tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50018672955102187492024-03-17T09:31:02.618+00:00The Cynical Tendency"Can the greatest Prince inclose the sun, and set one little star in his cabinet for his own use?"
Dr. Jeremy Taylor.Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.comBlogger2523125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-82472624600239033102019-07-06T11:21:00.003+01:002019-07-06T11:22:18.129+01:00The NHS And Independence Day<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZs9MyH2fLtYD7DxECeA3dNZlPYCvzeD_b74GEEfmbME57gll5LGYTCgSf2LshctfZ491XFQI40DatI26YXfgD_ZsnOEQ7HVEuCzcRGuvvxUGlbs5FoXGGaMzkG8fXNva4BveMfPUNyLZg/s1600/Operating+Theatre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="600" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZs9MyH2fLtYD7DxECeA3dNZlPYCvzeD_b74GEEfmbME57gll5LGYTCgSf2LshctfZ491XFQI40DatI26YXfgD_ZsnOEQ7HVEuCzcRGuvvxUGlbs5FoXGGaMzkG8fXNva4BveMfPUNyLZg/s400/Operating+Theatre.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My absence is
because recently I have been concerned with issues policy and not as a light
relief to Brexit. It is the National Health Service and I have had a grand tour
of our local facilities in several areas of medicine.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is almost
if you name it I've got it and when I ask the busy doctors and others mutter
between their teeth, old age. Of course it is not quite as simple as that.
There is nothing like watching on screen a device looking round your insides to
inform you.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At least now
when I consider NHS matters good doses of several realities are at the heart of
it (joke) because these days once you are in a hospital and they have run all
the tests you become acquainted with staff at all levels.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The cleaner
becomes as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>necessary as the consultant,
except that you see more of the cleaners and often they can be the most
reliable sources of essential information.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The upshot of
this is the awareness that in Westminster the politicians and senior civil
services with the media, the latest report and the mounds of paper and briefing
are to them the NHS rather than all those old geezers on the wards costing most
of the investment and spending budgets.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I first landed
in hospitals in the late '30s and the '40's. One complaint had the local
medical officer of health having a panic attack. So, historically am qualified
to comment.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The fact is
that things have changed and the pace and nature of change in the last two
decades has been astonishing. Westminster does not understand this or the
implications.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Will it be the
NHS where the revolution begins? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-73120073198072062332019-06-09T17:09:00.003+01:002019-06-09T17:10:13.678+01:00Migration Happens <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxMlEjQjOhV7WG7FV0lAbF6qczx1MQA-I0EOVqE7t6XL73_5RMC_bRAtmzvFzUizGZdcSWgvTEoH9Cd4hz4ndGpU2xIRLfPs-aNek9CyzgGYt9iTbgVoyifrC5U5-abQoF3e3Uasofk2b_/s1600/Highlands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxMlEjQjOhV7WG7FV0lAbF6qczx1MQA-I0EOVqE7t6XL73_5RMC_bRAtmzvFzUizGZdcSWgvTEoH9Cd4hz4ndGpU2xIRLfPs-aNek9CyzgGYt9iTbgVoyifrC5U5-abQoF3e3Uasofk2b_/s320/Highlands.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is from
three years ago on the subject of migration, it might allow a repeat. History
tells us of the constant movement of peoples and what happens when they do.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is a
complicated story and means that when discussing movements in our own time you
are dealing with the past as well as the present and all the ideas, beliefs and
views involved and their inherent conflicts.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Your migration
can be my invasion. My expulsion of unwanted people will be your refugees. Our
claim to land and authority is also our way of saying who will own and benefit
from it. But often we will not agree and the disputes will trigger movements of people. Down the centuries it has often been a bloody business.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the 1940's
we knew numbers of refugees of different kinds.
These included the post war displaced persons, there being a number of
places for them in the vicinity. In the 1950's, we have forgotten the upheavals
in the East of Europe in 1953 that triggered added movement of people to The
West, especially from East Germany and again, Poland and this continued.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In 1955 the
winter going into 1956 was very bitter in Germany . The rivers froze, I recall playing football
on The Weser. It was possible to walk across The Elbe into West Germany. Many did and sometimes even the patrols of
the East who were supposed to prevent it. In 1956 there were further events and
numbers of Hungarians and others arrived notably in London, to add to the
displaced persons already with us. Not
long after the war there had been laws and regulations etc. aimed at closing
the camps. Some did, but some were still mini-towns into the 1960's.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As well as the
larger camps, some local authorities had patches that were used. There were plenty of WW2 Nissen huts
available. But many then were housed in
the cheaper rental areas and to the fury of many had priority for the envied council
houses. Those from the East of Europe
were followed by many from places in the
former Empire where political freedom had not necessarily meant peace and
tolerance of minorities.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There were
divided views about this, not least between some people in the urban areas who
were adversely affected and which took most of them and those in other places
who could be generous to their small numbers and for whom the principles of
free and open movement had little local impact.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fifty years on
we are in a different world. Only now,
instead of thousands the figures are in the hundreds of thousands with the
potential to be millions. Moreover, the
arrivals do not come to a land in which they will have to adjust to local laws
and lifestyles because there are few other options.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Instead of three
channels of British TV then, now they can watch their own versions from their
homeland. The internet can bring their place of origin into their own living
space. There is little they need to
change in terms of eating or the other routines of life. In short they might be
living in one place for convenience, income and housing etc. but their culture,
lifestyle, etc. are those of another country.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If the new is
more advantageous or generous than they could hope for in their homeland, it is
not surprising many will want to come. Our problem is that some will have
strict beliefs that are not just alien, or beyond our law but are in conflict
with it. Another, inevitably, is if the
proportion of loose young men and the crimes and gangs that are often the core
of their activities.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">England is one
of the most intensively populated pieces of land on the planet, the result of
many migrations so just about all of us have migrant forebears to a greater or
lesser degree. Back a few generations and all those forebears of mine moved
around the Atlantic Isles, some by choice, some after having become unwelcome,
some by famine and some by clearances.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The open
borders and free movement ideals born out of mid 20th Century and later ideals
and beliefs has been encouraged by the idea that the State has an unlimited
capacity to provide either by taxation or by creating new money at will. It is
obvious that if the population increases by millions then the circulation of
state money provided plus extra spending required will have the effect of
rising GDP.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The figures
can be presented to suggest that this will be good. But they do not take account of the
opportunity costs and the many and substantial other real costs that come in
train. In particular they do not allow for very many new migrants not seeing
themselves as UK citizens but local communities of other jurisdictions. Which may mean that the tax does not get paid,
tax avoidance becomes common and their money goes somewhere else.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So given the
costs of increasing world population there are other issues. What might happen
with rising food costs? Or if the money tree stops growing or even sickens, or
if some local communities or even nations become ruled by gangs of violent men
and not either local or central government?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Currently,
there are parts of the world with over a billion population. If events, disruptions or crises trigger greater
movement; say 5% of the population affected how many millions of migrants or
refugees is that on the move?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And if up to
10%? And what were the percentage figures
for the Irish Famine and Highland Clearances?</span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-62886684044977288512019-06-05T15:52:00.002+01:002019-06-05T20:01:08.889+01:00The Sixth Of June 1944<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikV6S3_t4FB-IdtQngt_OckiqoW_vbk_26pcCruHn6iHKYrCYTMrKskSZ3Qm97FRC2miaFOcP5fxTrD05Eg9T4dRUIV6Zom65WdWqVT5xT4mj1_GP6WU2cZvaN90zR_6HzpvjaxojLLiAN/s1600/Telegram+Delivery+Boy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikV6S3_t4FB-IdtQngt_OckiqoW_vbk_26pcCruHn6iHKYrCYTMrKskSZ3Qm97FRC2miaFOcP5fxTrD05Eg9T4dRUIV6Zom65WdWqVT5xT4mj1_GP6WU2cZvaN90zR_6HzpvjaxojLLiAN/s320/Telegram+Delivery+Boy.jpg" width="289" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During World
War Two at school and sitting alongside a friend, the Head came in to call him
to her office. I never saw him again. It was June 1944; his father had been
killed in action in France and his mother moved away. In our streets and those
around a number of families had men in France.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Who they did
not want to knock on their front doors were the Post Office Telegraph Boys, see
above, with bad news of one of their men. Also, they did not want the postman
to deliver with a returned letter they had sent to someone close. If they were
in the armed forces it could mean they had been lost.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We were a
"nation at war" as Churchill put it. During one summer holiday I was
sent to my grandfather who grew much of his own food and lived in a rural area
with clean air and a lot more to offer.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But there was
still the war, he had served from 1914 to 1919, a rare survivor of the first
intakes and had been at The Somme, Ypres and The Hindenburg Line.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The bad time
was when we had a returned letter and learned a few days later of a close and
loved uncle who had been lost when his ship was sunk escorting troops to
France.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As one of the
last generation to have lived then and who later had served in the Army with
men who had been in the Normandy Landings too much of what I see on screen or
in the media seems to be about a different world from the one I knew.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Perhaps it is
too different for the 21st Century to understand.</span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-21313166384900341832019-06-04T17:30:00.001+01:002019-06-04T17:33:50.506+01:00London Calls<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh2SMu_n6942qel9ALwJTgbWf8tRRWGcPvpkwVuBwpq1Stma-qsXsUwtNXtUOCZMbEJF0KIHd1DmqgNieeo2LEhrZqvMHUYli1IN7eh7BXXe8Oyjftcxvj-tWUsz6isCTYV6Y0rcyY_F_j/s1600/1961+Kennedy+%2526+Queen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="640" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh2SMu_n6942qel9ALwJTgbWf8tRRWGcPvpkwVuBwpq1Stma-qsXsUwtNXtUOCZMbEJF0KIHd1DmqgNieeo2LEhrZqvMHUYli1IN7eh7BXXe8Oyjftcxvj-tWUsz6isCTYV6Y0rcyY_F_j/s400/1961+Kennedy+%2526+Queen.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The media is
full of the visit of President Trump of the USA to London with the inevitable
overload of anything that did, might or might not happen. Some of us have been
here before, notably the visit of President JF Kennedy in June 1961.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This item from
Youtube gives a brief video about it. A different man in a different world. One
key difference was that Kennedy was one of an Irish American clan who became
rich whereas Trump does not have that distinction although in that rich class.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJOsJAWs8l0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJOsJAWs8l0</a></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another one
for Kennedy is that he had been a student at the London School of Economics.
How far this had been a help in his thinking on policy is a matter of debate.
The idea of Trump at LSE simply boggles the mind.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I wonder what
are Her Majesty's and Prince Philip's thoughts?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-34066944460530919972019-06-03T17:31:00.003+01:002019-06-03T17:32:33.569+01:00Hot And Bothered<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1a4dUnkB3PrhQuBQu4bp-LCBN1THTWvlc9BjCsGTQ3LVXlh1IV_vpsqUeBcVpbmcZNM-J02nAhFINePjdVyiym6jaQa8CmMO1DKF5l-czcISetuyJltbCq88EitQk0d-Gz4lfSLZPca6l/s1600/Motorway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="680" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1a4dUnkB3PrhQuBQu4bp-LCBN1THTWvlc9BjCsGTQ3LVXlh1IV_vpsqUeBcVpbmcZNM-J02nAhFINePjdVyiym6jaQa8CmMO1DKF5l-czcISetuyJltbCq88EitQk0d-Gz4lfSLZPca6l/s400/Motorway.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is now June
and I am warm, very warm and need to take care having seen too many in the past
who did not under hot conditions and not knowing that their DNA's meant they
should try to stay cool. Also, keeping out of the sun, those of us who go
bright red after only a short exposure need to know it is not just the skin
that is off but other bodily functions.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What does
whack the system is the high levels of humidity that can be a trouble. But, if it
means that careful is being idle then it is not so bad if you can manage it.
But you need to have more liquids and that can where the trouble starts. We
keep it to water, tea, some coffee and avoid the high sugar, sweetener and
alcohols preferred by so many.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But all those
are the basic ones which so many go to and in quantity affect them in various
ways. It is ironic that in the past so much of the water available was not fit
to drink, in fact dangerous, so it was safer and more sensible to drink the
others. Many of our ancestors on the ale etc. could have spent a long hot
summer bombed out their minds.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It might
explain all those riots and revolutions that historians tell us arose from this
or that political and economic situation. Things that people put us with when
sober and cool they did not when they were hot, bothered and in situations
where the temper was put challenged or their dislikes of others, or other
social groups erupted into violence and law breaking.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At the moment,
it looks as though those in London will be hotter and more temperamental than others. Given a
General Election could happen, incidentally a collapse of the European system
and beyond that space of time are football supporters have no match to go and
The Left more angry than usual anything can happen.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We like to put
the TV off, because that adds heat, and listen to some music on our new
expensive digital radio, every note clear, no interference and have a cold drink, very cold.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Or perhaps I
could organise a demonstration.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-35756196348520586472019-06-01T17:28:00.001+01:002019-06-01T17:31:07.680+01:00A Meeting Of Minds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5dX_d3yNypXu2NPtw7svk2NrwU6vI34xSl-dVUEvRs_LDBQwuCGSFCJHcQJFryFnX4x0vF0lwyPW8bSPAYIgQa1r1TyZArudmEdWy5YOyxTLYtjNTwzuM1N5VYdS-krRwdkuzNQu6szPf/s1600/Richard+Burton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="235" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5dX_d3yNypXu2NPtw7svk2NrwU6vI34xSl-dVUEvRs_LDBQwuCGSFCJHcQJFryFnX4x0vF0lwyPW8bSPAYIgQa1r1TyZArudmEdWy5YOyxTLYtjNTwzuM1N5VYdS-krRwdkuzNQu6szPf/s400/Richard+Burton.jpg" width="286" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the
villages around Stratford Upon Avon in the 50's and 60's there might be a shop
or two or perhaps others if they were larger. But for some things you needed to
go into town, for example, the chemists. In the village of my in laws it was
neighbourly to collect for the elderly for whom visits to town were difficult.
So when staying there it was usual for me to have time on my hands because they
were busy places and an hour to two wait was routine.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This routine
meant spending waiting time in a pub' having a pint or two. Also, I could call
at the theatre to see if there were late returns. As this was the time of Peter
Hall directing there were some productions that were must see for many people
and it was difficult to get tickets on normal bookings. The logic meant that
the pub' for a pint close by was The Black Swan.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The main bars
were usually busy but there was an unsigned smaller one then that you had to
find your way to, which was the preferred one for the theatricals and regarded
as their patch. But the barmaid there lived in our village and I was OK. One
day there was a table with only a man and a seat available, so pint in hand I
sat and gave him a nod as a courtesy, he gave a nod back and that was going to
be the lot while he had his beer and I had mine.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Until he was
staring at my tie and asked why I had a kangaroo, was I an Aussie? I told him
that it wasn't, it was a jerboa. He wanted to know what that was and I told him
it was a species of rat found only in North Africa. He realised that this was The
Desert Rat and what was I doing wearing it? I told him National Service in the
mid 50's with the 7th Armoured Division. He told me he had been in the RAF and
a chat about the services.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During this I
had mentioned the 4th Hussars, Churchill's old regiment and playing against
them at rugby. From his accent I had realised that there was a touch of Wales
about him and it was confirmed with the chat moving to rugger. During this I
mentioned that playing against Cefneithin because of a misunderstanding.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They were
doing a late tour of the Midlands and on the Saturdays had already booked first
class fixtures and wanted a mid week one. They thought that Leicester Thursday
was a part of the major Leicester club. It wasn't, it was separate and a team
for shop workers in the age of mid week early closing which by the 50's picked
anyone from a network of local players who happened to be free.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Cefneithin for
this tour had called in all their former players who had moved on to top clubs
and included internationals. In the first half they had run up so many points
that at half time it was agreed to skip the second and go to the bar. Rugger
was informal in those days.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">From the
stares we were getting from others in the bar it dawned on me that this chap
was Richard Burton who was killing time between the long gap of the film
"Cleopatra" finishing and then being released. It had all been
difficult and a very messy business. He was very glad to have someone who stuck
to the armed services and rugger, notably Welsh rugger for a conversation.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was just an
hour or so in the pub' and a casual chat and then I was off to return with the
shopping. I did not mention it and the family only knew because the barmaid
told them. When I look down the cast lists of the plays that were running in
Stratford at this time, I wonder what might have happened had Richard married
Margaret Drabble or Judi Dench?</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<br />Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-63053248733021670962019-05-31T17:03:00.004+01:002019-05-31T17:04:25.045+01:00A Night Out Long Ago<br />
<span id="goog_1470162145"></span><span id="goog_1470162146"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMnRgKWDPwmpCrd0v5x5_hkoNJtneiUhXbqmMpy4GOijoJA-TnLLjNvhW588FqG8hNORpXTVWhwqMRf6aOsRr_T5CTULH5Tf2yBrpECjjnvF_JCPFDMwevEsI060Du4Hyja4HOf9s9LVZ/s1600/Poster+UMW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="281" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMnRgKWDPwmpCrd0v5x5_hkoNJtneiUhXbqmMpy4GOijoJA-TnLLjNvhW588FqG8hNORpXTVWhwqMRf6aOsRr_T5CTULH5Tf2yBrpECjjnvF_JCPFDMwevEsI060Du4Hyja4HOf9s9LVZ/s320/Poster+UMW.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Going on with
the "I was there" theme from memories about how you were somewhere
that at the time seemed ordinary or would not have any special meaning or
interest that decades later is thought to be something special. When I pitched
up in London late in 1956 it was with little money to spare so that when
looking for things to go to anything free or cheap might be taken.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As a member of
the rugby club with a number of Welsh students who had the same issues this
meant sometimes going along with the flow. One evening in the bar one of them
turned up with free tickets for the BBC Theatre and it was a TV play broadcast live on the single channel
of the time.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was "Under
Milk Wood" and on the 9th May 1957. The author was Dylan Thomas, a poet
and man of his time in Wales a man of words in a new way and moreover one of
the post war new age. It was lower class, bold in the sex themes and far
removed from the plays and poetry of before. His lifestyle matched this. For
some time he was famous, first for his works and then for being famous.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Without
putting too much stress on how this broadcast began to change things and
stimulated new approaches to poetry and drama in its time that evening was a
major TV and media occasion. The play's narrator was Donald Houston and it had
an all star cast. It was accepted as a new play in new language for this new
age.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For me
personally, it was of interest but there were many other things to think about
then of immediate concern. But several years later that being there mattered in
another encounter I had with one of the leading figures of his time in film and
theatre is another story.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A few days
later, however, I was at reception given at Westminster Cathedral by Cardinal
William Godfrey for Catholic students at the major London colleges. There were
not many of us. He and I had something in common, being from Liverpool, but
were not related.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">However, I did
not mention "Under Milk Wood" to him.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-77944582746404043992019-05-29T10:02:00.005+01:002019-05-29T10:03:35.487+01:00The Return Of Harry Pollitt<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimQOkUfbVK3ecCCIUxThmkWwEBIu0SWKewNz0MwR-auNN5KXl0uXBLG1IIC-h2Dbko88T61xx0SKNZR_jPrnv59Gofv3yqu-WuHmSFy2ZIFEF3iwFUiUIBJUEN650PIkOXmNKpCNRipQZ1/s1600/Harry+Pollitt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="450" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimQOkUfbVK3ecCCIUxThmkWwEBIu0SWKewNz0MwR-auNN5KXl0uXBLG1IIC-h2Dbko88T61xx0SKNZR_jPrnv59Gofv3yqu-WuHmSFy2ZIFEF3iwFUiUIBJUEN650PIkOXmNKpCNRipQZ1/s400/Harry+Pollitt.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When
historians look at the complicated and intricate period of the post World War 2
years often what they make of it is the preconceptions of the early 21st
Century. These are not so much from the mass of archives now to be seen or the
vast amount of information and opinion on the net.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Things are put
in "boxes" or taken for granted. It was not quite like that. A few
months after my passing chat with Field Marshal Montgomery in a military
headquarters, I was having another chat with Harry Pollitt in the Shaw Library
at LSE.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It would seem
unlikely to historians that could happen. Harry is one of those almost lost to
our history but then was the Stalinist leader of the British Communist Party
and then the issue was how much or little influence did he have on the ultra
Left groups of the Labour Party.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Harry was
particularly involved with the London Dockers and their strikes, notably the
1949 one when the Attlee government was struggling to feed the population,
already enduring strict rationing of food. Attlee sent in the troops to unload
vital cargoes which the Dockers' unions were prepared to allow to rot in the
holds. It was one of worst attempts at blackmail in our history if not the
worst.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It could be
argued that Harry was among those who cost Attlee his premiership which led to
13 years of Conservative government. At the time there was only one channel TV,
the BBC, who did not go near him, much of the press avoided him except to
characterise him as a menace to us all. But he retired in 1956 and died in 1960
before our new age began and he was forgotten in the next couple of decades. What
was he really like?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I met Harry
during the time of Nikita Khrushchev's leadership of the Soviet Union so as
well as his interest in British political affairs he was in touch with the
divisions in the Soviet Union as Nikita was attempting reform and
reorganisation. It was a time for the various groups in Britain on the Left to
dispute and spilled over into the Labour Party.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was at LSE
and the rugby club had invited him to give a talk. This may be difficult to
understand but as the club had a large number of players from Welsh mining
districts it meant that if nothing else he would be well protected from any
violence. The talk went ahead without trouble and afterwards a few of us met
him.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was a
decade later that Robert Conquest went to press with his revelations of the
Stalin Terror in the Russia's and the state of affairs at all levels in the
Soviet Union. But what I knew, because I was handling top secret files during
my Army time, was that the Soviet Army was far from being what it what supposed
to be and were told at the height of the Cold War.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Moreover, East
Germany was not the socialist paradise that was being suggested by The Left at
the time, if anything it was worse than Britain during the Second World War
with the shortages and confusion in supplies and organisation. Harry was in his
own kind of political dream world and nothing was going to drag him out of it.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He left his
legacy however in what was left of the British Communist Party and its
affiliates and in the parts of the Labour Party that looked to the East rather
than the West being created by the USA. There were a number of groups and
organisations, a few of whom survive in the ideas of the present in parts of
the Labour Party and beyond.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Are we going
back to the future?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-34328392149431404632019-05-28T11:05:00.002+01:002019-05-28T11:05:21.558+01:00Going To Rome<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZOa8l0KGY6JlqYFdOpZZA6o0pVdjNZMN-ip-Qm8EqDk9tefs8FW9EgOSQxVx4u4q6ywQE2770d1SAYqoahF59249Wn3KRNYPZW7VH9sjvbtGb9ZL2mYcbyzZMg8e6KNfg5Q1pQVM3JBrx/s1600/Benson-as-Coriolanus-1893.width-770.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1146" data-original-width="770" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZOa8l0KGY6JlqYFdOpZZA6o0pVdjNZMN-ip-Qm8EqDk9tefs8FW9EgOSQxVx4u4q6ywQE2770d1SAYqoahF59249Wn3KRNYPZW7VH9sjvbtGb9ZL2mYcbyzZMg8e6KNfg5Q1pQVM3JBrx/s320/Benson-as-Coriolanus-1893.width-770.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The question
was did the Ashton ballet "The Dream" come before the Stratford
Memorial<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theatre Peter Hall production
of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" or after? The answer was after and the
dating as I remembered.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was much
later when we first saw the ballet, but we were at a performance of the Peter
Hall production of the play at the Stratford on Avon Royal Memorial theatre
production in his 1962 revival of the 1959 one.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This was a
time when we often in Stratford and able to go to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre
which before 1961 was the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre to see if there were
returns or seats available for the plays
running.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We saw many
and one was "Coriolanus", "thou boy of tears" in a vivid,
hard hitting production of a play that dealt with the politics of ancient Rome.
It was not for the faint hearted.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is thought
that it was written between 1606 and 1608, a turbulent time in the history of
the Atlantic Isles when King James 1st was asserting his authority despite the
divisions of ancestry, politics and religion.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A play based
on a period in the history of Rome during such a time would have had a great
deal of meaning for the London audiences of the period.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Looking about
us in 2019 perhaps it is time for the play to return to the theatres of London
and Stratford?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-36400831538537405622019-05-26T15:18:00.005+01:002019-05-26T15:19:26.511+01:00Coming And Going<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0r90XMJivBsaG2OVcGCRmVaIh2wkFKJ7nPZ5b-bKbwuMjkV1uTNfWzY3OSEPY-JWBT05GnLGU33dm1zqRD1ucZ7aK2gGos4SF3M5jON3Ju7M_XbQOGFEIHLtSErdLnVQkJfLchA4wbRFf/s1600/Conference.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="236" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0r90XMJivBsaG2OVcGCRmVaIh2wkFKJ7nPZ5b-bKbwuMjkV1uTNfWzY3OSEPY-JWBT05GnLGU33dm1zqRD1ucZ7aK2gGos4SF3M5jON3Ju7M_XbQOGFEIHLtSErdLnVQkJfLchA4wbRFf/s320/Conference.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As my 15th
Prime Minister leaves office to spend more time with her financial advisers,
the choice that has to be made is not a good one. They are a group of
"professional" politicians who live in a different world from the
rest of us and are as remote as the ancient sky worshippers who used to live up
mountains.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My personal
experience of them and their predecessors is nil apart from one a long time
ago. It was 1967 and we were living in Scarborough when the Labour Party had a
conference fronted by Harold Wilson, a man for all seasons. One evening when we
were in town at the local history society afterwards we made for the bar of a
local hotel. It was not quite full, but there was one table with seats and a
couple having a quiet drink, it was as though others were avoiding them.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was Harold
and Mary Wilson. My thirst overcame my reservations and I introduced us warning
him that I was a supporter of Liverpool whereas he was an Everton man, by
virtue of his local constituency. So we had a pleasant chat about football and
things to do with Liverpool past avoiding anything to do with its present which
was increasingly difficult.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then we were
about to leave when I wondered if a taxi was possible, given the alcohol limits
well passed for driving. He gave one of his security men a nod, who took the
keys, drove us home with police cars front and back and sirens going.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was quite
an evening. The following day the our locals were all in a worry about what
major crime or something had been committed to bring police to the suburb
making a lot of noise at midnight. I said not a word. Their political loyalties
were with others than Labour.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was likely
that they would have objected less to having a bank robber in the neighbourhood
than anyone to do with Harold.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-27565348057024141732019-05-21T15:18:00.003+01:002019-05-21T15:20:40.460+01:00The 75th Anniversary Of D Day<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoHKIxJieFk-6bQ3LUwGKyR4HbGiCCeWpMQaqOcFXi4U0WncU8YWQC7WW0Ac9lu2r0T_UziMx8CIA97IWqKsrUvR2PE0IFO8ZR2Aw9P9g4CuwXmmdqfhDASPEhtZmbE_YUdqUPyhCmY9vj/s1600/d-day-hero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="612" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoHKIxJieFk-6bQ3LUwGKyR4HbGiCCeWpMQaqOcFXi4U0WncU8YWQC7WW0Ac9lu2r0T_UziMx8CIA97IWqKsrUvR2PE0IFO8ZR2Aw9P9g4CuwXmmdqfhDASPEhtZmbE_YUdqUPyhCmY9vj/s320/d-day-hero.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In a few days
time it will be the 75th anniversary of the D Day Landings in Normandy that
were the beginning of the end for the Second World War in Europe. There is
likely to be a lot of attention to this in the various media etc., perhaps too
much.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As this blog
has been here before I do not wish to add to it. As a child at the time there
are now too many personal memories in the mind. Especially, as a few years
later I was in the Army serving with men who had been there on the day.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Earlier posts
were on Saturday 6th June 2009 "Boadicea And D Day" and in 2014 on
Thursday 5th June "Remembrance" and on Saturday 7th June "Durham
Light Infantry".</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There are few
of us left from then to remember but we will.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-12762224714144029992019-05-17T15:55:00.002+01:002019-05-17T15:55:46.587+01:00How To Rot The Lungs<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq3oJzTc5A7CAgcSLf9FrnNC1Jrj1J9hdUqXoAi6Pq2IBbajSjSlCUgj0xS0Uupyd31vxECNyZcd0YPHYigovHqKJnOXi9qAU3x9Ll_s9Kwo36JKNQF0EVhqtk3D-OicEvtgrlyySFl7PU/s1600/Smell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="309" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq3oJzTc5A7CAgcSLf9FrnNC1Jrj1J9hdUqXoAi6Pq2IBbajSjSlCUgj0xS0Uupyd31vxECNyZcd0YPHYigovHqKJnOXi9qAU3x9Ll_s9Kwo36JKNQF0EVhqtk3D-OicEvtgrlyySFl7PU/s400/Smell.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When the
question arises that the world supply of something has “peaked” almost always
there are major disagreements between those involved. This is because something
has to be in demand for a supply to peak.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Guardian
today had the lead article on Air Pollution and what it meant to most of us. It
means a lot to me, we have a major local problem when the movement is air is
stilled by weather conditions. It is there because the stink and haze of it
tells us. As someone with major health reactions caused long ago it is a
nightmare.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When synthetic
chemicals were developed in the age of coal and then transformed by the age of
oil they were one of the answers to the increase of populations and the
depletion of natural sources for crucial parts of the economy of Earth. The
popular demand has been for more and more and governments have followed this.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Among the
certainties are that finding and extracting oil is becoming more expensive and
those costs will rise inexorably as more people demand more goods and services.
If extraction of oil shales on a large scale is needed then the costs are
likely to be higher still.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This might
curtail demand and put something of a cap on what can be afforded. There are
experts who point to the potential of natural gas from shales and other sources
which may help to bridge the gap and enable humanity to continue using these
energy sources for some time to come.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Again, this is
all at a price and the location of those shales and sources will change the
pattern of world power as they become more important. Geopolitics in the 20th
Century was heavily dependent on geophysics and with our current economic
systems is likely to remain so.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">An aspect of
all this is that the calculations of oil reserves are one thing and highly
unreliable at present but how much of that assumed oil is either recoverable or
usable economically is another matter. There are strong differences of opinion
over this.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Then there is
demand. If supply estimates and prediction are difficult then trying to work
out the pattern and nature of the several features of demand is much harder. One
feature in the debate on air pollution is not just on the roads and in the
flight paths it is in the homes the chemical load has increased vastly in the
last two or three decades.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">All the air
"refresheners" which do not refresh but simply deliver a fragrance
stink to persuade people that it is "nice". All the synthetics and
smells and powerful substances in the whole array of consumer goods for the
home and person. Walk into an entrance lobby and you are hit by air with more pollutants
that can be imagined.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The public
were not told, it just happened as part of the production and marketing of
household and personal goods for sale at a good profit and backed by media and
advertising as part of their incomes. Our machinery of government is doing
little or nothing and is unlikely to until the rising figures of illness and implications etc.
force their hand.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My question is
that what happens if we have both peak supply and peak demand? That is that in the future there is not going
to be more supplies of the necessary energy resources from oil or gas and in
any case the world demand, because of price and maybe persistent economic and
political problems has peaked as well.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is no
question of going back to the land because the land is being destroyed and will
never recover.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-2810372961376115592019-05-11T15:05:00.001+01:002019-05-11T15:09:10.877+01:00Taking Chances<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBPyIxsMto-w4aIN5EN6dP0SQmXpZsNJp3Abg7Ly41HFSaS-qscrvV6xUZK9YNhlrH4u_TU1VY6Vmf75WhFsG2-j3gS4K2EzKTAQmtF_35L2V5aj8_Yh6KX79MVGVzVoUtATRHdi2jG9s/s1600/Julie+Andrews.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQBPyIxsMto-w4aIN5EN6dP0SQmXpZsNJp3Abg7Ly41HFSaS-qscrvV6xUZK9YNhlrH4u_TU1VY6Vmf75WhFsG2-j3gS4K2EzKTAQmtF_35L2V5aj8_Yh6KX79MVGVzVoUtATRHdi2jG9s/s400/Julie+Andrews.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We are told
that the world is changing. Yes, it is, and it has always been changing. It is
just that in the 21st Century we can see and be told what is going on, where
and sometimes why. What we are told because of modern communications etc. often
it is possible to check the information and compare sources.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Along with this
information there is a mass of material from the past which enable us to find
and think about what has happened. We no longer depend on experts, pundits and
academics to instruct us and persuade us to their views. The detail of the past
might include information on ourselves.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Question. What
was I doing on Wednesday 30 April 1958? Is the answer online? It is, I was with
Ingrid Bergman, the Swedish actress famed for the number of her lovers. Well,
we were at the same place the same evening along with a theatre full of others
who were hoping for a good night out.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was the
Theatre Royal on Drury Lane and the London opening night of "My Fair
Lady". Tickets were hard to come by, the touts were asking up to £5 each,
in those days near a week's wage for some people. The musical, based on the
George Bernard Shaw play "Pygmalion", had been a hit in the USA.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There were
many British, largely of the upper orders, who thought that turning this play
into a musical was too much but the word from New York was that it was
something not just different but way ahead of most of what was on offer in the
West End at the time. I had my doubts but was open to see what it was all
about.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At first the
performance seemed good but nothing special. But then Julie Andrews came on as
Eliza Doolittle and went into "All I want is a room somewhere...."
and I was a gone man along with the rest of the audience and the roar of
applause at the end was striking, it was one of those great nights.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Many of us
knew exactly what was meant by the room somewhere. We still had memories of the
winter of 1947, long and bitter and the coal ran out halfway through it,
leaving most of us to freeze. The winters of the 1950's were not as bad, but
bad enough if you were in cheap digs in one of the poorer parts of London.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So why was I there?
Well, I had been sitting quietly reading the newspapers in the Shaw Library at
LSE and the attendant asked if any of us were interested in free standing
tickets for the Theatre Royal, a couple of streets away. GBS had asked for some
of us to be there, he had been Director of LSE for many years.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">My answer was
yes, a decision I have never regretted. The next one was being at the FA Cup
Final, on the Saturday 3 May when Bolton Wanderers beat Manchester United 2-0. I
was tipped off by my local railway ticket inspector that Wembley had some late
returns. It is on Pathe and Youtube and I am behind the goal when Lofthouse
scored the first.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As a double
whammy that we call it these days it wasn't a bad one.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-90235765705859941502019-05-07T17:07:00.005+01:002019-05-07T17:07:56.927+01:00Far From The Madding TV<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmKlap9J9_ivJOOd8zYTcoGT0tWGQPITKNWld2qPm3HKalWPamS3Jazi3NeAVWXDvM1drQnYKs_Hvmqkz_k2CZb0fW0N6kX_h3z8bArOfAJ8-GUWEFzvSFCCEjXamlh6T86YkXmqpiB3IX/s1600/Village+Wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="720" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmKlap9J9_ivJOOd8zYTcoGT0tWGQPITKNWld2qPm3HKalWPamS3Jazi3NeAVWXDvM1drQnYKs_Hvmqkz_k2CZb0fW0N6kX_h3z8bArOfAJ8-GUWEFzvSFCCEjXamlh6T86YkXmqpiB3IX/s400/Village+Wedding.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Watching
programmes from the "Discovering" series on Sky Arts TV, the content
on the subjects has run to about 45 minutes in the hour scheduled. So on Julie
Christie, the actress, it gave only snatches of her long and varied career. But
the clip from the film "Far From The Madding Crowd", a very 1960's
production raised questions.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The first was
how near or far from the book by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was it. Another question is when Hardy wrote
it in 1874 how far from the reality of rural England in the counties was it?
Today we have access to many sources on the web, so whereas at one time serious
research was needed, now we can try our luck on the web.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To keep it
simple to begin with I found Hardy as a ten year old scholar on the 1851 Census
Return so on the grounds that his childhood memories later would be vivid ones
what could be learned in relation to the book? He was at a small hamlet, Higher
Bockampton in the Parish of Stinsford close to Chichester. It was rural, part
of a small parish, but close to Chichester, County Town of Dorset.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The incumbent
of the Parish, from 1837 to 1891 was the Rev. Shirley, from a nearby minor
landed family who were a branch of the main Warwickshire family of Shirley of
Ettington, about five miles from Stratford upon Avon on the Banbury road. As in
Shakespeare who must have been there a time or two. Even into the 1960's there
were Hathaway's just along the road.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In Hardy's
works are there sometime shadows of Shakespeare within the stories and
characterisations? The Rev. Shirley was one of the new men of his time, high
church and restoring the past, despite the preferences for Low Church or
dissenting in the local area. With Shirley came the choir and back to the 16th
Century.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Quote from:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.shirleyassociation.com/NewShirleySite/NonMembers/England/rev_arthurshirley.html">http://www.shirleyassociation.com/NewShirleySite/NonMembers/England/rev_arthurshirley.htm</a></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">There was scarcely an aspect of the young
Thomas Hardys life which this change did not affect. Hardy was the first pupil
to enter the new Stinsford and Bockhampton National School which Shirley had
set up in collaboration with the occupant of the nearby Kingston Maurward
house, Julia Augusta Martin. He also instituted a Sunday school, at which in
due course Hardy became an instructor, along with the vicar's sons Sewallis and
Robert.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Unquote.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">In the book "Far From The Madding
Crowd" the return of Sergeant Troy to his home village is a major part of
the plot, he was a dragoon, cavalry. When Hardy was seven years old, the 31st
Regiment of Foot arrived at Stinsford from India, a major event, and stayed
from some time. So the Army was an integral part of village life. Then in the
mid 1850's the Crimean War saw Dorset become a central part of both military
and naval activity.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">One interesting item on the Census return
was the surname of the Hardy neighbours, Keats. I have tried to race both the
earlier families of this Keats and the poet Keats, who died in 1819, one of a London
family. I have not found a connection, but in the 1850's people might well have
assumed that there was. But having a Keats next door might have created an
interest by Hardy.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">In communications and history the railways
did not reach the Chichester area until the 1860's and after, so Hardy will
have been in an area still dependent on the old roads and the implications for
local life and contacts. In economic and farming terms it had become a
backwater well away from the London markets or any major area of growing
industrial or commercial population.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">For many of his readers Hardy will have
been writing about a world that had been lost and could never be recovered. For
in the 1870's and later Gladstone of the Liberals who wished to end the landed
classes of the Shires, Disraeli of the Tories anxious for the UK to be the
centre of a mighty empire, both saw the decline and loss of rural England to be
a necessary condition.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">As the new steamships came from distant
places filled with foods and other goods and as men moved to the towns or into
the Army and the women to service and factories, what was left became a memory.
Or the source for a good story teller who could recall what </span></b><b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">was left of it.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But we shall never really know or understand it
however good the presentation in fiction or in our researches.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-7031256627756186522019-04-30T11:06:00.001+01:002019-04-30T15:26:47.943+01:00Back To The Peninsular<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2AEb0jAY-yej3RwcTiaTWRNj9QFC3dkmJHhEIRvzFoGdpfD9of8xHNuqZEzeYUSyQe8NfR0m1nNutqkKbvneHC12Dc4nwyuCDRilLrFVGgGd3ol3bmT9TkorBt-iT86DZPA9F0bCeXF2a/s1600/Simancas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="1300" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2AEb0jAY-yej3RwcTiaTWRNj9QFC3dkmJHhEIRvzFoGdpfD9of8xHNuqZEzeYUSyQe8NfR0m1nNutqkKbvneHC12Dc4nwyuCDRilLrFVGgGd3ol3bmT9TkorBt-iT86DZPA9F0bCeXF2a/s400/Simancas.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was over forty years ago, shortly after the Franco regime had ended
that I drove through the centre of Spain heading for the Lines of Torres Vedras
in Portugal, also then going through political upheaval. I was visiting places
and battlefields of the time of Wellington's campaign during the Napoleonic
Wars.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One feature seen on some buildings was stick pictures of a gallows with
someone hanging from them with a names or names. There was always a degree of tension in the
air. There were monetary problems and it
was vital to be carrying pounds and dollars.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On a later visit a number of years after it had changed and
for a while when the money was flushing in there was a surge of apparent prosperity.
Many British moved there confident that the good times would continue to roll.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The question is how bad might it get and what tensions might erupt or
re-erupt in a country that has known too much bitterness in the past. But this
is Spain which has existed as a nation since the 15<sup>th</sup> Century and
Portugal for longer, until the call of Europe pulled them into the Brussels
based Empire of the Meritocrats and Bureaucrats.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If there is to be a major contraction in world trade and all economies
are to be affected one way or another then what political entities will last in
their present form and which ones could begin to disintegrate? As they do in
time when the stresses of size begin to be too much.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We are fixated on Europe, supposing that the EU and Euro can somehow
remain intact although damaged. What is
not considered is that not only could the Europe project fall apart but states
within it could face separatist movements and others outside could experience
severe stresses leading to some form of disintegration.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In Spain the elections have installed a new government with ideas that
are new in theory, but little in practice. The divisions from the past still
exist but their problems compounded by major inflows of migration from peoples
with different histories and beliefs.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Is The Great Game is about to begin again? And whose side will we be on?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-1504276986101234622019-04-24T10:03:00.004+01:002019-04-24T10:04:09.840+01:00A Voice Once Heard<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ1lNoQF0n0xAZMGzXSgb2VsLNfcAeieDDGLRfRg2KP9ONTBK83bm20Ln-2R4aSlHS_9ODao18eI9tk7WqicyRairOr4-nq7pV4a2l9oEddvKPs1J86EHRuMgQynzCY9IdtcbMyERfgnCT/s1600/Coventry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="695" data-original-width="926" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ1lNoQF0n0xAZMGzXSgb2VsLNfcAeieDDGLRfRg2KP9ONTBK83bm20Ln-2R4aSlHS_9ODao18eI9tk7WqicyRairOr4-nq7pV4a2l9oEddvKPs1J86EHRuMgQynzCY9IdtcbMyERfgnCT/s400/Coventry.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There are
times when things come together which otherwise might have no connection to
each other. Heather Harper has left us at the age of 88 having retired twenty
five years ago and whose voice and reputation have slipped into history.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One of her
major, if not the major, performances was the soprano lead in The War Requiem
by Benjamin Britten given on 30 May 1962 at the Consecration of the new
Cathedral of St. Michael in Coventry.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It had been
built to replace the remains of the former medieval cathedral which had been
destroyed during the German blitz on Coventry during World War 2 when this city
along with others were targeted because of their extensive engineering and
other industry essential to the war effort. There are few people around now
with any memory of this, but I am one.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When Coventry
was blitzed I was under the flight path of the German bomber squadrons,
mercifully far enough up the road to avoid it. Apart one night when the German
losses were such that they unloaded their bombs on us. My father, up on the
roof of his factory on air raid duty was not pleased.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the
ordinary way of things during and after the war we were often in or around
Coventry until the 1980's and knew about the bitter debate as to whether to
rebuild the old Cathedral as far as possible. In the 1950's those who saw us in
a new age won and a new modern architectural wonder was built.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But the money
did not run to much wonder and the architects thought more about the visual
effect of the structure as opposed to its religious significance, also seen as
out of date. Now, half a century on for many it is a curious relic of a bygone
20th Century age. Also, the Britten Requiem was not well received except by
those who understood its severity and his particular style of music, he did not
write to order but to his ideals.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Today,
Coventry City FC is broke, once in the Premier League, victim of hedge fund
trading gone wrong, and might be lost. Coventry RFC once England's best rugby
club has slipped down the tables. The town centre is now a grubby suburb of
London, less than a hour down the railway line, its major industries etc. gone
to The East, and many of the The East have come to Coventry.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We saw Heather
perform a number of times and she never failed to put across the meaning, sense
and beauty of the music she sang and loved which meant her audiences were taken
with her into the understanding of them.</span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-25370527313087389952019-04-18T17:24:00.002+01:002019-04-18T17:25:00.786+01:00Election Fever A Dose Of History<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV49MuJW8O71RqFp_8GygcIWyLEdntPss7pPsTeZyETZJD57kcSoOxRCG1S09H2e9IG06q09FKz_do0-42Wtz2VU02VMPaoUkSPU5z0jWUtZFgFBXEWCc9UnFinsw9YKkSzBEyX5jvSilR/s1600/harold-macmillan-with-jfk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="830" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV49MuJW8O71RqFp_8GygcIWyLEdntPss7pPsTeZyETZJD57kcSoOxRCG1S09H2e9IG06q09FKz_do0-42Wtz2VU02VMPaoUkSPU5z0jWUtZFgFBXEWCc9UnFinsw9YKkSzBEyX5jvSilR/s320/harold-macmillan-with-jfk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It will be several days or so before the next post as an Easter break is
being taken. In the meantime the media are doing their "will she; won't
she" routine as to whether the Prime Minister will call a General
Election. We have been here before, in 1959 the downside of a long memory. Could
a no hope unelected Prime Minister who ran a government in real trouble come
back to win?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In January 1957 after the disastrous venture into <st1:city w:st="on">Suez</st1:city>,
<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Eden</st1:place></st1:city> had resigned
and Harold Macmillan took over. For the media and the general public it had
been assumed that Rab Butler would be PM, but insiders and party placemen
ensured that it was Macmillan as the “safe” option, and even he wondered if he
might last only six weeks given the mess he had inherited.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Despite the turmoil, Macmillan hung on, and began to establish himself
in the media as a bluff, cool headed expert man of the world, who knew his way
around; a veteran of The Battle of the Somme with The Grenadier Guards and
badly injured. He was quite unlike the busy, worrying modern technocrat
determined to change everything that Hugh Gaitskell appeared to be.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Having seen them both at close quarters before gatherings that were
knowledgeable and critical, my view was that Hugh was more honest than most in
many ways but dogmatic and flawed in his simplicities. Harold was a neurotic
shyster.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The economy turned down sharply after the post <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Suez</st1:place></st1:city> oil shock. The nuclear protesters were gaining strength
and others were anxious. Some progress had been made since 1945 to increase
secondary education, but now it was demanded for all.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Race riots had occurred. Local elections were going Labour’s way, and
the media was unsure and uncomfortable with a Tory government with thirty five Old Etonians,
unelected peers, and others who seemed to be appointed for money and not merit. There were suggestions of cronyism and too
great a closeness of financial interests.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the Autumn of 1957 there was a serious flu epidemic, Asian Flu,
related to our modern swine flu, or so I am told. Then at the beginning of 1958
three key finance ministers resigned as a consequence of Macmillan’s plans to
push money into the economy, which they believed could increase inflation.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Macmillan’s view was that a small annual dose of inflation could not do
much harm. Nor could tobacco smoking,
which gave the Treasury a lot of its tax income, despite suggestions otherwise,
which Macmillan stamped on good and hard, to the applause of his tobacco baron
friends.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">During 1958 and 1959 Macmillan flew about, devolving power to colonies,
with a few economic strings attached, getting close to President Eisenhower and
later President Kennedy and signing nuclear agreements committing the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> long term,
for which he was called, satirically, “Supermac” by Vicky the cartoonist.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He was saving the world and restoring our Great Power status, at the
same time as running down the conventional forces. There were problems with <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iceland</st1:country-region>, and over in Europe there was a Treaty
of Rome, creating a Common Market, which he assured us, would not have implications
or consequences for the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The media did not know what to make of it all, and it left Gaitskell and
his team scratching for attention. The BBC gave us a relentless diet of Lord
Boothby as an ikon of culture and custodian of national identity.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They did not mention his friends, the Kray brothers or any other inconvenient
truths, nor the close encounters he had with Mrs. Macmillan. Not a hint of
critical comment passed any of their lips. ITV, on the other hand, were anxious
to convince us that the Esso sign meant happy leaded motoring, and that consumerism
was good.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Macmillan’s government continued to spend their way out of trouble, rock
and rolling their way, they said, to a rich future for us all, we would never
have it so good. The miseries who looked at the figures and the way the world
worked knew it could not and would not last.
But that did not matter.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Because in October 1959, against all the odds of barely a year before; Harold
Macmillan romped home in the election, and then the real crisis of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
future began.</span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-326976599434927122019-04-16T15:33:00.000+01:002019-04-17T15:01:53.593+01:00A Matter Of Faith<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl5B3RNe2pGbjf_VpowF4USWV6wjsqZclVnwyxuFaW6GBuRS2WHZl6qeULwUzRqnkd9a_5hsvoxvREeIpnR2g8bh_Y-zbNgl2Uex7btABzVa_X_kWOG4sscSeu6Tvc_5bvf2LW7vKIG8CR/s1600/chimeres-gargouilles-notre-dame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="433" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl5B3RNe2pGbjf_VpowF4USWV6wjsqZclVnwyxuFaW6GBuRS2WHZl6qeULwUzRqnkd9a_5hsvoxvREeIpnR2g8bh_Y-zbNgl2Uex7btABzVa_X_kWOG4sscSeu6Tvc_5bvf2LW7vKIG8CR/s400/chimeres-gargouilles-notre-dame.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The disaster
in Paris of the scale of damage to the Cathedral is the major story of the
present. Around thirty years ago on a brief visit to Paris strictly for basic
tourism we were able to go up a tower there and see Paris around us and beyond
that the fields of France in a nation where Paris was supreme and so were its
institutions. It is not just another Cathedral or big church it is at the heart
of France.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In December of
2018 the new Duchess of Sussex said that St. George's Chapel at Windsor needed
air fresheners because of its age and the condition of the air. Recently our
Westminster Abbey made the press in discussions on the cost of its fire
prevention systems. In 1984 we had the York Minster fire and from where I lived
could see the smoke trails.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On Sunday 24
March 2013 I had a post titled "The Bells, The Bells" about the
Cathedral of Notre Dame and it's new bells asking the question of who and what
were they for. The information at present is that the fire began in the
extensive renovation works under way. 200 trees is a lot of timber and when
fire caught the whole burned.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The French
government has been quick to promise a rebuild and the offers to contribute are
many and various among the institutions of France and its commercial and
financial sectors. But the old Cathedral has gone, like so many ancient
building the rebuild will be a new one, 21st Century, attempting to retain a
major link to the past.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Catholic
faith of France has long been in retreat and in the last two centuries has
declined into a number of small congregations in a Republic that did not
include religion as an essential element of life. The Cathedral was built for
the old faith and just as the new building will not be the old so the old faith
is lost.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">France now can
never be the France of the past in its economy, social structures and belief
systems. Notre Dame has gone and so has the France of the past.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If it needed a
symbol of the end of France the loss of the Cathedral of Notre Dame would be
the one to mark its end.</span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-73162466199633346402019-04-14T14:13:00.004+01:002019-04-14T14:13:46.019+01:00Making Capital<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYIESTFhAPpgOAP9jBF2yh1b3vl49yreZ0q23A-1iAc03tZ42GfdL8lSPLrNBA_pfgSySZq8JSxJ92hjfIOqGI3PoQCiKFICoyBuLW6sFkFXbcsSkygSaec4M92imxd2j_13XgAxDfb29o/s1600/Tamworth+Pig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="700" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYIESTFhAPpgOAP9jBF2yh1b3vl49yreZ0q23A-1iAc03tZ42GfdL8lSPLrNBA_pfgSySZq8JSxJ92hjfIOqGI3PoQCiKFICoyBuLW6sFkFXbcsSkygSaec4M92imxd2j_13XgAxDfb29o/s320/Tamworth+Pig.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The problem with the UK is London. Although London has now lost most of
its industrial base, it has remained the central location (black hole?) for
Government, Parliament, Finance both national and international, Media and
Press, Sport, Arts, Culture, and a good many other things.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Commentators have warned about the creation of a class of professional
politicians and associates too closely enmeshed with the web of greed and
deceit so easily created and sustained in a small geographical area that is
also the centre of communications. The vultures have not just come home to
roost, they have been based in London for a very long time.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">We have a system of government where the legislative powers have been
largely given to their remittance men in Brussels, the money has been off shored
to tax havens, the executive does its strategic planning day by day with its
eye on the headlines and the civil service is in a state of collapse.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The quickest and best way to administer a radical cure would be to move
Parliament and Government out as soon as possible. In the 1960’s a journal, was
it “The Economist”, did a think piece about moving it up to a new town to be
built on the North York Moors called Elizabetha. Perhaps, but it would be a
pity to disturb the insect life there with a lesser form of species.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Before London, there were other capitals in England. One was Winchester,
where King Alfred the Great held court, probably the option that would most
appeal to the inhabitants of the Westminster Village. To the north there might
be York, the old Viking City, which has excellent communications, or
Pontefract, seat of the Dukes of Lancaster. Further north, there is Bamburgh,
now a small village, once the seat of the Kings of Northumbria<i>.</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">My favourite would be Tamworth however, the seat of the Kings of Mercia,
now a modest late industrial Midlands town. It is famous for its two stations
one on top of the other, Low Level on the old LNWR West Coast Main Line, the
High Level on the old Midland Railway main line from Bristol to York through Birmingham,
Sheffield, and Pontefract.</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Also, it was one of the seats of the Stanley family whose decision to
ride for King Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth helped to put the Tudors on
the throne. There is a better reason for choosing Tamworth however. It is the
name of an endangered species, the Tamworth Pig, one of the ancient breeds of
England.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">So our new government could dispense with the lions etc. that are so
part of the imperial past now ended as symbols of authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could install the Tamworth Pig as the
symbol of the new age of government.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">So when a new Speaker is led to his Chair, the House will rise and cry
Oink, Oink, as a mark of respect.</span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-10564448158851642212019-04-09T13:15:00.000+01:002019-04-09T13:21:18.406+01:00Beating The Retreat<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWNptoHmzx7X7J954lyPrsYUYbqkoi4vIdd5cAbHJ10ZOZHfGpYh_qZvOrEUpHKL8LOPqI0WWkPS-E-fQ3Iw_L4SNERpzM0IvCzNKyIhC0IK-KBer2F9mbxpww49_FYauIO-YeT3W4z2a/s1600/The+Retreat+From+Mons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="884" data-original-width="1200" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWNptoHmzx7X7J954lyPrsYUYbqkoi4vIdd5cAbHJ10ZOZHfGpYh_qZvOrEUpHKL8LOPqI0WWkPS-E-fQ3Iw_L4SNERpzM0IvCzNKyIhC0IK-KBer2F9mbxpww49_FYauIO-YeT3W4z2a/s400/The+Retreat+From+Mons.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Brexit, Europe
and all that. It could be worse.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Long ago in the '40's I
knew a couple of men who had taken part in The Retreat From Mons in August 1914,
picture above. The German Army had attacked on the Western Front and the
British and French were forced into a sudden and hasty retreat from what they
thought were strongholds.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What is
intriguing to those who like to look at the detail of the military decisions at
the time is how and why the British, French and for that matter the Germans
made so many wrong ones given all the great planning and training of the period
before 1914.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
consequence was four years of bitter war fought from trenches together with
incessant artillery fire. The casualties were immense and these powerful
Empires were put at risk of collapse as happened with the Russians.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The world was
never the same again and Europe suffered many years of slump and poverty in the
coming decades leading to yet another major war.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On the other
hand given the quality of the politicians and governments at present as well as
those of the European and World institutions, it might just get worse.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-30566574455908386722019-04-07T10:54:00.006+01:002019-04-07T10:55:40.566+01:00What Are We Looking At<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzDNgx1Qxv4_wFa3y0N82Gpokcg7WJyJE67V604RGEJynxVNReoVz1zB4oQRp5tlEcvOt_4bGZxFzq8v684ztQnryy8dNHRRWgcJogJ6G4LzWNVfamb3qTXwHKw55c6puQ-RfzGA3RlV4_/s1600/jackson-pollock-painting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="700" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzDNgx1Qxv4_wFa3y0N82Gpokcg7WJyJE67V604RGEJynxVNReoVz1zB4oQRp5tlEcvOt_4bGZxFzq8v684ztQnryy8dNHRRWgcJogJ6G4LzWNVfamb3qTXwHKw55c6puQ-RfzGA3RlV4_/s400/jackson-pollock-painting.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Looking around the media, the web and the rest it is quite clear that
whilst there are a lot of able, highly intelligent, well informed and well
connected people the pace of events and the complexity means that nobody can
claim to have a full understanding of what is happening financially and
politically.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By definition the politicians who are supposed to be making key
decisions now work on a lot less information, data and analysis and need to be
advised by people who do know more and have the ability to understand more
fully.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The difficulty then is that if what the people who voted in or
critically support those politicians do not like the advice and the
implications then almost inevitably there is a desire to delay, attempt
compromise where none is to be had or to evade making decisions at all.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Worse, is that if the channels to those politicians are controlled or
policed by people with particular interests to serve then the distortions could
be serious and damaging in the process of determining policy. We have been here a few times in history,
think of your own examples.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At present around the world it seems that all of them have not simply
“lost the picture” they do not know what they are looking at. They want the picture to be a Renoir when at
best it is a Jackson Pollock. Not only
that but it is one which Pollock created intuitively or according to whim.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Even then that picture is replaced by another one apparently quite
different perhaps shifting more towards one fractal shape before morphing
suddenly into another. In short not just
the politicians, or their advisers, but all the experts and commentators are
behind the game.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Those who may be closer to any understanding in the present world crisis
seem to be now reaching the point where they feel no understanding is to be had
because by the time you have got the message out and circulated it has all
moved on and fast.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But the public and people as a whole want simple answers and clear
policies and most some sort of security and protection from economic storms and
dangers. Inevitably, the come to feel
they are being lied to or the victims of conspiracies by “the other”.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is how in the past dictatorships and authoritarian governments have
arisen in states and polities where serious upheavals have occurred. It seems to be happening around the world one
way or another, including the UK and the USA.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As the House of Commons disintegrates politically, who might be the
Great Leader to come in the elections expected soon?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-82105180191975611022019-04-03T11:35:00.001+01:002019-04-03T11:35:44.877+01:00Extreme Allergic Shock From 2013<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTL997k_kw54fw9zgeNVV3Igek5jHiu8OptnD1-pOzSSPHPYvQamL0mB7FMum8BBn0XVD83zeU3vD8759AFmw3MQCkBbBsTe4xGpKTkVxuqpVXsTEqQnSlA_H0-CJYge8qrqSQJAFd8H0c/s1600/Epipens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="722" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTL997k_kw54fw9zgeNVV3Igek5jHiu8OptnD1-pOzSSPHPYvQamL0mB7FMum8BBn0XVD83zeU3vD8759AFmw3MQCkBbBsTe4xGpKTkVxuqpVXsTEqQnSlA_H0-CJYge8qrqSQJAFd8H0c/s320/Epipens.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What do a Rock Star and a Government Minister for Equalities have in
common, other than an interest in their particular public images etc.? In the
last couple of days it is anaphylactic shock, the potential terminal allergic
shock from something that has become a permanent threat.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In both cases the apparent cause was peanuts, Liam Gallagher, the
rocker, when hungry went for a package of M&M’s, a popular sweet that
turned very sour. Jo Winsor the Lib Dem Member of Parliament doing her
constituency duty had a bite of lovely home cooked cake and then bit the dust,
almost.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They were among the lucky ones who had treatment in time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With this problem it is possible that among
the many sudden deaths are some that are anaphylaxis never either identified or
suspected. Also, there are many potential causes and a big one can come out of
the blue.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One major problem is “words”. Allergy might be a medical condition but
the word is used colloquially in other ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Similarly, “reactions”, “attack”, etc. are also not precise. What is
missing is some sort of structure to define the levels as clearly as possible
to allow better understanding and description.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Here is one below, based on a common framework a 1 to 5 Scale with the 1
being the least and the 5 being the most dangerous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In the case of the two cases that made the headlines they were both at
Scale 5 and they were lucky to survive.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Quote:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">THE RATS SCALE OF ALLERGY & TOXICITY<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Reaction to Allergy and Toxicity Scale (RATS) is a scale of one to
five of the severity and impact of a physical and neural reaction to any
substance or combination of substances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The scale is a broad indicative measure of relative effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not diagnostic and at the margins of
the central three parts of the scale the distinctions may be variable or not
clear cut.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The intention of the scale is to enable both those affected and those
involved in any treatment to have a common perception of the degree and extent
of the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also where an individual
has reactions to more than one substance either separately or concurrently it
will help to estimate a simple differentiation of effect between one substance
or another.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The RATS Scale is:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mild<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Moderate<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Serious<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Severe<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Extreme<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Extreme (RATS 5)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is a reaction that is potentially terminal within a short period of
time or induces a collapse with loss of consciousness or brain or muscular
control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It includes anaphylactic shock
or coma or toxic shock. It will require immediate emergency treatment and
probably hospital admission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A person vulnerable to this level of reaction will have restrictions,
safeguards and monitoring at a constant and high level.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It will be critical to determine both the cause of shock and the extent
of other issues and vulnerabilities.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Severe (RATS 4)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This may begin in many cases with a lesser form of shock but may arise
from either persistent or cumulative reactions. It is when the condition is
debilitating with some loss of bodily or neurological function that may be
recurrent or chronic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The impact on function and management of life will be extensive and will
require continuing monitoring and safeguards to prevent the risk of a RATS 5
attack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It will require testing of a number of substances and possibilities to
determine any immediate cause of shock and to ascertain whether more than one
substance may be involved in the nature of the vulnerability.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Serious (RATS 3)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The impact and extent of the reactions will require continuing medical
intervention, treatment and monitoring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The nature of the reactions will have adverse effects on the
individual’s ability to control their environment and in the making of life
choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Commonly, at this level it will
be necessary to impose restrictions, safegards and active avoidance procedures
and measures. Impairment of mental and physical functions will be evident and
disruption of life management.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Moderate (RATS 2)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The reactions will cause marked effects and have more than nuisance
value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will be more evident and
medical advice should be sought on the actual and potential causes to try to
avoid the risks of increasing severity of reaction. They will require treatment
and may be continuing in effect. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mild (RATS 1) <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The reactions will be noticeable and a source of either discomfort or
minor medical issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will not be
such as to disrupt or to badly impact on life choices or activities but need an
awareness of their risks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many cases
minor medical treatments will be needed or helpful together with an awareness
of possible causes.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is a great deal of information about allergy and the many
reactions that can occur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can be
helpful and confusing at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An issue is that the word “allergy” is used extensively for many types
and levels of reaction and as a colloquial descriptive word for any effect and
sometimes opinion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Attempts are made to distinguish reactions by the use of words such as
“intolerance” and “sensitivity”, which can be useful to assist recognition in
terms of the Mild Level 1 RATS effect but are too broad in their meaning to
deal with severity.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The issue of “toxic” effects is less recognised and may be difficult to
define without immunological analysis but the word can be used in broad terms
especially at RATS Levels 4 and 5, Severe and Extreme. Possibly “toxic” is more
applicable to effects that are immediate and powerful.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There are two matters that interconnect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The first is that allergy, medically, is one set of reactions and
toxicity is another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However there may
be areas of uncertainty and overlap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
other is the difficulty of assessing cause and effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One real and major problem is that most ordinary science is concerned
only with a linear approach to research or investigation; that is the search
for a single cause with an identifiable single effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This dominates the handling of cases and treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But allergy and toxicity issues are likely to
be far more complicated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reactions may
have complex causes and in turn particular causes might have complex effects. Medical
services at present cannot cope with complexity and are reluctant to admit
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Dealing with any complexity requires rigorous monitoring, assessment and
analysis normally over a period of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What appears to be a cause may only be a means for another cause to take
effect.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Unquote.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The picture
above is of the safeguard that people at risk need to carry to buy time in the
event of going into shock. They are hypodermic auto-injectors of a set amount
of the medication needed to try to control the reaction and buy time until
treatment.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is a
delicate irony in a rock star being obliged to carry a couple of needles to
keep him going when things go wrong, never mind a politician.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-33786312364749714012019-04-01T10:36:00.000+01:002019-04-01T10:36:04.108+01:00Today Is Not The Day<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9TQv06C5bAtd6nFD9yMAPp1Mh7qXTMevJoTyY-UMWuHB1pSjGDRp0Nsrm_nVFvOIqiJqdrQbI0ee-70seMxwUB9tjSzuu5y4S3-b2EBNfm3bhZN3jbW8k325B6bWZCu9toi8fRc5PdHXh/s1600/palace-of-westminster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="752" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9TQv06C5bAtd6nFD9yMAPp1Mh7qXTMevJoTyY-UMWuHB1pSjGDRp0Nsrm_nVFvOIqiJqdrQbI0ee-70seMxwUB9tjSzuu5y4S3-b2EBNfm3bhZN3jbW8k325B6bWZCu9toi8fRc5PdHXh/s320/palace-of-westminster.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I did think of
saying that HM had dismissed Prime Minister May and had asked John Bercow to
form a government.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But really
there is nothing to joke about.</span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-81153117634159507762019-03-30T12:52:00.002+00:002019-03-30T12:53:25.208+00:00Times Past<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmRd1Gh7n03HJlS2sAzGn2ErTqYaOwv6Zw8X9GAxuZ7kXNddAR8S0uHloyJuueBs7YGJnAZsePYc9ukGRPrUUY82Vxrz5BR3JbpODCvlVm1wHWFKzkfOHdQ-FEO3hyphenhyphen2eaW6B1PdB8LX3ql/s1600/weavers+cottage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="600" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmRd1Gh7n03HJlS2sAzGn2ErTqYaOwv6Zw8X9GAxuZ7kXNddAR8S0uHloyJuueBs7YGJnAZsePYc9ukGRPrUUY82Vxrz5BR3JbpODCvlVm1wHWFKzkfOHdQ-FEO3hyphenhyphen2eaW6B1PdB8LX3ql/s400/weavers+cottage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The news has
mention of two men aged 111, both born on 29 March 1908 one Scots and one
English, Robert Weighton who is on the 1911 Census.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
information from the earlier records has his maternal grandfather, John Pitts,
being born in 1849 with his father, Robert's great grandfather born in 1815,
the year of the Battle of Waterloo.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John was a
cloth weaver in Yorkshire from a local family. The men of this trade were known
to be politically active, especially in Yorkshire.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If only the
family down the generations had been able to keep diaries and they had
survived.</span></b></div>
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Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5001867295510218749.post-17872474427487291022019-03-29T15:40:00.002+00:002019-03-29T15:41:04.346+00:00History As Pictures<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Europe Begins 1871 Kaiser Wilhelm I</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4g4xWyPpmwRMggjikRggFiQNyGQ1irNwILOw7Hnwp9SMHvpgS_6zAlAkCuu92DgrR4zk1AZ0BXhTWBxypN-VJ3B31riAq4AALyZ_0YlJrQwnxGs19PlCQ3N2qa8micnEE1bO7FiNT92IB/s1600/Kaiserproklamation_in_Versailles_1871.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="512" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4g4xWyPpmwRMggjikRggFiQNyGQ1irNwILOw7Hnwp9SMHvpgS_6zAlAkCuu92DgrR4zk1AZ0BXhTWBxypN-VJ3B31riAq4AALyZ_0YlJrQwnxGs19PlCQ3N2qa8micnEE1bO7FiNT92IB/s400/Kaiserproklamation_in_Versailles_1871.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Europe Ends Kaiser Angela The Last</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMaF3DHQuuXCjcK72rXgGhc72RyMWGLyyt3FdcvLCzmGkARtsdIftVtD2hSzicttsDbXAaFKAGZO3rcl55gotpIAdL0zmmxhYaPrww6h5msLqxRudqlEv6oI6nlnLCD_q328nh8fesdoOL/s1600/1062991946.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="1000" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMaF3DHQuuXCjcK72rXgGhc72RyMWGLyyt3FdcvLCzmGkARtsdIftVtD2hSzicttsDbXAaFKAGZO3rcl55gotpIAdL0zmmxhYaPrww6h5msLqxRudqlEv6oI6nlnLCD_q328nh8fesdoOL/s320/1062991946.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Demetriushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17198549581667363991noreply@blogger.com2