Perhaps the White House and its lawyers tumbled to the potential embarrassment without outside help.However it came about, by last night, the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was offering a few clarifications that effectively placed Saddam Hussein and the Guantanamo prisoners in the same legal category: Saddam would be provided with the protections of the Geneva Conventions, but he had not, and would not be, formally designated a prisoner of war. Initially, Washington gave the impression that the ousted Iraqi leader was being considered a prisoner of war and accorded all the safeguards of the Geneva Conventions.
Perhaps someone at the White House, the State Department or the Pentagon received a phone call from London, gently enquiring why the former Iraqi dictator deserved to be given full prisoner-of-war treatment, while the 600 or so incarcerated at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay did not. Saddam Hussein has been in captivity no more than four days and he is already presenting almost as much of a conundrum to the US authorities as when he was at large. Often, but not exclusively, these unlikely sounding proposals would emanate from West Africa.

Now it seems the crafty conmen have somehow ensnared an unsuspecting chemist’s shop in Caithness in their wicked games The gullible and the greedy have been warned. One of the great joys of the internet, the Nigerian e-mail scam, has acquired an even more absurd dimension. For some years e-mail users have had to contend with those rather far-fetched routes to millions of dollars that are always just sitting in bank accounts awaiting only a deposit of a few thousand pounds before they can be released. His pots were intended to be enjoyed within the domestic environment, examples of the potter’s art carrying a powerful sense of the personality and generosity of their maker.With a life divided between making pots and education in its many guises, Casson never fully received the recognition he deserved A full-scale retrospective is long overdue.Emmanuel Cooper. To the BBC’s amazement a book, issued to coincide with the programmes, was a great success, and the series was repeated many times. Casson proved a gifted presenter, articulate, non-patronising and interested, his bearded face and cheeky smile looking every inch “the potter”.With increasing age Casson suffered bouts of illness, and he was to forced to decline outside involvement to allow him time to concentrate on his own pots. These continued to be innovative, with new shapes devised and older forms revisited with a fresh eye.

Casson confessed to learning as much as the students from fellow members of staff.In 1976, Casson devised and presented the BBC’s The Craft of the Potter, a groundbreaking series that involved practical demonstration and discussion on the art of the potter. With the setting up of the Crafts Advisory Committee (now Crafts Council) in the early 1970s, Casson became involved in running committees, giving sound, sensible advice and helping to steer the new body with insight and understanding.Casson was an able communicator. In the early 1960s, with Victor Margrie, he was one of the initiators of the Harrow Studio Pottery Course (now part of Westminster University). They recruited Colin Pearson, a professional potter who had trained in workshops rather than art school, to help meet the growing needs of students wanting a sound, practical training before setting up their own workshops. The course proved a huge success, graduating students including leading potters such as Janice Tchalenko and Jane Hamlyn. In Casson’s hands shape and decoration formed one harmonious whole, and with a sharp eye on his own pots, he divided them into Racers, for the best pieces, followed by Gems, Firsts and Subs.

Exhibitions in Britain and abroad consolidated his reputation.In addition to being a fine potter, Casson worked diligently to nurture the burgeoning studio pottery movement. He was an active supporter of the Crafts Centre of Great Britain (now Contemporary Applied Arts) and in the late 1950s was one of the founding potters of the Craftsmen Potters Association (now Craft Potters Association), a co-operative that acquired a shop and gallery in central London in 1958. Working with its honorary secretary, David Canter, Casson helped put the CPA on a sound, democratic footing, serving on its Council as both member and chair. Colours were invariably those of the earth, such as deep ochres, saturated dark browns and creamy whites, or, on other pieces, inky blues and greys.