Frustration

This radio station must be the most frustrating in the history of this planet. And yet it is strangely adductive. The current presenter - Mike Dickin - whose tone resembles that of a curmudgeonly grandfather. He cannot understand why Saddam Hussein was not shot on sight and was instead captured. 'They'd already decided he was guilty,' he said. 'So why wasn't he summarily executed?' He went on to allege that this was a mere show trial which will be of no value. I e-mailed him to remind him that when the Allies captured Himmler at the end of the Second World War they did their best to revive him after he had taken a cyanide pill. Naturally, I did not receive a response - presumably because I did not preface my email with a load of sycophantic nonsense about how great his show is. I wonder if Dickin feels that the Nuremberg Trials were show trials. And what of the trial of Eichmann? I read a fascinating autobiography when I went home for Christmas - that of Peter Z. Malkin - a Mossad Agent who took part in the capture of Eichmann in 1960 - Eichmann In My Hands - in which he recounted an episode in which he had a conversation with a fellow agent who said: 'Why are we bothering with this? We could shoot him right now.' Malkin responded: 'Because we are not like him.' For the Israelis and his victims the trial was a cathartic process. I think parallels can be drawn with the current legal processes surrounding Saddam Hussein.

Although I was born on the Isle of Wight, I was raised in Birmingham. I cannot ascertain exactly what has happened tonight. Apparently, there have been riots on the street. Further investigation reveals that it is in an area I am ashamed to say I have never even set foot in. Strangely I've never noticed how segregated Birmingham is, in terms of race and class. And, of course, there was a kind of selfish relief that it occurred far away from the areas in which my parents live. Birmingham is not treated like the sprawling metropolis it is. It is the UK's second city - almost as big as London. In comparison, Cambridge is a village - which is probably why I love it so much.