That Bloke In The Big Smoke

Following on from yesterday's post, there were 2,649 British nationals detained around the world as of 31 March this year. But this figure only represents those nationals who were assisted by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and does not include political prisoners for whom separate figures do not exist. Only 256 were women. The figures are produced every six months. Here's how they breakdown by country:

01. USA         - 652
02. Spain       - 346
03. Australia   - 286
04. France      - 133
05. Germany     - 124
06. Ireland     - 101
07. Thailand    - 90
08. Jamaica     - 65
09. UAE         - 55
10. Brazil      - 37
11. Canada      - 34
12. Norway      - 34
13. Peru        - 34
14. Netherlands - 33
15. Pakistan    - 27

It's quite a different composition from yesterday's list, reflecting the most popular emigrant and tourist destinations of British citizens.

[Source: Hansard, 25 October 2010]

WORLD:
The death of climate legislation [5 Oct]
US midterms set to be most expensive [4 Oct]
Commonwealth Games: are opening ceremonies worth it? [4 Oct]
Park51 drawings prove how far 'Ground Zero mosque' claims are from truth [3 Oct]
Over 100,000 Irish workers expected to leave country before 2012 [30 Sep]

TEA PARTY:
How the Tea Party movement began [5 Oct]
Tea Party activists invoke spirit of 1773 [5 Oct]
Profile: the main Tea Party groups [4 Oct]
The Tea Party: five to watch [4 Oct]

UK:
Liverpool board agree sale to Boston Red Sox owners [6 Oct]
Ken Clarke to unveil plans for prisoners to work 40-hour week [5 Oct]
How benefit cuts could affect you [5 Oct]
Can Britain ever be a fair society? [3 Oct]
Britons robbed of £1.7bn in last five years while on holidays abroad [3 Oct]
Could Dundee be the new Bilbao? [3 Oct]
Ed Miliband gets lukewarm welcome from north of England Jews [30 Sep]

MISC:
Are guidebooks facing extinction? [3 Oct]
Are the best pictures on Facebook or Flickr? [3 Oct]
Twitter and Facebook cannot change the real world, says Malcolm Gladwell [3 Oct]

IRONY:
Martin McGuinness condemns Real IRA's Derry bomb [5 Oct]

One of the best things about life is coming across something really fascinating which happened in the past, but about which you had never ever heard anything. For me, it's especially brilliant when the story has a British connection. You see a reference to an old event in a recent news report and curiosity takes over. The novelty keeps life interesting. Well today while reading an article in the Daily Mail about Zac Goldsmith, son of Anglo-French financier James Goldsmith and the Tory parliamentary candidate for Richmond Park in West London, I came across this sentence: "Miss Aspinall, 21, is the granddaughter of John Aspinall the conservationist and gambling entrepreneur who is believed by some to have helped Lord Lucan disappear in 1974." Helped someone disappear?! Two clicks to Wikipedia and hey presto:

"Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (born 18 December 1934), known as Lord Bingham before 1964, sometimes colloquially called "Lucky" Lucan, was a British peer, who disappeared in the early hours of 8 November 1974, following the murder of Sandra Rivett, his children's nanny, the previous evening. There has been no verified sighting of him since then."

And a Rivetting tale it is! Hereditary peer, compulsive gambler, recently separated, murdered nanny, disappears for life! Agatha Cristie-like mystery aside, the story had an interesting legal impact. Lucky Lucan was "was the last person ever to be declared a murderer by an inquest jury, shortly before the procedure was outlawed by the Criminal Law Act 1977". Cool piece of trivia! And it doesn't end there. The wiki entry includes the usual section on "Reported sightings". Usually I come across just one cool unheard of story from the past every week, but like London buses two arrived at once in the space of a few minutes. According to Lucky Lucan's wiki entry "In December 1974, police in Australia arrested a man they believed was Lucan but who was in fact the British MP John Stonehouse, who had faked his suicide a month earlier." A British MP faking his own suicide and hiding Down Under?! I tell ye what, life used to be a lot more interesting in the good ol'days!

The concept of ABH was considered by the Divisional Court (DC) in DPP v Smith (Michael Ross) (2006). The defendant held down his former girlfriend and cut off her ponytail with kitchen scissors a few weeks before her 21st birthday. The Magistrates acquitted him on the ground that, although there was undoubtedly an assault, it had not caused ABH, since there was no bruising or bleeding, and no evidence of any psychological or psychiatric harm. The victim’s distress did not amount to bodily harm. The DC allowed an appeal by the DPP, rejecting the argument for the defendant that the hair was dead tissue above the scalp and so no harm was done.

"In my judgment, whether it is alive beneath the surface of the skin or dead tissue above the surface of the skin, the hair is an attribute and part of the human body. It is intrinsic to each individual and to the identity of each individual. Although it is not essential to my decision, I note that an individual's hair is relevant to his or her autonomy. Some regard it as their crowning glory. Admirers may so regard it in the object of their affections. Even if, medically and scientifically speaking, the hair above the surface of the scalp is no more than dead tissue, it remains part of the body and is attached to it. While it is so attached, in my judgment it falls within the meaning of "bodily" in the phrase "actual bodily harm". It is concerned with the body of the individual victim."
~ Judge P in DPP v Smith (Michael Ross) ~

"To a woman her hair is a vitally important part of her body. Where a significant portion of a woman's hair is cut off without her consent, this is a serious matter amounting to actual (not trivial or insignificant) bodily harm."
~ Creswell J in DPP v Smith (Michael Ross) ~
(as copied directly from Wikipedia)

Yes says the British government. No says the highest court in the land. What do you think? READ MORE.