Wednesday was a day where I never got going because of three news items. The first was the radio heard information that there had been an earth quake although it later in the day before the impact on people and on buildings was understood, No one was killed or badly injured so too much cannot be made of the event but it is evident from those living within 50 miles of its epicentre that it was a terrifying experience of both sound and movement, as has been shown from a CCTV. As I was tired when I went to bed it may be that I slept through anything felt here or the impact was less because of additional distance. My thoughts are with those who were understandably upset. It brought back memories of the understanding I had about the impact of an atomic and then nuclear weapon which led me to take action in later 1950's and early 1960's and where later in the 1980's I attended the national civil defence centre for training and understood the reality from the perspective of dealing with the aftermath of an attack in one city. On one hand there was that moment of horror and helplessness as the impact was reported on a part of the city where family, friends and work colleagues were resident, but the next there was a raft of decisions to be taken such as the conservation of immediately available and uncontaminated food for use by those with a chance of survival, while but excluded those who were dying.
In a throw back to those days, a small group of young men and women queue to attend a morning committee debate, apparently had a warm drink in a cafeteria, which I always believed could only be used with the assistance of a Member of the Lords or Commons, or a member of their staff, and then took a lift to the top of the building and on the roof above the main chamber of the House where the protest continued for three hours, including the period of Prime Minister's Question Time. It is noteworthy that one protestor was able to handcuff themselves to the roof and that a spokesperson confirmed that prior to the visit they had obtained the relevant information about how to reach the roof. A police spokesperson also confirmed the assumption that these individuals had inside help, wittingly or unwittingly, This story is yet to unfold as the individuals have been arrested and are being held overnight while further enquiries are made. The right to protest is fundamental to the nature of Britishness and is separate from the war on terrorism.
I set off to make a purchase in Sunderland and to then post in order to reach destination before weekend and I had travelled four fifth of the journey before it hit me, I had left my credit cards at home. I had sufficient cash to make a quick visit to the Aldo supermarket before deciding to make a further journey early on the morrow. It was that kind of the day. The Prime Minister held the upper hand throughout Question time with the Official Opposition Leader not on form and appeared to have been badly briefed. The new Liberal Leader has no Charisma and everyone other that his own group enjoyed poking fun over his behaviour yesterday and at one point the Speaker warned that he was straying close to jeopardising his position once more. It struck me the man would be more comfortable protesting on the roof than trying to mix it with the big boys in the Commons.
I watched three unmemorable films while sorting out the in tray and then attending to some communications. It is difficult to say which was the worst. The 1960 film The Day they robbed the Bank of England was released while I was in prison and was set during the time when pressure was being exerted to introduce a Home Rule Bill for Ireland. The film is about an IRA plan to steal all the gold in the vaults of the Bank of England and bring in a an expert mercenary from the USA to mastermind the venture. His approach is to befriend one of the senior officers appointed to supervise the round o'clock military guard and the level at which the man gives away crucial information and provides a tour, together with the failure of the local authorities to check and locate the potential point of entry appeared risible at the time, but then of course four decades later some young people get on the roof of Commons with their banners.
I had a little interest in this film because the senior officer in question, a major, is played by Peter O'Toole and it is alleged his performance led to his internationally acclaimed role in Lawrence of Arabia, a film I like to watch once every decade or so. I also have a copy of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. At least the Honey Pot or Honey Pot was never intended to be taken seriously. This 1967 UK film version runs for two and half hours, that in the USA about twenty minutes shorter. The plot is based on the Ben Johnson play Volpone, regarded as the best Jacobean comedy, set in Venice where a Gentleman pretends to be on his deathbed in order to dupe and test out those seeking to inherit his fortune and who arrive with appropriate gift to ingratiate themselves. In the film the oldish gentleman is played by Rex Harrison and the three aspirants are each former mistresses, one lived as his common law wife. The ladies are played by Capucine, the former French 17 year old who was discovered and became a model for Givenchy and Dior and later played with Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films. Susan Hayward was an outstanding actress of my generation with five best actress nomination and the award in 1958 for I want to live. She performed in some seventy films from 1937 until 1972, living longer than predicted until 1975 after diagnosis with brain cancer. She was only 57, a Catholic convert, who outlived her second husband and great love of her life by some nine years. I have seen a large number of her films with the most memorable Beau Geste in 1939. Reap the Wild Wind, Jack London, Smash Up, the story of a woman, My Foolish Heart, Rawhide. David and Bathsheba, With a Song in my Heart, Demetrious and the Gladiators, the Snows of Kilimanjaro, I'd climb the highest mountain and I'll Cry tomorrow. Others which I have seen but have no visual memory are Valley of the dolls, Back Street, The Conqueror, Soldier of Fortune, Our leading Citizen, Untamed, Thunder in the Sun, The fighting Seabees and A letter from Bataan. I adored her, as did my Aunt Harriet. She was given the name, as close to Rita Hayworth as the studio thought they could get away with. Rita Hayworth has never had the same effect on me. The more I look at the list of her films, their names seem familiar and yet her films are rarely shown these days. The individual whose role and performance rivalled that of Rex Harrison was not the third mistress but another great actress Maggie Smith, now Dame Maggie Smith, known today for her roles in the Harry Potter films but who has a list of memorable performance second to none and whose work will be covered another day. In this early film she is the only one who makes her role credible. The film is shot in a Venetian Palace. Anne Bancroft was due to take on the role of the third mistress but perhaps she read the script.
The final film was the Steven Segal piece of nonsense called the Foreigner in which he is paid to collect and take a package with the consequence that several buildings are spectacularly blown up, about 100 people are indiscriminately murdered for being in the wrong place and the wrong time, and the only regret is that not everyone ends being slaughtered by each other, especially Mr Segal. He was at the box office and by the critics.
The main reason why I had the TV on with these films as background was because I was giving thought to the latest disclosures about the former Child Care home on the Island of Jersey where the police have been investigating a large number of complaints of physical and sexual violence going back fifty years with the assistance of the NSPCC and where sum forty individual member of staff have so far been identified together with the skeletal remains believed to be of one young person and where the specialist dog searcher appears to have identified other areas meriting investigation.
This is the latest of similar investigations regarding significant sexual and physical violence by staff and other senior people within the child care system within the United Kingdom and its associated territories which first came to attention in the 1980's and which reach its peak in the 1990 when police carried out investigations in the majority of social service child care providing areas and where investigation were also carried out in homes managed by religious bodies, particularly those run by the Catholic Church. I mention associated territories because Jersey is a Crown Dependency for the purpose of providing protection for its borders and its people from external aggression. It is however not part of the UK or the E.E.C with its own internal police and judicial system. It is also full of British and French Tax Exiles.
There are two differences between this and previous investigations on he UK mainlands. The first is that remains on a young person have been identified and that there is a strong suspicion and some preliminary indication that other remains will be found. The second is that the Island's police force at its highest level is being open and direct in a way which indicates, as has been stated on camera, the former children who have complained have been believed, this time. It is understood some 80 have come forward with specific complaints, making reference to some forty different individuals.
Their cooperation with media questioning and interest may be that they are only too aware how difficulty it has been to bring and succeed with criminal prosecutions in the UK without which the victims are ineligible for state compensation, and that without someone from within the system providing evidence of corporate negligence individual authorities, public and private, are unlikely to be persuaded to make voluntary compensation payments, and where even in the few instances where this has happened, there is no public or private admission of liability. This has left the victims without having achieve a meaningful sense of justice. It is hoped that the investigations and the publicity has resulted in improved selection and monitory of staff and the system. Throughout the period when the crimes against the children were committed there was supposed to have been an effective government system of inspection and which led one Government Health Minister in the days of the first Tony Blair Government to go on record to say that had it been legally possible previous administrations should have been prosecuted for criminal negligence.
I still spend time asking myself if I could have done more than I did in the decade to 2003 to help the victims who came to me for assistance. One issue which I continue to feel strongly about is the tendency to refer to physical and sexual criminal violence against children and young people as abuse. I find myself still talking of abuse. I suspect that referring to sexual and physical violence against children and young people as abuse has contributed to Government, the judicial system, the media and society somehow treating these crimes as being less important than those against adults.
In a throw back to those days, a small group of young men and women queue to attend a morning committee debate, apparently had a warm drink in a cafeteria, which I always believed could only be used with the assistance of a Member of the Lords or Commons, or a member of their staff, and then took a lift to the top of the building and on the roof above the main chamber of the House where the protest continued for three hours, including the period of Prime Minister's Question Time. It is noteworthy that one protestor was able to handcuff themselves to the roof and that a spokesperson confirmed that prior to the visit they had obtained the relevant information about how to reach the roof. A police spokesperson also confirmed the assumption that these individuals had inside help, wittingly or unwittingly, This story is yet to unfold as the individuals have been arrested and are being held overnight while further enquiries are made. The right to protest is fundamental to the nature of Britishness and is separate from the war on terrorism.
I set off to make a purchase in Sunderland and to then post in order to reach destination before weekend and I had travelled four fifth of the journey before it hit me, I had left my credit cards at home. I had sufficient cash to make a quick visit to the Aldo supermarket before deciding to make a further journey early on the morrow. It was that kind of the day. The Prime Minister held the upper hand throughout Question time with the Official Opposition Leader not on form and appeared to have been badly briefed. The new Liberal Leader has no Charisma and everyone other that his own group enjoyed poking fun over his behaviour yesterday and at one point the Speaker warned that he was straying close to jeopardising his position once more. It struck me the man would be more comfortable protesting on the roof than trying to mix it with the big boys in the Commons.
I watched three unmemorable films while sorting out the in tray and then attending to some communications. It is difficult to say which was the worst. The 1960 film The Day they robbed the Bank of England was released while I was in prison and was set during the time when pressure was being exerted to introduce a Home Rule Bill for Ireland. The film is about an IRA plan to steal all the gold in the vaults of the Bank of England and bring in a an expert mercenary from the USA to mastermind the venture. His approach is to befriend one of the senior officers appointed to supervise the round o'clock military guard and the level at which the man gives away crucial information and provides a tour, together with the failure of the local authorities to check and locate the potential point of entry appeared risible at the time, but then of course four decades later some young people get on the roof of Commons with their banners.
I had a little interest in this film because the senior officer in question, a major, is played by Peter O'Toole and it is alleged his performance led to his internationally acclaimed role in Lawrence of Arabia, a film I like to watch once every decade or so. I also have a copy of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. At least the Honey Pot or Honey Pot was never intended to be taken seriously. This 1967 UK film version runs for two and half hours, that in the USA about twenty minutes shorter. The plot is based on the Ben Johnson play Volpone, regarded as the best Jacobean comedy, set in Venice where a Gentleman pretends to be on his deathbed in order to dupe and test out those seeking to inherit his fortune and who arrive with appropriate gift to ingratiate themselves. In the film the oldish gentleman is played by Rex Harrison and the three aspirants are each former mistresses, one lived as his common law wife. The ladies are played by Capucine, the former French 17 year old who was discovered and became a model for Givenchy and Dior and later played with Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther films. Susan Hayward was an outstanding actress of my generation with five best actress nomination and the award in 1958 for I want to live. She performed in some seventy films from 1937 until 1972, living longer than predicted until 1975 after diagnosis with brain cancer. She was only 57, a Catholic convert, who outlived her second husband and great love of her life by some nine years. I have seen a large number of her films with the most memorable Beau Geste in 1939. Reap the Wild Wind, Jack London, Smash Up, the story of a woman, My Foolish Heart, Rawhide. David and Bathsheba, With a Song in my Heart, Demetrious and the Gladiators, the Snows of Kilimanjaro, I'd climb the highest mountain and I'll Cry tomorrow. Others which I have seen but have no visual memory are Valley of the dolls, Back Street, The Conqueror, Soldier of Fortune, Our leading Citizen, Untamed, Thunder in the Sun, The fighting Seabees and A letter from Bataan. I adored her, as did my Aunt Harriet. She was given the name, as close to Rita Hayworth as the studio thought they could get away with. Rita Hayworth has never had the same effect on me. The more I look at the list of her films, their names seem familiar and yet her films are rarely shown these days. The individual whose role and performance rivalled that of Rex Harrison was not the third mistress but another great actress Maggie Smith, now Dame Maggie Smith, known today for her roles in the Harry Potter films but who has a list of memorable performance second to none and whose work will be covered another day. In this early film she is the only one who makes her role credible. The film is shot in a Venetian Palace. Anne Bancroft was due to take on the role of the third mistress but perhaps she read the script.
The final film was the Steven Segal piece of nonsense called the Foreigner in which he is paid to collect and take a package with the consequence that several buildings are spectacularly blown up, about 100 people are indiscriminately murdered for being in the wrong place and the wrong time, and the only regret is that not everyone ends being slaughtered by each other, especially Mr Segal. He was at the box office and by the critics.
The main reason why I had the TV on with these films as background was because I was giving thought to the latest disclosures about the former Child Care home on the Island of Jersey where the police have been investigating a large number of complaints of physical and sexual violence going back fifty years with the assistance of the NSPCC and where sum forty individual member of staff have so far been identified together with the skeletal remains believed to be of one young person and where the specialist dog searcher appears to have identified other areas meriting investigation.
This is the latest of similar investigations regarding significant sexual and physical violence by staff and other senior people within the child care system within the United Kingdom and its associated territories which first came to attention in the 1980's and which reach its peak in the 1990 when police carried out investigations in the majority of social service child care providing areas and where investigation were also carried out in homes managed by religious bodies, particularly those run by the Catholic Church. I mention associated territories because Jersey is a Crown Dependency for the purpose of providing protection for its borders and its people from external aggression. It is however not part of the UK or the E.E.C with its own internal police and judicial system. It is also full of British and French Tax Exiles.
There are two differences between this and previous investigations on he UK mainlands. The first is that remains on a young person have been identified and that there is a strong suspicion and some preliminary indication that other remains will be found. The second is that the Island's police force at its highest level is being open and direct in a way which indicates, as has been stated on camera, the former children who have complained have been believed, this time. It is understood some 80 have come forward with specific complaints, making reference to some forty different individuals.
Their cooperation with media questioning and interest may be that they are only too aware how difficulty it has been to bring and succeed with criminal prosecutions in the UK without which the victims are ineligible for state compensation, and that without someone from within the system providing evidence of corporate negligence individual authorities, public and private, are unlikely to be persuaded to make voluntary compensation payments, and where even in the few instances where this has happened, there is no public or private admission of liability. This has left the victims without having achieve a meaningful sense of justice. It is hoped that the investigations and the publicity has resulted in improved selection and monitory of staff and the system. Throughout the period when the crimes against the children were committed there was supposed to have been an effective government system of inspection and which led one Government Health Minister in the days of the first Tony Blair Government to go on record to say that had it been legally possible previous administrations should have been prosecuted for criminal negligence.
I still spend time asking myself if I could have done more than I did in the decade to 2003 to help the victims who came to me for assistance. One issue which I continue to feel strongly about is the tendency to refer to physical and sexual criminal violence against children and young people as abuse. I find myself still talking of abuse. I suspect that referring to sexual and physical violence against children and young people as abuse has contributed to Government, the judicial system, the media and society somehow treating these crimes as being less important than those against adults.
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