Monday, January 19, 2004
Dear Friends
I'm hoping you will join me by going to http://www.owos.info/petition/ now to sign a petition calling for a FULL independent, judicial, public inquiry into whether parliament and the British people were misled about the threat from Iraq.
The Hutton Inquiry is limited to just a small area of the conflict. It is absolutely scandalous that an illegal war, which has caused loss of life and immense misery along with making Britain one of the most hated nations on Earth, has been justified on the basis of half-truths and deception.
On September 24, 2002 Tony Blair stated: 'His (Saddam's) WMD programme is active, detailed and growing. The policy of containment is not working. The WMD programme is not shut down. It is up and running'.
Tony Blair described the intelligence upon which his assertion was based as: 'extensive, detailed and authoritative'.
The dossier which he was quoting from went on to say: 'Some of these weapons are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them'.
The whole war was fought on the basis that Iraq posed an immediate threat. We were told when war started that Iraq had deployed chemical and biological weapons to use against British and US forces. No such deployment took place. A whole series of allegations were made in the build up to war and throughout the war that have been shown to be at best inaccurate and at worst blatant lies. To date, no weapons of mass destruction have been found.
Sign the petition to Tony Blair now at http://www.owos.info/petition/ and get all your friends and colleagues to do the same.
This is part of a major new Our World Our Say campaign to ensure that politicians are made accountable to us for their actions.
I'm hoping you will join me by going to http://www.owos.info/petition/ now to sign a petition calling for a FULL independent, judicial, public inquiry into whether parliament and the British people were misled about the threat from Iraq.
The Hutton Inquiry is limited to just a small area of the conflict. It is absolutely scandalous that an illegal war, which has caused loss of life and immense misery along with making Britain one of the most hated nations on Earth, has been justified on the basis of half-truths and deception.
On September 24, 2002 Tony Blair stated: 'His (Saddam's) WMD programme is active, detailed and growing. The policy of containment is not working. The WMD programme is not shut down. It is up and running'.
Tony Blair described the intelligence upon which his assertion was based as: 'extensive, detailed and authoritative'.
The dossier which he was quoting from went on to say: 'Some of these weapons are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them'.
The whole war was fought on the basis that Iraq posed an immediate threat. We were told when war started that Iraq had deployed chemical and biological weapons to use against British and US forces. No such deployment took place. A whole series of allegations were made in the build up to war and throughout the war that have been shown to be at best inaccurate and at worst blatant lies. To date, no weapons of mass destruction have been found.
Sign the petition to Tony Blair now at http://www.owos.info/petition/ and get all your friends and colleagues to do the same.
This is part of a major new Our World Our Say campaign to ensure that politicians are made accountable to us for their actions.
Hugh Bean, who has died aged 74, was among the finest violinists to lead a British orchestra.
He served two spells on the front desk of the Philharmonia, and was also a distinguished soloist, his recording of Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending with Sir Adrian Boult being one of the most magical examples of that work on disc. Elgar's Violin Concerto, which Bean performed to great acclaim with Boult at the 1969 Three Choirs Festival, was another piece in which he excelled.
During a career which began in 1951, when he took second prize in the Carl Flesch Competition, and extended until shortly before his death, Bean worked with many great musicians. He recalled recording sessions with the 94-year-old Leopold Stokowski in 1976 as "the most exhilarating" he had ever experienced.
A consummate professional, once on stage Bean was seemingly imperturbable, often smiling as he played, his silver locks never out of place. His musical phrasing was shapely, thoughtful and kind to the composer's intentions.
Bean was also a teacher of renown. During his 37 years as Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music, more than 50 of his students found positions in London orchestras - many as leaders or front desk players.
Hugh Cecil Bean was born at Beckenham, Kent, on September 22 1929, and educated at Beckenham Grammar School. He received his first violin lessons at the age of five from his father, a marine engineer who was a keen amateur fiddler. Bean later recalled that he found the mechanical and technical side of the fingerwork and bowing fascinating.
His father tracked down Albert Sammons, one of the most distinguished English violinists of the 1930s, and persuaded him to hear his son. When they arrived for an audition, Sammons opened the door with his mouth full of jam sandwich, and welcomed the nine-year-old Hugh as one of the family. His teaching continued for almost 20 years, through Bean's studies at the Royal College of Music, up to Sammons's death in 1957.
Bean also studied for a year (1952-53) with André Gertler at the Brussels Conservatory, where he won two first prizes, for solo and chamber music playing. His early career included concerts for Kenneth Golightley's teatime series for the Overseas League, with Alexander Gibson at the piano and Dorothy Browning on cello.
He was also a member of the Boise Trio, with David Parkhouse and Eileen Croxford, which later expanded into the Music Group of London, and became popular for its performances of chamber music. Parkhouse and Bean also frequently joined forces with Alan Civil to play horn trios.
Bean was the first National Serviceman to serve with the Grenadier Guards (1949-51), and was known as "the Cat Gut Grenadier" on account of his violin strings.
In 1957 Bean succeeded Manoug Parikian as leader of the Philharmonia, where he remained for 10 years. From 1967 to 1969 he shared the leadership of the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Eli Goren, then briefly led the London Symphony Orchestra before embarking on a fruitful and demanding freelance and solo career that continued even after he returned to the Philharmonia in 1990. He was appointed leader emeritus of the orchestra in 1994.
A veteran of more than 90 overseas tours with the Philharmonia, Bean developed a keen sense of survival. "You need stamina and endurance when you're on the road," he told the critic Michael White during a tour of Spain in 1992. "And routine: it's like Army life. I play, I travel, and I sleep. That's it. I don't go sightseeing. And I eat when I can." Days later his planning failed: while waiting for the team coach, Bean was mugged.
Indeed, like every musician he had his share of mishaps and adventures to recall. On one occasion he began a Bach concerto with such a flourish that his bow sailed away into the audience. He jumped from the stage, retrieved the offending instrument and clambered back up, covered in dust, to start the work again. In 1994 he was leading the orchestra under Charles Dutoit during a concert that included the belated premiere of Berthold Goldschmidt's Violin Concerto, when he dramatically collapsed during the first movement of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony. He made a full recovery.
In later years Bean mourned the passing of the great titans of the podium. "Conducting is a lost art," he said in an interview in 1993. "The giants like von Karajan, Beecham and Toscanini are gone. The rest are technically good, but they don't have the magic of making time vanish."
His interest in education remained strong. Anxious to pass on his musical inheritance, he recently re-published Sammons's original books of bowing exercises, adding his own comments about the remarks Sammons would make during their lessons more than 50 years ago.
Bean was president of Bromley Youth Chamber Orchestra, on whose behalf he campaigned against local authority spending cuts in 2000. He enjoyed a very happy association with the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, sharing the leadership with John Ludlow. Closer to home, he led the Orchestra of St Bartholomew's Church, Sydenham, a band which includes locally based professional musicians and raises money for international famine relief.
His final concert was a performance of Bach's Double Concerto with his student Jonathan Josephs, in memory of another former student. It was typical of Bean that his musical swansong should have been among those he taught, rather than under the bright lights of an international stage.
Away from his busy life in music, Bean made model aircraft. He was also deeply interested in model railways - but only the steam-driven variety. For many years he had a 4.5in gauge railway at the bottom of the garden. It could hold two adults, and was hauled by a diminutive Duchess of Buccleuch locomotive. Bean was the engine driver, complete with engine driver's cap.
He was appointed CBE in 1970.
Hugh Bean, who died on Boxing Day, is survived by his wife Mary (nee Harrow), a former fixer for the Philharmonia's strings section, and by their daughter.
He served two spells on the front desk of the Philharmonia, and was also a distinguished soloist, his recording of Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending with Sir Adrian Boult being one of the most magical examples of that work on disc. Elgar's Violin Concerto, which Bean performed to great acclaim with Boult at the 1969 Three Choirs Festival, was another piece in which he excelled.
During a career which began in 1951, when he took second prize in the Carl Flesch Competition, and extended until shortly before his death, Bean worked with many great musicians. He recalled recording sessions with the 94-year-old Leopold Stokowski in 1976 as "the most exhilarating" he had ever experienced.
A consummate professional, once on stage Bean was seemingly imperturbable, often smiling as he played, his silver locks never out of place. His musical phrasing was shapely, thoughtful and kind to the composer's intentions.
Bean was also a teacher of renown. During his 37 years as Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music, more than 50 of his students found positions in London orchestras - many as leaders or front desk players.
Hugh Cecil Bean was born at Beckenham, Kent, on September 22 1929, and educated at Beckenham Grammar School. He received his first violin lessons at the age of five from his father, a marine engineer who was a keen amateur fiddler. Bean later recalled that he found the mechanical and technical side of the fingerwork and bowing fascinating.
His father tracked down Albert Sammons, one of the most distinguished English violinists of the 1930s, and persuaded him to hear his son. When they arrived for an audition, Sammons opened the door with his mouth full of jam sandwich, and welcomed the nine-year-old Hugh as one of the family. His teaching continued for almost 20 years, through Bean's studies at the Royal College of Music, up to Sammons's death in 1957.
Bean also studied for a year (1952-53) with André Gertler at the Brussels Conservatory, where he won two first prizes, for solo and chamber music playing. His early career included concerts for Kenneth Golightley's teatime series for the Overseas League, with Alexander Gibson at the piano and Dorothy Browning on cello.
He was also a member of the Boise Trio, with David Parkhouse and Eileen Croxford, which later expanded into the Music Group of London, and became popular for its performances of chamber music. Parkhouse and Bean also frequently joined forces with Alan Civil to play horn trios.
Bean was the first National Serviceman to serve with the Grenadier Guards (1949-51), and was known as "the Cat Gut Grenadier" on account of his violin strings.
In 1957 Bean succeeded Manoug Parikian as leader of the Philharmonia, where he remained for 10 years. From 1967 to 1969 he shared the leadership of the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Eli Goren, then briefly led the London Symphony Orchestra before embarking on a fruitful and demanding freelance and solo career that continued even after he returned to the Philharmonia in 1990. He was appointed leader emeritus of the orchestra in 1994.
A veteran of more than 90 overseas tours with the Philharmonia, Bean developed a keen sense of survival. "You need stamina and endurance when you're on the road," he told the critic Michael White during a tour of Spain in 1992. "And routine: it's like Army life. I play, I travel, and I sleep. That's it. I don't go sightseeing. And I eat when I can." Days later his planning failed: while waiting for the team coach, Bean was mugged.
Indeed, like every musician he had his share of mishaps and adventures to recall. On one occasion he began a Bach concerto with such a flourish that his bow sailed away into the audience. He jumped from the stage, retrieved the offending instrument and clambered back up, covered in dust, to start the work again. In 1994 he was leading the orchestra under Charles Dutoit during a concert that included the belated premiere of Berthold Goldschmidt's Violin Concerto, when he dramatically collapsed during the first movement of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony. He made a full recovery.
In later years Bean mourned the passing of the great titans of the podium. "Conducting is a lost art," he said in an interview in 1993. "The giants like von Karajan, Beecham and Toscanini are gone. The rest are technically good, but they don't have the magic of making time vanish."
His interest in education remained strong. Anxious to pass on his musical inheritance, he recently re-published Sammons's original books of bowing exercises, adding his own comments about the remarks Sammons would make during their lessons more than 50 years ago.
Bean was president of Bromley Youth Chamber Orchestra, on whose behalf he campaigned against local authority spending cuts in 2000. He enjoyed a very happy association with the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, sharing the leadership with John Ludlow. Closer to home, he led the Orchestra of St Bartholomew's Church, Sydenham, a band which includes locally based professional musicians and raises money for international famine relief.
His final concert was a performance of Bach's Double Concerto with his student Jonathan Josephs, in memory of another former student. It was typical of Bean that his musical swansong should have been among those he taught, rather than under the bright lights of an international stage.
Away from his busy life in music, Bean made model aircraft. He was also deeply interested in model railways - but only the steam-driven variety. For many years he had a 4.5in gauge railway at the bottom of the garden. It could hold two adults, and was hauled by a diminutive Duchess of Buccleuch locomotive. Bean was the engine driver, complete with engine driver's cap.
He was appointed CBE in 1970.
Hugh Bean, who died on Boxing Day, is survived by his wife Mary (nee Harrow), a former fixer for the Philharmonia's strings section, and by their daughter.
