This has been a special day during which I looked into the mirror and studied 68 years of reflections although it was towards the end after I commenced to write up aspects of the day's experience that I found a film, alas with no name, although hopefully I will on return on Monday find this on the internet schedule. The film is the story of the attempt to uncover the identity of the highest placed Russian spy within U S counter intelligence, and where they had the individual within their grasp only to release and return him to his position as head of the Russian section until the development of computers and the ending of the cold war confirmed the original finding as the truth, although too late to prevent his escape to Russia. The search had its hero's including one eccentric completer finisher who accumulated a mass of information which he sifted time and time again, and then had moments of creative insight in which he was able to see what others with their conventional methods and approaches had missed.
At the very end, the man who had let the traitor return to duties, is confronted by the best friend of the traitor from college days when they rowed in the same boat, who did not want to believe, then did, then was pleased when first reaction appeared to have been right, although subsequently commenced to have doubts without proof, and who when the proof was obtained, was shot by the individual before escaping, asked the age old questions of was it worth it and who were the good guys, if there were good guys?
Coincidentally, the difficulty of doubting the integrity of those with whom you have shared moments of hardship and triumph, in war and peace, was demonstrated when a team of youthful hockey players, boarded at Portslade, outside of Brighton, my train to East Croydon, and Victoria, with their kit, crates of beer, sufficient for drinking competitions, and someone who just about got on the train with the Pizzas, and the rest of us learnt a great deal about their life, and how they came to lose the game. There was the banter might one expect and their collective attitude towards any female other than their mother was instructive, but to the tuned ear it was also evident they were educated, socially responsible, were engaged in work which was of value to others as well as to themselves and there was the kind of bond that you would want to have if you were facing a threat to your life and to those who you most cared about. It would be very difficult to believe that any one of them had a secret life which posed a serious threat to everything you believed in and worked for.
The work of the man in the film who distilled information over decades and who was usually right even when everyone else decided that the facts indicated something different, reminded me that until yesterday I had missed what could become the catalyst for proving that my understanding of what happened to my aunt had always been the accurate one, that she developed a secondary infection while in hospital.
Mindful that formal investigations could undertake further twists and therefore the information should be passed on to the relevant authorities and not made public, I will for now state something of the process. Five years ago I had only questions, based mainly on second hand information and some direct experience, and made a formal complaint against one body requesting two others and one individual to cooperate, although I also had cause of complaint against staff of these other bodies and the separate individual. I hoped that cooperation would reveal both the precipitating responsibility for the actual cause of the death of my aunt. I have always had the suspicion that there was some kind of meeting or investigation in which a view was formed about what had happened and that consequently everyone adjusted how they replied to me in writing and the approach they were willing to take when local resolution meetings were held. The problem with any half baked approach and the adoption of a position on only some facts and part of the story, without the benefit of the information of all those who could reveal what happened, is the tendency to stick to the original position and to have a closed mind to anything which questions the position taken.
The issue wish prompted me to pursue the matter is that I received contradictory and incompatible statements about what happened from the two key interests, one response open to different interpretations. One was effectively a non response. Not knowing or thinking there had been any get together I pressed for one enquiry and at one point soon after I was given the information that such an enquiry might be possible at a later stage. I had been prepared to consider attending the local consultation process until receiving the contradictory response. I therefore moved to the second stage of three separate investigations and received a mixed response, but was given copies of the reports of two independent medical practitioners and two independent nursing officers and some admission that some aspects merited a different or new approach. However, far from resolving conflicts and clarifying what happened the gulf between the perception of those who had been directly involved within the family and the professional and official agencies widened. It was then that I decided to accept the offer of local resolution meetings after which the original responses and investigations became even more incompatible and it was at this point I first went to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman for advice which was followed to ask those involved in the second level investigatory process to reconsider the matter which was not agreed.
I then requested the Health Ombudsman to conduct an inquiry and because of the prior process this had to be two investigations. I decided to keep to this rather than extend again to the separate process involving local government and discovered that such is the demand for investigation that there is queuing process, not doubt based on some system of priorities. And as the second year drew to a close and was facing other priorities and concerns I decided to try and end the matter by requesting some form of independent assessment that the proposals for changes were appropriate that they were implemented and that the outcomes were monitored, assessed and if necessary further changes made. The concern was for action for the benefit of everyone and to enable everyone involved to concentrate on the present and future. However here was no commitment that this would happen and indeed one of he major interests failed to even acknowledge the communication which I personally delivered to its head. Moreover I shortly learnt that my request to the Ombudsman had moved from the queue to consideration of action but it was not until the summer of 2005 that the suggest focus of the inquiries were raised, unfortunately coinciding with my moving home on my own after thirty years. It was not until a year later that I received copies of the proposed two reports in draft form, a normal procedure to enable those involved to make comments or representations on possible errors and matters of fact, perhaps on presentation but on assessment, findings, judgments and conclusions. However rather than state my concerns in generality or priority and I went through report line by line and detailed my objections and differences so that although I did not anticipate the substance would be changed I could not subsequently be accused of not having raised issues when the opportunity arose. It was not until just before Christmas 2006 that I received a copy of the two reports submitted to the Secretary of State and what they said and what they concluded left me disappointed and disillusioned about the competence of what I had believed was a major protective agency for the individual against authorities, and professional and managerial interests. I made further inquiries about the best way forward and it quickly became evident that the next stage was seek a review of the work to date. The review is undertaken by one branch of the Ombudsman service by another. I expected that it might take another year if the case which I was able to make for a review was justified and this is what has taken place, although I did not expect that during the process of the review of the investigation I would be told information which appeared to undermine the credibility of the original investigation. Then the monthly progress update stopped so I waited and then requested an explanation and was told that the matter was under consideration by senior management. Given the time, the process, it will be considered unfortunate that only now have I appreciated the significance of information which could affect the outcome. My defence is that it was only after a revelation this summer that those coming to judgement had not had direct access to the most significant factual information that the edifice previously manufactured by all those previously involved started to be seriously questioned by those with the power to do something about it. It was only when review all the information gather during the past five years in the light of this development that I realised the significance. There have been previous occasions over the five year when this has happened before, The question I have is what was it left to me to find out in this manner. There is therefore now three layers of questions to have answer. The original layer of what happened to my aunt and which of the contradictory positions is valid or otherwise. The nature and length of the investigation and reporting process and where there have been significant changes already made and were said to be in process of being made. And now there is a third layer as to the extent to which information which was known to have a direct bearing on the assessment and judgements about the matter was intentionally withheld, and if so, by whom and who else knew this was so?
This all has affected the course of my night. I arrived back at the hotel before 7pm buying a BLT baguette, which I eat with some fruit and drank tea and then coffee and then tea. Earlier I had a most enjoyable seafood platter with little pieces of a range of fish from a king prawn , two pieces of roll mop herring, two piece s of smoked salmon, a piece of bass I, some crab meat, I remember but there were others and then the great indulgence some profiteroles, and I knew I must avoid similar on the morrow.
I decided to stay in this evening and watch the X factor semi final instead of going our to the pictures and then fell asleep during the second half of the show, but looking back I am satisfied that I got the balance of the day right. This was the semi finale of the present series, a series which was indirectly responsible for the discovery of MySpace and perhaps this is explanation why until now I have note rated this year's finalists to be a strong as last year. Although I missed the second series of songs this evening I saw sufficient of them the predict the three to contest next week's final. Rhydian has a powerful voice which has tackled a range of song types and although he may not have a long recording success I predict he will become a star of West End musicals. The surprise of this year had been Leon a young Scottish lad similar in style the Michael Bubble who has grown in self confidence with each programme but whose style is not one which has appealed, there can be only one Frank Sinatra and Songs for Swinging Lovers. This was the week when he second Diva departed along with the made up girl group. I thought from the outset of the season.
I had also been looking forward to match of the day but decided to stick with the film about traitor in the CIA. This had another twist because one of the leading Russia spy master had the idea of acquiring funds in Western banks some 60 billion and amount which in the 1950's was significant. His intention was at the appropriate time to create panic on Wall Street, a second great crash which would have reverberations around the capitalist world and create the kind of hardships which would cause the workers in these countries to rise up and demand a better system. The films mentioned the Bankers who knew of the plan including someone at the Vatican bank. However when the day of the great event occurred, Wall Street was dealing in Trillions on a day and while the unloading of the Russian billions had some effect it was transitory and the plan to de-stable failed.
As the football well Newcastle at home to lowly Birmingham, and it was Birmingham's defeat at St James's in the cup which led to the departure of the previous manager. When Birmingham scored a direct route goal by a long ball and a miscalculation by the last Newcastle player, they went into the kind of early lead which stunned the crown and the humour was improved but still nervous when there was an equalizer but failure to achieve a winner. This came in the dying second. I thought I had probably missed Sunderland at Chelsea in the unlikely event it was the match of the day. It came before the end of the programme and there was to be no surprises, with the Sunderland goal mouth under siege from he commencement. However they managed to reach half time with only one goal deficit but then there was a penalty. Which looked a minor incident. However the highlight was the raising of the hand by Liam Miller into the face of an opponent who looked as if he was saying something in relation to an prior incident. It may be he was just trying to shut hi up but whatever it was crass stupidity and he merited the immediate red card and whatever punishment Keano will devise. The last thing needed is a three match ban at Christmas.
Thus is was that I started to write this late and then the letter about my sudden finding and further questions so that it was three am and was wide awake and buzzing and knew it would be a struggle to sleep, so that around 4.30 I wrote more, returned to bed at 6 am and did sleep a little but was awake at 9am and it is now 10.20, thus I have avoided the temptation of unlimited breakfast which did seem a good way of brunching at one point. So what will I do now?
At the very end, the man who had let the traitor return to duties, is confronted by the best friend of the traitor from college days when they rowed in the same boat, who did not want to believe, then did, then was pleased when first reaction appeared to have been right, although subsequently commenced to have doubts without proof, and who when the proof was obtained, was shot by the individual before escaping, asked the age old questions of was it worth it and who were the good guys, if there were good guys?
Coincidentally, the difficulty of doubting the integrity of those with whom you have shared moments of hardship and triumph, in war and peace, was demonstrated when a team of youthful hockey players, boarded at Portslade, outside of Brighton, my train to East Croydon, and Victoria, with their kit, crates of beer, sufficient for drinking competitions, and someone who just about got on the train with the Pizzas, and the rest of us learnt a great deal about their life, and how they came to lose the game. There was the banter might one expect and their collective attitude towards any female other than their mother was instructive, but to the tuned ear it was also evident they were educated, socially responsible, were engaged in work which was of value to others as well as to themselves and there was the kind of bond that you would want to have if you were facing a threat to your life and to those who you most cared about. It would be very difficult to believe that any one of them had a secret life which posed a serious threat to everything you believed in and worked for.
The work of the man in the film who distilled information over decades and who was usually right even when everyone else decided that the facts indicated something different, reminded me that until yesterday I had missed what could become the catalyst for proving that my understanding of what happened to my aunt had always been the accurate one, that she developed a secondary infection while in hospital.
Mindful that formal investigations could undertake further twists and therefore the information should be passed on to the relevant authorities and not made public, I will for now state something of the process. Five years ago I had only questions, based mainly on second hand information and some direct experience, and made a formal complaint against one body requesting two others and one individual to cooperate, although I also had cause of complaint against staff of these other bodies and the separate individual. I hoped that cooperation would reveal both the precipitating responsibility for the actual cause of the death of my aunt. I have always had the suspicion that there was some kind of meeting or investigation in which a view was formed about what had happened and that consequently everyone adjusted how they replied to me in writing and the approach they were willing to take when local resolution meetings were held. The problem with any half baked approach and the adoption of a position on only some facts and part of the story, without the benefit of the information of all those who could reveal what happened, is the tendency to stick to the original position and to have a closed mind to anything which questions the position taken.
The issue wish prompted me to pursue the matter is that I received contradictory and incompatible statements about what happened from the two key interests, one response open to different interpretations. One was effectively a non response. Not knowing or thinking there had been any get together I pressed for one enquiry and at one point soon after I was given the information that such an enquiry might be possible at a later stage. I had been prepared to consider attending the local consultation process until receiving the contradictory response. I therefore moved to the second stage of three separate investigations and received a mixed response, but was given copies of the reports of two independent medical practitioners and two independent nursing officers and some admission that some aspects merited a different or new approach. However, far from resolving conflicts and clarifying what happened the gulf between the perception of those who had been directly involved within the family and the professional and official agencies widened. It was then that I decided to accept the offer of local resolution meetings after which the original responses and investigations became even more incompatible and it was at this point I first went to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman for advice which was followed to ask those involved in the second level investigatory process to reconsider the matter which was not agreed.
I then requested the Health Ombudsman to conduct an inquiry and because of the prior process this had to be two investigations. I decided to keep to this rather than extend again to the separate process involving local government and discovered that such is the demand for investigation that there is queuing process, not doubt based on some system of priorities. And as the second year drew to a close and was facing other priorities and concerns I decided to try and end the matter by requesting some form of independent assessment that the proposals for changes were appropriate that they were implemented and that the outcomes were monitored, assessed and if necessary further changes made. The concern was for action for the benefit of everyone and to enable everyone involved to concentrate on the present and future. However here was no commitment that this would happen and indeed one of he major interests failed to even acknowledge the communication which I personally delivered to its head. Moreover I shortly learnt that my request to the Ombudsman had moved from the queue to consideration of action but it was not until the summer of 2005 that the suggest focus of the inquiries were raised, unfortunately coinciding with my moving home on my own after thirty years. It was not until a year later that I received copies of the proposed two reports in draft form, a normal procedure to enable those involved to make comments or representations on possible errors and matters of fact, perhaps on presentation but on assessment, findings, judgments and conclusions. However rather than state my concerns in generality or priority and I went through report line by line and detailed my objections and differences so that although I did not anticipate the substance would be changed I could not subsequently be accused of not having raised issues when the opportunity arose. It was not until just before Christmas 2006 that I received a copy of the two reports submitted to the Secretary of State and what they said and what they concluded left me disappointed and disillusioned about the competence of what I had believed was a major protective agency for the individual against authorities, and professional and managerial interests. I made further inquiries about the best way forward and it quickly became evident that the next stage was seek a review of the work to date. The review is undertaken by one branch of the Ombudsman service by another. I expected that it might take another year if the case which I was able to make for a review was justified and this is what has taken place, although I did not expect that during the process of the review of the investigation I would be told information which appeared to undermine the credibility of the original investigation. Then the monthly progress update stopped so I waited and then requested an explanation and was told that the matter was under consideration by senior management. Given the time, the process, it will be considered unfortunate that only now have I appreciated the significance of information which could affect the outcome. My defence is that it was only after a revelation this summer that those coming to judgement had not had direct access to the most significant factual information that the edifice previously manufactured by all those previously involved started to be seriously questioned by those with the power to do something about it. It was only when review all the information gather during the past five years in the light of this development that I realised the significance. There have been previous occasions over the five year when this has happened before, The question I have is what was it left to me to find out in this manner. There is therefore now three layers of questions to have answer. The original layer of what happened to my aunt and which of the contradictory positions is valid or otherwise. The nature and length of the investigation and reporting process and where there have been significant changes already made and were said to be in process of being made. And now there is a third layer as to the extent to which information which was known to have a direct bearing on the assessment and judgements about the matter was intentionally withheld, and if so, by whom and who else knew this was so?
This all has affected the course of my night. I arrived back at the hotel before 7pm buying a BLT baguette, which I eat with some fruit and drank tea and then coffee and then tea. Earlier I had a most enjoyable seafood platter with little pieces of a range of fish from a king prawn , two pieces of roll mop herring, two piece s of smoked salmon, a piece of bass I, some crab meat, I remember but there were others and then the great indulgence some profiteroles, and I knew I must avoid similar on the morrow.
I decided to stay in this evening and watch the X factor semi final instead of going our to the pictures and then fell asleep during the second half of the show, but looking back I am satisfied that I got the balance of the day right. This was the semi finale of the present series, a series which was indirectly responsible for the discovery of MySpace and perhaps this is explanation why until now I have note rated this year's finalists to be a strong as last year. Although I missed the second series of songs this evening I saw sufficient of them the predict the three to contest next week's final. Rhydian has a powerful voice which has tackled a range of song types and although he may not have a long recording success I predict he will become a star of West End musicals. The surprise of this year had been Leon a young Scottish lad similar in style the Michael Bubble who has grown in self confidence with each programme but whose style is not one which has appealed, there can be only one Frank Sinatra and Songs for Swinging Lovers. This was the week when he second Diva departed along with the made up girl group. I thought from the outset of the season.
I had also been looking forward to match of the day but decided to stick with the film about traitor in the CIA. This had another twist because one of the leading Russia spy master had the idea of acquiring funds in Western banks some 60 billion and amount which in the 1950's was significant. His intention was at the appropriate time to create panic on Wall Street, a second great crash which would have reverberations around the capitalist world and create the kind of hardships which would cause the workers in these countries to rise up and demand a better system. The films mentioned the Bankers who knew of the plan including someone at the Vatican bank. However when the day of the great event occurred, Wall Street was dealing in Trillions on a day and while the unloading of the Russian billions had some effect it was transitory and the plan to de-stable failed.
As the football well Newcastle at home to lowly Birmingham, and it was Birmingham's defeat at St James's in the cup which led to the departure of the previous manager. When Birmingham scored a direct route goal by a long ball and a miscalculation by the last Newcastle player, they went into the kind of early lead which stunned the crown and the humour was improved but still nervous when there was an equalizer but failure to achieve a winner. This came in the dying second. I thought I had probably missed Sunderland at Chelsea in the unlikely event it was the match of the day. It came before the end of the programme and there was to be no surprises, with the Sunderland goal mouth under siege from he commencement. However they managed to reach half time with only one goal deficit but then there was a penalty. Which looked a minor incident. However the highlight was the raising of the hand by Liam Miller into the face of an opponent who looked as if he was saying something in relation to an prior incident. It may be he was just trying to shut hi up but whatever it was crass stupidity and he merited the immediate red card and whatever punishment Keano will devise. The last thing needed is a three match ban at Christmas.
Thus is was that I started to write this late and then the letter about my sudden finding and further questions so that it was three am and was wide awake and buzzing and knew it would be a struggle to sleep, so that around 4.30 I wrote more, returned to bed at 6 am and did sleep a little but was awake at 9am and it is now 10.20, thus I have avoided the temptation of unlimited breakfast which did seem a good way of brunching at one point. So what will I do now?
No comments:
Post a Comment