Taken from BBC News.
For the people of west Cumbria, the events of today will be almost impossible to comprehend.
In this part of north west England, shootings are rare and major crime is almost unheard of.
But in the past nine months, the communities here have endured a succession of severe incidents, natural and man-made.
The Keswick school bus crash 10 days ago, in which three people died, is still recent and raw.
And people are still homeless from floods which hit the county last year.
But the shootings will eclipse those, both in terms of violence and the shock that will reverberate throughout the remote area where these killings took place. Emerging tragedy
It began just after 1030 BST in the town centre of Whitehaven, a picturesque port with a growing appeal to tourists on a day when the shops traditionally close at lunchtime.
Duke Street is in the bustling Georgian heart of the former port town and the commercial centre; it is home to a taxi rank and it was here where shots were first heard.
The town's shop security radio system, a deterrent to shoplifters and petty criminals, was used to alert traders of the shooting and emerging tragedy.
A few miles south, down the A595, is Egremont, a crossroads between coastal Cumbria and the rolling foothills of the western lakes.
Along with Seascale it is in the shadow of the Sellafield nuclear plant which, with 10,000 staff, is the area's major employer.
Management of the plant shut the site to all staff - shift changes were halted and employees told to stay away.
This area of Cumbria is crisscrossed by minor roads linking coast with countryside; all too easy for a suspect to evade a police force without an air wing and whose main focus this week is the Appleby Horse Fair, the biggest gathering of travellers in Europe.
The area around Eskdale at the foot of Sca Fell, England's highest mountain, is known for its rugged isolation and it was here where the shootings ended, four hours after it began.
The body of Derrick Bird and a gun found in woodland near Boot, the terminus of the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway.
And now the painstaking job of finding out what led to the spree begins; forensic teams on the ground in 30 different locations and psychological help offered from NHS staff to the large number, young and old, who have been affected by this incident.
This area of Cumbria is known as a home of straight-speaking, resilient people. That resilience will be needed in the days and weeks to come.
Reminds me of the shootings in Dunblane in 1996. Shocking then; shocking now. The shockwaves will reverberate for quite some time.
The Evening Stanners
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Broken Laws
Oh, dearie me. The coalition may well hold a new record for the quickest Cabinet resignation since the formation of a UK government known to man. Not even Ted Heath's government started this badly, though it has to be said that David Cameron did NOT get hit by rotten tomatoes.
So why is the Lib-Con coalition honeymoon "already over"? Well, as I'm sure you'll have read in the Guardian and other such outraged newspapers (ie all of 'em), David Laws (above), Chief Secretary to the Treasury, resigned yesterday. This is because he broke the expenses rules from 2006, when he claimed money that should have gone to the taxpayer.
About £40,000 to be precise.
Naturally, there's a bit of outrage about that: the Lib Dems did rather well after taking the moral high ground on the expenses scandal last year, so the Yeovil MP is not exactly in much of a position to argue.
The difficulty for Laws is that he was trying to protect people around him: because the money he claimed went to his landlord, and partner, James Lundie. Many of his close friends did not know about Laws' sexuality: hence why he claimed the money, in order to protect his reputation. Unfortunately, covering something up will only get you so far: in Laws' case, into the Cabinet for 18 days, before all hell broke loose.
It's hard not to feel sorry for Laws: one gets the feeling he's been hounded out a bit here. But rules are rules, and Laws would only have damaged his reputation further by trying to wriggle out of it. In any case, judging by the support from such right-wingers as Iain Duncan-Smith, he will probably be back at some point. But the lefties will want to see him repay the money, and plenty of penitence whilst he's at it: much like they wanted to see Tony Blair apologise for Iraq, or George Bush apologise for being a muppet.
So will the coalition fall apart? My guessing would be: not yet, lads. This was very much the media baying for blood, and the public mood is decidedly anti-media: newspapers are not cool, Twitter and Facebook more sort of are. So the likelihood is it will hold until at least next May, by which time we'll see how the new Labour man (or woman) is doing.
Definitely a shock to the system, though.
Clegg: Well, this is a bit bogus.
Bill: Shut up, Clegg!
The Evening Stanners
So why is the Lib-Con coalition honeymoon "already over"? Well, as I'm sure you'll have read in the Guardian and other such outraged newspapers (ie all of 'em), David Laws (above), Chief Secretary to the Treasury, resigned yesterday. This is because he broke the expenses rules from 2006, when he claimed money that should have gone to the taxpayer.
About £40,000 to be precise.
Naturally, there's a bit of outrage about that: the Lib Dems did rather well after taking the moral high ground on the expenses scandal last year, so the Yeovil MP is not exactly in much of a position to argue.
The difficulty for Laws is that he was trying to protect people around him: because the money he claimed went to his landlord, and partner, James Lundie. Many of his close friends did not know about Laws' sexuality: hence why he claimed the money, in order to protect his reputation. Unfortunately, covering something up will only get you so far: in Laws' case, into the Cabinet for 18 days, before all hell broke loose.
It's hard not to feel sorry for Laws: one gets the feeling he's been hounded out a bit here. But rules are rules, and Laws would only have damaged his reputation further by trying to wriggle out of it. In any case, judging by the support from such right-wingers as Iain Duncan-Smith, he will probably be back at some point. But the lefties will want to see him repay the money, and plenty of penitence whilst he's at it: much like they wanted to see Tony Blair apologise for Iraq, or George Bush apologise for being a muppet.
So will the coalition fall apart? My guessing would be: not yet, lads. This was very much the media baying for blood, and the public mood is decidedly anti-media: newspapers are not cool, Twitter and Facebook more sort of are. So the likelihood is it will hold until at least next May, by which time we'll see how the new Labour man (or woman) is doing.
Definitely a shock to the system, though.
Clegg: Well, this is a bit bogus.
Bill: Shut up, Clegg!
The Evening Stanners
Labour Leadership Contest: Ed, Dave and Eddie
Okay, the show was technically called Ed, Edd and Eddie. But you get the idea.
Here's the deal:
David Miliband is nominated, as is Ed Miliband. Ed Balls, whilst still struggling a bit, has at least got himself nominated and will be difficult to remove from frontline politics, as the Conservatives found when they failed to "decapitate" him from Morley on May 6th.
The other three are still trailing, unfortunately. Burnham is half-way there (thank you Bon Jovi. Yes, now you too have that song in your head), McDonnell has six signatures, and poor old Diane Abbott only has one. So much for diversity!
It will be a lot clearer after the end of this week who's not going to make it: after all, the other three do have a whole week to garner support, so we'll see.
Interestingly, Dave Miliband has suggested the idea of televised debates for the contest, which would certainly be a modernising move and would do Labour a fair bit of good in my opinion. After all, it did inspire Cleggmania!
More soon...
The Evening Stanners
Here's the deal:
David Miliband is nominated, as is Ed Miliband. Ed Balls, whilst still struggling a bit, has at least got himself nominated and will be difficult to remove from frontline politics, as the Conservatives found when they failed to "decapitate" him from Morley on May 6th.
The other three are still trailing, unfortunately. Burnham is half-way there (thank you Bon Jovi. Yes, now you too have that song in your head), McDonnell has six signatures, and poor old Diane Abbott only has one. So much for diversity!
It will be a lot clearer after the end of this week who's not going to make it: after all, the other three do have a whole week to garner support, so we'll see.
Interestingly, Dave Miliband has suggested the idea of televised debates for the contest, which would certainly be a modernising move and would do Labour a fair bit of good in my opinion. After all, it did inspire Cleggmania!
More soon...
The Evening Stanners
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