book 'uncut' would have been totally impractical. The only downer is the price, at about £50 it will be too steep for some but why not do what my mates did…borrow it.

Sunday, February 09, 2003

With the current farrago over public sector pay the government picked a perfect moment to give the Lord Chancellor a 12.9% pay rise. Whilst it would seem 3% is about all teachers seem to be worth the Lord Chancellor, whose taste in top quality wallpaper is well documented, is up for an increase greater than some teachers annual take home. I’m not sure what planet this logic comes from but it’s certainly not earth. If the government is serious about pay restraint, Gordon Brown speaks of little else at the moment, they have to realise that to have any credibility pay restraint in the public sector means all public employees playing by the same rules…even politicians.

Saturday, February 08, 2003

My career as a radio pundit started and also sadly ended today as I took part in a debate about the war in Iraq for Radio 4’s rather excellent weekly news programme Broadcasting House, and I’m not just saying that because I’m on it. As someone who doesn’t have a firm view on the virtues or not of a war in Iraq I was asked to join in a debate with two public figures who do. They were, and I don’t think he’ll mind me for saying this the veteran left wing journalist and author Paul Foot and Michael Gove the right of centre commentator and assistant editor of the Times. We got to say why we are still one of the small number of people who are undecided about a bun fight in Iraq, they got to put their positions and we then got to ask them questions, all of course under the watchful eye of Eddie Mair. What stuck me about both Paul Foot and Micheal Gove was what thoroughly likeable people they were and Eddie Mair is as charming and witty as you imagine him to be. Listen to me make an arse of myself by going to the listen again section of the BH website or catch it tomorrow morning at 9:00.

Thursday, February 06, 2003

On the drive to work this morning I was struck by the utter futility of those ‘Baby On Board’ notices people hang in the rear windows of their cars. Accidents are typically things you don’t intend to happen so a ‘Baby On Board’ notice is not going to act like shields on the USS Enterprise, protecting you from the jack knifing lorry deflecting it into some other unfortunate. An extreme example maybe but you take my point. If the fates decide that some someone is going to drive into you a ‘Baby On Board’ notice is up there with chocolate fire guards and SUVs. Come to think of it even more pointless is a SUV with a ‘Baby On Board’ notice.

Tuesday, February 04, 2003

One of the most important constitutional debates for a long time is going on in the UK at the moment, but is either overshadowed by the upcoming bun fight in Iraq or because it’s to do with politics people just don’t care. The House of Lords or the Second Chamber is up for a bit of reformation and it looks like Mr Blair is about to u-turn on a promise to make it rather more democratic than it is at the moment. The reason for the discussion is an obvious one, only in countries that don’t bother with inconvenient things like elections would an arm of the legislature consist of hundreds of unelected individuals. What is seems Mr Blair wants to do is maintain the status quo and keep the second house a wholly appointed body, whilst others including those in his own party want at least a proportion of seats elected. Maybe our leader needs to be reminded what the word democracy means, because you have to be naive beyond belief to imagine that the appointment of unelected members wouldn’t be tainted by political meddling.

Sunday, February 02, 2003

With the over turning of the Sally Clark case you have to start wondering whether or not those who vilified Mrs Clark will now eat humble pie. Much of the evidence against her has been found to be rather feeble, the most obvious being Professor Roy Meadows assertion that the likelihood of two cot deaths in the same family is somewhere in the region of seventy three million to one. As it happens the quite the opposite is true. Oddly the data he used, based on a study of eighty one cases of Cot Death, was shredded before it could be studied by Sally Clark’s defence QC who commented, “It is therefore impossible to examine the claimed scientific basis for his opinions.” So that’s a portion of the aforementioned pie for our adversarial legal system, which is about who creates the best legal argument however bogus, rather than finding the truth. The other is for the media especially the print media who as always were rather quick to judge and by and large rather slow to admit it was wrong.