Two British Airways jets have been grounded, as the investigation into Alexander Litvinenko’s death spreads yet further. 33,000 passengers over 221 flights are being contacted ‘as a precaution’.

But pilots and cabin crew wear badges that measure their dose of radiation, since they are naturally exposed to more due to being high up in the atmosphere for long periods of time. Why didn’t their badges show a greater than usual exposure, and hence detect this problem before now?

The only explanation I can think of is that the radiation is very short-range, and the cabin crew were never close enough to be affected. The radiation on Polonium-210 is very short range. Have we discovered how the murder weapon entered the country?

And guess the top destination where those planes have been been flying? Yep, Moscow. It’s looking like Mr Putin can’t ignore this investigation any longer – if the Polonium is shown to have likely come from Moscow, he’s going to have to co-operate, rather than just issue denials. But hours before this story hit the media, Mr Putin announced he’s now decided to cancel his meeting with Mr Blair.

Co-incidence?

Gordon Brown’s four-month-old son Fraser has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. My thoughts are with the family at this time – clearly, this is devastating news for them, and it’s hard to know what to post in these situations.

Nick Robinson tells an interesting anecdote on his blog:

My thoughts instantly turned to an event a couple of years ago which I attended at 11 Downing Street. It was, ironically, to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The star of the evening was Emily Thackray, pictured on the right with the Chancellor.

Emily is beautiful and charismatic and looks a picture of health. However, she is very ill with cystic fibrosis. When she told the assembled company that she was being considered for a transplant as “time is running out” I well recall the impact she made. Several people in the room fainted. The chancellor was visibly moved. So much so that I asked my camera crew to give him some privacy.

The good news is that two years later Emily is still with us. She was told in March 2005 that without a lung transplant she only had a year left to live but she is – I’m told – still fighting on.

Despite the personal difficulty for a reportedly forward-looking Chancellor, perhaps its not too terrible to suggest that having both leaders of the major political parties having children with chronic medical conditions may do something to benefit the thousands of children throughout the land who live with ongoing medical complaints. Since Ivan Cameron has cerebral palsy and Fraser Brown has cystic fibrosis, it seems that for the next while we’re going to have Prime Ministers with intimate personal experience of the NHS and caring for a chronically unwell child – and whilst undoubtedly terrible for the individuals, perhaps that will be good for the country, and good for the care of children throughout the land.

Surely there is nobody better to plan services for children like Ivan and Fraser than the people that use the services day-in, day-out, and understand the hardships and difficulties that the bad times bring – as well, of course, as the joy and laughter of the good times. And this certainly provides a platform for public awareness of the diseases to be increased. Let’s hope that some great good can come of some bad news.

I don’t mean to be flippant, but I think I’m glad I’m not on the Blairs’ Christmas card list if it meant I had to display this… err… monstrosity in my home. I wonder if anyone who receives one will send one back with a picture of themselves on the stairs? It’s really quite bizarre.

Well, not quite so bizarre as the new ‘cuddly’ Mr Brown’s Christmas card of cartoon children – quite wisely called ‘interesting’ by Mr Blair. I would say that Mr Brown should stop trying to rebrand himself, but watching him make a prat of himself is too much fun.

Mr Cameron has yet to release his Christmas card. This is an interesting moment. How will he marry sending chunks of dead tree through an antiquated postal system with his pledges to be ‘green’ and ‘modern’? I’m assuming the cards will be made of recycled paper or something, but perhaps he’ll go a step further and send e-cards instead. It’d certainly grab a few headlines, and wouldn’t harm the financial situation either. But there’s always a chance it could swing the wrong way, and he could be called ‘miserly’.

I expect we shall soon find out.

I don’t know if Stephen Ladyman reads this blog – I suspect not – but you do, Dr Ladyman, here’s the Danish solution you’re missing on the path to road safety:

[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/speeding.flv” /]

Anyone sniggering at Dr Ladyman’s name should be ashamed. 😆

Nick Clarke, presenter of The World at One, has died aged just 58, following a very public battle with cancer.

Nick had a long career with the BBC, but I know him best as presenter of The World at One, and for his moving audio diary of his cancer journey. He always came across more as a chatty friend than a newsreader, as reflected by some 2,000 messages of condolence on the BBC website, and many, many more on individual blogs and websites.

The beauty of Nick Clarke’s political presenting is that he could examine politics in the greatest forensic detail, whilst also retaining a warmth, a breath of knowledge about everyday life, and a touch of little humour. His presenting was always elegant, and his interviews calm and measured, simultaneously detailed, incisive and impeccably polite.

Nick Robinson’s tribute brings back fond memories of some of the best political interviews of our time:

Nick asked once asked what I consider to be the perfect question – proving that you could balance persistence with courtesy. He was being fobbed off by the government’s straight-bat man Alastair Darling who was insisting on talking about the Tories’ policies and refusing to answer about his own. Nick paused briefly after one such answer – just long enough for the audience to notice. Then in that gloriously rich bass of a voice asked, “Minister, just for the sake of neatness could you answer the question I asked you”. Glorious.

There’s a full obituary on the BBC site, as well as a tribute from Mark Damazer, the controller of Radio 4. Thoughts are with his five children, and his widow Barbara.

He will be sadly missed.

Everybody’s favourite giant-flower wearing government jester, Heath Secretary ‘Mad’ Patricia Hewitt, has pronounced that

some parts of the NHS in England have taken on too many doctors and nurses

That seems a bit of a sweeping statement to me. I think it’s important she’s more specific – exactly which hospitals have too many doctors and nurses? Presumably not the one in Wales, which has had to close its minor injuries unit due to a lack of staff. Presumably not Scotland, where current government estimates say there will soon be 500 too few GPs – a number the BMA beleives to be much higher. And presumably not England, where ambulances have been turned away from understaffed A&Es.

But they’re out there somewhere. And it’s important we find them. After all, we can’t go spending all the NHS money on silly extravagances like doctors and nurses when there’s marketing to be paid for.

So where are these wasteful hospitals? Dr Crippen’s looking for them. I want to know where they are. And I’m sure the electorate surrounding the identified hospitals will be interested.

So come on, Pat, tell us: Which hospitals have too many healthcare staff?

As promised… Happy Birthday Coire! Hope you have a really good day!

And, in other news, apologies for the fact that the site ‘went a bit weird’ for the last twelve hours or so. I’d love to say it was someone else’s fault, but it wasn’t. It was mine. Entirely. Wrong button you see.

I always told you people like me shouldn’t have their finger on the button. Any button. Oops.

I know I claim that this is a topical blog, and the biggest (and most predictable) story of the year has just broken… Apparently, some very ill and frail (some say moribund) 69 year-old pensioner is to be hanged in a country that is claimed to be free, fair, and modern.

But, meh, it’s my blog and I’ll post crap if I want to… And anyway, it’s not like it’s the first time this guy has been sentenced to death – and it didn’t seem to do much in the 1950s. Everyone complains that ‘life’ doesn’t mean ‘life’ – it seems ‘death’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘death’, either. 😉

Everybody knows that the Daily Mail loves nothing more than to print anti-BBC stories. But really, this latest attempt breaks new ground, even for the Mail.

The story is that the presenter of the BBC’s flagship news bulletin, Huw Edwards, was wearing a poppy which fell off just before the programme went to air. So in the first report, he picked it up and reattached it. Fascinating stuff.

In the world of the Daily Mail, though:

When BBC Ten O’Clock news presenter Huw Edwards took to the news-room floor during Monday night’s bulletin – viewers were immediately alerted to the fact that he has forgotten something – his poppy. Viewers were doubly confused when the poppy suddenly appeared on Edwards jacket after the broadcaster cut away to an interview with its top political correspondent Nick Robinson some way into the show.

Terribly confusing for all concerned, I’m sure. But far from jumping to the obvious conclusion, Daily Mail readers

could have been forgiven for thinking that the PC brigade were at it again

Somehow, the Mail then draws a connection between a poppy falling off someone’s jacket, and the fact that the Beeb have decided that ‘distracting’ religious symbols might not be the best idea on a newsreader – or, in the world of the Daily Mail, banned Fiona Bruce from wearing a cross. Which, incidentally, was blatantly untrue.

How on Earth does something this stupid make the pages of a national newspaper? It’s astonishing, even from the Daily Mail.

But my favourite bit of the article is this:

The poppy incident marked an eventual [sic] night for the Welsh news-reader after it was revealed that a contagious eye infection almost caused him to miss his broadcast.

Eventual?

From the Press Association:

A cash-strapped hospital could open its doors to dogs and cats in a bid to raise extra funds, it has emerged.

Ipswich Hospital is proposing to use its state-of-the-art radiotherapy equipment, which lies dormant at weekends, to treat family pets with cancer at special Saturday morning clinics.

It’s like something from The Thick of It. When the NHS is so cash-strapped that hospitals are thinking of treating animals, things aren’t going well. Why do I suspect the hand of Mad Pat in this? Just to remind you, other proposals she’s come up with include closing unpopular hospital departments, making those who spread MRSA face criminal charges, announcing that the doubling of NHS debt means the financial crisis is “stabilising”, and, perhaps most famously, announcing that this year was the NHS’s “best year ever”. Compared to those gaffes, suggesting that NHS hospitals start treating pets seems relatively sane.

How is this woman still in her job?

Essential reading, part one:

Dick Cheney, US vice-president, has endorsed the use of “water boarding” for terror suspects and confirmed that the controversial interrogation technique was used on Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the senior al-Qaeda operative now being held at Guantánamo Bay… Mr Cheney was responding to a conservative radio interviewer who asked whether water boarding, which involves simulated drowning, was a “no-brainer” if the information it yielded would save American lives. “It’s a no-brainer for me,” Mr Cheney replied.

Essential reading, part two:

The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner’s face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt. According to the sources, CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in.

Essential viewing (disturbing scenes).

These sources certainly don’t show the USA as a flag-waving leader of the free world, ever going to new lengths to promote freedom. They look like the works of a barbaric mediaeval dictatorship. As they say, if it has feathers and quacks like a duck…

Waterboarding and other forms of torture should be outlawed. Full stop. Whether we call them torture or not is irrelevant – stop doing them. We might be suffering Jack Bauer syndrome, but we should stop taking it out on others. It is unacceptable, and needs to stop now.