Security? What Security!
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a Nigerian man, who attempted to blow up an airliner flying between Schipol Airport at Amsterdam and Detroit.
The fact that he got as far as he did is a complete failure of security.
- He had been put on a security watch list.
- He bought a ticket from Ghana to Detroit in cash.
- He was making a two week trip to the United States with hand baggage only.
- He had visited countries like Yemen.
But he was allowed to board the plane with virtually no security at Schipol, when he transferred to the Detroit flight.
Any of the facts above, should have meant that he was properly searched. But then we don’t do profiling, as it might upset some people.
So now we have the knee-jerk reaction by governments to add more levels of security, which will result in large queues in terminals all over the world. As Patrick Mercer, has just said on television, that will create a nice soft targets for these lunatics.
Paul and Rachel Chandler
Paul and Rachel Chandler are the couple who were seized from their yacht by Somali pirates. This is the last piece of news about them in The Times on the 13th of December.
These two paragraphs admit the truth about the Navy’s non-involvement.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) yesterday admitted that Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, had authorised a Royal Marine unit that witnessed the kidnapping to intervene. But it said it was the ship’s commander who decided it was unsafe to attempt a rescue.
The RFA Wave Knight was within 50 yards of the pirates and had a marine unit and a Merlin helicopter aboard. But Sir Mark Stanhope, the first sea lord, claimed the ship did not have the expertise required for a hostage rescue.
After that nothing has been reported!
Whether or not the commander should have intervened is open to question, as every squaddie I’ve ever met, would have been up to do it.
But perhaps the question that should be asked is why were the Marines on that ship without the equipment and training to intervene in a safe and successful manner?
On a wider point, Somalia is an absolute basket case and is yet another legacy of the incompetent Dubya. Read what was said in The Times yesterday.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Afghanistan and Iraq have monopolised the headlines but Somalia is arguably an even greater victim of George W. Bush’s ill-conceived and lamentably executed War on Terror. America’s interventions have proved so catastrophic that its best hope of salvaging something from the wreckage is a president it chased from power three years ago, who controls a few square miles of a country three times the size of Britain.
It has delivered a people that practised a moderate form of Islam into the hands of religious extremists. Its efforts to combat terrorism have turned Somalia into a launchpad for global jihad. Somalia is now the ultimate failed state whose mayhem threatens to destabilise the region and whose pirates maraud the vital shipping lanes off its shores. Its people endure Africa’s worst humanitarian crisis.
What I find so sad about Somalia, is that in the past I’ve done business with quite a few Somalis over telephone billing systems. I’ve always found them a quiet and mild people, who were a pleasure to work with.
What went wrong?
Let’s hope that the Chandlers get a quick solution to their ordeal.
But I suspect that will not happen as the impass between the British Government and their kidnappers is just too great.
Should we pay a ransom? I’m afraid that I agree with the Government here, in that if we do, then any UK national will then be at risk. And not just in the troubled parts of the world, as there an awful lot of criminals all over the world, who would see kidnapping as a nice little earner.
The Tragic Case of Sam Riddall
Eleven year-old Sam Riddall was going home from church when he was killed by a car driven by Hannah Saaf. Today she was detained indefinitely in hospital, as she had severe mental health problems. The DVLA had revoked her licence because of this and the judge said.
You were clearly under the influence of cannabis, and you were doing so while driving twice the speed limit allowed. Finally, you left the scene having killed the victim. There’s no sentence a court can pass that will ever compensate for a tragic loss such as this.
He added that were it not for Saaf’s mental state she would have faced “a very substantial custodial sentence”.
The reaction of Sam’s father, Martin Riddall, was not one of revenge, but one of forgiveness.
In four days time we celebrate Christmas – the first Christmas without our Sam. It’s going to be very hard indeed because we still miss him very much.
The devout Christian added he would ask God to forgive Saaf for her “terrible” act.
I have no religion, but I feel that in cases like this revenge has no place, as what good does it do? I lost my wife to an aggressive cancer two years ago and no matter how difficult it is, I have moved on. In fact she told me to before she died.
I think though that we can all learn from Martin Riddall. My heart goes out to him and his family and I wish them well in the future.
Malcolm Turnbull
I had never really heard much about Malcolm Turnbull, who was the leader of the Australian Liberal Party. But he wrote a thoughtful article in The Times on Sunday. The title says it all, It’s reckless to be a sceptic on global warming.
He makes some interesting points. Take these key paragraphs.
I recognise that many people are sceptical about the science. But as Margaret Thatcher pointed out 20 years ago, this is an exercise in risk management. Given that the consequences of unchecked global warming would be catastrophic, responsible leaders should give the planet the benefit of the doubt. Few of us imagine our house is going to burn down tonight, but most of us will have taken out insurance.
So the political or indeed moral issue is not whether you are totally convinced by the climate change thesis, but what you propose to do about it. Being sceptical about climate change is not unreasonable; doing nothing about it is reckless.
He’s right. Those that advocate doing nothing are just plain wrong.
He also makes the point that most climate change deniers have their youth behind them. That is curious or is it that they have saved for and want to enjoy their retirement and then all these restrictions come along and ruin it.
I certainly am no climate change denier and know we must cut emissions. But we should do it in a scientifically correct way, that will deliver large cuts, so that we leave our descendants the maximum benefit.
Politicians Have Little Effect
I found an article, by Matthew Paris in The Times on Saturday, entitled What have politicians done for them? Zilch.
He was referring to Malawi and Zimbabwe and it is a profound article by someone who writes with thought and also knows that part of Africa.
What with the farcical non-binding agreement at Copenhagen and Prudence’s efforts to try to help the economy, I would suspect that it doesn’t just apply to Africa.
A Sensible Approach to Climate Change
You can take what I said about Climate Change Deniers and Fascists with a pinch of salt or tongue in cheek, but in some ways they are part of the problem. Politicians poncing around in Copenhagen are another part. Pictures this morning of Obama coming out of Air Force One just don’t go down well with me, when the conference is all about cutting greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
I hope that Copenhagen completely fails.
Only then, we might get some sense, as those that are worried about the future, will be given another kick to do something positive about it.
Politicians should keep well clear of the free market, as their meddling and well-meaning initiatives at best come to nothing and at worst they distort everything and push us down blind alleys.
But what they should do is nudge not corral us in the right direction.
For instance, every country should raise the price of carbon based fuels, in much the way that Kenneth Clarke did before Prudence removed it to court popularity. It must also be done on a world-wide or at least continent-wide basis. At present aviation fuel is untaxed and this should also be changed as soon as possible.
I don’t think there is much hope for this sensible measure, so that is why anything more savage that might be proposed will always be destined to fail.
It will be innovation by engineers and scientists that gets us out of this mess. And this is something for which no world-wide consensus is required. So if an engineer in Britain or Denmark say, has a brilliant idea, it is in their country’s interest to support it. Think of all those exports and licences.
We have a technological race, where the prize will be immense in monetary terms. It will also be very good for the world. Is that a win-win situation? I do hope so.
Climate Change Fascists
I really get sick of selfish Climate Change Fascists. They feel that they have a right to stop everyone enjoying themselves and curb their lifestyle. Some have an awful lot in common with the Taliban and want us to live back in the Stone Age.
I’ve just been listening to the phone in on BBC Breakfast on Radio 5 and you can just see them sitting there, picking at their lentils, drinking carrot or cabbage juice before they walk or cycle their kids to school.
Climate Change Deniers
I really get sick of selfish Climate Change Deniers. They feel that they have a right to continue to pollute the planet, use up all the resources and generally give two fingers to anybody who wants to curb their lifestyle.
I’ve just been listening to the phone in on BBC Breakfast on Radio 5 and you can just see them sitting there, fat or even worse, smoking their heads off and wheezing as they struggle into their 4×4 to take their fat kids 200 metres to school.
It’s Snowing
We’ve had some of the heaviest snow in some years today.
I just had to test it was real.
Testing the Snow
The Anonymous Widower 