Friday 29 July 2011

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

I drove into Odense this morning, and wondered where everybody was.

The short answer is "on holiday". Danes take more holidays than any other European nation, about 40 days a year on average, including public holidays (Romania is lowest). And a large proportion of those still take place during the so-called "industry holiday", which is traditionally weeks 28, 29, and 30. It is no longer necessary for factories to shut down completely for a period, if employees are willing to be flexible. But old habits die hard.

Speaking of holidays, I am off tonight to the U.K. to visit my Mum and spend a few days walking with my daughter in the Yorkshire Dales, a part of Britain I have never visited. Since July here has been one of the ten wettest on record, I am hoping for a bit of sunshine.

Back on the blog on 9 August.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 28 July 2011

A BAD DAY ON THE BIKE

I had a bad day on the bike today. I went out with the club, but felt terrible from the start. I was dropped on the very first hill, and nearly threw up after 10km. I had to turn round and come back.

Now I know how Alberto Contador felt on that mountain stage in the Tour ....

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 27 July 2011

POTENTIAL MELTDOWN (4)

The deadline for raising the U.S. Government's debt ceiling is next Tuesday, and there is still no plan for getting Congress to raise it. Well, that's not quite true. There are in fact two plans, one from the Republicans (the majority party in the House of Representatives) and one from the Democrats (the majority party in the Senate). The only problem is that neither party is likely to accept the other's proposal.

No way to run a whelk stall, as they used to say. Let alone the biggest economy on Earth.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 26 July 2011

ANTS

There are an awful lot of ants in this world. And a fair proportion of them seem to be living under the front step of my house. I don't know how they survive, since it is basically sand down there (I know that, since they helpfully leave small piles of the stuff on the steps). So perhaps they come out to find food?

Whatever the reason, they are very irritating when they do. I don't know whether all ants eventually turn into flying ants. But it is the flying version that gets on my nerves, wandering all over the kitchen and boiler room as well as the front step.

When it comes to dealing with ants, I have to admit that I am a ruthless killer, a genocidist even. Armed with my super strong insect spray, I go amok. Casualties are huge. However, I am not sure it has much effect in the long run; as I say, there are an awful lots of ants in this world.

Walter Blotscher

Monday 25 July 2011

NORWAY

It's hard to think of anything meaningful to say about the tragedy that took place in Norway on Friday. That has not stopped the news networks running it constantly over the weekend (there has literally been no other news item on the main evening bulletins). But what more can you say other than "a deranged, right-wing nutcase went amok and killed a whole load of innocent people"?

Perhaps the only good thing to come out of the event is the beginning of a more thoughtful debate about nationalism in Scandinavia. All four Nordic countries have experienced a rise in right-wing, anti-immigrant political parties in recent years; and their language and policies have become increasingly strident and unchecked. However, the fact of the matter is that - despite the wishes and efforts of Mr. Behring Breivik (and others who support him?) - immigrants are not going to leave en masse. So wouldn't it be better to try and make life better for both them and the rest of the population? After all, there might, just might, be a link between stridently nationalist political posturing and what happened last week.

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 24 July 2011

LEAVING HOME (3)

I put my younger son on the train to Basel this morning. After a year playing handball full-time at a (fee-paying) sports college here in Denmark, he has managed to get a contract to play semi-professionally in Switzerland. It helps that his goalkeeping coach on the Great Britain national team is a Swiss with lots of contacts, and that he himself spent a year in Switzerland as a 16-year old (and so can speak Swiss German). But it's still a big break, not least becaue he will be the understudy for the Swiss national goalie.

My son left home last August, but it still felt different this time, perhaps because Basel is quite a bit further away than Aarhus. It's been just us two at home for the past couple of weeks, and he hasn't really done very much. Getting up around midday, going for a run or other form of physical exercise, eating meals I prepare for him, lying on the sofa watching the Tour de France, complaining that there is not enough food in the fridge, and updating his Facebook page. I suppose I could call him a lazy git. But I am not so old that I can't remember how demanding it is to be a 19-year old (now, from yesterday, a 20-year old) boy with no commitments.

Besides, it has been enjoyable having him here, watching various sporting events like the Tour in companionable silence punctuated by the odd discussion about strategy. I shall miss him.

Walter Blotscher

Saturday 23 July 2011

THE TOUR DE FRANCE (2)

Cadel Evans of Australia will be crowned the winner of this year's "Grand Boucle" when the peleton rolls across the finish line in Paris tomorrow. Needing almost a minute from today's 42.5km time trial in and around Grenoble in order to overtake Andy Schleck, he did it with time to spare, finishing second on the stage and a convincing 90 seconds ahead in the overall standings. After twice coming second in the Tour by a margin of less than a minute, Evans finally came good. He is the first Australian to win the race.

Schleck and his Leopard Trek team must be ruing a missed opportunity. This year's Tour was tailor-made for a pure climber like him, with no prologue, only the one time trial and four mountain-top finishes. Furthermore, he had almost the same team that had brought him second place last year, and who had moved en bloc from Saxo Bank to the newly started Luxemburg-based outfit. In particular, with elder brother Frank at his side, Leopard Trek had two real contenders; the Schlecks could take it in turn to attack in the mountains, giving the other favourites a difficult decision whether to chase the attacker down, or bide their time. Mysteriously, however, they didn't stick to this plan in the Pyrenees; and by the time they started doing it in the Alps, and with success, it was too late. Evans, on the other hand, rode a perfect race. His modest BMC team rode a great team trial early on, and then kept him out of trouble in the hectic, crash-ridden, first week, allowing him to ride defensively in the mountains and then stake all on the final time trial.

That first week put paid to a number of the favourites' chances, including Britain's Bradley Wiggins, who suffered a broken collar-bone and had to retire. In particular, it hampered the hottest favourite, Saxo Bank's Alberto Contador. Already the winner of three Tours de France, and the defending champion, he was the core of Bjarne Riis' newly rebuilt team. However, while the other favourites trained specifically for the Tour, Contador chose to ride this year's Giro d'Italia, widely held to be the most demanding ever, and which he won - for the second time - by some margin. Only the greatest ever cyclists have done the Giro-Tour double; but if there is one today who could have done it, it's Contador. Unfortunately, the rest of his team was not up to the job; and when he crashed a couple of times early on, and hurt his knee, he lacked his usual punch in the mountains, even being dropped on the queen stage to the Col du Galibier. A long-range attack on the penultimate stage and a good time trial salvaged his reputation; but in hindsight, the attempt on the double was just a bit too ambitious.

So, what about next year? Well, Evans is 34 and it never gets easier at that age. Andy Schleck has now been second three years in a row, and will never get a route that gives him as good a chance as he had this year. If Saxo Bank can strengthen their team with a good helper for the mountains, and he stays healthy, then the odds-on favourite must be Contador. Although he has already won six Grand Tours, he is still only 28. I'd even put money on his doing the double next year; if he dares.

Walter Blotscher

Friday 22 July 2011

SACHIN TENDULKAR (2)

This summer's test series with India is probably the last time that English cricket fans will see the great Sachin Tendulkar batting. They will be torn between watching a great performance from the maestro, and rooting for an England side, that will take over the number one position in the world rankings if it wins the series.

The first test started yesterday at Lord's. The home of cricket is one of the few grounds in the world, where Tendulkar has not done well, his highest score being a meagre 37. Not only will he want to rectify that, but if he scores a century, then he will be the first man to reach 100 international (test and one-day) centuries in cricket.

That's the sort of pressure that often causes sportsmen to buckle. But I have a sneaky feeling that Tendulkar might just do it this weekend.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 21 July 2011

GREECE (5)

Ignoring the details, two key points emerge from the deal on Greece cobbled together at today's Eurozone summit.

The first is that predictions of doom have been kept at bay once again. Greece has not collapsed, the Euro has not collapsed, Greece has not left the Euro. True, the immediate price has been steep, Euros109 billion; and the country is not yet out of the woods. But as I said in an earlier post, buying time matters in a financial crisis. And the crucial thing is that this deal buys more time.

Secondly, and more importantly for the long-term future of Europe, there has been a greater willingness to talk about the "elephant in the room" of European politics, namely greater fiscal coordination between Member States. It has always been my view that this would be the end result of the financial crisis, despite the unwillingness of certain countries (notably the U.K.) to discuss it. Yet as the cost of the various bailouts become higher, and the poking around in fellow Euro-countries' budgets becomes greater, so the likelihood of more fiscal coordination rises. What seemed unthinkable 10 years ago - or even 2 years ago - no longer is.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 20 July 2011

SPACE FLIGHT

The space shuttle Atlantis is currently on its last flight to the International Space Station. When it returns to Earth sometime tomorrow, the machine will be retired, and NASA's manned space programme will be over. Humans will still go into space, either to visit the space station or in the form of low altitude space tourism. But the kind of high profile programme pioneered by the Americans will be at an end.

This will disappoint those who think that we should be pressing on with planning for a manned mission to Mars, but I for one will not be shedding any tears. Space travel is incredibly expensive, one of those big-ticket science projects (like CERN) that swallow up vast amounts of cash. And although there have been practical benefits from the space programme, such as the invention of teflon, if you wanted to invent teflon from scratch, you wouldn't do it by way of a space programme.

The biggest benefit of the space programme has been the sense of achievement for humanity, the "yes, we can do this" factor. Even there, though, the highlight of space flight was getting people to the moon (and the absolute peak Apollo 13, the one where they didn't get there); and that was 40 years ago. It was a tough decision to can the space programme, as "boys with toys" can be politically very persuasive. But there are much more pressing scientific problems here on Earth that require public funding.  

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 19 July 2011

A PLUM TREE

I have just found a plum tree. It was hidden amongst some hazelnut coppices, which I pruned in order to make way for the new kitchen garden. This obviously gave the plum tree a lot more sunlight, which it has taken full advantage of.

Not only have I found a plum tree, but I have also found a lot of ripe plums on it. Which, I have to admit, are delicious.

Walter Blotscher

Monday 18 July 2011

RAIN (2)

It's been a very wet and blustery July here in Denmark. Little more than halfway through the month, most parts of the country have already had more rain than the average for July as a whole. And more is on its way. Campsite owners, and other tourism organisers, are going around with very glum faces.

In the wheatfield next to my house, there are large swathes of stalks lying on their sides. I am not sure whether that means that the crop is lost, or whether the combine harvester can harvest them up if they are lying on the ground. But it doesn't look promising.

The rain is good for my new lawn, however. The part I sowed first looks very green indeed.

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 17 July 2011

WOMEN'S FOOTBALL

Japan won the women's football World Cup for the first time this evening, beating favourites the United States on penalties, after the match had finished 2-2 after extra time.

The Americans must be ruing their best opportunity to win the World Cup, since they themselves beat China on penalties on home turf in the 1999 final (the one where Brandi Chastain naughtily took off her shirt and revealed her sports bra after slotting home the winning kick). They dominated the game against their quicker - but markedly smaller - opponents, and had lots of chances. After the U.S. had taken a well-deserved 1-0 lead, Japan equalised with less than 10 minutes to go. The U.S. went ahead again in extra time; again Japan equalised with only minutes left on the clock. Penalties are always a crap-shoot; but the Americans lost it totally, missing the first three. And that was that.

Japan had to do things the hard way. In the quarter final they beat Germany, winners of the last two World Cups, hot favourites to win the tournament and hosts; and in the semi final, they came from behind to beat Sweden 3-1. It gives the country something to celebrate in the wake of this year's tribulations. 

Women's football is much more open than the men's game, and creates a lot more chances; even when Japan went down 2-1, you always thought that they might sneak an equaliser. It's less muscular, and there's more emphasis on speed. The new world champions would probably give the England men a good game. They'd certainly make Rio Ferdinand look like the lumbering, non-passing defender he is. 

Walter Blotscher

Saturday 16 July 2011

THE NEWS OF THE WORLD (2)

The specific questions in my earlier post have already been answered. Against a background of howls of protest from politicians of all parties, News International has withdrawn its bid for the remainder of the shares in BSkyB. And after saying that she wouldn't, News International's current Chief Executve and former editor of the News of the World, Rebekah Brooks, has resigned.

The general questions will have to wait for a while. In the meantime, the ripples from the scandal appear to be lapping further and further up the door of David Cameron, as the extent of his links with senior News International executives have become clearer. If this has not been a good couple of weeks for News International and its controlling owner Rupert Murdoch, then neither has it been a good couple of weeks for the Prime Minister.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 14 July 2011

POTENTIAL MELTDOWN (3)

Talks aimed at raising the U.S. Federal Government's debt ceiling have been going on for some time. The last time I wrote about this was on 23 June; but not much has happened since. The Republicans still insist that any deal to raise the ceiling should not include tax rises; the Democrats still insist that no deal can be done without them. President Obama is trying to broker a compromise, but it is tough.

One thing has happened since then, however; time has moved on. We are now much closer to the 2 August deadline set by the Treasury Secretary, following which the Government will have to stop paying somebody. Employees, military personnel, bondholders, pensioners, suppliers, nobody quite knows whom. The only certainty is that non-payment will precipitate a huge financial crisis.

It's never been more important for American politicians to show some understanding of the national (indeed, world) interest. It's never been more obvious how little they have.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 13 July 2011

HARRY POTTER

The eighth and last Harry Potter film has just had its premiere, an event that marks the end of the whole project. There will be no more books, and no more films. It's possible that there will be further spin-offs; games, clothes, theme parks? But the whole story is now known.

My children loved the Harry Potter books. As we lived in Denmark, my mother was roped into buying them in England as soon as they came out, and sending them over. My elder son read the last book, a 700 + page doorstopper, in not much more than a couple of days. After they had finished them, they tended to read them again. And again.

I have not seen any of the films; and I have only read the first book, a modest 200 pages or so. It was OK. But I can't say that it gripped me, in the way it has obviously gripped so many millions. Is it because I am not a child? When the world looks back on Harry Potter in 50 years' time, will they think it great literature, a publishing phenomenon or just a quirk? I have to admit I have no idea.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 12 July 2011

THE HONOURS LIST (2)

Another reason I dislike the Honours List is the lack of accountability for bad behaviour. You would expect people who have received honours, particularly the higher ones, to be - well - honourable in some sense. Yet when they are not honourable, nothing happens.

Lord Browne received a peerage for being the Chief Executive of B.P., Britain's largest company (it goes with the job). Some years ago, he sought to obtain a High Court injunction, preventing his former lover from revealing details of their relationship to a national newspaper. That application was rejected, after it turned out that he had lied in court. Lying in court is a pretty serious offence, and it did cost him his job. But he remains a peer of the realm.

Two other life peers, Lord Taylor and Lord Hanningfield, have been jailed for fiddling their Parliamentary expenses. Again, they will not lose their peerage.

Examples such as this merely bring the system into (further) disrepute. I rest my case.

Walter Blotscher

Monday 11 July 2011

THE TUDORS (2)

Tonight I watched the last two episodes of "The Tudors". I am not sure how many series there were, but they certainly ran for a while.

Tudors (plural) is a bit of a misnomer, since the series really only covered the reign of Henry VIII, and ended with his death. Production executives are doubtless mulling over the possibility of continuing with the reigns of his three children, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I, all of whom died childless. It's a bit of an irony that the dynasty ended in this way, given that Henry himself spent so much of his life desperately trying to create legitimate heirs. Although other monarchs have had six wives (the current King of Swaziland springs to mind), I don't think there has been one in a situation where the monarch is supposed to be monogamous.

I liked the Tudors. As I said earlier, it was a time of great change in England, and it was exciting - if difficult - to follow the many rises and falls (usually ending in execution) of a series of grasping courtiers. My daughter, who gets Danish history in school but not the English version, loved it, and used to watch it with me. If television is what it takes for young people to learn about the past, then I am all for it.

And where is the sequel to Wolf Hall? I am getting impatient.

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 10 July 2011

BRIDGE (4) 

I have just spent the weekend playing in the finals of the Danish national Mixed Pairs bridge championships, which took place in Vingsted, a small place in the middle of Jutland, not far from Billund Airport. This coming week is a whole festival of bridge, as our tournament is followed by the women's pairs, open pairs, junior events etc etc.

120 pairs showed up for the contest. Saturday afternoon was spent in a qualifying tournament of 46 boards, in which the top 40 would go through to the A final, leaving the lower 80 in the B final. In the first session, my partner and I didn't really gel together and ended up 85th, a score which included a penalty when my partner wrongly interpreted one of my bids for the opposition, and I didn't correct her before the play started. Not a good start.

In the second session, we perked up, and came 40th, A-final standard. That performance included one pure top, which was also the cause of a challenge from the opposition. My partner opened 1 no trump, and then forgot that we transfer to minor suits as well as to major ones, interpreting my 2 no trump response as "bid three if you are maximum" instead of "bid 3 diamonds". So we ended up in 6 no trumps instead of the more normal (and laydown) 6 diamonds, which my monster diamond suit would have brought. It was only when my hand went down as dummy, showing lots of diamonds and a void in spades, that my partner first looked puzzled, then remembered the system, then alerted the opposition. However, they had already played their first card, a club; so after the hand was finished and we had our 12 tricks, they called the tournament director over to say that if they had known our system, then they might well have led a spade. Fortunately, as the cards lay, there were 12 tricks in no trumps, whatever was led. So the challenge was denied, and we got our pure top, 6 no trumps giving marginally more points than 6 diamonds. I have to admit that I enjoyed that moment!

The good second session still only brought us up to 67th overall, so we went into the B final. This was played over 78 boards, in 4 sessions. In the first one, last night, we were again up and down, ending up in 35th place. I made a 3 no trumps with only 22 high card points for a top, which was very satisfying; and a good sacrifice of 5 hearts over a laydown 4 spades for another. But I also made a complete mess of another three no trumps for a bottom; and underbid another one for another (three no trumps is the most common contract in bridge, so you see it an awful lot). I was knackered when we finally stopped for the night at 11.15pm.

I don't know what was in my sister-in-law's breakfast cereal, but we were awesome in this morning's second session. We had eight positive rounds in a row, and quickly moved up to seventh. Nothing spectacular, just good, solid bridge. We bid and made the one slam on offer, doubled the opposition and got them down when we had to, restricted them to one less trick than the norm when they had the cards. We then had a couple of wobbles, but still went into lunch handily placed in 12th place.

The first hands after lunch included a 4 spades bid and made on a 4-3 trump fit, which is always pleasing; and a crushing of the opposition's overambitious three diamonds, so that they went down 5! Now we were up to 10th and cruising. Unfortunately, it proved to be the highwater mark of the day. A couple of neutral rounds later, we found someone sitting in our seat at the start of a round. After pointing this out to him and moving him to the correct table, we dealt and bid the first of the two hands of the round, and only then realised that the man in the wrong seat had also pulled out the wrong cards. Playing the wrong hand with the wrong people is just about the biggest mistake you can make in a duplicate bridge tournament, since it messes up the whole scoring; and we were duly punished with bottom scores. We rocketed down to 43rd place, though after a couple of good results at the end, finished 40th, exactly in the middle.

It was a great experience, and I learned a number of things from it.

1. First, mental stamina matters. The times we played best were when we were freshest; the times we played worst were late in the evening or at the end of the day, when we weren't. 

2. Secondly, it really helps to know the penalty rules (which I don't), and to make sure that you don't fall foul of them. It is unlikely that a pair will win if they have incurred penalties along the way.

3. Thirdly, small differences in play make for big differences in points. As an example, my partner on one contract took an unnecessary finesse which went wrong, so that she only made 4 spades + one instead of + two. A tiny lapse of concentration; but enough to turn a joint top into a joint bottom.

All in all, considering it was only the fourth time we had played together, I thought it went really well. There were periods where we didn't play that well, and there were periods where we played brilliantly. Best of all, we managed to get through the whole thing without shouting at each other, which is not something that could be said of every pair. I am already looking forward to next year.

Walter Blotscher

Friday 8 July 2011

THE NEWS OF THE WORLD

For much of its 168-year old history, the British Sunday newspaper The News of the World has been one of the biggest-selling papers in the country. With its mix of sport, scantily clad women and investigations into the peccadilloes of the rich and famous, it was either (according to your taste) giving the people what they wanted or pandering to the lowest common denominator in the English language. However, on one thing all could agree; along with its Monday to Saturday sister paper The Sun and its up-market cousin The Times, it shaped British public opinion, and thereby gave its owner News Corporation (controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch) huge political and social influence.

Why then has it just been announced that this coming Sunday's edition will be the last, and that the paper will close thereafter? The answer lies in a phone-tapping scandal that - like Watergate - just won't go away and seems to get bigger and bigger. Back in 2007, the News of the World's royal editor and a private investigator employed by the paper were jailed for hacking into the mobile phones of members of the Royal Family, something which is illegal in the U.K. The paper's editor insisted at the time that this was all the work of a rogue elephant, and that he knew nothing about it; but he resigned anyway in order to take responsibility for what had happened on his watch and honourably put the matter to rest.

This editor, Andy Coulson, is interesting, since he subsequently became Conservative Party leader David Cameron's media advisor, and then (after the 2010 election) the Prime Minister's Press Chief. In the meantime, thanks mainly to the dogged investigations of another newspaper, the Guardian, the phone-tapping problem wouldn't go away. It turned out that the number of people hacked by the paper could have been in the thousands; that they included politicians, celebrities, and all sorts of other people, not just members of the Royal Family; and that the initial police investigation into the story might well have been deliberately soft-pedalled. Worst of all, there was more than a suspicion that many more people at the paper than the rogue elephant knew about and/or authorised what had happened. In January 2011, Andy Coulson resigned from his post at Downing Street.

The straw that broke the camel's back this week were the twin revelations that the News of the World had in the past paid some members of the police to give them the inside track on especially interesting crime stories; and that in particular, the newspaper had hacked into the mobile phone of Milly Dowler, a teenager who was abducted and murdered a decade or so ago (they deleted some messages in the voicemail box, thereby giving the impression that the girl was still alive). Public opinion was disgusted, and advertisers began to leave the paper in droves. Without advertising, newspapers can't function; so deciding to close the paper was probably a smart business move. Particularly if it will soon be replaced by a new "Sunday Sun".

What is left is a host of unanswered questions. The general ones concern media regulation, of which there seems to be none in the U.K. at the moment; the cosy relationship between senior politicians, senior police officers and the press (or, at least, certain sections of it); and the limits of the right to privacy. The specific ones concern the fate of Rebekah Brooks, currently Chief Executive of News International but the editor of the News of the World at the time of the alleged Milly Dowler hacking; and the outcome of News International's bid for the 61% of broadcaster BSkyB that it doesn't already own. Under media rules, the owners of news broadcasters such as BSkyB's Sky News have to be "fit and proper". Many people now say that News International does not meet that criterion. Although some of those people have an obvious axe to grind in their opposition to Rupert Murdoch's influence, a lot do not. The bid had looked pretty much a shoe-in until this week, but doubts have now surfaced. Just the sort of story for the News of the World, in fact - if it had survived.

Walter Blotscher

Thursday 7 July 2011

IRAQ AND BRITISH LAW

The Coalition that invaded Iraq had many member countries. Yet after combat operations were declared over on 1 May 2003, only the U.S. and the U.K. chose to become "occupying powers", a position that was ratified later that month by the U.N. Security Council. Occupying powers have specific responsibilities under international law; maintaining security, for example. So from then until 28 June 2004, when the Coalition Provisional Authority ceased and its authority was handed over to the interim Iraqi Government, the British and Americans were in charge.

During that 14-month period, some nasty things happened in Basra, that part of the country under British control. In particular, a number of innocent civilians were killed by British soldiers. Relatives of the victims sought to bring claims in the U.K. courts that their and/or the victims' human rights had been violated. No proper investigations into the deaths had been undertaken; no admissions of liability had been made; and no proper compensation had been paid.

Six claims were chosen as tests. The various U.K. courts, including eventually the House of Lords in 2007, all decided that they had no case. The legal reasoning was that the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law, did not apply outside Europe. It was all very regrettable; but the unfortunate Iraqis had no redress for the wrongs committed during the time of British rule.

The European Court of Human Rights, the ultimate interpreter and arbiter of the Convention, disagrees. In a unanimous judgment issued by the Grand Chamber today, they said that in exceptional circumstances such as those obtaining in Iraq, the U.K. remained bound by convention rules safeguarding the right to life and liberty. The court ordered the U.K. to pay the claimants compensation and their costs.

The ruling has huge ramifications for the U.K. Waiting in line are a host of other Iraqis, who also have potential claims against the British military. Under the rules for ECtHR judgments, these claims will now have to be handled and adjudicated by the British courts.

Anti-European politicians will doubtless foam at the mouth about what they see as unwarranted intrusion in U.K. matters. However, disinterested neutrals (including me) will welcome the ruling as delayed justice. The decision to become an occupying power was a voluntary choice by a country seeking to "punch above its weight" in foreign policy and follow the lead of its American allies. The court has now decided that - at least in this area of life - power does indeed come with responsibility.

Walter Blotscher

Wednesday 6 July 2011

THE TOUR DE FRANCE

The Tour de France is a great sporting event (more on that another time). But it - and the other Grand Tours of Italy and Spain - are also wonderful adverts for their countries' tourist industries. For three weeks pictures fill the screen of idyllic mountain villages, beautiful fields, famous castles and cathedrals, local shops and cafes. If you want to see France, then the best way to see it is probably to become a professional cyclist.

It is estimated that up to 3 million people watch the Tour in situ as it passes by. And many of them make a lot of effort to promote their locality and region. My favourite this year was a construction built by some local farmers in the middle of a wheatfield. They had made a huge bicycle out of straw bales, and the wheels were groups of tractors driving round in a circle. More bales spelt out the message "we the farmers of Brittany enjoy feeding you".

OK, you would have needed a helicopter to see it (though the Tour also has a couple of those). But I admired the amount of effort that would have been needed for something which was seen so fleetingly.

Walter Blotscher

Tuesday 5 July 2011

ÆBELØ

Æbelø is a small island off the north coast of Fünen, the large island in the middle of Denmark where I live. Since 1998 it has been designated a nature reserve, home to mature oak and beech trees, that house deer and birds. In order to reach the island, you have to walk across a 4km causeway, 1.5km of which is under water (ankle deep at low tide, up to and over the knees at high tide).

Today the tides were at exactly the right times, so my wife and I made the crossing together with some German ornithologists. There is an old hunting lodge and a lighthouse on the island, otherwise nothing except nature. We had our picnic lunch in a wooded clearing where we were completely on our own. It was lovely.

On the way back, walking 1.5km in water up to your knees turned out to be pretty tiring, particularly since we had already done 12km plus. However, my tired muscles were compensated by a very large ice cream, which we had when we reached the mainland again. Banana, raspberry and chocolate chip, if I remember correctly.

Walter Blotscher

Sunday 3 July 2011

DEATH CAMPS

I have just watched the penultimate episode of the WW2 mini-series "Band of Brothers", the one in which Easy Company are in Southern Germany and discover a concentration camp in the woods, a couple of kilometres from an otherwise idyllic rural village.

War is pretty ghastly at the best of times. But I imagine that the discovery of the death camps must have been profoundly unsettling to the young men who found them. It is one thing to do horrible things to a sworn enemy in a cause which had importance for the world's future; it is quite another to do horrible things to your own side, merely because they are intellectuals, gypsies or Jews. One's faith in the decency of humanity is shaken.

I often wonder what those NATO pilots are thinking when they bomb Tripoli, and it turns out they have zapped a civilian house by mistake. Libya has no overarching cause to defend; indeed, it is not at all obvious who the enemy is. Is their faith similarly shaken, or is it just a more high-tech version of video games?

Walter Blotscher

Saturday 2 July 2011

RAIN

It's been a pretty dry spring and early summer here in Denmark; even my mother-in-law's lawn was looking a bit tired. However, that has now changed with a vengeance. This evening cloudbursts over Copenhagen dumped up to 150mm of water on the city, equivalent to 20% of the country's average annual rainfall, in the course of a few hours. Cellars have been flooded, causing some hospitals to close; parked cars are sitting under water; sewers are overflowing; some of the motorways around the capital are closed; and the Tivoli amusement park has had to be evacuated. Nothing like it has been seen during the past 30 years.

Nor is it over. More rain is forecast for tomorrow afternoon, and it is expected to be heavy.

I got used to experiencing this sort of thing - warm weather combined with downpours - during the rainy season in Tanzania. In some ways, it is reassuring to see that it can also happen in a country as well-organised and -functioning as Denmark. Nature needs to be respected.

Walter Blotscher

Friday 1 July 2011

A LAZY START TO THE MONTH

I had a very lazy start to the month of July. I have an excuse, since it was the day of the men's semi-finals at Wimbledon, and I had to watch them. At the end of the first match I announced to my children that I was not going to make dinner after all, but would satisfy myself with beer and nacho chips (which I duly did). And after Andy Murray had been comprehensively demolished by Rafael Nadal, I then went to bed early and read my book.

The good thing about such a start is, of course, that July can't really get any lazier. There will be mountain stages of the Tour de France that will require my undivided attention; but provided I eat something more complicated than nachos, I should be able to meet an otherwise fairly undemanding requirement.

Walter Blotscher