Westminster View - August 2018

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August. Most Members depart from a foetid Westminster for what the gutter tabloids like to describe as “their three-month holiday”. A different breed of “Remainer” hangs on to offer dial-a-quote comments to the few hacks left in the vicinity of Parliament and the battle to undermine the Prime Minister`s Brexit negotiations continues. “The Bicycle Guy”, as the former Mayor of London will now forever be known, makes another Burka of himself with ill-advised and thinly disguised populist comments about Muslim female fashion; his friend The Tramp has his `Catch a Falling` star removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame which leaves some wondering why that showbiz honour was ever afforded to him in the first place; the once-proud House of Fraser (Harrods) retail chain heads for Carey Street but is bailed out by Sports Direct. How low are the mighty fallen. The “payday usurer”, Wonga, gets its come-uppance as the widely-derided money lender runs out of its own credit.

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TV Presenter and former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond quits his party to fight the Scottish SNP-led Government over allegations of sex-abuse and the veteran Birkenhead MP Frank Field leaves the Parliamentary Labour Party to sit as an independent. This is the culmination of a whole month during which “Red Jerry” Corbyn, the Palestinian`s Friend in Westminster, has striven and failed to lance the boil of anti-Jewish sentiment on the face of the Momentum Labour Party that he still leads. The Darling Bud visits a Europe where a diminished French President Macron is less than receptive to her Chequers Plan at his holiday island home and Mrs May moves on to Mum-dancing in Sub-Saharan and Southern Africa where her reception is rather warmer. Back in La Belle France Les Pecheurs of Boulogne and Le Havre mount a mini-Armada of fishing boats to engage, in actions reminiscent of the Icelandic Cod Wars of the 1970s, in conflict with an English fishing fleet that is perfectly legally harvesting the scallops that the Pecheurs regard as their own property. Cocky Saint Jack is just another by-product of the pre-Brexit tension that, for those engaged in politics, has ruined what might otherwise have been a near perfect summer. It does not bode well for a Winter of Discontent. 

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It has arguably been Red jerry rather than The Darling Bud who has found himself on the rack throughout the duration of the `silly season`. Parliament rose, you will recall, with Dame Margaret Hodge facing disciplinary measures having told Comrade Corbyn in words of one syllable, during a tirade behind the Speaker`s chair, precisely what she thought of his singularly unpleasant brand of anti-Semitism.  Since then there has been a constant trickle of unfortunate quotations and damaging video clips of statements on public platforms that has served to underscore the Leader of the Opposition`s credentials as the Hamas ambassador to the United Kingdom. A weak apology for an appearance on a platform alongside some rather unsavoury people did not begin to extinguish the flames of what has become a bushfire of scorching headlines. That Momentum activists in the occasionally socialist North London Borough of Barnet chose to engage in “anti-Zionist ranting” did little to assist their Dear Leader`s cause while the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, helpfully asserted that Labour was entering `a vortex of eternal shame` and would be seen as `unfit to govern` unless the anti-Semitism row “is dealt with”. 

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Leaders of Britain`s Jewish community soundly rejected Corbyn`s cack-handed attempts to apologise and a fresh row erupted over the handling of the future of Margaret Hodge. The beleaguered Red Jerry was the revealed, in a 2013 video clip, to have compared Israeli action in the West Bank with the Second World War Nazi occupation of Europe. The Clunking Fist, if you remember Britain`s Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown (doesn`t time fly when you are having fun?) emerges from the shadows to opine that Corbyn `must make changes` to counter anti-Semitism within his party; actor Sir Patrick `Star Trek` Stewart has quit the Labour Party in protest after seventy-three years of membership and a survivor of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, Professor Shaul Lazany, brands Corbyn an `anti-Semite`. The man who in 2012 hosted an event with Palestinian Hamas terrorists must have winced as the ECJ proscribed organisation pledged it support for him but the backing of the British National Party and the KKK capped even the Hamas acclaim. “Zionists” said the Labour Leader back in 2013 “don`t understand British irony”. The irony of far-right endorsement will no doubt not be lost upon him.  There is now talk of Jewish Labour MPs being provided with bodyguards and their Party Conference and Comrade Corbyn must have thought that it could get no worse when the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, likened Corbyn`s proclamations on Zionism to Enoch Powell`s infamous” Rivers of Blood speech. But it just did. A torrid month ended with the resignation from the Parliamentary Labour Party of a man who has been a member for longer than Corbyn himself, the highly respected MP for Birkenhead, Frank Field who used his resignation letter to describe the modern Labour Party as “a force behind anti-Semitism in British politics”. Beside all of this investigations into the Member for Islington`s failure to declare overseas visits in the Register of Members` Interests and his referral, by Maidstone MP Helen Grant, to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, must have scarcely registered on the Richter scale of adversity. 

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“The Bicycle Guy” as Jomo`s little boy Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of Kenya, has christened Mayor Boris, began August with both feet planted firmly in his mouth. There is, surely, a requirement upon `leading political figures` and particularly upon aspirant Party Leaders, to use moderate and measured language when covering sensitive issues?   Bicycle Guy, in an outburst against the wearing of the Burka designed to pander to the meanest intelligence of his Neanderthal acolytes, has chosen to give offense to a significant ethnic minority that is in large part as British as he is himself.  Mayor Boris, our former Foreign Secretary, has said that “it is ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes” and added that female students should not “turn up at a school or a university looking like a bank robber”. 

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It is entirely accepted that for security purposes, at immigration checkpoints at our ports and airports for example, and in a court of law or for constabulary identification, it has to be right that people should be unveiled. It is also perfectly reasonable to debate whether the wearing of the burka is oppressive or a mark of true faith as it must be to discuss the fact that nuns wear habits, that Buddhist monks wear saffron robes, that Orthodox Jews wear hats and that Sikhs wear turbans. What is out of order, and the reason for much parliamentary and public condemnation, is the use by a senior politician that has expressed the ambition to hold the highest office in the land, of populist language bordering on hate speech that is either deliberately or carelessly designed to foment discord or at best to shock.  Mr Johnson is quite simply, not now or ever, a leader that I would wish to follow or serve under. There are other and better men and women who, when the time comes, will be truly worthy of support. 

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As a footnote to this sorry saga Labour`s Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry, has referred to `Tory Islamophobia`. This would presumably be the same Lady Nugee who is reported as saying that `I wouldn`t want someone in a burka looking after my children`. 

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There is a generation, and it is largely a generational issue, that wants the United Kingdom `out of Europe` at any price and that is prepared to squander the last drop of future generations` security and prosperity to achieve that aim.  They tend to be led, if not represented, by those who broadly, are sufficiently financially able to bear the costs of a `bad Brexit.`. There is another group who wish to overturn the expressed wish of the British people, to ignore the result of the referendum and to remain within the EU again at any cost and notwithstanding the corrupt, wasteful, meddlesome bureaucracy that passes for management within that organisation, are seeking to achieve their own ends.   In the large centre of the parliamentary Conservative Party and, I suspect, of others, there is an overwhelming majority, many of whom like myself voted Remain on the basis of reform from within, who have accepted the instruction of the electorate and wish to negotiate our departure from the European Union and all of its institutions on the best terms achievable. That is what Prime Minister May is striving for. That is what the Chequers Agreement, to which all members of the Cabinet including Mr. Johnson and Mr. Davis appended their signatures, was about and that is the basis upon which discussions continue.   At the same time the United Kingdom has to be prepared for a `No Deal` Brexit and the rest of the European Union has to understand that if necessary we will take that path, that the threat is not idle and that, although such a course will be damaging to the short-term interests of both the UK and the EU, we are confident that in the longer term we can survive and, albeit at a price that will be paid by our children and our grandchildren, and that we have the determination and the ability to prosper. That is the message that has been sent out clearly by our Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt and by our Trade Secretary, Liam Fox.

 

The Chequers Agreement, which is not perfect, is not the `act of treason` and that Mrs. May is seeking to deliver a `vassal state` that some who take their guidance from the populist press have sought to suggest is risible. Those of us who support the principles contained within it are not `traitors` and we are not seeking to undermine the decision taken by the British people. We are, I think, pragmatists who still understand that politics is `the art of the possible`, that any agreement has to be sold not only to our Parliament and to the British public but to the twenty-seven remaining states of the EU and to the European Parliament as well and that, if possible, a bespoke agreement of a kind that has never been tried and tested before is worth working for. The Prime Minister continues to seek to reach that agreement and her new Secretary of State for Brexit, Dominic Raab, is pursuing that end in Brussels.  It is neither helpful nor `patriotic` to try to undermine the endeavours of the person at the helm and the injection, from a business donor, of a million pounds of funding into a second referendum campaign sends out the wrong signal and merely weakens our negotiating position by raising ill-founded hopes that Britain is not leaving within the EU. 

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When the Prime Minister met with Emmanuel Macron at his official holiday home at Fort Besancon she received, we are led to be believe, a courteous but chilly reception for the Chequers proposals. A French President struggling to maintain his own popularity and credibility  (his Environment Minister, Nicolas Hulot, highly regarded as a Gallic David Attenborough,  has resigned citing `an accumulation of disappointments` as his reason)  was always likely to engage in grandstanding for the benefit of his home audience and  a man who seeks to bring about a United States of Europe is never going to be best pleased with the departure of, whether he likes it or not, a Country that has become one of the key contributors and players on the European stage. M. Macron believes that it is his bounden duty to “protect the integrity of the EU”. In the context of that “integrity” we should never forget that much that is European is driven not by high principle but by national self-interest and a voracious demand for hard cash to satisfy the extravagances of the institution. 

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There has, during the month, been some indication that the views of the EU`s Chief Negotiator, M. Barnier, and some member states has begun to diverge as the cliff-edge deadline approaches. Mutti Merkel, for example, has expressed the view that there is “still hope for a negotiated deal” and Greece has suggested that there will be an increased requirement for EU financial aid if a deal is not struck but adherence to the principles of environmental and social protections in perpetuity remains sound. That said, a degree of paranoia seems to have invaded the séance rooms of Brussels as allegations suggest that “Brexit talks have been bugged” and that “The British Secret Service has penetrated the meetings of the Barnier team”. One is tempted to say that if they have not then they have not been doing their job properly but that might just add fuel to the fire of speculation that is already rife. 

Interestingly Mr. Mogg, who seems to have remained booted and suited within reach of the TV cameras throughout the summer, is reported to support the idea that the UK should unilaterally extend to EU migrants resident in the UK the right to remain, to enjoy full healthcare and benefits and to be joined by partners and `close family members` in the event of a No Deal outcome to the talks. I have yet to hear, from any quarter, of where that will leave UK residents in the remaining twenty seven states of the EU in respect of freedom of movement to live and work, to enjoy healthcare and disability and pension rights and when this question was put to me by the Editor of the English language publication “The Connexion” in France I had to confess that his guess was as good as mine. And not for want of continual asking. I am told that while younger people are buying homes with an intent to establish sole residence in mainland Europe prior to Brexit many regular and elderly patrons of European hostelries and shops are selling up and moving back to the UK in the light of the ongoing uncertainty that they face. For Mr. Mogg to tell us that we should “believe in Britain” is not exactly an answer to their prayers.

 

This month Liam Fox has indicated that immigration targets – one of the Brexiteers` key mantras – may be dropped. Given the expressed concern of the Doctors`` Trade Union, British Medical Association that a No Deal Brexit would be `potentially catastrophic` for the health service and remembering that Dr, Fox is himself a highly qualified and respected medical practitioner that should not, perhaps, come as a surprise. The publication of the first of the Government`s “No Deal” position papers by the Department for Exiting the European Union (Dexeu) received underwhelming response. Chancellor Hammond`s prediction of “large fiscal consequences” for the UK in the event of a failure to achieve an agreement was predictably attacked by the militant Brexiteers who have said that “the Treasury is desperate to stop Brexit and everything that the Treasury does must be seen in this light” but the respected Treasury Select Committee has reinforced “Eeyore’s position asserting that a No Deal exit would be costing the UK an additional £80 billion a year by 2030. That, of course, is a tab that many of the diehard Leavers will not be around to pick up” Project Fear Mark Two”? Or Project Fact?

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With the Deputy Prime Minister in all but name, David Lidington, hinting that the negotiating deadline will be moved from October18th to the end of November the Cabinet will be holding another Brexit Summit meeting on September 13th when this and the No Deal scenario will, presumably, be high on the agenda) we clearly still have a number of weeks of internecine warfare to look forward to. M. Barnier is now talking of `a trade deal such as there has never been` but whether any such deal will pass Commons muster or whether it will be scuppered by extremists on both sides only time, between now and November, will tell. 

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On the other side of the Atlantic the trials of The Tramp continue. His attacks on the media as “The Opposition Party” has caused three hundred newspapers to unite and has led to accusations that journalists, in the United States, are in danger. His ban on trade with Iran is viewed as a “threat to World peace”. His star (awarded as a television personality) has been removed from the Hollywood Walk of Fame because of his “disturbing treatment of women and other actions”. His imposition of tariffs upon Turkish steel and aluminium have caused a fall in the value of the Turkish Lira but may also have the net effect of driving President Erdogan into an unholy alliance with Comrade Putin. The President has condemned as a “broken system” the employment of `chain migration ` that allows migrants to bring their families into his country while his immigrant wife, Melania, has taken advantage of the self-same legislation to import her parents into America. Michael Cohen, The Tramp`s erstwhile lawyer and fixer, is found guilty of bank fraud and may well seek to plea-bargain in exchange for information about his former client while Paul Manafort his former Campaign Manager, who the Commander in Chief describes as “a good man”, is found guilty of tax and bank fraud. This, says The Tramp, “has nothing to do with Russian collusion”. The curvaceous shadow of the Porn Star `Stormy Daniels` casts further doubts over the President`s suitability to hold high office as he says that payments made to her, once denied, were “my money” not campaign funds and that “I have done nothing wrong”. The Trump Organisation`s Chief Financial Officer, Alan Weisselberg, enters into an immunity deal to avoid prosecution and the President now intends to spend forty days personally campaigning in the mid-term elections in an attempt to sure up his support in Congress and the Senate. The results will prove interesting but at present it seems that it is only the perverse nature of American politics and the fact that the “America First” policy has a grassroots redneck appeal that transcends any sense of morality that stands between Mr. Trump and impeachment. There is a realisation on the part of the Democrats that if they go for the jugular they might well end up increasing the popularity of the man that a minority of the American people voted to put into the White House. 

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In other news there is war in La Manche as fisher folk from Boulogne and Le Havre on the north coast of France take exception to British trawlers taking advantage to harvest scallops during the French self-imposed closed season that is supposed to allow the shellfish time to regenerate their stocks.  The British are legally within their rights as there is no EU quota for scallops but whether or not a `Gentleman`s agreement` has been broken is another matter. Either way the situation is literally dangerous as boats collide and as abuse and rocks are hurled and it may yet be that the forces of two NATO navies have to combine to restore not only law but order and safety. It does not bode well for any post-Brexit replacement of a Common Fisheries Policy that has seen UK fishermen sell their quota to the fleets of other EU nations while then complaining that they are robbed of the right to fish in British waters. 

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The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, has visited France to celebrate `the spirit of co-operation that ended the World War` epitomised by the Battle of Amiens that is regarded as the beginning of the end. Six hundred descendants of those who fell, from both sides of the conflict attended the ceremony as did Theresa May. M. Macron was on holiday and was not present to mark the occasion.  

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The Democratic Unionist Party`s Ian Paisley Jr. MP has been suspended from the House of Commons for thirty sitting days for failing to declare freebie family holidays in Sri Lanka in the Register of Members` Interests and he may become the first Member to face “Recall” and a by-election. This is significant because the DUP votes with the Government and is, in effect, all that stands between defeat and a General Election.  With the support of some of the Conservative Part`s MPs unreliable on certain issues every vote can count and some such votes may well take place during Mr. Paisley`s enforced absence. 

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`Loser` Farridge, the former Leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party has described as `Fake News` suggestions of his intent to stand for parliament again. Given the number of times that he has stood previously and the number of seats in which he has been defeated that might seem almost plausible but given the king-size ego of the Member of the European Parliament in question and the fact that Britons will not be standing in the next European Parliamentary elections it would be wise to take his denial with a large pinch of salt. This, of course, is the same Mr. Farridge who this month has announced that “I`m back” and has vowed to kill the Chequers Plan as a “fraudulent proposal”. That sounds more to me like a man who is seeking to replace the fat European parliamentary salary and expenses that he will lose next year rather more than a bloke who has no further domestic political aspirations. Perhaps the man who has a talk show on LBC is lining himself up for a crack at election as the Mayor of London. 

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Meanwhile UKIP`s former financial backer, Arron Banks, is said to be funding efforts to encourage former `Kippers` to infiltrate the Conservative Party, particularly in seats with “Remain” MPs or those with a Remain majority in order to deliver the election of a hard-line Brexit Leader is and when Mrs. May is challenged. Never mind the Russians seeking to influence elections. The Tory Party needs to keep a weather eye on The Enemy Within. 

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And there is, of course, no truth in the rumour that St. Vincent of Cable, the lame duck leader of the rump of the Liberal Democrat Party, has been in secret talks with Tony `The Legacy` Blair with a view to creating a new centre-left Party made up of disaffected former Blairite MPs and Liberal Democrats.  Or is there? Only the failure of the Gang of Four and their attempt to launch an effective Social Democratic Party is acting as a deterrent surely? 

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The Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, has taken a further step in the animal welfare direction by instigating measures to ban the use of electric shock training collars for dogs and cats while deciding to permit the use of `containment fences` designed to prevent animals from getting killed from homes adjacent to busy roads. The Gover continues to win brownie points with the banning of the sales of puppies and kittens in pet shops welfarists but now faces calls to outlaw the killing and eating of dogs in Britain. While the far-Eastern practice is mercifully not widespread in the UK there is, incredibly, no legislation that prevents the slaughter of canines for the table. 

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Within ten days of liquidation it looked like the end of the line for the House of Fraser Group which includes London`s famous Knightsbridge emporium Harrods. Then an unlikely White Knight arrived in the form of Sports Direct who have acquired the Group. The question that now remains is to what extent the highly predatory proprietor of the purchaser will asset-strip Fraser and to what extent will some of the Country`s once most prestigious stores stay open and whether or not these High Street outlets can survive and compete in the climate of online shopping.

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The Iranian born British wife and Mother, Nazarin Zighari-Ratcliff, who has been incarcerated in an Iranian prison and separated from her husband and young daughter for many months on trumped up charges of espionage was allowed, for three short days, to taste freedom on `furlough` this month.  The lady whose plight was exacerbated by the blundering efforts of our former Foreign Secretary, was fleetingly reunited with her four year old daughter Gabriella who is also effectively held hostage in Iran.  It is a measure of the callous inhumanity and cruelty of the Iranian regime that Mrs. Ratcliffe was then required, in a manner bordering on actual mental torture, to leave her child and, without the chance to see her husband, was returned to prison. Small thanks for the United Kingdom`s opposition to the United States` reintroduction of sanctions on Iran. 

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And from her visit to Sub-Saharan and Southern Africa, where she has been promoting post-Brexit British interests and trade the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has announced that she is “in it for the long term” and intends to lead the Conservative Party into the next General Election. 

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Ballswatch 

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Bosworth Field, the site of the 1485 Battle in which King Richard III lost his life and which brought about the end of the Wars of the Roses and the line of Plantagenet monarchs and saw the start of the Tudor dynasty was required for use as a test track for Japanese driverless cars. Happily the project, under attack, has been abandoned and the track will be re-located. Horsepower still rules. 

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In a final insult Henry Coxwall, the celebrated Victorian balloonist has been airbrushed out of a film,” The Aeronats” in which his exploits are featured.  In 1862 Coxwall flew with a meteorologist equipped with scientific instruments, some brandy and six pigeons to a height of 47 thousand feet – which is the cruising altitude of a jumbo jet – and then, faced with a technical fault and certain death climbed the rigging of his balloon to release the trapped valve and saved the life of his passenger as well as his own. The Eddie Redmayne film`s producer, claiming the while that “authenticity is crucial”, has replaced Coxwall with a female character. The Royal Society is not pleased. 

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Members of Parliament are apparently lobbying the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority for an increase in office costs allowances on the grounds an increased post-Brexit workload. At the same time that superannuated civil servant and former Chairman of the Committee on Standards in public life is once again complaining that some 150 Members (of whom I am one) employ their wives or husbands or `connected parties`. IPSA has, of course, already banned new MPs from employing family Members but a better way of dealing with the increased workload would be, rather than increasing office costs and contributing to the separation of husbands and wives, to recognise that spouses do very many hours of unpaid overtime.  Fact: when Suzy Gale came to work with me thirty-five years ago she took a fifty per cent cut in her remuneration package at the same time that I took a seventy-five per cent cut in my previous income as a television producer to try to live on a parliamentary salary. Small wonder that people, and particularly successful women, now think more than twice before embarking upon a future that has anything to do with Parliament.   

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We are told that some breeds of dog, particularly Staffies and Greyhounds, are being abandoned – because they are considered too ugly to appear in `selfies` on Instagram. 

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Kensington`s Victoria and Albert Museum has found a new way to shore up their finances in order to meet ever-increasing costs. Their Coco de Mar designs are now generating a luxury lingerie line and you can acquire a “V&A Kimono” for a modest £595. 

The examination company Edexcel is now offering `gender-neutral` A-level results for students who do not wish to identify with either gender.

 

The tennis champion Joanna Konta has been forced to abandon plans for a luxury house. Her preferred site was in Ashdown Forest in West Sussex which is, of course, also the location of the Hundred Acre Wood in AA Milne`s “House at Pooh Corner. Wealden District Council objected to the proposal. 

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The town of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire sought to ban hearses from parking outside the Methodist Church. It is estimated that the loss of revenue for three hours parking in the necessary bays amounted to £6 per funeral.  Buckinghamshire County Council has determined that `discretion can be applied`. 

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In the London Borough of Wandsworth`s `Nappy Valley` childminders were faced a £300 fine if they do not produce records of how they have disposed of every soiled nappy used during the last two years although as a concession `families are exempt`.  The disposal of diapers is regarded, for the purposes of regulation, as a transfer of waste`. An embarrassed spokesman for what was once one of Margaret Thatcher`s flagship local authorities attributed the threat to ` an over-zealous officer`. 

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And `middle-class fly tippers` now face fines for leaving unwanted goods with `Please Take Me` notices attached to them on the pavements outside their London and Brighton homes. The do-it-yourself attempt to dispose of junk through `re-cycling` is regarded, probably rightly, as unsightly clutter. 

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A scientist has, following painstaking research, revealed that “heavy drinkers fuel the alcohol industry”. Thank God for that useful piece of information. 

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The dumbing down of politics knows no bounds. The Cambridgeshire Tory Party is reported as requiring, in a bid to establish the street-credibility of potential candidates, that those seeking elected office should be able to `talk convincingly about Love Island for three minutes`.  “Love Island, Your Honour, is a popular television programme, I believe”.

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Valete 

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Bernard Brooke-Partridge (90) was Chairman of the Greater London Council Arts Committee who tried to clean up Soho. He described his hobby, in Who`s Who, as “being difficult” and was an opponent of Margaret Thatcher`s determination to abolish the GLC.  

 

Carolyn Jones (77) was an original member of Laurence Olivier`s 1960`s National Theatre Company. She became famous as the ‘tart with a heart` in the Crossroads TV soap opera and until 2016 played Ursula Titchener in Radio 4`s “The Archers”. 

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`The Queen of Soul`, Aretha Franklin (76) performed at three American Presidential inauguration ceremonies.  A driving force, also, behind the US Civil Rights movement, she recoded her first hit record 1n 1960, when she was eighteen, at New York`s 30th Street Studio. The first African American to grace the cover of Time magazine is known for “You make me feel like a natural woman” “Chain of Fools”,

“Think”, “Respect”, and “Say a little prayer”.  During the course of her career she sold an estimated 75million records and accumulated eighteen Grammy awards. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. 

 

Sir V S Naipaul (85) was knighted in 1990 and the Trinidadian Indian author received a Nobel laureate for literature in 2001. Vidiadhar (“Vidia”) Naipaul first published “The Mystic Masseur” in 1957 and is probably best known for his fourth book, “A House for Mr. Biswas”.

 

Arsene Takakaran (101) was an Armenian and is the last known immigrant member of the French resistance during the Second World War. 

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Kofi Annan (80) was the Ghanaian born head of the United Nations between 1997 and 2006. The only black African to hold the post to date he established a reputation as `a force for good` and following his retirement from the UN leadership he became the organisation`s special envoy to Syria. He was a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. 

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Sir Peter Tapsell (88) was the Member of Parliament for Nottingham West between 1959 and 1964 when he lost his seat.  Re-elected as the MP for Horncastle in 1966 he became the Father of the House in 2010 until his final retirement in 2015. 

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Hilary Lister (46) was the Round-Britain solo sailor who completed the three thousand mile trip using a `sip and puff` system to control her steering.  Hilary who was quadriplegic and paralysed from the neck down first sailed across the Channel in 2005 and then sailed around the Isle of Wight in 2007. The International Sailing Federation classed her as one of the top four sailors in the world. I was privileged to meet Hilary, who went to Kings School Canterbury and learned to sail on Westbere just outside the city, at the end of her Round Britain trip at Dover on August 31st 2009. And she was an inspirational Guest of Honour at Kent`s Spirit of TryAngle awards following the completion of her voyage. 

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Ray Copper (69) worked with the Rolling Stones, U2, Bob Marley and George Michael as a Pop Music Executive. He was behind the Spice Girls first hit “Wannabe” in 1996 (7 million copies sold) and worked with Island, Atlantic, Jet and Virgin records. 

Martin Brandon Bravo (86) was elected as a Nottingham Member of Parliament in 1983. He was a rower and umpire and takes credit for the creation of the National Watersports Centre at Holme Pierrepoint. Martin lost his parliamentary seat in 1992 and served as a County Councillor from 1993 until he retired in 2009. 

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John McCain (81) was the Republican nomination for the 2008 American Presidential election. A war hero, he was held in captivity for five and a half years in Vietnam. The Arizona Senator for thirty-one years he opposed the “disgraceful” attempt by the current US President to abolish Obamacare. 

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Neil Simon (91) Will always be remembered as the author of “The Odd Couple”, “The Goodbye Girl” and “Lost in Yonkers”. 

Lady Dunn (100) was a debutante recruited by the Director of Naval Intelligence to work at Bletchley Park code-breaking centre during the second World War. As Joan Stafford King-Hannan she became the first MI6 (Ministry of Intelligence) Desk Officer. 

And Henry Willis, (91) known as “Henry 4”, was the last in a family line of organ builders that was responsible for the building, installation and maintenance of many of Britain`s finest pipe-organs.

He became President of the Incorporated Society of Organ Builders. 

 

And Finally…….  

 

Lewis Pugh has completed his 49-day 348-mile swim from Lands’ End to Dover, undertaken to highlight awareness of plastic pollution in out waters and Steve Sparkes, a fifty-seven year old veteran of the Falklands War has, with his rowing partner Mark Davidson, also a former Royal Marine, become the first blind man to row, in 82 days, the Pacific Ocean.

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