St Andrews Day, Nov 30th: since we cannot dance, let us celebrate with this portrait of Bonny Prince Charlie, leader of the 1745 rebellion against England's imported German kings from Hanover. Prince Charles Edward Stuart is kissing the hand of Flora MacDonald .... the lady who helped the prince escape Over The Sea To Skye after his defeat by "Butcher Cumberland" (son of George II) at the Battle of Culloden on 15th April 1746. That was the end of the Stuart challenge. Bonny Prince Charlie lived the rest of his life in France, and is buried in the chapel of the Scottish College, beside the Sorbonne.
 

Bulliying Is Bad, Boris is wrong, Pritti Patel must go

 ON ETHICS and IMMATURITY in GOVERNMENT

Sir Alex Allan was the British Government’s advisor on ethics. Until Friday 20^th November 2020. He has just issued a report criticizing home secretary Pritti Patel’s “behaviour that can be described as bullying” – citing instances of Patel shouting and swearing, and finding that she had breached the ministerial code.

Sir Alex writes: “My advice is that the Home Secretary has not consistently met the high standards required by the Ministerial Code of treating her civil servants with consideration and respect. Her approach on occasions has amounted to behaviour that can be described as bullying in terms of the impact felt by individuals. To that extent her behaviour has been in breach of the Ministerial Code, even if unintentionally.”  Unintentionally? Bullying behaviour is never unintentional. Shouting and swearing is a sign of immaturity and lack of control: and if you are the minister, then you are bullying your assistants. If Patel needed have this explained to her, then she is obviously unfit to lead.

Boris Johnson announced that he had full confidence in Patel: he has ignored the bullying, and ignored Sir Alex Allan’s advice. Sir Alex, who also served Johnson’s two predecessors, said: “I feel that it is right that I should now resign from my position as the prime minister’s independent adviser on the ministerial code.” In British etiquette, that is a slap in the face of the PM. Sir Alex refuses to work for a man who condones bullying ..... by allowing a woman to abuse her staff by bullying.

 Sir Alex Allan is 70 years old, was the first permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, a former High commissioner to Australia, and was until 2011, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence committee and Head of Intelligence Assessment. This not the resignation of a lightweight, nor of some opposition trouble-maker, but of an substantial establishment figure who was principal private secretary to Conservative prime minister John Major for five years (1992-97). He is too good a man to work for Boris Johnson.

 

The Guardian reports that Downing Street failed to deny that the prime minister tried to persuade Allan to tone down his conclusions and say he could find no clear evidence of bullying. A No 10 spokesman said: “As you would expect, the prime minister spoke to Sir Alex Allan to further his understanding of the report. Sir Alex’s conclusions are entirely his own.” Sir Alex came to his conclusion: he has resigned, showing up Johnson for the weak and cupid man he is. 

 

Allan also appears to be a quintessentially quirky Englishman. Totally discrete as befits his security career, he is said to have been poisoned in 2008 by a foreign power; he certainly spent time in hospital for unexplained reasons. According to Wikipedia, he also windsurfed to work in a suit and bowler hat down the Thames during a train strike.

 

Boris Johnson then urged Tory colleagues in a WhatsApp message to “form a square around the Prittster”. This sounds like a message from a spoiled brat at Eton College. “The Prittster?” Is this the language of the Prime Minister of Great Britain? This puerile language is an inappropriate response to Sir Alex Allan’s report. No wonder he resigned!  Let’s change the PM, and Make Britain Great Again.

 

Patel later apologised: “I’m sorry that my behaviour has upset people and I have never intentionally set out to upset anyone. I work with thousands of brilliant civil servants every single day and we work together, day in day out, to deliver on the agenda of this government and I’m absolutely sorry for anyone that I have upset.”

 

Sir Philip Rutnam, who resigned as the Home Office’s permanent secretary after accusing Patel of a “vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign” against him, challenged a claim in the bullying report that she had been given no feedback about her behaviour by civil servants: “As early as August 2019, the month after her appointment, she was advised that she must not shout and swear at staff.” Rutnam has lodged an employment tribunal claim against Patel under whistleblowing laws, claiming he faced constructive dismissal after informing the Cabinet Office of the home secretary’s behaviour. This sort of thing never happens in the British civil service. Boris and his Brexit colleagues are completely losing the plot! They are supposed to be a GOVERNMENT for goodness sake, not a boys’ club throwing darts. 

 

Bullies Both?  Two of a kind?

Boris is not looking pritti.

Patel’s reputation for bullying goes back several years: similar bullying accusations were raised at DfID in 2017 when she was Minister for Overseas Development. Enough is enough. Respect is not ‘saying’ but ‘doing’ - people who are unwilling to show respect for their assistants, do not deserve a position of responsibility. Johnson should invite Pritti Patel to join Dominic Cummins and Lee Cain in Barnard Castle, where they can all test their eyesight together. Indeed, perhaps Boris Johnson should join them, leaving the Prime Minister’s chair to be filled by someone more competent, more mature, more responsible.

Time to bring back Mrs Thatcher. 

Or even Mrs May. 

Theresa May looks competent when compared to Boris.

UNIDIR - HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!! Yes, it is 40 years since President Giscard d'Estaing created UNIDIR in Geneva.

 

UNIDIR is 40 years old.      HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNIDIR !

It is 40 years since President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing created UNIDIR.  

Giscard created the Institute inside the Palais de Nations in Geneva, because he did not want all the disarmament work to be kept in New York where the Secretary General lives. The French president was standing up for French values: and quite right too!

 

I work for peace, and I worked for one of my favourite peace organisations: UNIDIR in Geneva, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. 

 

Disarmament does not just happen!  It requires a great deal of hard work and patience as you persuade armed rebels or armed governments to give up their arms, to immobilize them or even destroy them.

 

During the 1990s, while my wife Michelle ran the European office of ChildFund and chaired the NGO Committee for UNICEF, I became a Research Fellow (and later a Senior Fellow) of UNIDIR working for micro-disarmament in West Africa and publishing books about how it is done.

 

UNIDIR studies different types of disarmament and offers new solutions. Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are well-known weapons of mass-destruction regulated by international conventions; micro-disarmament concerns the small arms and light weapons that kill thousands of people every year, and which need a different type of regulation in each country; recently UNIDIR has been focused on new emerging issues like the Arms Trade, Swarm Robotic weapons, Ammunition, Cyber-Space and Weapons in Outer Space.

 

The whole range of UNIDIR’s work makes fascinating reading, and in the 40^th Anniversary Report you can discover the evolution of our research work over the decades. See:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ZOenDv7Y

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=read+the+UNIDIR+40th+anniversary+report

 

If you would like to know more:  https://www.unidir.org   If you would like to read more:  https://www.unidir.org/publications

If you would like to meet the Director, @Dr Renata Dwan (from Ireland):

https://twitter.com/RenataDwan

 

 

One of my micro-disarmament successes in which UNIDIR was involved, was disarming the Khmer Rouge after thirty years of war in Cambodia. One day I might write the whole book, but meanwhile I wrote a short story:

 

  Peace is Possible: Exchanging Weapons for Development and how we disarmed the Khmer Rouge with wit, bluff and balloons

This amazing short story is fun to read. Robin Poulton takes you into rural pagodas along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, along tracks threaded between fields of landmines and rice paddies. Here you can read peace journalism at its best, and peace anthropology at its most creative: an uplifting and amusing story proving that even after a civil war, Peace is Possible.

On Amazon.com

 

 

 

Blog Post: Peace on U.N. Day

 

Professor Johan Galtung, the Norwegian ‘Father of Peace Studies’ celebrates his 90^th birthday on United Nations Day 24/10/2020, the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations. Two peace milestones. One of my first ‘outings’ with Michelle, my future wife, was to the UN's 25^th Anniversary celebration with Her Majesty the Queen in Westminster Hall on 24/10/1970. We were senior leaders of the United Nations Student Association in those days, with seats in the second row and full view of the 'Beefeaters' who provide Her Majesty's personal guard.

 

Happy Birthday to the U.N. and to Johan, with whom I had the pleasure to teach at the European Peace University in Austria. The Founder of the TRANSCEND network for peace journalism and Transcend University, Johan Galtung has been a mediator for conflicts in more than 150 countries; has written more than 1500 articles and book chapters and over 500 Editorials for the TRANSCEND Media Service; and 170 books on peace and related issues, of which more than 40 have been translated into other languages.  https://www.transcend.org/tms/2020/10/biography-prof-johan-galtung-born-24-oct-1930/

 

 

I read the Transcend Media Service weekly email in order to obtain a different view of world affairs, looking not at the bullets that have been fired, but at the reasons for conflict and possible solutions for peace.  Do you know anywhere else that has a section reserved for Nobel Peace Laureates to write? Sometimes I send my own comment to: tms-submissions@transcend.org

 

When we look around the world, it seems that peace is fragile. Yet if you visit the museum of the International Red Cross in Geneva, you quickly discover that our world is actually more peaceful today than at any time in the past 150 years. And fewer people are dying of hunger or disease. The 24-hour news cycle gives the wrong impression of reality. So The United Nations and Johan Galtung have made positive marks on our world, and we should give thanks.

 

How Facebook promotes mysogyny = FACEBOOK PERSECUTES WOMEN

Facebook is TOXIC. Men use Facebook in evil ways to harrass women, and ZUCKERMAN says it is not his fault. Nothing is ever Suckerman's fault. He sucks up the money, and allows the cesspool to flourish. The WASHINGTON POST has published an excellent account of how Facebook allows nasty stuff to flourish about Kamala Harris: naturally it is not about her ideas or her intelligence, but about sex. Read the excellent investigative journalism by Post reporters Karen Tumulty, Kate Woodsome, Sergio Peçanha Then draw your own conclusions about the need for the GAFAM cabals to be broken up because they are too big, too powerful and uncontrolled. Monopolies are always bad. We need robust anti-trust legislation to break the overweening power of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. Zuckerman is the poster child of too much power in the hands of one unelected man. Democracy? We now have Government of the 1% for the 1% and by the 1%. That is a swamp that needs draining!  

Remembering my lovely sister Alana

 My Sister Alana - sweet memories 

In 1989 we had a family holiday in Scotland - in the Highlands with my brother Rory and sister Alana, posing here with Catherine Leila and baby Timothy. We camped, we explored the midges of Skye, we climbed Ben Nevis, we helped our Hanlon friends with a flood in Paisley, we had a wonderful time .... such as I have had with my wee sister Alana since she was born in 1948. She became a nurse, a midwife, a matron, a health visitor and a community leader in Wiltshire, the beautiful county where she lived in a medieval village near Salisbury Cathedral. Alana was a lay pastoral assistant in the Anglican diocese, everybody's favourite aunt and an all-around good Christian person who was loved by everybody. Leukemia got the better of her and she died on October 1st. We shall miss her a lot.

Alana wanted donations to be given to Cancer Research.  

This lovely, warm picture of contentment shows Alana - who was a wonderful cook - celebrating her birthday on 2010 with her dearest friend Louisa, and some "fine cuisine" in elegant surroundings. We pray that her surroundings today are celestial, affording her infinite peace.

Dancing Hippos, my hilarious monthly Blogging Letter

Dancing Hippos is the name of my Blog Newsletter. If you are not on the mailing list, then write to DancingHipposNewsletter@gmail.com and we will put you on the mailing list. And if you do receive it already, then please share it with friends. A lot of people have told me it cheers them up at this difficult time of isolation, confinement and worry about viral infection. Dancing Hippos are not as elegant as Dancing Scotsmen, but they reflect my dancing and the happiness of my life in Africa.

Can we start dancing in September?????

What the French call "Contre danses" - referring to the set-lines where we are standing opposite our partners at regulation confinement distance of 6 feet - means that Scottish dancers and English Country Dancers are better protected from virus transmission that other dancers. Janet McCrorie's picture "Clasp" (top) shows how we may need adjustments: her second picture "Ceilidh Spin" reduces face-to-face impact. Her dancers even seem to be wearing masks. This may be how we should dance if we want to restart in September. AND THAT IS WHAT WE WANT!!

The Lawnmower Reel - a dance for confinement and for Carol Warner

This was the week that we were supposed to be organizing the annual Scots Bonnet bilingual St Quay Perros in Brittany. Instead of which, I am mowing my lawn. So I devised a Scottish dance that everyone can manage at home, dancing by yourself if needs be. I wrote it for Carol Warner's birthday, celebrating 30 years of her loyal service as treasurer of the Richmond Scottish Country Dancers.
Try it in  on the lawn in your own garden!

The Lawn Mower Reel March-June 2020   

written for Carol Warner's birthday June 24th  2020: "Happy Birthday CAROL" 

Devisor: Robin Edward Poulton of RSCDS-Breton Branch, also Richmond VA and Scots Bonnet St Quay

Reel   8 x 40 bars   2 Couple Repeat  4 Couple Set  Longwise Set  OR FOR ONE PERSON CONFINED

            Since dancing stopped, my physical activity has reduced to dancing with my lawn mower.

Music: Kingussie Flower (Book 21) works very well. Most 40-bar reels will do fine.

  1-8   1s cast down the outside and back again (mowing the edges of your lawn); 

  9-16 1s down the middle and back (mowing the centre of your lawn) 

17-24 1s down the middle for 4 bars and turn right hand  (mowing around a flower bed)

            2s step up on 23-24

25-32 1s dance back up to 2^nd place and turn left hand (another flower bed) remaining in the middle for

33-40  Poussette. 1s finish in 1^st place to begin again, since there are probably no 2s or 3s or 4s

            The Poussette is putting the lawn mower back in the garage to go off for a well-earned drink

This dance is part of the “Robern”  collection of satirical dances (Bern & Robin) that are huge fun but that no one will ever actually dance.

Two joyful portraits to raise your confined spirits

REP visiting RSCDS Edinburgh in 2019; and my son's portrait of me in 1980 when I looked fresher and young Edward was four years old at French pre-school. He might have been a Picasso, but he neglected his artistic talent - and even his Highland Dancing medals - to become a lawyer.