It May Or May Not Stink

The media at various levels is interested in health matters because we are all concerned with what might be causing that itch or cough or pain.

One major concern is air pollution. There is a lot and it is not clear what is what or to what effect. It all lies in the particles.

If you want to see how complicated it might be this item from Science Daily, in the Science News section, not long, but not easy reading, will give you some idea.

It will not tell you what your nose may be trying to understand.

Bonfire night might be a good time to start trying.

A Vote For Money

The Bank of England is looking for a portrait for the new £50 note, not that I expect to use many or any of them. They say that for this one they want a scientist.

My candidate is Mary Ward and I would like others to vote for her.

The voting form is here and you tick yes for scientist and yes for deceased and then enter the name. Comment may be made but is not necessary.

Wikipedia has a page if you would like information about her. The National Trust has more on its Castle Ward pages.

Inhuman Resources

What sort of working future is there for the younger generations? The common issues of who does what in workplaces may be about to be simplified, but not in a way that creates jobs.

What might that be?

According to The Engineer a good deal of the future is in the hands, or rather no hands, of reconfigurable modular robots.

Who would have thought that all those new graduates who have been flooding into Human Resources work in recent years could no longer be needed?

But for that matter, will any universities be needed in a world on the web? Which of their schools or departments etc. could be fitted into an RCM?

Given that three are alleged to be bankrupt we could find out soon.

Peterloo Revisited

There is a film by Mike Leigh, "Peterloo" one to mark the centenary of the disaster as St. Peter's Fields in Manchester in 1819 when a major political meeting/demonstration was confronted by military contingents and many deaths occurred. The figures given are not reliable probably omitting many later deaths from injuries.

My introduction to this was the film "Fame Is The Spur" of 1947 about a reformer whose family has a sword taken from a soldier in 1819 at the disaster and kept it to preserve the memory and the family tradition of political action. The reformer becomes a success in politics but loses his principles and the sword goes rusty.

King George III was a sick and dying man in his last year of life and in July 1819 the question of the alleged adultery of the Princess Caroline, spouse of the Prince Regent, later King George IV was commanding the attention of the Cabinet and London press. He had no successor.

There was a collection of Royal Dukes, none of whom had a successor, save one, the Duke of Kent, whose daughter, Victoria was born in May. Rumours that she was actually the child of the Duchess's footman were not supported by evidence.

1819 was a year in which one of the five worst financial crashes in the USA occurred, resulting in a collapse of the economy. It was also where an increasing proportion of the raw cotton of the Lancashire cotton industry came from. This crash had effects on the British and European markets, notably in serious shortages of specie, that is ready cash and difficulties in the credits of the City of London.

When we say shortages of money today it is remote from the reality of shortages of the early 19th Century. It means in a society that depended on specie (hard cash) for almost all its day to day transactions there was not enough to be had. Banks crashed and businesses failed to add to all the confusions.

Not that the government was idle, earlier in the year it has tried to address the problem, but it was too little, too late and failed to deal with the core problems. To quote Lord Addington, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Lord Liverpool Tory government.

The first resolution, namely, "That it is expedient to continue the restriction on payments in cash by the Bank of England beyond the time to which it is at present limited by law," was agreed to.

The second resolution, namely, "That it is expedient that a definite period should be fixed for the termination of the restriction on cash payments; and that preparatory measures should be taken, with a view to facilitate and ensure, on the arrival of that period, the payment of the promissory notes of the Bank of England in the legal coin of the realm," was agreed to.

The third resolution, namely, "That in order to give to the Bank a greater control over the issues of their notes than they at present possess, provision ought to be made for the gradual repayment to the Bank of the sum of 10,000,000l.; being part of the sum due to the Bank, on account of advances made by them for the public service, and on account of the purchase of exchequer-bills under the authority of acts of the legislature," was agreed to.

Upon the fourth resolution being read, namely "That it is expedient to provide, by law, that from the 1st of February, 1820, the Bank shall be liable to deliver, on demand, gold of standard fineness, having been assayed and stamped at his majesty's Mint, a quantity of not less than 60 ounces being required in exchange for such an amount of notes of the Bank as shall be equal to the value of the gold so required, at the rate of of 4l. 1s. per ounce." was agreed to.

Then there were the problems of Empire. In the Caribbean the abolition of the slave trade had upped the prices of slaves leading to heavy borrowing by the plantation owners who were running out of cash. This was both making a demand for more finance from The City and contributed to the specie shortage and added to risks.

In India, the East India Company was fighting on a number of fronts and had expanded north into Nepal. It was needing more cash and added to the demands for silver. The Royal Navy was busy carrying the many convicts transported to expand other colonies. More were needed so magistrates were expected to provide them as a necessary source of basic labour to cut the costs of expansion.

Lurking at the back of the minds of many of the upper classes and especially the King and Cabinet were the memories of the French Revolution that had begun only thirty years before and what had happened there in a France plagued with similar problems at the time.

When they looked at Hunt, Johnson and Saxton and their fellow reformers they saw the ghosts of Desmoulins, Robespierre and Danton of France and others. Among the extreme reformers there were some who might want to guillotine the upper classes. A question was that in France reform had led to Napoleon and there seemed to be no shortage of ambitious reformers who might follow his example.

The mass meeting at St. Peter's Fields was not the only one that year, there had been others earlier involving the same reformers and where trouble had occurred so when they came to Manchester the local magistrates, in the absence of any proper command structure, decided to attack.

Among the troops were the local Yeomanry, the Manchester and Salford, along with the Cheshire Yeomany who had experience earlier that year at a similar meeting at Chester. While we assume these to be simply local men of higher class, we do not know what experience many of them had during the wars that ended in 1815.

Of the regular army there was some artillery, a firing or two of grapeshot could break up most threats. There were two cavalry regiments, the 15th Hussars and the 23rd Dragoons who had been in Spain and at Waterloo. The 15th Hussars in particular had a noted record and took part in the famous charge.

Also there were two regiments of infantry, one the 31st, Huntingdonshire, which had been in Spain, but not at Waterloo. The one that sent a shiver down my back was the 88th, The Devil's Own, The Connaught Rangers. This regiment was one to be feared and astonishing it should be used for civil duties.

This is excessive for what is alleged to be a simple meeting, large perhaps, of ordinary people wanting reform and a say in elections and government. But what the government saw in the series of meetings around the Northern industrial areas was the formation of a large band of revolutionaries that might march on London and could not be stopped.

What they might have been singing is a question. Might it have been "Brighton Camp" that is "The Girl I Left Behind Me" or one of that era? All too likely in London the Prince Regent and Government might assume that it could be an English version of the "Marseillaise" or "Veillons au salut D'Empire".

Peterloo was a catalogue of mistakes, blunders and a panic reaction. How different from our democratic governments of today.

Budget Roundabout

In the post budget discussion about the extent of what is being given by the government to us all, allegedly, the usual suspects have been asking about where is it coming from.

Has May been growing magic trees in the enchanted garden at Chequers? Is Hammond obeying the Inland Revenue? I did wonder, but then a document including this dropped through the door and the answer is "of course".

Many of those who live in flats depend on a managing agent to do a lot of the jobs that have to be done and it is common to have staff on site to deal with this.

One part of this sector that has been growing in size and numbers is retirement developments which with the decline in the number of residential homes now have a high proportion of the very elderly and therefore disabled.

The document says:

VAT ON EMPLOYMENT OF STAFF

HM Revenue & Customs have issued a briefing and information sheet which requires  Managing Agents to add Value Added Tax at the Standard Rate (20%) to the total employment costs (salary), employers National Insurance Contributions  (pension contributions) of on-site staff. This charge will apply with effect from 1 November 2018.

This instruction applies to all Managing Agents and the additional cost, which will be included within the service charge of all staffed developments, will be paid over to HM Revenue & Customs, there is no benefit to the Managing Agent.

The impact, will, quite simply, increase the salary costs with the service charge account by 20%. Whilst we will not make any changes to the budget for the current service charge, there is likely to be an overspend in areas of the budget that include employed on-site staff, any resultant overall overspend will be recoverable when the accounts for the year are finalised.

We will, in the meantime, continue to monitor the situation in case the ruling is challenged.

Unquote.

In the Budget I do not recall seeing any mention of this or the doubtless many other administrative alterations, updates and revisions which will be in train from one part of government or another.

How typical it is for our government to promise extra for those in need and then to find the money from out of their pockets.

It may be a roundabout, but it ain't magic.

Wandering Hain Trouble

The current dispute between a shopkeeper who has done very well and a professional politician of the Left has grabbed the headlines. The shopkeeper is alleged to have let his emotions rule on occasions in the past with ladies.

Now he prefers it to be a private matter. The politician does not agree and insists that it be public. I can hardly wait for someone to come up with errors of judgement in the politicians past.

The shopkeeper has been given a knighthood for giving money away and the politician wants it taken away from him. The politician is now a peer in the House of Lords for giving away vast amounts of taxpayers money to people who agree with him.

Florrie Forde a wonderful singer from the past says it all.

Now back to the sports pages.

Looking To The Past

A document unearthed recently by archaeologists from a building site near Kings Cross, evidently a place of ritual, has been translated. It is a public declaration by an official called “Custodian” and is dated to the beginning of 410 AD in modern form.

“ After due examination of the entrails of several beasts and offerings to the great and good amongst our gods and officials we can confidently state that there is to be a new beginning to our future, quite unlike the beginnings of the past, which will lead to a recovery in our affairs to reinstate what we have lost forever and no longer need.

The reductions in our defence budget and planned future deployment of more of our legionaries to the furthest corners of the Empire to secure our borders against the Persians, Goths, Vandals, Dacians and others will enable us to concentrate our efforts on our own internal security.

This will be achieved by the empowerment of local officials in liaison with groups of the auxiliary forces in consultation with local interests. We are sure that the high level of mutual interests will lead to the political stabilisation of the Atlantic Isles for another four hundred years at least.

This will be enabled by the wise foresight of the control of the mints. The progressive reduction of the silver content of the coinage will continue to help increase the amount of money to further trade and critically the great work being undertaken by the money changers and lenders.

It is to them and their central role in the getting and spending of money and trade that we look to provide a continuing rise in our prosperity.
The reduction in the amount of gold we hold to assist the Empire in paying dues to the peacemakers on our eastern borders has been of great benefit and the continuing reduction will free us from concerns from this quarter.

Our policy of increasing the amount of protective fortification of the dwellings of our patrician class and local tribal leaders together with the concentration of trading in designated walled centres has helped our internal security and protected our vital interests.

The continuing troubles among the plebeians and the other classes dependent on free grain doles will be addressed by firmer laws and wider powers being granted to lower officials and others to allow them to act without reference to the usual procedures. We have no doubt that the best way of dealing with the problem is to extract promises from the disaffected elements and to then release them to adjust to their communities in accordance with their lifestyle.

Community spirit will be maintained and improved by the provision of extra games and pursuits. Necessarily some of these will be violent amusements and others giving insights into the baser instincts and conduct of ordinary people. This is part of our lifestyle and we must learn to tolerate and welcome this as a staple of social intercourse.

In administration the greater influence and authority of Aquisgranum the city serving the interests of the Belgae, the Germanians and the Gauls is to be welcomed giving the Atlantic Isles a more central pivot to refer to for policy and trade.

Similarly the transplantation of local tribal peoples, the Scotti, from the territories of south eastern Britannia around Camulodunum and Venta Icenorum to the furthest north can only be of benefit to all concerned. We are sure they will be welcomed by the Picts and the remnants of earlier peoples who went north in past times.

The Empires greatest achievement is in creating a diversity of peoples and beliefs.  The steady flow of the skilled and able workforces from the lands around the Rhine and its northern and eastern neighbours we are sure will be augmented by more of these law abiding and peaceful tribes bringing with them their inclusive and benign gods.

Moreover increased trade and contact with the horsed tribes far to the east has opened other wonderful opportunities.  The Empire has little to fear from them. There are other groups with other gods, including some who believe only in a single god.

While the great majority of these are meek, submissive and helpful in their beliefs there are small number of extremists who give concern and who are both reluctant and unwilling to respect other gods and practices.

Some have taken down bridges to make their places of worship and only allow marriage and child bearing within the terms of their own laws.  More worrying is the lack of diversity in their relationships with others and secretive internal dealings. Nevertheless they are important to the Empire as a valuable source of slaves for the galleys and mines.

There are other issues for the Empire to deal with in the coming decade.  The deforestation of much of the Isles is leading to difficulties in sourcing fuel and building materials. Also the more fertile soils of the lowlands are no longer giving the yields that they once did which means that the Province is failing to meet its revenue and export targets.

The lack of maintenance of water facilities has led to breakdowns in some urban communities that are difficult to rectify.  The calls on the legions have removed not only soldiers but the water engineers who have kept the systems running in the past.

Nevertheless the future is bright and the Empire has guaranteed that more coins will soon be had that although different will mean that the chariots and pack mules will soon be as busy as before.

Morituri te salutant!”

How different it all seems from our modern world.