Suede had already replaces Butler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqovGKdgAXY

Some unknown Flikker in a British Music Video by Suede. Unknown guitarist, sure he's "Electric," and you're a "Film Star" but Bernard Butler plays the riff. Edged out by an Edge. Who's got the edge, the more masculine feminine.

Britpop's truly over now.

Gonzo...

Genuine charities face difficulties. Flyers {leaflets} posted through the average letterbox of the house door bear a misnomer and people can be deceived as to where their charitable donation may go... Honestly, just read this shit below: -

"On 13 July, a flyer was posted through the door of my constituent, Mr Philip Wilson. It simply stated that clothes, shoes, blankets, towels and other such items were urgently needed by Breakthrough Breast Cancer; that Clothman Ltd, which it stated was a commercial participator that helps raise money for Breakthrough, would pick up the bags on Wednesday; and that £100 from each tonne collected would go to the charity. It carried the Breakthrough branding, had a woman pictured on the front, a registered charity company number and website details. It also had a mobile telephone number that you could call for further information.

"The leaflet looked genuine and a normal charity supporter would not doubt it. However, on this occasion the leaflet went through the wrong door-or the right door, depending on how one looks at it. Mr Wilson is mid-Kent's fundraising co-ordinator for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and therefore knew that his charity did not do door-to-door charity collections. He contacted the local council, the trading standards office and the police, but, despite a collection van being stopped mid-act, the operator was allowed to continue for allegedly having the correct registered charity number on the flyer. Of course, the flyer was fake, but the number was legitimate. That incident illustrates the difficulties that genuine charities face.

"I first became acutely aware of bogus charity collections during the summer recess, when BBC South East televised an in-depth undercover investigation, which highlighted a spate of incidents across Kent. That investigation was already under way when Mr Wilson contacted the BBC and, shortly after, he came to my surgery. It has become clear that what happened in Chatham in mid-July has happened and continues to happen daily in streets up and down the country.

"There are two major problems in combating this criminal activity: one, the legislation and, two, the often relaxed attitude of the police. Taking the police response first, I understand that the theft of a single bag of clothes may not seem like a high priority, but when it is estimated that the theft of clothes is in excess of 36,000 tonnes per year, at a cost of more than £14 million to charity, it should be taken more seriously. There are some examples of a good police response. Derbyshire police have recently conducted a successful undercover operation into this specific crime, and other forces have made individual arrests, but usually the attitude of the police is that they face tight budgets and bogus collections are not a key target or high priority.

"The second challenge is the reluctance and/or capability to perform cross-border policing on level 2 or 3 crime. For example, Clothes Aid recently passed over intelligence on a small gang stealing in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex and the Met area, but each force has refused to take the lead because it is "cross-border". That reaction ignores the fact that this is, quite simply, an organised crime, which is cross-county and growing.

"If I may, I shall move on to the legislative aspects. For a charitable collection to take place, a licence must be applied for under the House to House Collections Act 1939 and the House to House Collections Regulations 1947. The Local Government Act 1972 transferred all licensing to the local authority, except in London. Larger charities can apply for a national exemption, but without a licence or an exemption doorstep collection is illegal. Although it is feared that as much as 50% of house-to-house charity collection is bogus, Charity Bags notes that only one in 10,000 illegal clothing collections in the UK is subject to enforcement action or prosecution by the local council.

"In the Charities Act 2006, the previous Government introduced a new licensing and regulatory regime for house-to-house collections, but secondary legislation is required for it to be implemented. I was concerned to read that the Minister and the Charity Commission have publicly stated that they do not believe that to be a priority. Given the effect on public trust and the financial cost for charities, I respectfully disagree, and I suggest that anything that helps combat this organised criminal activity should be a priority. I urge the Minister to introduce secondary legislation at the earliest opportunity. A better licensing system is only one aspect of the changes required to combat the problem. Since most stolen clothing is exported, I would like to see more robust monitoring from border police and better international intelligence communication.

"There needs to be tougher enforcement action against bogus collectors, from the van driver up to the mastermind operator organising the entire ring. The current level of deterrence is laughable, and bogus collectors continue to act with impunity. Consideration needs to be given to whether the bogus operators breach other important legislative and tax requirements, from employment duties through to tax evasion. Finally, the charity industry needs to work together to improve collection codes. I hope all relevant organisations will participate in the consultation on the new code of conduct recently published by the Institute of Fundraising

"House-to-house collections of donated goods are a crucial source of income for many charities-those with and without shops. For example, last year they contributed more than £22 million to the British Heart Foundation for the fight against heart disease, and 43% of sales income came from goods donated through doorstep collections. Age UK raises approximately £25 million per year from charity bags, which accounts for around 60% of the stock sold in their shops.

"Even for the vast majority of charities that do not have shops, house-to-house collections form a massive part of fundraising. Legitimate private collection companies-some of which are better than others-are used to collect on behalf of many charities. Their professional fundraising ability means that companies such as Clothes Aid collect around £2 million per year on behalf of their tied charities.

"Charity bag collections are a convenient way for people to recycle unwanted textiles. Our increasingly busy lifestyles mean that it is hard to find the time to drop clothes into a shop, and, given that shops themselves are often located in pedestrianised areas, it becomes incredibly difficult to make large donations following a spring clean, or a post-diet or a pre-winter wardrobe update. Like millions of people, I put my clothes in a charity bag and pop them outside my door before heading off to work. I do so in good faith, with the belief that they will be put to excellent use and raise vital funds for whichever charity is collecting. Sadly, it appears that that trust can sometimes be misplaced." -

Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford, Conservative);

SOURCE: [ http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2010-10-13a.100.0&s=Intelligence#g100.1 ] ; accessed Sat. 16th Oct., '10

If you've ever been deceivèd it's most likely been due to money. Don't take any addresses down if a "Czech citizen" needs his bus fare back to Prague via Birmingham! I fear for our children. Bring in ID cards worldwide and then we'd know who was genuine.

A Liberal Economy Not Stifled by Aid Means a Way Forward for Africa

Developing nations appear to us as bound together by means of aid. Financial commitments made at the Monterrey Consensus in Mexico, 2002, and more recently at the Doha Declaration in Qatar, 2009, place an emphasis on the mutual accountability of donors and developing nations to each other. At the heart of the matter of the global development agenda, the Millennium Development Goals found agreement by the international community in September 2000. The Millennium Development Goals provide a focus for the outcomes that the developed world wishes to achieve by aid. By 2015, we trust that poverty and hunger will halve itself so that primary education then takes on a universal shape.

But the core problem of poverty in Africa lies within the poorest countries falling behind the countries of the developed world or even falling apart. The focus of the Millennium Development Goals misleads us if 80 per cent of the world’s poor live in countries making progress. The present global economy does not favour what economist Paul Collier of Oxford University calls “the bottom billion” people in the poorest countries of which they live. A state gets weaker and more nondemocratic and incompetent if it exhibits economic decline, dependent on primary commodity exports and exhibits a low per capita income unequal to its distribution.

Aid proves an unambiguous alternative preferable to trade in developing nations. The UK formed a committee to provide "Aid for Trade". In September 2006 Gordon Brown announced that the UK would increase aid for trade to £409 million by the end of this year. Zambian economist, Dambia Moyo, argues that this makes for “dead aid since Western assistance creates a dependency culture.”

Growth requires more than aid in developing nations. According to Andrew Masters, the Economic Advisor for the Department for International Development, a country’s level of development sustains its growth. “Many developing countries experience spurts of growth in the short-run, through net exports, but it also impacts on longer term productivity, through importing machinery and increased competition,” he says.

The Commission on Growth and Development produced a report which found that 13 African economies exhibited sustained growth in the post-war period. They fully integrate into the global trading system as economies that benefit from importing ideas, technology and know-how from the rest of the world and exploit global demand, which provided a deep, elastic market for their goods.

Export competitiveness reduces aid in African countries. Large sums of money can reduce a developing nation’s competitiveness if it leads to inflation. Known as 'Dutch Disease' inflation raises the costs of production that makes a country uncompetitive in relation to others. This problem can manage to find a solution if the right policies apply. The UK does not make aid conditional on any countries adopting specific economic policies. In some cases African countries may adopt poor policies in a place that hurts the value of exports.

According to leading economists, Christopher Adam and Stephen O’Connell, a dollar of donor resources transferred to an aid-recipient country via a donor’s own import liberalization serves as a better medium.

As the world financial crisis increases protectionist tendencies among rich countries it worsens Africa’s access to markets. By the removal of quotas from the imports to Africa, developing nations would not require any restrictions on the quantity they may sell, therefore increasing supply and demand. By the same token, if we exempt developing nations from export tariffs it means they can trade at no extra cost.

The principle objective of trade liberalisation equates to resource reallocation. When the Kenyan government attempted to institute trade liberalisations the resulting aid policy interfered with the exchange rate and compromised free trade. Exchange rate depreciation in the third world shunts up the price of importables. An economic model with no domestic consumption of exportables, no aid interference and the removal of import quotas lowers the price of the importables. In a Kenya-type economy exports capital proves sufficient to finance the demand for imported capital without quotas whereas a pre-reform Ghana-type economy does not possess sufficient funds for any category of import.

Africa desperately needs trade liberalisation to provide the developing world with sustained growth. To assess whether free trade supported by a programme of aid financing can work we must addressed the question: should we arrive at the negotiation of aid levels on purely economic grounds instead of the political and humanitarian grounds by which aid gets administered? The charity of the progressive governments, the targets of the Millennium Development Goals, and the myriad organisations set up to lift Africa out of its abject poverty, cannot provide the sustained growth that Africa requires. Only with a strong economy and state reform can we see the bottom billion begin to sustain themselves.

Eliyahu Nataniyel ben James.

SOURCES:

{1}. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/g20-summit-china-free-trade

{2}. http://info.worldbank.org/etools/wti/docs/Angola_brief.pdf

“Every Woman, Every Child”: New UN Strategy Amied At Improving Health Care For Women and Children.

The health of hundreds of millions of women and children looks set to improve thanks to the launch of a Global Strategy by The United Nations billed as “Every Woman, Every Child.”

In his New York address on Wednesday United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon placed an emphasis on the initiative making childbirth safer. The benefits of the advances that made childbirth safe almost one hundred years ago have yet to reach women in many parts of the world. In some countries one woman in eight dies during childbirth and millions of children die from malnutrition and diseases that have been preventable for decades.

“These realities are simply unacceptable. The twenty-first century must be and will be different. It is time to turn the tide, time to right a historic wrong, time to deliver on the promise of health and a better future, for every woman, every child,” he said.

Through the expansion of access to basic health care, simple blood tests, doctor's advice, immunizations, and the presence of trained birth attendants the inequalities affecting women and children can be addressed.

The Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health provides a clear road map for making the fundamental difference in millions of lives. “Our strategy includes women’s empowerment,” he said, “Women must lead the way, because by empowering women we empower societies.”

Not satisfied with a piecemeal approach he calls for a broad partnership between governments, international organizations, business, researchers, philanthropists, health professionals and the civil society. “We all have a role to play and we must provide the resources.”

The investment in women's and children's health has a multiplier effect across the Millennium Development Goals (the Global Action Plan to reduce poverty) and the UN leader believes that this shall be “the most powerful investment for developing our economies, our communities and our societies.”

Don't talk about politics or religion...

They're one of my favourite bands. Horse of the Dog is easily their best elbum! The In The Garden EP was good but it marks a departure from the eponymous and serves as a prelude to as to whether the second major LP was an anti-climax but The Royal Society proves to be consistent and is definitely a grower. I'm listening to the new album Blood and Fire now just trying to make sure if they've still got that original thing that they possessed when Horse of the Dog came out? Nevertheless, they have been compared to the Cramps which is a good estimation and you would hope that they wouldn't be lumped into the 'rip-off' category cause they are great as their own entity! :D

{They're all the equivalent of enemy propaganda}

UN Security Council

The British Foreign Secretary has welcomed the move to induct India, Brazil, Germany and Japan into the United Nations Security Council, saying: "this [the UK] Government will be at the forefront of those arguing for the expansion of the UN Security Council." His counterpart in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Henry Bellingham, has added: "The [UK] Government consider that the Security Council needs to be reformed to ensure it is more representative of the modern world whilst no less effective in taking necessary decisions."

SOURCES:

[1]. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2010-09-07a.13244.h&s=Foreign+Policy#g13244.q0

Chaos Oil Spill Chaos

Igor Mezic, a scientist at the University of California Santa Barbara devised a method that calculates the movement oil predictively as in the case of the Deepwater Horizon debacle.

"We predicted where the oil was going to go," says Mezic, who studies fluid dynamics. "We were able to do 3-day predictions pretty accurately."

Associates from the software development company, Aimdyn Inc. and NASA's Stennis Space Center described how they predicted the movement of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20.

The theory was accurately proved as the predictions Mezic and his colleagues made were manifested when oil washed ashore in the Mississippi River Delta and later, on the white-sand beaches of Pensacola, Florida, and they forecast that the spill would then move east toward Panama City Beach. Their predictions were accurate to within a couple of miles of the actual extent of the spill which was later assessed by aerial surveys.

Mezic's new approach to the problem bases itself on computations describing how slicks of oil tend to be stretched into filaments by motion at the sea surface. To produce predictions of oil movement after the Deepwater Horizon accident, the researchers incorporated forecasts of sea surface conditions from a U.S. Navy model.

The approach, says Mezic: "could be applied to many different kinds of situations where a contaminant or heat is moved around by a liquid or gas." Further refinements of this new methodology could be done in order to predict the spread of many other contaminants such as ash spewed out of an erupting volcano or warm air seeping into a climate-controlled building. [1]

The bill for cleaning up the oil spill has reached the largest amount in American history, a figure no less than $8bn and is still approximately two weeks from being sealed up for good.

Because of the oil rig explosion on April 20th and the environmental disaster it has triggered BP has been forced to abandon hopes of drilling in the Arctic. [2]

BP's targets for expanded production have become tougher to achieve following the oil spill, and its financial performance has suffered from higher costs such as fines.

The major challenge that has faced BP in the wake of the spill has been the diversion of vessels from other fields thus dislocating its drilling plans and knocking them off schedule.

The moratorium imposed by Barack Obama on new deepwater drilling has also slowed development plans at BP and across the entire industry. Even when the oil spill has been dealt with and the drilling moratorium can be lifted BP's damaged reputation is likely to mean more scrutiny from regulators than other companies, analysts have said. This means it will likely take longer than it would have expected in the past to bring fields to production. [3]

SOURCES:

[1] http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/uoc--nms082710.php

[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/03/oil-well-sealed-bp

[3] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65267920100603

Image Source: http://climatelab.org/Deepwater_Horizon_Oil_Spill

The Information Age; Internet Usage

The amount of people who access the Internet in the United Kingdom has almost doubled from 16.5 million in 2006 to 30.1 million in 2010. This accounts for 60% of the British population: "Internet use is linked to various socio-economic and demographic indicators, such as age, location, marital status and education... The most popular products bought online [are] clothes and sporting goods, with 52 per cent of Internet shoppers buying these products." - The Office for National Statistics (UK) [1].

Is the Internet changing the way we think? Plato said: "The technology of writing would destroy the art of remembering..."

So, what is happening to our collective memory since everything has become accessible and in 'hot storage'? "The claim that we're now thinking less well is much more suspect. If we've lost something by not reading 10 books on one subject, we've probably gained as much by being able to link together ideas easily from 10 different disciplines," says novelist, Naomi Alderman [2].

Consider the Father-of-the-Thought, who says (to paraphrase):

"[The creation of a network of information shall be a labour-saving device... ] a wire-heated brilliant glow... " - Vannevar Bush [3].

As more-and-more people are accessing the Internet, the next statistical analysis to be undertaken is how much labour is actually being saved by this device.

SOURCES:

[1] http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=8
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/15/internet-brain-neuroscience-debate
[3] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/

Img: [ http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/suporgli.html ]

Extensive Review (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)

Minister Mike Gapes (MP for Ilford South) has asked the Department of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the policy shall be towards the investigation of the death of Alexander Litvinenko and requested a statement as to the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi. Jeremy Browne (MP for Taunton Deane) has stated that since the Crown Prosecution Service has announced that it finds a case for Andrei Lugovoy to answer, he remains liable for prosecution in the UK for the murder of Mr Litvinenko.[1] Alexander Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and died from poisoning in 2006.[2,3]

Andrew Gywnne (MP for MP for Denton/Reddish) has asked the Department of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessments have been made of the effectiveness of the Department's policy of exploring contacts with Hezbollah. Alistair Burt (MP for North East Bedfordshire) has stated that The British Embassy in Beirut holds very limited contacts with Hezbollah politicians. This issue, along with a wider Lebanon policy shall be considered for review.[4] The Guardian reported on the 9th of July 2010, that William Hague (Foreign Secretary) had censored a Foreign Office blog-post that had praised the death of the Hezbollah mentor, Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.[5]

Daniel Kawczynski (MP for Shrewsbury/Atcham) has asked the Department of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what aims and objectives the Government has set for UK foreign policy on Kazakhstan. "We want to strengthen our relationship with Kazakhstan. Energy security and supplies, together with the corresponding trade and investment opportunities [happen-to-be] particularly important ... We [shall] work to enhance co-operation ... through language and vocational education links and on nuclear counter-proliferation issues. We [shall] also continue to work closely with Kazakhstan on the broader international agenda. Not least through Kazakhstan's important role this year as chairman-in-office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). We [shall] continue to encourage and support Kazakhstan to meet the human rights and political standards to which it [has been] committed as a member of organisations such as the UN and the OSCE," replies the aforementioned Mr. Browne of Taunton Deane.[6] Minister for Europe David Lidington, who took part in an informal meeting of OSCE Foreign Ministers (16 and 17 July, 2010) near Almaty, said that he was particularly pleased to visit Kazakhstan to reconfirm the strength of the bilateral relationship in such areas as business, energy, healthcare, education, agriculture and financial and legal services.[7]



SOURCES :

[1]. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2010-07-19a.8776.h&s=Foreign+Policy#g8776.q0;

[2]. Penketh, Anne (25 November 2006). "Alexander Litvinenko". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/alexander-litvinenko-425720.html. Retrieved 16 March 2010. (Archived at WebCite);

[3]. "In Memoriam Aleksander Litvinenko." Dir. Jose De Putter. VPRO Backlight, 2007. Documentary.[1] }

[4]. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2010-07-19a.8590.h&s=Foreign+Policy#g8590.q0;

[5]. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/09/foreign-office-blog-lebanon-hezbollah-fadlallah;

[6]. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2010-07-19a.8895.h&s=Foreign+Policy#g8895.q0;

[7]. http://ukinkz.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=22554305;

All Sources accessed via online URL as of today's date.

200th day of the Tens

In the wake of the Cork Week Regatta
A woman has been found alive
After being stranded in the sea
Forty Five Miles North West
Off the Isles of Scilly.

An overboard signal was sent from the yacht 'Jaguar Logic' to another yacht 'Buchaneer'

The call came through at 1am this morning, on Monday the 19th of July, scrambled by RAF Chivenor requesting the launch of Sennen and St Marys RNLI lifeboats. According to the Falmouth coastguard several vessels had to be employed in order to find the missing person.

Neil Oliver, Falmouth Coastguard Watch Manager said: “We were pleased to say that the woman had been found alive and uninjured alongside the vessel ‘Jeese Louise’. She had been winched from the water and airlifted to Treliske Hospital. We were particularly relieved to have found her since she had been in the sea for two hours, was not wearing a lifejacket and sea conditions were fairly rough.”

It has become known that Jeese Louise was on its way back home following the Cork Week regatta.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency advises those who set to sea to always remember to: get trained; wear a lifejacket; avoid alcohol; take a method of communication with you; and check the weather and tides.

[SOURCE: http://nds.coi.gov.uk//content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=414516&SubjectId=2]

La Nouvelle su Jour

104th day o'the Tens!

The elected depends on the 'Generosity of the Public Mind'. As having a disability that has been not only questionable to myself but also to others in what can be legitimately classed as mental illness and the question as to whether society should care for those less fortunate is answered by my treatment under the Labour Government of the last decade. After ten years battling with the illness and therefore striving for a measure of well-being only now have I found a suitable treatment that affords me a quality of life and means I can begin to contribute to society. The Generosity of the Public Mind has allowed me this grace and has only been made possible under the Labour Government. The day I realised that I was going to vote labour in the May elections this year was when I spoke to a young homeless woman who revealed that she would be allowed to claim housing benefit from the temporary address of a hostel in order to find her feet. The most destitute may never be able to contribute to society in a way that is economically profitable but the fact that they are part of a society means that it is that society's responsibility to care for them. Those who are subject to illness, poverty, or are by circumstance completely destitute should not be regarded as taking advantage of the Generosity of the Public Mind, for it is in the interest of such a social concept to give with no thought of return to those who are unable to pay it back. The expenses scandal, however, I fear is reproachable by the Public Mind whose generosity may be scaled back in the interests of social darwinism under a potential Conservative government. For all the hyperbole of the election campaigning we should remember the golden rule for rightly dividing a politicians word of truth: is what is being promised based on what is morally true, or is it factually true? We need to be certain that what we are being told can be credibly backed up and followed through. The Generosity of the Public Mind belongs to the conscientious while the apathetic and uninformed shall allow the few to rule the many and known. But when the many and the known consitute a body marginalised, do we really need a government who will marginalise them further?

back to Media Law & Policy revision!

La Nouvelle su Jour?

76th day o'the Tens!

(I wish I'd never spoke to Dali in my dream, he's got some serious issues)

Just to reiterate what commentator Charles Davies is saying about the BBC cuts. At first, horrified that Youth Programming would be lost is the ideal compromise if BBC need to cut expenditures to resist a Murdoch-monopoly. We wouldn't want to complicate Public Service Broadcasting with interference from News Corp. should they buckle under financial constraints.

All hail, Alem! L'regle d'Poete et l'loi.

In preparation for trying these hands as a poet in the West Bank the most interesting mediator of a deity will present herself there, for sure. Mutaqqah-at (or, as known to Ishmael) is the untranslatable. What else but music? If you can imagine your conversation as a Piano Roll, a complex series of geomantic dots-and-lines would fall before your eyes, punctuated by the Arabic Script of Alif, Laam, Miim - the three mystical letters that have baffled scholars since the beginning. What is great about Muhammad is that because his writings are over 800 years old, there's no copyright. Imagine the delight of copywright with this insight!

Why a deity? Alif, Laam, Miim when translated from Arabic to Hebrew means exactly that! Very marketable ©Elijah Nathaniel James (see date on this blog post... MINE, MINE, MINE,

aLL mINE!

On Venables...

75th day o'the Tens

Best England manager of the time. FA, literally, fuck all without the figurehead. The way he got Beckham & Gascoigne linking up was the most exciting field display since Sir Bobby (Terry being a close second to).

As journalists we are faced with a crisis of conscience, in the first instance a moral dilemma of what we can present and whether its presentation serves the Public Interest. Then we have to ask ourselves the question, in such an intimate manner that it feels invasive, that to entertain another's evil has a knock-on effect of contrition. It is an assumption of guilt, not in reference to our own morality as opinion-formers, but for the crime itself. *He must have no conscience!* if the allegations against Jon Venables prove to be founded. They must first pass through the Courts of Law unhindered before the Public Sphere is allowed to form its judgment but my heart goes out to those privelaged few journalists who may already know the particular truth.

Do we face a crisis of conscience in the presence of one who may not?

I sincerely hope so since once the proceedings are conclusive the judgment will be transferred to a Collective Moral Conscience (the general public).

Union members may be divided by two extremes of which my colleagues share. The most obvious is retribution. "Chop his balls off" - a view that is held by our left shoulder angel and one that is countered by our right side, which says: "would you chop off the hand of a thief?" Surely it begs the question: what is being robbed in this instance?

The accused has a right to life afforded by the European Convention of Human Rights, a right to life guaranteed by anonymity, but if the accused forfeits these rights then the Public Sphere has the right to retribution of which I am of accord. For to make it a moral dilemma would amount to the countenancing of the most heinous of crimes but to rush a judgment, especially one sensationalised by The Spectacle, was-to-be prejudice. Hence the reason Jack Straw defends the law.

And so, retribution was-to-be the likely opinion forming in the Public Sphere (especially in light of The Sun newspaper's revelations) yet this prejudice is contradicted by the crisis of conscience that must be at least felt by those who already know the truth should they experience it in their endeavour to be objective. When it becomes a matter of collective responsibility and the admission to what a human being is capable of, played out in front of our eyes, we all fall victim to a conscience crisis.

The judge will bring down the hammer before a jury deciding the fate of one but the argument that will ensue ensures the fate of all.