Servants of the People

 

I wish to associate myself with the party of President Zelensky, a fellow-member with the Liberal Democrats in Liberal International.

Unitary elections: Cardiff Labour makes extravagant promises on public transport

https://nation.cymru/news/cardiff-labour-promise-new-train-stations-1-bus-fares-and-1500-new-council-homes-if-they-win-may-election/ refers. 

The last we heard on the subject from Labour-controlled Neath Port Talbot. was a cut in bus subsidy.

Face covering

Face masks are no longer mandatory in Wales. However, the fall in fatalities from respiratory diseases other than Covid-19 during the last twelve months suggests that mask-wearing has protected others from non-coronavirus infection. I have certainly noticed an improvement - my last set of inhalers lasted over four months rather than the usual three. It seems a good idea to carry on covering nose and mouth indoors in public if one has cold symptoms. 

The dying Usk

 Against a background of sewage-degraded rivers throughout England, highlighted by Tim Farron, it appears that the Usk is more in danger than most in Britain. Guy Mawle with the aid of statistics from his former employers, Natural Resources Wales  (NRW), has produced a grim report. Yesterday's Radio Wales Country Focus devoted the whole programme to the issue. Highlighted were the denial of sufficient finance to NRW to enable them to fulfil their legal responsibilities in respect of rivers and the fact that, unlike the River Wye whose state has received more publicity, the Usk receives treated sewage which has not been phosphate-stripped, resulting in unnatural growth of algae which if unchecked stifles a waterway.

The not-for-profit Welsh Water/Dŵr Cymru is clearly more responsible than the commercial water companies in England, but must do more. The Welsh Government should ensure that it does so, as well as providing adequate funds to our ecological watchdogs.

I see no culture war against Russia

 Or should that be "special cultural operation"? Anyway, arts administrators in the West have been careful to restrict their sanctions to known public supporters of Putin. In music, Valery Gergiev and Anna Netrebko have had contracts cancelled, but performances of the music of Russian composers, even Soviet-era composers, continue. The Royal Ballet has not taken Swan Lake out of its current repertory. Radio 3 has broadcast Tchaikovsky, Prokoviev, Shostakovich and Shchedrin in the last seven days, I have no doubt that the worlds of theatre and film have taken a similar line.  Russian culture is an intrinsic part of world culture and only the most knuckle-headed backwoodsmen would dispute that. The quarrel of the West is with Putin and his warmongering clique, not with the Russian people or their culture. 

Perhaps Putin should take note of what is happening in his own backyard, as Vasily Petrenko, a man of international repute (and former chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), has suspended his work in Russia until peace is restored in Ukraine:

.In a statement issued six days after Russia launched its assault of Ukraine, which has seen the country hit by air strikes and artillery attacks, St Petersburg-born Petrenko said the "historic and cultural ties between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, of which I am proud, can never be used to justify Russia's invasion".

P&O broke UK law, not EU directive

 Much as I would like to nail another indictment to the door of the Brexit campaign, it has to be said that UK membership of the EU would not have protected the victims of P&O's mass sackings. The meme which is circulating on social media is misguided. If French and Irish P&O employees were protected, it was by French and Irish law, not by EU-directed legislation. No doubt the Commission would like a more consistent approach across the Union, but as in most areas of the law, member nations retain individual competence in employment regulation. 

In any case, the maritime employment régime is not simple. Baroness Vere (shipping minister) in the House of Lords' consideration of the P&O actions stated: 

"The world of employment law on international routes is hugely complicated. In many circumstances, the jurisdiction of the flag state applies on board vessels on international routes. Occasionally, that can also be a coastal state or the state under which the contract of employment was signed. We believe that was Jersey for some of these workers, but there is an awful lot of information to be found out about the circumstances surrounding the contracts and employment of these individuals. We are working very closely with officials in the department to press P&O Ferries and its owner, DP World, for the information we need to fully get to grips with some of the issues we want to proceed with." (my emphasis) 

On Brexit, P&O Ferries re-registered its vessels under the flag of Cyprus* (an EU member state), though this was almost certainly for economic reasons unconnected with employment. 

No, the blame lies with P&O Ferries themselves and with the UK government for its reluctance to bring the nation's maritime law into line with domestic employment law. This is something which Transport minister Grant Shapps has now promised to expedite, but we now know that he was given notice last November of P&O's intentions. He could have taken action then.

* Cyprus vied with the UK as the EU state most welcoming of foreign money with few questions asked. She now stands alone, though Estonia is not totally clean.

Blogging attenuated

 I am becoming involved in the local authority elections . As regular readers will have noted, blogging has already become lighter, a situation which will probably continue for the next eight weeks.

Bosnia: another Russian front

 Virtually unmentioned in the UK broadcast media, Putin is directly intervening in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Caerphilly MP Wayne David on last Sunday's Sunday Supplement programme asserted that the Russian warmonger is intent on destroying the Dayton Accords. He aims to inflame religious and nationalist feelings clearly with the aim of moving in.

"For some months now, President Putin has been fomenting divisions inside Bosnia. [...] Republika Srpska might actually break away from the Bosnia-Herzegovina nation."

Stalin never felt able to take over Yugoslavia as he had done with the rest of eastern Europe. The canny Tito managed to play off East against West. It may be that Putin feels he can go one better than Stalin.

Another historic city under threat

 Those historic links kept resonating. When the scale of the Russian operation was reported, names like Minsk (now capital of Byelarus) and Kyiv/Kiev brought up memories of ancient history. Then Lord Carlile revealed a more sensitive side of his steel-trap lawyer's mind on Sunday Supplement earlier this month, recalling that his mother was brought up in Lviv, in the far west of Ukraine, but still within the range of Russian cruise missiles. It was than named Lvov and was part of Poland. Escaping after the collapse of the pact between Stalin and the Nazis, she was part of the Jewish resistance in Poland. In 1990 he took her back to Lviv, just one year out from being a poor drab Soviet city. On his return in 2019, the contrast was remarkable. Lviv had become a thriving, modern, young city in an  independent Ukraine. In 2022, it once more lives in fear.

A potted biography of Trotsky on Radio 4 this morning unearthed the gem that he came from a family of rich assimilated Jews, the Bronsteins. They were based in Kherson province, whose capital was one of the first cities to fall to the Russians. The young Lev Bronstein went on to study in Nikolayev/Mykolaiv, where he became a communist, and in Odessa. Odessa is predicted to come under heavy bombardment imminently.

Odessa is known now as a major seaport and transport hub. However, it has an ancient history and some famous people have links with the city. The great violinist David Oistrakh was born there, as were Nathan Milstein and the pianist Emil Gilels. Another pianist, Sviatoslav Richter was brought up in the city. It was a favourite resort of many 19th century notables, such as those listed here. 

And it is this city's turn to be reduced to rubble in an attempt to satisfy the inhuman ambition of one man.

Transport Department did know about the P&O sackings in advance

In https://ffrancsais.blogspot.com/2022/03/p-is-not-above-law.html I raised the question as to whether shipping minister Robert Courts' display of shock and anger at the sudden sackings by P&O was genuine. The jury is still out on that, but it is now clear that several people in the ministry were aware of the company's plans. This afternoon, in her introductory speech to her motion condemning the mass dismissals, Louise Haigh MP said:

What is important is that we now know that the Government had the opportunity to stop this before it happened. They knew before the workers what P&O had planned. I can inform the House that I have come into possession of a memo that was circulated to the Transport Secretary, his private office and, we are told, 10 Downing Street. For the benefit of Members, I am happy to lodge it in the House of Commons Library.

This memo was no vague outline; it was the game plan of P&O. I can reveal to the House that it not only makes it clear that the Government were made aware that 800 seafarers were to be sacked, but explicitly endorses the thuggish fire and rehire tactics that P&O had clearly discussed with the Department ahead of Thursday. There is nothing in this memo at all that expresses any concern, any opposition or raises any alarm about the sacking of 800 loyal British workers. This is the clearest proof that the Government’s first instinct was to do absolutely nothing. There is no use Government Members wringing their hands now; it is here in black and white, and I will happily lodge it in the Library, Mr Speaker, for the benefit of Opposition Members when they are considering how to vote tonight. 

Replying to the debate, transport minister Grant Shapps said he had been made aware of the plans at 8:30 p.m. on the night before P&O's action, but had not seen the memo at that time. It remains to be seen which ministers did actually read it and when.

Further to that previous post,  while the bulk of the old P&O remains with DP World, P&O Cruises was spun off in 2000, and is now owned and operated by Carnival Corporation plc. Maersk bought the joint container-ship venture P&O Nedlloyd in 2005.

[updated 2022-03-22]

Two county matches for Neath, none for Swansea

 The cricket county championship fixtures are out. Glamorgan makes a welcome return to Neath for two Royal London cup matches, on 17th and 19th August. The first visitors are Lancashire, whom the Welsh county have usually entertained in Colwyn Bay. It is sad to see that neither Colwyn Bay nor, surprisingly, Swansea appear on the fixture list. One presumes that neither location was able to give the financial guarantees demanded by Glamorgan, but surely there would have been pent-up demand resulting from the freedom from Covid-19 restrictions, to see cricket at those grounds by the sea?

Whatever, here's hoping for more success for the county, including retention of the Royal London.

Tributes to Mary Coombs, the world's first business programmer

Mary Coombs, one of the pioneers of LEO (Lyons Electronic Office), the world's first business computer,  died on 28th February 2022 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, at the age of 93. BBC Radio 4's Last Word will be celebrating her life and achievements this afternoon, with a repeat on Sunday at 20:30. 

Obituaries have already appeared in the Guardian and Telegraph, as well as the specialist Register.  

There was a short BBC Witness History feature made about her. Her school, Putney High School, also celebrated her in a video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHiCMfHydlo. 

For more about LEO, read Georgina Ferry's "A computer called LEO" or watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzu68nRVwtE

(I am grateful to the LEO Computers Society for most of the information above.)

 

P&O is not above the law

 That it should come to this  A great British institution from the days of Empire has sunk to mass sackings and replacement with cheap contract labour like a back-street builder. The shipping minister sounded genuinely angry in his statement to the Commons this afternoon. If he is really concerned, and not just hurt by being kept in the dark by P&O bosses, then he must rigorously apply what is left of our employment law. Also, it looks as if there may have been breaches of financial regulations and HM Treasury and HMRC must take action if so.

The conglomerate which took over P&O, DP World (majority-owned by the Dubai Sovereign Wealth Fund), is known to be interested in running one or more of the Johnson government's proposed freeports. The concept is already a threat to employment and environmental standards. Allowing an outfit like DP World in would accelerate a race to the bottom and the PM must immediately state that DP World will not be invited to bid.

The NAAFI

I had one of those shocks of recognition earlier this evening. There was on the TV screen, in glorious colour, the Troodos holiday camp in the mountains of Cyprus in which our army family spent an enjoyable week on my father's leave  in the early 1950s. It turns out that the camp was run by the NAAFI (the Naval, Army and Air Force Institutes) and the sequence appeared in a Rank Look At Life short, part of a series being shown on Talking Pictures TV.

It was a worthwhile reminder of what a large and sophisticated organisation the NAAFI was. It was not quite as grand as the American PX, but claimed to provide an equivalent service. It even provided its own range of pop including a cola, which it has to be said was not as flavoursome as the two big proprietary brands.

MPs' salaries

Once again the amount we pay our members of parliament has come under question.  It is not good enough to say that is decided by an independent body. The general public will see that as a committee of the Great And The Good, all part of the same Establishment as the politicians themselves.

What is needed is a genuine survey of the UK public to set in stone what comparators should be used in setting parliamentarians' pay. Are they worth more or less than a refuse collector? More or less than a head teacher? Or a newspaper editor (Paul Dacre at the Mail pulls in over £1million a year, but he must be at the top of the tree)?

I would envisage the survey being conducted by several independent bodies separately, to reduce bias. The annual calculation of MPs salaries would then be carried out by an arms-length organisation, such as the Office for National Statistics or that for Budget Responsibility.

Child abuse must not be forgotten

 The weekend's formal apology by the Northern Ireland government  to victims of child abuses recalls a story of over a month ago. It made the headlines for a day but, even before the Putin invasion of Ukraine drove all other news from the front pages, just as quickly vanished.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) had carried out case studies in six areas in the UK and found that there was widespread abuse. The IICSA's report (pdf here) concluded that "Children are sexually exploited by networks in all parts of England and Wales in the most degrading and destructive ways". Swansea was one of the areas studied, but as the section of the report makes plain, any city of its size and characteristics could have been chosen. "These six case study areas were selected in order to enable the Inquiry to consider a range of features, including size, demography, geography and social characteristics, and to illustrate different policies, practices and performance on the selected themes". 

Swansea's appearance in the report did trigger coverage on Radio Wales's Sunday Supplement on 6th February, an episode which unfortunately is no longer available. As I recall, in her contribution the Children's Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland expressed disappointment that, in spite of all the concerted effort which had been put in across Wales to disrupt the criminal networks, there was still a long way to go. Her office had been set up twenty years ago in the wake of the North Wales children's homes scandal, when children were not believed. The IICSA report showed that attitudes had still not changed.  She agreed with presenter Vaughan Roderick in reinforcing the point that the report showed that the criminal acts were spread across the whole of England and Wales. There was a high probability that the same criminal organisations operating "county lines" drug deals were also involved in child sexual exploitation.

Perhaps if taxi-drivers of Bengali heritage had been involved in the gangs (as was the case in the abuse which came to light in Rochdale in 2017) the Daily Mail (in particular) would have continued to run the story claiming "political correctness gone mad". (My experience of hiring taxis from the days of my IT contracting was that the drivers were most likely to have been ex-steelworkers or ex-miners.)  In fact, one of the positive measures that had been taken in Wales was to get taxi-drivers and night-workers generally to report to the police if they were aware of suspicious behaviour involving minors, with considerable success. 

The point is that, irrespective of the ethnicity of the organisers, police appear to fight shy of investigating these grooming gangs. This deficiency, which leaves vulnerable children defenceless, must be filled, if necessary by introducing new specialised units in both the police and local authorities. At the very least, there must be more cooperation and information-sharing by police and LAs.

Purim, Ukraine and Palestine

There was an enlightening (for this goy at least) programme on Radio Wales this morning about Purim which is being celebrated by Jews this week. The festival is inspired by the Book of Esther, the Jewish wife of the great ruler Ahasuerus (probably Xerxes) who foiled a plot to exterminate her people. When so many Jewish festivals commemorate events of oppression, Purim is a more joyous affair.

Reform Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Professor Emeritus of Judaism at the University of Wales, spoke of parallels with modern Zionism and with Putin's invasion of Ukraine. While condemning the treatment of Palestinians and supporting the two-state solution, the rabbi insisted that Jews were always afraid because of their history and needed a state that they could call their own. He also compared the bravery of Esther with that of the Jewish president of Ukraine standing up for his people against an imperialist ruler.

That abiding fear is the justification for the modern state of Israel's antagonistic attitude to her neighbours and her non-Jewish occupants. It seems to me that she is now in such a demonstrable position of strength that she should start making more friends. It is also interesting that Putin claims that he has invaded Ukraine out of fear of NATO, when Russia is clearly the top dog - at least militarily - in the region. 

Poland, once under Soviet dictatorship, now in the grip of an elected one

 Euronews reports:

Poland's constitutional court ruled once again on Thursday that the European Convention on Human Rights is partly incompatible with the Polish constitution.

The Constitutional Tribunal, appointed mainly by Poland's nationalist-populist government, took issue with Article 6 of the human rights convention's compatibility with Polish law.

That article guarantees a person's right to a fair trial by an independent and impartial court.

The tribunal denied the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and national courts the right to "review the constitutionality and compatibility" of Polish laws on the judiciary with the human rights convention.

The constitutional tribunal had already rejected an ECHR judgment in November that questioned the legality of the appointment of judges to the Constitutional Court.

The ECHR has recently delivered several critical judgements on the controversial reform of Poland's judiciary, which Brussels has also accused of undermining judicial independence.

The Polish government, for its part, says that its reforms are necessary to combat judicial corruption, criticising "interference" from Brussels.

The EU, however, says that the reforms undermine the independence of the judiciary, undermining the rule of law and ultimately democracy.

In a decision that caused a stir in the EU, the Polish constitutional tribunal rejected the primacy of European law over Polish law, sparking a row with Brussels that blocked approval of Warsaw's economic recovery plan.

One trusts that this is the dying kick of ageing ultra-religious conservatives who will be swept away at the next general election by the generation who came out on the streets to protest against the ban on medical abortions.

Visa application centre established in Arras

 The news report immediately recalled the death of Polonius in Hamlet: stabbed behind the arras. Indeed, there are those who would claim that Ukrainian refugees are being virtually stabbed in the back.  Apologists for the government might claim that they are merely exhibiting political correctness, treating refugees with white faces to the same hostile environment as people of colour.

Arras is 109.2 km from Calais, a fraction less than the distance to Lille from the seaport. It seems that Ukrainian refugees have headed for Calais. One wonders whether Arras was chosen because there is already a French immigrant reception centre in the town.

Whatever, something will have to be done about the Calais "jungle". It seems from a current Radio 4 investigation, that armed smuggling gang leaders, holding British passports, are able to move without hindrance between Calais and England, and that guns are everywhere in the encampment.

If Putin's cronies are hiding untaxed gains, ICIJ will find them

 The International Consortium of Investigative Journals has announced the "Russia Archive, an inside look at the hidden wealth of oligarchs and elites close to Putin" 

In response to the brutal invasion of Ukraine, governments around the world have imposed a series of unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia, its oligarchs and the political leaders surrounding Vladimir Putin.

Russian elites have long been important clients of the secretive offshore financial industry that helps to funnel vast wealth — much of it stolen public assets — out of Russia and into Western bank accounts, financial instruments, lavish homes, yachts and other stores of value.

And for 10 years, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the global leader in cross-border collaborative journalism, has worked to expose this ill-gotten wealth, along with the secretive offshore network that helps to hide it. [...]

Today [8th March], ICIJ announces the Russia Archive, a library of previous Russia-related exposés, now the focus of renewed interest, as well as ongoing investigations into the hidden wealth of the Putin regime’s ruling elites.

One trusts that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have the ICIJ feed at the top of their RSS list.

It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government still gets in

 There have been too many instances justifying the cynic's view. Post Office closures*, student loans and the creeping privatisation of the NHS begun under one party continued on what should have been a change of approach under another. The Grenfell Inquiry, as reported in the current Private Eye, revealed another.

The stage had been set by the slew of deregulation by the Thatcher/Major governments and continued by Blair/Brown. In particular, fire safety assessments at the planning stage were abolished. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) had been privatised, another decision which was not reversed by New Labour. However, the latter was awarded a contract to test various cladding materials as a result of a 1999 Select Committee recommendation. It designed a test for 14 cladding systems, including the ACM used at Grenfell. At the time, ACM had

a fire rating of "Class 0", meaning it complied with guidance at the time. However, when ACM was subjected to a large-scale test on 18 July 2001, the results were catastrophic. Flames leapt 20 metres - double the height of the testing rig - in just five minutes. The test was halted to protect the safety of those present.

Results of the test were delivered to the [Blair] government in September 2002. Dr Debbie Smith, former managing director of the BRE, agreed at the inquiry that this should have left the government "in no doubt at all" that the material should "never ever" be used on tall buildings.

But the government did not act.

Neither did the coalition, in spite of the Lakanal House fire which occurred less than a year before it came to power.

*Though there was a brief halt to these when Liberal Democrat ministers controlled the relevant Department under the coalition.

Liberal Democrat MPs mark International Women's Day

In the Commons today, Liberal Democrat deputy parliamentary leader Daisy Cooper presented under Standing Order No. 57:
Women Leaving Prison (Safe Accommodation) Bill
and Maternity Services (Rural Areas) Bill

There were also presented:
Official Development Assistance Equalities Impact Assessment (Women and Girls) Bill (by Layla Moran)

State Pension Underpayments (Divorced Women) Bill and
Surgical Mesh (Support) Bill (Sarah Green)

Gender Pay Gap Bill (Sarah Olney)

Planning (Women’s Safety) Bill (Christine Jardine)

 
Miscarriage and Stillbirth (Black and Asian Women) Bill (Munira Wilson)
and
Rape (Conviction Rates) Bill (Wera Hobhouse)

What are known as Presentation Bills have no speech or debate attached to them and rarely become law. However, they are useful in keeping an issue before the House. There is no doubt that all the subjects chosen are of immediate concern to many women.

Train timetable two-timing by TOCs?

Private Eye reports:

Timetables are supposed to change in May and September only and be fixed 12 weeks ahead so people can make plans, including buying affordable "advance" tickets for specific trains. But last month the "conditions of travel" were amended without consultation or publicity. The new edition introduces something called the "published timetable of the day" defined as "The schedule of services, including rail replacement services, applicable on the day you travel (different to May or December timetable). These changes will be published no later than 22:00 on the day before travel and available at www.nationalrail.co.uk."

Not so great a hardship if you have a smartphone or other instant access to the Web, but a considerable pain for the rest of us. No doubt the train operating companies will protest that they will only take advantage of this new loophole in an emergency, but emergency provisions have a habit of becoming regular.

LIBOR rigging: the wrong people were sent to gaol

 The BBC business news web site explains the background:

What the FTSE 100 is to share prices, Libor is to interest rates – an index that tracks the cost of borrowing cash. For most of the past 35 years, 16 banks have answered a question every morning at 11am: At what interest rate could you borrow money?

They submit their answers (eg RBS estimates 3.14%, Lloyds 3.13% etc) and an average is taken to get Libor, short for "London Interbank Offered Rate".

As I understand it from the evidence of Andy Verity's programmes this last week, it had been accepted practice to put a spin on the actual figures depending on whether the bankers wanted the going rate to appear high or low. When it became a crime was when the bankers conducting the consultation were instructed from on high to tell a downright lie about the rate applicable to their employer ("lowballing"). Directors were concerned that the bank should not be seen to be paying higher interest because the media would seize on this as evidence that they were desperate for money.

Two bankers who went along with this under protest blew the whistle to the US Federal authorities. For their trouble, they were prosecuted and gaoled by the British authorities, the court process itself leaving much to be desired. No action was taken against the initiators of the fraud. Verity's investigation also indicated that the pressure to push LIBOR down came from government and that the FSA were aware of the situation but chose not to be involved. 

Read the web page cited above for the full story, including names, and weep.

"When I hear the word 'culture'," ... I power up my BM-21*?

 Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, is known as the City Of Domes. It was reputedly the epicentre of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, from which the Russian Orthodox church sprang. It contains two World Heritage Sites and the city's destruction would rank alongside the World War 2 Allied razing of Dresden according to some commentators. President Zelensky has invoked a parallel which should hurt Russians more: the Nazis' assault on Kyiv in 1941.

One would think that Russians aware of the city's history would spare Kyiv. Russia gave the world such cultural icons as Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Fabergé eggs and ... icons. How could she subject Kyiv to an artillery barrage? But one has to consider that the military world view is a blinkered one. The single motive is to gain objectives by any means possible without consideration - or possibly even knowledge - of cultural implications. Hence the fire-storm which engulfed Dresden and, more relevantly, the Russian desecration of the ancient city of Aleppo during the brutal suppression of the Syrian uprising.

One can only hope that, in the light of the world's revulsion at the assault on Aleppo, Putin's instruction to his military commanders is to minimise human casualties and to preserve the Ukrainian/Russian heritage. 

* The BM-21 Grad is a mobile rocket-launcher invented by the Russians in the 1960s. A BM-21 was identified as responsible for the downing of flight MH17 (pdf here) and Grads figured prominently in the images of the recent Russia-Belarus military exercises.

Unsung death of a pioneer

 Cliff Stanford probably stood in relation to home IT in this country as Herbert Austin and William Morris did to popular motoring  Before Tim Berners-Lee gave the world the tools to create the World Wide Web, access to the Internet was via text and, outside the military, largely the preserve of universities and corporations. Stanford was the first to popularise it in the UK. It is not quite true to say that his recent passing was not marked at all. This obituary in a specialist organ tells the story of Stanford's entrepreneurship. It concludes: 

It is thanks to Stanford that so much of the UK got online early. He sold connectivity through dial-up modems when no one else thought consumers would be interested. Many of those who worked at Demon Internet have gone on to be very senior in telcos, infrastructure, and web giants today.

If what you achieve is about what you leave behind, Stanford was much more than just an entrepreneur.

Stanford died on 24 February at his home in Estonia. He is survived by his partner Sylvia, his son Tony, and his sister Roz. 

It must be significant that he made his last home in the most digital-data-driven European nation in or out of the EU.

Chelsea and Everton detach from Russian influence

In these straitened times, it may be difficult for Everton FC to find alternative funds of the same size, but the club has taken the decision to cut its ties with the USM investment organisation and its proprietor, Alisher Usmanov.  The Uzbek billionaire is a Putin supporter and is already subject to an EU travel ban. The money may have been welcome, but the fans will be relieved that Usmanov's influence on football decisions will be no more.

That follows a statement by Roman Abramovich that he will go further than his earlier plan, to transfer management of Chelsea FC to a board of trustees, and actually sell the club, writing off £1,5bn in loans in the process. Abramovich, another person once close to Putin, has been sanctioned by the US, and is in the sights of the UK government.

None of the other 18 clubs in the Premier League seem to be dependent on Russian money, though some have questioned the propriety of companies promoting gambling and of repressive Middle Eastern régimes also owning English football clubs. The list is here.

Vladimir Johnson steamrollers "Stop Steve Bray" law through Commons

 To be more precise, in the early hours of this morning, the Commons passed a government motion to reject Lords amendment no. 73 to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill by 50 votes, much less than the normal government majority. There was a sizeable revolt on the Conservative back-benches, but not enough to stop the measure to give police powers to stop "noisy" protests. It is good to see that my party will continue to fight against this anti-democratic measure and others which were also approved this morning.

The full debate is reported by Hansard here.

Both Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour) and Conservative Steve Baker name-checked our own Steve Bray as the sort of protester whom the government wished to silence, but who was the epitome of the UK's tradition of free speech. 

The government's excuse for the repressive legislation was a HMICFRS recommendation, but Sarah Jones for Labour countered:

The Minister quoted an HMICFRS report, but he misunderstood its conclusions. The report said that we need a

“modest reset of the scales”

because police forces are usually good at planning protests but the “balance may tip”. The report’s recommendations were not legislative; they were to update and improve guidance to senior police officers, to improve the way in which the police assess the impact of protests, to improve police intelligence and to improve debrief processes, all of which are very sensible.

The Government asked the HMICFRS to look at some legislative options, which it did, and it gave some qualified support to some of them, but at no point was noise any part of that conversation. I have spoken to many senior police officers and at no point have any of them asked for any changes to the law on noise. The Bill goes way beyond the right balance between the right to protest and the right for others, which we agree with, to go about their daily lives.

Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael drew a parallel closer to home:

the noisy protests in this Chamber every Wednesday between 12 and 12.30. We are okay, because we are protected by parliamentary privilege, but surely if Conservative Members want to end noisy protests, they should be prepared to practise what they preach.

Many members  pointed out the irony of our politicians condemning the heavy-handed treatment of Russian protesters against the war against Ukraine by Putin's police forces and the government's introduction of law which would bring England and Wales closer to that régime.

One "chink of light", as Layla Moran put it, in the government's amendments was the repeal of the Vagrancy Act. She was very generous in her speech in welcoming the contribution by Conservatives who came rather late to public support for the campaign which she started four years ago, supported by colleagues Wera Hobhouse,  Christine Jardine, former party leader Jo Swinson and Green MP Caroline Lucas.

There was a widespread call for this and the more progressive new measures to be introduced as soon as practical.