Month: December 2019

Law

MOTs

MOT stands for ‘Ministry of Transport’, which, in 1960, introduced the annual safety tests for cars and other vehicles using public roads. […]

MOT stands for ‘Ministry of Transport’, which, in 1960, introduced the annual safety tests for cars and other vehicles using public roads. Those first tests were pretty basic compared to today’s, but with seven thousand deaths on the roads each year, something had to be done. The test was known then as the ‘ten-year test’ as it applied only to vehicles over ten years old. The cost was fifteen shillings (75p).

The modern MOT takes 45-60 minutes as it covers so much, including lights, horn, wiring, steering, suspension, tyres, body condition, mirrors, emissions, windscreen…. the list goes on. Some drivers use this thoroughness as an alternative to regular maintenance inspections. Many drivers book a service and MOT together and some garages offer to do the MOT first, then repair anything that fails, followed by a free re-test.

There are some vehicles which are exempt from the MOT requirement, e.g. tractors, police cars and mobility scooters, but generally all vehicles over three years old (four in N.Ireland) are legally compelled to have a valid MOT. Without this, the vehicle cannot be driven on the road and you cannot buy its road tax. Ultimately, MOTs are invaluable in terms of the lives they save.

(Image: P.L. Chadwick at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

11/12/2019
3 min
5 years
214 words

Discoveries

Charles Darwin

Shropshire-born Charles Darwin (1809-82) had just graduated from Cambridge when he received the exciting invitation to be the ‘gentleman passenger’ on the […]

Shropshire-born Charles Darwin (1809-82) had just graduated from Cambridge when he received the exciting invitation to be the ‘gentleman passenger’ on the Royal Navy’s research ship. HMS Beagle. This trip across the southern hemisphere, in which he observed and took specimens of many previously unrecorded species, was the subject of his first book, ‘The Voyage of The Beagle’ (1839).

It provided the foundation for his life’s work. He analysed small in-species variations of birds, such as beak shape, and experimented on plants. For three years he investigated coral reefs. He was halfway through writing up his theory of random variation under natural selection when he received Alfred Wallace‘s essay on the same subject. This prompted him to focus on finishing his book, ‘On the Origin of Species’ in 1859.

In ‘The Descent of Man’ (1871) Darwin proposed his theory of the evolution of one species by the mutation of another, specifically man from ape. This dented creationist beliefs and substituted ‘scientific materialism’. However, new techniques in genetics and paleontology, not to mention logic and complete lack of evidence, show that the theory is impossible, but Darwin’s theories are still heralded as a breakthrough for their time and continue to be taught as fact.

(Image: Maull and Polybank at Wikimedia Commons / Public domain)

10/12/2019
3 min
5 years
213 words

The F.A. Cup Final

The Football Association of England and Wales (F.A.) was founded in 1863. With the advent of the railways making team travel easier, […]

The Football Association of England and Wales (F.A.) was founded in 1863. With the advent of the railways making team travel easier, Charles Alcock (1842-1907) had the novel idea in 1871 of an Association-wide cup competition for all F.A. member clubs, big and small. Today, more than 730 such clubs take part, with qualifying rounds starting in August, whittling down to the final two who will play each other at Wembley Stadium ten months later.

The F.A. Cup’s prestige peaked in the mid-to-late twentieth century. For many years, F.A. Cup Final day, on the first or second Saturday of May, was the last match of the season. As football’s annual showpiece event, it took centre-stage on both television channels for most of the day. Its traditions included the crowd singing the hymn ‘Abide with Me’ before kick-off, which was always at 3pm. For a while, there was even a fad for teams appearing on ‘Top of the Pops’ to sing their own F.A. Cup song!

However, Manchester United initiated the devaluation of the Cup in the 1999/2000 season by not entering, even though they were the Cup-holders. Following that, they and other top teams have fielded reserve line-ups right up to the semi-finals and final.

ARVE Error: src mismatch

provider:    youtube
url:         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OKKskhyBS8&t=10s

src:         https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4OKKskhyBS8?start=10&feature=oembed
src mod:     https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4OKKskhyBS8?start=10
src gen:     https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4OKKskhyBS8

(Top image: Ken Fitzpatrick at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

08/12/2019
4 min
5 years
257 words

Religion

The Church of Ireland

The Church of Ireland covers both Ireland and Northern Ireland, since it was established long before the partition. It traces its roots […]

The Church of Ireland covers both Ireland and Northern Ireland, since it was established long before the partition. It traces its roots to the legacy of the Irish patron saint, St. Patrick, in the fifth century. It sees itself as Catholic and Protestant, though it may not be equally so, having much more of a Catholic appearance.

It differentiates itself from the Roman Catholic church in that it does not take the Pope in Rome as its head. Instead, it has two Archbishops, with the Archbishop of Armagh holding the post of President of the General Synod. Another difference is the adherence to Catholic beliefs as they were before the Reformation and rejection of new dogma brought in after that, e.g. that a belief in the Virgin Mary’s ‘immaculate conception’ and swift journey into heaven is essential for one’s own salvation.

They also do not accept the extra books of the Old Testament ~ the ‘Apocrypha’ ~ as part of their holy texts, though they may use them for reference. They do, however, offer confession, give Holy Communion and celebrate saints’ days with all the accompanying rituals and regalia one would expect. There are 375,000 followers, with two-thirds of those in Northern Ireland.

(Image: William Murphy at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0)

07/12/2019
3 min
5 years
211 words

Geography & Environment

The English Channel

The English Channel was formed by catastrophic flooding from the direction of the North Sea. This occurred anything from 10,000BC to 3,800BC […]

The English Channel was formed by catastrophic flooding from the direction of the North Sea. This occurred anything from 10,000BC to 3,800BC and was an after-effect of the sinking of the land mass known as Doggerland, which once connected the UK and Ireland to northern Europe and Scandinavia. The breach of the last sliver of land linking England to France was either the result of a megatsunami or the bursting of the banks of a massive lake.

*Image (cropped): Francis Lima at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0*

The English Channel (or La Manche, in French) is 350 miles long but only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Dover. It is also quite shallow there, as this was the breach point mentioned above. It is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. Not only do captains have to take account of varying tides, currents and weather conditions such as fog, but they must also make sure they are sticking to the correct lane.

Marine craft of all kinds are travelling east, west, north and south, along with the occasional brave swimmer making the crossing for charity. The English Channel has been the scene of several ‘firsts’ over the years, including the first jet-powered hoverboard crossing in August 2019.

(Top image: Pierre Markuse at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

06/12/2019
3 min
5 years
217 words

English language

Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing (1919-2013) had an eventful life and drew on her multi-faceted experiences to write about women in all types of situation. […]

Doris Lessing (1919-2013) had an eventful life and drew on her multi-faceted experiences to write about women in all types of situation. A feminist icon of the 1960s and 1970s, she grew to distance herself entirely from the feminist movement as it evolved. In 2007, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and has won many other honours, though she declined a Damehood.

The themes of her novels include freedom, women’s lives and issues in former British colonies. She lived in Iran and Zimbabwe until she was twenty-nine when, with two failed marriages behind her, she moved to London. She had direct experience of poverty and the clash of cultures. She had also delved into other ideologies, having at one time joined the Communist party. She was anti-racist, anti-apartheid, anti-war and anti-nuclear arms.

Her writing skills moulded this wealth of life events into stories with powerful messages. ‘The Golden Notebook’ (1962), with its psychological explorations, was ground-breaking in its structure, but Lessing’s own favourite was said to be her 5-part ‘Canopus in Argos: Archives’ (1979-83), written in her ‘space fiction’ phase. She continued writing almost to the end. ‘Alfred and Emily’ (2008) was partly a re-imagined life of her parents had WW1 not happened.

(Image: In Memoriam Day at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC 2.0)

05/12/2019
3 min
5 years
213 words

Politics

Parliamentary privilege

‘Parliamentary privilege‘ sets the boundaries for mutual non-interference between Parliament and the courts. It was laid down in the Bill of Rights […]

‘Parliamentary privilege‘ sets the boundaries for mutual non-interference between Parliament and the courts. It was laid down in the Bill of Rights of 1689 but had already been a committee responsibility prior to that. It hinges on MPs and Lords having integrity and knowing when and when not to speak out on sensitive matters in the course of parliamentary proceedings. Judges, in turn, only examine Hansard in a few specific circumstances.

It effectively cocoons the Palace of Westminster as regards civil matters such as defamation, as it gives immunity from legal action, thereby ensuring its own form of ‘freedom of speech’. It also gives it regulation of its own affairs. However, the business conducted in public committee rooms and both Houses is transmitted live by television and recorded for posterity by Hansard, so this immunity must be used carefully.

Members are allowed to use handheld communication devices while they are in proceedings, but parliamentary privilege does not cover what they may ‘tweet’, only what they contribute to the debate. Occasionally, someone abuses the privilege and ‘names and shames’ a person for some supposed wrongdoing. If this is sub judice, it can seriously affect the court case and even render it pointless.

(Image: Abir Anwar at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0)

04/12/2019
3 min
5 years
208 words

History

Adventus Saxonum

Neighbours of the Angles, the Saxons’ own land, Old Saxony, was in north-east Germany. Their settlement of England in the mid-5th century, […]

Neighbours of the Angles, the Saxons’ own land, Old Saxony, was in north-east Germany. Their settlement of England in the mid-5th century, known as Adventus Saxonum, possibly occurred for a combination of reasons:-

major flooding events swept away many of their waterside villages;
mass migration from the east was putting pressure on their resources; and
a beleaguered British warlord called Vortigern foolishly asked for their armed assistance against the Scots and the Picts, and rewarded them with land in Kent, thereby sparking their ideas of widespread invasion.

Saxon pirates had begun making raids on the inviting flatlands of eastern England in the 3rd and 4th centuries. This led to the building of fortifications (or, in fact, trading posts) along that stretch of coastline, nicknamed ‘Saxon Shore’. Evidence is scant but some say that Saxon immigration, from 449 onwards, was a vicious, tyrannical, barbaric occupation, while others portray a more peaceful infiltration.

Nevertheless, many Britons moved west to Wales and Cornwall to avoid the new folk with their Germanic paganism, class structure and brutal punishments. In spite of this, the Sutton Hoo artefacts encourage us to believe that those early medieval additions to the British ancestral family were not entirely brutish.

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

02/12/2019
3 min
5 years
210 words

Culture / Entertainment

The Goon Show

World War 2 brought many cultural changes, one of which was the birth of modern British comedy, led courageously by The Goon […]

World War 2 brought many cultural changes, one of which was the birth of modern British comedy, led courageously by The Goon Show. From 1951 to 1960, young people in particular listened eagerly to their family radio sets for their favourite characters ~ Neddie Seagoon, Eccles, Moriarty, Bluebottle, Henry Crun, Grytpype-Thynne, Bloodnok, Minnie Bannister and Fu Manchu among them.

The Goons were Spike Milligan (1918-2002), Harry Secombe (1921-2001) and Peter Sellers (1925-80). Michael Bentine (1922-96) was a founder member but left after two years. They had all served in the armed forces during the war and the comedy gods brought them together afterwards. The BBC did not like the name ‘Goons’, so the first series was called ‘Crazy People’, clearly indicating their opinion of them!

There were 250 episodes over its ten-year existence, all of which were written by Spike Milligan, whose creativity was so zany that he had a hard time with the BBC traditionalists until it achieved its huge success. Part of its innovation was the use of new technology to create sound effects. Comedians today acknowledge the great legacy of the show and it is still repeated frequently on BBC Radio 4Extra. Its surreal situations, playful language and Secombe’s giggling are the stuff of comedy genius.

(Top image [cropped]: Bradford Timeline at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC 2.0)

01/12/2019
3 min
5 years
215 words

Posts pagination

Previous 1 2

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.