Crime and Punishment

All over the UK news at the moment is the fact that a former cabinet minister, Chris Huhne, is looking at some prison time after committing a criminal act.

What I can't understand is why this is so newsworthy. That fact that a politician has committed a criminal act surely cannot be that newsworthy, and the fact that he then went on to lie about also cannot be that newsworthy. Isn't that what politicians do? Break the law and tell lies?

In one respect I feel a little sorry for the manner in which Huhne has met his end, because it’s all down to his embittered ex-wife, Vicky Pryce. As a man who also has an embittered, and verging on the psychotic, ex-wife I can empathise. However, the fact that the accusations that Ms Pryce has made have turned out to be true, as opposed to my ex-wife's crazed nonsense, limits my empathy.

Huhne's problems began in 2003 when he was caught by a speed camera on a motorway. He would have incurred a fine and three penalty points on his driving licence. In the UK, if a driver amasses 12 points during a three-year period, they will be disqualified from driving for about 6 months. Penalty points also stay on the licence for four years.

It appears that he then convinced his wife, Ms Pryce, to claim that she was driving and have the points on her licence instead. By doing this, both have committed the offence of perverting the course of justice. And no doubt, no-one would have been any the wiser, had Huhne then not had an affair and decided to leave his wife.

In an obvious fit of pique, Ms Pryce then contacted a journalist and informed them of her husband pressurising people into taking his penalty points for him. When this claim was published, the Police investigated and the result was that both were charged with perverting the course of justice, and faced the possibility of several months in prison if convicted, despite both pleading not guilty.

Huhne then spent months categorically denying any wrongdoing and accusing his ex-wife of lying. Until yesterday, when, after thousands had been spent investigating and bringing the trial to court, he changed his plea to guilty and admitted everything. So it now looks likely that a custodial sentence is a lot more than a possibility.

As for his ex, she is still pleading not guilty on the grounds of marital coercion, but will probably face a similar sentence if convicted. Perhaps the best punishment for them both would be that they have to serve their sentences as cell mates!

However, compared to the sentence that  Lindsay Sandiford is facing, a few months in prison will be nothing. This British woman is currently in prison in Bali and facing execution for attempting to smuggle 4.8kg of cocaine into the country.

The biggest surprise about this is that there can be very few people who are unaware of this region's strict anti-drug laws, and the fact that the maximum sentence is death. There have even been films made, Bangkok Hilton and Dadah Is Death being just two, although only the latter was based on fact.

Although she claimed that she had been coerced and had expressed remorse, she was tried and convicted of drug smuggling. The surprise was that despite the prosecution recommending a sentence of 15 years the judges have sentenced her to face a firing squad.

Of course there has been an outcry by some in this country about the death sentence, but whether or not you agree with capital punishment, this is a woman who attempted to commit a crime in a country where the death sentence is carried out. She must accept that if you commit a crime in any country, you are subject to that country's laws and punishments.

I also find it somewhat ironic that this woman has people trying to sue the British Government for not providing her the funds to hire an "adequate" lawyer in Bali. Had she not committed the crime in the first place there would be no need for any lawyer, "adequate" or not, but that appears to be lost on these people. I bet that if she hadn't been caught, her cut of the £1.7m (€1.95m, $2.66m) wouldn't have benefited the British Government in any way, so why should they help her out.

Although it can be argued that these two stories are extremes, they both feature people who have been reluctant to accept the consequences of their actions, although in the first case, at least he's now admitted his wrongdoing. As the old saying goes, "If you can't do the time don't do the crime".

It's Happening Again!

As I write this I sit wondering if this will be the last communication that I will have with the rest of the world for some time, or possibly ever. I am preparing myself and my family for the possibility that things may never be the same again and we may be reduced to surviving by our wits alone. The reason? Apparently it will snow in the UK tonight and may do so for a couple of days over the weekend and next week. As we know, as the first flake falls from the sky, the country will grind to a halt.

If you Google "Why is Britain so unprepared for snow", there are pages and pages of discussions and suggestions as to why we don't cope, dating back, in some cases, for years. And yet, despite the fact that there has been all this discussion, everybody knows that when the snow does start, it will be the same old story. Why do we never learn?

I accept that by comparison with other countries, we have less and more infrequent snowfall, but it has snowed every year for at least the last four years. But the argument is still put forward that we do not have sufficient snowfall to justify the outlay on things such as snowploughs. But clearly we do. If we had snowploughs, roads would be cleared much more easily. Even the measures that are allegedly in place are sadly missing. There has been the threat of snow for more than a week, and yet the last time I saw a gritter on any of our local roads was more than two months ago.

The other thing that weather like this causes is panic buying. As soon as there is a severe weather warning, the supermarket shelves are emptied of such staples as bread and milk. I've never understood why. In all the times that we have had snow, not once have the shops been closed and not once have we even contemplated slaughtering our neighbours in order to provide a square meal. Generally the employees will live locally and walk to work. The wages that they receive generally mean that they can't live further away as they can't afford to run cars or pay the extortionate train fares.

The only conclusion that I can draw is that these people that do the panic buying are concerned as the only way that they would be able to get to the supermarket would be to walk, like the employees, as the roads would be unsuitable for driving, and god forbid that they should have to actually walk! The irony of this is that so many of them will have 4 x 4's that they have no idea how to drive in this situation, as they have only been bought as a status symbol to be shown off on the school run.

At least I know that should most of the food go there are likely to be plenty of burgers, due to the revelation that there has been horse DNA found in Tesco, Lidl, Aldi and Iceland beef burgers.

Personally, I can't see what all the fuss is about. Firstly, two of these companies are originally German, so based in a country where the consumption of horses is not uncommon. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it’s not just the burgers that are "contaminated".

My second reason is a little more personal. I was taught to ride when I was a child. When I say "ride", I mean that in the loosest possible sense. What generally happened was that I would get onto the horses back, get comfortable in the saddle and then find myself flying through the air at high speed as the horse/pony decided that it didn't feel like giving me a trip around the paddock on that day. So I would not be at all averse to my only dealings with horses being with them smothered in burger relish and cheese and between two halves of a burger bun and I actually quite like horsemeat. I would be far more concerned if they had found human DNA rather than equine in this meat.

I suppose the fact that there is no mention of there being meat other than dead cow in the product is why these companies are getting into trouble, although I have seen a joke about the fact that a burger was found to contain 29% horse meat. One wag tweeted that he hadn't realised that there was actually that much meat of any kind in the product.

My favourite joke? Is it coincidence that that "hamburgers" is an anagram of "Shergar bum"?

What hope is there?

Bit of a theme to the titles of this year's posts so far, but this follows on from my last post of 2012. A saw the link to this on Twitter:

In the United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees Freedom of Speech, among other things. In the aftermath of the shootings at Sandy Hook, Piers Morgan, of whom I am not a fan, exercised this right to free speech and suggested that guns should be banned, as they have been in Britain. As a result of this, Alex Jones, who is described in his Wikipedia entry as a "talk radio host, actor and filmmaker", exercised his right to free speech by initiating a petition to have Piers Morgan deported.

In an extremely clever move by Mr Morgan, he invited Mr Jones on to his show to debate gun crime. The ignorant, at times incomprehensible and completely disjointed rant by Mr Jones is a sight to behold.

This man is no less extreme than the fundamentalist preachers, of whatever belief, and as long as there are people like him in America, which there always will be due to that First Amendment, there will be people able to gain access to weapons with which to kill innocent adults and children.

I, for one, am glad that I live in the "police state" of Great Britain.

What have we achieved?

In September 1996, there was an uprising in Afghanistan and a group of former Mujahedeen called the Taliban seized the capital, Kabul. Once they had done this , they formed the Government of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and moved the capital to Kandahar in the south of the country, a city that had been the traditional Pashtun seat of power for more than 200 years.

Once in power, the Taliban proceeded to turn their Islamic State into something from the middle ages, with a very strict, and some would say distorted, view of Sharia Law. banning things such as music, television and insisting that all men must have a beard.

However, their oppression of women was the issue that seemed to attract the most media attention. Women were banned from receiving an education and were not permitted to leave their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. When they did leave their homes, they were required to be completely covered by a burqa. Failure to comply with these edicts could result in the woman concerned being publicly beaten. More serious crimes, for both sexes, could result in public executions, which often took place in football stadiums, as football, along with just about every other form of entertainment, had been banned by the Taliban.

Whilst the regime's actions drew a lot of condemnation from just about every Government, other than those of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, as well as from just about every NGO, very little was actually done about it. However, that was to change very dramatically in late-2001.

When the Taliban seized power, Osama bin Laden, who had fought as a Mujahid during the Soviet occupation, moved from Sudan to Afghanistan, with many of his al-Qaeda fighters forming part of the new Taliban army. The Taliban gave refuge to bin Laden, who was wanted in the United States in connection with attacks on US Embassies in Africa.

However, the final straw was the fact that bin Laden was sheltered by the Taliban following the September 2011 attacks in the United States. Having refused to agree to the demands that bin Laden be handed over to US authorities, the Taliban found themselves under attack, initially from the air but, very shortly after, also from ground troops.

The first British troops were involved almost from day one, and since that time, 438 British Servicemen and Servicewomen have died in that country, the latest, a Royal Engineer having been killed yesterday in yet another green on blue attack.

As the international involvement in Afghanistan draws to a close, the plan being that foreign troops will have left by the end of next year, what will happen?

What I think will happen is that the fiercely tribal Afghans, who seem apathetic when it comes to helping themselves, will carry on as they always have, giving the motivated, if extremist, Taliban the opportunity to move back in and impose their regime once again. In fact, I predict that within two years of the last NATO soldier, sailor or airman leaving Afghanistan, the women will be back in their houses with their blacked out windows so that people cannot see them from outside, men will have their beards and head coverings and  public executions will be the only form of entertainment for to the population.

In fact, I expect that the regime will be far more extreme than previous, knowing full well that the West will not want to get embroiled in another costly conflict.

So, just over 11 years after the Taliban was overthrown, what have we achieved?

The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms

Almost exactly two hundred and twenty-one years ago, on 15 December 1791, the United States Bill of Rights was adopted. Part of that Bill of Rights is the Second Amendment, which enshrines in law the right of US citizens to keep and bear arms.

So how did all this come about? It originates from the English Bill of Rights, an Act of Parliament that coincidentally was passed almost exactly one Hundred and two years earlier on 16 December 1689.

Prior to the adoption of the US Bill of Rights, many of the early settlers armed themselves for protection from the often hostile natives, but also armed themselves as they were expected to be part of the militia that would defend their territory in times of conflict. And it was predominantly because of the need for men to serve in militias, the most famous being the Minutemen, that these citizens were armed.

There was a lot of fear that the British, at that time probably the most powerful nation in the world, would not take the defeat during the American Revolutionary War lying down and may return to reclaim the territory that they believed was rightfully theirs. So it was important that the ordinary citizen had access to arms in order to defend their nation. As a result of this, along with a few other things such as ensuring democracy and self-defence, the Second Amendment came into being.

Fast forward two and a quarter centuries. The United States is probably the most powerful nation in the world. It is (allegedly) the most democratic. The last time that mainland American territories were invaded were during the Mexican-American War, 150+ years ago, and the American armed forces are among the largest in the world. Apart from the odd, and I do mean odd, self-declared militia living in the wilds and convinced that the world is approaching its end, there are no "official" militias within the United States.

Yet I can go to a supermarket in America and purchase an assault rifle, or I can purchase an easily concealed handgun, and I can own both of these legally. The question I have, though, is why do I need them? The answer seems to be that I need them for self-defence. Self-defence against the millions of other Americans who have also purchased their assault rifle or handgun alongside their monthly food shop, because the Second Amendment of the US Bill of Rights gives them the right to do so.

In this country, if I want to purchase a gun, legally, there is a long and protracted process before I can get my hands on that weapon. And even then I can't own a pistol or an assault rifle. Why? Because we have learnt from our mistakes and taken steps to remedy them.

In 1987, a man named Michael Ryan went on the rampage in the town of Hungerford in Berkshire. Armed with various legally owned semi-automatic pistols and rifles he killed sixteen people, including his mother, and wounded fifteen others before shooting himself. This became known as the Hungerford Massacre. Following this, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 was passed which banned ownership of certain semi-automatic rifles and restricted shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than three rounds.

Almost ten years later, a man named Thomas Hamilton walked into Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, Scotland, armed with four hand guns. Once there, he proceeded to shoot and kill sixteen 5 and 6 year-old children and one adult prior to killing himself. Following this, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and the Firearms (Amendment) (No.2) Act 1997 have effectively banned the private ownership of handguns. This was known as the Dunblane School Massacre, and one of the children who was at the school at the time of the shootings and hiding under a desk, Andy Murray, later found fame as a tennis player.

Since then, there has only been one occasion when someone has gone on the rampage in this country, in 2010, when a man named Derrick Bird, armed with a legally owned shotgun and a bolt-action rifle killed twelve people before killing himself in Cumbria.

Three mass killings with firearms, 45 people, not including the perpetrators dead in quarter of a century. Compare that with the numbers of massacres that have taken place in the US.

Since 1987 there have been 45 similar incidents in the US and 456 deaths as a result, the most recent being just four days ago, 14 December 2012, the day before the 221st Anniversary of the Adoption of the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment.

That is fifteen times the number of incidents and ten times the number of casualties in a country that is five times the size, but that has very limited gun control laws.

I have access to firearms in my military capacity. In fact, I will be on the range again early next year. As a child, I lived with a firearm in the house, when my father was serving in Northern Ireland. But I have no desire, nor do I feel that I should have the right to "keep and bear arms" in the way that the Americans do. The main reason is that there will be people like Michael Ryan, Thomas Hamilton, Derrick Bird and Adam Lanza who, in a moment of madness, will kill innocent men, women and children, something that it is unlikely that they would have done had they not had the weapons to hand when the madness came over them.

I was listening to a podcast this morning from the Radio 4 Today programme. The man that was being interviewed, Richard Feldman, the President of the Independent Firearm Owners Association,  stated that even if there were tighter gun control laws in the United States, people would still get hold of the weapons. As an illustration he pointed out that the guns that Adam Lanza used to kill the twenty children and six adults in Sandy Hook Elementary School belonged to Nancy Lanza, his mother, and that he had stolen them after he had killed her. He seemed to have completely missed the point that if the gun laws in America were not so lax, Mrs Lanza would not have owned the 5.56mm Bushmaster M4 Type carbine, 10mm Glock handgun or the 9mm SIG Sauer handgun used to kill her son's victims, herself included.

It's November!

OK, so I accept that today is the last day of November, and that tomorrow is December, but at the moment it is still November.

So why is this important? Well, it’s important because Christmas is still 25 days, nearly 4 weeks, away. But that doesn't seem to have bothered the shops or the radio stations, which have been playing Christmas music for weeks!

Two weeks ago there was a formal dinner at my Squadron, and I was in during the day. At one point I went into the kitchen to see how the Chefs were getting on and they had a radio on. Sadly, the radio station was playing Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody. It was the 17th November, nearly six weeks early. But I also know that many of the shopping centres and shops have been playing Christmas music earlier than this, some since October!

At the risk of sounding like a "back in my day" type, I'm sure that when I was a kid, Christmas advertising and music didn't make an appearance until the beginning to middle of December. The pattern was that Christmas advertising and music was around for about two weeks before Christmas day and then everyone would see how long it was before they spotted their first holiday advert (I think they usually appeared just after the Queen's speech or during the commercials that interrupted the big Christmas day film).

Nowadays, as people book their holidays at the last minute and usually via the Internet, holiday adverts seem to have disappeared and the adverts from Christmas day onwards seem to be for Easter eggs!

So how long will it be before Christmas, Easter and every other holiday is advertised year-round. As it is, people are becoming over-exposed to all the "holidays" and I just think that there will be nothing special about them at all.

I am also sure that when I was a kid, nowhere was open (except newsagents) on the various holidays (Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Bank Holidays etc), but now there's been a complete turnaround and it appears that nowhere is closed on these days, in fact they have just become another working day, business and commerce taking priority over family.

Perhaps we should just abolish all of these various high days and holidays. It would be far cheaper!

Lest We Forgot

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon (1914)
 

In Memory Of

Private Joseph Watt

S/4206, 1st Bn., Seaforth Highlanders who died on 10 April 1916

Aged 21

Remembered with honour on Panel 37 and 64

Basra Memorial, Iraq

 

and

 

Serjeant Thomas McIvor

S/8909, 9th Bn., Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) who died on 29 April 1916

Aged 30

Remembered with honour on Panel 78 to 83

Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France

Halloween

I know that I hadn't really lived in this country until I was eight, but I'm also sure that the whole Halloween thing was nowhere near as popular as it now seems to be.

I knew that Halloween was celebrated as I was a big fan of the Peanuts books by Charles M. Schulz.  Charlie Brown  would set up a pumpkin patch every Halloween in the hope that he would be visited by the Great Pumpkin, but was disappointed every year.

However, to me it was something that Americans celebrated, dressing up every year and "trick or treating". I'm sure it never happened in this country, but now it seems that every year there are more and more children, young and old, roaming the streets and demanding sweets and more.

There was a programme on the radio yesterday where they were discussing the rise of "trick or treating", and how it had moved further than just young kids going from door to door and collecting sweets. Apparently, in some areas, there are groups of teenagers who will go door to door, but who aren't happy with just sweets, they demand money. And if they don't get money, they will often play quite malicious tricks on the person in the house.

I have to say that, adopting a cynical approach, I believe that much of the recent increase in the popularity of Halloween is nothing more than a marketing ploy by the various greeting card manufacturers, the same people who are pushing for things like "grandparent's day" and "nurses day" to be celebrated, with the appropriate greeting card, purchased from them, of course.

When I was a child, there was much more emphasis in "Bonfire Night". This commemorated the fact that in 1605 a man called Guido Fawkes was arrested in the early hours of  November 5th in the cellars under the Houses of Parliament with a large amount of gunpowder.

Fawkes, and seven other catholic conspirators had hatched the Gunpowder Plot, as it came to be known, to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, killing the protestant King James I with the intention that he be replaced by his nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, as a catholic monarch. Almost all of the conspirators were tried and found guilty of treason and sentenced to death by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Since then, on or near the 5th November every year, all over the UK there are firework displays and bonfires, either private or elaborately organised, the latter often having been planned all year by various Bonfire Societies.

For most people, the sectarian significance of bonfire night has long been forgotten. But it is still a problem in areas where there are sectarian tensions, such as Northern Ireland, the catholic community putting more emphasis on Halloween, the protestant community concentrating on Bonfire Night. In fact, it is possible that the American "tradition" of celebrating Halloween may have been an import with the Irish immigrants during the 19th Century.

None of my children went trick or treating when they were younger, but they did go to various organised firework displays, and will be this year, attending the Squadron fireworks on Saturday.

Changing tack completely, myself and m'Julie went to the cinema this evening and saw Skyfall, the latest James Bond film. Both of us thought that it was very good and enjoyed the film a lot. I think that the way that the Bond films are going is back to the way that the original films had been made, which I think is a good thing. There was even an appearance by my all-time favourite car, the Aston Martin DB5, so I think that it was worth it just for that!

Shattered

Although it’s been a couple of months since I last wrote anything, it’s not through lack of motivation, but more through lack of time and the inability to stay awake long enough to not only write something, but to do so in a manner that can be read.

Even now, I'm concerned that I may revert to gibberish as, since 23rd September, I've had just one day where I haven't worked. Clearly bad planning on my part, but necessary, and a combination of both civilian and military work.

The military side of it was that I have been lucky enough to attend the Intermediate Command and Staff Course at the Joint Services Command and Staff College in Shrivenham. I felt very privileged to have been able to attend, particularly with the history. However, having said that, the premises at Shrivenham are relatively new, as the original Army Staff College was located in Camberley, Surrey, in the grounds of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Having completed this course now means that I will have an added edge when applying for Staff Officer posts.

The course was hard word, lectures every day from 0830 - 1730, and homework most evenings, but the social aspect was also very enjoyable, there being a formal course dinner night, syndicate nights out and beer at only £1.10 a pint!

As I said, though, I had had to do my civilian job for the five days prior to attending the fourteen day course (no days off), I then had to attend the Squadron the day after I got back, having a day off on the Sunday, prior to working two full weeks with a European Paediatric Life Support course that I was teaching on during last weekend. It was therefore quite a relief to be making my way home yesterday knowing that I had a whole two days off!

And then next week I have a shortened week as its half term and my daughter is staying. Pity, though, that No.1 son won't be staying for a while as he has now started his history degree at The University of Hull. He was a busy boy before he left, though, not only passing his driving test, but also buying himself a car. It's very strange seeing one of your children driving, believe me!

Also, just before I went on the Staff course I received notification that I had been awarded the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal, which meant that I had to rush about getting a miniature and having it mounted prior to the dinner night. As for the full-size one, it was being engraved prior to dispatch and still hasn't arrived from the Medal Office, so although I will have the ribbon on my service dress in time for Remembrance, it is unlikely that I will have the medal.

This will be my last Remembrance with the Squadron. In the eleven years that I have been with them, I have only missed two, in 2003 when I was making my way to Preston to deploy to Iraq with 5 Medical Regiment and in 2008, when I had been ill and attended the Remembrance parade at my old school. Next year, I plan to be back at my old school again.

One of the strange things about being away on these courses and living in the insulated environment of a military unit is that you are often not completely aware of what is happening "outside the wire". Although there were newspapers available every day, I found that I only really had time to flick through them, and although there was access to television, I didn't actually watch any. My connection to the outside world was Radio 4 via my clock radio. So, although I was aware of the whole Jimmy Savile thing, I wasn't fully aware of just how serious it was, or just how far it had spread!

I was a child of the 70's, and I can remember watching Jim'll Fix It on a Saturday evening, which was when I first became aware of this person. The concept of the show was that children wrote in and asked him to arrange for them to meet a celebrity or do something daft. I never wrote in, but m'Julie apparently wrote in loads, although she was never chosen (perhaps a lucky escape!) Although I always thought that he was a bit odd, the revelations that have been made about him are a shock.

However, what is a bigger shock to me is that, now that about 300 people have come forward claiming to have been abused by Jimmy Savile, there seem to be numerous people also coming forward who either worked with or knew him claiming that they knew what was going on. The question that I have is "Why did they allow it to continue if they knew?" I was particularly shocked by the "revelations" that the nurses at Stoke Mandeville Hospital knew what he was up to, apparently telling the patients to "pretend to be asleep" when he was around. Yet they didn't report it, therefore breaching the NMC (or UKCC as it then was) Code of Professional conduct.

Sadly, we will probably never get to the bottom of the whole thing and will also probably never know the whole truth as Savile died last year. There have been various "co-conspirators" named by several of Savile's alleged victims, but not surprisingly, they have denied everything.

Earlier this week, there was an article in one of the newspapers which suggested that much of what was happening here was linked to a paedophile ring that was being run by civil servants at the very heart of the British Government, in Downing street itself. So with that in mind, I wonder how long it will be before this whole issue disappears from public consciousness, replaced by some even juicier scandal?

What a show!

On Wednesday 6th July 2005, in Singapore, the International Olympic Committee announced that the winning bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics was London. Sadly, the celebrations were cut short the very next day when three British Muslims detonated bombs on underground trains and one detonated a bomb on a bus in the very city that had just been told that it was to host the games. Fifty-two innocent people were killed and more than 700 were injured.

So it was in the aftermath of this that preparations began to host the Games of the XXX Olympiad, particularly the construction of the new Olympic Park at Stratford in the East End of London. And between the awarding of the games and the actual games themselves there were the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, very successfully hosted by Beijing in 2008. I have re-read my blog from around that time and I also remember how spectacular the opening and closing ceremonies were. I, like a lot of other people, was a little cynical about whether we could match in 2012 the performance of the organisers let alone see the athletes be as successful as they had been in 2008.

The events in the lead up to the games didn't really do anything to allay the fears, as far as the organisation was concerned, with stories about the venues being behind schedule, the security risks and even, in the final build up to the games, the announcement that the security company G4S would be unable to meet its contractual obligation to provide 10,000 personal for security duties and that the slack would have to be taken up by military personnel. It looked as if it was going to be embarrassingly bad.

However, there was a lot of "rallying around the flag" when the US Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as part of his Insult the World Tour, which I understand was his attempt to prove to American voters that a. he had a passport and b. there is someone who is less appropriate to be the ruler of the world's last superpower than George W. Bush, successfully riled the British by suggesting that we were unprepared to run an Olympics. He had completely missed the point that, as Brits, if we want to criticise something British, that is our right, but he, as a colonial who once organised the Winter Olympics "in the middle of nowhere" needs to learn when to keep quiet.

So it was with this background that I prepared to watch the opening ceremony, an event that had been kept "Top Secret", but was being directed by Danny Boyle, which probably meant that it would be "unusual".

Unfortunately, I wasn't at home for this as I was attending the second weekend of a course that I had to do for the Army, but was settled in the bar in Malta Barracks to see most of it.

I had arrived slightly late, so missed the initial "Green and Pleasant Land" part, so I was texting m'Julie about how dark it was. Overall I thought that it was a fabulous piece of theatre, but the highlight for me was when Daniel Craig, as James Bond, entered Buckingham Palace and when the person in the chair turned round with the words "Good evening, Mr Bond" it really was The Queen!

So was it better or worse than Beijing? I think neither, it was different. It celebrated the history of this country, good and bad, in much the same way as the ceremony in Beijing celebrated the history of China. It also seems that the rest of the world also appreciated the quirkiness of the whole event as it was overwhelmingly positively reported in non-UK press and media (except NBC, which I understand is an abbreviation of No Brain Cells).

I will admit that the eighty minute parade of the athletes did seem to last forever, but I had to stay up to see TeamGB, with flag bearer Sir Chris Hoy who was to become the most successful British Olympian after by the end of the games. It was also amusing to observe that just about every country with either the word "Peoples" or "Democratic" in its name was is usually ruled by a regime that oppresses the people and is certainly not democratic. 

On to the actual competition. What was witnessed was two weeks of some of the finest displays that the world has seen in every one of the Olympic events. And I, for one, am very glad to eat humble pie after commenting in 2008, when the TeamGB finished fourth in the medals table and won 47 medals (19 Gold, 13 Silver and 15 Bronze)

"However, it looks unlikely that this feat will be repeated when London again hosts the next games in 2012. Already, there has been talk that the budget will be nowhere near that of the Beijing games (which in the current climate is not such a bad thing), but there also seems to be less support for certain sports".

Just the prove me wrong, and I'm glad they did, TeamGB eclipsed that with a total of 65 medals (29 Gold, 17 Silver and 19 Bronze). However, I was correct in one statement that I made

"The problem is that in the build up to the next Olympics, plus all the ones for the next 200 years, the press will have a field day referring to these games, as they do with 1966 in the build up to every World Cup. If/when the team don't do as well, they will have a field day slagging them off as they always do."

And it was true. It took "six long days" before TeamGB won the first of their gold medals, with the UK press making much of the fact that it did take that long. But that was just the first gold, with 43 athletes winning Gold, five of them twice, by the time the games finished, although the fact that several were won as part of a team, hence the tally of 29 Gold’s. And it’s true that there were some of the athletes who were expected to win Gold who either won a Silver or Bronze, or didn't medal at all, but equally, there were also some who weren't expected to win anything that medalled. Was I proud to be British? You know my feelings on patriotism!

But it wasn't just about TeamGB. Michael Phelps winning 4 Gold and 2 Silver medals to become the most successful Olympian ever, with a total of 18 Gold and 4 Silver medals and Usain Bolt proving, for the second Olympics running, that he is the fastest man in the world, winning the Gold in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay were just two of the numerous other highlights during the fortnight of competition. Others would be the first participation of Saudi Arabian female athletes and the introduction of women's boxing, the first of the Gold medals for this being won by Nicola Adams of TeamGB.

I admit that, like m'Julie, I had become addicted to the Games, cheering and shouting at the TV when the British athletes were competing in close races, and like m'Julie, regretting that we hadn't been able to get tickets and experience the atmosphere at first hand. So like m'Julie, I found it sad that the closing ceremony came around so quickly. However, I personally didn't think that it was a patch on the opening ceremony, and thought that the choice of artistes, bearing in mind the talent that this country has produced over the years, was poor, which has been reflected in the press and media reviews.So that was it, 7 years and 37 days after the announcement that the games would be taking place in London 2012, it was all over with only 3 years and 358 days until it all happens again in Rio.

Justice?

Between 1914 and 1918, the British Army executed 306 of its soldiers for a range of offences. These executions have always been controversial and in recent years there has been a very effective campaign to have all those who were sentenced to death and shot, pardoned. As a result of this, in 2006, the then British Defence Secretary, Des Browne, pardoned all those who had been executed, acknowledging that, in some cases, an injustice had been done, particularly when looking at those executed for desertion or cowardice.

However, what this failed to address was that the pardon was also extended to 35 soldiers convicted of murder, who had they been convicted in a civilian court during peacetime, would have received the same sentence, although they would have hanged rather than been shot.

I think that the difficulty here is that we, in 2012, are looking at the offences in a post-capital punishment (in the UK at least) world, where there is far more understanding of things such as post-traumatic stress disorder. And can we really apply our sense of justice to something that happened a century ago? In the 18th Century, it was not uncommon for a person to be hanged for stealing a handkerchief, yet in 2012, that same person would be unlikely to receive a more severe punishment than a few hours community service.

Sadly, I believe that this has led to this country becoming more guilt-ridden. There seems to be, among our politicians at least, an almost apologetic tone when discussing historic events. No doubt the way in which the British treated Indians during the subjugation of the sub-continent was appalling, but it was 200 years ago! What difference will apologising now make to a country that is thriving and even has its own space programme? And there seems to be very little said about the atrocities committed by the Indians against the Europeans during the Indian mutiny.

It also sends out the message that this country is weak and opens the door to all sorts of spurious claims by people who I would consider to be less than completely deserving.

Last year, five elderly Kenyans brought a case in the High Court in London claiming that during the Kenyan Independence War in the 1950s, the so-called Mau Mau uprising, they were tortured by the colonial authorities. The courts have examined their claim and feel that there is a case to answer. Additionally, the courts have said that they may be entitled to compensation. I wonder if the Kenyan courts would look as favourably on any claims by relatives and descendants of the numerous Europeans killed by the Mau Mau?

Another example of weakness is the case of Binyam Mohammed. This is a man who came to the UK in 1994 from Ethiopia and who claimed political asylum. He was then granted leave to stay whilst his case was heard. In 2001 he travelled to Afghanistan where he has admitted receiving paramilitary training, and in 2002 he was arrested in Pakistan whilst trying to fly to the UK on a false passport.

He claims that he was then subjected to extraordinary rendition, by the US authorities, and in 2004 was detained in the US prison in Guantanimo Bay, Cuba, by the US authorities. It is important that I emphasise that all of this was carried out by the US authorities, because in 2007, Binyam Mohammed and four others filed a civil lawsuit against a subsidiary of US company Boeing for complicity in the alleged rendition. This was rejected by the US Supreme Court.

In 2009, this man was released from Guantanimo Bay and returned to the UK, where two weeks later he filed a civil suit against the British Government for collusion in his alleged rendition and torture. However, rather than following the US line and rejecting this self-confessed paramilitary, who was attempting to gain access to the UK illegally on a forged passport for whatever nefarious reasons, blatant attempt to cash in on his crimes, the British courts rolled over and he walked away at the end with a £1million pay out.

There also appears to be no consistency in the way that justice is carried out. A good example of this is that in 2010 a Ukrainian named Vladymyr Buchak, an illegal immigrant who had been in the UK since 2004, was convicted of his part in up to 360 sham marriages that took place in a church in St Leonard's in East Sussex. He was paid to marry off Eastern European girls, including his then pregnant girlfriend, to African men, who would then use the marriage to apply for residency in the UK. He was sentenced to four years in prison in September 2010 but was released from prison in July 2011, less than a year later. The judge had also recommended that he be deported at the end of his prison sentence, but more than a year after he was released from prison, this crook is still living in St Leonard's. Why? Could it be because he has a young son and it would "breach his human rights" if he were deported? One solution would be that he and his eastern European girlfriend and his young son all set up home in his native Ukraine after he has been deported.

Compare this to the case of Isimeli Baleiwai. This man is a Fijian-born ex-British soldier, who served in the British Army for 13 years before leaving in June of this year, serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is married to a British woman and has two children. He applied for UK Citizenship in March of this year.

However, in 2010, he got into a fight with an Army colleague. As a result of this, he was seen on orders by his Commanding Officer and fined and for this reason, UK Immigration has concluded that he has a criminal record and has refused him entry to the UK. He faces the prospect of deportation on 9th August. What about his human rights?

Justice?

Patriotism

Patriotism is not a dirty word, although you would think that it was, the way that some people view it.

There has been a lot of patriotism on display during the last few weeks with the run up to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the culmination of which has been the various events that have taken place during the course of these last four days.

The UK  seems very reluctant to "do" patriotism. I don't know if it’s in the more reserved nature of most Brits, but you would never normally see the chanting and flag-waving that we see from our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic.

It may be that we are more multicultural. Whilst the United States has always been a melting pot for all of the world's nationalities, there seems to be far more integration of these "foreigners" into America than there is in the UK. Don't get me wrong, I think that it is vitally important that people do not forget their roots, but I believe that it is equally important that if you wish to make your life in a different country to the one of your birth, with a different culture, you should conform to the new culture. Why make the effort to leave your country of origin in the first place if you are not willing to make that effort?

The difficulty with the multicultural aspect of this country is that sometimes the symbols of nationhood, the Union Flag for example, are hijacked by the extremist element. The British National Party have the Union Flag as their political symbol and the fallout from this is that this flag, this national symbol of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,  is often associated with right wing extremist views and is likely to alienate, rather than integrate, immigrants to this country.

There is also an almost cynical element which makes patriotism uncool, making people feel that it is wrong to be proud of the nation from which they come. But again, I believe that this is because it has been hijacked by elements that use patriotism as an excuse to cause trouble. How often have we seen images of English football crowds in various foreign countries, their faces painted with the Cross of St George, or the crowds adorned in red and white, fighting with local people or the local Police? And I use the word English deliberately, as it is rare in this day and age that there are reports of Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish doing the same.

And this leads to another problem. If one of the home nations qualifies for a competition, the team management will often call for "the entire nation to get behind the team". But when that team is England, which it so often is, I suspect that many Scots, Welsh and Irish are reluctant to "get behind a team" whose "supporters" are linked to so much violence and destruction.

I will be interested to see what happens in Ukraine during the Euro championships that are about to start, particularly when there is so much reporting, in this country at least, of how extreme and right-wing the Ukrainian "fans" are.

But I digress. The sort of patriotism that we have seen over the last week or so is the sort that you would hope to see. Whole families, or all ethnic backgrounds, waving Union Flags and singing patriotic songs, to some extent mirroring our American cousins. But unlike them, now that the celebrations are over, there is that risk that Britons all over this nation will resort to the non-demonstrative race that existed prior to the Jubilee, and this will give the extremists the opportunity to hijack once more the symbols of our Nation.

So where do I stand? When I joined the reserve Forces 11 years ago, I had to declare the following:

"I solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors and that I will as in duty bound honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, her heirs and successors in person, crown and dignity against all enemies and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, her heirs and successors and of the generals and officers set over me."

I made this declaration freely and willingly. I think that that answers the question.

Memory loss

How embarrassing is that? Having started out with all those good intentions to this year maintain a regular blog, I end up not writing anything for so long that I forget the sign-in information! Still, all sorted out now.

It’s been so long since I last blogged that I can't actually remember whether or not we had the threatened snow. I think that we did but that it was nowhere near as severe as expected.

I do remember that we had a mini-heatwave and I think that it was actually the warmest March in the UK since records began. But that's all changed and we've returned to normal service.

The problem that I was having with the previous landlord now seems to have resolved, or rather, he gave me an ultimatum threatening legal action and I reciprocated, also threatening legal action. He backed down and all is resolved. The added bonus is that as a result of everything that was happening, the letting agent was being "unhelpful", so I emailed her a snotagram, copying in one of the partners from the estate agents, and she has had a 180 moment, now being extremely helpful.

So the new house is really starting to look like a home. Admittedly, there are still boxes, mainly containing books, that have yet to be unpacked, but they will have to wait until we've bought (yet more) bookcases.

No. 1 Son has, unfortunately, now been discharged from the Army. Sadly, the injury that he suffered to his ankle was such that, having had two lots of surgery, the Army has told him that he will be unable to train for about 2 years, although he has a place at Sandhurst available for the next 5 years.

In the meantime, he has been applying to various universities to get a degree in history, and has a provisional place at the University of Hull. The advantage of this is that one of his best friends from school is already at Hull. The downside is that when Alec left school, he actually had a scholarship from the Army to go to university, but had turned it down to go straight to Sandhurst as he was fed up with studying, so he will have to pay for it himself, although the compensation that he will get from the Army should help.

No. 2 Son continues to do well at college on his programming course, although the amount of time that he spends on the computer does worry me. I suppose if he's to make it his career, and he can make his first £million by the time he's 30, I shouldn't really discourage him.

Maggie has been conspicuous by her absence of late, but this is because her mother arranged for her to have an exchange to France, and she has been staying at her Godmother's house near Toulouse for the last six weeks. The only communication that we have had has been via Skype, as it was far too expensive to call her.

She arrived back in the UK this week, but I still haven't seen her as mother had arranged for her to go on a narrow boating trip pretty well as soon as she got back in the country!

Hopefully, she and Alec will be coming over for lunch next Sunday.

In the meantime, since I last blogged, I have carried on much as before, both civilian and military-wise. However, it has been the military aspect of my life that has given me the most opportunity, and just last week I attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace as a military helper. This was organised by the same people that also gave me an opportunity to attend a Christmas party at St James's Palace last December.

The Honorary Colonel of my Territorial Army Squadron is also the Chief Executive of the Not Forgotten Association, a charity that provides help and support to both serving and ex-servicemen and women. We, along with various other military organisations, are asked to provide personnel to assist the older and more infirm guests, which we are always happy to do.

I was also able to see the preparations that were being made for the concert that will take place in front of Buckingham Palace this evening, part of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

I watched some of the River Thames pageant yesterday, but the coverage by the BBC is now being severely criticised. I didn't see any problems, personally. It was a shame, however, that it rained so heavily during the actual pageant, but I don't think that the BBC can be blamed for that.

The Queen's Jubilee has also meant that I have received another medal, The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, which is my second, The Iraq Medal being my first. However, I should receive my third this year, the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal, although I don't think that I will get that until later this year.

So in the meantime, I shall carry on as before, and hopeful blog more frequently. Now to have dinner before the Jubilee concert begins.

Conmen are everywhere

We have now been in the new house for just over a week, and unfortunately chaos is still the order of the day. Fairly organised chaos, but chaos nonetheless.

The day of the move started bright and early as I was picking up the van at 0730. First port of call was m'Julie's mum's house, where we loaded the van, pausing briefly to sign the lease agreement and collect the keys of the new house, before taking the first load.

After we'd unloaded, myself and Drew then headed off to Big Yellow for the first trip. We worked well and it wasn't long before the van was loaded to the gills and making the 8 mile trip back to the house. We then had the second trip, finally finishing the unloading at 0030, all of us knackered and all of us ready to sleep.

Again, it was a bright and early start as I had to take the van back and then it was back to try and get some order into the piles of bags and boxes that we were now facing.

And this has been the order of the day for the last week, although it has been mainly down to m'Julie, her mum and Drew as I was back at work on Monday.

Unfortunately, today we received a letter from the letting agents, and it appears that our previous landlord is now trying to rip us off. According to his calculations, the "dilapidations" that we have caused to the property are in excess of our deposit and therefore, this will not be returned. Unfortunately for him, I am not very tolerant of conmen, especially one who is trying to charge us for hanging a painted a door that was purchased, pre-painted, by us and re-hung long before we moved out.

What this now means is that I will answer the letter and if I believe that I am owed a rebate from the deposit, I suspect that I will have to pursue this through the small claims court. To be honest, this is something that I could do without, on top of everything else.

On the upside, it is likely that we will have the kitchen in enough of a semblance of order so that the whole family can sit down at the table to a proper Sunday lunch tomorrow. I say whole family, as Maggie is staying this weekend, but we may be missing one, as I will need to collect Alec from Tunbridge Wells, and if the threatened snow arrives, I have no doubt that the entire country will grind to a halt again.