A crisp, fresh, sunny European good morning to all and to any visiting Atriots. ( I wondered by the hitcounter’d suddenly shot up.)
As is bloody typical when unexpected visitors arrive, we haven’t had time to plump up the cushions or tidy at all so you’ll just have to imagine that there’s the smell of fresh coffee and muffins and there is no, repeat no cathair on the furniture; we’ve been here a long time, it’s a little lived in.
I’m doing the Sunday Morning newspapers and coffee thing and then it’s actually a dry day for the first time in 3 weeks so we’re going to make the most of it by popping across the river to Oosterdokseiland (see above) to the new Amsterdam Central Library, which opened officially yesterday. It has all the technological bells and whistles allied to the kind of back catalogue you’d expect a world city like Amsterdam to have, plus incredible views across the old city and river IJ. I hope to post some pictures later on.
In the meantime the read of the morning has to be this from the new UK security minister Admiral Sir Alan West, who suggests that we should be all snitches now:
In his first interview since his surprise appointment by Gordon Brown as security minister, Sir Alan called on people to be “a little bit un-British” and even inform on each other in an attempt to trap those plotting to take innocent lives.
“Britishness does not normally involve snitching or talking about someone,” he said. “I’m afraid, in this situation, anyone who’s got any information should say something because the people we are talking about are trying to destroy our entire way of life.”
If you want a good idea of where European ‘war on terror policy’ is likely to go, that’s the one to read today.
