Child Abuse

Sometimes you read an article and have to re-read it because you can't absorb the information as fact first time round.  This happened to me a few days ago.

In Scotland victims of child sex abuse are given access to supposedly confidential counselling under a system put in place to protect vulnerable witnesses.  Tam Baillie, Scotland's Children's Commissioner, has demanded a review of laws designed to protect these children from what he called 'the unintended consequences of well-intentioned legislation'.

Why is Mr Baillie, writing in the specialist journal Scottish Family Law Association Bulletin, demanding a review?  Because the victims of child sex abuse are being traumatised by courts forcing therapists to reveal their clients' secrets to abusers.  Mr Baillie warned that notes from confidential counselling sessions were being used in criminal cases against the wishes - and interests - of children and young people.  He said he was aware of cases where both defence agents and prosecuters were using confidential counselling notes in court.

Crown Office guidance is that fiscals should not routinely use evidence from counselling. However, the Crown recognises defence teams may wish to do so, especially if they are arguing a child has been “coached” to complain of abuse. - The Herald 

He accepts new evidence brought up in therapy should be shared with the authorities, but he objected at the prospect of intimate feelings - including those expressed using art therapy - being made public.  He wants to see rules changed so that notes can only be revealed with the permission of the children and has argued this could be done by amending the Vulnerable Witnesses Act of 2004.

It's understood the Cross-Party Group on the Survivors of Child Sex Abuse raised the issue with Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill last year after being alerted to it by Barnardo's.  A spokeswoman for the group said:

"... The need to avoid further damage to abused children is fundamental - the trust and confidentiality between the child and therapist must be seen as integral to their recovery."

Many people have counselling for a range of reasons. Some pay privately and some are referred through the NHS. Would anyone be happy to know their deeply personal thoughts and feelings could be used in a court case, and more importantly by both defence and prosecutors, without their knowledge or consent?

These children will most probably be told what they say to their therapist is just between the two of them, to establish a trusting relationship. In all innocence they will believe the adult(s) and, in the case of sex or other abuse, they may be relieved to tell someone who promises 'not to tell anyone'.

Mr MacAskill ought to get this legislation amended with immediate effect so as these young people are protected.  He managed to rush through, in a matter of days, legislation regarding the voting rights of those convicted of crime, so it can be done speedily. Allowing such a loophole - through legal guidance notes - makes a mockery of our declaration that we care for children.  Maybe some children but certainly not all.  We need to protect each and every one to the best of our ability and we expect our justice system to do that.  So much is said about the Human Rights Act, which I consider requires a root and branch review.  Where are all those who wave the HRA card in judicial cases?  If ever a person's rights were being dismissed or ignored, this is it.

The Nurse and 'Service User A'

There's nothing like a good Daily Mail story to brighten the day.

A psychiatric nurse, who gave a patient topless massages during a four-month affair, has been struck off.  The 42-year-old patient, who was injured in a motorcyle accident and suffered from depression, said the nurse was a 'big girl' and he was frightened of her.

He had once been her landlord and they met again when he was referred to North-West Shropshire's Community Mental Health Team in May 2007 suffering from depression.  'Service User A' also stated he 'didn't find her attractive'.

The panel chairman Lesley White said Roger-Hughes actions with the patient impacted not only impacted on 'Service User A' but his family and partner. 'The registrant has sown little insight into the impact that a sexual relationship would have on the health and wellbeing of a vulnerable patient and his family.

'This is not an isolated incident, the relationship was maintained over a period of months.

'Moreover, the behaviour was deliberate'.

Roger-Hughes, who left her post in January 2008, referred the case to the NMC herself.  She did not attend the Central London hearing and had previously written to the regulator saying she no longer wished to be a nurse.

I'm wondering why it took Service User A four months before reporting the sexual relationship, especially since he didn't find her attractive and also why the chairman mentioned the 'behaviour was deliberate'.  Surely a four month affair is deliberate.  Am I missing something?  No sniggering please.

A Tribute to Jerry Bock

The name Jerry Bock may not mean much to you, but if I say he was the composer of one of the most successful productions in the history of the American musical theatre, maybe that will start a few bells ringing.

Jerry Bock, together with lyricist Sheldon Harnick, composed the powerful score to Fiddler on the Roof as well as other memorable shows.

Mr Bock died last month of heart failure at a hospital in New York.  He was 81.

My choice of musical tribute is the Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler on the Roof. It earned the two men Tony Awards in 1965. It is still in my top five American musical songs.

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Nice Money If You Can Get It

How much do you think it costs to create 721 jobs?  I'm not speaking about exceptionally highly skilled jobs but possibly those at the lower end of the market. £1 million?  £2 million?

Figures from Scotland's Regional Selective Assistance fund show that ink giant HP snaffled almost half the cash given out in the last quarter.  Between July and September, Scottish Enterprise via RSA, gave out £14.8m.  HP Enterprise Services UK Ltd got £7m of this to create 721 jobs in Erskine.  In total the £14.8m grants will create 1,447 jobs and keep another 470 posts safe.

Scottish manufacturing firms, 16 of them, collected £2.5m to create or safeguard 368 jobs.

After HP the next biggest payout of £1.7m went to Vertex which promised to create 368 back-office jobs in Glasgow.

I have no objection to taxpayers' money being used to create jobs when those jobs are genuine and provide people with reasonable security and a living wage.  But I thought I would remind you that the ink giant HP sacked 850 people at its plant in Erskine in last year, because production of servers and storage devices were to be moved to the Czech Republic. In 2006 HP shifted 200 manufacturing jobs from its Erskine factory to Pardubice in the Czech Republic.

Jim Sheridan, MP for Paisley and North Renfrewshire said at that time:

the decision was: "one of the worst cases of corporate deceit I have ever come across." 

I doubt if that will have been of concern to Scottish Enterprise though. As long as the boxes are ticked...

Perenomics or Stirenomics Anyone?

For those of you who don't regularly read the Scotland Unspun blog, today's post is certainly one which strikes a chord with me.

Why should taxpayers have to bail out private banks causing economics crises and mayhem? Who's idea was it?

Why should private debts which were lost speculating be compensated by citizens? Given that million are now losing their jobs thanks to institutional fraud in the financial markets I think the public needs an answer!

And who gives the IMF any authority to demand that governments bail out banks? What charter gives them the right?

Trust the Irish to come up with this great idea of putting some of the world's best economic thinkers, together with comedians, in an economics festival.  The festival is called Kilkenomics as it is to beheld in Kilkenny (pictured above) next week.

Can we organise such a conference in Scotland?  Of course we can.  It could be the (Per)enomics or the (Stir)enomics but most likely it would take place in either Edinburgh or Glasgow as they have the greatest populations.  I can't see there being a (Dun)enomics, at least not until the V & A building is complete.  Knowing the Irish I'm sure they would be delighted to assist us with the organisation.

All joking apart, I think this would be a most interesting way to introduce the subject of economics to all of us who feel it's shrouded in academia and we need answers. Why are we paying the debts of those who took such risks with our money?  Why are we allowing ourselves to be abused?  That's what these bankers are and have been doing, abusing their customers.

Note for my overseas readers: Per = Perth, Stir = Stirling and Dun = Dundee.  But then you all knew that didn't you.

FMQs 4 November 2010

Munguin's Republic offers you a splendid analysis of this week's FMQs in the form of a entertaining post from Tris.  Not to be missed!

Remember Remember the 5th of November

Last night a distant neighbour held his annual Guy Fawkes night. Usually it takes place the weekend nearest the 5 November but he must have had his reasons for it happening last night - or maybe that was just a rehearsal.  I don't know these neighbours but I have the benefit of seeing his half hour of fireworks from my garden each year and the show is perhaps better from here than his own place.

I know a few of the folk who would have been present and also have taken their grandchildren.  None are smokers (the adults not the grandchildren).  In fact a couple of them are 'anti-smokers' and dare I say hypocrites, because they're quite happy deriding cigarette smokers yet they're also happy inhaling arsenic and allowing their own grandchildren to inhale it during a lengthy firework display.  Let's not omit the inhalation of the smoke from the bonfire which will continue to smolder away until morning.

Should we ban fireworks? Of course not.  Should we ban the smoking of cigarettes?  There are many who would say yes, in fact I've suggested it myself occasionally.  Inhaling the 'second-hand' smoke is bad for you shout the anti-smoking lobbies but they don't call for smoking to be banned.  That's because the tax from smoking pays the wages of the antis.  Enjoy your celebrations and avoid eating that burnt baked potato.

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

The Result Is In

It may not have won the people's vote but the design by one of Japan's leading architects is the unanimous winner of an international competition for a building to house a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee.

The design panel claim the building has the potential to become one of the top dozen iconic structures in the world and they are convinced that the 'exciting and dynamic' £45 million building will have the same impact on Dundee as Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum had on Bilbao.

What is disappointing is that Dundee University is reputed to offer one of the best architecture courses in the UK, yet we don't seem to find homegrown architects to design modern buildings. Do they emigrate once they graduate I wonder.

Somehow I feel the design panel's conviction that millions of foreign tourists will be descending on Dundee to glimpse this dod of stone and glass, balancing on the waterfront, is just a dream. The city deserves a boost like this because, since the heart of it was torn out in the 60s to make way for the road bridge, it had never really recovered its vibrancy.

Once the building is complete and stocked with the the delights the London Victoria and Albert offer, I will be in the queue to pay my, possibly exorbitant, entrance fee. It certainly be the talk of the Dundee tearooms for a long time to come.

One final point. Whoever is managing the project must ensure it doesn't become a fiasco like the Scottish Parliament or the continuing farce of a tramline in Edinburgh.

Heaven and Earth

James Delingpole has met the man who 'has exposed the great climate change con trick'.  You can read his Spectator article here.

Over the past couple of years I've done my best to absorb all sides of the argument but it's been difficult in recent times to hear any voices which aren't, in some way, connected with the IPCC.

I'm off to buy the book which is only £16.43 on Amazon.  Do read the reviews for yourself.  It was refreshing, in a way, to note that some readers found the lack of editing irritating but once you understand this book was refused by all the major publishing companies and was finally published by a struggling couple living in the middle of the Australian bush, then the lack of editing can be forgiven.

Plimer's first book A Short Story of Planet Earth was a best seller and won a Eureka prize however the 'big boys' refused to publish his follow-up.

‘There’s a lot of fear out there. No one wants to go against the popular paradigm.’

 Too right there is and we have to waken up to the fact that we're being held to ransom, both psychologically and financially.  I don't expect any of the climate change believers to begin to question their brainwashers - not until they realise the money in their pockets is dwindling fast, the country is covered in windmills and our utility bills consume more of their hard-earned money than their mortgage payment or rent.  It won't be long before that happens.

Prisoners Votes

"... I blame the coalition government for burying their heads in the sand."

That is said by ex-prisoner John Hirst who axed his landlady through the head while she watched television.

He thinks he's smart.  I don't.  It's sickening that our money was used to help him gain notoriety.

Thanks to Go Lassie Go for the video.

42% Better? Not For Me it Isn't

Today Friends of the Earth Scotland issued a press release publicising their latest research.  In their opinion meeting our climate targets could 'increase employment, cut health-care costs and reduce social exclusion'.  The report is entitled '42% Better'.

I'd like to comment briefly on a few bits of their report because it does disappoint me the lengths to which these pro-environmental campaigners will go to substantiate the biggest scam in recent times.

I sincerely believe that we need to reduce pollution all over the world. As a person who respects the soil and the environment but not to a hysterical degree, I compost and send the my excess leaves off to the council in a bin along with those garden prunings which I know will take a couple of decades to reduce to a decent composition.  But I'm not longer allowed to have get rid of my leaves by burning them. ( Now therein lies another story - perhaps for tomorrow).

I'm told to divide cooked food into my 'garden surplus' (the stuff you shouldn't even considering composing) into a separate bin destined for recyling is a lie.  In my area all bins, with the exception of paper bins, all go into the same landfilll. I don't use my paper bin because I don't buy newspapers and I shred everything I receive by post,   That, I think in my naviety, thinks protects my identity.

Yet some of the biggest and wealthiest countries are ignoring my efforts I think that's a waste of time.  I appreciate the question of pollution but I don't think Scotland is going to rescue the rest of the world by introducing extreme measures or rescue Scotland.  I won't go into statistics (they're boring and you can spend days trying to find sensible numbers)  but I will name a couple of countries who have no regard for this emissions scam. China and India have increased their carbon emissions and continue to do so even although we plough billions of our hard earned money into them through the  Yet our wee island's governments feel we must continue down the road, (oops they don't like the word roads the FoE), of ensuring any good living citizen in this country who works/has worked for years will be financially broke.

The report, '42% Better', identifies extra jobs in energy efficiency and public transport, health care savings arising from reduced obesity, improved mental health and reduced respiratory disease, and social inclusion gains from reductions in fuel poverty amongst the many non-environmental benefits of a strong climate policy. Even in the limited case studies examined, the estimated value of the health benefits alone exceeds £2bn.

Have you ever heard such nonsense?  Let me give you another quote from Duncan McLaren, CE of FoE Scotland.

"The report focuses on policy measures in the parts of our economy unaffected by the European Union's emissions trading scheme: such as housing, transport and agriculture."

So we're not dancing to the EU's emissions trading scheme which currently excludes housing, transport and agriculture.

In this next quote I have highlighted what I consider are pure spin (to be polite) points in bold.


For example, improving and insulating the homes of those in fuel poverty in Scotland, could avoid an estimated 180,000 cases of anxiety and depression each year, and cut days lost to work and school as a result of respiratory illnesses by up to 25%. The increased levels of fitness resulting from raising cycling rates to Danish levels could save over 1,600 lives a year, and help cut obesity rates in Scotland in half, especially if supported by the widespread adoption of low-carbon, low-meat diets.


Let me start by saying how will improving and insulating homes of many of us in  fuel poverty 'eliminate 180,000 cases of anxiety and depressions each year?  I qualify for the term 'fuel poverty' but because I claim no other benefits I'm refused help.  By dipping into my small savings I can pay my bills - for now.  Do these people really think that by improving homes with insulation will reduce anxiety and depression?  They haven't spoken to anyone in my age group who would tell them that our anxiety - which may lead to depression - is cause by the knowledge that we utility users know we will have to cough up more and more of our pension(s) to fund this great scam.

days lost to work and school as a result of respiratory illnesses by up to 25%.


How can these people make that statement defeats me.  It's brainwashing.  There is no scientific evidence that this will happen.  In fact, since the ban on smoking in pubs and public places came into our legislative process.   Even worse is the propaganda pushed out by statistics yet this blogger has been diligent enough to analyse the figures.  Please do look.

There's nothing more I could desire than Scotland manufacture (and invented) products which could be sold world wide in connection with reducing polutution. I have no objection to driving a low emissions car yet I do have objections a driving 'a electric car.  One of those things wouldn't get me to and back from the shops in Dundee or Perth and I can't see plugs lining my route home.  Just for those of you who have been courageous enough to read this far, I run a car which costs me £30 a year in tax.  It can cope with four passengers comfortably over a couple of hours trip and I still get around 55 to the gallon.  It's diesel.  The emissions are low.  Would I want to do 1000 miles in a day in it?  Naw.  I'd have to have an ambulance waiting at my destination because it's not a 'comfort' car, it's a utility one.  That's all I need.

We still produce the best engineers in the world, (albeit with a couple of them in the US), yet our engineers are moving to other countries to work and then import their excellent products to us.  What does that say about Scotland or the UK.

Of course there are short-term benefits from this scam, there always are from scams. The jobs will be short-term.  How many windmills can we produce? A lot less than ships which have been essential to the civilised work for centuries.

It's hard to find the details of how often these windmills would need replaced, yet the expense of erecting and maintaining them is vast.  Maintaining windmills won't last forever.  We will always require boats/ships/fishermen/engineers/care workers.  I could give an endless list of a coherent society and well balanced society.  However this week it was announced by one major utility company they intend to raise the cost of domestic rate by just less than 10%. That's only the beginning, believe me.  No government will argue with the multiples.  We were sold out years ago when our basic utilities were privatised.  But then, those of us who still believe in common sense in fuel tariffs and support those of our older generation who hadn't planned for such extreme bills, but are want to have a standard of living which doesn't require other taxpayers to subsidise, aren't taken in by the FoE.

The answer from our politicians will be the same as David Cameron gave yesterday about giving our military's independence to France.  "I can't do anything".  We pay them for doing nothing.  Remember that on polling day.

source: Friends of the Earth Scotland

The Rights of Englishmen

The following email and article were sent to me by Edward Spalton and he has given me permission to publish both in full. Apologies for the spacing.  I can't seem to fix it.

Email:

Before you go all Caledonian on me, I should point out that Magna Carta was actually a general settlement, including return of hostages to Llywelyn of Wales and a settlement with Alexander of Scotland. Ireland was represented by the Archbishop of Dublin.


A few years ago I was involved with a group which got 25 barons together, as provided in the Charter, to present a petition for redress of grievance to the Queen together with signatures by (I think) a million people - not to introduce the EU constitution until the people had been consulted. 


It didn't attract as much publicity as was hoped. It was delivered to the Queen's private secretary in a very opulent motor car.

Whether it had anything to do with it or not, Tony Blair announced soon after that there would be a referendum after all. As the government ratted on that, the barons are free under the terms of the charter to wage war upon the government until redress is received

"Any man who desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power".

This is the concept of "lawful rebellion" which some are now trying to develop into civil disobedience.

The Rights of Englishmen

Two men were hauled off to Riga, locked up for months, declared not guilty, then called back to be tried again.  They were subjects of a European Arrest Warrant (EAW). They have lost a chunk of their lives and a great deal of money in defending themselves against charges for which there was no credible evidence, though one was found guilty on a lesser charge of resisting arrest which he is appealing.

In 1215, King John stated in his Great Charter-

“In future no official shall place a man on trial on his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it”.

A European Arrest Warrant is just such an unsupported statement by an official in another EU state. 

King John went a bit further -

“No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions... or exiled or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or  the law of the land.

To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice”

He also wrote: 

“TO ALL FREE MEN OF OUR KINGDOM we have also granted, for us and for our heirs forever, all the liberties written herein, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs”.  

Latvia, into which the men were in effect kidnapped, has none of these protections. Trial is by inquisition, not by accusation. Prosecutors can keep people locked up, sometimes for years, without charge or trial. People in this investigative custody  are not technically “guilty until proved innocent” but must certainly feel as if they are. In some EU countries  such detention has lasted four years. There is no habeas corpus.  Even if declared innocent at trial, prisoners can be re-arrested if the prosecutor wants to have another go. 

The trial is an inquisition, usually with no jury: the judge or judges are all powerful. Whilst the legal systems of  most East European countries are known to be thoroughly corrupt (even the EU Commission accepts this) some very odd things can happen, even in the more established democracies of Western Europe.

I  was astonished to learn from following the Geert Wilders trial in the Netherlands that it is the bench which decides what defence witnesses may be called, not the defence lawyer. That particular trial has collapsed, in part  because the Judge approached one of the defence witnesses at a dinner party to influence his testimony in court. 

The EAW permits arrests without any prima facie evidence to show that there is a case to answer. The alleged offence need not be an offence under British law and need not have taken place in the territory of the state issuing the warrant.

Mr Cameron cannot change this. He can only request the bureaucrats of the unelected EU Commission to review the matter. They can make a proposal to the EU parliament . If the parliament and the European Council of Ministers agree, then perhaps the procedure may be changed.

Long before slavery was abolished in the rest of the Empire our judges, not Parliament,  ruled that any man who set foot on English soil was free just by being here, so great was the power of King John's Charter. “Magna Carta hath no fellow” said Lord Justice Coke in an earlier case. O for such judges today to give us back our undoubted rights and throw off this odious subjection! 

Edward Spalton 29 October 2010

Military Matters

The futility of war has claimed the life of another British soldier.  He was shot dead will defusing an IED.

The fatality occurred in the Nahr-e Saraj North district of Helmand Province and where the soldier's regiment, the 101 (City of London) Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) are deployed.

We have now lost 342 of our armed forces in this war.

Only last week it was reported Russia were onside with NATO in an effort to curtail the Afghan drugs trade.  Now Karzai is complaining the joint American and Russian raid on four laboratories in Nangahar province on Thursday was unsanctioned and violated Afghan sovereignty.  Moscow officials said they were baffled by the angry response, maintaining the operation had taken place with Kabul's knowledge.

What a complete mess.  Now the Afghan president is threatening the countries who his government asked for help.

Although our Prime Minister is reluctant to discuss Afghanistan, tomorrow he will happily outline plans for military co-operation between us and the French which will see troops from both countries deployed as a single brigade in future conflicts. The first step will be a joint exercise in Flanders which is to be followed by more training together with the aim of deploying troops 'alongside each other', in the words of one government source.

David Cameron will also make clear that Britain and France will stop short of full integration because there will be times when the interests of Paris and London diverge.  France strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq.

What does this mean for our armed forces?  One thing is sure, they will never be truly independent again.  We are now building aircraft carriers for the French to use, because we have no aircraft of our own which are suitable to use them and this new alliance with France integrates our military even further into the Military of the European Union.  It's a step too far.

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