George Davis is still innocent, OK (but still guilty of the ones he did)

To be honest I though I had head the very last of George Davis years ago so it was a surprise to see an article about him in yesterday’s Independent. But 33 years after he was imprisoned for an armed robbery George Davis is preparing to return to court in an attempt to finally establish his innocence.

Davis says he wants to vindicate the many friends and family who mounted a campaign in the 70s to free him from prison. He is often reminded of the campaign and claims he deserves compensation for the two years he spent in prison. He said: "I want to clear my name for the people who believed in me at the time and for all those who were in the campaign. But also for myself, so that people know that I was telling the truth."

Davis was arrested with three other suspects in April 1974 after he was identified as one of the five men who undertook an armed payroll robbery at the Ilford offices of the London Electricity Board. He was identified by five police officers, and a civilian who had seen a robber running away after abandoning a getaway car.

But it emerged that one of the officers partly retracted his evidence saying he could not be sure it was Davis he saw while the civilian witness failed to identify him at an ID parade. Davis also had an alibi. He had witnesses to say that he was working as a taxi cab driver, a claim supported by a log book detailing his jobs for that day.

Davis was convicted on two counts and sent to prison for 20 years, later reduced to 17 years on appeal. Peter Chappell, who had testified on behalf of Davis was so convinced he was innocent that he led one a vociferous campaign which included digging up the cricket pitch at Headingley (The main ground used by Yorkshire and a venue for international cricket matches). The Home Secretary decided to exercise the Royal Prerogative of Mercy and release Davis after two years but he made it clear that this did not mean Davis was an innocent man.

30 years later Davis says he is still being punished for a crime he did not commit. "My life and livelihood has been very badly affected by that conviction. Twice I have applied for a London cab licence and twice the police have turned me down."

It is pretty certain that George Davis was the victim of a "fit up" for the LEB robbery but sadly for his advocates he was no hapless victim. Many of those who campaigned for his release must have felt like utter idiots when he was arrested just a year later for robbing the Bank of Cyprus, a crime for He was also caught during a mail train robbery in 1987. I somehow think these little infringements may also have been taken into consideration when considering his suitability to drive a black cab! I just get the feeling that the current action would garner a lot more sympathy had he “gone straight” in the 70s….

Wikipedia article about George Davis

Yet another date for my diary – Amrita Shergill

A major Hogarth opened exhibition opened with great fanfare at the Tate Britain on Wednesday this week while a retrospective of the work of Gilbert & George opens at the Tate Modern next week. Both have been well advertised and will attract many visitors*

Less well advertised is an exhibition of the work of Amrita Shergill that opens at the Tate Modern on 28 February. I was totally unfamiliar with her work until very recently and I am delighted to get the opportunity to see some of her work in the flesh so to speak.

Amrita Shergill - Self portrait

Amrita Sher-Gill is regarded in India as one of the nation’s most important modern artists. Her life and her art are a fusion of the Eastern and Western worlds. Born in Budapest in 1913 to an Indian nobleman and a Hungarian opera singer she spent her early life in Hungary and India before studying art in Florence and then at the Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris. In Paris she she came under the influence of Modigliani and Gauguin and her early works apparently reflect these influences strongly.



It was after her return to India in 1934 that her developed her true style as she began to interpret Indian life, particularly that of the rural poor. She was especially drawn to the private world Indian women as evidenced by vivid but melancholy works like ‘The bride’s toilet’ (above). Sadly she did not have a long and successful career. She died in 1941 at the age of 29.


More to follow once I have visited the exhibition.

Further Information on Amrita Shergill

A short biography at Collector’s Café.


An extensive site devoted to Sher-Gill’s life and work

An article on Sher-Gill’s life on a Sikh heritage site

Chennai Online



* I went to the last big Gilbert & George exhibition at the Hayward in 1987 and I found it rather overwhelming – a couple of Gilbert & Georges together are fine, a lot together is rather tiresome. As for their work in general I’ve always thought of Gilbert & George basically saying “poo, bum, fart and willy” through the medium of art!

The carrot and the rod

Once merely a nutritious vegetable it looks as if the carrot is set to for a whole new lease of life. Thanks to a discovery by two Scottish scientists it can now be used to produce an advanced material that can be used to make products from fishing rods to warships.

Named Curran, the material is made of carrot nanofibres. The process to extract these fibres was developed by Dr David Hepworth and Dr Eric Whale at their company CelluComp in Burntisland, Fife. The first Curran product - a rod for fly fishing - goes on sale next month and the pair now plan to move on to make other goods including snowboards and vehicle parts

The material is more environmentally friendly than current methods using glass and carbon fibres. "It is incredibly versatile and we believe that we are launching at a time when companies are looking for that combination of quality and performance, but achieved in a way that is environmentally friendly," said Dr Hepworth.

At the moment, the company can make materials which are around 80 per cent carrot, with carbon fibre making up the remainder but it is hoped that as the technique is developed, they will eventually be able to make products which are made from 100 per cent biological matter - carrots and other plants. Dr Hepworth said they were already looking at using other vegetables such as turnips, swede and parsnips.

The material could be kinder to the environment given that carrots are a renewable resource (unlike the oil used to make carbon fibres) and even if the material was burnt, the carbon it created was cancelled out by the carbon absorbed by the carrots when they were growing. "The potential is enormous and if we can replace just a small percentage of carbon fibres in products the effects on the environment could be significant and wide-ranging.” Said Dr Hepworth.

Good luck to them I say...

Mimi

This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats. More cat photos at Plant porn and pussycats and over at Yet to be named

Armpits: nature’s miracle stress buster?

The current issue of New Scientist has an informative article on what you can do to have a happy and stress free career. Many of the things it lists are highly desirable, if not necessarily achievable, such as: a good working environment; raising your status if possible; taking control of at least some aspects of one’s working life; being social (but not too social) and learning to leave work at the office.

There is a lot of good stuff in the article and it good to see mention made of the Whitehall Studies which demonstrated a correlation between status and sickness and mortality rates – the lower down the Civil Service pecking order, the less likely you are to live to a healthy and ripe old age.

When it comes to discussing other stress busting techniques, I have no problem with yoga or other relaxation exercises, I would love to have a cat in the office and a place for a short nap would be great. What I do have a major issue with is armpit sniffing as a means of relaxation: According to a study undertaken by the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia 18 women sniffed extracts from the armpit sweat of six men and volunteers claimed to feel “less tense” and “more relaxed” .

I am quite a tolerant soul but I am not sure I want to see colleagues with their noses stuck in the oxters of other colleagues!

Another date for the Diary: Terracotta Army Exhibition, British Museum

Time to order some more exhibition tickets – The British Museum is holding a major exhibition of artefacts buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China (247-221 BC). Described as the biggest ever exhibition of treasures ever lent overseas from the emperor's burial site in Xian. The exhibition will not only include examples of the famous terracotta warriors but also ceramic bureaucrats, entertainers and birds.

Neil MacGregor, the British Museum's director, said: "We are delighted to be able to give visitors the opportunity to see these important and iconic objects. They are key objects for understanding the history of China from 221BC to the present day….This is the man who made China, created the idea of China, created the oldest political entity that survives anywhere in the world.”

The existence of a burial tomb for Qin Shi huang was known to scholars through the words of historian Sima Qian, but it wasn’t until 1974 that peasants digging a well came accidentally rediscovered the location of his tomb site which measures 50 square kilometres - about the size of Cambridge.

The Exhibition will be at the British Museum from 13 September until 6 April 2008. Interestingly it will be followed by an exhibition dedicated to Hadrian to examine why the Chinese empire survived for centuries while the Roman empire declined.

Sunstones and seafaring

The Vikings were great sailors and great navigators - of this there is no doubt. But despite their evident skills, their ability to travel significant distances out of sight of land gave rise to speculation as to whether they had access to some form of navigation aid (Not a magnetic compasses as they would not have been available or not until very late Viking period). 40 years ago a Danish archaeologist suggested that they might have used crystals (known as sunstones) to polarize sunlight and thus find the Sun’s location. This. website lists some of the pros and cons of this idea

Interestingly today’s Guardian carried a report that seems to give additional weight to the sunstone idea Tests aboard a research vessel in the Arctic ocean found that certain crystals can be used to reveal the position of the sun even if the sky was obscured by cloud or fog.

Researchers led by Gabor Horvath at Eotvos University in Budapest spent a month recording the polarisation of sunlight while at sea. Although polarisation is not apparent to the naked eye, it can be seen using certain crystals which could work in all but the worst weather conditions

Professor Michael Berry, a physicist at Bristol University, said: "They've shown that even if the sky is full of clouds and moisture, the polarisation of the sunlight doesn't change very much, and that's a real surprise. If you know the time already, then once you know the position of the sun you know what direction you're sailing in."

Another one of those sort of news items that fascinates me…

Little things please...

Thanks to Skuds I am now aware of the existence of Acronym Finder. Just like in Blackadder III when Prince George used Dr Johnson's dictionary to look up rude words, I could find one significant use for this site, namely:-

Travelling Wave Amplifuer Tube

ARySulphataseE

Tactical Optical Surveillance System

and so on...

It even lists the Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society (OK that one is from Red Dwart. I watch too much telly!)

Blows against the empire, sorry post room workers

An explosion today at Vantis is giving rise to fears that a disgruntled driver is conducting a letter bomb campaign at firms involved with speed cameras and the congestion charge.

Two people were injured when a letter bomb addressed to the managing director of Speed Check Services was opened by staff at Vantis,an accountancy firm working with firms involved in speed camera and congestion charge revenues. The attack follows an explosion yesterday in the post room of Capita, which operates London’s congestion charge. One woman was injured in that explosion.

Chances are that this is the work of a lone head case who really thinks that he is striking a blow against a faceless corporation by sending letter bombs. Is he (I doubt it is a woman doing this) so damned stupid that his letter bombs would be delivered unopened to senior executive? The only blow being struck here is against post room workers who probably don’t earn an awful lot above the minimum wage.

Meanwhile campaigner Captain Gatso, director of group Motorists Against Detection (an organisation that appears to be devoted to blowing up speed cameras) gave one of those half hearted condemnations when he said: "We are not responsible for these attacks and do not condone causing injury to anyone. However, there is a war against motorists and it seems this is an act of retaliation."

A war on motorists? What crass rhetoric.

A Date for my diary - Hogarth at the Tate

From A Rake's Progress

Tomorrow sees the opening of a major Hogarth exhibition at the Tate Britain exhibition. The exhibition will consist of over 200 works and is apparently the biggest exhibition of his work for over 35 years.

From an Election Entertainment

Me I love his work and I will definitely be paying a visit.