Month: June 2019

Culture

The BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is known the world over and is the oldest and biggest state broadcasting organisation. It began operations […]

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is known the world over and is the oldest and biggest state broadcasting organisation. It began operations on 1st January 1927 from its headquarters in London, having been converted from a Limited Company by the granting of a Royal Charter. Its mission was to use the new technologies of radio, then television and now the internet as well, to ‘inform, educate and entertain’ the public.

The BBC is funded mainly by the TV licence fees paid by all UK householders using its services, supplemented by the revenue from international sales of its programmes. It has never allowed advertising on any of its channels. The Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport is the governmental point of control for its £5 billion annual budget.

During the early decades, it built up a widely accepted reputation for impartiality, fairness, morality and high standards. However, this has taken a severe knock in recent times. This is particularly noticeable in its coverage of news and current affairs, some of which is extremely unbalanced. Its gold-standard website has also been criticised for being too all-encompassing, thereby stiflng smaller specialist websites which do not have the financial backing enjoyed by the BBC.

(Image: Alexander Svensson at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

18/06/2019
3 min
5 years
206 words

History

The Romans

It has long been taught in UK schools that the Romans transformed the country with their civilising influence and were here for […]

It has long been taught in UK schools that the Romans transformed the country with their civilising influence and were here for four hundred years, after which we fell into the so-called Dark Ages. Today, archaeologists and historians are uncovering quite a different picture of pre-existing Iron Age farming and skilled crafts continuing during and after the ‘Roman Britain’ period.

The Romans first attempted a landing in 55BC, then 54BC, but were beaten back by the clever tactics of a smaller army. The rest of Europe was in Roman slavery but the British stood firm until 43AD. However, the invaders did not enter Wales until thirty-one years later and never took Ireland or all of Scotland. Initially, they faced fierce opposition, not least from Queen Boudica‘s army, but wealthy Britons would later intermingle and avail themselves of exotic Roman artefacts, such as mosaic flooring.

Until 409AD there were varying levels of Roman presence, including lengthy absences. Whilst here, they murdered Druids and Christians for fear of them emboldening the proletariat with their fancy talk of immortal souls. On the plus side, they introduced many new vegetables, constructed two-horse-width road lanes, and brought us the magnificent domestic cat!

(Image: Derek Harper at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

08/06/2019
3 min
5 years
207 words

Culture

Gentlemen’s clubs

Once the city coffeehouse trend of the 1700s had faded, it was the gentlemen’s clubs which slipped into place and gradually became […]

Once the city coffeehouse trend of the 1700s had faded, it was the gentlemen’s clubs which slipped into place and gradually became more refined and exclusive. At their peak there were four hundred such clubs, for men only, but today there are far fewer. Membership criteria ensure that only the select few are allowed in and the hefty annual fees can only be afforded by the rich.

Most clubs are aligned with certain interests, such as the armed forces, theatre or sports, and they tend to be regarded as Tory territory. Their luxurious facilities include bars, restaurants, gaming rooms, libraries, gyms, swimming pools and bedrooms. They are valued by their members as a haven of quietude and privilege.

Most of the prestigious gentlemen’s clubs are concentrated in the St. James’s area of London, just across from the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. The oldest is White’s, founded in 1693, which includes royalty on its members’ list. Brooks’s and Boodle’s both date from 1762 and then a spate of clubs opened in the first half of the nineteenth century. This coincided with the Houses of Parliament being partially burnt down in 1834 and MPs needing to have alternative private meeting-places.

(Image: maxpixel.net)

07/06/2019
3 min
5 years
206 words

Religion

The Presbyterian Churches

Presbyterianism is a system of church governance in which ‘presbyters’, or elders, represent the congregation in the ‘presbyteries’ which are a part […]

Presbyterianism is a system of church governance in which ‘presbyters’, or elders, represent the congregation in the ‘presbyteries’ which are a part of the church leadership. At the top is a ‘general assembly’, or ‘general synod’, and presbyterians maintain that this type of church structure is in the Bible, whereas papacy is not. The Church of Scotland is a presbyterian church, for example.

The Presbyterian Church, with a capital P, is a Protestant church formulated on presbyterianism, which has many beliefs in opposition to Catholicism. Some even see the Pope as the antichrist. It was established in Scotland by the activist preacher John Knox in 1560, when there was an official split from the rule of the Pope. It was taken to Ireland and the USA soon afterwards. Knox was a fervent advocate of the new Protestant religion, condoning all sorts of subversive action in the anti-Catholic cause.

Presbyterians follow the King James Version of the Bible, which they judge to be the best English translation. Most churches are plain, with few images, musical instruments or modern gadgets. In England the Presbyterian church merged into the United Reformed Church in 1972. There are around half a million members of UK presbyterian churches.

(Image: Tiger at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

06/06/2019
3 min
6 years
208 words

English language

No future tense

Although there are several ways to construct a future meaning in English, there is no stand-alone future tense. We share this apparent […]

Although there are several ways to construct a future meaning in English, there is no stand-alone future tense. We share this apparent oddity with many other languages ~ German, Swedish, Fijian, Afrikaans, Persian, to name but a few. English verbs take four forms. For example: speak(s), speaking, spoke, spoken. There is no further adjustment we can make to the root verb, speak. These forms give us the present and past, but not a future tense.

Here are the most common ways to talk about the future in English:-

SYNTAX	EXAMPLE
will + bare infinitive	You will succeed!
shall + bare infinitive	We shall see.
present ‘be’ + going + full infinitive	I am going to cry.

Naturally, the context of the sentence should indicate which time period is appropriate and additional information such as ‘tomorrow’, ‘next year’ or ‘on Wednesday at 2pm’ is extremely helpful. There are many other languages with no tenses at all ~ Indonesian, Malaysian, Mandarin Chinese and many native American languages, for instance. These rely entirely on the context, so English is not unusual at all in this respect.

(Image: rawpixel.com)

04/06/2019
3 min
6 years
182 words

Geography & Environment

Historic counties

The country was first divided up into regions, called ‘shires’, in the eighth or ninth centuries. Each shire had a ‘shire reeve’ […]

The country was first divided up into regions, called ‘shires’, in the eighth or ninth centuries. Each shire had a ‘shire reeve’ (=’sheriff’) in charge of keeping the peace on behalf of the ruling monarch. The counties were mapped out after the Norman Conquest, many of them retaining the -shire ending, e.g. Wiltshire, Cheshire, Pembrokeshire.

England has thirty-nine counties, Scotland thirty-four, Wales thirteen and Northern Ireland six. These are known as the historic, or ancient, counties and they continue to exist today. However, with the advent of local government structures in 1888, things started to become rather messy. At first, county councils more or less governed the whole of the county in their title, but since 1965 there have been many changes and very few now match up precisely. Campaigners would like to see councils re-name themselves to reflect this, and drop the word ‘county’ from their name.

Royal Mail no longer requires addresses to include the county, since it can rely entirely on the postcode plus a house number. Nevertheless, our counties continue to be held dear to most Britons. One of the best example of this is the nickname for Yorkshire, which is “God’s own county”!

(Image: David Howard at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

04/06/2019
3 min
6 years
207 words

Basic principles

Shelters and refuges

The Industrial Revolution, which began in the 1760s, brought with it some social problems. Many people moved from rural communities to cities […]

The Industrial Revolution, which began in the 1760s, brought with it some social problems. Many people moved from rural communities to cities and towns, looking for work. Some became destitute, as there was no welfare state at that time. Homelessness was an issue which could not be ignored but it was not a new one. Previously, the workhouse was where the poor were sent, but the 1800s saw the sprouting up of shelters and refuges.

These provide immediate but temporary solutions to two main problems: homelessness and domestic violence. The first shelters were in the cities ~ for instance, the Liverpool Night Asylum, established in 1816, and the Society for the Relief of the Houseless Poor, which opened its doors in London in 1820. The Salvation Army acquired a large warehouse in 1909 for hundreds of destitute men. Today, local councils have a duty to assist the homeless.

In the past, a blind eye was turned to a husband beating his wife, but in the 1960s the women’s liberation movement brought this atrocity out into the open. The first women’s refuge was established in Hounslow in 1971. This type of refuge provides a safe place for women and their children escaping abusive relationships.

(Image originally by Nick Hedges for Shelter: M.J. Richardson at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

02/06/2019
3 min
6 years
216 words

Inventions

The portable defibrillator

Born in Hillsborough, near Lisburn, Professor J. Frank Pantridge, CBE, MC (1916-2004) is regarded as a pioneer of emergency medical treatment. He […]

Born in Hillsborough, near Lisburn, Professor J. Frank Pantridge, CBE, MC (1916-2004) is regarded as a pioneer of emergency medical treatment. He was a prisoner-of-war in WW2 and narrowly survived but with a heart condition for the rest of his life. On returning to Northern Ireland he began studying cardiology, including an invaluable year on electrocardiography in the USA.

He became a cardiac consultant at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast and a professor at the nearby affiliated Queen’s University. He set up a specialist cardiology unit but saw that having patients transported into the Hospital in order to treat them with a defibrillator wasted too much time and many died in the ambulance. One day in 1964, he and his colleagues were called to treat a man having a heart attack on the pavement outside the Hospital. Professor Pantridge used a trolley to wheel out the 11-stone defibrillator, plugged in inside. This undoubtedly sparked the idea for the portable defibrillator.

The first one was powered by two car batteries and saw its first successes in 1966. In the years that followed, it reduced to less than 7lbs. in weight and is now computerised, user-friendly and available in many public locations.

(Top image of Professor Pantridge statue: Albert Bridge at geograph.ie / CC BY-SA 2.0)

01/06/2019
3 min
6 years
213 words

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Quoting Neil Oliver...

I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.