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Here is my pick of last week's Italy Magazine articles:
If you are going to be in Abruzzo between tomorrow and 5th September, there is a fascinating, traditional festival in Lanciano.
Still in Abruzzo, Nick Calvano told us the touching story of how he traced more members of his family in Vasto.
Then we went to Tuscany for our summer film, Stealing Beauty.  Staying with film, a famous friend of Italy is shortly to return.
I had to laugh at this story, though I don't suppose I would have been amused had I been one of the passengers! One of the saddest stories of the week was this tale of our times and it was also the week in which Italy said goodbye to former President Cossiga.
For my personal Patti Chiari column, I wrote about how books led me, in a way, to Sicily.  This is to be continued.
I hope you enjoy these stories.

I thought it would be a nice change to pop up to the local town centre during lunchtime today so that I could get something interesting for my lunch and also dinner this evening.  I specifically remembered not to take the route where the roadworks were so that I didn’t get delayed.  I was able to park easily and make my way to M&S where I chose my lunch quite quickly.  It took me a little longer to choose and evening meal but that is because I was trying to combine healthy with interesting and the meals were in two separate places.  Eventually I plumped, made my way to the till and paid.

I was doing quite well for time until I got to the ticket machine.  I was struggling with my bags and purse and the ticket didn’t go in the machine properly the first time.  I tried again and the machine gobbled the ticket just as I looked up and noticed on the visual display ‘machine out of order please use another machine‘.  The ticket was stuck and the intercom line engaged!  Eventually I got to talk to someone  who told me that the machine was jammed and that someone was already on the way to sort it out.  I waited and told several other shoppers who came to use the machine what was going on.  I was also able to direct them to the nearest ticket machine, which is actually right back by the shops.  I waited a little more and told more shoppers what was going on…

Suddenly the intercom buzzed at me, I was told that the person who was coming to assist had got delayed and that I should get into my car and make my way to the exit, then ring the intercom from there!  Which I did and was let out of the car park.

Phew I had escaped eventually.  Perhaps the moral of the story is I should have stayed at work and read my book as usual?

Thanks, Dearieme.  There’s some dispute over the singer.

A week or so ago I wrote, reasonably seriously, about a half baked plan to have Magistrates Courts set up in shopping malls – an idea that The Magistrates Association appears to have retreated from.

Law Review: Magistrates call for courts in shopping centres – a parody?

Unfortunately, another even less baked idea has been put forward by a magistrate… as reported in The Guardian today.  I am grateful to @BristolRed for the tip off to The Guardian report.

The Guardian reports: “Any takers for the justice bus? This unlikely sounding proposition, a mobile court travelling far-flung parts of the country dispensing justice, was floated recently, along with the idea of “pop-up” courts in supermarkets.

Both were suggested as ways of preserving local justice in the face of the huge court closure plan. Ministers want to save £15.3m by redrawing the justice map and closing 157 magistrates and county courts.

…. “As for the justice bus, a Norwich JP, Diana Reid, has in mind a decommissioned double-decker to take justice to remote communities. In a recent article for the Magistrates Association magazine, she describes the Tardis-like properties of the vehicle: “Upstairs are the supporting admin staff, and a separated area for the lawyers. On the lower level the space is divided into a very small waiting area; the ‘court room area’ and a very small ‘retiring area’.” Quite; there’s not much room for dignity, let alone anything else.”

It might be a good idea for Ken Clarke, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice to have a look at some of the people who are magistrates as part of his review of criminal justice – if these ideas are popping into the minds of those who are dispensing justice on the cheap?

Twitter often comes up with a pithy comment and I think @djhanks has hit the nail on the head with this one worder  tweet….

See how you go on these recent names:

1. The banker caught looking at pics of Miranda Kerr
2.  The woman who urinated on the war memorial
3. The cat in the bin woman
4. The UK prisons minister
5. The Jackson Hole conference boss

Answers: David Kiely, Wendy Lewis, Mary Bale, Crispin Blunt, Ben Bernanke

Lord Mandelson's megadepartment left a legacy of bad debts, waste and mismanagement that cost taxpayers’ tens of millions of pounds last year, it has been revealed.



Of course not that is just for the little people

Business,Innovation and Skills eh? Obviously none of these three applies to this Department.

3rd last in the current series

A fortuitous photo of a cat who thought there might be food...


Many more monochromes can be found through the Home Page.
Come and see them.
Better still, join in!

I don't think that was Sylvester. Ted vanished off somewhere yesterday and wouldn't say where he went....

Until I had read this post by Raedwald I must admit that the London Olympic Games and Paralymptic Games Act 2006, was one that passed me by.

As with all New Labour Acts it raises a new 'enforcement' army of people who failed to get their GCSE's and do anything productive in life.

22 Enforcement: power of entry

(1)A constable or enforcement officer may—

(a)enter land or premises on which they reasonably believe a contravention of regulations under section 19 is occurring (whether by reason of advertising on that land or premises or by the use of that land or premises to cause an advertisement to appear elsewhere);

(b)remove, destroy, conceal or erase any infringing article;

(c)when entering land under paragraph (a), be accompanied by one or more persons for the purpose of taking action under paragraph (b);

(d)use, or authorise the use of, reasonable force for the purpose of taking action under this subsection.

(2)The power to enter land or premises may be exercised only at a time that a constable or enforcement officer thinks reasonable having regard to the nature and circumstances of the contravention of regulations under section 19.

(3)Before entering land or premises a constable or enforcement officer must take reasonable steps to—

(a)establish the identity of an owner, occupier or person responsible for the management of the land or premises or of any infringing article on the land or premises, and

(b)give any owner, occupier or responsible person identified under paragraph (a) such opportunity as seems reasonable to the constable or enforcement officer in the circumstances of the case to end the contravention of the regulations (whether by removing, destroying or concealing any infringing article or otherwise).

(4)The power to enter premises may be exercised in relation to a dwelling only in accordance with a warrant issued by a justice of the peace; and a justice of the peace may issue a warrant only if satisfied on the application of a constable or enforcement officer that—

(a)there are reasonable grounds to believe a contravention of regulations under section 19 is occurring in the dwelling or on land that can reasonably be entered only through the dwelling,

(b)the constable or enforcement officer has complied with subsection (3),

(c)the constable or enforcement officer has taken reasonable steps to give notice to persons likely to be interested of his intention to apply for a warrant, and

(d)that it is reasonable in the circumstances of the case to issue a warrant.


As Raedwald points out the only protection the general public has is that a warrant has to be signed by a Magistrate, so there is going to be a whole host of new District Judges to be dishing them out.

I am waiting for the new uniform for these enforcement officers to be rolled out, black battledress,riot shield and pink lycra shorts.


Did we actually have an election to stop this sort of thing ??

The Telegraph reports that Iranian authorities have banned all advertisements for pets, pet food and other pet products.

The decision by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance apparently comes after the fatwa was issued by powerful cleric Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi.

In June, Ayatollah Shirazi declared dogs unclean, saying that dog owners were “blindly imitating the West” and that their devotion to the animals would result in “evil outcomes… Many people in the West love their dogs more than their wives and children,” he said.

I think that Ted, Greebo and Satan Cat may be paying an Ayatollah a little visit….

H/T Big Brother Watch

Are designer eco-homes more environmentally friendly than not building them?

As Scott Adams says:

The greenest home is the one you don't build. If you really want to save the Earth, move in with another family and share a house that's already built. Better yet, live in the forest and eat whatever the squirrels don't want. Don't brag to me about riding your bicycle to work; a lot of energy went into building that bicycle. Stop being a hypocrite like me.

I prefer a more pragmatic definition of green. I think of it as living the life you want, with as much Earth-wise efficiency as your time and budget reasonably allow.

Is the well-heeled greenie not unlike Marie Antoinette, tending her washed (and "heavily perfumed") sheep in a sylvan fantasy?

I'm only jealous, of course. I can't wait to join the middle-class lotus eaters, as soon as my Lotto ticket pays out the Big One.

I have been invited on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Keep Cornwall Whole at Truro Town Hall 7pm on the 31st August as a representative of the Libertarian Party South West (Wessex & Kernow)

Con-Dem is proposing on the grounds of efficiency to merge some Cornish Seats with ones in Devon. Cornwall (Kernow) is in a very unique constitutional position within the United Kingdom. The last Stannary Parliament was called some thirty years after the last pre modern Scottish Parliament. The Duchy of Cornwall has morphed into some form of private company belonging to Prince Charles Coburg-Saxe-Gotha, but retain a great deal of the Duchy rights to the foreshore and other monarchical benefits, whilst the political entity morphed into a County Council of England.

The latest proposal by the Boundary Commission is that parts of Cornwall are blended into Devon.

Cornwall appears to have as much right to Crown Dependency status as the Isle of Man,the States of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with the right to set its own tax rates and have its own Courts etc.

Cornwall by adopting a Libertarian Agenda would stop being derided as an English Black Spot for unemployment, and could be the fourth prosperous independent Crown Dependency.

I am assured that even though I am by birth a Miercisc (look it up) I will be most welcome.

What to do about the Roma?  Does anything need to be done?  France thinks so.  English villagers are turning out in force to block the vans.  Unwanted, do the Roma have the right to descend on villages or roam about this way?  Should they all go back to Romania?  Is it a case of having the right but not on my patch please … ?  Why must they be sedentary and not nomadic?  Should all local councils provide areas for travellers or is the rise of crime in the local community too great a danger?  Should there be a new Porajmos?  Is the Decade of Inclusion another example of Them in action, designed to provoke violence in and to further fracture communities?  Should we all learn to love the Roma?  Should we forced to by the government?  Is there a demonization of difference?

It’s very hard getting information on Laura Dekker’s movements but it appears that she has reached the Canary Islands.

She certainly doesn’t maintain her website well and who knows where she is or what she’s doing?  Is her father waiting in the Canaries for her?  This trip is in sharp contrast to Jessica Watson’s, with Jessica giving almost daily commentary, along with youtubes and course progress.  People criticized the commercialism of her venture but at least you could ride every wave and feel every gust of wind.

To Laura Dekker’s credit, she did explain:

I am sorry that the English version of my site was not updated and that my blogs were sometimes short with only a little information. But I could not quite keep everything going perfectly while at sea. I will now try and get it fixed.

It would be to her advantage to do so because it might get the public onside.

Tony Rice and friends with high-class picking.

Nine Pound Hammer                      Tony Rice All Star Jam

THe first time Bebe, Robyn and Boris have been photgraphed together. Not sure what Robyn is doing though!

Meet Greebo the , ahem, delightful little kitty-cat so beloved of Nanny Ogg in the Discworld books. Perhaps the most violent, smelly and downright unpleasant feline ever to grace the literary world he has would be quite prepared to give Mary Bale some cat counselling. Ted is mild by comparison!