COLONEL GADAFFI -- Friend or Foe?

Was he really a friend of ours?

It fills me with a certain degree of scepticism about human nature. When Tony Blair in 2005 welcomed Colonel Gadaffi back into the fold after he had renounced his WMD I was always unsure about this as the level of political repression in Libya was still severe and this was always just a gesture on Gadaffi"s part to gain international acceptance. Libya's status as an oil rich country always had a lot to do with our politicians creeping over there to do trade deals with this unsavoury individual. Yes if we didn't do it someone else would but it still shouldn't make us feel any better.

I am still not sure as to why this all changed so quickly why did he become our foe when he was our "friend". He did after all apologise for his WMD and perhaps we should have forgiven him? Or perhaps we were waiting for a credible opposition to form itself into a force that might overthrow him? Once that force crystallised then we were ready to sacrifice millions of pounds for an air blockade along with the French and Americans and our other Nato allies. It seems to be working but Mr Gadaffi is presently nowhere to be seen. What of the aftermath of all this? Will it produce a stable political outcome or another Iraq style bloodbath? The only thing that unites all the current rebels together is their hatred of Gadaffi, when he has gone they will have lost their unifying element and they will need to work with each other to rebuild the country. This is notoriously difficult in the Arab world where factionalism, tribalism and other sectional interests often predominate these situations. Will it be CIVIL WAR OR CIVIL PEACE? One thing is certain -- The West will need to supervise the re-building of Libya both structurally and politically orelse chaos will ensue. At least if Libya's assets are unfrozen the costs of the re-building will be l;argely paid for. What about those politicians and other cronies who beat a path to Gadaffi's door? Does the LSE regret accepting a donation however indirect, from the Libyan government? I'm sure they do, but the real lesson of this is to choose very carefully who your friends are and not be swayed by how much (oil) money they have. After all it may not always be in their power to share that money with you. As we have now found out with Mr Gaddaffi himself.

THE CAUSE OF THE ENGLISH RIOTS -- IS 1981 2011?

Will we see more of these on our streets soon?

Rioting, social disorder and challenges to authority have not been new in British Society. The latest problem dates from the vigil for Mark Duggan,killed by police in Tottenham,overheating into something different and violent. Some of the rioters were angry with the Police about this particular killing whilst others were just angry with the Police full stop and others probably wanted to exploit the situation for their own economic ends, in a period of high social pressure in areas of relative poverty. In 1981 I was a trainee accountant working for Greater Manchester Council when the Moss side riots broke out and I was seconded to the Riot Damages team. In those days if a riot occurred, the Police Authority (Us) was responsible for funding the damage. My job was to deal with the people who had lost their homes and possessions and who were claiming compensation from us for failing to control that explosive situation. It was an interesting but very difficult job and I really do understand the losses that people suffered last week. In the early 80's expenditure cuts contributed to a high level of unemployment and a lot of the riots were directed at the police and at destroying certain buildings although looting did not seem to be as prevalent as it was last week. There was also more of a racial element to the violence at that time. The riots then, seemed to be more driven by explosions of violence caused by groups reacting to their deprived and under invested surroundings. I am not sure that last week's riots were due to exactly the same factors.

In last week's riots there were clear pressures in place -- but these were also linked to criminality and a desire to steal valuable things and also to destroy buildings as well. The people who did this acted with impunity and exploited low police numbers to do it. They obviously did not see this as being morally wrong in their own eyes and this is the most worrying thing about the whole episode. Did they have any pangs of conscience about stealing things and trashing neighbourhoods or did they think that only other people and not themselves would suffer? Probably yes.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of the Kids Company which works with disturbed and excluded youngsters has pointed to the existence of an underclass of young people who have never worked, been excluded from mainstream society and have developed a perverse morality where crooks and drug dealers become the heroes and everyone else is just a mug for not getting ahead. In many instances gangs take the role of parenting and give these people a sense of belonging to something, even if it is deeply flawed. Many of these people do not possess a father figure which, combined with the economic circumstances they find themselves in, does not help matters. The combination in some areas of high unemployment, poor education , diminishing job prospects and a minimal stake in society form a dangerous cocktail which will express itself in violence on the streets. The danger of violence on the streets was always a likely consequence of the Coalition's policies and reports by the Runnymede Trust even named Croydon and Birmingham as likely hot spots of conflict. To be fair,this underclass has been developing in the UK for nearly 40 years and it is time that something was done about it.

Clifford Longley has quoted Dickens from Barnaby Rudge about the characteristics of an angry mob. It is worth reproducing this quote as follows.

" A mob is usually a creature of mysterious existence,particularly in a large city. Where it comes from and whither it goes,few men can tell. Assembling and dispersing with equal suddenness,it is difficult to follow to its sources as the sea itself; nor does the parallel stop here, for the ocean is not more fickle and uncertain,more terrible when roused,more unreasonable or more cruel."

Where do we go from here? Greg Clark the Tory MP has been appointed as Minister for cities and charged with leading the social,environmental and commercial renewal of the largest 8 connurbations outside London. Nick Clegg will chair a senior group of ministers charged with moving forward Mr Clark's agenda. Haven't we been here before in the 1980's with Michael Heseltine as the minister for Merseyside? Will we just throw some money at the problem and make things better for a few years and then things will revert back to what they were before? Perhaps we need a sustainable approach so that people can change themselves and their own surroundings for the long term.

Perhaps it is time for a more radical solution. An article in the forthcoming Guardian has argued that power has been concentrated in too few hands to the detriment of the majority of people in the UK. It argues that  1,000 citizens should be selected at random to sit on a public jury that will propose reforms to banking, and politics. The jury, to be funded from the public purse, would examine:

• Media ownership.
• The financial sector's role in the crash.
• MP selections and accountability.
• Policing and public interest.

• How to apply a "public interest first" test more generally to British political and corporate life.

The scandals of MP's expenses, bankers bonuses and phone hacking have undermined our democracy and given certain parts of  society a licence to misbehave. We need to bring back greater honesty and trust into society and tackle inequality more robustly. The riots of 1981 are not the same as 2011 -- there was some excuse for the 1981 riots, much less so for their 2011 equivalents.

The spending cuts have not yet bitten as strongly as they will in 2012/13 -- We do need to address these issues now to avoid any repetiton of such events in the future. Locking up the current rioters is required - but if the same social conditions persist won't other potential troublemakers just take their places unless something concrete is not achieved?

THE SMOLENSK AIR CRASH -- Any nearer the truth?

Smolensk - Will the real truth ever emerge?

The first anniversary of the Smolensk air crash where the Polish President and more than 90 other people of the Polish military and civil elite perished; has come and gone - but controversy as to the causes of the crash is still very live within Poland. One of the passengers who perished on that awful day was my former parish priest Father Bronislaw Gostomski, so I have a personal interest in this tragedy. The group were on their way to celebrate the anniversary of the murder, in 1940, of around 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet NKVD (Secret Police)in and around Katyn in the period before Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and the Nazi-Soviet non aggression pact was still intact. Two tragedies affecting the Polish nation, both on Russian soil, the first a calculated move to destroy potential "Enemies of the people" and pave the way for a post war Polish communist state - where the absence of a non-communist elite would make it easier to control such a state. The second was a tragic accident which should never have happened but through a litany of poor planning and communication, nevertheless did happen and with such awful consequences.

From the Russian side, the airport was not the best, messages from the control tower to the plane were confused and misleading. From the Polish side, the presidential party should never have flown in such a concentrated group within one aircraft,this should never have been allowed and was a clear lapse in security. The pilots apparently were not as experienced as they should have been - especially for a landing at such a rugged airport and in fog as well. The result of these unfortunate happenings is now visible for all to see. A Polish government report on the disaster is due by the end of August where other issues may emerge. Some Polish military and political figures have already lost their jobs. The bigger question on everyone's lips is, who is to blame for what happened.

The Polish Law and Justice party blames the Russians for the disaster and although they may have contributed to it I believe that in this instance blame cannot be laid solely at their door. I am not a fan of Soviet Russia, my own mother was deported to Kazakstan as an 11 year old girl when the Soviets and Nazis carved up Poland in the Second World War. She worked in a forest camp in the freezing cold, with very poor nutrition. Many of the prisoners died in those extreme conditions. She was lucky in the sense that when the Nazi's attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin and the Polish Government in exile negotiated an "amnesty" for Polish prisoners on Russian soil (Though they had never committed any crimes). These former prisoners joined an army which was meant to fight the Nazis on Soviet soil, though circumstances changed. This army managed to be transported through Iraq and Iran to Palestine, where they came under British command and later on, fought as the Free Polish forces on the Allied side. My mother spoke little of her incarceration in the Soviet Union, although she did mention that the ordinary Russian people were as kind as they could be in such a Stalinist system.

In this case the Poles cannot exclusively blame the Russian bogey man, they must examine their own shortcomings as well. All sides need to learn from this tragedy -- political capital should not be made out of the suffering of the dead and their living relatives as well. Though apparently some relatives of the dead are now planning to stand for election to public office in Poland. Let's hope they are standing for proper reasons.

A Polish report on the crash will be due out at the end of August -- Perhaps we will return to it again --

Lets hope and pray that both countries can move on from this disaster.

NORWAY AND AUSCHWITZ - The Links

Freedom through work? - Not in this place

Having just got back from Krakow in Poland, I visited the the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp where over 1 million people were murdered by the Nazis. It really does make a huge impression on a person when you see the piles of children's shoes, suitcases, human hair and spectacles amongst other things --- All these belonged to living people who were murdered for a perverted ideal. The linkages to Schindler's factory in Krakow where 1,000 Jews were saved are obvious. Similarly the links to the other people who so bravely saved the lives of those most persecuted should always be celebrated. "Freedom Through Work" the motto of the camp,never had a more hollow ring; to my horror, German drugs and cosmetics firms tested their products on the Auschwitz inmates, which again beggars belief. We thought that the horrors of Auschwitz were buried forever, but unfortunately they re-appeared in Norway where a member of an extreme right wing organisation, murdered over 90 innocent people in the name of de-islamification and racial purity. Where does it all end?

People may be prejudiced against others -- the right thing for all of us to do is to recognise these situations and to fight against them ourselves. We may all have individual battles to fight but we should never abandon the fight against such unseemly views both in ourselves and others as well. Only then we will ensure that events like Auschwitz and Norway do not recur.