Legal or not?

In my post Refugees, Migrants and Terrorists, I talked about the British citizens who have left this country and made their way to Syria to fight alongside the jihadists of ISIS, and now two of them have hit the news having been killed.

It would appear that Reyaad Khan, originally from Cardiff and Ruhul Amin, originally from Aberdeen were hit and killed during a precision airstrike by a Royal Air Force drone near Raqqa in Syria on August 21^st.  Both had been raised in the UK and both had then travelled to join ISIS.  There is also no doubt about whether or not they were radicalised and had joined ISIS as both had appeared in a propaganda/recruiting video released by ISIS in June 2014 and entitled “There is No Life Without Jihad”.

However, it would appear that rather than the political response being “two terrorists killed, oh dear, how sad, never mind”, there has been a big outcry by certain politicians about whether their deaths are actually legal or not.

The whole argument seems to rest on whether the killing of these two should be classed as extra-judicial killings or not.  At that time that it was announced in Parliament, David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, stated that the reason that this airstrike had been carried out was that British Security Services had discovered that Khan, the target of the attack, was plotting to carry out attacks on British soil, particularly against "high-profile public commemorations” that were taking place during the summer.  Amin was killed as he was in the same vehicle as Khan at the time of the strike.  The fact that Khan was plotting terror attacks in the UK, Mr Cameron argued, made the strike justified on the grounds of self-defence.

However, in 2013, the British Parliament voted against strikes in Syria, and there are many who believe that this action, because it was carried out inside Syria, not only ignores the wishes of parliament but also suggests that the British Government feels that it has the right to carry out killings of British citizens that may pose a threat to the UK, even if they travel abroad.  Furthermore, there has been criticism that this drone strike mirrors the US policy, one which some American officials believe has failed.  On top of this, friends of the Khan family have also come forward to demand the “truth of the incident”.

So where does the Government stand legally?  It would appear that the strike was carried out following advice from the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, which stated that the strike was legal.  But the ex-Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, believes that the decision may be open to challenge.  In fact, one person whom I heard on the Radio 4 Today programme last Tuesday (not sure who it was although it may have been Dominic Grieve) stated that he believed that the family may well be able to sue the Government.

The British Government’s justification for the strikes rests on Article 51 of the United Nations Charter which provides the right of a country to act in self-defence against an armed attack, which it is claimed that Khan was actively plotting to carry out.  But there has also been a slight distraction from this, which those who feel that the strike was not justified have cited. Matthew Rycroft, the British Ambassador to the United Nations, has written to the United Nations Security Council justifying the strike on the grounds that it was part of the collective defence of Iraq.  This has been approved by Parliament, as in September 2014 British MPs, although voting against strikes in Syria a year earlier, voted to approve air strikes by British Forces against ISIS targets in Iraq.  The detractors have therefore claimed that the Government is altering its legal justification for the strike because the initial justification was not legal.

For most people the fact that these two terrorists, for that is what they were as members of a terrorist organisation, were killed whist thousands of miles away in Syria means nothing.  If it prevents acts of terror being carried out in this country, marvellous. 

I am aware that there will be people who believe that they should have been apprehended and brought back to this country to face a legal trial, but the possibility of that happening was extremely unlikely.  When dealing with ISIS, we are not dealing with rational people; we are dealing with religious zealots who believe that they are justified in cutting the heads off people who don’t follow the same religion as them, or even the same branch of the same religion.  They do not follow the rule of International Law and are certainly not signatories to the Geneva Conventions, so anyone entering Syria to try and apprehend these people can be certain that, if unsuccessful and caught by these barbarians, they will find themselves being publicly murdered in some unspeakable way, as happened with Muath al-Kasasbeh, the Jordanian pilot.

The British Government has found itself in a very difficult position.  It is being criticised for killing these two, but what would have happened if this step hadn’t been taken, there had been an atrocity carried out in the UK and it had later emerged that the Government not only knew where the perpetrator was, but had had the opportunity to stop him and hadn’t?  There would, rightly, have been a huge outcry.

As for the family suing, I think that this is ridiculous.  There has been much made by friends of the Khan family about how Reyaad Khan was a “straight A” student who wanted to be the first Asian Prime Minister, but they have said very little about his Twitter boasts of taking part in mass executions.  If they hadn’t wanted him to get killed, perhaps they should have spent more time preventing him from becoming radicalised in the first place. 

One person I know has suggested that rather than the family suing the Government, perhaps it should be the other way round, with the Government recouping the cost of drone fuel, the pilot’s wages and ordnance used etc. from the family.

Road Trip

Five weeks ago, Emma and I had a bit of a road trip.  It was something that we had initially planned back in March, and when we did, it had seemed months away, but it came around really quick.

The idea was that we would go to Edinburgh and see the Royal International Tattoo, which was something that both Emma and I had always wanted to see.  The other thing with this trip is that it would be me returning to the City of my birth for the first time since I left at about four months old.

However, it is quite a drive from Kent (we had decided to drive as it would cost us less in petrol than the nearly £150 each that the train fare would cost!), so we decided that we would do it in stages, driving to Leeds on the Monday, continuing to Edinburgh on the Tuesday, and coming back after a two-night stay in Auld Reekie on the Thursday, with a two-night stay in York to break up the journey.

The journey to Leeds was fairly uneventful, but because we didn’t leave until later than we had planned, we didn’t arrive there until the late afternoon.  The hotel that we stayed in was one that I had stayed in a couple of years ago when I had gone to Leeds for a Resuscitation Council conference.  When I had stayed the first time, it was called Bewley’s, but it is now under new management and called The Clayton Hotel.

We had a quick bimble around the area near the hotel, not that there was a lot to see, but we had decided to eat at the hotel rather than eating out, which was definitely a good idea. The food that we had was both very good and inexpensive, and I would recommend the hotel.

On the Tuesday, began the next phase of the trip.  In addition, there was someone who I’d served with in Iraq who I knew lived near Edinburgh, whom I hadn't seen for about ten years, so I had suggested that we meet up and he invited us to dinner.

The journey to Scotland was quite slow, and there seemed to be an awful lot of road works, but we arrived at about 3pm and found the hotel, Pirie’s Hotel, which was located quite close to Haymarket and a couple of miles from Princes Street.  So, once we’d settled into our room we decided to go exploring and walk towards the Castle.

Ok, so we became a little geographically challenged but we managed to find the Castle, Princes Street, which was very busy as we were in the City at the same time as The Fringe, and even found our way back to the hotel (although I did cheat, as I knew the trams went to Haymarket, so it was just a case of following the tram tracks from Princes Street) in time to shower and change before driving out to Patch’s in Auchterarder.

Like me, Patch is an Army Reservist, but an Officer in the Royal Artillery rather than the AMS, but he had been attached to the medical unit that I was with in Iraq.  Dinner was fabulous and a pleasant evening was had by (hopefully) all, and we were given some recommendations of places to go/things to see in Edinburgh.

The following day, after breakfast, became somewhat surreal, as we drove out to the Oxgangs part of Edinburgh and to the house that I had lived in immediately after I was born.  The quarter in which we had lived had been knocked through to the one next door and was now the Welfare Office.  With Emma's encouragement, I went in, introduced myself and explained why I was there. The lady was extremely helpful and allowed me to go out into the back garden to take some pictures as well as giving me the guided tour of what had been my first home.  And that was the surreal part, as the last time that I had been in that house was 48 years ago, with my mum and dad, neither of whom are with us anymore.

We then drove back into Edinburgh and did a bit more exploring of the shops on the Royal Mile, before the highlight so far for Emma, which was our tour of Mary King's Close.

After heading back to the hotel and changing, we then got a taxi to dinner at a restaurant called Il Castello in Castle Terrace, after which we walked up Johnston Terrace and found our seats for the Tattoo.

The Tattoo was very good, the highlight for Emma being the Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel in Switzerland, although I thought that all of the "acts" were equally as good, and the nearly two hours of the show flew past.

On the Thursday was the next long trek, this time to York, which we made good time, arriving in the early afternoon and booking into the York Pavillion Hotel.  After settling in, we then made our way into York, meeting up with our friends Barry and Anna, before grabbing some food and settling into an evening of cocktail drinking.

The next day became a museum day, as it was hammering it down all day.  In the morning we visited the National Railway Museum and spent a couple of hours exploring this very large museum.

We then walked into the centre of York and had some lunch before then walking to our next museum, the York Castle Museum.

It had been suggested to us by both Patch and Barry that if we were going to be in York for lunch that we should visit Betty's, which we did, but we arrived at midday and the queue of people waiting to go in was enormous, so we ended up going elsewhere. 

Once we got to York Castle, another enjoyable couple of hours was spent going around the museum before we made our way back to the car and to the hotel for a quick pre-dinner snooze.

We had a very enjoyable dinner in the hotel, followed by a nice nightcap prior to a good night's sleep on what was effectively the last night of our "holiday" before the long drive back to Kent, with the reality of returning to work a couple of days later.

Now there's nothing until Malta in October, but hopefully the time until then will go as quick as the time since Edinburgh.

Hypocrisy

In the state of Kentucky, at the moment, there is a woman languishing in jail.  She has been jailed for contempt of court, but could just has easily been jailed for hypocrisy.

The woman's name is Kim Davis and she is an elected clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky who has refused to issue marriage licences since the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal in the United States.  Her reason for doing so is that it goes against her Christian religious beliefs.

However, her Christian religious beliefs appear to have not interfered with her working for her mother as a Deputy Clerk for more than two decades, and apparently receiving far more salary than any of the other chief deputies.

Nor did her Christian religious beliefs prevent her from marrying multiple times, committing adultery and having illegitimate children, all of which are frowned upon in the bible.

Ms Davis has apparently been married four times, albeit to one man twice. According to the bible, marriage is a lifetime commitment. “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate” (Matthew 19:6). Didn't stop her doing that.

Also, according to the bible, “You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).  Didn't stop her doing that either.  Apparently, she had twins who were born five months after her divorce from her first husband, but fathered by her third husband, meaning that there was another one in between!  Just as well that she's a Christian, as the Old Testament says  “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 20:10).  

And this brings me on to the third thing.  Her twins were fathered by a man that she was not married to and therefore were born illegitimately.  The bible says about this “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 23:2).  That's them screwed then.

And to cap it all, this is a woman who, as an elected official, swore to 

"well and truly discharge the duties of the office of Rowan County Circuit Court clerk, according to the best of my skill and judgment, making the due entries and records of all orders, judgments, decrees, opinions and proceedings of the court, and carefully filing and preserving in my office all books and papers which come to my possession by virtue of my office; and that I will not knowingly or willingly commit any malfeasance of office, and will faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor, affection or partiality, so help me God."

So she swore an oath to her God to  "faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor, affection or partiality".  Yet when there is something that she doesn't agree with, she refuses to comply with the law that elected her, claiming to be acting "under God's authority".  I don't believe that she can have it both ways.

Don't get me wrong, I respect her right to have principles and to stick by those principles, because the bible does say "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination" (Leviticus 18:22), but to do so in direct defiance of the modern United States law, which I am sure she lives the rest of her life by, is wrong, and she deserves to be in jail.  She has been offered the option of allowing her deputies to issue the licenses, five of whom have said that they would, and in fact have been doing so since she was locked up, but the sixth, her son (no nepotism there, then) has refused to do so.  However, even from her cell, Ms Davis is claiming that they are invalid as she, the elected clerk, hasn't signed them.

So what are the options.  She could resign, but I think that her religious bigotry would not allow her to do so.  And the State cannot just sack her, because she is an elected official.  The only the way that they can get rid of her is to impeach her, which may well be happening, as the Rowan County Attorney's Office has referred her case to the Attorney General of Kentucky's Office on the grounds of Official Misconduct.

What I find so surprising is the number of people who are jumping to her defence and supporting her, although to be fair, many of them I believe are jumping on the bandwagon as they are Republican Party Presidential hopefuls and it is only fourteen months until that election.  Even if they believe that the Supreme Court's ruling is wrong, it is the law and they must abide by it.

Can you imagine the outcry if the elected clerk was a devout Muslim who refused to issue driving licences to women, or a Mormon who insisted on proof of chastity before issuing a marriage licence, all because of their religious beliefs.  I very much doubt that they would get the support that this woman has.

Trips and Birthday Treats

Since Emma and I have been together, we've done a fair amount of travelling, the first time being to France and Belgium at the beginning of November 2013, with an overnight stay in Ieper.

Emma hadn't been there before, and before we left I’d done some research.  One of her family names is Streek, so I had visited the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and found all of the Streeks who were either buried or commemorated in France or Belgium.

We travelled over by ferry on the Friday, but discovered that most of France was closed as it was All Saints’ Day, when Catholic families visit the graves of their family and lay flowers. This we discovered when we visited the first of the Streeks, who is buried in Calais, and we found the cemetery packed with the living, as well as the dead.

We arrived in Ieper and settled into the Hotel, with time to visit the chocolate shops and have a drink before we attended the Last Post Ceremony which is organised by the Last Post Association and takes place at 8pm every evening at The Menin Gate.

This was Emma’s first time at the ceremony, and although I have been to it numerous times, I had always attended during the summer. It is a lot more atmospheric when its dark outside and cold, being just over a week short of the 95^th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

After a fabulous dinner and a good night’s sleep, we visited some of the other places of interest, including Tyne Cot, Langemark and the village of Passendale, before heading down the motorway to France, where we visited my Great Grandfather who is commemorated in Dud Corner Cemetery before ending up at the Thiepval Memorial.

After this, it was back to Calais and the ferry, which was when I discovered that Emma is definitely not a sailor. Granted, the sea was a little rough, and also granted that the crossing that normally takes 1.5 hours ended up taking an hour longer because we got blown off course, after which Emma informed me that she would not be travelling by ferry again.

Other than a visit to my old school for Remembrance Sunday,  the first time that I had been back in quite a few years due to Army Reserve commitments, the next trip away was for my birthday in the January of 2014.

My birthday treat was a night in a hotel in London (we actually had a suite!) and I was taken to see The Mousetrap.  This Agatha Christie play has been running continuously since 1952, but if you don’t want to spoil the end if you haven’t seen it, don’t read the whole of the above article.

The next major trip abroad was for Emma’s birthday, which I started planning and sorting out before my birthday.  Because it was a special birthday (her xx^th) I decided that I’d have to do something special.  However, I also decided that it was to be a complete surprise and everything was planned in secrecy, with very few people being privy to the final destination.

The day before her birthday, Emma and I boarded a train from Paddock Wood to Strood, where we boarded the high-speed train to St Pancras.  Emma still had no idea where we were going, having assumed that we weren’t leaving the UK and not realising that I still had her passport from our trip to Belgium.  In fact, it was only when I steered her into the entrance for the Eurostar that I told her that our destination was Paris.  Her face was a picture.

Having arrived and settled into our hotel, we decided to have a walk and explore the city as neither of us had been to Paris before.  This short walk turned into quite a trek, with us visiting Montmartre, before walking down through the Tuileries Garden, and walking along the Seine as far as the Louvre, although we didn’t go in, as it was evening time by now.

We did, however, find a little restaurant in one of the backstreets for dinner before attempting to walk back to our hotel, which was located opposite Gare du Nord.  But, due to a combination of a good meal washed down with a nice wine and the fact that I was in a city that I didn't know, we became geographically challenged (I had to explain to Emma that an Officer is never lost, he is always where he wants to be, but on occasion he may become geographically challenged).  As a result, we cheated and had our first trip on the Métro.

The Sunday was Emma’s actual birthday so we started off bright and early with a Métro trip to the Champs-Élysées, which we then walked the length of, passing such shops as Tiffany’s (fortunately closed!) until we got to the Arc de Triomphe.  But then we made our way to the place that Emma really wanted to see, the Eiffel Tower.

The crowd waiting to enter was huge, and we actually queued for about two hours before we even got into the tower, but we made it to the very top to be rewarded with spectacular views of the whole city.

After a leisurely afternoon, we got dressed up for Emma’s birthday dinner, for which I had booked a Seine river cruise with a five course meal, which was absolutely delicious and very relaxed as we sailed up and down the river, all started with a Kir Royal. 

Sadly, the following day was our last day in Paris, the weekend having seemed to have flown by, but we just had time to do a final bit of sight-seeing to Notre Dame de Paris before picking up presents for the kids and jumping on the Eurostar to return to the UK to nurse our aching feet and legs, because of the distance that we'd walked during the weekend.

A couple of months later, we were on the move again, this time with Alec, Drew, Maggie and Ant, Emma’s son, to Menorca, which as I have already said, was my first experience of an all-inclusive holiday, but is definitely something that I would consider again.

As for birthday treats, they have been a little less ‘lavish’ this year, other than the hotel.  Mine was again in London, with a day spent at the British Museum, a place that I would highly recommend that you visit, if you haven’t already done so.  But be prepared for the fact that you won’t get around everything in just one day!  The day was rounded off with a nice meal at a French restaurant near the hotel.

Emma’s birthday was at the same hotel as mine, the Hotel Russell, and again we ate at the French restaurant just up the road.

Since then, we’ve had our road trip to Scotland, and we are heading off to Malta next month, both of which will be covered in future entries.

Refugees, Migrants and Terrorists

At the moment, there is a crisis in many European countries, particularly those with a Mediterranean coast and their neighbours.  What the crisis is depends on how you interpret the mass of humanity that is making its way from North Africa across this stretch of water to seek asylum/sanctuary in Europe.  But what are these people? Are they refugees or are they migrants?  Well that depends on which news channel you listen to and the prevailing political opinion of the country in which the news is being broadcast.  But it is also important because the status of the two types is completely different.

A refugee is a person who has fled their country of origin because they are in fear of their life for whatever reason, and many of those fleeing across the Mediterranean are doing so because they are attempting to escape conflict in their own countries, such as Syria and many other African countries.

A migrant, on the other hand, is someone who has moved from their country of origin to another country in order to improve their circumstances, but not necessarily because they are imminently in danger.  And if you are in a situation where you realise that a move to a more prosperous country can improve your lot, how can blame the person from migrating.  But many of these migrants are not following the rules, obtaining visas etc., but they will travel alongside the refugees.

So, how do we tell who is a refugee, with a real need for asylum, and who is migrating to improve their position in life.  And this is the difficulty, because we often can’t.  A refugee fleeing for their life doesn't have time to pick up their passport, sort out travellers cheques and pack what they need.  They will often arrive with a small bundle that represents all of their worldly goods.  But then so will the migrants.

The European Union (EU) asylum rules state that the refugee must register for asylum in the first EU country that they reach.  That does not mean that they will then have to settle in that country, but they must register.  This often does not happen, the person moving from country to country through the EU’s open borders in an effort to find a country that, in the case of the migrants, they believe will serve them better.  And two of the most popular countries at the present time seem to be Germany and the United Kingdom.  However, to enter either Germany or the UK, or in fact pretty much any other EU country other than Greece, Italy or Spain, then that person has to have passed through a safe third country.

In the UK we are well aware that there are many people trying to enter the country, and living where I do, in the county that is the closest point to Europe, there is rarely a day that goes past when there is not a local news report about the migrants that are living rough in Calais attempting to stowaway on lorries coming from the continent or breaking through the security fencing and trying to enter the UK via the Channel Tunnel.

Whilst I agree that we must provide assistance to refugees, as this country has done for countless centuries for all types of displaced persons, be they Huguenots in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries or Jews in the 1930s, I also believe that there needs to be some controls to ensure that those seeking asylum are genuine asylum seekers.  I believe that this is more important now because of the security risk to all of the European countries from the numerous terrorist organisations, but particularly ISIS/Daesh, an organisation that has already threatened to flood Europe with “fighters” by secreting their “operatives” within the flood of refugees/migrants already making their way into Europe.  So how do we control the people who are attempting to enter the various countries?  It is a very difficult thing to do. 

In the UK those who are seeking asylum are free to move about whilst there application is considered, often having to report on a regular basis.  Once their application is granted, all restrictions are lifted and there are no conditions.  But what about those whose applications are rejected?  Last month, it was reported that “failed asylum seekers” would be re-branded as illegal immigrants and given a period of 28 days in which to leave the country.  In theory, this seems like a good idea, but what about in practice?

As I have already said, refugees don’t have time to collect things like passports when they flee, and a person cannot be transported from one country to another without appropriate travel documents.  So whilst waiting for the passport to arrive, what happens is that the person continues to have to report regularly.  But at this stage, they are aware that they are to be returned to their country of origin (or to the country where they first registered for asylum if the Dublin Regulation is invoked) and many will just disappear, hoping to continue living here until eventually caught.

There are a dozen or so Immigration Removal Centres located in the UK, but even these don’t provide sufficient accommodation for the estimated 25.000 asylum seekers registered in the UK (this figure doesn't include the migrants who have never registered), which means that there are many who are living freely throughout the country.  And whilst I have no doubt at all that the vast majority mean no harm to the people of the UK, there are bound to be a minority who do.

Since the rise of ISIS/Daesh in about 2012, there have been approximately 750 misguided British citizens who have left the safety of the UK to go and fight alongside these backward zealots in the Middle East.  The risk is that, if they haven’t been killed already, they will be facilitating the entry of the threatened flood into the UK, as I find it difficult that they have broken all social media links with their friends and family.  How many of those that are living in Calais are there under the orders of al-Baghdadi, and how can we tell?

To counter the extremism of the Middle East, the UK has developed its own extremists, such as the English Defence League, who, on the surface seem to be mostly Islamophobic, but actually seem to be intolerant of almost every race or religion other than their own, and would probably be happiest if no-one “foreign” was permitted to enter the country.  They have even made a released a video that suggests that in twenty years the UK will be having daily bombings and subject to Sharia Law.

So, at the end of this ramble, what is the solution?  I don’t think that there is simple one.  I firmly believe that displaced persons, refugees, need to have a place where they can go to be safe, be that the UK or another peaceful EU country, but I also believe that there has to be controls to ensure that only those who are genuine refugees, rather than merely migrants, are granted entry.  I am aware that there are measures in place, but I also don’t think that these measures go far enough to protect this country from those who would take advantage of our generosity or who would wish us harm.

It's been a while.....

Well it has. It's been almost two years. No excuse really, other than I have been busy doing all sorts of things and, for a while, I thought that I couldn't get on here anyway. 

The observant among you will have noticed that the visitor counter has changed. The reason for this is that the company that provided the old one was being sold, as a result of which every time I logged into this blog, I was redirected to the seller’s site with the “opportunity” to purchase the site. Being the Luddite that I am with computers and not wanting to purchase the site or lose the info, it took me a while to realise that I'd have to delete the gadget, and the info, before I could regain control of my blog.

So what’s changed/happened in the last 21 months? Well, firstly, one big change has been that the person that I mentioned at the end of my blog in September 2013 who’d asked my out is now, and has been for the for the last two years, my girlfriend.

Her name is Emma and like me, she works at the hospital. As I said before, we’ve known each other a long time and had always got on, but for most of that time she was married as was I (or in a relationship).  In fact, I don’t think until we started ‘going out’ that either of us had seen the other as anything more than a friend and colleague.  It’s surprising what can happen.

Emma has a son, who is sixteen and we all seem to get along, my lot included, but then there’s not that much diffence in age between them all. We all even survived a week together in Menorca!

Menorca was my first experience of an all-inclusive holiday. I have to confess to being somewhat anxious, as my preconception was of the sort of place that one would see in programmes like Benidorm, full of mahogany people who go to the same place every year. But it wasn’t like that at all. The place where we stayed was called San Luís and was a quiet seaside town. The disadvantage to that was that it may have been too quiet for the boys and Maggie, but ok for an old fart like me.

I also enjoyed the historical aspect, as the island had been a very strategic port during the late-18^th and early-19^th Centuries, but all this was revealed when we had the boat trip round the harbour, prior to visiting the gin factory in Mahon.

We aren’t planning a big family holiday this year, although Emma and her son had a week in Lanzarote when he had finished his GCSEs and the pair of us had a short break to Scotland last week (a subject for a later blog) and we are heading to Malta later this year. As for the kids, Alec has spent four weeks in Turkey this summer and Drew has been too busy working.  Maybe we’ll have a holiday together next year, but I think that it will depend on what the boys plan to do.

Speaking of the boys, Alec has now graduated from the University of Hull with a BA (Hons) in History and starts teaching history at a local school in about three weeks, this first year being when he will have to work to get his PGCE. At the end of that he will hopefully be a fully-fledged teacher.

Drew has stopped working at Dominos and is now at Starbucks, although this is just to tide him over as he is going back to college to do a course that will cover the first year or two of the computing degree that he wants to do. However, the main reason for not going to University yet is that he has a Polish girlfriend, Kinga, who now lives with us, and she has to complete some exams before she is able to apply to Universities in this country.

Drew and Kinga have also led to their being two other additions to the household, as we now have a pair of 11 week old kittens who came from Emma’s next door neighbour.

As for Maggie, she will need to be the subject of another blog on another day!

I am still travelling to Aldershot one day a week, although the job that I’m doing has changed. Just before Christmas last year, I received a letter informing me that I had been boarded for promotion and pre-selected for promotion. All I needed to do was find a job and be successful on application to “put up” the rank. Luckily, there was a job in the branch that I was already working in, so I applied, was successful and as of June this year I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Essentially, this has meant a bit more responsibility and quite a bit more money!

So now that I’ve regained control of the blog, I will attempt to keep it updated far better than it has been since November 2013!

For The Fallen

 

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

 

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

 

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

 

They shall not grow 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.

 

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

 

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

 

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

 

R. L. Binyon (1869-1943)



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



The future's bright? Really?

In 2003, I took out my mobile phone contract with Orange, the main reason being that they were the only mobile phone company who could guarantee that I would have a service when I deployed to Iraq. And true to their word I did indeed have a signal, via the Kuwaiti system, the whole time that I was there.

The only problem that I had was when I attempted to change my direct debit date some months into my contract. It seemed that although the original date was inconvenient for me, that didn't matter. It was inconvenient for Orange to change the direct debit date and so they were unwilling to do so. In the end I had to cancel the direct debit and just pay every month manually, which meant that I was then penalised for not paying by direct debit, resulting in me paying more for my bills. 

This went on for some time until I pointed out that it was them that refused to change my direct debit date to one that was convenient to me and that was the reason that I wasn't paying by direct debit.  In the end, they accepted that they were at fault, and I was refunded the excess that I had paid.

And so to this year, and the reason for this slight rant.

The telephone account had five separate numbers, mine, Julie's, Drew's, Maggie's and Hannah's. When Julie and I decided that we were moving, it was agreed that Julie's and Hannah's numbers would be moved into a new account that would be in the name of Julie's mum.

So in February of this year, I contacted Orange Customer Services to arrange the transfer of the numbers. The woman with whom I spoke informed me that it would not be possible to do this until after the bill date in March.

In March 2013, I again telephoned Orange to transfer the numbers and was told that it should have been done when I initially telephoned and that there would be a delay in transferring these numbers.  Not particularly efficient, and it wasn't until April that the two numbers were removed from my account.

All sorted, just three numbers for me to pay for. Or so I thought!

In May I received a letter from Orange informing me that there was an outstanding balance on my account.  As I had only just paid my bill I was a bit surprised so I telephoned the automated service and discovered that I had a nil balance. So yet again I telephoned Orange Customer Services and explained the situation to them. The guy was initially bewildered, but after investigation was able to shed some light on the matter.

He informed me that when the two numbers had been dissociated from my account, rather than being moved straight into the other account they had been moved into a temporary account which should have been closed when the new account was opened, but this hadn't happened. He also informed me that this was a mistake by Orange, apologised, and told me that I should ignore the letter. Sorted? Not quite, because that would suggest that Orange Communications were capable of communicating within their company.

A month later, I received another letter informing me that despite “the previous communication”, there was still an outstanding balance on my account. So I again telephoned Orange Customer Services. Different person, but same outcome. Orange had made a mistake, it would be sorted out; ignore the communication, end of the matter.

Then in July, I received another letter, this one from a debt collection Agency called NCO Europe, informing me that they were acting on behalf of Orange as I had ignored previous communications and demanding even more money (apparently, they had now added their administration fee onto the original sum). And it’s at this point that all pretence at competence has gone out of the window.

I called Orange, who confirmed what they'd told me before, and then I called NCO who didn't believe me. And this was how it would go for about a month. NCO would call me, I would explain the situation, whoever I spoke to would suggest that I was making it up, but would assure me that they would investigate and call me back. And then a different person would call me back, I would explain the situation, whoever I spoke to would suggest that I was making it up, but would assure me that they would investigate and call me back, and so on.

Having spoken with them several times I decided that I would only deal with them in writing, therefore leaving a paper trail. I also wrote a formal letter of complaint to Orange.

And still it goes on, and still there is no resolution. NCO had asked me to send them a copy of the letter that I have written to Orange which I did. They then denied receiving it, despite my receiving read receipts to the email that the letter was sent on. So it has been sent again, read receipts again being received.

As for Orange, they still haven't responded to my letter, so as it is now eight weeks since my original letter of complaint and I have had no response, I have now had to contact the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (CISAS). I also informed NCO that I had done so and have now received another email from them, addressed to me but with the salutation "Good afternoon Ms Foster", Ms Foster being the person whom I had sent the email to, and who had then forwarded it to the intellectual giant of a colleague who has sent me the email.

Daniela Ferrer Francisco, Operations Team Manager at NCO Europe, assures me that she wishes to resolve this matter and just needs me to email a copy of the letter that I have sent to Orange to enable her to do so.  As this would be the third copy that I would have sent them, I have agreed to do so only on the condition that she first attempt to find one of the copies that I have already sent and, if unsuccessful, email me stating that due to her company's incompetence they have lost the previous two copies that they have been sent and wish me to furnish them with a third. Wonder if they will be honest enough to do so.

As for Orange, their slogan for many years was "The future's bright, the future's Orange". It’s a shame that their, and NCO Europe Ltd's, employees appear not very bright.

I also wonder how Orange got on in Northern Ireland with that slogan.

Catching up...

It’s been sixteen weeks since I last posted and there's no real reason for this, other than the fact that I have lacked motivation and been working loads.

The biggest change that has occurred is that m'Julie is no longer m'Julie. By the end of May, I had realised that the spark that had been there between us was no longer there, and although I hope that we will remain friendly, there is no romance there. So I wrote her a letter, which was fitting as our relationship had started after she wrote a letter to me.

The downside to this was that as soon as my colleagues at the hospital found out that I was single, I then had numerous of them trying to set me up. Many of them seemed to think it odd that I was happy to be single and didn't need to be in a relationship at all times!

In June, the house became busier as Alec came home from Uni for the summer. However, because he couldn't fit everything into his car I had to drive up to Hull and back, a 450 mile round trip, to help him bring everything back.

He was quite lucky, because his brother has been working in Domino's whilst he's been at college, and managed to get Alec a job there as a delivery driver, so he has been earning all Summer. It will be strange when he goes back to Uni next week, the house being quieter, but I'm not looking forward to the 450 mile round trip again.

Drew has completed his programming course at college and is now looking for something that will utilise the skills that he has learnt over the last two years. In the meantime, he too is continuing to work at Domino's.

And me, I've been working at least one day per weekend most weekends and all bank holidays in the hospital to make sure that I can afford all the bills and have some spending money which means that I might actually be able to have a holiday next year.

I have also started the Staff Officer post in Aldershot and now commute every week for one day. The job is very different to my previous post, but it’s also challenging and interesting. It’s still early days and there is still a lot to learn, but I think that I will enjoy it.

And the last thing to say has been that, after all the talk about being happy to be single, I have now been asked out. And I thought that I would see where this goes. It's someone that I've known and worked with for the last twelve years, so I know that we get on.

Guess I'll just have to see what happens.

All attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail (Part 2)

We've been in the house now for just over 4 weeks and things are beginning to settle, although I am still working some daft hours. It is possible to now move about in the garage (where all of the excess boxes were stored) without having to climb on things. We're still not completely there, but further on than we were four weeks ago.

The biggest shock has been the fact that although the house is pretty much the same shape as the old one, it is a lot smaller, particularly the size of the rooms. This proved interesting when it came to trying to fit my bed into the bedroom, and there was a fair bit of moving about until we were able to actually fit everything in. But it does make the house quite cosy, and even though we've had a few chilly evenings, we haven't really needed to have the heating on.

Work wise I have been keeping busy working at the hospital doing extra shifts, but I have now heard and been told that I have been appointed to a Reservist Staff Officer post, so I will now get the opportunity to put the course that I attended last October into practice. Very different to being an Officer in a reserve Squadron, but I'm looking forward to the challenges that it will bring. My final function with the Squadron that I have served with and commanded since 2001 will be my formal dining out next Friday. Sadly, I did ask Julie if she would like to come with me but she declined.

It is also unfortunate that there may be a big impact on the way in which we have all served as a result of the events that happened in Woolwich on Wednesday, the reason for the title of this post.

However, I for one will not be intimidated by the actions of two sub-human pieces of shit, who deserve nothing more than to be fed to starving pigs whilst they are still alive. This pair committed this abhorrent crime in the name of a religion. But the sane, right-thinking people of this faith, the majority, join in condemning these scum. And whilst I am proud of the fact that in this country, in law, we have the presumption of innocence, surely the fact that one of these pigs was filmed, holding a meat cleaver whilst covered in the blood of his victim and confessing to having perpetrated the crime, means that they can be referred to as the murderers that they are, rather than "the alleged perpetrators".

I have to say that the Police Officers who shot them have definitely done the right thing in wounding rather than killing them. The reason that I say this is that had they been killed, they would instantly have become martyrs of the extremist Islamic cause. At least with them having survived they will eventually stand trial, and this will give other people who may have been inspired by their actions and seen them as heroes, had they died, to actually see them for the cowards that they actually are.

They are probably too stupid to realise that it is due to the actions of Drummer Lee Rigby, the man that they murdered, and other people like him who have, do and will serve in Her Majesty's Armed Forces, that they are able to hold the views that they have without being detained and tortured, as they would be in the more primitive countries that they want this country to become with their version of "law".

They cannot kill us all.

Getting there

Like last time, the day of the move dawned bright and early, and I had collected the van by 0800. Drew and I then worked like Trojans and loaded the van with all the large stuff, before we walked down to sign the lease and take possession of the keys.

Once we had access, we drove round and got everything unloaded into the house before we drove back and left the van for Julie and Glenys to load whilst Drew and I went off to have some lunch.

We then drove round to Glenys's house, assisting with the unloading of the van, before we headed off to Big Yellow and completely emptied the storage unit that we had there.

We had decided that rather than fill the house up, we would load all of the boxes into the garage and bring them into the house as and when we had space. Doing this meant that we were finished and had the van back at the hire place whilst it was still light and got to bed at a decent hour.

Thursday was taken up with blitzing the old house from top to bottom, with it being finished on Friday morning just before the estate agent did the walk round and took the keys from us. The garden was cleared, with a couple of trips to the dump,  and I was back home early evening, in time to go and collect Maggie and have dinner ready for when Alec arrived from Hull, ready for the weekend.

Saturday was another lovely, but cold, day, and we were on the 0920 train to London, having our first pint at Waterloo by 1030, before heading to the Barmy Arms in Twickenham to meet with everyone.

My plan this year was that we would arrive at the stadium in plenty of time for the kick off, but as with just about every year, this plan went to rat shit with the introduction of beer. With the kick off at 1500, we didn't actually leave the pub until fifteen minutes before the kick-off, and by the time we'd bought food, got to the ground, found our seats, we'd missed the first twenty minutes of the game. Worse than that, the Navy were winning 19-5!

At this point, Maggie was worried! However, in the last twenty minutes of the first half, the Army scored two more tries, both of which were converted, and it was 19-19 at half time.

During the second half, the Army were completely dominant, the Navy only scoring one converted try, leaving the final score 43-26 in the Army's favour, much to Maggie's relief.

So the large group of us, with the addition of the two young ladies who adopted us, headed back to the Barmy Arms to carry on drinking, before making our way along the tow path to Richmond, via the White Swan, finishing up in The Old Ship.

I don't think that we had as much to drink as last year, and we were definitely home earlier, and again I felt surprisingly good on Sunday morning, but I think that all the alcohol must have left my body overnight on Sunday, as when I went to work on Monday, I felt rubbish, and still feel full of cold.

So stay tuned for the story of why "I think we're gonna need a bigger house" which will follow soon!

Final stages

It's strange to look around this house and to think that it's just sixteen months since the house was in a similar state, full of boxes and no access to most of my belongings, but on that occasion it was because we had just moved in to here.

Just about all of the "small" stuff, books, CDs, DVDs etc, are now boxed and in storage, the aim being that when we move on Wednesday, only the "large" stuff, beds, wardrobes etc, will need to be loaded into the van and taken to the new house.

It will still be at least three trips, as the first trip will be to the house that me and Drew are moving to, then I will need to move Julie and Glenys's stuff to Glenys's house, and then, if time permits, Drew and I will head off to the storage and try to move as much as possible from there to our house.

There is a little bit of a time pressure but not a huge amount. We move on Wednesday, I've allocated Thursday to cleaning this house and doing the last few bits, and then we hand over the keys on Friday morning. Fortunately, I had sufficient time-owing from work to enable me to take a few days off without having to eat into any of my annual leave.

But I can't look forward to a nice chilled weekend sorting the house out, as Alec arrives from Hull on Friday evening and bright (at least I hope it'll be bright!) and early on Saturday we head up to Twickenham for a day of drinking with the annual Army v Royal Navy rugby match in the middle.

Alec has been the one who has got all of the tickets this year and there are about thirty-five of us, a combination of family, old friends, new friends and colleagues. We're even letting Maggie go this year, although it is with strict conditions.

In the last twelve years, the Navy have only won the match once, in 2010. Maggie has only been to the match once, and, you guessed it, it was 2010. So she has been told by almost everyone that if the Army lose again this year, she won't be allowed to go again.

And, as with most years, the winner of this match will be the Inter-Services champion, as both the Army and the Navy have already beaten the Royal Air Force.

So as of Wednesday, I will be Internet incommunicado until Friday, so the next update is not likely to be until at least next Sunday, as long as I'm not too hungover!