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Deep in Naarfuk, life moves at a much slower pace. It is great to see this has been reflected in the village of Deopham where its welcoming sign ask motorists rather quaintly to “drive you steady”.
I imagine this use of local dialect instantly puts a smile on the face of drivers, who are more used to official warning signs urging them to reduce their speed.
You would surely have to slow down to a tractor’s pace in order to enjoy it and go with the flow. A very clever marketing ploy.
Where will these gallows end up?
The gallows are exported to dictators Robert Mugabe and Colonel Gadaffi, among others, by David Lucas, who also builds chairs and tables.
It seems that gallows building is a thriving business, though totally macabre and distasteful in my view. After all, many innocent people could be murdered on these gallows in countries where life is cheap, at least we still place a value on a human life.
He is profiting from their deaths. The gallows cost £12,000 to make and “multi hanging execution systems” mounted on lorry trailers fetch £100,000.
It also makes a mockery of the UK’s effort to oppose the death penalty around the world if, right under its nose, a British company is sending hanging equipment abroad.
But for some people, victims of crime who feel they have been cheated of justice, the farmer from Mildenhall has become a heroic figure who will stand up and speak in favour of capital punishment. Others feel the rise of violent crime since the abolition of the death penalty in 1965 means we should now have a referendum for the return of capital punishment, and this would be supported by an overwhelming 60-70%.
The bearded, unsmiling farmer believes that putting gallows on display in public and reintroducing cpital punishment would be a powerful deterrent against crime. He explained the reason.
“You are safer walking down the street in Libya and African countries than you are here and that’s because of capital punishment.
“Third world countries are laughing at us because we’ve got no deterrent against crime. They’re the only ones where law and order is under control.
“I have had visits from several high ranking police officers who can’t speak in favour of capital punishment because they’re hands are tied by the government.
“Other people have come to me after their children have been murdered of wives raped. These people feel there is no one to talk for them, so I now speak for them.”
Would you like to see some gallows erected in the centre of your town, even if they were just a deterrent? How safe would that make you feel?
What exactly is the DPM juggling?
While us lesser mortals were working hard last Thursday, and Tony Blair was on his way to Washington, the Deptuy Prime Minister rallied his staff for a team building game of croquet. These included his private secretary, special adviser and her assistant.
The last thing he expected was for that relaxed moment at his grace and favour residence to be captured by a sharp eyed photographer - no doubt heads will have rolled for those responsible for this breach of security.
But thank goodness the pictures did surface, they show us all how incompetently Prescott runs the country at a time when his government is facing growing unpopularity. I may be naive, but I thought that he would have wanted to keep his head down, at the very least appearing to he hard at work and displaying genuine signs of redemption. But playing croquet in the middle of a work day clearly demonstrates his audacity, an inability to connect with the views of an angered nation.
Prescott held on to Dorneywood by the skin of his teeth, but the croquet pictures, and particularly their poor timing, clearly show that he has not taken on board any of the hostitlity felt towards him by fellow MPs as well as the electorate. I don’t think he will last much longer, the knives baying for his blood are too long and too close to his back for him to survive as DPM.
I’m not averse to a game of croquet myself, but as Ross Clark reminds us, Prescott’s plans to keep our gardens to a minimum size have put paid to us being able to do that in own back yard. We don’t all have the privilege of a Dorneywood to escape to and enjoy this traditional English game.
To be honest, I would never have imagined John Prescott as a croquet player, more of a welly thrower, life is full of surprises.
It’s great to see Iain highlighting Defra’s gross inefficency. I wonder if his parents are aware that they stand to lose up to 20% of their European farm payments because Tony Blair wants the money to be diverted into environmental projects instead.
Iain has mentioned one example of Defra cocking up. Despite having degrees, it seems their staff can’t add up At least one farmer has even become a millionaire over night after Defra paid him £2.1 million - he was expecting only £35,000.
There was also the ludicrous situation where some of the returned addressed envelopes sent out by the RPA to various farmers had the wrong post office box number and postcode on them. It seems that a batch of special delivery envelopes were delivered not to the RPA, but to a company called Intelligent Security Solutions.
What confidence is that going to inspire? It’s hardly surprising having been told by a Shadow Minister that Defra ends up with the “dregs” of civil servants who have been turned down for posts at other departments and end up there as a last resort. I must admit I do not understand this as their remit is so important.
Lord Rooker was in East Anglia a couple of days ago and apologised profusely for the payments’ shambles.
He said: “We failed to deliver in England and I apologise. Farmers and the community have been tolerant and I am not making any excuses. We have caused a lot of distress and I apologise for that.”
So why was Mararet Beckett promoted if this was her legacy? Other people now have to finish off her job that she failed at so miserably. Charles Clarke admitted his department’s mistakes and got the chop, why didn’t she?
Sheep impressionist Robin Page
Robin Page, former TV presenter of One Man and His Dog, is one of life’s true eccentrics. He genuinely doesn’t care what people think about him.
Last week he made sheep impressions in mockery of Lib Dem colleagues at South Cambridgeshire District Council where he sits as an Independent councillor. He was no doubt mocking their demise, the poor little lost lambs.
Members of the cash strapped council were not amused and Coun Page was accused of behaving in a “silly and immature” way. The council is now represented only by Independent and Tory councillors.
When I used to report at their meetings, Robin was always one of the liveliest and challenging speakers and I would immediately perk up when he spoke, pen poised waiting for him to say something sensational, which he invariably did.
He runs a great, traditional farm and used to bring in reindeers each Christmas for the kids to see. I wonder what kind of noise they make.
Don’t change Robin, baa humbug to everyone else…
King’s Lynn’s debt ridden hospital
Now I really know we do have a Third World hospital in our midst.
Staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn - a stone’s throw from the royal residence in Sandringham - have been told to take their rubbish home to help save money.
This follows a reduction of bin collections from five times a week to one, albeit for non-clinical staff. The idea is to reduce smells and potentially nasty germs that might be lurking in the bins which could spread infection.
How gross is that? How can a hospital be allowed to run to such low standards? What does our Health Secretary say about this?
The QEH is struggling with debts of nearly £11m and warned of probable job cuts and bed closures this week.
It is hoped the bin scheme will help save more than £2,000 a year by cutting down on the need for cleaners and domestic support.
A union official has surprisingly backed the initiative. Ron Glazebrook, the hospital’s Unison representative, said:
“What they are asking is for people to take bins to central collection points instead of a domestic cleaner. It is saving thousands and it is not a huge hardship. The hospital has got hundreds of offices, and this will only affect non-clinical staff.”
I think the hospital’s stressed and overworked staff will just ignore this. I’m very surprised that the union is so compliant. Are our unions going soft?
Being tagged
As more shameful stories about about escaping foreign prisoners hit the headlines, it appears that more than half of our tagged offenders rip off their electronic device. We cannot even keep track of those we are supposed to monitor in order to protect the public.
Sacked former Home Secretary Charles Clarke’s local rag, the Eastern Daily Press, has reported how more than 1,5000 offenders removed their electronic tags, intended to closely monitor their whereabouts, over a nine month period last year in East Anglia alone, that is 59%.
These figures were uncovered by the EDP under the Freedom of Information Act and is further damning evidence of the Home Office’s gross ineptitude.
The Scotsman also reported earlier this year that more than than half of tagged offenders were breaching their orders too.
Charles Clarke must have been aware of this, he would be kept fully informed on all aspects his department is responsible for, so what action did he take to resolve it? Is John Reid going to do anything constructive about it?
And tagging does not necessarily deter further crimes being committed. In September 1999, a pregnant Peterborough woman was murdered by a 16-year-old who was electronically tagged after his early release from a young offenders’ institution.
Stephen Basson, who was jailed for life for the murder of Amanda Letch, was tagged when he carried out the killing. He admitted blasting the 24-year-old woman to death with a shotgun. The Peterborough ET reports Prisons Minister Hilary Benn expressing delight at the success of the scheme, saying it was a “real alternative to custody”.
There were 11,349 people in England and Wales subject to electronic tagging in January this year and it is the responsibility of contractors to follow strict Home Office requirements.
I would like to know why tags so easily removed and how often are offenders punished for removing them? If this is meant to be an alternative to prison, are they sent to prison for flouting the order and resentenced for the original crime?
Financial deductions can be imposed against monitoring contractors if they do not meet the required standards. What financial penalty has been imposed? And isn’t it a pity that same yardstick is not applied to Home Office failings for every time they lose a prisoner!
Nassir Ali Hatem - killed for wearing shorts
This national Iraqi tennis player wanted to help restore a sense a pride to his country by being a top sportsman. But tragically, he paid with his life - for wearing shorts.
Nassir Ali Hatem was with his coach Hussein Ahmed Rashid and fellow player Wissam Adel Auda when the gunmen struck.
Witnesses said that a Sunni militant group issued a warning a few days before the attack, forbidding the wearing of shorts.
The three had driven to a laundrette to drop off some washing when they were seized by the gunmen and cold bloodedly executed.
One cannot begin to imagine the agonising heartbreak and anguish the whole country must be feeling at this senseless slaying, the desperation of their fellow sportsmen whose futures are now undecided, their hopes of winning medals now dashed.
This picture of Nassir Ali Hatem was taken only a month ago. He was mentioned in a report about the struggles facing national sportsmen. It said:
“Over at the Iraq Hunting Club, on the western edge of the capital, Nassir Ali Hatam slashes across a dusty clay court and swats tennis balls over a tattered net.
“Defying the chronic bloodshed near them and the meager financial support from their erratic government, Iraq’s elite athletes are still trying to train for competitions at home and abroad.
” ‘I hope people around the world know that even though we’re in a bad situation here, we’re struggling for the progress of sports in Iraq,’ said Faleh Francis Yousif, a national Olympic Committee vice president.”
Their present life seems no better than the barbaric days when Uday Hussein took charge of the Olympic Committee and regularly tortured his football players for playing badly.
Though Wikipedia reports soccer successes following Hussein’s death, any future chances of success now look slim. Does the ban on shorts include football players? One assumes it does. Can they/will they play matches in joggers? Why was the ban imposed? Why weren’t sportsmen exempt?
This is not the first time that sportsmen have been targeted in Iraq.
On May 17 a group of 15 members of the Iraq tae kwon do team were taken hostage between Fallujah and Ramadi to the west of Baghdad as they returned Amman in Jordan. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of $US100,000 ($131,690) for their release.
And on February 25, former national boxing champion Jasseb Rahma was shot dead in front of his family in the town of Bassorah.
I came across this tragic story, and many others, on Today in Iraq, which gives an awesome insight into the true scale of the daily butchery and horrors experienced in this savaged country.
This is the saddest blog I have ever written, when talented lives with so much to look forward to are wiped out in such a barbaric way. I have two sports loving sons who live in their shorts, it’s hard to imagine that it could be them if fate had decided that Iraq have been their country of birth.
If only we could turn the clock back….
Cheerful Charlie
Barbara and wife stare wistfully at The Green Goddess
Today I wished I had an elongated ET type neck as I sploshed among the nation’s good natured garden lovers at The Chelsea Flower Show, trying to get the best view.
And guess whose garden this voluptuous Green Goddess will grace when the show ends?
A little bird told me Ringo Starr was bidding against another celebrity. The former Beatle has already paid several thousands of pounds for a stunning stumpey, part of the same display made from Canadian driftwood, according to my source.
It was impossible not to be impressed by this imaginative garden, which won a bronze. The Venus will last forever if green fingered Ringo waters her roots regularly and gives her a trim from time to line, like any other lawn. Careful round the nipples though! She even had a webcam artfully concealed on her ample body, perhaps her belly button, or big toe, watching our every move.
It lived up to its name as the Garden of Dreams, the tranquil place to lie your head and let your imagination take over.
Another favourite was the Da Vinci Code garden, very stylish and contemporary with its glass pyramid centrepiece.
It was also great to bump into Claire and John, a Fenland couple from Foras who have diversified from farming, “from seed to stone”, with their top quality classic range of natural stone planters and urns.
I also came across the dimpled and grinning flame haired Charlie Dimmock with her impressive award winning design, complete with its mandatory stunning water feature, a simply fab turquoise pool.
I certainly came away brimming with ideas, sore feet - and some stunning new clematis on order.
My thanks to Simply Social for a great day - even the sun came