Month: November 2019

Geography & Environment

The Norfolk Broads

The Norfolk Broads comprise an area of rivers, dykes, streams and lakes in the easternmost part of England. The city of Norwich […]

The Norfolk Broads comprise an area of rivers, dykes, streams and lakes in the easternmost part of England. The city of Norwich lies to the west and the coastal resort of Great Yarmouth to the east. The Broads, or ‘Broadland’, has been a popular holiday destination since the turn of the twentieth century, encouraged by an 1882 guidebook by G. Christopher Davies (1849-1922), in which he extolled the delights of slowly boating along its 200-mile network, admiring the scenery and wildlife.

The waterways were previously used for transportation of goods inland, but this gradually ended with the advent of the railways. Today it is possible to hire all types of motor cruiser, yacht, houseboat and dinghy to explore its freshwater routes and the sight of disused windmills is a reminder of their commercial history.

Broadland itself is evidence of historic land use. Norfolk was densely populated in the twelfth century and its peaty layers were dug out for fuel. This continued for two centuries, re-shaping the land as it did so, but it stopped when floodwaters came in. This factor was discovered in 1952 by ecologist Dr Joyce Lambert (1916-2005). Furthermore, this video shows how cyclical flooding affected Broadland even before that time:-

(Top image of Thurne Dyke drainage mill on the Broads: John Fielding at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

11/11/2019
3 min
5 years
219 words

Culture

Henry Moore, sculptor

Yorkshireman Henry Moore (1898-1986) was the most acclaimed, prolific British sculptor of the twentieth century. His creations can be seen in thirty-eight […]

Yorkshireman Henry Moore (1898-1986) was the most acclaimed, prolific British sculptor of the twentieth century. His creations can be seen in thirty-eight countries across the world in art galleries, museums and outside public buildings. Moore took inspiration from natural forms and preferred to see his sculptures in a countryside setting, which he achieved at his own 72-acre Hertfordshire home, now open to the public every summer.

Moore was also influenced by art from other cultures, including the Aztec, Sumerian and Mexican. In his early works he used the themes of mother-and-child and the reclining nude repeatedly, always in an abstract, radical form borrowed partly from constructivism, surrealism and primitivism. His first sale was to the London Underground in 1928. The 1930s were his creative peak, but a mother-and-child sculpture of 1937 outraged the public. He was forgiven when he became a war artist in WW2.

His sculptures became much in demand post-War and he had to employ talented assistants to keep up. His techniques changed to faster methods and critics saw a falling-off in his ideas, which was perhaps inevitable. His wealth made a Henry Moore Foundation possible, which supports upcoming sculptors with grants, resources, study programmes and exhibitions.

(Image: Txemi Lopez at pixabay.com)

10/11/2019
3 min
5 years
203 words

The partition of Ireland

In 1800, Britain and Ireland passed the Acts of Union which abolished the Irish Parliament and put Irish MPs and Lords into […]

In 1800, Britain and Ireland passed the Acts of Union which abolished the Irish Parliament and put Irish MPs and Lords into Westminster, whilst retaining local administration in Dublin. Amid the subsequent discrimination against Catholics, a nationalist movement arose, sometimes instigating violent insurrection against the British military. From 1886, the British government began a series of attempts to give Ireland ‘home rule’.

In mid-1914 this was about to come to fruition, but the Protestants of north-east Ireland wanted to remain with Protestant Britain. Both the nationalists and the unionists had imported large stocks of guns and civil war seemed inevitable. King George V (1865-1936) then brought them together at a peace conference at Buckingham Palace days before the start of WW1. No agreement was reached and during the period 1916-21, the nationalists tried to seize power through guerrilla warfare.

The idea of the partition of Ireland as a compromise solution was first mooted in the 1890s and in 1921 it transpired with the Anglo-Irish Treaty which established the ‘Irish Free State’. Six of the nine counties of Ulster ~ Armagh, Down, Londonderry, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Antrim ~ were excluded to appease the unionists, thereby creating a 310-mile border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, re-affirmed in the 1973 referendum.

(Image: picryl.com / Public domain)

09/11/2019
3 min
5 years
207 words

Entertainment

Bruce Forsyth

Rightly dubbed ‘Mr. Entertainment’, Sir Bruce Forsyth, CBE (1928-2017) had a show business career from age fourteen to just a couple of […]

Rightly dubbed ‘Mr. Entertainment’, Sir Bruce Forsyth, CBE (1928-2017) had a show business career from age fourteen to just a couple of years before his death. He was the consummate professional who was never stuck for words and who inspired confidence in his fellow performers.

Born in Middlesex, he started dancing lessons at age eight after seeing his hero, Fred Astaire, on the cinema screen. Sir Bruce was first seen on television in 1939 in a talent show and a few years later took to the stage with an act called ‘Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom’, in which he sang, danced and played the accordion. He was multi-talented but is perhaps best remembered for his catchphrases and his genial, teasing way with TV game-show contestants. His comic exasperation with their efforts was pure genius.

His first big break was as host of ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’ from 1958. This was his favourite theatre and he continued taking roles in musicals and even a Disney film, ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’. From 1971 he was the host of the hugely popular ‘The Generation Game’ and after a few more game-shows he starred in ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ from 2004 to 2013.

(Top image: Michael Sharpe at Flickr.com / Public domain)

07/11/2019
3 min
5 years
203 words

Discoveries / Inventions

Ultrasound scanning

Ian Donald, CBE (1910-87) was born in Cornwall and, although he was always interested in machines and electronics, he entered the medical […]

Ian Donald, CBE (1910-87) was born in Cornwall and, although he was always interested in machines and electronics, he entered the medical profession as an obstetrician after training at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. During WW2 he was a medical officer with the RAF and had the opportunity to see radar and sonar technology in action. This would lead to his discovery of the medical possibilities of ultrasound scanning on the human body.

Ultrasound was being used to detect faults in metal sheet and, sensing that it had potential importance in his own field, Donald visited a boiler-making factory and experimented on some tumour samples with their ultrasound facility. By 1963 he and Thomas Brown (1933-2019), a scientific instrument maker, had made the first obstetric ultrasound scanner.

Parents-to-be have their first glimpse of the baby with an ultrasound machine and can be told its gender, but the real aim is to check that all is well and functioning correctly. Ultrasound has no side-effects and is not harmful or radioactive, and it is now considered indispensable by both doctors and veterinarians. Its high frequency waves can detect defects, growths and diseases, including cancer, and its uses continue to expand.

(Image [cropped]: he Advocacy Project at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

06/11/2019
3 min
5 years
208 words

Politics

The Foreign Secretary

Short for ‘His/Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs’, the position of Foreign Secretary is one of the […]

Short for ‘His/Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs’, the position of Foreign Secretary is one of the highest in government. The holder has an official residence in Carlton Gardens, near to the Houses of Parliament, and use of Chevening House, a country mansion in Kent. The Foreign Secretary is a member of the Cabinet, the Privy Council and the National Security Council.

The role previously carried more weight internationally than it has done since the advent of the European Union, but this is bound to change post-Brexit. It carries responsibility for national security and intelligence services, promotion of British exports and foreign investment, and securing trade and resource deals with other countries. It also administers the British Overseas Territories, the provision of consular services, embassies, ambassadors and diplomats, and the arrangements for Brexit and the ‘Global Britain’ initiative.

The Foreign Secretary is head of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. This seeks to gather on-the-ground information from other countries in order to provide government with relevant analysis and foreign policy recommendations. This entails having diplomatic staff abroad who speak the language and know the local customs, thereby building important business and political relationships.

(Image of then UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, in 2017 with Japanise counterparts: UK in Japan – FCO at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

05/11/2019
3 min
5 years
219 words

Inventions

James Watt and the steam engine

Devon-born Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729) was among the early inventors of small steam engines and his beam engine, used solely to pump water […]

Devon-born Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729) was among the early inventors of small steam engines and his beam engine, used solely to pump water out of coalmines, was manufactured for over fifty years from 1720. James Watt (1736-1819) from Renfrewshire then took a good look at a Newcomen engine in his workshop at Glasgow University and proceeded to make a series of improvements that would drive the mass production of the Industrial Revolution.

In 1769 he patented the addition of a condenser to separate the cooling process from the steam cylinder, thereby making it more effective and reliable. He teamed up with financier Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) and they set up a manufacturing company in Birmingham, Boulton’s home town. Further inventions patented over the years included the sun-and-planet gear enabling rotary motion, a dual-input cylinder, a centrifugal governor and a pressure indicator. He also invented the horsepower measurement and gave his name to the watt.

The fuel efficiency of Watt’s machines was enhanced by the precision boring technique invented by iron-master John Wilkinson (1728-1808). Nevertheless, Watt was reportedly reluctant to keep on increasing the size and pressure of his steam engines, but after his death, other engineers would go on to do just that and cater for heavier workloads.

(Top image [cropped]: hape662 at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

04/11/2019
3 min
5 years
215 words

Basic principles

The rule of law

British society is underpinned by the principle of ‘the rule of law‘, first stipulated in Magna Carta Libertatum in the thirteenth century. […]

British society is underpinned by the principle of ‘the rule of law‘, first stipulated in Magna Carta Libertatum in the thirteenth century. It depends on having a set of laws that apply to every person, authority and business equally and impartially. Everyone should be aware of these laws and what punishment they will receive if they break them. Judges must be independent and the police unable to subvert the law.

To ensure consistency, judges rely on ‘legal precedent’ to inform them of decisions made elsewhere on similar cases, but they can always set a precedent themselves if there is good reason. Natural justice and common sense are the basis of UK law, but its application is subject to the judges’ interpretation.

The rule of law is a protection of the people from the state using its power in whatever way it chooses. It is often said that “no-one is above the law”. However, this is not entirely true. Foreign diplomats and young children have some immunity, for example, and the monarch (but not his or her family members) is technically above the law, as all laws, courts and legal processes are in the monarch’s name, e.g. the Crown Prosecution Service.

(Image of Lady Justice in London: Chris Downer at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

03/11/2019
3 min
5 years
216 words

Religion

Buddhism

The 2,500-year-old practice of Buddhism first came to Britain from Asia in the late nineteenth century. The Buddhist Society of Great Britain […]

The 2,500-year-old practice of Buddhism first came to Britain from Asia in the late nineteenth century. The Buddhist Society of Great Britain was formed in 1907, followed by The London Buddhist Society in 1924. There was another surge of interest in the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and there are now around 250,000 followers in the UK, with the largest community centred around the Gurkha Regiments in Hampshire.

Its non-evangelical, non-dogmatic and non-exclusive approach means that it can run alongside other faiths and it has a long history of fitting in with different cultures across the world. It is said that Buddhism is more of an understanding of psychological processes than a religion and indeed, in the UK, it is probably best known for offering meditation and mindfulness classes at its centres.

At some temples there are nuns or monks who give teachings, blessings and ceremonies which are adapted to a Western environment. Some of the chants are in English, for example. Most of the sects of Buddhism are represented in the UK and although the common goal is to achieve ‘enlightenment’, each sect has its own preferred ‘great teacher’ or protector, its own rituals and sometimes its own ideas on Buddhist principles such as ‘karma’.

(Image: Thomas Riggs at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC 2.0)

02/11/2019
3 min
5 years
208 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.