In The National Arena

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Today marks the election of the first Indian, Dadabhai Naoroji, to become a Member of Parliament in 1892.

Naoroji was born in South Gujarat in 1825 and was educated in Bombay at Elphonstone College, becoming professor of mathematics and natural philosophy there before turning his mind to politics and a career in commerce. In 1855 he travelled to London to join an Indian cotton trader but left four years later to found his own trading company. Later he became professor of Gujarati at University College, London.

Known as The Grand Old Man of India, Naoroji became Prime Minister of Baroda in 1874 and was one of the founding members of the Indian National Party, becoming President of it. He returned to London and got involved in British politics, eventually becoming the Member of Parliament for Central Finsbury. Being a Parsee he was permitted to take his oath of office with his hand on the Khordeh Avesta. Naoroji wrote extensively, arguing that India was too highly taxed and that its wealth was being drained away to England. He returned to India and was again elected President of the Indian National Party. A moderate, he was mentor both to Gopal Gokhale and Mohandas Gandhi. He died in 1917 aged 91.

Since Naoroji was elected MP, many others of different races and religions have entered Parliament and, as a free democracy, this is right and proper despite the various difficulties some of them have had in the process.

So it is interesting to note that it was only last Monday when the first Aborigine, Ken Wyatt, was elected to Australia's House of Representatives as a Liberal for Hasluck in Western Australia.

Ignoring the racist phone calls and emails he has received since his election, he said, ‘I have come from a life of poverty and through my own individual efforts I stand now within the national arena’.

Best wishes to Mr Wyatt, for he stands in the tradition of many people raising themselves up in life. He and Dadabhai Naoroji are just two of them.
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What Were They Thinking?

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A chap was gathering dead wood and twigs in a Buckinghamshire wood along with his wife and five-year-old twin girls a couple of days ago when he was challenged by a warden.

A row ensued and the warden called the police. Their response was to send a patrol car and a helicopter to find this heinous crook.

And the result of all this activity? No crime had been committed - except for wasting public money!
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The Big Bang, The Universe And Everything

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In Stephen Hawking’s latest book, The Grand Design, he posits that the Big Bang was the result of the inevitable laws of physics and that no divine force was needed to explain why the Universe was formed.

The Chief Rabbi believes that the mutual hostility between religion and science is one of ‘the curses of our age’. I think he also has it right when he says, ‘There is more to wisdom than science. It cannot tell us why we are here or how we should live. Science masquerading as religion is as unseemly as religion masquerading as science.’

There is a God after all!
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Who Cares?

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Yesterday the High Court refused to ban a book which would have revealed its author as ‘The Stig’ who, apparently, is the secret racer of a variety of cars featured on the Top Gear programme.

The BBC sought an injunction blocking publication of the man’s autobiography on the grounds that it breached a confidentiality agreement he had entered into when he took up the position of The Stig in 2003 and that revealing who he is would spoil viewers’ enjoyment of the programme. The publishers of the book argued that the BBC were preventing freedom of expression and that, in any event, the identity of the man was already in the public domain.

The High Court refused to grant a temporary injunction blocking publication of the biography, and the result is that every morning newspaper gives the man’s name and abundant publicity to his book which will be published in two week’s time.

Outside the court, the publishers queried why the BBC would want to spend taxpayers money on such an action and I agree with this view.

More importantly, does anyone really care who The Stig is?
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No Surprises

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It is ‘revealed’ that Brown lost Labour the election and drove Blair to drink, Princess Diana was manipulative, the fox hunting ban was a mistake, there is no apology over the Iraq war, Mrs Caplin was brilliant, Cherie couldn’t help herself sometimes, other politicians like Prescott (who could balance a cup of tea on his stomach) didn’t have enough self-control, the coalition is backed over the economy, etc., etc., etc.

No surprises there from Blair’s new book. So, even assuming I wanted to read its 700 pages, that’s twenty-five quid saved (but £12.50 if ordered from Amazon)!
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Are They Sure?

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I’m not at all sure about the latest idea dreamt up by the North Wales Criminal Justice Board who are displaying a mobile prison cell at events across north Wales so that the under-18s can see what life in a jail is like.

Funded by money confiscated from criminals and built by inmates of a Liverpool prison, the mobile cell is mounted on a trailer donated by a local company. Its purpose is meant to dissuade young people from a life of crime.

I’m not sure about this idea. Though nothing has been said about the three meals a day and access to education, a gym and other facilities that exist in prisons, the cell comes complete with a bunk, television, hand-basin and toilet.

That may be more comfort than some of those young kids have now!
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A Subject Dear To My Heart!

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Canadian scientists have discovered that smoking herbal cannabis, or ‘grass’, from a pipe can significantly reduce chronic pain in patients with certain types of problems. Apparently, it reduced pain, decreased anxiety and depression and aided sleep.

Their research is supported by a British pain specialist who said, ‘This trial adds to the trickle of evidence that cannabis may help some of the patients who are struggling at present.’

He is right of course as we suspected all along. Pain control is a subject dear to my heart, so the question is: where does one get some?
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