In what
may be the warmest office in the world, we are hard at work preparing tonight's programme. On the internal ´óÏó´«Ã½ ring main, we have stumbled across some work being done in a TV edit suite somewhere. It appears to be someone's wedding video...which I would guess is being dubbed onto DVD. It's either that or the new ´óÏó´«Ã½ ONE drama needs a lot of work on script and video quality. The colour balance is all over the shop. If you're reading this blog somewhere in the ´óÏó´«Ã½, it's on channel 705.
We will prepare a programme, honest. Our Jack Straw interview will feature..as will a discussion on sex offenders...and an interview about the rhino.
The bride is kissing her father now. At least I hope it's her father.
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Can you stream this to the internet?
Scandalous that we are paying good licence fee money for ´óÏó´«Ã½ folk to use public resources to put their home videos on to DVD. I certainly would never dream of doing such a thing :-)
Morning Eddie,
Up early this morning, must get home – ha ha, only joking.
Just had a fight with the tea bag, it was one of those with string attached, which are fine for dunking but once a tea spoon gets involved, forget it.
The string from the bag became almost inextricably tangled with me spoon, the last thing one needs to have to deal with, when one can barely open an eye, let alone solve a puzzle.
Cheers.
Hard at work PM presenter finds time to scroll through all the channels on the ring main looking for something interesting...
Doesn't take long, Dick. I remember ringmain. But that was a while ago, and things may have changed.
Good day Eddie,
We're in the hinterland now between Christmas and New Year, that strange out-of-time week where nothing is quite as normal and all routine is cancelled.
But soon it will be the last day of the year and even the least self-searching of us is likely to become a little reflective, looking at our lives in a way that doesn't normally happen in the hurly-burly of the moment. If ever there was a time to stand and stare, it is now.
So a look at our own circumstances is good, but perhaps 2007 is the year to reflect on not only on the personal, but also on the political.
As we hurtle at breakneck speed towards the end of the first decade of the new millennium – a fact that is hard to grasp in itself – the problems facing us are not only large but different from those we probably would have predicted back on that first day of 2000.
Some of today's issues were looming back then – global warming and the end of our reserves of fossil fuel were both issues under discussion in 2000. Gordon Brown was even being lined up as the next prime minister – just as he still is.
Elsewhere the agenda has shifted: our destruction of the planet just by living our everyday lives is now a topic under constant discussion. Once, the term "carbon footprint" would have left us nonplussed, now most of us know it is a measure of our impact on the world around us.
Some problems have magnified beyond all understanding. When terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers in New York in 2001, killing thousands of people, they changed the political map of the world forever.
The Cold War was consigned to the history books and new battle lines were drawn up based on the danger to the West posed by terrorists committing atrocities in the name of Islam.
But the temptation is to see all these issues as something beyond our control. We all must accept that we have a responsibility and an ability to change things. I think that is the most powerful resolution any of us could ever make.
Thank goodness it was just a wedding video Eddie !
Worse things have ended up being routed to the transmitters in the past I believe :-)
Someone else trying to streeeettttchhhhh out their working day by doing ANYTHING vauely productive?
These 3 limbo days are just so wierd. But the roads are as they should be, and the buses run on time! If only it was like that all year.
MOTP, good point. We are not all helpless - or hopeless
At risk of repeating myself: W-E-I-R-D. No offence Chrissie - it's just one of my pet hates...
it's cruel of you to mention the warmest office in the world Eddie when we are inthe throes of recovery from an hour long power cut. It's amazing how many of the things I do in ordinary life are dependent upon the electircity supply. Roll on the installation of our wind turbine say I, at least then we could boil the kettle for a warm drink and maybe even power the pump for the radiators.
Is Jack Straw being played because you haven't time to find anything else?
Admin Annie (10) I believe Jack Straw is being played as John Prescott is injured, Hazel Blears is serving a two match suspension and Tony is cup tied. The formation will switch to 4-4-2 with Straw pushing forward as a lone striker as Derek Twigg shrinks back into a slightly defensive role.
Re (11) -- Hohoho, very (Jason) Good...
I have the same comment as always about sex offenders; we need to find some way of accomodating them within our society; isolation & ostracisation are more dangerous. As far as any register is concerned, it is a clumsy tool, because it doesn't differentiate between types of offences, & what about the fact that most children are abused by someone they are related to or in their own homes. If we are ever to seriously consider opening access to the register, we must also realise that most names would reveal the names of the victims which isn't legal.
Helen (13) : and as we all know, what's not legal today may become legal tomorrow.
Sigh.
Fifi
Ooooh, Helen Sparkles, your frog was read out today!
Helen! You've been read out on PM!!!! Re Sat Nav!
Mary
My best mate was read out too.
Oh thank you for sharing my excitement, wish there was a way to preserve for posterity the wonderful way my post was read out! I was sitting miserably & lonely on the beach at the time, but suddenly the sun shone, & bliss was restored. It was so exciting that I might have to join the 'I Love Eddie' support group but only have Chanakuh candles if that's ok (mary)?!
Fifi, I know, I await with dread the names of rape victims being published legally. Anyone think of anything else we can do to put women off coming forward & lower the already appalling conviction figures for rape.
Helen (18) : All woman rape investigation and legal teams would be a good start.
...just back from a grim trip to the supermarket, hence feeling rather dark at the moment. Might just nip to the beach for some R&R. Anyone else coming?
Fifi
Helen I always have a few scented candles to spare.
As for rape victims etc. I'm afraid Fifi I'm not on your side in this. I frequently defend people accused of rape. It's very difficult to defend someone once that sort of allegation has been bandied around.
What is the evidence that rapist "get off" any more than any other person accused of a crime. You see, how do we know that the guilty are going free?
It troubles me that the principle of "innocent until proven guilty" - one I really think is so important, is at peril on a topic that I understand is so important to women. But I also think it's vitally important that the innocent are protected.
Mary
I think I should have added Helen Sparkles to my last post. I'm sorry Helen, for the first time I don't entirely agree with you. I don't think that publishing names is necessarily going to put off a genuine victim. The thing is to make it OK for women to make the complaint, rather than to allow anonymity to those who do not make genuine complaints (and there are some believe me).
Mary
Mary and Helen : There's no perfect answer to this, other than make it physically impossible for anybody of either gender to rape anybody else of either gender.
I didn't mean to imply that 'all women rape investigation and legal teams' would mean an easier time for accusers and by implication a tougher time defending the accused. That would be to assume all women can't be objective when the context of their job is rape. I think. Forgive me if I'm assuming the wrong assumptions here!
But I do think that an entire rethink of how we as a society deal with rape accusations and what follows is overdue. My personal -- and not very educated, it must be said -- view is that the adversarial system isn't very helpful here.
Especially when it comes to changing attitudes to certain forms of behaviour.
Fifi
do with it, & don't really know other than that so we probably don't disagree at all! Your experience and knowledge are useful, & I know things have improved dramatically within police forces, I have no idea if enough.
The figures are diabolical but I have little insight into the statistics really, & it is a notoriously difficult case to bring, either for the defence or the prosecution. Everyone does deserve the best defence, rape cases were the only ones I couldn’t clerk, but then I am not a lawyer & a lot of my colleagues take on different work in different areas of social care. We all do the thing we can is my coda.
Malicious complaints are an issue, should both names be anonymous? I can't remember why the names of the accused are out in the open, but perhaps that would be a better way, rather than publishing the names of women as well to create equality.
MoP, by the time the WTC was hit, the USA was already employing elsewhere the security & intelligence staff made redundant by the end of the Cold War; 9/11 just gave them a whole new set of job opportunities which beat keeping an eye on the Mexican border.
Helen, something is missing from the beginning of one of your posts.
You say the figures are diabolical, but do you have the figures for other offences?
Statistics are not important. What is important that people have the opportunity of a fair defence. I have defended a good few people who have been on the receiving end of others who are "habitual" complainants. I don't have figures, but I believe that we cannot say that "too many rapists go free" unless we know that for a fact. It's just not possible to know that.
There is a tendency at the moment in the Criminal Justice System to suggest that there are too few convictions (of any crime). Think for a moment what that means. That we know that people are guilty, but somehow the courts get it wrong? That the police always get their man. That defence lawyers are tricksters? That ...
Oh well ... what I mean is (think the noughties thread), if innocent until proved guilty is undermined by a presumption that if people are found not guilty then they are probably guilty anyway, then we have lost the rule of law in this country. There is nothing special about rape in legal terms.
Mary
I'm with the Mad lass on this one. Respect to you, Mary, both for your calling and for the recognition of the primacy of innocence.
As to lawyers and litigation in general, they only make me wonder if it wasn't too high a price to pay for the blessings of literacy. I'm with Socrates and Toth on this matter:
"If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks."
(see Phaedrus dialogue- an investigation of the (dis?)benefits of writing - dutifully copied down by Plato)
xx
ed
The beginning of the post should have read that my dread is largely the result of what the daily snail would do with them, should the names of complainants be available, but that is verging on facetious because if you read the daily snail you would believe that women are responsible for rape anyway.
The rest of my post really is intended to say I don’t know, because I know I don’t know enough. I have read, & heard from Helena Kennedy, that only 5.3% of reported rape cases resulted in a conviction in 2003. I don’t know what more recent figures say or how this compares to other crimes, & I would be completely with you on convictions not necessarily being the measure.
Helen (24) and MOP,
The egg which preceded the chicken in this case was laid by the West - the exploitation and oppression of the rest by the west. The terrorists were a response, an effect rather than a cause.
The "political map of the world" was drawn by the West for its own advantage and is enforced in its inequality in a thousand different ways. The two targets were the most symbolic possible. I couldn't have chosen better.
"" Dwight David Eisenhower's Farewell address to America, in which the phrase "military-industrial complex" is coined.
The military and commercial stranglehold headquarters were struck. A pity it wasn't a bigger and more central strike on the pentagram (an ancient devilish symbol).
And I'm still a !
ed
Ed "The egg which preceded the chicken in this case was laid by the West - the exploitation and oppression of the rest by the west. The terrorists were a response, an effect rather than a cause."
I don't think I have ever said anything which would contradict this.
Eddie. Many thanks, and a happy new year to all at PM. Over the years PM has kept me informed of events in the world we live, sometimes as they happen. So as a lowly long distant truck driver away from home all week, PM seems to be part of the family.sad but true. As a trucker, easy access to a pc can be difficult and time consuming writing a blog, which can stretche my spelling skills.So with the death of Nick and Suddan,which both took my breath away this year, but for very different reasons, i felt a comment was in order
Helen (29),
I was supporting your response to MOP, and attempting to expand upon it. I do hope you and others can find time to follow the link to see and hear Eisenhower's wise and prescient words. There are a number of other worthwhile miniclips on , particularly appropiate to year-end reflections.
xx
ed
Ed (28) and Helen(29)
I hope you are not implying that terrorism is always an effect rather than a cause. Please don't confuse those who wish to impose their will on others by fear, with those who choose violence as a last resort.
BTW, I really think I've left it too late for this blog. Sorry.
Vyle,
Interesting question, but, on consideration, I think it probably is an effect in the overwhelming majority of cases - a response of frustration, rage, impotence, etc.
What else do you propose? Simple Evil? "those who would impose their will upon others by fear" are more commonly governments or their agents, as in the present 'climate of fear', generated by our own 'democratically elected' custards and their shoulder-rubbbing masters.
xx
ed
Vyle,
You've got me thinking (just a wee bit, mind), and, perhaps predictably, my mind wandered to Palestine, where the original proto-Israeli terrorists tried to impose their will upon the natives (wishing to drive them out) by violence. Was this an effect or a cause? Perhaps it was an effect of feeling frustrated by the fact that the Brits were 're-negging' on the promises perceived in the Balfour Declaration.
The Arab resistance to the Zionist agenda (and Perfidious Albion) can be seen very similarly, and so I'm still of the opinion that terrorism is largely a result rather than a cause.
Salaam, etc.
ed
Ok Ed, you see I am keen to agree where we can!
Vyle, as ever, I say that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.
Sparky,
What're you doing, hanging around in the darker, more run-down parts of bloggville? Lookin for a fight or sumfin?
We really should get lives, eh?
xx
ed