The Prerogative of Mercy

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe will never be released from prison, a High Court judge has ruled.
An application was made by the 64-year-old to have a minimum term set to give him the chance of parole.
Many people received , with relief , the news that there will be no release for the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.
Victims of the serial killer who had survived his attacks and the families of Peter Sutcliffe murdered victims , received the news with gratitude to the British legal system .
Sections of the society who had watched the court proceedings keenly and with bated breath were members of the public , law enforcement officers , Social Workers and other staff of the Department of Social Services.
Peter Coonan - formerly Peter Sutcliffe - is serving 20 life sentences in Broadmoor for the murders of 13 women and seven attempted murders.
Sutcliffe remains a hate figure within the Press, with much criticism of the Home Office in 2005 when it emerged he had been allowed to visit the site where his late father's ashes had been scattered.

The Yorkshire Ripper's crimes took place across the north of England between 1975 and 1980.
The murderous campaign of the then truck driver against prostitutes and young women between 1975 and 1980 sparked widespread fear until he was arrested in January 1981. He would batter women over the head with a hammer and stab them in the chest and abdomen, often mutilating them, with a knife or screwdriver.
The trial judge recommended he serve at least 30 years and he is held at Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital in south-east England.
Sutcliffe was never formally given a minimum term of imprisonment.
The original judge said he must serve a minimum of 30 years behind bars, a period that expires next year. The 64-year-old, now known as Peter Coonan, subsequently applied to have a minimum term set to give himself a chance of parole but the application was rejected.
In February 2009 the prime minister, Gordon Brown, said it was ''very unlikely'' Sutcliffe would be released.
The latest court attempt revolved around a medical report in November 2006 by Kevin Murray, who is treating Sutcliffe.
If verdicts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility had been accepted by the prosecution or returned by the jury, Sutcliffe could have been sentenced to an unlimited stay in a psychiatric hospital.

At the High Court in London, Justice Mitting said he had ''no doubt'' that the appropriate term was a whole life sentence.
The ''brutality and gravity of Sutcliffe's offences speak for themselves'', he said.
The diagnoses of psychiatrists who had considered Sutcliffe's mental condition was that he was ''suffering from encapsulated paranoid schizophrenia when he committed the crimes and that his responsibility for the 13 killings was, in consequence, substantially diminished'', the judge said.

Other condemned notorious "lifers",like Sutcliffe; who had attempted to escape the constraints of incarceration through applying to the courts for amnesty or parole ; abound world wide.
Chief amongst these in the UK are :
1.John Straffen , Britain's longest serving prisoner who spent 55 continuous years in custody. Straffen died, having never been released, in Frankland prison in November 2007.
2.Myra Hindley - The other of the Moors Murderers, Ian Brady's girlfriend and accomplice who was involved in all five murders with Brady, with two murder convictions and one as an accessory.
Hindley was given a 25-year minimum term by the trial judge, which was endorsed in 1982 by the Lord Chief Justice. Reports suggested that Hindley was rehabilitating in prison and had found religion( Christianity ) and rejected Brady and her past.
Hindley subsequently made three appeals against the whole life tariff and launched a further bid for freedom in 1996 when she had served 30 years, but all her efforts were rejected and she died in jail at the age of 60 in November 2002, less than two weeks before a law lords' ruling would probably have secured her freedom.
3.Donald Neilson (1976)-The Black Panther, so-called for his penchant for wearing a black balaclava, shot dead three postmasters during robberies in various areas of the country, then abducted a 17-year-old heiress from her Shropshire home. He attempted to ransom the heiress, but her body was found two months later in a drain in Staffordshire. In 2008, Neilson lost an appeal to have his tariff reduced to 30 years.

The urge for self-preservation is strong in any living creature ; especially in homo sapiens ,in the grip of prolonged and permanent imprisonment or imminent execution.
This urge results in the audacity of the guilty to make demands on God the Father and on the State ; seeking forgiveness and pardon for their heinous crimes.
God is impressed by such requests and he desires the audacity of the sinner who admits his sins and who boldly, asks God for forgiveness.
Hebrew 4 :14-16.
With God , mercy and forgiveness are always present and they are given full and free to the repentant sinner. Proverbs 28:13 , Isaiah 1:18,19 .
God would forgive and forget ; but not so in the physical realm .
Sometimes , the State and people are not inclined to accept remorse and audacious requests for forgiveness from serial murderers.
The repentant convict could ask for mercy but with no assurance of liberty.
"With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything."Napoleon Bonaparte .
The Judiciary has the power to deny or grant a convict the Prerogative of Mercy.
Since the European Court of Human Rights decision, only trial judges and the High Court have had the right to decide that a killer should never be released.
In that time, there have been more than 20 reported instances of trial judges recommending that an offender should never be released.

We give Thanks .

I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me , though he were dead , yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believest thou this?" John 11: 25, 26.

With heavy hearts but with thanksgiving ; my family announce the glorious home - call of our Beloved Mother , grandmother and great grandmother , Mrs. Victoria Ibitayo Edgal , who slept in the Lord in her residence , on the 17th of June, 2010.
She was aged 81 years. She is survived by three daughters and three sons and dozens of grandchildren and great grandchildren and scores of foster children .
Our mother , friend and confidante lived a life worthy of emulation; a life well -spent in the service of her God ,of her husband of 44 years , her children , family and her community.
Blessed art thou , O Lord of Heaven and earth for you are a giver of good gifts.
We give you praise and thanks for the blessing and privilege of having Mama in our lives and knowing her as our " Mother", for over six decades.
We thought our mom's whole purpose was to be our mom. That's how she made us feel.
Although , Mama had her own profession and hobbies, but she lived for us and our father. She lived a fulfilled and happy life being "Mom" to us all.
The most important thing a Father can do for his children is to love their mother.
Our mother was dearly loved by her husband and children.
We give thanks for the precious memories of a good Home filled with love ,laughter , joy and peace which our mother and father gave us.
Thank you, Lord for blessing us with the world's greatest mum and dad!
Glory,glory halleluyah ! For both our parents , their epitaph , forever shall be :
"I have fought a good fight , I have finished my course , I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness , which the Lord , the righteous judge , shall give me at that day: and not to me only , but unto all them that love his appearing ". 2 Timothy 4 : 7-8.

The Pill at 50 .

The contraceptive pill clocked 50 years old , recently; but it is as controversial as ever.
For some , the Pill has been described as " Women's Best Friend"; while others have blamed The Pill for unleashing a devastating impact on sex and family life and the social fabric of all nations.
However,even today, around three million women in Britain are thought to take the pill to prevent pregnancy, and 100 million worldwide use the pill regularly.
By far the most popular contraceptive worldwide, with 99 per cent reliability if used correctly, the Pill has been taken by 200 million women. It is currently prescribed to 3.5 million British women, one quarter of all 16- to 49-year-olds.
Although birth control has been practised since the days of Ancient Egypt, before the advent of the Pill contraceptives were either the responsibility of men, or messy, unwieldy devices.
Archaic methods of birth control were the Withdrawal Method ,or and Total Abstinence methods which were subject to human failings and therefore, completely unreliable.
( OMG! Are there married people on Planet Earth who , still, rely on birth control methods like these!?)

Research for a “magic pill” began in 1950, driven by Margaret Sanger, an American Catholic. Sanger founded America’s first birth control clinic in 1916, after seeing her own mother die, aged 50, exhausted by 18 pregnancies.
A trained nurse, Sanger had also witnessed the dire consequences of DIY abortions.


The first Pill was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in May, 1960.
A year later, it arrived in Britain to huge anticipation, although until 1964 it was available only to married women.
Jennifer Worth, a midwife in London’s East End between 1953 and 1973, and author of the bestselling "Midwife Trilogy of Memoirs ", recalls the Pill's impact as “drastic and almost immediate”.
“Families were huge, six children was average,” she says.
“Diaphragms didn’t really work and men poured scorn on contraception, calling them ‘sissy’.
Unmarried mothers were usually disowned by their families, backstreet abortionists were thriving, and orphanages were full of illegitimate children".
“But in younger women, resentment was building. They'd had experience of the workplace during the war and wanted more out of life than the endless childbearing that had been their mothers’ lot.
As soon as they could take contraception into their own hands, they did.
Within a few years of the Pill arriving, deliveries on our wards went down from about 100 a month to five!”
The Pill's heyday came in 1974, with the introduction of free contraception.
After that, Pill usage quadrupled within five years from 9 per cent of all women to 36 per cent.
The Pill has brought diverse social changes ,into the world .
The down side of these being that the Pill has been blamed, chiefly, for the erosion of moral values, the increase in sexual promiscuity and the decline of marriage.
Raquel Welch, the actress who played a bikini-clad cave woman and had three husbands, last week blamed the contraceptive pill for the decline of marriage.
On the Pill’s 50th birthday, Welch, 69, declared that the widespread use of oral contraception had led to epidemic promiscuity. “These days nobody seems able to keep it in their pants or honour a commitment,” she bemoaned.
Those who think "It is a man's world"; affirm that women should be locked away at home. Believing that women had no role nor business being in the work place; this group has blamed the Pill for giving women freedom to pursue their dream careers.
After the advent of the Pill , over the next couple of decades, the average age for a woman to marry started rising gradually from 22 to 29 today, while the number of women in the workforce began to multiply, with its consequent impact on family life.
“The Pill didn’t trigger social change, it merely accelerated it,” says Dominic Sandbrook, author of White Heat, a social history of Britain between 1964 and 1970.
“New white-collar jobs were emerging that suited women’s capabilities, education was expanding, and for the first time women were making inroads into professions like medicine and law".
"The word "Housewife" became dirty , to career-minded women!
They used the Pill to defer marriage and babies, to explore these new opportunities, but they would have entered the workforce, Pill or no Pill,” says Dominic.

Not only were the first generation of Pill-users oblivious to the social fallout, they ignored the physical consequences brought on by huge doses of oestrogen (today’s versions of the Pill contain around eight times fewer hormones than the prototypes).
As the first medicine to be taken regularly by people who were not sick, the Pill has been blamed – among others – for causing thrombosis, devastating fish fertility and lowering female libidos.
Not all women can tolerate the hormones, some become bloated on it, some say it turns them into loonies. Some, with underlying health conditions, are not suitable at all. You have to prescribe the right type of Pill for the right woman.

Yet statistics show taking the Pill is still far less risky then either pregnancy or childbirth. A recent 40-year study of 46,000 women showed Pill-users live longer and are less likely to die prematurely of all sorts of ailments, including various cancers and heart disease, than women who had never taken it.
Despite the increased prescription of hormonal “implants” such as uterine coils or skin patches, the Pill remains a doctors’ favourite.
Consultant gynaecologist Tina Cotzias calls it “absolutely great”.
“The Pill has real benefits, which all gynaecologists love, and most women will be very happy on it,” she says. “It regulates menstrual flow, makes periods less painful, minimises ovarian cysts and offers symptomatic relief from conditions like endometriosis".
But what of our moral fabric, as so bewailed by Ms Welch?
Jennifer Worth laughs. “That’s an outrageous statement. The Pill saved far more marriages, by reducing the pressure on women. It certainly saved millions’ mental and physical health.”
For the Pill,today, it remains a win-win situation because when viewed from either side of the debate for and against the Pill; there is the privilege of choice for all women.
Due to health and religious reasons for some women, the pill is not an option .
Thankfully for those who cannot use the Pill, alternative forms of reliable contraceptives are widely available in their myriad presentations and methods.
These are freely dispensed in the hundreds of thousands of Family Planning and Birth Control Clinics which dot the land.
Indeed, millions of women all through five decades , do have a lot of reasons to appreciate the advent of the Pill.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, 2010 .

The 2010 RHS Chelsea flower show held in Chelsea gardens , London from Tuesday 25th to Saturday 29th May .
For two days,I was part of the 700,000 large crowd, which thronged the venue.
London has been having weeks of beautiful summer weather .
This enabled us to enjoy the sights and atmosphere of the world's best flower show. As usual , this years' presentations at Chelsea were beautiful and spectacular !
The Gold medal was won by The Daily Telegraph Gardens, designed by Alan Sturgeon.

Apple iPad UK Launch

Apple launched their lastest telecom garget, the iPad,in the UK ,on Friday,May 21st. The much-awaited launch was another exciting day for London shoppers !
Crowds of thousands of expectant buyers stood in long queues for over 16 hours , some overnight, outside Apple Stores in Regent Street , London .

The Desirable Apple iPad .



The iPad has been warmly welcomed here with unprecedented UK demand !
200,000 iPads were sold on the first day and the demand for this latest must-have gadget is still very high in the UK,even days after its launch.
Anybody who thought the iPad's hefty UK price tag meant it was going to fail on these shores has already been proved wrong.
The Wi-Fi-only iPad starts out at £429 for the 16GB version, then goes up to £499 for the 32GB and £599 for the 64GB. These iPads and their apps are being grabbed up , fast.
However,the good news is, PC World and Curry's ,have assured their customers that many of their stores, all over London , have at least ten iPAD each ,left in stock.
So,if like me ,you couldn't be bothered to queue up for it ,hurry and grab one now!

The huge crowd in front of Apple's stores , Regents Street, London ; at the launch.



On the queue and watching a slide show of the new iPad , before the store opened


Jake, 17, queued all night , to be the first person to get his Ipad !

Celebrity Guest appearance by actor Stephen Fry

Emma , gleeful to be one of the first people to emerge from the huge crowd inside the store with her new Ipad !

World Tallest Couple, complete with bridal wear , grabbing their copies .

Apple Store Glass Staircase , London.

The long queue of patient hopefuls !

The Beauty in Power

Events of the recent weeks, as the Election Day in Great Britain , draws closer ; bring into sharp focus the beauty and glory in bestowing the privilege of choice on the citizens of any nation.
It is only in a place like Great Britain where democracy is allowed to thrive and the citizen rights are respected that the Prime Minister would "condescend" to walk on the street and speak to ordinary people . Even to the extent of apologising to a "mere woman" whose opinions he had condemned as "bigotry"!
I shudder to think what the security forces of some countries would have done to her ; for "daring to ask" the PM any such question!

There is POWER in the ability to be able to make choices , without coercion or fears; to be free to choose leaders who you think are the most qualified leaders to entrust with yours and your country’s destiny.
The politicians' knowledge that the people do have the power to make choices and have the final say in effecting numerous changes ; has made the various politicians eager to court and to please the electorate .
This is the beauty in having a choice .
It bestows power and glory on the citizens who have that choice .

Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant.
Anything short of this ability to choose freely is akin to the crime of rape of the citizens.
It is an unjust and sad situation for any citizen to be robbed of this God-given power.
In every decent society , the right to choose is given to the citizens as their fundamental human right; undeniable and non-negotiable.
The only persons who are not given the right to exercise this freedom
of choice are juveniles or persons of unsound minds.
Persons of unsound mind are deemed to be incapable and unqualified to make decisions about their own lives and about anything in general.
Children , imbeciles and mentally deranged persons are in this group of persons whose rights to make choices are curtailed and restricted by law and by general public opinion.

When a human being has been stripped of the power to make decisions as to his or her preferred choices , then that person is reduced to the level of mindless juveniles and persons of unsound mind.
When leaders of nations accord their citizens their rightful PRIVILEGE TO CHOOSE between the various Manifestos of the numerous political parties ; such leaders are saying two vital things about themselves, about their integrity and about their future plans for the populace.
One , they are saying they acknowledge and respect the CITIZEN’S ABILITY and INTELLIGENCE to be able to use THEIR SOUND JUDGEMENT to make their own decisions and two ; such leaders are saying they DO have something GOOD and DESIRABLE to offer their country.
Where leaders are on a self-serving mission and do not have the interest of the citizens at heart, they would ensure that such citizens are stripped of the power to choose or remove the leaders.

When a “god “ has nothing good to offer its worshippers; nothing to offer, except sugar-coated deceit and death, he delegates his demonic agents to employ the weapons of fear and threats of death to perpetuate an evil grip and to keep his followers in check and "faithful";thereby heading straight to the Lake of Fire !
If you are offering someone honey , which is regarded, universally, as sweet , desirable and healthy , you need not force or threaten human beings before they would, joyfully accept it , eat it and lick their fingers.
It is when people know that what they are offering is NOT GOOD ENOUGH and it is COMPLETE DECEPTION; then they resort to election rigging, to coercion and threats to life and properties to compel acceptance from the general public.

Democracy is built on the Christian ideals of FREE CHOICE .
That is why democracy CANNOT be accepted and it would not flourish in lands and societies which were not built on Christian ideals of the “ governmental love and care of the people , by the people and for the people”.
Whatever the present unfavourable values in the British society; it is on record that the political , welfare and legal systems of this great nation are based on the laws of God ; as stated in the Holy Bible.
We thank God that there are nations , very few of them ; still left on earth where democracy is allowed to thrive.
Great Britain is one of them and as such , she has become a beacon of Hope and Refuge to millions of people world –wide, who would do anything and say anything; just to be allowed to come in and enjoy a share of the dividends of true democracy.

All over the world , we see and hear of nations where the citizens are being “raped “, daily , in every way; because they have been robbed of their power to choose their leaders and , inevitably , denied the “PEOPLE POWER” to choose their own destinies.
Citizens are dehumanised and disrespected when they are disposed of the power to choose their own destinies through free and fair elections.
In such fake democracies , the governments in power are there because they are the most accomplished riggers of elections , not because they are the people’s choice.
This system of government by election riggers is a VERY PAINFUL rape and insult on the intelligence of the citizens of any nation .
Rape , in whatever form, is not only painful , its very destructive to the human psyche and it is UNACCEPTABLE to God.

When a group of unqualified and merciless individuals gang-up and force their odious selves on the disenfranchised populace of any nation ; such leaders and their generations will be judged; not only by posterity but by God ; whether they believe in God’s judgement or not.
In such situations anarchy and despondence are the order of the day.
Denying citizens to choose freely who leads them is an unwise invitation for diverse problems in the society.
When you dehumanise others you murder your own sleep.

Thank You Lord !