Archive for September 19th, 2005

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Prison? Punishment or Rehabilitation

Posted by Gav on September 19th, 2005

Rehabilitation assumes a child-parent relationship between the criminal and state. Rehabilitation has been used, by so-called liberals, as an excuse for providing luxurious accomodation in prisons. I believe in individual freedom - to the extent that I would abolish if I could, many of the UK’s laws that inhibit personal freedom for no-one’s benefit - but with freedom comes responsibility and, particularly, responsibility for one’s actions.

A Tangled Web has rightly observed that Clarke’s rhetoric about local prisons is yet more pandering to the rejects of society. We must be thankful the Liberal Democrats aren’t more popular - then criminals would have the vote.

A Tangled Web also, rightly, makes the distinction between the majority of prisoners, who are there for nasty crimes, from those like the retired vicar imprisoned for not paying the unreasonable 8% increase in his Council Tax.

See ATW’s post.


Posted In: Political

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Dig in the Ribs, Brighton

Posted by Gav on September 19th, 2005

Coeliac UK crossed-grain logoDig in the Ribs is a restaurant in Preston Street in Brighton. Those of you who know Brighton, will know that Preston Street is a street of many restaurants so, if you’re in the area, you can easily change your mind about going to Dig in the Ribs.

I was dining with someone who does not eat pork and the waiter was unsympathetic and unhelpful when asked about the contents of one item. Poor service, but not the end of the world until….

You’ll know from a previous post that I have coeliac disease which means I am unable to eat foods containing wheat flour (or, more correctly, gluten). I provided the waiter with the Dietary Card (which I also mentioned in the earlier post) and explained that I am unable to eat foods with gluten in them and asked him if he knew whether there was anything in the nachos. The waiter’s initial reaction was to say “I don’t know”!

I was surprised because when eating in many restaurants in Brighton, London, Paris and elsewhere, I have rarely been treated to that reaction. Normally a waiter(ess) offers to go and find out. I suggested gently that he did that.

On his return the waiter said that a lot of their food was sweet and that “very, very, very little” could be eaten by me. I did not bother to explain to the poor chap that I can eat steak, as I had previously, but I did explain that gluten is not glucose.

The chef (maybe) had seen the Dietary Card which is not subtle in explaining what I am unable to eat, so the reference to sweetness is extremely worrying. Companies have, since the Disability Act came into force, been obliged to provide equal services for the disabled and able-bodied. I would not expect people to go to extraordinary lengths, but to tell me I cannot eat anything when I can identify items on their menu myself, is terrible for a restaurant.

Because we were on Preston Street, we went to Cafe Royal instead. Cafe Royal were told the story (but not shown the card) and I referred to my food intolerance by talking about wheat flour. On dishing up my modified food (no sausage and two eggs instead of one) the waitress said “One gluten free breakfast”. 10/10 for Cafe Royal, 0/10 for Dig in the Ribs.

The following restaurants go to extraordinary lengths to help provide gluten free food:

  • Donatello’s, Brighton (they even provide gluten free pasta)
  • Pinnochios’, Brighton (they even provide gluten free pasta)
  • The Emperor of China, Brighton Marina
  • Imperial China, Worthing
  • The Old Ship Inn, nr. Lewes
  • Thai Elephant, Peacehaven
  • Memories of India, Brighton Marina
  • A Taste of India, Brighton
  • Nooris, Brighton
  • Others I am sure I have forgotten…

Dig in the Ribs - one to avoid!


Posted In: Personal, Brighton

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Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Posted by Gav on September 19th, 2005

I read the following this evening and I thought you’d like to share in the delight of reading Aslan’s words.

The e-mail below was written further to an e-mail conversation that I mentioned previously:

When I read your response to me I thought for a moment you had replied to the wrong e mail! I did not mention race, colour or give any suggestion that people of “colour” were only good for polishing my shoes! I dare say you do this for your “English” husband from time to time, maybe that’s where the confusion came in?

With billions of English taxpayers money going on the university education of ethnic minorities you can hardly accuse the English of wanting to keep “people of colour” down. So that I am not talking out of turn or being “rude” as you put it, may I remind you of a past musing by you which exposes your declared hatred of my country:

“I’m no longer comfortable any more in stereotyping and deriding Anglo-Saxons. Once, as a rabid anti-imperialist (which I still am), I would have applauded anybody who publicly humiliated the English. If it was done cleverly and with panache it was even more satisfying. Like other nationals who had been subjugated for so long, these small affronts were liberating, a way of confronting that arrogance of Englanders. But these days I feel more disquiet than wicked delight when the English are gratuitously slagged off. ”

It is really too much that someone like you can be so openly racist and bigotted against the English and yet seek to assume some kind of “moral authority” , for being a “wronged” colonial, when your own father and other Asians similarly “invaded” Uganda, and your education was made possible by the people of England and their taxes!

You cannot be surprised that people have contempt for much of what you say, when your hypocrasy is so evident.

If this is really such a wretched place in which to live why don’t you go back to Uganda or Pakistan or India where (evidently) things are so much better? You know as well as I do, you have never had it so good and as an Asian Muslim woman it is England that has given you the kind of rights and freedoms many of your sisters can only dream about.

As to whether you should be grateful, I will leave that to your conscience. For myself, as an English born woman from immigrant stock, I am damn grateful my mother had the good sense to come to England, by doing so she secured my future and our family’s future - your refusal to have any gratitude to this land or her people is one of the reasons the English despise certain kinds of immigrants - the ones that only know how to take but never to give.

You are welcome to call youself British, it means nothing to me. I also have the right to call myself English, as do all those who love England, love her culture, help to enrich her culture and contribute to securing England’s future. You clearly don’t share those sentiments but that is the beauty of living in a democracy - we have the right to be who we are and I would appreciate it if you would respect that right and desist from making unfounded gratuitous insults against England and the people who consider themselves English - to do otherwise would be to be racist and bigotted wouldn’t it?

Yours sincerely,

Link to the post


Posted In: Political, England

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Typing secrets

Posted by Gav on September 19th, 2005

Typing secrets on your keyboard may not be safe for much longer. Prying eyes are not all that is needed according to the following Scientific American article: Sounds of Typing Give Messages Away.


Posted In: Science