<< Sep 2009 Majid Hussain is a Hero Saturday, August 29th, 2009 - 10:13 pm
Last Thursday a teenager knifed seven people in Keighley. First Mohammed Nazam was attacked in Victoria Road and was taken to hospital. The attacker, teenager Rahim Nawaz, then ran off before he could be apprehended.
The victim's brother-in-law, Majid Hussain, went to Airedale Hospital to assist him and on his way home Majid spotted the teenager again. This time Nawaz was attacking some women outside The Livery pub in the town centre. Majid Hussain rushed over to help the victims. He was knifed in the neck and arm whilst trying to stop the attack. Meanwhile staff locked the doors to prevent the knifeman from getting into the crowded pub.
Two of the people who were attacked, Mohammed Nazam and Sarah Wade, both had to be kept in hospital but are said to be improving.
The teenager has been charged with attempted murder of seven people. Abducted US girl found Friday, August 28th, 2009 - 9:35 am
The discovery of Jaycee Lee Dugard after so many years of imprisonment by her abductor is tremendous news. Her life and those of her children must have been a living hell. Their problems won't be over yet, but my very best wishes go to them and their family.
Apparently her abductor, Philip Garrido, was a registered sex offender and a religious nutter. Can a country with the death penalty and with 300 year prison sentences be a role model? Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 - 12:52 pm
The legal system of the United States of America, with the death penalty in some states and ludicrous 300 year jail sentences in others, is surely not the model for more advanced civilisations such as the United Kingdom to follow. I wonder how many innocent people have been executed in the US. I wonder if anyone has worked out whether the number would be greater or smaller than those who have, tragically, died in terrorist attacks against that country.
When America has a more sensible penal system we could maybe take guidance from there. Nick Griffin admits BNP are "strapped for cash". Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 - 12:42 pm
Oh good! Letter of 19th August from Nick Griffin (one time 4th placed parliamentary candidate for Keighley) referring to two BNP European Parliament gains:
"As you know we have all worked hard for many years to gain this success, many think our troubles are over now we have made such a huge political breakthrough. Not so! With political success come new challenges and obstacles (as the cyber-terrorist attacks on our website demonstrate), and the Party as a whole is suffering acute financial pressure." (Quoted from the BNP website)
It's not all bad then! Megrahi going home to die Thursday, August 20th, 2009 - 2:46 pm
I'm glad I wasn't the one who had to make the decision about whether to allow Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi, convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, to go back to Libya.
I think I would have decided the same way as Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. On separate occasions I was with two of my close family as they died, and I know what that feels like. The man cannot do any more harm. Is imprisonment about revenge or about keeping potential future victims safe from harm and re-habilitating offenders? In Britain it is not supposed to be about revenge. I'm glad to say that in this instance the Scottish secretary has proved it isn't.
This is what Kenny MacAskill said,
"Compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs that we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people - no matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated.
"For these reasons and these reasons alone, it is my decision that Mr Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the Lockerbie bombing, now terminally ill with prostate cancer, be released on compassionate grounds and be allowed to return to Libya to die." Evening in Afghanistan, morning here Thursday, August 20th, 2009 - 9:41 am
As polling day draws to a close in Afghanistan I hope Mallalai Joya and the other brave women candidates do well. Great TV last week! Sunday, August 16th, 2009 - 12:10 pm
Last week was one of the best for TV programmes for ages as far as I'm concerned.
On Thursday a prom concert with the first performance of a lovely cello concerto by a Korean woman called Unsuk Chin;
On Friday a charming and moving comedy drama film about allotments (yes!) called "Grow Your Own";
On Saturday another prom concert, this time with my favourite choir, The Sixteen and The Orchestra of the Sixteen and their wonderful conductor, Harry Christophers performing an evening of Handel and finishing up with that terrific sing, "Zadok the Priest";
A Dr Who repeat with David Tennant - and a Dad's Army repeat somewhere along the way.
All BBC programmes. It made me think it's worth paying the licence fee. Yesterday would have been my mother's birthday Saturday, August 15th, 2009 - 11:01 pm
My mother was born on 14 August 1903, so yesterday was the 106th anniversary of her birth. In her own way she was quite modern. She was a teacher when many women did not go to work, she rode a motorbike as a young woman and drove a car later in life, she acted in college productions when she was a student.
She didn't have a mobile phone or camera, of course, but she was way ahead on that score too. She told me she used to have "conversations" by thought with her mother when they were miles apart, without the need for a phone. On one occasion as a girl she was not allowed to go to a dance with her friends but she descibed everything to them afterwards - what the place looked like, their dresses and even what the young men they danced with were like.
I think all this was true: you could not come across anyone more down to earth than my mother. I wonder if modern communications have made us lose abilities people of her generation had. Can a Country without a Health Service be counted as Civilised? Saturday, August 15th, 2009 - 10:25 pm
I find it very difficult to regard a place without a health service as a civilised nation. As far as I can see that description cannot be applied to a country that does not provide health care for its weakest and poorest inhabitants. After all, the politicians do not have to pay for it out of their own pockets. Everyone pays as and when we are able.
Even David Cameron agrees with me.
What can be the problem with the United States? Why the opposition to President Obama trying to get his nation up to date?
Thanks to the UK's Liberals, who first proposed the idea, and the Labour Party, who got it through parliament, we are way ahead of the United States. The National and Scottish Health Services aren't perfect but they work pretty well most of the time. A man who made the world a better place Monday, August 10th, 2009 - 9:25 am
Good bye Harry Patch.
We would all like to be remembered for making the world a better place. I think he did that. May he rest in peace. More G20 Questions Sunday, August 9th, 2009 - 8:33 am
More questions about police tactics at the G20 protest have to be answered. The police are supposed to be the servants of the public. The government is supposed to be the servant of the public. That's how British society works. That's what makes Britain great. Got my New Passport! Saturday, August 8th, 2009 - 10:08 pm
Wow! I've got my new passport and I didn't need to give any id details other than my name.
I'm now the proud owner of a County of Yorkshire and its Ridings passport. I had to sign an oath of allegiance as follows:
DECLARATION
I, Judith C P Brooksbank, being a resident of Yorkshire declare:
That Yorkshire is three Ridings and the City of York, with these Boundaries of 1134 years standing;
That the address of all places in these Ridings is Yorkshire;
That all persons born therein or resident therein and loyal to the Ridings are Yorkshiremen and women;
That any person or corporate body which deliberately ignores or denies the aforementioned shall forfeit all claim to Yorkshire status. Drug Dealer's References Friday, August 7th, 2009 - 9:39 pm
When drug dealer Shahid Saleem, who owned a fleet of taxis, was due in crown court he got three Keighley councillors and a magistrate to give him character references. Red faces all round!
Wise up guys, it's not enough to have met the man in the street and think he comes from a decent family, and so agree to put in a word for him. The fact that he "did voluntary work with young people" was the smokescreen that deceived you, but of course this made him even more dangerous. This was about whether the accused was a fit person to be around young people, to own a fleet of taxis and if children and young people were safe to ride in them.
Turns out he wasn't; they weren't. The court found him guilty of dealing drugs from his taxis. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
The councillors concerned must be horrified to be linked with this odious man and I'm sure they must be kicking themselves.
Bradford Council licences our taxi companies. It goes without saying that a company owned by Mr Saleem should lose its licence. Spanish Flu, 1918 Thursday, August 6th, 2009 - 8:59 pm
I have a feeling that BBC 4 might have had its highest audience figure ever with last night's "Spanish Flu - the Forgotten Fallen". It was spellbinding and by chance this fact-based drama of how Dr James Niven tried to protect the people of Manchester from Spanish flu was scheduled in the midst of the current flu outbreak.
I was rather shocked to learn that Spanish flu was H1N1 - the same strain as the current swine flu, apparently.
Of course at our house we were slightly distracted by the appearance of the Worth Valley Railway's Keighley station doing sterling service as Manchester, with the dreadful scene of the helpless Dr Niven watching the young man die coughing up blood in the waiting room.
The following programme, a documentary about the exhumation of the body of a man who died of Spanish flu ninety years ago was gripping: the reason for the exhumation being to try to find a way of halting a modern pandemic - amazing. Family tree Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 - 3:39 pm
One of my sisters sent me a family tree of one part of our family recently, my father's forebears, the Sidaway family. I've just been doing some research on some of them.
My father's cousin, Walter Robson-Cross, was drowned when the SS Ceramic was sunk by a German U-boat in 1942. He had been my grandfather's dental assistant and I think Walter had lived with my father's family as a boy so they were almost like brothers.
One of my father's second cousins is Marlene Sidaway, an actress who has had parts in some very well known productions such as the film Tom's Midnight Garden, TV programmes such as Goodnight Mister Tom, Heartbeat, Midsommer Murders, Casualty, The Bill, Doctors, Pride & Prejudice (the famous wet shirt version), played Dawn French's mother in The Vicar of Dibley, and has been in stage productions and radio plays.
My earliest ancestor on the tree so far was William Sidaway, a chain maker in the Midlands, who was born in 1690 and whose wife was Bridget. Happy Yorkshire Day! Saturday, August 1st, 2009 - 7:00 am
Happy Yorkshire Day everyone (even including you in Lancashire).
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