IRAQ ANTI WAR PROTEST 21 July 2012
I had been for a long time deeply distrusting of the Blair Government's reasons for advocating war against Iraq. Rather than join the protest march in London on Saturday 15 February 2003 I hoped to get three articles published in the national broadsheet press. I was totally convinced of the truth of my view once Robin Cook began to speak out for he, in his role of Foreign Secretary, would have had access to all the information.
They are:-
1) Sally Clark and Saddam Hussein, by Sunday 7 February 2003 (2 versions)
2) Give Peace a Chance, by Sunday 14 February 2003
3) Iraq Ends and Means, by Sunday 21 February 2003 (2 versions)
Of these the 900 word version of Sally Clark and Saddam Hussein is the most significant and I believe it would have been published by the Observer had it reached them in time, even a day earlier. Certainly both the Observer and then the Independent were more than normally interested that day, after I had been waiting for well over a week for a rejection from The Guardian.
BBC News estimated the attendance at the anti-war march to have been 750,000 people in London and 6-10 million worldwide.
On 17 March 2003 Robin Cook who had been the 'Ethical' Foreign Secretary in the first Blair Government resigned early in their second term as Leader of the House of Commons because he could could not accept joint responsibility for war against Iraq and was the first ever to receive a standing ovation for a speech in the House.
Sally Clark and Cot Deaths
Described by a journalist as one of the great miscarriages of justice in modern British legal history, causing the Attorney General to call for a review of hundreds of other cases.
With the passing of years some history needs to be added to explain the title. The daughter of a Senior Police Officer and now practising as a Solicitor was convicted of murdering her first son in 1996 within his first three months, though known to have been suffering from post-natal depression, and her second son in 1998 at a similar age. At her trial 9 November 1999 the expert witness, a pediatric Professor, calculated there was only a 1: 73,000,000 chance of her being innocent given two cot deaths. He was struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council in 2005.
She was convicted to Life Imprisonment. The first appeal in October 2000 was upheld but she was released from prison on winning the second appeal in January 2003. That was just before the Anti-Iraq War protest march, hence the timely nature of the comparison.
Evidence was given, at the January 2003 appeal against conviction, that the second death was probably due to an infection of Staphylococcus Aureus, that is from natural causes and worst still the prosecution's Pathologist had known but concealed it all along. He was banned from further Home Office work. Moreover the Royal Statistical Society in October 2001 had issued a public statement saying there was no statistical basis for the 1:73,000,000 figure.
On her release her husband said Sally would 'never be well again'. Unable to recover from over three years as a marked person in prison, she was found dead at home of severe alcohol intoxication but without any evidence that she had intended to commit suicide.
BALI CRISES - Financial and Terrorist Bomb
An attempt to see this attack from the Balinese angle rather than the tourists. A response to a Guardian 2 article by Clive James written on behalf of over 200 Australians killed, over 100 UK nationals were also killed in the worlds worst terrorist attack.
Coupled with the vicious financial crash in Asia which resulted in the Indonesian rupiah dropping overnight to a quarter of its earlier value these events hugely set back the struggle to improve Indonesian living standards. The travel article is written with reflection of the effects on a young student we had met several years earlier whilst still a student in Sumatra, and helped support his education as a teacher through the troubles.
We met Atta in Paris for several days earlier this year on his second backpacking trip to Europe, even with our support he failed to get a visa to visit the UK. He now runs The English School in Kuta Bali, though he makes most money teaching Indonesian to foreign nationals, especially those trading there.
I had been for a long time deeply distrusting of the Blair Government's reasons for advocating war against Iraq. Rather than join the protest march in London on Saturday 15 February 2003 I hoped to get three articles published in the national broadsheet press. I was totally convinced of the truth of my view once Robin Cook began to speak out for he, in his role of Foreign Secretary, would have had access to all the information.
They are:-
1) Sally Clark and Saddam Hussein, by Sunday 7 February 2003 (2 versions)
2) Give Peace a Chance, by Sunday 14 February 2003
3) Iraq Ends and Means, by Sunday 21 February 2003 (2 versions)
Of these the 900 word version of Sally Clark and Saddam Hussein is the most significant and I believe it would have been published by the Observer had it reached them in time, even a day earlier. Certainly both the Observer and then the Independent were more than normally interested that day, after I had been waiting for well over a week for a rejection from The Guardian.
BBC News estimated the attendance at the anti-war march to have been 750,000 people in London and 6-10 million worldwide.
On 17 March 2003 Robin Cook who had been the 'Ethical' Foreign Secretary in the first Blair Government resigned early in their second term as Leader of the House of Commons because he could could not accept joint responsibility for war against Iraq and was the first ever to receive a standing ovation for a speech in the House.
Sally Clark and Cot Deaths
Described by a journalist as one of the great miscarriages of justice in modern British legal history, causing the Attorney General to call for a review of hundreds of other cases.
With the passing of years some history needs to be added to explain the title. The daughter of a Senior Police Officer and now practising as a Solicitor was convicted of murdering her first son in 1996 within his first three months, though known to have been suffering from post-natal depression, and her second son in 1998 at a similar age. At her trial 9 November 1999 the expert witness, a pediatric Professor, calculated there was only a 1: 73,000,000 chance of her being innocent given two cot deaths. He was struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council in 2005.
She was convicted to Life Imprisonment. The first appeal in October 2000 was upheld but she was released from prison on winning the second appeal in January 2003. That was just before the Anti-Iraq War protest march, hence the timely nature of the comparison.
Evidence was given, at the January 2003 appeal against conviction, that the second death was probably due to an infection of Staphylococcus Aureus, that is from natural causes and worst still the prosecution's Pathologist had known but concealed it all along. He was banned from further Home Office work. Moreover the Royal Statistical Society in October 2001 had issued a public statement saying there was no statistical basis for the 1:73,000,000 figure.
On her release her husband said Sally would 'never be well again'. Unable to recover from over three years as a marked person in prison, she was found dead at home of severe alcohol intoxication but without any evidence that she had intended to commit suicide.
BALI CRISES - Financial and Terrorist Bomb
An attempt to see this attack from the Balinese angle rather than the tourists. A response to a Guardian 2 article by Clive James written on behalf of over 200 Australians killed, over 100 UK nationals were also killed in the worlds worst terrorist attack.
Coupled with the vicious financial crash in Asia which resulted in the Indonesian rupiah dropping overnight to a quarter of its earlier value these events hugely set back the struggle to improve Indonesian living standards. The travel article is written with reflection of the effects on a young student we had met several years earlier whilst still a student in Sumatra, and helped support his education as a teacher through the troubles.
We met Atta in Paris for several days earlier this year on his second backpacking trip to Europe, even with our support he failed to get a visa to visit the UK. He now runs The English School in Kuta Bali, though he makes most money teaching Indonesian to foreign nationals, especially those trading there.
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