Very cool..........

Just Finished Reading: 1848 – Year of Revolution by Mike Rapport (FP: 2008)

Until I embarked on my recent foray into European history I had heard about much of it, at least in passing, but knew little of the detail. Until very recently this was the state of things regarding the continent wide series of revolts that shock Europe in the year 1848. I knew they had happened but I had no idea what caused them, what actually happened or what the consequences where. Well, I am most definitely no longer ignorant on these counts. My only regret in reading this substantial looking (at just over 400 pages) volume is that I took so long to read it. I have to say that it left me stunned with its breadth, detail, explanatory power and majestic quality. More than once I almost read this open mouthed with amazement, both at the events described and the brilliance of those descriptions. It is not often that you can call a book of European political history gripping but this is certainly one example.

Anyway, as to the story itself. Ever since the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the continent had only seemed to be at peace. From time to time revolts and insurrections broke out and where, on the whole, brutally repressed. But something, it seemed was building in the background. 30 years later the powder keg, so carefully constructed by political and economic forces by and large ignored by the powerful and wealthy ignited first in Paris (where else!) and then, as news arrived in other parts, across the Habsburg Empire. At first the response was typical of all authoritarian regimes – send in the army. But cut-backs and lack of political will failed to quell things as quickly as expected and, as to surprise to the revolutionaries themselves, the great and the good paused and began to worry. For a moment the Empire itself stumbled and looked, at least for a while, as if it would fall into chaos. The revolutionaries took heart and the revolt spread, from country to country, province to province. Political careers and political parties emerged from nowhere and became movements and ideologies – Socialism and Communism amongst them.

Two countries, or actually aspiring countries, saw their chance and to a greater or lesser degree pushed for unification. Both Italy and Germany began their long and rocky journey towards the states they are today. Both journeys where incredibly complex and I thought where defining moments in the book as I grappled with the forces that gave birth to both countries decades later. Fortunately the author really knew his stuff and guiding my sometimes aching brain through the labyrinthine pathways and innumerable names (a few of which I recognised from somewhere) of those involved in revolution, counter revolution and oppression. I fully intend to follow up these individual stories in even more detail later.

After the initial shock of the continental revolt wore off and the inevitable infighting between the revolutionary and reforming parties started (which I read with great sadness and much shaking of head) the forces of reaction fought back. When initial victories went their way they redoubled their efforts and managed to splinter many of the forces ranged against them – being made up, as they were, of both military and political novices. Within the year the inevitable sad reality hit home. The revolutions, started with such verve and such hope, had failed. Not completely and not to the same extent everywhere but the highest hopes and the strongest demands had not been met. After the great initial earthquake the aftershocks hardly disturbed the ruling elite’s sleep – until 1914 that is when the chickens released in 1848 came very much back to roost.

If things had gone differently in 1848 and Serbia in particular had managed to gain independence, or even some sort of acceptable autonomy, would have a revolutionary band have planned the assassination of the Arch duke? If 1848 had been a success in revolutionary terms would the world have collapsed into conflict in 1914 finally destroying the Habsburg Empire that still stood, weakened but functioning, after the revolts had been so brutally supressed? Did the events of 1848 define the world in the 20th century? These are indeed interesting questions and if you want to move towards answering them then I heartily recommend you read this fascinating, gripping and superbly constructed work of political history.

Cartoon Time.

The Facebook Generation in a Nutshell.

My Favourite Movies: A Very Long Engagement

When we saw the trailer for this I think I probably decided to see it on the basis that it starred Audrey Tautou. That seemed a fair reason I’d have to say as she’s, well, pretty amazing.

The story is suitably French – in other words complex and quirky. It revolved around orphan and polio sufferer Mathilde (Tautou) whose childhood friend, and now lover Manech (played by Gaspard Ulliel) is drafted into the French army in the closing years of WW1. Traumatised by the conflict he decides the easiest way out is to be injured in combat and contrives being shot by a sniper. Accused of cowardice in the face of the enemy he, along with four other soldiers, are forced to spend the night in No-Man’s Land in the expectation that the Germans will do the executions for them. This is exactly what Mathilde is told but refuses to accept that her lover is dead.

With the war now over, no further news of Manech and with life returning to normal her adopted parents (played marvellously by Dominique Pinon and Chantal Neuwirth) expect Mathilde to move on with her life. However, she is determined to find out exactly what happened on that fateful day and begins tracking down other soldiers who shared her lover’s trench. Their individual stories and viewpoints begin to weave together the pattern that first gives Mathilde hope that her fiancé survived only to have others relate how he died either from a German aircraft machine gunning his location or during the subsequent artillery bombardment. If that wasn’t complicated enough the private detective she hires (again played superbly by Ticky Holgado) discovers that a number of potential witnesses have been murdered by an unknown woman. Digging deeper into the mystery Mathilde realises that a parallel investigation is taking place, not to discover the truth but to exact revenge for one of the soldiers casually killed by his own side in No Man’s Land. His lover, Tina Lombardi (played brilliantly by Marion Cotillard in, I think, the first movie I saw her in) is determined to follow the chain of command of all those involved up to the President himself in the cause of Sicilian retribution.

Of course this brief synopsis doesn’t do this movie justice or anywhere close. The acting throughout is brilliant, the plot is complex but reasonably easy to follow if you keep your eye on the ball. The cinematography is breath-taking and evocative of the era with an almost sepia feel to it. The combat scenes are brutal and uncompromising though probably nowhere near as brutal as the real thing. Of course Tautou stands head and shoulders above everyone else, at least for me, but the ensemble cast are most definitely not there to make up the numbers. Even actors who might only get a few moments screen time and say very little (if anything) seemed to be full of life and have histories stretching back in time and off screen if only the camera had turned towards them earlier. More than once it felt that we, the audience, where intruding on small private scenes from real life.

I think I’ve seen this four or maybe five times since it came out in 2004. I’m actually torn between wanting to watch it again and again because it’s just so bloody good and the fear that repeat watching will take away some of its brilliance. Then there’s the emotional load. Every time I’ve seen this film I have cried at the end. Just writing this review, right now, I can feel me welling up. Yes, it’s really that emotional. After two hours of searching and hoping you really want Mathilde to find Manech and put an end to their very, very long engagement. But you’ll have to watch the movie to find out how that happens – just have some tissues ready.  

Cartoon Time.

'Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.The more experiments we make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.'

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

If only..................

Low oxygen 'delayed animal life on Earth'

By Melissa Hogenboom for BBC News

30 October 2014


There's been much debate about why animals took so long to evolve and thrive on Earth. Now scientists say it was due to incredibly low levels of oxygen on Earth more than a billion years ago. A team determined the chemical composition of ancient rocks to find there was about 0.1% of the oxygen levels present compared with today. The researchers present their work in Science journal.

Why complex life took so long to appear on the scene has puzzled scientists for many years. It was only over 500 million years ago that life on Earth began to flourish in a period known as the Cambrian explosion. For the one billion years before that, in an era called the mid-Proterozoic, though life was present it consisted of very simple organisms. These creatures were able to survive on very low levels of oxygen, but more complex life could not.

The idea that oxygen was far too low for animals to evolve before this period had been around for a long time, explained one of the lead authors of the study, Noah Planavsky of Yale University's Department of Geology and Geophysics. "Our research now shows empirical evidence for a surface oxygen level that would have inhibited animal evolution. I had a hunch, which is why I went looking for this and I was surprised that my hunch was actually right, it doesn't usually pan out that well," he told BBC News. Scientists know that genetic innovations combined with the right environmental conditions were key to the evolution of all animals, from early marine arthropods to dinosaurs and eventually humans. But the role that oxygenation played in controlling the timing of the evolutionary biological events is heavily debated. "The question is not which one of those happened, they both had to have happened. What we showed is that soon after environments in which oxygen levels were high enough for animals to thrive, the genetic innovation that allowed them to emerge happened," Dr Planavsky said. The team analysed the chromium levels - a geochemical signature - of rock sediments from Australia, Canada, China, and the United States. This allowed them to understand how much oxygen would have been present.

They found a change in the chemical components of the rocks occurred about 800 million years ago, a period when oxygen levels began to rise rapidly, already documented by previous research. Simon Poulton, a geochemist at the University of Leeds, commented that the authors of the research had used a powerful approach that built upon previous ideas about how atmospheric oxygenation could be tracked. "Rather than taking a sledgehammer approach, the authors have been very careful about which samples they have chosen to analyse - focusing on the same type of samples from similar settings across Earth history. If correct, the very low levels of oxygen found in this study would have provided a major restriction on early animal evolution, thus suggesting that it was indeed a rise in oxygen that ultimately stimulated the evolution of our earliest animal ancestors," he added. But he cautioned that it was difficult to put a precise value on oxygen levels from rocks deposited more than a billion years ago. "So the problem is far from solved, but this is a major step forward and I am sure that this will spark many further studies as the record is still far from complete - this study incorporates just a few analyses across a huge period of Earth history," Prof Poulton told the BBC.

Another researcher was more critical of the study and said the role of oxygen was overstated. Nicholas Butterfield of Cambridge University's department of Earth Sciences said: "All geochemistry is drawn from marine rocks, it's not directly measuring the atmosphere. The reason it took so long for animals to appear on the scene is it took an extraordinary long time to assemble the extraordinarily complex developmental machinery that builds even a simple animal. It's the most complex recipe that evolution has ever derived."

Well, I do have a long Christmas break coming up....!

Just Finished Reading: Coming Home by Roy E Stolworthy (FP: 2012)

Yorkshire, 1916. On the eve of his induction into the British army Archie Elkin is accidentally killed by his younger brother Thomas in a pointless argument. In a panic, with images of the hangman dogging his every move and every thought Thomas conceals the body and stages his own disappeared in a nearby quarry swimming hole. Taking his brothers place and vowing to die a hero to atone for his crime Thomas joins the hundreds of troops bound for France and the Western Front lines. Hoping and planning to die within days of his arrival he is continually denied a heroes death only seemingly deflecting bullets to those around him instead. As his frustration builds Thomas puts himself in increasingly dangerous situations hoping for a bullet to end his torment. Fate it seems has other ideas. Promoted for his seeming heroism in No-Man’s Land, Thomas is put in charge of a group of men given almost impossible tasks and expected to carry them out no matter the cost. Torn between the responsibility to his men and his deep desire for a meaningful death in his brother’s name Thomas must decide exactly what he wants to do with his young life before he becomes accountable for even more of the deaths he witnesses every day in the Hell that is the French killing fields.

I’ve been looking forward to this book for ages – since I bought it many months ago. It certainly seemed just the thing – the character of Thomas (only 15 years old at the start of the story) seemed interesting complex and the plot seemed to be a solid one. But I started having misgivings early on. For one thing I couldn’t quite get into the novel. There was something, although I wasn’t sure what, that kept me from becoming engrossed in the story or the main character. Something seemed….. off. Part of it was Thomas’s anger and other emotional outbursts. OK, he was 15 in 1916 from a poor farming background but his immaturity really, really grated on me. As did his apparent sexual innocence. He’s a FARM boy, so I’d expect him to know more about sex than most city boys of that age. I found the descriptions of the Western Front to be less than convincing. We had the trenches, the wire, the mud – all of the expected elements but I really don’t think it rained that much, for that long. The soldiers themselves – even the new recruits I found to be far too cynical and felt more like Vietnam vets rather than British Tommies. I don’t think that ‘fragging’ or equivalent actually happened all that often if at all. The folks back home – in London in particular – seemed to be far too modern (rather than effectively Victorian/Edwardian) especially in their attitudes towards sex. Basically I just didn’t believe in the characters, the places or the action – at all really. Everything seemed, in an almost indefinable way, wrong. It was as if someone had tried to construct a story based on a cursory examination of the real events of WW1 whilst subconsciously mixing in scenes from 80’s war movies and anachronistic uses of phrases that the author may have heard in the context of the war (like the phrase lions led by donkeys which, I think, only became currency afterwards). I certainly don’t hold myself up as an expert on the conflict – far from it – so I could be completely wrong here but I just found too much of the book to be completely unbelievable. Which is a shame really as I was actually looking forward to reading this a great deal. Reluctantly not recommended.

Cartoon Time.

Like something out of a Geology text book.....

Just Finished Reading: Travels with Epicurus – Meditations from a Greek Island on the Pleasures of Old Age by Daniel Klein (FP: 2012)

As I’m slowly approaching 60 – one day at a time – I’m inevitably thinking about old age, so the idea of the ‘pleasures’ of old age certainly intrigued me in the title. Pleasure? Really? I thought that all I had to ‘look forward to’ was increasing decrepitude followed by slow death….. OK, only partially kidding!

Anyway, I do feel that I have a vested interest in knowing, or at least appreciating, what’s coming, hence books like this (no doubt this sort of thing will be increasing in the, hopefully many, years ahead). The author, I quickly discovered, is not afraid to go against the flow – that prevailing belief that 60 is the new 40, that with the appropriate surgery, drugs, diet and exercise regime, we can run marathons into our 90’s and die whilst having sex with a beautiful 50 year old who looks like they’re 35. It’s the culture of bucket lists – the more adventurous and extreme the better – and grey power. In other words a culture in deep, very deep, denial about its fear of death – AKA our culture. Rather refreshingly the author will have none of it. Old age, maturity, is something to be savoured rather than avoided. It is something to achieve rather than put off for ever (if such a thing were possible!)

The vantage point of Old Age gives perspective on the folly of youth – and even more so on the folly of eternal youth. It allows you to slow down, not least because you have too, and savour the moment, to watch the sunset just because you can, the enjoy your meal rather than bolting it down because there’s three more things to tick off your bucket list before bedtime. Old age allows you time to sit and think, to ponder, to remember and reminisce, to converse with friends old and new to, rather paradoxically, take time to do things at their own pace without the crack of the metaphorical whip pushing you onto the next task and the one after that. Old age, the author contends, allows for companionship without the requirement of wanting or needing anything from the other people, but their time and their words or even just their presence and their companionable silence.

Approaching the end of life, like hanging in the morning, tends to concentrate the mind on the important things – not your position in the company hierarchy or how much money you have in the bank or what passes for achievement in this day and age. You focus, the author contends, less on what you are (or where) and more on who you are. You also let go of things too – and not just ambition. Surprisingly, at least to me, the author celebrated the decline of lust as a positive thing – basically no longer being at the whim of chemicals swimming about in your bloodstream. I suppose he was saying that, at long last, you are in place where it’s peaceful rather than subject to whatever your glands have in mind for you (just to mix up my metaphors and bodily parts a bit there). Oh, you can still appreciate beauty, it’s just that you don’t feel the need to do anything about it! Honestly, I did fall about laughing at this point though I did find myself almost, almost mind, nodding sagely…

As seems to be the way of things these days talk about death inevitably leads to God who is rejected for a more Secular (in some senses at least) Buddhist-lite approach to things – mindfulness and such like. This it seems to me is the modern western acceptable face of spirituality without all that messy religion stuff. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t really feel the need to fill the ‘gap’ left by a belief in God with some cobbled together ‘spirituality’ to ease the pain and the fear that creeps up on you in old age. But, as they say, whatever gets you through the night etc… Apart from a few wobbles like this I did find the book interesting, refreshing in many ways, and it did honestly give me a lot to think about. As I get older I might even read it again to see if my views change as I approach that dark night… Recommended.

Cartoon Time.

25 Years ago today!

'He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living from hand to mouth.'

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Planet formation captured in photo

By Jonathan Webb for BBC News

6 November 2014

The clearest ever image of planets forming around an infant star has been taken by the Alma radio telescope. In a vast disc of dust and gas, dark rings are clearly visible: gaps in the cloud, swept clear by brand new planets in orbit. The sun-like star at the centre, HL Tau, is less than a million years old and is 450 light years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. The image was made possible by Alma's new high-resolution capabilities. Because the process of planet formation takes place in the midst of such a huge dust cloud, it can't be observed using visible light. Alma, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, has snapped the impressive new image using much longer wavelengths, which it detects by comparing the signal from multiple antennas up to 15km apart. To test out its latest high-resolution capability, only in operation since September, Alma scientists pointed the antennas at HL Tau. They found themselves looking at a "protoplanetary disc" in more detail than ever before. "When we first saw this image we were astounded at the spectacular level of detail," said Dr Catherine Vlahakis, a senior member of the Alma team. "HL Tau is no more than a million years old, yet already its disc appears to be full of forming planets."

Prof Tim de Zeeuw is director general of the European Southern Observatory, one of several organisations involved in Alma. He said: "Most of what we know about planet formation today is based on theory. Images with this level of detail have up to now been relegated to computer simulations or artist's impressions." Dr Aprajita Verma, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford, said the picture was "phenomenal". "This shows how exciting Alma is going to be - it's going to be an incredible instrument." She said the new data was especially interesting because the star HL Tau is very young. "I think the big result is that you might have expected just a smooth disc," Dr Verma told the BBC. "But you're really seeing multiple rings - and where it's darker, that's where you've cleared the material already in the disc."

The whole process is happening faster than we would have predicted from existing data, Dr Verma explained. "It means that things are coagulating. It's really a planetary system, that you're seeing at a very early time. These rings will form planets, asteroids, comets... And eventually as the star evolves, this will cool and settle and there will be more clearing and more individual objects, just like we see in our solar system."

[So planets have started forming in LESS than a million years? I think that the only response to this is open mouthed amazement coupled with jumping up and down in excitement. If they form this quickly there has to be many, many billions of planets out there – and as I’ve said many times before, more planets mean more environments for life to emerge into. Planet formation appears to be a pretty run-of-the-mill standard process. Nothing special, nothing surprising, nothing truly amazing to see here. Just come back in a few billion years and introduce yourself to the new inhabitants….]

Wrap up Warm kids.... Winter is Coming!

Just Finished Reading: The Unfree French – Life under the Occupation by Richard Vinen (FP: 2006)

What would you do if your traditional enemy had over run your countries defences and where moving to a swift and decisive victory? Run? Where to? Friends in the country? Just away from the fighting? Would you stay in the hope that the enemy would pass you by on the way to bigger prizes? Would you hide and hope? Would you make yourself useful and welcoming – in other words Collaborate? Or would you run, hide and then come back to fight? Or would you hope that you can just get on with your life under the Occupation merely serving different masters?

These are just some of the questions the author tries to answer as he shows how French society bent to and adapted to the four yearlong German Occupation between 1940 and 1944. France capitulated to the Blitzkrieg after only 6 weeks, her forces in disarray, and her politicians in shock at the incredibly swift enemy advance. French soldiers were told to surrender and did so in droves fully expecting to be on their way home within days or weeks after the armistice. For many this was not to be and many stayed in camps or working in German farms and factories until the end of the war. Meanwhile civilians either continued as before – with, in effect, different tax collectors – or were shipped off to factories deeper in the Reich while their own country was asset stripped. For a while at least the semi-autonomous region known as Vichy (because of the new de facto political ‘capital’) retaining a kind of normality and many who could not or would not stay in the northern occupied area fled there.

Gradually accommodations where made – Germans were housed amongst French families, conversations took place, relationships and babies often followed. Some even fought for and with the Germans on the Eastern Front against their joint enemy – Communism. Then, inevitably, they came for the Jews, for the politicals, for the undesirables. Some French happily gave them up or assisted in their capture. Others hid them, helped them escape and generally obstructed their capture even before it became obvious what was happening to them. People had to eat and restrictions brought on by the Occupation brought with them opportunities for profit – both from the general population and from the Germans themselves. Everyone, it seemed, used the Black Market at some point in their lives.

Then gradually at first came resistance and opposition. At first uncoordinated and naïve but later better planned and increasingly effective. Taking all kinds of forms from direct action attacks to underground newspapers, to assisting in the return of downed airmen, sabotage and passive resistance and later intelligence gathering for the Allies as Liberation approached the idea of Resistance became a part of French national pride.

Despite being somewhat academic in places and dry in others this was still a fascinating insight to a nation living under a pervasively brutal occupation that affected the lives of everyone no matter their level of contact with German soldiers or their level of involvement with or against the Occupation authorities. It was often a sobering read and often presented me with the question – only sometimes articulated by the author – of what I would have done in these circumstances. Thankfully I never had to find out, luckily being born into a generation that has never experienced this sort of thing. If you want an idea of what it was like for the people who did actually live through this desperate time then this book is a definite place to start. Recommended.

One more book on the Occupation coming up – this one dealing with the long anticipated Liberation!

Cartoon Time.

My Favourite Movies: Across The Universe

I don’t think I’d heard about this movie until we caught the trailer at our local Multiplex. We watched as Jim Sturgess sang on a lonely beach and CQ and I turned to each other and said “Yes, we need to see this” and we did, at least twice and possibly three times. I also bought the DVD the day it came out and also picked up the soundtrack before that.

The story is a pretty standard boy meets girl, boy loses girl and boy gets girl back. Sturgess plays Jude, a Liverpool dock worker searching for his American GI father. Sailing to the US he discovers that all is not as expected but in the process bumps into Max (played by Joe Anderson) who takes Jude home to see his family for Thanksgiving. Enter Lucy (played by the drop dead gorgeous Evan Rachel Wood) Max’s sister who Jude falls for almost at first sight. When Max drops out of Princeton Jude accompanies him to New York and becomes part of the emerging Hippy scene there. Meanwhile Lucy’s boyfriend is killed in Vietnam and Max is drafted. Without giving too much of the story away the film follows the main characters through the turbulent 60’s with race riots, Vietnam protests, student unrest, drug culture and everything we’re now familiar with when the 1960’s are mentioned. But the clever thing – apart from superb acting all round – is the fact that the whole interweaving story is held together by Beatles songs – and not just as a background soundtrack either.

All of the cast sing and are pretty good at it too. Sturgess does a creditable Liverpool accent which, although a little put on at times, at least had the advantage of being consistent throughout the film even when he got angry. Not only did some cast member sing on stage – in particular Dana Fuchs as Sadie and the amazing Martin Luther as Jo-Jo – but other would burst into song to explain their emotional state or to move the story along. There are even several impressively choreographed dance numbers (most memorable for me early on in a bowling alley) and later on some impressive drug induced fantasy episodes. One thing that struck me early on was a set piece song by T V Carpio (playing a character called Prudence – who at one point came in through the bathroom window which had me in stitches) who, singing ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ as a High School cheerleader surprised us both by being revealed as being a lesbian love song. After the initial surprise – we thought she was originally singing about one of the Football players – we both burst out laughing and fell in love with the interpretation which, in my opinion as both a Liverpudlian and a Beatles fan, was better than the original. 

You probably don’t have to be a Beatles fan to enjoy the movie but it would probably help – not only because of the 20+ Beatles songs scattered throughout the film but also to the numerous Beatles references from character names, nods to Beatles emblems (Apple in particular), lyrics and song titles used as part of normal conversation and much besides. Made by people who obviously have a great love of the era and the music that made it so special this is a stunning film with good acting, great music, political comment (it was the 60’s after all) and, as if it needed anything else, a solid storyline. Personally I loved it (as did my friend CQ) and could quite happily watch it a hundred times and still enjoy it as much each time…. And I’m not just saying that because I’m from Liverpool.

Cartoon Time.

Ah, the early 1970's............... (probably).

Italy 'to continue migrant rescues in Mediterranean' Accessibility 

From The BBC

28 October 2014

The Italian navy says it will continue search and rescue missions for migrants in the Mediterranean in parallel with an EU operation starting on Saturday. The navy has been picking up migrants in an operation called Mare Nostrum off the Libyan coast for a year. But this year has seen a surge of migrant boats heading for Europe and at least 3,000 migrants have drowned.

A new EU's operation, Triton, will have only a third of Mare Nostrum's budget, raising concern about future rescues. Triton will focus on border control - tasks such as vetting asylum seekers once they are ashore, and coastal patrols - rather than search and rescue in international waters. But Italy's Admiral Filippo Foffi told the BBC that EU-Italian naval co-operation must continue in international waters. There has been no order to stop Mare Nostrum yet, Adm Foffi said. However, Italian officials have made it clear that they intend to scale down their operation, as the EU's Frontex border agency puts Triton into action. Mare Nostrum was launched after hundreds of migrants drowned off the isle of Lampedusa, and was only intended to be a temporary mission. Italy has urged more EU help to cope with boatloads of migrants from northern Africa.

So far EU countries have pledged to give Operation Triton six ships, two planes and one helicopter. Many more operational details are yet to be hammered out - including how much time they will spend in international waters. "If we are only in territorial waters we won't see people in danger and if they die we won't see it," Adm Foffi warned. He said he was waiting to see what resources Italy's EU partners would offer to Frontex, and stressed that Frontex was currently involved in search and rescue work, alongside the Italian navy. Frontex "is not the owner of the capability" - it relies on member states offering personnel and equipment, he explained.

The UK has said it will not support future search and rescue operations to prevent migrants drowning in the Mediterranean. Foreign Office minister Baroness Anelay said such operations could encourage more people to attempt to make the dangerous sea crossing to enter Europe. There has been a rise in the number of migrants trying to reach Italy in the past year, with many setting sail from Libya packed into unseaworthy boats. About 150,000 migrants - mostly fleeing violence in the Horn of Africa and Middle East - have been rescued by Italian ships over the past 12 months.

[So just as Fire Services encourage people to be careless and cause fires – and therefore should be withdrawn immediately (obviously) - the provision of search and rescue in the Med encourages refugees to flee from starvation, unrest and Civil war in North Africa. It would seem that the Foreign Office has given up on the ideals of common humanity (or what was once common apparently) because rescued refugees might, at some point in the future, become a political or economic inconvenience to the present UK Government. Then again this should come as no great surprise as this is the same government which is openly thinking about unilaterally withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights which, apparently, is a reasonable response to a vanishingly small number of legal inconveniences and political embarrassments. Needless to say I was sickened and angry when I read the comments attributed to Baroness Anelay who, I think should resign from her post as she already appears to have resigned from the human race. God help us all if clowns like this manage to form the next government. For the last few days I have been officially ashamed to be British.]

I Forgot (again)

How very remiss of me! I forgot my Blogs birthday which passed on 16th October. I am now officially into my 10th year of Blogging. Who'd have thunked it? So after 9 years (and 2 weeks) of Blogging, with 4,793 posts - including this one - and 323,791 hits as of a few minutes ago (averaging around 250 a day presently) I think I'm doing OK in the Bloggoverse. I certainly have no intention of stopping any time soon and indeed have plans in the pipeline to, hopefully, keep things interesting at least well into next year.

I hope that my small but dedicated readership continues to pop around, browse my stuff, find things for their Facebook pages, lurk if you feel like it and comment when the muse takes you. Personally I'm looking forward to the year ahead. I shall do my best to continue making you laugh, pause for a moment, think and raise the odd eyebrow.