Yesterday evening, to the Shiraz Mirza Hall, for a packed dinner with Ed Davey MP, with guests from the local communities including Ahmadis, Arabs, Tamils and Koreans. It was great to meet so many of Ed's supporters from such a wide variety of backgrounds. The hall was named after Councillor Shiraz Mirza, the Deputy Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, who had raised the funds to build this and another hall for the benefit of local people. He told me he had served as Mayor twice, the first Asian councillor in the Royal Borough to have been given that honour.
I spoke about some of the issues Ed deals with as LibDem foreign affairs spokesman, and particularly the need to tackle the ideological motivation for terrorism: The people of Pakistan are now paying the penalty for successive governments' failure to stand up to extremists, in the wave of suicide bombings which have killed 179 people in the last two weeks alone, and I was glad to see this echoed in the headline of The Independent's first leader this morning: 'This is a battle that Islamabad should have embarked upon long ago'. But they are right to point out that so far there is little sign of action against the fundamentalist madrassas, which provide the ideological waters in which the terrorists swim. Military action in Waziristan is not going to dent the numbers of young people indoctrinated with Salafist hatred of mainstream Islam, which leads to indiscriminate killing of ordinary Pakistani citizens.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Back to school
Parliament resumed after the long summer recess on Monday. Whether its really necessary for us to have three months away from Westminster or not is doubtful, but perhaps less so at our end of the building than for the Commons, who have plenty to do in their constituencies. There is the argument that Members need the time to pursue their specialised interests such as visits abroad if they deal with foreign affairs, and of course there are the Party conferences in September.
Tuesday I spoke on the clauses dealing with alcohol abuse in the Policing and Crime Bill. There is a tacit recognition that the alcohol harm reduction strategy of 2003 isn't working, since all the indices of alcohol harm such as hospital admissions for alcohol-related causes are heading upwards, but as yet the Government refuses to admit that it was utterly mistaken to cast aside price and availability as the main levers that affect consumption.
Wednesday, the morning was occupied in Sub-Committee F taking evidence from the Minister who deals with immigration and asylum at the Home Office, Phil Willis MP, and two of his officials, on the Swedish EU Presidency's justice and home affairs programme. The transcript will be on the Parliamentary website in a few days' time
On Tuesday I was seen at King's by Mr M, the surgeon who did my last operation, about a persistent pain in my left side. He ordered a nuclear bone scan using technetium 99 (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_medicine), which I had this morning, and a CT scan next Tuesday, and prescribed Tramadol, an effective painkiller. I had already had an X-ray, which was clear, and a blood test, normal except for a gradual decline in haemoglobin since April 2006. Mr M is seeing me again next Friday to discuss the results of the tests and whether any further procedures are necessary. I thought it best to record the possibility, because in the meanwhile I'm going to avoid taking on any more engagements after that, just in case I have to cancel them.
Tuesday I spoke on the clauses dealing with alcohol abuse in the Policing and Crime Bill. There is a tacit recognition that the alcohol harm reduction strategy of 2003 isn't working, since all the indices of alcohol harm such as hospital admissions for alcohol-related causes are heading upwards, but as yet the Government refuses to admit that it was utterly mistaken to cast aside price and availability as the main levers that affect consumption.
Wednesday, the morning was occupied in Sub-Committee F taking evidence from the Minister who deals with immigration and asylum at the Home Office, Phil Willis MP, and two of his officials, on the Swedish EU Presidency's justice and home affairs programme. The transcript will be on the Parliamentary website in a few days' time
On Tuesday I was seen at King's by Mr M, the surgeon who did my last operation, about a persistent pain in my left side. He ordered a nuclear bone scan using technetium 99 (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_medicine), which I had this morning, and a CT scan next Tuesday, and prescribed Tramadol, an effective painkiller. I had already had an X-ray, which was clear, and a blood test, normal except for a gradual decline in haemoglobin since April 2006. Mr M is seeing me again next Friday to discuss the results of the tests and whether any further procedures are necessary. I thought it best to record the possibility, because in the meanwhile I'm going to avoid taking on any more engagements after that, just in case I have to cancel them.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 09, 2009
Multifaith Centre
Yesterday, to Derby, to give a lecture on Freedom of Religion at the Multifaith Centre, which is part of the University but is managed by a separate Trust. The building is unusual and imaginative, and the Director, Dr Phil Henry, has evidently been successful in getting all the faith communities in the city involved. I do wonder, though, whether people who want to reach out to religions other than their own aren't the exception.
As a general rule, I think most people's attachment to their religion is based on familiar cultural signals that go back to their childhood, rather than an assessment of which set of beliefs seem intrinsically most probable. For the majority of people, who are not particularly religious the 'majestic and noble lines of Lucretius' quoted by Mr Gladstone in his great speech on the Affirmation Bill would strike a chord. In the Grand Old Man's translation,
Divinity exists in remote and inaccessible recesses; but with us it has no dealing, of us it has no need, with us it has no relation'..
That belief, he said, was the mischief of the age. But it wasn't the Lucretians who started the Armenian Genocide in 1915, or the Holocaust in the 40s. Throughout the centuries, fanatics who believed their own brand of religion must prevail over all others initiated wars and genocides, and it is Salafist fundamentalism which forms the ideological basis for international terrorism today.
I didn't get a chance to look around the city and see how it had changed since I was there as a graduate apprentice at Rolls-Soyce in 1951!
As a general rule, I think most people's attachment to their religion is based on familiar cultural signals that go back to their childhood, rather than an assessment of which set of beliefs seem intrinsically most probable. For the majority of people, who are not particularly religious the 'majestic and noble lines of Lucretius' quoted by Mr Gladstone in his great speech on the Affirmation Bill would strike a chord. In the Grand Old Man's translation,
Divinity exists in remote and inaccessible recesses; but with us it has no dealing, of us it has no need, with us it has no relation'..
That belief, he said, was the mischief of the age. But it wasn't the Lucretians who started the Armenian Genocide in 1915, or the Holocaust in the 40s. Throughout the centuries, fanatics who believed their own brand of religion must prevail over all others initiated wars and genocides, and it is Salafist fundamentalism which forms the ideological basis for international terrorism today.
I didn't get a chance to look around the city and see how it had changed since I was there as a graduate apprentice at Rolls-Soyce in 1951!
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Ivan's memorial
Saturday we attended cousin Ivan Sokolov's memorial event at the Directory of Social Change near Euston. As well as family there were lots of colleagues who had collaborated with Ivan in his various social projects, particularly the Parent Network, which he founded. Jacqui had organised the event, with a few people saying things about his life, and pieces of his favourite music were played.
I had spoken to Ivan on Skype a couple of weeks before he died, and although he was very week he was still talking optimistically about possible cures - and he had sent me a long email describing the current favourite. Jacqui and Josh must have been through a bit of an ordeal caring for him as he approached death at home, but they seem to have coped with splendid courage.
I had spoken to Ivan on Skype a couple of weeks before he died, and although he was very week he was still talking optimistically about possible cures - and he had sent me a long email describing the current favourite. Jacqui and Josh must have been through a bit of an ordeal caring for him as he approached death at home, but they seem to have coped with splendid courage.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Aida Quilcue
Monday, meeting with Aida Quilcue, leader of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council in south west Colombia until April, now an influential leader of the Social and Communitarian Minga, a social process which brings together organisations from all social sectors, based around social mobilisation. She was assigned special protective measures by the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights last December when her father, Edwin Legarda, was murdered by the Colombian army in an attack seemingly intended for Aida. Seven soldiers were arrested in April for Mr Legarda’s murder. Richard Solly and Patrick Kane of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign accompanied Aida. Incidentally, she wasn't named Aida after the opera!
Eric's aeroplane.
We thought all the arrangements were in place for the stone model of a Sopwith Camel, the memorial to my uncle Eric, to be transported from the stonemason's yard in Wiltshire to the visitor centre at High Elms Country Park yesterday, but there was a misunderstanding about the timing. The lorry arrived, to find nobody there to offload it, and Penmar Transport rang me to say they were returning to Wiltshire with the memorial. After a series of frantic calls they agreed to take it to a Council yard where it was being stored temporarily. Lyulph thought they weren't arriving until 13.00 at the earliest, and unfortunately the arrangements he had made on the telephone with the carriers hadn't been confirmed in writing. Anyway, we hope the move is completed today, because the World Heritage Committee is visiting High Elms tomorrow¬
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Myatt's Fields Park
The local LibDem Focus has a big spread on the reopening of our park, with a picture of Lindsay with Caroline Pidgeon, the LibDem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Vauxhall and Matthew Hanney, a local LibDem campaigner. Obviously, Lindsay is scrupulous about involving local people of every Party and none in her work on the park as Chair of the Friends, and was completely unaware that the LibDems were going to highlight this excellent project. But its great to see hundreds of people enjoying themselves in the park, as they were this afternoon, particularly in the new children's playground, on a lovely warm sunny afternoon, probably the last we'll have before the weather changes.
ACERT AGM
All day yesterday at the AGM of the Advisory Council for the Education of Romany and other Travellers, an excellent meeting at which among other distinguished speakers we heard from Penny Badman, Deputy Director of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF); Arthur Ivatts OBE, a Senior Consultant to the DCSF and Andrew Ryder, Consultant to the Irish Traveller Movement.
Travellers are severely disadvantaged educationally - as in every other respect - as shown by a review published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) a few weeks ago (www.equalityhumanrights.com/researchreports). Half of Traveller children drop out of school at the transition from primary to secondary; those who do stay on have worse results at GCSE than any other ethnic group; they are two and a half times more likely to have Severe Educational Needs than other white children; are far more likely to be excluded than any other group, and are the worst represented in further education of all groups. Now that the EHRC has assembled the evidence, we must insist that the Traveller Education Service gets the resources it needs to make progress against these appalling levels of disadvantage.
Travellers are severely disadvantaged educationally - as in every other respect - as shown by a review published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) a few weeks ago (www.equalityhumanrights.com/researchreports). Half of Traveller children drop out of school at the transition from primary to secondary; those who do stay on have worse results at GCSE than any other ethnic group; they are two and a half times more likely to have Severe Educational Needs than other white children; are far more likely to be excluded than any other group, and are the worst represented in further education of all groups. Now that the EHRC has assembled the evidence, we must insist that the Traveller Education Service gets the resources it needs to make progress against these appalling levels of disadvantage.
ACERT AGM
All day yesterday at the AGM of the Advisory Council for the Education of Romany and other Travellers, an excellent meeting at which among other distinguished speakers we heard from Penny Badman, Deputy Director of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF); Arthur Ivatts OBE, a Senior Consultant to the DCSF and Andrew Ryder, Consultant to the Irish Traveller Movement.
Travellers are severely disadvantaged educationally - as in every other respect - as shown by a review published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) a few weeks ago (www.equalityhumanrights.com/researchreports). Half of Traveller children drop out of school at the transition from primary to secondary; those who do stay on have worse results at GCSE than any other ethnic group; they are two and a half times more likely to have Severe Educational Needs than other white children; are far more likely to be excluded than any other group, and are the worst represented in further education of all groups. Now that the EHRC has assembled the evidence, we must insist that the Traveller Education Service gets the resources it needs to make progress against these appalling levels of disadvantage.
Travellers are severely disadvantaged educationally - as in every other respect - as shown by a review published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) a few weeks ago (www.equalityhumanrights.com/researchreports). Half of Traveller children drop out of school at the transition from primary to secondary; those who do stay on have worse results at GCSE than any other ethnic group; they are two and a half times more likely to have Severe Educational Needs than other white children; are far more likely to be excluded than any other group, and are the worst represented in further education of all groups. Now that the EHRC has assembled the evidence, we must insist that the Traveller Education Service gets the resources it needs to make progress against these appalling levels of disadvantage.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Party Conference etc
We were in Bournemouth Tuesday night and Wednesday for the LibDem Party Conference. I spoke at a fringe meeting on Afghanistan, where a vociferour minority were in favour of immediate withdrawal. I tried to outline the consequences: an extremist government in Kabul, and probably in Islamabad as well. Taliban with nuclear arsenal? No thanks.
In the afternoon, John Alderdyce, President of the Liberal International, presented me with the LI Freedom Prize again, in the conference hall.
Yesterday evening, attended the launch of Shirley Williams' autobiography Climbing the Bookshelves, at the National Liberal Club. She is a wonderful friend, and I love to hear her speaking, which she did as usual without a note. And a glance at the book reminds me she's just as great with the written as the spoken word.
Tomorrow I'm the keynote speaker at the AGM of the Advisory Council on the Education of Romanies and Travellers, in Millman Street. I remember vaguely that its near the British Museum, but now I need to figure out how to get there by 09.30
In the afternoon, John Alderdyce, President of the Liberal International, presented me with the LI Freedom Prize again, in the conference hall.
Yesterday evening, attended the launch of Shirley Williams' autobiography Climbing the Bookshelves, at the National Liberal Club. She is a wonderful friend, and I love to hear her speaking, which she did as usual without a note. And a glance at the book reminds me she's just as great with the written as the spoken word.
Tomorrow I'm the keynote speaker at the AGM of the Advisory Council on the Education of Romanies and Travellers, in Millman Street. I remember vaguely that its near the British Museum, but now I need to figure out how to get there by 09.30
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Remote link with Donnington
I remembered vaguely that there was a remote family link with Donnington Castle, which we visited yesterday on the way back from Avebury, see www.sciway3.net/clark/beaufort/willisconnection.htm. The unfortunate John Packer, a staunch Parliamentarian, owned the castle at the start of the Civil War, but it was captured by the Royalists and held until the end of the war, then gratuitously demolished by the victorious Parliamentarians. He was forced to live in London.
John Packer was the great-great grandfather of the Rev Henry Willis, who married Jane Lubbock, my 5th cousin 6 times removed. Their son Richard emigrated to South Carolina in 1791 after the Rev Henry literally cut him off with the proverbial shilling because of his 'infamous conduct' in a codicil to his will. On the way over, Richard dropped the surname Willis and became Richard Lubbock, the ancestor of most of the Lubbocks in the US.
We also visited Roman Silchester, which had been an enormous centre and hub of communications from the 1st to the 4th century. There's a 2 km footpath round the outskirts of the remains, but we didn't make a complete circuit.
That was our summer holiday for 2009!
John Packer was the great-great grandfather of the Rev Henry Willis, who married Jane Lubbock, my 5th cousin 6 times removed. Their son Richard emigrated to South Carolina in 1791 after the Rev Henry literally cut him off with the proverbial shilling because of his 'infamous conduct' in a codicil to his will. On the way over, Richard dropped the surname Willis and became Richard Lubbock, the ancestor of most of the Lubbocks in the US.
We also visited Roman Silchester, which had been an enormous centre and hub of communications from the 1st to the 4th century. There's a 2 km footpath round the outskirts of the remains, but we didn't make a complete circuit.
That was our summer holiday for 2009!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)