Month: March 2020

Celebrations & Holidays

Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill is a district in west London and in the 1950s it became home to immigrants from the West Indies and […]

Notting Hill is a district in west London and in the 1950s it became home to immigrants from the West Indies and elsewhere. Claudia Jones (1915-64) had the idea of organising a week-long event to bring the community together. This was the indoor Notting Hill Fayre & Pageant, first held in 1959 in local halls. She is often credited as being the ‘mother’ of the Notting Hill Carnival (NHC), but there is another claimant ~ Rhaune Laslett (1919-2002), organiser of the first outdoor event in 1966.

Women are very much behind the success of what has become the world’s second biggest carnival (after Brazil’s Rio), not least in the numerous hours spent sewing the glittery, sequin- and feather-adorned costumes and masks. NHC takes place every year at August Bank Holiday, come rain or shine, over three nights and two days.

Up to two million visitors and 12,000 police officers fill the streets, which are closed to traffic. The carnival procession makes its way along Great Western Road, Westbourne Park, Ladbroke Grove and Kensal Road. The fun includes steel band competitions, calpyso music, sound systems, Afro-Caribbean food, dancing, street and stage performers, and thousands of volunteers help to make NHC the main celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture in the country.

(Image: Maja Kucova at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

10/03/2020
3 min
5 years
213 words

Geography & Environment

Cardiff

Until the Industrial Revolution, Cardiff was just a small town, having a population of only 1,870 in 1801 for example. Another eyebrow-raiser […]

Until the Industrial Revolution, Cardiff was just a small town, having a population of only 1,870 in 1801 for example. Another eyebrow-raiser is that Cardiff is a relative newcomer as a capital city. Several Welsh towns had historic claims, but it is said that Queen Elizabeth II forced the issue of choosing a capital when she planned her first state tour. Cardiff’s official designation was announced in 1955.

Situated beside the wide River Severn estuary, its favourable location drew the Romans to build a timber fort there. This became the site of a Norman castle in the 1100s and a village sprang up around it. Eventually, industrial growth saw the population climb to 164,333 in 1900 and five years later it was awarded city status.

Cardiff’s ranking at that time as the world’s busiest port for the export of coal marks it out as a key player in the foundation of our modern world. Its dockland district of Cardiff Bay was formerly known as Tiger Bay and attracted many foreign workers. Today, Cardiff is the home of the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh national sports arena, the Principality Stadium. Shopping arcades, parks and dockland redevelopment have largely replaced the factories and warehouses.

(Image: pxfuel.com / CC0 Public domain)

09/03/2020
3 min
5 years
208 words

Sport

Go-karting

Many British Formula 1 drivers began their careers in go-karting. Karts were invented in the USA in 1956 and attracted attention in […]

Many British Formula 1 drivers began their careers in go-karting. Karts were invented in the USA in 1956 and attracted attention in the UK soon afterwards. Graham Hill was in at the start of the sport in this country, competing in the first race, held in November 1959 on an American airbase in Suffolk.

In those early days, impromptu race tracks were set up in car parks or on fields, with straw bales marking the route. The karts have no suspension or differential, are powered by a 2- or 4-stroke engine and have no body to protect the driver, making the experience similar to bouncing along on a tea-tray with wheels. This gives it great appeal for youngsters and there are plenty of indoor karting facilities geared up specifically for children.

There have been six British world champions: Terry Fullerton (1973), Mike Wilson (1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989), Oliver Oakes (2005), Tom Joyner (2013), Danny Keirle (2017) and Lando Norris (2014), whose interest was piqued at a go-karting birthday party at age seven. He signed for McLaren in 2017, so is on course to fulfill his ambition of being an F1 champion. The on-board camera on his kart in this video allows us to see the amount of sliding and skidding involved in a race:

(Top image: Richard Smith at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

08/03/2020
3 min
5 years
211 words

Basic principles

The News

News of the events of conflicts and natural disasters, as well as noteworthy deeds of royalty, politicians, criminals and celebrities is naturally […]

News of the events of conflicts and natural disasters, as well as noteworthy deeds of royalty, politicians, criminals and celebrities is naturally of interest to most people. Before the invention of printing, town criers would stand in the street and shout official proclamations. Since the first regular newspapers were founded in the 18th century, however, their owners and editors have inevitably used the dissemination of ‘news’ to shape public opinion via the tone of their articles.

Letting the public have unfettered TV, radio, newspaper and online access to stories of national and world events is a basic principle, yet the manner in which the corresponding ‘freedom of the press‘ is conducted is often viewed with disdain. When evidence of faking photos or quotes emerges from time to time, this only adds to any suspicion people already feel towards the profession of modern journalism, filled by graduates of universities instilling their own brand of ideology.

All-day TV broadcasting began in the 1980s, hugely adding to the continuous flow of news reporting. This has made ‘The News‘ hard to avoid, but the internet, fortunately, has opened up the opportunity to hear intelligent discussions without glory-seeking interviewers constantly interrupting with their own agendas.

(Top image: PIRO4D at pixabay.com)

07/03/2020
3 min
5 years
207 words

Culture

Lady Godiva

The legend of Lady Godiva, or Godgifu (?-1067) is perhaps the female equivalent of Robin Hood‘s heroics, in that she is credited […]

The legend of Lady Godiva, or Godgifu (?-1067) is perhaps the female equivalent of Robin Hood‘s heroics, in that she is credited with championing the poor and, by a courageous deed, winning the reduction of their tax burden. In her case, the supposed tyrant was her own husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia (?-1057).

The couple are known to have lived in the 11th century and in 1043 founded St. Mary’s monastery in Coventry on the site of a former nunnery. There are suggestions that this was not a new monastery but that they lavished gold and silver treasures upon it. Leofric was in fact extremely generous with gifts of land to the monks, who became very wealthy.

Nevertheless, two hundred years later, Roger of Wendover (?-1236) saw fit to create the story of Lady Godiva pleading with him to have pity on the peasants. He agreed to drop all taxes except those on horses, but only if she rode naked on horseback through the town. Defiantly, she accepted the challenge but ordered that no-one should watch, though her long hair partially saved her blushes. Of course, there is always one who disobeys; hence ‘Peeping Tom’ was struck blind for giving in to temptation.

(Image: Clard at pixabay.com)

05/03/2020
3 min
5 years
209 words

Entertainment

‘Just A Minute’

The world’s longest-running panel show is BBC Radio’s ‘Just A Minute’ (JAM), which first aired on 22nd December 1967. Parlour games used […]

The world’s longest-running panel show is BBC Radio’s ‘Just A Minute’ (JAM), which first aired on 22nd December 1967. Parlour games used to be a way to pass the time at home before the advent of television, and JAM is a good example of this type of brain-teasing fun. Contestants must each try to speak for sixty seconds on a topic given to them on the spot by the chairman ‘without hesitation, repetition or deviation’.

Points are awarded for correct challenges, being incorrectly challenged, speaking at the end of the minute and, at the chairman’s discretion, for a witty remark. This not only requires general knowledge and verbal eloquence by the speaker, but also the mental dexterity of the other players and particularly the chairman to keep track of what has been said. That chairman has been the ever-present Nicholas Parsons, CBE (1923-2020) who only missed four programmes through illness towards the end of his life. Apparently, he wanted to be a panellist at first and had to be persuaded to take the chair ‘temporarily’.

Kenneth Williams (1926-88) was the star contestant in its first decades, with Paul Merton (1957-) emerging as the linchpin later on. There have been close on a thousand episodes.

(Image: Steve Bowbrick at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

03/03/2020
3 min
5 years
214 words

Law

Pound sterling (GBP)

The pound sterling is the world’s oldest surviving unit of national currency. King Athelstan, the first king of England, established its official […]

The pound sterling is the world’s oldest surviving unit of national currency. King Athelstan, the first king of England, established its official status in 928. A pound sterling began as a pound weight of pure silver and both are symbolised by abbreviations of the Latin libra; lb. for weight, £ for money (the cross-bar was a later addition to upper-case L in Gothic script).

The weight and metal composition of our coins have changed over time and today’s coins are of base metal. One reason for this was that silversmiths in the past would melt down silver coins, taking them out of circulation. Also, people were prone to chipping bits off before spending the coins!

UK legal tender consists of the Bank of England £5, £10 and £20 polymer notes and the £50 paper notes (polymer from 2021), and the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coins produced by Royal Mint Ltd. By law, payment of large amounts using only the smaller value coins is prohibited; although providing a good publicity stunt in certain circumstances, this would generally be most unreasonable. It is much better to take collections of coins to the bank for crediting to your account and many banks have special machines for this.

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

02/03/2020
3 min
5 years
210 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.