It was 12.40 on October Thursday 17th 2012 when I listened to Gibraltar news where a new Speaker has been inducted to the Parliament. I have an application which means I can listen directly from Windows Media. I have heard that Spain is creating problems for those wishing to cross the border with a four hour delay last weekend. I will need to investigate further for while I share the view that it would be more long term realistic for Gibraltar to be attached to Spain as it would be for the Falklands to Argentina the wishes of the people must always be the governing factor as it will be Scotland where on Monday the UK Prime Minister signed an agreement with first Minister Alec Salmon to hold a referendum on Independence in 2014.
The British government insisted that there is no alternative question but the Nationalists have gained an optional vote for 16 and 17 year olds well as holding the referendum in 2014 instead of 2013 as the Government had wanted. I have a sneaking suspicion that despite opinion polls indicating likely no vote and campaigning by all the three main UK political parties against leaving the Union, there will be a positive independence vote albeit by a narrow majority.
This will have greater significance for the position of the North East and as I have suggested for some time the boundaries between the two nations should also be revised so that Northumbria or Northumberland and Tyneside should be included with Scotland when is becomes an individual Member state of the European Union and should in time seek membership of the Euro and more integrated economic and political Europe. What will be the position in relation to the Olympics?
A separate Army and defence system will also have implications. On one hand the move will gain support within Military Families offering the prospect of recreating Scottish Regiments that have or are being amalgamated and effectively abolished. But the anti Trident and pro unilateralist approach to nuclear weapons will not please the navy. Interesting times.
I commenced to make Notes on Sunday October 14th 2012 at 10 am when I watched the whole of the Andrew Marr programme where the most significant item was not given the prominence which I believe it should. Michael Gove who I had already identified as a leadership wrecker if not a bidder for the Premiership himself is reported to have come out with the view that Britain, that is David Cameron the Prime Minister should immediately insist with the European Community that concessions should be made on the terms of the present membership or there will be a referendum on ending our membership, full stop. He is reported to have the support of a significant number of other members of the Cabinet. I have no doubt that Jeremy Hunt, promoted to being the Cabinet head Minister for Health after the debacle of his role as Culture, Sport and Media Minister is another ally.
What is not clear if this all has the blessing of Cameron and the Tory leadership in order to appease the core of the Parliamentary Party, their key Party members and core supporters who cannot accept Coalition government, fear it will become the norm? Philip Hammond, who has always struck me as intelligent but in the sense of a mature grounded man full of common sense, exactly the kind of man to be in charge of defence. He is also a strong willed man of courage prepared to do and say what is required and he squashed those pressing the Prime Minister to change from his position that there wills no referendum on the issue before the next General Election. What he was appearing to admit is that there is now a significant viewpoint within the Tory Party and its supporters that the relationship has to change with withdrawing some involvement and that this is being fuelled by the moves of those who accept that for a Euro Currency to work there should be progress towards a United State of Europe with banking integration, financial integration and economic policy integration and with those there will need to be political integration involving state sovereignty.
The prospect of a move to exit Europe reinforces the need for the North East to look towards Scotland than Westminster. During the week we had the curious spectacle of the excellent Home Secretary announcing that Britain was threatening to or had withdrawn from obligations in relation a number of justice system European directives but would then plan to accept those regarded as being the British Interest but not those which did not. It is my understanding that that the list of in and outs has not been circulated and this amounts to sabre rattling to appease Tory back benchers but will mean little if anything in practice.
While I anticipate the Welsh nationalists will support the Independence move as will the Irish Nationalists, the Unionist parties in Northern Island will cling even more strongly to the shirttails of English Toryism thus pushing that party more to the extreme right and make avoiding an in out referendum on Europe more difficult to avoid given the signing of the Referendum agreement on the future of Scotland. In part it is all a calculated move to prevent more Tories turning to UKIP and other right wing parties in desperation because of the Coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
On Thursday Any Questions was held in Scotland, Easterhouse one of the poorer areas of the City and where it was evident from the audience contributions that socialism of the British humanitarian and justice as fairness kind still has significant support. It was also evidence that opinion is strongly divided over the issue of independence and it emerged that the kind of economic model which Alec Salmon has signed up to with Cameron is in effect a capitalist and centralist Scotland which would disadvantage the Labour Party more than the Tories and give the Nationalist party an ongoing mandate to govern. I smell a dirty deal here where Labour loses most either way, because even if there is a no vote, the holding of such a vote will sustain Salmon through the next vote for the Scottish Assembly at the expense of Labour and which in turn will also affect the outcome of the next Euro and Westminster General Elections.
On Politics This week the attack by the Opposition Leader on the behaviour of the Chief Whip was very effective but had the effect of uniting the Tories in support, in public and reminded that Tony Blair in his autobiography admitted he should not have yielded to the pressure to sack Mandelson not once but twice because in doing so he lost not just an able Minister but someone who was at the core of the keeping the administration on track as well as helping to create the momentum to go forward. In the Chief Tory Whip Cameron has someone fundamental to keeping Tory participation in the Coalition going as well as keeping those who seek to oust Cameron from within the Party at Bay, hence the way he was able to orchestrate speakers at the most recent 1922 back bench Committee. I have kept this paragraph as written on to show that by going along with the conventional wisdom of political commentators one can be quickly proved wrong. Late on Friday it was announced that the Chief Whip had gone to Chequers, the weekend retreat of the Prime Minister and resigned and was apparently still there. Given what happened in mid week one can only assume that a number of Tory Grandees combined with some influential back benchers to say enough is enough. Perhaps the police had found something about the man which they threatened to reveal to the media. It is unlikely I will learn the truth in my remaining lifetime although I anticipate there will be lots of insider stuff in the Sunday newspapers and weekend political analysis. They will say that his resignation shows he is an honourable man, but why now and not before? Why did he and the PM attempt to brazen it out?
On Monday afternoon I watched the Home Affairs Committee question the present Chief Constable of South Yorkshire in relation to two matters as well as legal representatives and family members of the Hillsborough survivors. The Home Affairs Committee are not conducting any new inquiry but wanted to establish the position of West Yorkshire Police, pay their respects to the families and satisfy themselves that all was being done which should.
The present Chief Constable of the force, (until recently deputy to the man who remains the most senior officer in service who was involved with the aftermath although not involved on duty on the day) has not sounded convincing in his apologies and condemnation of what went on. He appears to have done his best in what has been and will remain the most difficult of circumstances. He made it plain that he is providing the Police Complaints authority with whatever information they require and it is not appropriate for them to be otherwise involved in the inquiry other than providing any further information assembled by the team which provided information to the Independent Commission chaired by the Bishop of Liverpool. The chairman queried that he had said “alleged” cover up in his letter acknowledging the request to attend the meeting and he qualified this in terms of the usual and desirable police practice of not stating the finding before a legal trial has taken place. At the Committee he withdrew the qualification and confirmed the belief from the Inquiry findings that there had been a deliberate planned cover up to put the blame on Liverpool supporters and to altering statements omitting any criticism of the police by the police. He confirmed that where there is evidence there should be prosecutions. On the other matter which interested the Committee I shall return later.
The relatives and supporters are represented by two groups. One led by Trevor and Mrs Hicks who lost their daughters and Margaret Aspinall who lost her son accompanied by Lord Falconer whose legal firm is acting for over 60 of the 96 bereaved families. The other person who appears top have invited herself is Sheila Coleman of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign- the spokesperson. The main group is in London for two days having earlier had a meeting with the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main issue of concern, and one raised at the Committee is the need to coordinate the action of the DPP with that of the Police Complaints organisation as well as the Inquests plus the Health and Safety issues and the Civil Actions although judging by the statement of the Chief Constable it looks as if the Police Authority will not contest such actions and the issue will be on of agreeing the appropriate damages as well as costs. I expect some announcement on Monday regarding coordination and on liaison with the representatives of those killed, injured or significantly affected by their involvement to this day.
I should make it clear that while I would not want to swim against the tide, or appear to defend the indefensible in relation to police conduct on this particular issue it should not be forgotten why spectators were caged in the standing areas, especially the away supporters and why the police would be present in numbers inside and outside the ground. I have written before and talked widely about my experiences when a coach in which I was travelling was repeatedly attacked by Liverpool teenagers throwing stones and lumps of earth for about half an hour as it left a cup game at Everton which Sunderland lost and the coach was taken out of the city in convoy northward to the M6 then down to the cross Pennine route back to Newcastle and Sunderland. I have also written about the two incidents after football at the Chelsea ground when underground trains were wrecked and had to be taken out of service after a Chelsea support gang of over 100 had attacked Sunderland London based supporters about an hour after a game had ended and that I witnessed West Ham Supporters returning home from a game at Wimbledon, smash their way out of a train in order to try and get at Chelsea Supporters who being prevented from getting on to the station by police who then found themselves under attack from both sides and had to call for reinforcement according to the Railway police man who explained the position when the train was taken out of service because of the damage. Nor was criminal behaviour restricted to gangs or crews associated with right wing politics.
At a Cup semi Final at Old Trafford I was horrified by the drunken behaviour of Sunderland fans around me. The racism expressed in one area of Newcastle’s ground before its development was well known so criticism my criticism applied to local clubs as well as those in London and elsewhere. It is inevitable that in such situation the police adopted the approach of viewing football spectators as the potential enemy as they have to do with then young people and not so young people that get fighting drunk at the weekend all our cities and towns, including country towns. The police have not come out well in a number of situations in recent months and historically corruption in the Met and in the West Midlands in particular has stained the reputation of the force. Moreover they exploited their position of trust with developing exceptionally good conditions of service in relation to pension and early retirement and the creation of back office jobs. So I am calling for a more balanced approach on both sides of what appears to have become a confrontation between the coalition and the police and the police and politicians. I am not sure the new Police Commissioners where voting takes place next month will make the difference now required. The creation of a national crime agency whose head appeared before the Commons Committee to announce his main management team was in the process of being completed should be more significant.
I will also return to the reason for the calling the head of South Yorkshire Police before the Commons Committee last Monday. There was concern at the lack of prosecutions in the area of the grooming of young people for sexual activity sometimes organised as recently occurred in Lancashire. Despite criticism and media attention on the gulf between the number of reports instances and prosecutions there have been no prosecutions this year although it was said two active cases were under consideration. The problem is said to be evidence which will stand up in court.
The Commons Committee focussed on one case where it appears there has been publicity where a significantly under age girl was found in a car with a much older man with a bottle of Vodka. The young man was part of a well known local family where the number of involvement with under age girls was said to number over 50 and where no action appears to have been taken. The Commons committee was insistent that they would be kept informed of progress.
It is evident that the Committees concern has been fuelled by the increasing attention given to the activities of Jimmy Saville where the number of alleged victims coming forwards is now in the hundreds and led the NSPCC to declare that he is likely to have been the most prolific sex offender now known to the authorities given the length of time of his activities and the scope which developed with his Jim will Fix it programme, his involvement with Hospitals in Leeds, Stoke Manderville and elsewhere and the BBC popular music Programme Top of the Pops.
The latest information from the police suggests that a number of alleged victims have come forward to report having sex, when underage, with a number of people associated with the Top of the Pops programmes. There was an era in the later sixties I think when I noted and commented to others that the camera man (men) on the programme appeared to be focussing up the legs of the young girls and these shots would not have been broadcast without the consent of those managing the programme and this was not a one off but was a regular feature. The latest allegation is that young girls who attended the show were identified as likely to agree to sex and were in effect then passed around those who were interested associated with the programme. I will be surprised if this is not found to be a key aspect of the self referrals that have come in.
It has also emerged that Jimmy was arrested no once but at least twice in relation to allegations of having sex with underage girls and that he said that the case was dropped before coming to court. The implication is that he paid of the girls or their families to drop their allegations. He is also reported to have answered the telephone with the comment, she said she was over sixteen and there is more recent telephone conversation report where he is said to have admitted that he was crooked or had been crooked in his life. This is therefore only the beginning.
Where I part company is the statement reported to have come from the NSPCC that this is proving the biggest criminal abuse inquiry of all time. If so it demonstrates how quickly people forget as in the 1990‘s over half the police forces in the UK were investigating significant claims of criminal abuse against former children in residential child care homes run by local authorities and the independent child care organisations, including those managed on behalf of the Catholic Church. It is right the police should devote attention now as they are doing in relation to the abuse of power by newsprint. My hope is that media will respond in a constructive way which will not lead to individuals who were adversely affected at the time suffering further trauma.
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