SCORES of tributes and get-well messages have been sent this week by the famous and the not-so famous from all over the world to one of the nation’s great men, Professor Joseph Rotblat, aged 96, who lies seriously ill in a Camden hospital.
I have also received letters from readers anxious to find out more about a man who is truly regarded by many as a saintly figure.
It was in my column last week that I disclosed that Professor Rotblat, an eminent physicist and a Noble peace prize winner and a Freeman of the Borough, had been taken to a local hospital from his home in West Hampstead.
Messages have come from Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Sir Harry Kroto, who won a Nobel prize in chemistry, and the Nobel peace laureates from Northern Ireland, Catherine McCartney and her sisters, as well as letters from scientists and friends from all over the world.
Most touching of all was a garland of ‘peace cranes’ made of paper in origami, sent by children from Hiroshima, which now hangs by his bed, attached incongruously to his drip.
It was brought back by Rotblat’s secretary Sally Milne, who had gone to Hiroshima last week for the events commemorating the destruction of the city by the atom bomb in 1945. Ms Milne had gone as a representative of a body of scientists set up by Rotblat in the early 1950s to campaign against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Rotblat would have gone of course but he was unable to travel.
If he had flown to Japan he would have travelled economy class just as he has done over the years whenever attending or lecturing at peace and science conferences.
“He knows that the type of organisations which invite him haven’t got much money so he refuses to travel first-class – a wonderful moral man, with so much integrity,” Ms Milne told me.
Rotblat, born in Warsaw, went to the United States with a great reputation as a physicist before the war, and was soon involved in the Manhattan atom project.
But when he discovered in 1944 that the Germans would not be able to develop the atom bomb he gave up working on the bomb because he saw no need to use it.
After it had been dropped on Japan, he became profoundly upset and left the States. This, in the early cold-war years of the 1940s led the FBI to regard him as a spy and ban him from the country. In fact, the spy they didn’t find was Klaus Fuchs.
Though ostracised in official circles, Rotblat, undeterred, almost single-handidly created a body of scientists known as the Pugwash Conference which has campaigned for more than 40 years against nuclear weapons.
“He has always led a simple life, basically, with one thought in his mind – to try and end nuclear weapons,” said Ms Milne.
In this cynical and decadent society, when it can be said that we are in moral decline, a man like Rotblat stands out like a beacon, a role model if ever there was one, for the young to look up at.

No need for terror laws

A BROADSIDE against Tony Blair’s anti-terrorism proposals came this week from an eminent Hampstead lawyer and ex-brother in law of one of the Prime Minister’s fervent supporters in the cabinet, culture secretary Tessa Jowell.
In a trenchant article in the Observer on Sunday Jeffrey Jowell QC (pictured), who lives in Hampstead Hill Gardens, let loose all canons.
He recognised the nation’s safety is under threat but in the “heat of the battle” it was important not “to compromise the cornerstones of our liberties.”
He argued that the Prime Minister’s suggestion to amend the 1998 Human Rights Act was regrettably unnecessary.
Almost all of the measures he envisaged against those who promote or sanction terror could be taken under existing British law.
No society, liberal or oppressive, is immune from assault by those who would happily die for terror. Action is needed. But the temptation to unravel our rights-based model of democracy should be resisted.
Jeffrey Jowell, who is professor of Public Law at University College London, knows about human rights since he came to Britain from his native South Africa.
He is the brother of Roger Jowell, former Camden councillor and first husband of Tessa Jowell, who lives in Kentish Town. They met while both served on the council – Tessa Jowell ended up chairing the social services committee.
After their divorce she married David Mills, brother of John Mills, the council’s present finance chief.

He’s a real grafter, says Minghella

IF there’s anyone who’s a hard grafter, it’s young Martin De Graft-Johnson.
The 21-year-old film student from Central Street in Islington won an eight -week placement working on the set of Anthony Minghella’s new film, Breaking and Entering, which finished shooting in Camden last week.
For the aspiring film producer, who hung out with stars including Jude Law and Juliette Binoche, it was a dream come true. Describing Oscar-winning Minghella as a “top man”, Martin told me that the film industry was not just about glamour, but about hard work. “It was an incredible experience,” he said. “Within three years I will have my own film out.”
With determination like that, somehow I believe him.
Pictured from left film student Daniel Po, Anthony Minghella and Martin De Graft-Johnson.

Sally sees red

Winston the noise buster

IF your neighbours ever drive you mad with loud music, I’ve discovered the perfect antidote.
It takes the form of a very efficient noise buster called Winston Le Bar. I discovered his modus operandi on Saturday evening while sipping wine on the roof terrace in Belsize Park with a friend and his wife.
Looking down on our table was a beautiful poplar whose branches moved slowly in the faint breeze.
But the one thing that spoiled the glorious atmosphere was the ear-shattering noise coming from what sounded like a rowdy party that had got out of hand in a neighbour’s garden.
My friend soon cracked the problem – he called the Town Hall for action by its Noise Pollution Control Team.
Within a short time came our life-style guardian Winston Le Bar along with a companion.
Pointed in the right direction, off they went – and within a few minutes silence descended over the gardens.
And all because of the council’s noise-busters who are polite, efficient and, most of all, effective.