The wonder of Palmyra – revisited
April 22nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This week, a monumental recreation of the Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, Syria, which was destroyed by ISIS, has been unveiled in London’s Trafalgar Square.
The 1,800-year-old arch was destroyed by Islamic State militants last October and the 6-metre (20ft) model, made in Italy from Egyptian marble, is intended as an act of defiance: to show that restoration of the ancient site is possible if the will is there.
I went to Trafalgar Square to view the recreation.
The arch in Trafalgar Square
Posted in British current affairs, My life & thoughts, World current affairs | Comments (0)
How to have a good meeting
April 22nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In my life, I have attended so very many meetings – a good many of them poorly run. I chair lots of bodies these days and try to make the meetings enjoyable and worthwhile.
You can find my advice on how to have a good meeting here.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Do you or someone you know need help with your water bills?
April 21st, 2016 by Roger Darlington
For the past four years, I’ve chaired a customer body which provides an independent challenge to South East Water, so I’ve been very active in the water sector especially around issues of affordability and vulnerability.
Almost all water companies in England & Wales now have a social tariff in place to help customers who are genuinely struggling to pay their water & sewerage bills. You can find links to all the schemes here.
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)
A review of “Eye In The Sky”
April 20th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
It’s a rare kind of film that raises moral issues and forces you to think while doing so in a manner which is not boring or leaden. “Eye In The Sky” is that kind of work that explores the complicated decisions that have to be made when deploying drones to combat terrorism.
You can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Where now for Iraqi Kurdistan?
April 19th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Broadly speaking, there are three main groups in Iraq: the Shia Arabs, the Sunni Arabs and the Iraqi Kurds. We hear a lot about the first two groupings – especially the conflicts between them – but less about the Kurds who have created a near-autonomous territory in the north of the state and fought successfully against ISIS.
I recently visited the House of Commons to speak with a good friend, Gary Kent who is Director of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Kurdistan. He told me about his latest visit to Iraqi Kurdistan as part of a Parliamentary fact-finding delegation in November 2015.
This week, the delegation has published its report of the visit. The report is titled “The Land Between two Anniversaries” – the two events in question being the 25th anniversary of the Kurdish Uprising in March and the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Treaty in May.
Some key quotes from the report are as follows:
“The failure of Iraqi federalism, the obstructive and insouciant approach of leaders in Baghdad, and what increasingly looks like the de facto partition of Iraq are driving moves to the independence of the Kurdistan Region. There may be a referendum of the people of the Kurdistan Region on the principle of independence later this year. We support the right of the people of Iraqi Kurdistan to make that determination before its leaders negotiate with the federal government in Baghdad, and win support for it from its neighbours and the great powers.”
“Iraqi Kurds will probably endorse independence but this is not a prelude to a Greater Kurdistan. Kurdistani leaders are clear there are four separate Kurdistans [the other three being in Turkey, Iraq and Syria], each at a different stage of development. The time for a Greater Kurdistan has been overtaken by history and there is no merit in hankering after the impossible.”
“It is increasingly difficult to believe that Iraq will be put back together given ever sharper differences between its constituent parts. But nor can the Kurdistan Region attain statehood without reforming its unproductive and state dominated economy, whose defects are now more evident thanks to the dramatic reduction in oil prices upon which the economies of the Kurdistan Region and of Iraq have long been far too dependent.”
You can read the full report here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Couples are healthier, wealthier… and less trim
April 18th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Vee and I have now been married for 34 years and it works for us. But does marriage – or at least a stable relationship – have benefits generally?
“They say that marriage isn’t a word, but a sentence. For the most part however, it seems to be a cushy one. Quite aside from the massive party, shiny ring and tax breaks, science has revealed numerous other benefits to getting hitched.
For instance, just last week a study was published suggesting that being married boosts your chances of surviving cancer. “Generally speaking, people who are in stable marriages have better health compared to those who have never been married, but it’s not so much about being legally married as the benefits of being in a stable, long-term relationship,” says George Ploubidis, reader in population health and statistics at University College London.”
So what else is good about being paired off? Here’s a guide to the upside of settling down.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments (0)
A “Frozen River” that will melt your heart
April 17th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
As regular readers of NightHawk will know, I love a commercial blockbuster of a movie (I’ve just seen “Batman v Superman”). But I also enjoy seeing films that are a bit different – more realistic, more thoughtful.
A friend recommended to me a small, independent film that was released in 2008. It’s called “Frozen River” and you’ll have to search it out, but it’ll be worth it. I’ve reviewed it here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
61 photographs of Mexico added to the account of our holiday
April 17th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
It’s a fortnight now since Vee and I returned from a wonderful two-week holiday in Mexico. I was blogging about the trip each day during the journey and then, when I came home, I pulled together all the blog postings into a continuous narrative for my web site, adding some links to further information.
It’s quite a long account and not everyone will want to read all of it. But I’ve now added 61 photographs which illustrate every location that we visited. You can check them out here.
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (2)
The world’s newest country: Czechia
April 16th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
As Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, I’ve visited the country 26 times because my wife is half-Czech and we have many relatives and close friends there. Indeed I regard the capital Prague as my favourite city.
But this week the nation rebranded itself as Czechia. Why? All is explained here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Fact checking the Government’s statements on the European Union
April 16th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
I’m very much in favour of British membership of the European Union and I’ll be voting in the referendum for us to stay in the EU. But I think it’s good that 38 Degrees has organised for the statements in the Government’s booklet to all homes to be fact-checked independently. This is the result:
The leaflet says: “The UK is not part of the EU’s border-free zone – we control our own borders which gives us the right to check everyone, including EU nationals, arriving from continental Europe”
- The UK isn’t part of the EU’s border free zone—the Schengen area—and it retains control over its borders.
- This means it can check passports at its borders and refuse entry to people without any valid identity documents, including EU nationals. This isn’t the same as saying the UK can refuse anyone from other EU countries, if they do have valid documents. The UK also cannot directly control levels of immigration from other EU countries.
The leaflet says: “The Government has negotiated a deal that will make our benefits system less of a draw for EU citizens. In future, new EU migrants will not have full access to certain benefits until they have worked here for up to four years.”
- It’s not clear how much of an impact the new deal will have in terms of affecting the likelihood of citizens from the rest of the EU wanting to come and work in the UK. It’s far from certain that in-work benefits ever acted as a significant pull factor for EU migrants coming to the UK.
- The new deal means that in-work benefits can be restricted to new migrant workers from other EU countries for up to four years after they start working if a so-called ‘emergency brake’ has been applied.
- An EU member country can apply for a brake if it notifies EU authorities that it has experienced an inflow of workers of “exceptional magnitude” over “an extended period of time”.
- The size of that inflow has to affect its social security system, lead to difficulties in its employment market, or be putting “excessive pressure” on public services.
- The European Commission has already said that the UK would be justified in triggering the emergency brake, but it does require the approval of the Council.
The leaflet says: “EU cooperation makes it easier to keep criminals and terrorists out of the UK. Since 2004, using the European Arrest Warrant, over 1,000 suspects have faced justice in UK courts and over 7,000 have been extradited.”
- Around 7,100 suspects were extradited from the UK using the European Arrest Warrant between 2004 and 2014, and about 1,100 suspects were sent to the UK on the same basis.
- The UK has ‘opted in’ to various security arrangements that the EU has, such as the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), Schengen Information System (SIS), and European criminal records system.
- If the UK decides to leave the EU, it might not be able to access these arrangements directly. The EAW for example doesn’t currently apply to countries outside the EU. But Norway for example does participate in the SIS and something like the EAW without being a member of the EU.
The leaflet says: “The EU is by far the UK’s biggest trading partner. EU countries buy 44% of everything we sell abroad, from cars to insurance.”
- About 44% of UK exports in goods and services went to other countries in the EU in 2014. That compares to about 21% to countries in the Americas, 19% to Asian countries, and 11% to non-EU European countries.
- That share has been declining, as exports to other countries have been increasing at a faster rate.
- It’s sometimes argued that these statistics overstate the proportion of UK exports that go to the EU, as a lot of goods pass through ports like Rotterdam before being shipped to a final destination outside the EU. Both the ONS and the government’s review of our EU membership have concluded that it’s hard to quantify the extent of this ‘Rotterdam effect’ or establish whether it’s a serious problem for the statistics.
- It’s not clear what would happen to this trade if the UK votes to leave the EU. If the UK leaves the EU, the future rules on trade would depend on what kind of agreement, if any, the UK reaches with the EU after its departure.
The leaflet says: “No other country has managed to secure significant access to the Single Market, without having to: follow EU rules over which they have no real say; pay into the EU; accept EU citizens living and working in their country.”
- Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein have full access to the single market despite not being members of the EU. This includes accepting free movement of people (except for Liechtenstein) and paying.
- They do have to follow EU rules which they don’t vote on, although they are consulted about proposed laws and reserve the right, at least in principle, to refuse new EU laws they object to. Doing so would have political consequences, though.
- Switzerland has partial access to the single market. Its relationship with the EU is based on lots of different treaties, including one on free movement of people, and it also makes payments linked to the relationship.
- The Swiss also take on EU laws, but instead of laws constantly flowing into its legal system as with Norway, they change their laws where a treaty requires or if they think it’s a good idea anyway.
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)