Tony Hatfield's Retired Ramblings

Halloween!!

Be frightened, very fightened. Thanks Hannah and Rachel. Cheers, t

posted by Tony @ Sunday, October 31, 2004 0 comments

It's all about hearts and minds!

Fallujah besieged This is a link to a report from an "unembedded" journalist inside Fallujah on the BBC's website. It's almost impossible to imagine the horror experienced by the sixty odd thousand inhabitants waiting for the Bush/Blair crusade to begin! His second report can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3986085.stm t

posted by Tony @ Sunday, October 31, 2004 0 comments

Bush v Churchill Round Two

Steve Bell's take in yesterday's Guardian

posted by Tony @ Saturday, October 30, 2004 0 comments

Could Saddam have done Better?

In June if this year, one of my first postings was entitled “ Who’s Counting?” I quoted the civilian deaths in Iraq from the independent Iraq Body count site . As the Coalition “do not do body counts”, this site was the only one where the accuracy of the Coalition's pin point bombing can be gauged. By June, the total civilian deaths were about 11,ooo. But this week's Lancet shows just how conservative these figures were. “Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most violent deaths. We have shown that collection of public-health information is possible even during periods of extreme violence." You can download the Report in full from the Lancet's Website ( registration required) http://image.thelancet.com/extras/04art10342web.pdf Saddam with all his state terror would have been hard pressed to exterminate 100,000 in 24 months. Does anybody apart from Blair, who is now a basket case, really think those 100,000 are grateful for this illegal intervention? Cheers t

posted by Tony @ Friday, October 29, 2004 0 comments

Thirty Minutes for Buns!

If any one could bottle the aroma they could make a fortune. I’ve said that dozens on times as I’ve bought a couple of hundred grams of salami and some grana from the small Italian Deli a mile or so outside Newcastle. OK it’s not Valvona and Crolla, but there are few things from the peninsular Nico, the proprietor, doesn’t stock or will not order for you! Enter any Italian pasticceria and the nose is immediately bathed in the smell of cooked pastries, almonds and, if you are lucky, very lucky, the aroma of cooking dough. But it’s easy to overlook more homegrown pleasures. I’ve been buying bread and cakes from “West View Bakery”, our local “craft” bakers for about ten years. It is a delight to open the door of these rather unprepossessing looking premises, to see Betty and her assistant in front of racks of brown crusty buns, baps and loaves of all sizes. There are enough cakes, pastries and pies, containing enough sugar, cream and meat to make a cardiac surgeon shudder! Everything is made on the premises. The dough is not imported chilled from some factory miles away. It’s made daily. This task, I understand, is the last one to be completed before the bakers leave each afternoon. The coal ovens are fired up at 5:30 a.m. six days a week, and by 9 0’ clock the first customer is being served. The first batch is usually sold out by half-past ten at which time the customers’ enquiries are greeted with the response, “ thirty minutes for buns luv”. And there’s no charge for the smell of freshly baked bread…wonderful Cheers t

posted by Tony @ Thursday, October 28, 2004 0 comments

More on Blunkett -Second part

You may have guessed from reading some of the items on this blog that David Blunkett is no longer on my Christmas card list. He seems to be able to come up with some of the most ludicrous statements. This example taken from the Home Office website http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/n_story.asp?item_id=1113 Blunkett is referring to the Order laid before Parliament 25th October 2004, which would “help make a defendant’s previous convictions admissible evidence in criminal trials, if the defendant has a previous conviction that falls within the same category as the offence with which he is charged.” He adds "These reforms put victims at the heart of the justice system" Blunkett’s idea that he can only put victims at the “heart of the justice system” by removing rights from defendants is preposterous. What victims need first is a fighting chance that those who commit crimes are arrested. The clear-up rates of most offences that cause more aggravation are frighteningly low. And that is so even though the Treasury seem to have an inexhaustible cash pile to pay for anything marked “getting them locked up” Secondly, if they are victims of violence, they are entitled to proper compensation for their injuries. There used to be a generous system operated by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. Before 2001,The Board were instructed to value a claim as if the injuries had been caused in an industrial accident. In the latest 2001 Scheme it’s simply a question of looking at a table, running your finger along the box and reading off the compensation. Most lawyers involved in assisting clients in these claims consider the scheme designed to put off claimants. Should an applicant manage to get their claim considered the compensation awarded is miserly. And finally, should a victim have to give evidence at court, he or she must have maximum assistance. Most Victims’ Support Groups are funded almost entirely by voluntary donations. Then Blunkett continues: "Trials should be a search for the truth and juries should be trusted with all the relevant evidence available to help them to reach proper and fair decisions." The English criminal trial, unlike that in say France or Spain or even Scotland, has never been a “search for the truth”. Unlike the juge d’instruction in France, judges or magistrates in England play virtually no active role in the trial process. They are umpires or referees who hold the ring. The prosecution’s role is to prove the guilt of the defendant to the jury using all the admissible evidence available to them. The defence must simply raise a reasonable doubt in the jury’s mind. They do not have to prove the accused innocent. The judge has no role deciding what evidence either side calls. His role in this area is restricted simply to deciding what evidence should go before the jury. Is the evidence admissible? Is the evidence reliable? In France, the juge d’instruction controls the evidence from the arrest of the accused. He decides which witnesses the police arrest, and he and his assistants question those witnesses. It is a search for the truth. Members of the House of Lords Joint Human Rights Committee discuss with Lord Carlile of Berriew the possible role of a juge d’instruction under the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 in terrorist cases. If it is indeed Blunkett’s desire to convert the English criminal trial into a search for the truth the present architecture is simply inappropriate. Cheers t

posted by Tony @ Monday, October 25, 2004 1 comments

Roses and Revolutionaries

In 1992, an estate agent in Forest Hall, a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, advertised for sale a nine- bed-roomed property, Earlington House, for the then not inconsiderable sum of £200,000. The house had served as a home for First World War soldiers and subsequently as a ballet school until it became a private residence. The house was sold with an acre of land in which there was a Viking grave and headstone. The Agent’s particulars of sale included an attractive feature- the property had once been “owned and farmed by the first communists to form a commune in Britain”. It’s not clear what the property was used for before 1895 when Franz Kapir, an exiled Bohemian tailor, and his comrades leased the house and the twenty acres of surrounding land. Kapir had fled from Bohemia to Newcastle in 1893. As well as a tailor, Kapir who called himself Frank Kapper was a professional agitator. He once encouraged unemployed workers to raid food shops to feed their children. His ideas included the establishment of a cooperative farm whose members could live and work together share any profits. Kapper’ s ideas came straight from those of Peter Kropotkin. Prince Peter Kropotkin The Russian anarchist was then in exile living at the hotbed of anarchism Bromley, Kent. He wrote to Kapper and his colleagues on the 16th February 1895. They had asked Kropotkin to become treasurer of the Clousden Hill Commune. Kropotkin’ s ideas that so attracted Kapper were those on scientific horticulture. In the letter Kropotkin refused the job of treasurer, but advised the communists: “That a new community, instead of imitating the example of our forefathers, and starting with extensive agriculture, with all its hardships, accidents, drawbacks, and amount of hard work required, very often superior to the forces of the colonists, ought to open new ways of production as it opens new ways of consumption. It must, it seems to me, start with intensive agriculture - that is, market gardening culture, aided as much as possible by culture under glass. Besides the advantages of security in the crops, obtained by their variety and the very means of culture, this sort of culture has the advantage of allowing the community to utilise even the weakest forces; and every one knows how weakened most of the town workers are by the homicidal conditions under which most of the industries are now organised.” The entire document can be found in the Kropotkin archive. Kapper’ s original horticultural idea was to plant vines in glasshouses heated with local coal to produce wine for the mining communities. That plan was soon abandoned. Instead, the glasshouses that were erected were planted with 4000 rose bushes. The flowers were hawked by the children of the commune to Newcastle where they were sold to couples attending the regular weekend dances. At its peak, the commune had about thirty members. Clousden Hill became an essential stopover for anarchists and revolutionaries on their “grand tour”. Jim Connell visited the commune with anarchists from all over Europe, the United States and South America. After a socialist newspaper trumpeted the wonders of the Commune, an entire Austrian village decided to emigrate to Clousden Hill, though happily they never arrived. The Commune members were never great agriculturalists. One described how “the fowls would not lay, bees refused to swarm, rabbits ran away and ducks died. One of the newly purchased cows proved to be blind, another went mad, while a third died young when calving”. Nigel Todd, a local historian, who has researched the history of the Clousden Hill Community, gives two reasons for its decline. “They were constantly short of capital. The members also had great difficulties in reaching decisions. The Commune’s rules meant that each decision required unanimity amongst the members. The meetings were interminable. They included in their meetings visitors who may have been at Clousden Hill for a few weeks!” Eventually Kapper and the original members left, and their project became a “cooperative” enterprise run by a Dane called Rasmussen. That cooperative undertaking eventually went bankrupt in 1902. And what was to have been a utopian commune as famous as Robert Owen’s “New Harmony” fizzled out. New Harmony Cheers t

posted by Tony @ Thursday, October 21, 2004 0 comments

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Has Bush lost his reason?

posted by Tony @ Sunday, October 17, 2004 0 comments

The Making of a Terror Myth.

The making of the terror myth "Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger." Herman Goering during the Nuremberg trials in conversation to a Gustave Gilbert. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm

posted by Tony @ Friday, October 15, 2004 0 comments

About time!

Corriere della Sera - International Principal Bans Low-slung Jeans Circular in Avezzano high school.“Jeans reveal too much, causing embarrassment to students”. Students say they will do what they feel is right The principal claims according to current sensibilities, it is wrong to cover one’s face with a burqa to ensure anonymity. It is equally wrong to flaunt one’s posterior to gain attention.That was the gist of the circular issued yesterday by Angelo Bernardini, principal of the Vitruvio Pollione scientific secondary school in Avezzano. The circular, entitled “From the Burqa to the Bare Backside”, was read by teachers to every class in the 1,600-student school, one of Italy’s largest.“

posted by Tony @ Wednesday, October 13, 2004 0 comments

Congratulations

Congratulations, Teresa and John.

posted by Tony @ Monday, October 11, 2004 0 comments

Tomato Sauce

Sugo di Pomodoro As with Parmigiana, most Italians, especially in the South, have a recipe for tomato sauce. Anne has adapted this one. I’ve managed to persuade her to write down the recipe. By the way I’m sorry about the quality of the illustration. It’s a long story. Ingredients: 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive-oil 1 small onion finely chopped 2 cloves of garlic crushed 1 level teaspoon chili flakes 1 teaspoon sugar 1 400g tin chopped tomatoes salt and pepper Serves four for lunch/starter. In a wide frying pan cook the onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic and tomatoes then the chili flakes, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir and bring to simmering point. Simmer for about 15 minutes until thick! Serve with any short, ribbed pasta- rigatoni or penne rigate- and a good handful of parmesan. You can freeze the sauce when it cools and keep it for a couple of months. Enjoy Cheers t

posted by Tony @ Sunday, October 10, 2004 0 comments

Flattery will get you anywhere!

Barcelona 2004. This is for BB! Sign on to Picasa and use the Microsoft Explorer to browse for the image you want. Click on that image. You should now be staring at a page on the top edge of which there is a green button and legend "Bloggerbot". At the foot of the page there should be a thumbnail of the image you want to download. Enter some "caption". It doesn't matter what this is, you can edit it later! But for some reason the download will not start without something in this box. Then click on "publish". Twiddle your fingers until Picasa tells you, by going to your Blogspot, the download is complete. To edit the post you must now go yo your "Dashboard" the page where Blogspot keeps all the information about your postings. It's easier to have this bookmarked to go straight to the page! Then sign on. This will open a list of all your posts. The last one ought to be the image you have just uploaded. It may take a moment or two. When the image appears you can edit the message using the keyboard. Try using the return key! If at any time you want to "preview" hit the link? Does this help? Cheers t

posted by Tony @ Thursday, October 07, 2004 1 comments