Test

Just updated to the new blogger. Test. Wibble.

Victory in sight for the Chagos Islanders?

The Chagos Islanders, who were evicted over 30 years ago to make way for the Diego Garcia air and naval base, are hoping finally to win the right to go home through a court case that starts today. They had previously won two court decisions, in 2000 and 2006, declaring the evictions unlawful. This court case will see the government appealing against the 2006 decision.

Olivier Bancoult, chairman of the Chagos Refugees Group, said yesterday: "We believe this will be the final round. What we are asking for is our fundamental rights and dignity as human beings." He said that he was not worried that the government could take the case to the Lords if it lost this one.

With regard to American security concerns Mr Bancoult pointed out that the islanders were not asking to return to Diego Garcia, but other islands in the chain. He rejected American arguments that a return to those outlying islands could compromise the base's security. "Some of these islands are 200-300 miles from the base," Mr McKinnon said. "That's a wide security perimeter."


A Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday: "At present the matter remains sub judice. It remains inappropriate to comment on the grounds for the appeal, in view of the legal proceedings starting this week."

Click here , here and here for previious posts on this subject


Chagos Archipelago Chagossians

Backwaters of history - Operation Tracer

"Stay Behind" Cave

Today’s Independent carries an interesting but unsurprising story about one of those little fragments that makes history interesting. During WWII a plan, known as Operation Tracer, was put in place to leave a surveillance team behind on Gibraltar should it ever have fallen to Axis forces. Comprising of six men it would effectively be buried alive in a bunker so they could continue to monitor enemy movements.

A retired doctor from Preston has been named as the chamber's last survivor. As a young navy doctor Bruce Cooper he was called in to see Surgeon-Commander Murray Levick (a fascinating man himself – Levick had accompanied Scott on his Antarctic missions) and was told that they were looking for a doctor "to do something special". He became part of a team that included his friend Arthur Milner, an executive officer "Windy Gale" and three seamen, who would function as radio operators.

The team was warned that they may have to be sealed inside an operation post for up to a year, although they were aware that it could be longer. Once in Gibraltar, they lived under cover for two and a half years with the prospect of being moved up to the operation post to be sealed inside. The Rock was never captured, the team was disbanded and its members resumed civilian life.

It is not surprising that this sort of plan would be put in place had Gibraltar been overrun and its existence is hardly new news. The Gibraltar Caving Group rediscovered the team's base (“Stay Behind” Cave) in 1997, while the Telegraph carried the basic story almost 10 years ago when documents were made available by the Public Record Office

According to the Telegraph report, the Gibraltar scheme was deemed to be so full of potential that similar Tracer operations were to be put in place at Colombo, Trincomalee, Malta and Aden.

Tracer was stood down in August 1943 and the chambers sealed.


Operation Tracer Gibraltar WWII

Duets 4 - Iris Dement & John Prine

In spite of ourselves

Duets 3 - Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson

Candy

Duets 2 - Manic Street Preachers and Traci Lords

Little Baby Nothing

Duets 1 - Nick Cave and PJ Harvey

Henry Lee

Rosindell and road signs

It seems that Rosindell has a new hobby horse - and that is a ten minute rule bill to introduce signs bearing the names of “historic” towns rather than “dreadful” artificial administrative districts as he describes them.

Rosindell seems to be irked that Romford is signed as part of the London Borough of Havering ( a "typical 60s construct" he feels). "As I travel back after a busy week at Westminster to my home in Romford, within my home county of Essex, I enter the boundaries of Essex and Romford, but nowhere do I see a road sign alerting me to either place…..We must stop the erosion of local identities and restore the pride people naturally feel in belonging to a town, county or village……We must mandate local authorities to install signage indicating towns, and counties and villages, giving their names predominance over the administrative names…. Let's conserve our heritage so that future generations will know the distinct and real heritage of a Yorkshireman, a Middle Saxon, and a Lancastrian or, like me, a proud Essex lad."

Hmmm while there is no harm in having town signs, Rosindell seems to forget that Romford isn’t part of Essex and hasn’t been since 1965 (given also that he was born in 1966 that would make him a Londoner rather than a proud Essex lad!). There are quite a few like him that would rather us be back in Essex but (to me anyway) it is clear we have far more affinity with London than we do with Brentwood, Chelmsford, Southend or Basildon. I doubt going back to Essex would bring any benefit to Romford, Hornchurch or Upminster even if we had nice shiny new road signs.

Andrew Rosindell

Alison Lapper - Time is running out

The Alison Lapper statue comes to the end of its tenure on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square next month. Its replacement will be Hotel for the birds by Thomas Schutte. If you live or work in London and you haven't had the chance to look at the statue, it is well worth doing so while there is still time. Sadly Hotel for the Birds does not look that inspiring (but I hope to stand corrected).









Alison Lapper Trafalgar Square

Nazanin Fatehi released

Nazanin Fatehi was released from prison on 31 January. The Help Nazanin site has photos and a record of a conversation with Nazanin in which she expressed a desire to go to school and study hard. She said she also wants to help some of the other innocent women who were in prison with her to gain their freedom.

This is excellent news for Nazanin who I hope has a long and happy life.

Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi Iran