Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Still here

Today I had an email asking why my blog postings were becoming so infrequent. I had to admit that with no news about my health except to say I'm gradually becoming stronger, and a rather uneventful daily round at home, there wasn't a huge amount to say.

But a big event yesterday evening was the Lambeth Civic Awards at the Town Hall, where Lindsay received an award for her work on the Myatt's Fields Project Group. They are working towards a big regeneration of the Park, with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Lambeth Council, in consultation with local people.

This morning I had a visit from my old friend Bashir Khan and the Leader of the Chagos Islanders, Olivier Bancoult, who has just won a case against the Government in the High Court which paves the way for the islanders to return, 40 years after they were unlawfully exiled by Harold Wilson's Government to make way for a US naval base on Diego Garcia. Wilson falsely pretended that there were no permanent inhabitants on the islands, so that it was unnecessary to consult them in accordance with the rules of the UN Committee in Decolonisation. Now this Government has 28 days to decide whether to appeal against the High Court's ruling that there predecessors' action was illegal.

Then this evening I had a visit from Kayode Fayemi, who flew in from Abuja this morning, with the latest news of the Nigerian Parliament's decision to reject the proposed change in the constitution which would have allowed President Obasanjo to stand for a third term. Kayode is standing for Governor of Ekiti State, and was on his way to the US to address a congress of Ekitians there, and to have talks at the State Department.

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