Sir Terry Pratchett
Sir Terry wrote and read part of the Richard Dimbleby lecture last night. It was a moving and very powerful performance as the writer is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease.
His plea for a right to die, when he chooses is summed up with this last sentence of the lecture.
Let us consider me as a test case. As I have said, I would like to die peacefully with Thomas Tallis on my iPod before the disease takes me over and I hope that will not be for quite some time to come, because if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as precious as a million pounds. If I knew that I could die, I would live. My life, my death, my choice.
He is right and everybody should see or read his lecture from last night. The Guardian has an edited version here.
Pope Condemns Equality
Isn’t he out of step with Jesus on this one? But what would I know as I’m an atheist.
But then what do I care about the Pope. Not a lot. I wish him no harm, but he heads a church that is very much against progress and is all for creating more people in this world. Remember that increasing the population of the world is one of the biggest causes of global warming.
Hawke, Nelson and Terry
It is fascinating to compare two of the naval heroes of the past, Admirals Edward Hawke and Horatio Nelson with John Terry. Both Hawke and Nelson were strong leaders, who won battles by leading from the front. It could be argued that John Terry has won matches by using exactly the same tactics, although his were undoubtedly lesser actions.
To compare Hawke with Nelson is interesting. Both were professional and their courage could not be doubted. But whereas Nelson died in battle and was famous for his mistress, Hawke lived a more sober life and died in his own bed. Hawke also refused a burial in St. Paul’s Cathedral, preferring to be buried alongside his late wife in the parish church at Swaythling near Southampton.
So what of John Terry. He has committed an indiscretion and various parts of the press are having a right go at him.
He has been stupid, but it could be argued that he has done nothing more than Nelson did. On the other hand, those that live and benefit from their status, should perhaps behave with a bit more dignity. But we can all name, others in the past who have been less than faithful and have not suffered at all in popularity.
So perhaps the public actually condone scandal. After all, history says that the British have enjoyed various indescretions through the ages.
HMRC Fraud
There has been talk on the radio this morning and in the papers about various phishing attacks purporting to be tax refunds from HRMC.
Note that HMRC do not do refunds by e-mail, so any e-mails you get from them about refunds are fake and are designed to empty your bank account, after you have given them your bank details.
Here’s one I got earlier.
HMRC Spam E-Mail
These points should be noted.
- It is obviously spam, not least because my ISP has actually marked it as possible spam in the header.
- Bear in mind the fact too, that my accountant does my tax return and I think that HMRC don’t know my e-mail address.
- It is a good idea to learn how to read the Message Headers using your e-mail program. I use Outlook and this page in About.com tells you how to do it. In the headers for this e-mail, you can see there are lots of .br’s, which mean that at some point the e-mail has visited Brazil. Not the quickest route to Suffolk from the HMRC.
- They do show that the e-mail came to my standard e-mail address. Which means it wasn’t a genuine e-mail, as I use a special e-mail address for all financial transactions. Always use a different e-mail address for normal communications and financial transactions.
- The To: address in the e-mail is securemail@hmrc.gov.uk. Nearly all companies send important e-mails to the e-mail address you have given them.
- The value of the refund is shown as 988.50 GBP. I’m always suspicious of this, as the £ sign needed to show the value properly is not available on non-UK keyboards. About half of my genuine on line purchases use the £ sign and others use GBP. But phishing attacks nearly always use GBP.
- Click Here to submit you tax refund request. Note you instead of your. I know the HMRC can be stupid at times, but they don’t make spelling mistakes like this, as if they did, they would be a laughing stock in the tabloids.
- There are other grammatical errors and I don’t think the HMRC would use Best Regards.
You should always read these spam e-mails. That way, you will understand more and more what they look like and you won’t get caught out.
Reporting instructions for these sort of e-mails are on the HMRC web site.
Homeopathy Protests Outside Boots
It would appear that today there are to be protests outside Boots because of their stocking of homeopathic remedies. I like the fact that the protest is being organised by the Merseyside Skeptics Society.
The protest will take the form of a mass overdose on homeopathic remedies. As they contain nothing but sugar and water, the only result might be a small amount of weight gain.
Clare Balding on Radio 5 then talked about arnica to a jockey. Now arnica is not a homeopathic remedy but a natural one. I have given it to horses in the past and it helps stop bruising during castration. But it is only diluted to the same sort of levels as a cough syrup, not to the parts per billion billions that you get with homeopathy. As I said in an e-mail to Clare.
Arnica, of which the active ingredient is helenalin, is a natural remedy, which is partially understood scientifically. Aspirin and many other drugs, have similar natural roots. These have absolutely nothing to do with homeopathy. Natural remedies are valid treatments and work, the others are beloved of snake-oil salesmen and are just to relieve fools of their money.
One has to question Boots decision to sell these quack cures, especially as they admitted to the House of Commons that there is no evidence that they work.
But anybody who has investigated them properly knows that too. But think how many snake-oil salesmen would be put out of business, if this was the general belief.
Squeezing the Moderates
When I hear the words Northern Ireland or Ulster on television or radio, I reach for the off button. All my adult life we have had the Irish problem. I should say that all my adult life in my mind, there has been one obvious solution, give Ulster to Eire.
I don’t make this decision on political grounds, but through strict economic grounds. I have been to Ulster a few times and it is an expensive place to live and to run a business. Energy is expensive for a start. So everything needs to be subsidised. I know it is the same in other far-flung parts of the UK, like the Highlands of Scotland and Cornwall, but they don’t spit the bile about everybody who disagrees with them, that many Ulster politicians do. I don’t ever remember them trying to bomb and kill their way to get their aims.
I know that the Protestants would bleat about the reunification of Ireland, but because of population dynamics with an increasing and younger Catholic population, that they will be in the minority in a few years anyway. How will the the Catholics vote?
I have just heard Ken Maginnis on Radio 5, eloquently complaining about how New Labour has played the extreme card and cut out the moderate Unionists and the SDLP in favour of Sinn Fein and the DUP. He has a point, especially, as his party was not at the current talks.
I read once that subsidies to help Northern Ireland cost about £3-4 billion a year. (If anybody has an up-to-date figure then please let me know!) But to move control of justice and policing to the province would have cost £800 million. If it was a subsidiary of a company it would have been declared bust many years ago.
Surely, this amount of money means that on the one hand a long term solution to Ulster must be found and that on our part, we put a proper, rather than a part-time minister into the province to make a deal that is fair for all stick.
Fined for Blowing his Nose
Michael Mancini has just been fined £60 and given penalty points on his licence for blowing his nose whilst driving. He was actually stationary at the time with the handbrake on and the car in neutral. Here’s what The Times says about it.
You can understand why the police are getting a bad name.
But it does seem according to The Times, that the policeman involved has form.
PC Gray earned notoriety for doling out a £50 fine to Stewart Smith, another Ayr man, who dropped a £10 note from his back pocket. Mr Smith was charged with littering.
I would suggest that PC Gray needs to be put on latrine duty or whatever the police equivalent of that is. The officer is a laughing stock.
A Scattering
I’ve never been a great one for poetry, although at school my poetry was better than me prose. But that didn’t mean much.
But I was pleased to see that the Costa Prize has been won by Christopher Reid for his book, A Scattering
It is about the death of his wife, the actress Lucinda Gane.
I heard part of it being read on Radio 5 and I was moved.
It is actually refreshing that a book about such a dark and often untalked about subject should with a prize. Things like this will make life for those left behind easier in some cases.
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword
Well! Perhaps I should say Bomb.
The government has now raised the security threat from substantial to severe.
Without wishing to be too flippant, can this be anything to do with the fact that we will have to have an election in the next few months. Obviously, terrorism and the fear of it, can be considered to be a vote winner for the incumbent.
But we are fighting these criminals in totally the wrong way.
At least though, some are using humour.
Chris Morris has made a jihadist comedy called Four Lions. It is premiered today at the Sundance Film Festival. I hope it succeeds. Note there is a clip on the first link.
And then there is Jihad, The Musical.
We need more of this satire. But not just against so-called Muslim criminals, but anybody else who really has a warped sense of what the world should be like. How about The Graduate II featuring another Mrs. Robinson? Or Don’t Make a Monkey out of Me with Sarah Palin?
France and Haiti
I like to look at history. Often it gives strong reasons, why things are done in the way they are or in Haiti’s case, it points to why the country is such a basket case. I had vaguely heard that the country had been founded by a slave revolt acouple of centuries ago, but I didn’t know the truth.
Now Ben Macintyre in a powerful article in The Times lays the blame firmly on France. Here’s the history.
In the 18th century, Haiti was France’s imperial jewel, the Pearl of the Caribbean, the largest sugar exporter in the world. Even by colonial standards, the treatment of slaves working the Haitian plantations was truly vile. They died so fast that, at times, France was importing 50,000 slaves a year to keep up the numbers and the profits.
Inspired by the principles of the French Revolution, in 1791 the slaves rebelled under the leadership of the self-educated slave Toussaint L’Ouverture. After a vicious war, Napoleon’s forces were defeated. Haiti declared independence in 1804.
As Haiti struggles with new misfortune, it is worth remembering that noble achievement — this is the only nation to gain independence by a slave-led rebellion, the first black republic, and the second oldest republic in the western hemisphere. Haiti was founded on a demand for liberty from people whose liberty had been stolen: the country itself is a tribute to human resilience and freedom.
France did not forgive the impertinence and loss of earnings: 800 destroyed sugar plantations, 3,000 lost coffee estates. A brutal trade blockade was imposed. Former plantation owners demanded that Haiti be invaded, its population enslaved once more. Instead, the French State opted to bleed the new black republic white.
In 1825, in return for recognising Haitian independence, France demanded indemnity on a staggering scale: 150 million gold francs, five times the country’s annual export revenue. The Royal Ordinance was backed up by 12 French warships with 150 cannon.
Haiti finally finished paying the debts to France in 1947. But by that time it was a bankrupt nation with no resources.
Read the full article.
The Anonymous Widower 