Its all part of a thought process that is making everyone far too cautious.  The ability of public officials to make decisions seems to diminish day by day.  I am not just talking about the “death of discretion”, which I see most visibly in Court as the hands of our Judges become increasingly tied, but about the reluctance of public servants to get on with decision-making.  I was speaking with a group of local surveyors in Swindon yesterday, who made the concerning point that there is often a lot of delay and confusion in the planning process caused by junior officials not wanting to make decisions.

Everything we do has a consequence.  Some of them are good, and some of them may turn out to be less than good.  None of us is blessed with the gift of complete clairvoyance,  so we have to make the best of what we have.   A reasoned decision based upon the best available evidence (no dodgy dossiers, please) is the most we can hope for.  Anyting more is a counsel of perfection.

David Tennant’s luxury on Desert Island Discs recently was a solar powered DVD and the entire boxed set of “The West Wing”.  Sound choice.

The Bar in Wales also mourns the passing  at 72 of Charles Cook, for many years a leading Junior on Circuit and a Recorder of the Crown Court.   Charles was a courteous but formidable opponent, a humane judge and a great friend.  His knowledge of wine and history was extensive, and his company was convivial.  Retracing the steps of the Paras at Arnhem was a particularly memorable occasion with Charles, of whom there are many happy stories to be told.

Two class acts have departed.

I had an excellent meeting with representatives of the National Autistic Society at last week’s Conservative Party Conference.  I am particularly interested in their work in the area of criminal justice, their aim being to raise awareness of  autism and related conditions in institutions  such as the Crown Prosecution Service.  I fully support such moves,and hope to be of some help in the years ahead.

Meanwhile, an excellent article in yesterday’s Times from Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, a GP and parent of a young person with autism.  The link is here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6870232.ece

The need for society to always refer back to an imaginary “norm” risks trivialising the condition, I agree.  We must not forget however that we have come a very long way from a time when autism and related conditions were treated as mental health problems meaning institutionalisation for thousands.   The lack of provision for adults with autism is a disgrace and the fight for adequate resources will have to continue in very difficult economic circumstances.  I am at risk of sounding like a latter day Jeremiah,  which runs counter to my usual approach of sunny optimism. 

The truth is that there is no such thing as “normal”; when I describe Millie, I talk about her reaching “expected” milestones, as opposed to diverting from the so-called norm.

Everyone is welcome to tomorrow’s meeting, old and new friends alike.

When I typed a headline for this article, I entered “Being Norman” by mistake.   This immediately conjoured up the harrowing images of Norman Tebbit’s rescue from the rubble of the Grand Hotel at the Brighton Conference twenty-five years ago.  I was only a few months away from joining the Party, but remember vividly the sights and sounds of that dreadful night.  Forgiveness is a matter chiefly for those directly involved, but forgetting is out of the question.

Philip Marshall was an outstanding barrister and Crown Court Recorder who has died far too young, also of cancer.  I was at Iscoed Chambers with him for a number of years in the 1990s.  Philip interviewed me for my pupillage and although he may not have realised it, proved to be a real influence upon my approach to work at the Bar.   Philip was extremely proud of his Halifax roots, and did not approve of pomposity or affectation in others.  He was certainly no Tory, but despite that difference of outlook (or perhaps because of it!),  I was glad to count him as a friend.

After our arrival yesterday, we spent the afternoon at Osborne House.  On my last visit back in 1975, part of it was still being used as a convalescent home for officers.  This has now closed, and English Heritage has taken on the task of restoring the house, most of which was turned over to hospital use in the early 1900s with a few of the bedrooms and sitting rooms gated off and visited occasionally by members of the Royal Family.  The room and bed in which Queen Victoria died remain in place, as a permanent shrine to her memory.  For over fifty years after her death, an impromptu altar was created in this room, and visits to these rooms were restricted to only a few. 

There are a number of portraits of the Kaiser, for whom a suite of rooms was kept during the latter part of the Queen’s reign.  On my last visit, I dimly recall the exterior of the House as being a dull grey.  It has been repainted in creamy yellow, which works very well indeed.  The Royal Family’s wing is no more than a large London town house, with the later addition of the Durbar wing including the spectacular Durbar Room in the 1890s.  The other, much larger wing, contained bedrooms for the Royal Princesses and staff areas plus accommodation, together with some formal rooms where the Sovereign could receive her Ministers.  A happy balance between privacy and public life, thought the Queen.

The grounds and gardens, although much reduced in size, remain impressive.  The Swiss Cottage and vegetable garden that were built for the Royal children are all in place as they were when I was George’s age.  It all looks sweet, but the future Edward VII and his brothers received the sort of education that everyone, and most certainly OFSTED, would condemn as poor.  The then Prince of Wales responded particularly badly to a mix of firm punishment and academic study.  Was the decision by Prince Albert to educate him in isolation a contributory factor to Albert Edward’s later gregariousness?  Probably.

I will blog some more when we come home next week – enjoy the Bank Holiday Weekend.  There is a moped festival on the Island that has attracted thousands of enthusiasts.   The roads will be a delight.

Sun at last!

A few days in Northern Italy have left me longing for more.  This was our first trip without the children in over five years,  so things felt very strange.   After a fine Saturday morning seeing an exhibition of Canaletto and other Venetian landscape painters in Treviso, which has a lively and attractive town centre, the weather turned wet during the wedding service we attended at nearby Preganziol.  By the time we reached Venice on Sunday afternoon, the water levels were rising steadily, making St. Marks Square a swimming pool at High Tide that night.   Despite the deluge,  Sian and I pressed on, getting very wet in the process but enjoying a quiet and uninterrupted two hour walk to the Rialto and back.

Monday was much kinder; the sun’s appearance gave the City the sort of appearance that shows it at its best.   We marvelled at the Tintorettos, Veroneses, Titians and Giovanni Bellinis at the Academia.  The precise age of Titian at his death in 1576, much debated recently between Gordon Brown and David Cameron, remains a mystery.  The Academia suggest that he was born between 1488 and 1490, which means that he was between 86 and 88 when he died, as opposed to over ninety.  After our visits to the Academia and the Doge’s Palace, where we found Titian’s St. Christopher, tucked away on the Doge’s private staircase,  I can only say “who cares?”.

Of particular interest to me were the rooms in the Palace reserved for court proceedings.  Separate councils were convened to hear civil and criminal appeals, and there were plenty of portaits of lawyers and magistrates, wearing splendid robes to indicate their importance in the life of the Serene Republic, based as it was on trade and money.  All of this came to an end when Napoleon ousted the last Doge in 1797.  After about fifty years of rule by the Hapsburgs, Venetia joined the newly-united Italy after a plebiscite in 1866.  The result is commemorated on a marble plaque that appears in one of the corridors of the Doge’s Palace.  There were only a couple of dozen “noes” recorded!

Even in the pouring rain, with Venice appearing out of the mist, the waters of the Lagoon retain an alluring greeny-blue colour.  No greys here.

St. Mark's Square

All this development reminds me of the endeavour of the Victorians – the creation of buildings and infrastructure that shaped the world in which we still live.  Will these towers, roads, railways and palaces of the Gulf have the same staying power?

As to the moral and social contradictions that exist here, I am on a family holiday, so cannot offer an informed opinion about the expatriate nightlife.  The message from the recent case where a western couple were jailed for sexual intercourse on the beach is that if you get caught, you will be treated very severely.   This is a country where a licence is required for the drinking of alcohol in the home.  Although empires and colonies are a thing of the past, Dubai is a place where some semblance of colonial life seems to endure.  There are at least two separate communities applying different customs and standards, existing side by side but not in real communication with each other.

Am keeping track on events in Britain. BMW’s sudden announcement of job cuts at Cowley and their decision to transfer 150 jobs from Swindon comes after months of silence.  I am unimpressed with the way in which this has been done.  Honda’s approach has been far more open and looks to have been the result of a degree of planning.   BMWs workers, some of whom have been with the company and its precedecessor owners for many years, deserve better than this.

A truly independent spirit like Rumpole, unafraid of judges, chaotic and fond of claret but who understood the old maxim that you are only as good as your last case, represents the best of the Bar.  There are still plenty who share this ethos, but the number will shrink as the independent bar handles less and less crime.  John Mortimer firmly believed in independence of mind.   Although he was a Labour supporter, his dismay at the authoritarian antics of this government grew and grew with every piece of legislation that was passed.  Not for him a land of Identity Cards, where our individual liberties are being systematically undermined and devalued by a Government that is all too keen to peddle inaccurate statistics about crime before being found out.

People remember Sir John for his great style, keen wit and racy private life.  Having heard him speak, I can testify as to the first two.   I very much hope and expect that his values will live on, albeit expressed through the voice of Horace Rumpole.

Much has been said locally and nationally about the use of school visits such as this by the Prime Minister as media opportunities.  The truth is that, wherever he goes, the media circus goes with him like it or not, giving the whole thing the feel of a travelling circus.  I gather that yesterday, a group of people dressed in Abba outfits with Gordon Brown masks were singing “SOS – Save our Savings” outside Isambard School.   In a week when interest rates went down to an unprecendented 1.5%, its a vital point to make on behalf of the millions who, unlike the Government, were prudent.

Justin and I were delighted to host Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve at a dinner in Highworth on Friday night.  As he always does, Dominic spoke with clarity and passion about what has gone so wrong with our criminal justice  and police system.  I was able to discuss the growing problems caused by the increasing delays before suspects are charged with criminal offences.  Up until only a few years ago, the decision to charge was taken by a police officer at the Station after the suspect had been detained and interviewed.  Once charged, the court process took over and minds were concentrated; additional evidence was obtained swiftly and any failure could be addressed by the Court.  There were plenty of occasions where charges had to be amended or dropped, but the fact remained that the system was working as quickly as it could.

In Court last week, I was listening to a Plea hearing in a case involving a very sensitive allegation that had been made at the beginning of 2008 but which had not resulted in a charge until September!  Six months were lost because computer evidence was being analysed by the High Tech Unit, which is snowed under with work.  It then took a further six weeks for a decision to be made by the CPS (who take these decisions nowadays) to charge.  It seemed to me that there was no good reason why charge couldn’t have taken place early in the year, which would have put proper pressure on the CPS to obtain the computer evidence very quickly if it wanted to rely upon it.  There are some who say that the pressures of the Court system should not work against the need to obtain all necessary evidence.  I say that the interests of complainants and defendants are most important; they are best served by a system that acts quickly and ensures that any trial takes place as speedily as possible after the incident complained of.

Saturday was spent, as usual, campaigning hard in Swindon; I was working my way through West Swindon in particular, and found an excellent response to the 2009 Conservative Calendars that we have been distributing over the past few weeks.  I am very lucky to have a dedicated and experienced team of campaigners around me; my thanks to them.

Today has been the day of the Cat.   Sian and the children visited a cattery run by Cats Protection (formerly known as the Cat Protection League)  earlier this week and selected four year old Megan, a Tabby with a very gentle disposition.  Having seen Millicent enjoy the company of Tibs the farm cat in Cornwall, having a cat seemed the best way forward.   Our grateful thanks to Cats Protection for their invaluable work in housing hundreds of cats and enabling them to be re-housed with people who will properly look after them.  I have never had a pet; seeing Mill respond so well to cats has changed my attitude!

For a link to see the work of the CPL, go to www.cats.org.uk

A perennial favourite of ours is Padstow.  Even if you dislike Rick Stein and his works, there is plenty to see and do in this delightful town and harbour.   The ferry to Rock, taking travellers over the RIver Camel, is scenic and refreshing.  Some of the best Cornish pasties I have ever tasted are available at the Posh Pasty shop and cafe situated on the quayside.

Fowey, on the South coast near to the mouth of the eponymous estuary, is a busy and hugely attractive town with two ferries – one for motor vehicles and a small passenger ferry over to Polruan.   An excellent Parish Church is sitatued on the charming main street.   We enjoyed what must be one of the very best cream teas in Cornwall at the Dwelling House – here is a link: http://www.thedwellinghouse.co.uk/The%20Dwelling%20House%202/Rates%20%26%20Contact%20Us.html

I see that the debate about the Magic Roundabout Christmas Tree continues.  Local resident Alistair Flockhart, who can always be relied upon for a bit of sense, makes the point on the Adver webpage that the concept was good, even if the execution was flawed.   With a bit more time next year, we can have a larger tree and a more attractive lighting arrangement.  I hope that this will convince the doubters.  Thank goodness there are enough people like Rod Bluh in Swindon who are genuine optimists about the town and its future.

The last day for Woolworths today – I hope that the Ladybird brand of childrens’ clothes can be salvaged; millions of us have relied upon this competitively priced range to help clothe our youngsters.