US Marines in Afghanistan

A moving piece of brave, solo journalism allowing a little peek into hope and despair in the week when American forces mounted a hostage rescue where Linda Norgrove, a British aid worker, lost her life.

 Rest in peace, brave angel.

Lancaster over Ontario

I'm a bit of a military history type guy. I love this aircraft. It was `state of the art` in 1943 but didn't have a SatNav until a few years ago. Some of the feats of flying performed by the crew of these planes leaves even the most skilled of their modern equivalents breathless in their admiration.  The men who flew these beasties, in unthinkably dangerous conditions, time and time again, always leave me in awe, be they navigators, pilots or gun crew. I had the rare priviledge of meeting a quiet, unassuming old man recently. Turned out he was aircrew in one of these, flew 20 night missions, was shot down, captured and spent the rest of his war in a POW camp in Germany. He now looks after his disabled wife. Bloody hero. Long may they be honoured.



Avro Lancaster Flight from Transgressive Media on Vimeo.

Police "Pay and Perks", vfm and the Scramble for a `By`-Line

After a short break from posting anecdotes and the occasional bit of spleen-venting I have been moved to switch on my computer and tap out some assorted words, randomly arranged in the hope that some sentences may actually string together. Well, the little green light is on and the valves have warmed up* (*It's an old-guy thing; you youngsters wouldn't understand - but valves aren't affected by an EMP so there's sense in old technology).

I picked up on a short piece in The Times yesterday. Those of you who subscribe to that paper's online reading fees can read it here. I don't subscribe yet so I bought the paper - how quaint. The article made quite a lot of sense, but I expect similar pieces in the more strident, tatty, tabloids will gloss over the truths behind such lines as, "Others can earn four hours overtime for taking a phone call when off-duty".  I'm sure the big-hitter police bloggers will already be responding to this sort of thing in their own style, so I have taken a more personal slant on what these articles mean to me.

In my thirty year stint in community protection and service I earned overtime, had my rest days regularly cancelled at short notice, got paid my allowance for extra food when I'd worked said overtime and finally took my pension, the one that is often flagged up as a good`un, but which cost me a very hefty chunk of my monthly pay, over the aforementioned 30 years. I always thought I'd had a fairly easy time as I'd never been hospitalised for more than an overnight observation and I'm still pretty healthy and active. But then something happened that made me reflect on my survival. I recently had cause to go through my medical records and found things in there that I had completely forgotten. There are many others out there, police pensioners like me, who probably have had it much worse, but here is a little extract from mine. There are others, but I didn't want to go on about it:

     `Hit on rt. heel by paving slab`
This was at a large demonstration in central London, following the “Bloody Sunday” shootings in Londonderry. I was in a cordon across Downing Street at about 7.30pm when rioting started amongst the 5000+ crowd. They were breaking up paving stones and hurling them into the police lines. I was rescuing a downed colleague when I was hit by a lump of paving stone. Got a badly swollen foot.

L Hand; L shoulder was twisted backwards….`
This happened when I`d stopped a stolen car. The occupants attacked me as they attempted to escape. I believe the vehicle clipped me as they decamped but can’t be sure. I may have had a few days off, but nothing of significance beyond that. Ironically, a close friend and colleague was involved in a similar incident a few months earlier. He was killed. I was lucky.

       `Attended  Hospital Casualty on …..`
I was in plain clothes as part of an armed observation team at  tube stations because some IRA bombers M.O. pattern at that time suggested they were using the tube. We were chasing two men with a holdall. As I ran down the steps I tripped and fell the last few and jarred my lower back. My Walther pistol also fell, from its holster, and slid along the platform, which had the effect of clearing all the sober people from the scene very quickly.

  `Kicked in scrotum around 5pm yesterday….`
I remember it well! Attempting to arrest a very violent man, who was threatening people with a knife. He almost choked me unconscious but I got some help from a huge, Barbadian hot dog seller who bent this man in all sorts of horrible positions on my behalf. The notes say I had a stiff lower back and a bruised right shoulder, along with the tender parts. I only recall the latter. Had a week off. No after effects.

        `Motorcycle injury` 
I remember it well. On a police motorcycle. The engine seized, locking the rear wheel, causing me to leave the road and land on the grass verge. Taken to hospital as precaution, because my back hurt. Notes refer to general backache including R trapezius (the large muscle centre/upper back). As I recall it hurt when I took a deep breath. Full recovery after a couple of weeks. It was the bike that was retired.

   `Injury to back, assaulted in police station`
I cannot remember how this happened except to say that there were always fights in charge rooms and by this time I was a patrol/charge room sergeant. Just another back strain from a punch up. Normal for the job.

     `Seen at police stn by Dr....`
Dr ...was a retained `police surgeon`. I had been kicked in the groin again, during yet another struggle with a violent prisoner, and Doc was on hand and so was able to examine me. Notes suggest no blood in urine so I suppose I was ok. Must remember to keep groin out of the way.

      `Pain Rt trapezium and neck. Injury x 2 during past 4 months`
I cannot recall these. At this time I was an instructor at the force training school and this was just after the miners strike so I was definitely `non operational`. I was playing sports and regularly weight training 3 times a week. I do, however, remember the medication. Diazepam and Dyhydrocodeine. Doc told me to take one of each immediately I got home but to be sitting down when I did. I thought she was joking as she was quite a sport, but the effect was quick and I was flat out, floating 2 feet above the bed, feeling no pain. What a combo, but avoid Jack Daniels chasers.

`Beaten up at weekend, seen at casualty A&E
Remember it well.  I was attacked and repeatedly kicked in my mid to lower back, forcing me to release my prisoner to defend myself. They then decamped and I pursued one of them who, at a distance of about 20 feet, turned and hurled a piece of rubble, which struck me on the head. I suffered concussion and a badly bruised middle and lower back and was off sick for a few weeks. No occupational health then. This injury is still with me, over 20 years later.
 
Pain in back/l shoulder

           Can’t remember what this was about specifically, other than I would get neck pain occasionally. This      was later put down to my pelvis being slightly out of alignment, the most likely cause being a previous assault . By now I was nearly 41 years old. I had previously, as a sergeant,  been a firearms tactical team leader, trained to hostage rescue capabilities. I had also been involved, both strategically and tactically, in large-scale public order operations. For tactical firearms operations I would, where appropriate, have to carry a firearm and other tactical equipment for personal protection. Regulations required me to regularly pass the firearms officers physical fitness qualification quarterly, a vigorous test involving a high level of upper body strength and general fitness.  I received quite a few knocks and strains during this period and cannot remember any that caused me to take time off work, but I would get the worst ones looked at as a precaution. This note on my records was probably one of those. A firearms response officer does this kind of work voluntarily. There is nothing in the regulations that says you must carry a firearm in the course of your duties (yet).

Walking back down this particular stretch of memory lane was not a nice experience for me. It was the first time I had ever done such a thing. Seeing a written record of a particular aspect of one's life, seeing in black and white your own diary written by someone else and then to suddenly realise that there were so many more occasions when you took hits which required a few days off but where you didn't actually bother to see a doctor, was actually a bit of a shock. So when I saw those articles in the press, telling of all the `perks` and allowances the police get, I just felt the mild urge to publish a little peek behind my own particular scenes. 

There will always be those who will strive to be challenged, to be tested, to be the best they can be, just as there will always be those who just strive to be paid the most they can get in return for the minimum of effort and the most mediocre of service provision. The former must be protected and rewarded, not flushed away in the same dirty bathwater as the latter.

Holiday Memoirs, September, 2010

Dog on the dole subjected to psychological cruelty in West Yorkshire

Frustration in Suffolk. The driver of this `Supermini` left it thus, after 10 attempts to park it close to the kerb. Immediately afterwards, a bloke got in the car behind it and drove off. I thought it was all part of a cruel hoax. Why is there never a double decker bus, to emphasise a point, when you need one?

On this ridge, on the Suffolk coast, there  once stood a hamlet, now washed away into the North Sea. The last house washed away in the 1920's. All that stands there now are people  taking photographs of the village that isn't there any more and a Martello Tower, built to repel a French Invasion that never came, thanks to our dear Lord Nelson and a bloke who had boots named after him (Not Dr Marten)

View from the table in a restaurant..... which is a Yurt.....in Norfolk.......oh to live in a country that embraces diversity

This is an Estate Agent's office in a town in Suffolk. I knew the housing market was slow, but this really did make me realise the seriousness of the current economic state of the bloody country.

Now here, the parking was straight (if half on the pavement),but the house was a tad off centre. You can't win. However, there is a reasonable excuse; this town was built just before the invention of the spirit level. In those days `spirit levelling` involved the burning of witches. I believe the will to perform this barbarous act is still out there amongst some of our population. Thank goodness it is now illegal, I mean, think of the risk to all those wooden buildings.

I've had a few of these over the years, but thankfully only one nasty one.

Peace on Earth - and the final resting place of a Bentley Boy.

Blitz on Britain

On the 70th Anniversary of the start of the Blitz on London, my thoughts turn to my late Father who was a bus driver for London Transport during those awful years. He regaled me with stories of incendiary bombs bursting around him and his double-decker bus as he weaved his way around the Capital. On one occasion he told me that London Bridge was on fire, or at least the wooden sleepers that lined the carriageway in those days. He was caught halfway across and so just `put his foot down` to hammer through the flames. He chanced a glance behind him to see all the passengers doing their best to hide under the seats. He told me that it sounded like a rushing express train as he hit the wall of flames, which opened up and then slapped shut as his bus passed through the inferno. There were many more stories of `dodging around bomb craters and partially collapsed buildings and one occasion where a Heinkel 111 bomber, crippled by the RAF or Anti Aircraft gunners, flew smoking and low along the river, it's crew machine gunning one of his mates who died in the ensuing inferno. When his body was recovered they found a solid lump of coins that had melted in his pockets as he died in the blazing cab. Many more of his colleagues were killed during the Blitz. But London and the rest of the Country kept on going or, `buggering on` as Winston would have said. Dad joined the Home Guard. I think all that must have affected him because post war, and post the arrival of Hogday jnr., he always seemed to drive me around in the family car like he was still dodging craters and German bombs! Or perhaps all bus drivers were trained to drive that way?

So why is it that today, one road traffic accident on the M6 motorway on a Friday afternoon, stops the entire country from moving at more than 3 mph?

A good case for the defence?

I know little about professional footballers and their antics on or off the pitch but I do know a lot about defence solicitors and how they can pull an acquittal seemingly out of thin air. So I have taken my brain down old memory lane and think I've come up with a likely scenario that a certain footballer's brief can put forward in his defence.I definitely think it has legs


"Your Honour, my client was merely mistaken as it was his intention to use a prosthetic, whislt his wife was pregnant.  His demise was due to nothing more than an unfortunate printing error and a mispronunciation, owing to a rather thick scouse accent". 

Over the years I've seen loads of magistrates fall for far less.

My kind of town?

 

This almost seems my kind of place....but something tells me its doomed.Best hope the humans don't breed like the flies.