Liberal Burblings

Archive for July, 2007

The Bush and Brown Camp David “mood music” and/or “body language” is encouraging.

No silly aping the Bush ape walk from the British Prime Minister.

No silly jeans or bomber jackets.

No Colgate references.

Instead, sober suits and ties. Gordon Brown kept a stern face as Bush tried one of his “fratboy” tricks – doing a bit of a wheely in his golf buggy in front of the press. And no praise for Bush from Brown.

So far so good for Gordon Brown.

Now let’s see some action.

The “silly Season” has arrived! Official confirmation comes with this story in the Sun:

“I saw the fins just like Jaws” - HORRIFIED mum Catherine Price videoed a “harmless” shark off Cornwall — then discovered it was Britain’s JAWS.

Holidaymaker Catherine was on a boat trip with son Callum, seven, when they spotted the 12ft monster’s fin.

As it circled in the water, fellow tourists dismissed the creature as a docile basking shark.

But Catherine got the shock of her life yesterday — as experts confirmed it could well be the second sighting of a deadly GREAT WHITE prowling off St Ives.

Following this revelation, anyone at immediate risk of hyper-ventilation should carefully read these words from the Shark Trust:

Richard Peirce, Chairman of the Shark Trust, would like to make it absolutely clear that when he was shown footage of a shark partially breaching off St Ives at the end of June by The Sun, he did not confirm that this was a Great White Shark.

It is very welcome to read of the report from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, which says that there is no evidence to support an increase in the detention without charge period beyond 28 days.

Chairman Andrew Dismore MP ‘said there was only one serious alleged plot where six people were held up to 28 days – three of whom were then released. “You could say, on the one hand, those three, there may have been evidence against them, but equally, were they simply being held in case something turned up?,” he said.’

The committee observes that other countries facing a terrorist threat have much shorter detention periods.

It does seem remarkable that whereas throughout the Irish troubles, aside from reasonably limted periods of the enforcement of internment, the law change currently in place, let alone the suggested extension to 56 days, was not required, the Labour government think it is necessary now.

One wonders what Gordon Brown’s motivation is in suggesting an extension to the 28 day period. The police aren’t asking for it, say the committee. Even the 28 day period has not been used except in three cases. And the proposed allowance of interviews of suspects after charge dissolves one of the main arguments used for having the 28 day period in the first place.

So what exactly is Brown’s motivation? Looking “statesmanlike”? Out-torying the Tories?

It’s also worth noting that Liberty have suggested a number of measures which could be introduced instead of detention without charge, such as:

• Remove the bar on the use of intercept (phone tap) evidence because its inadmissibility is a major factor in being unable to bring charges in terror cases. Liberty welcomes the Government’s proposed Privy Council review.

• Hire more interpreters: Prioritise the hiring of more foreign language interpreters to expedite pre-charge questioning and other procedures.

• Criminalising failure to disclose encryption keys: Begin to use existing powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) which enable a civil court to require an individual to hand over an encryption key (which unlocks data on seized computers). Anyone who fails to comply with such an order will be committing a serious criminal offence.

• Add resources: More resources for police and intelligence services.

• Emergency measures in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 could be triggered in a genuine emergency in which the police are overwhelmed by multiple terror plots, allowing the Government to temporarily extend pre-charge detention subject to Parliamentary and judicial oversight.

Dec’s rambling makes a further comment here:

At the end of the show they show their coordinates as being 78° North. That is 12° and about 800 miles short of the true North Pole. Of course one could argue that they could had gone to Magnetic North, which moves and that is exactly where they did go. Unfortunately they did so 11 years late since they conveniently choose (sic) the position of Magnetic North from 1996, it is currently around 82° or 83° North. It was a bit disappointing, really all they did was go for a long drive in the snow to an almost random point 400 miles away.

Gisela Stuart MP is an unlikely “rebel”. She’s your archetypal “Blair babe”. On election night in 1997, her successful result at Edgbaston came early on, and gave a clear signal that we were in for a Labour landslide.

Ms Stuart has been criticising Gordon Brown for not holding a referendum on the European Constitution/Treaty. She should know what she is talking about. She helped write the original “constitution”.

Her article in the Sunday Telegraph is couched in extremely strong terms and entitled: “If Brown won’t listen, how can we trust him?” She accuses Labour ministers of talking “rubbish” when they say the treaty is just a “tidying up” exercise. And she accuses them of being “disingenuous” or of not having read the treaty:

Trust the people” has been a clarion call down the ages. The results are sometimes unpredictable and sometimes even uncomfortable for politicians, but it is the ultimate bulwark of democracy.

“We the people agree to leave it to you the people who know more than the people” doesn’t have quite the same ring; but that’s what seems to be on offer with the new European Union treaty. The politicians claim that they know best, because it’s all too difficult for voters to understand.

It’s true, a majority of voters do not know the minutiae of the treaty – but then neither do most MPs and ministers. In the same way, not many voters read party manifestos at general elections, but by and large they have a pretty good idea of what’s at stake.

…So the real issue has become one of trust. The Government undermined trust by its original handling of the EU constitution. It should never have pretended that it was just a “tidying up” exercise, and it has continued on a similar line with the new treaty. Well, it was rubbish then and it is rubbish now.

The only way to regain this trust is to return to the original promise: trust the people and let them decide.

The Foreign Secretary and the Minister for Europe have said there is no case for a referendum. Either they are being disingenuous or they have not read the treaty (perhaps because the only official version available so far is in French). I hope that both will use the opportunity for a bit of serious summer reading so that at least one of these alternative explanations for their current assessment can be eliminated by the time Parliament returns to the issue in the autumn.

Such sharp criticism from such an authoritative source is very powerful.

Thanks to an anonymous commenter on my previous post, who asked whether Top Gear actually went to the North Pole.

The co-ordinates shown on their SatNav when they were said to be at the North Pole were: N78˚35’7” W104˚11’9”. Steoroid.com states that, at this “finishing point”, they were 792 miles from the North Pole or 307 miles from the magnetic North Pole:

The North Pole is at N90 latitude, of course, and all the Longitudes at once. What’s the difference? According to the Great Circle Mapper, the difference is 792 miles, or 1275 kilometers. You can see the positions on a map, here.

A-ha, I hear you saying: they must have gone to Magnetic North, then? Yes, I thought of that, but it still doesn’t add up: throughout the program, they always referred to the North Pole: no mention of the word “magnetic” that I can recall, though I could be wrong about that. There’s another problem: they didn’t actually go the North Magnetic Pole.
The latest coordinates I can find for the location of the North Magnetic Pole are those from 2005, which were estimated at 82.7°’N 114°4′W. This is quite a long way from the show’s “North Pole” location: 307 miles, to be exact, according to another Great Circle Map. To be fair, however, the North Magnetic Pole has been near the location they used in the show: in 1994, according to the this map and other historical figures I looked up.

How does that compare to how far they actually went? They started at Resolute, in Nunavut, which is at 74°41′40.27″N 94°50′23.64″W. I know they didn’t go in a straight line, but if they had, another Great Circle Map tells me how far the crow flew: 308 miles.

In other words: their trip to the North Pole took them almost exactly halfway to the North Magnetic Pole.