Is the UK Economy Getting A Little Better?
There has been a few positive articles this weekend, which indicate the economy is getting better.
For a start, the BBC is saying that UK retail sales are rising.
And Philip Wighton in yesterday’s Times says that clothing companies, like River Island, are moving manufacturing back to the UK, as this gives shorter lead times. Let’s hope others follow their example.
The Times also says that B & Q have brought in a new range of toilet seats called Tonic, that are selling way above expectations. Is this a business going up the pan?
Web Programmer At Risk of Execution In Iran
This is from Amnesty International.
Web programmer Saeed Malekpour could be executed at any time in Iran. His death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 17 January 2012 and a court official has indicated that his death sentence may have now been sent for implementation.
Saeed Malekpour, a resident of Canada and Iranian national, aged 36, was again sentenced to death on 19 October 2011 by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court, and it was confirmed by Branch 32 of the Supreme Court on 17 January 2012. On 14 February 2012, one of Saeed Malekpour’s lawyers visited both courts to ask about his case, but learned that the file was being held at neither court. Comments from a court official suggested that this is because Saeed Malekpour’s file has been sent to the Office of Implementation of Sentences.
Saeed Malekpour was sentenced to death for “insulting and desecrating Islam” after a program he had developed for uploading photos online had been used to post pornographic images without his knowledge. Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death in October 2010 following a trial that reportedly only lasted 15 minutes. After a June 2011 announcement that the Supreme Court had returned the case for further review, Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court imposed again the death sentence as well as prison sentence of seven and a-half years. Amnesty International understands that although he has legal representation now, for much of his detention Saeed Malekpour has had no access to legal counsel.
Saeed Malekpour had been living in Canada since 2005, but was arrested in October 2008 while visiting his family in Iran. He was allegedly tortured while held for over a year in solitary confinement in Tehran’s Evin prison. In 2009, Iranian state television repeatedly aired a “confession” by Saeed. In an open letter dated March 2010, Saeed Malekpour stated his “confession” was extracted after prolonged torture following orders by Revolutionary Guard interrogators.
I see many e-mails like this. To the Iranians justice seems to be a word with seven-letters and that is all.
This one touched me, as I’ve written programs to upload pictures and othe files to the Internet. As far as I know no-one has used them for any illicit purposes.
The Netherlands May Yet Win the 1978 World Cup
The Times has a small piece about how the military governments of Peru and Argentina stitched up the 1978 World Cup Finals in Argentina.
Search the Internet and there’s this article in the Buenos Aires Herald.
Here’s an extract.
The news is that FIFA, soccer’s world body, could annul Argentina’s 1978 World Cup victory. That may be putting it too harshly, but they are focusing on Argentina’s arranged 6-0 victory against Peru in the semifinal group to reach the final and keep out Brazil.
The report states evidence from Peru’s goalkeeper in that match, Argentine-born Ramón Quiroga — originally the main suspect — that a lot of his players played below form, not the strongest team was picked and the defence “did not stop anything”, that then military government president, General Jorge Videla was in Peru’s changing room talking to several players before the match and that a former Peruvian senator, Genaro Ledesma Izquieta, a political prisoner in Argentina at the time, said he was going to be freed if Argentina scored at least four goals more than Peru.
Whether FIFA will act thirty-four years later is a very awkward question. On the other hand, it was posted on an Argentinian website.
According to the report, FIFA is also annoyed that they have named their football championship after the General Belgrano.
But FIFA has also asked the Argentine FA (AFA) why the current closing tournament has been named after an Argentine navy ship (Crucero General Belgrano) sunk by the British during the 1982 Malvinas War. This could be sanctioned under FIFA statutes which forbid any political significance of tournament names. The name was “suggested” by the Argentine government which pays for the TV rights of soccer matches under the “Free soccer for all” programme which could also be looked on as government interference.
The AFA (and/or the government) however has decided to continue to use the ship’s name for the current tournament. What has, and will save Argentina from possible sanctions is that AFA chief Julio Grondona is FIFA’s first vice-president and is close to President Joseph Blatter.
I think the Falklands are the least of the Argentinian President’s problems. I suspect that the average Argentinian might like the Falklands oil, but take away free football on television and the riot would be extremely large.
We Have Ways of Making You Believe These Things
I have always felt Scientologists to be a group of religious nutters. but not after reading reports in The Times and this one in the Sun. They’re dangerous, sadistic, religious nutters.
Iran’s Incompetent Bombers
I found the story in The Times today under the headline, Failed Bombers had beer-and-prostitute holiday in Thailand. The full story is here on a website called scoop.co.nz.
It’s a pity that the man on the Tehran omnibus probably won’t read the story. But then his .0000001 or much less of a vote, wouldn’t get rid of the country’s ridiculous government.
Still incompetent bombers have always been good for a laugh in both fact and fiction.
Un-American Activities
The Times devotes its second leading article to their process of shipping people halfway across the world to stand trial without the evidence being tested in a court of law, where the accused has had the opportunity of testing the evidence.
The article finishes with this paragraph.
The national interest of the US lies in living up to its own rhetoric, and demonstrating that, wherever someone lives, the American promise of freedom under the law extends to them. Arresting people and shipping them half way across the world without a fair trial is the sort of thing that the founding fathers made it their life’s work to prevent.
The sooner we call time on this law the better.
What worries me is that I have a common name, which is probably one of the most common in the English-speaking world. Suppose the United States said say, that I was behind some notorious Internet hack, would I get the justice of having the evidence tested in a British Court. Possibly not, because Tony Blair signed my rights away, just as he did to everybody other British citizen, who lives peaceably within the law in the UK.
How I Met Lady Lucan
Now this is not the wife of the infamous 7th Earl who disappeared, but the wife of the 6th Earl.
At the time we were living in a flat in St. John’s Wood and she was canvassing for the Labour Party.
An Art Gallery With Its Own Station
I went to the Whitechapel Art Gallery today to see some of the Government’s art collection. It is a charming modern gallery tucked away in the East End of London, hard by one of the entrances to Aldgate East station.
Note the roundel in the station paying an artistic tribute to the gallery.
The exhibition was worth seeing, but the gallery had lots of other things to see and an excellent cafe.
A Colour-Coordinated Commuter
The picture shows the London Overground’s distinctive orange colour that gets everywhere. Perhaps, the colour design team was led by a Blackpool supporter or someone from The Netherlands.
The London Overground Orange
Opposite me on my trip to the deep South, was a very normal looking commuter, who had an orange-framed Brompton bicycle and a phone and an MP3 player in orange cases.
I felt to take the photograph would have been too much orange.
By the way, one of the Overground lines reaches from the Olympic site at Stratford to convenient buses to Alexandra Palace, where the Dutch House is to be setup . So is this orange by design or coincidence?
The Dutch should feel happy at Ally Pally, as it has an ice rink. They could get vertigo though, as it is one of the highest points of London and the views are spectacular.
Looking at the New Junctions South of Surrey Quays
At present two lines meet south of Surrey Quays station on the East London line of the London Overground.
- The New Cross Gate/Crystal Palace/Croydon branch.
- The New Cross branch.
These pictures show how the new extension to Clapham Junction station is being threaded through.
It has been reported that all the track has now been laid to connect from Surrey Quays to the southern part of the East London line.
This engineering has all been accomplished in a few months, which just shows how much better we art at this type of work, than a few years ago.
Although the bridge over the line, shown in the pictures, is rather simple, it has been designed so that no-one can throw anything onto the track, get access onto it, without completely stopping pedestrians watching the trains. Perhaps, the man who designed it, was a train spotter in his youth. It was certainly well-used in the ten minutes or so, I was there.
The Anonymous Widower 